The Boston Celtics are flying high, winners of 4 in a row after dropping their first two games of the season. They only need to go 70-6 over the next 76 games to beat the Warriors single-season record. Stay tuned.
Digging into the stats, the Celtics Defensive Rating is 95.1 - good for second in the league. They lost Avery Bradley and Crowder but they're much longer, 1 through 5, and it allows them to switch more than they used to. Kyrie / Smart / Jaylen / Tatum / Horford has a ton of length and everyone (sans Kyrie) can guard at least 3 positions. Offensively they're still struggling and are, surprisingly, playing much slower than projected. They're 18th in the NBA in pace and Kyrie takes his sweet time getting the team into its sets.
The Spurs will be fine but they still don't have Kawhi and have lost 3 in a row. Without Kawhi, they're just a whole lot easier to guard - not many mismatches on the floor for them. Kawhi would make Tatum/Brown's life a nightmare but who cares, he's not playing, Celtics win by a billion.
Pick: Celtics -3.5