{"id":535311,"date":"2026-01-14T04:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/535311\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T04:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T04:21:13","slug":"can-the-celtics-win-the-nbas-eastern-conference-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/535311\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the Celtics win the NBA’s Eastern Conference this season?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan. 13, 2026, 8:47 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Can the Boston Celtics win the NBA’s Eastern Conference this season? Such a question would have seemed absurd at the start of the league’s 2025-26 regular season. Especially given star Boston forward Jayson Tatum is recovering from an Achilles tendon injury sustained in the 2025 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals and the exits of Al Horford, Luke Kornet, Jrue Holiday, and Kristaps Porzingis via trade and free agency in the offseason.<\/p>\n

But Boston has since charged back to the top of the East standings, rising as high as No. 2 in their conference under the leadership of star forward Jaylen Brown, the returning vets, and the growth of the Celtics’ youth movement. Is winning the conference actually on the table?<\/p>\n

The folks behind the “Boston Globe” YouTube channel put together a clip taking a closer look. Check it out below!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to “Havlicek Stole the Pod” on:<\/p>\n

Blue Wire: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n

iTunes: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n

YouTube: https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 13, 2026, 8:47 p.m. ET Can the Boston Celtics win the NBA’s Eastern Conference this season? Such…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[72400,7,45,75,3798,46,6,72493,72494,72404,72444,72422,72405,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-535311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bostonceltics","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbaceltics","16":"tag-sstsnceltics","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagnational-sports","19":"tag-tagnba","20":"tag-tagoverall-positive","21":"tag-tagsports-news","22":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115891541519360321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}