There's a reason why we haven't seen a repeat NBA champion since 2018, and the Boston Celtics are finding out first-hand.
After winning 21 of their first 26 games of the 2024-25 season in a blistering start to their 2024 NBA title defense, the Celtics have gone 9-8 since, with multiple head-scratching losses during that span. While Monday's 40-point rout of the Golden State Warriors was a step in the right direction, Boston has played well below expectations for more than a month now.
But does the Celtics' January malaise mean they'll fall short of a title in June? As the leader of the last NBA team to win back-to-back titles (Golden State in 2016-17 and 2017-18), Warriors star Stephen Curry is a good person to ask.
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“It’s a marathon of a season," Curry told reporters after Monday's game when asked about the process of defending a title. "You do have a championship kind of aura about you, and you can kind of carry that, but you’re getting everybody’s best shot every night.
"Teams spent all summer trying to figure out how to beat you because you’re the one that was holding up the trophy. And now, you’re kind of held to a championship standard knowing that you’ve accomplished it."
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The Celtics certainly can relate; from the nine-win Toronto Raptors shooting 50 percent from the floor in an upset of Boston last week to Caleb Martin hitting 7 of 9 3-pointers in the Philadelphia 76ers' Christmas Day victory, teams seemingly play their best basketball whenever they face the C's.
Curry's advice for Boston? Just weather the storm, and focus on playing your best basketball from April to June.
“There are gonna be lulls throughout the season," Curry added. "It kind of happens. But you try to get to the playoffs with a good identity, good momentum, good confidence, good health, and then you just roll the dice trying to run it back.”
Curry's Warriors are an interesting model for Boston; after going 67-15 in 2016-17 en route to an NBA title, they won *only* 58 games the following season, dropping 10 of their last 16 regular-season games to enter the playoffs as the Western Conference's No. 2 seed. They flipped the proverbial switch in the postseason, however, winning 16 of their next 20 including a gentleman's sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
That squad was more experienced than the Celtics, with three titles to its name entering the 2017-18 season. But Curry and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr both believe Boston will be ready to defend its title this spring, even if it's stumbling now.
"It’s perfectly natural for them to have a little bit of an emotional hangover and maybe not be at their best game after game,” Kerr said before the game. “I’ve seen that a million times in this league. But, what I would expect is, come playoff time, they’ll be ready to roll.
"They’ve still got guys in their primes, well-oiled machine, well-coached, they know who they are, so I wouldn’t worry about the Celtics if I were one of their fans."
Added Curry:
“I don’t know what people expected -- they’re 30-13. They’re doing all right.”