The Case for the Over

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The Celtics won 64 games last year and brought back essentially the exact same team. Other than Al Horford, they don’t have any older players that are primed to regress due to age. They won plenty of games while Kristaps Porzingis was injured, including in the playoffs, so they know how to withstand his injuries. 

 

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown continue to improve each year, and they have some young players like Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser who have also gotten better each year and could take another step forward this season.

 

They could get pushed by the Knicks, Bucks, or 76ers for the first seed in the East. The Thunder, or another surprise team, could push them to keep winning in order to get homecourt in the Finals. 

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The Case for the Under

 

They still aren’t really the deepest team, and if Tatum, Brown, Derrick White, or Jrue Holiday miss significant time, which none of them did last year, they could struggle. Can Jordan Walsh make an impact in his second season? Will rookie Baylor Scheierman be able to play if needed? 
 

Of the Celtics’ two rotation bigs, one has an injury history and one is 38 years old. Porzingis is injured to start the season and could end up missing a lot of time. Xavier Tillman had this same opportunity to step up for the Grizzlies when Steven Adams got injured last year, and he really struggled, although he did have some decent minutes with the Celtics. 
 

How much will they really push to win games during the regular season? They had a long summer by playing until June, and then Tatum, Holiday, and White all played in the Olympics too. 

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Conclusion

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​This is a pretty high number, and that always worries me no matter what team it is, because there’s plenty of things that can go wrong during the course of an NBA season. However, this is just a statistically dominant team, and I have confidence they can win 60+ games again. I like the over.