The Celtics Have 12 Games to Catch the ’96 Bulls for This All-Time Record

The 2023-24 Boston Celtics squad has been defining the term domination on-court. The team has the best record in the Eastern Conference and has only lost four games out of the team’s last 25 matchups. The Celtics are measures ahead of their competition and are well on their way to clinching the best record in the league as well. But can the C’s catch up to the ‘96 Chicago Bulls team for this all-time record?

In the 70 regular season games played so far, the Boston Celtics have only lost 14 games, bringing their season record to 56-14. The second-best team behind them are the Milwaukee Bucks who are 11 games behind the league leaders. 

With the way the Celtics have been playing and the huge disparity between them and the rest of the league, they have managed to tie the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls squad for the second spot on the all-time net rating record at 12, as per Statmuse.

What the Boston Celtics have been able to accomplish is nothing short of greatness. But the team also has the opportunity to surpass the ‘96 Bulls team for first place as they need to have a 13.5 net rating to have the all-time record in net rating.

Given how there are only 12 games left on their schedule, Boston would have to turn it up a notch if they hope to surpass the ‘96 Bulls team. This means that the Celtics would have to be even more dominant in games if they’re aiming for the all-time net rating record.

 

Celtics NetRtg is now +12.0, which puts then 2nd all-time in a tie with the 96-97 Bulls
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Apart from net rating, the Chicago Bulls had also managed to win back-to-back titles during the 1995-96 season and the season after that as well, the two years where the team led the NBA in net rating. So, the Celtics have a great chance at winning it all this year.

The team is great in a one-and-done setting but when it comes to a series of seven games, that is where Boston has struggled in the past. But with the changes they have made to their roster, adding more veteran star presence who has playoff experience, it would be interesting to see how the C’s perform in the upcoming postseason.

What is net rating?

Gone are the days when the only stats people talked about were the number of points. Now, we live in an age of numbers and analytics have become a big part of that, which has, in turn, taken the NBA by storm as well.

So, net rating may be a confusing concept to many. However, we’ll try to break it down in simple words. Offensive and defensive ratings are used as a means to compare how an individual player’s performance affects his team’s overall setting.

Offensive rating is how much the player has scored and defensive rating is compared to how many points the player has allowed while on the floor. These two combine to form the net rating often referred to as NETRTG.

So, in simple words, a net rating is the offensive rating minus the defensive rating. This simply means how much better or worse a team has performed when a specific player is on the court with them.