The Celtics are a great regular-season team. But the playoffs remain a mystery

Boston are beating opponents by near record margins so far this campaign. But there are signs they may crack again when the pressure is really on

When they crushed the Golden State Warriors 140-88 at the start of this month, the Boston Celtics simultaneously exorcised some of the ghosts of the 2022 NBA finals and added further lustre to what is on course to be a historically high-achieving regular-season campaign.

Thanks to 29 points from Jaylen Brown and 27 from Jayson Tatum on his 26th birthday, it was the third-highest margin of victory in Celtics history and their third 50-point win of the season - an NBA record. It was also their 11th win in a row, a run during which they had demolished their opponents by an average of 22 points, a margin of victory unmatched in NBA history over a single-season winning run of 10 or more games.