NBA 2018-19: Eastern Conference Power Rankings Week 8

#2) Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics v Chicago Bulls

The Celtics are back in business, and you can look no further than their 56-point defeat of the Chicago Bulls as evidence of that. While we now know the Bulls have some bad internal issues to work out which culminated in the thrashing, the Celtics' elite play can't be discredited. After losing four out of twelve games between the 3rd-23th of November, the Celtics have won their last five and started to look like the team that we expected them to be.

The smallest margin of victory during the Celtics' streak has been nine points, and the other four games have been blowouts with final sinning margins of 17, 28, 33 and 56. Brad Stevens has found his best lineups after tinkering with his starters and bench rotation earlier in the season and the team finally looks to be playing near their best. Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Morris, and Al Horford have started together for three of the five games on this streak; Daniel Theis and Aron Baynes each started a game as Horford missed two during the streak. The five now-regular starters thrive all together, and Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown are starting to look best-suited to this team as spark plugs off the bench for the time being. As long as they keep winning, the lineup won't be changing any time soon.

The Celtics are playing New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington, and Detroit this week and have a chance to keep extending their win streak.