Heading into the 2017 NBA season the Boston Celtics were poised to be a top contender mainly because they acquired a superstar Kyrie Irving. The association also received All-Star Gordon Hayward and four time All Star Al Horford. With some these stars coming in along with a young but talented roster NBA.com Power Rankings listed the Celtics the 8th best overall in the NBA. However in the opening night for the Celtics a devastating injury for Gordan Hayward occurred and as a result they lost against the Cleveland Cavaliers, next game they lost against the Milwaukee Bucks resulting in a two game losing streak. After that the Celtics stepped it up and went on winning 12 games the record right now is the best in the NBA: 12-2.

Despite having lost Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder their best defenders to other teams the Boston Celtics are flat out defending like crazy. According to ESPN they are ranked as the number on defense efficiency team in the NBA far into the season. Their superstar Kyrie Irving despite being known as a scorer is also being active on the defense end. NBA.com gave us a statistics of Kyrie Irving's overall defense and was ranked sixth in the league. The other players above him were a majority of Celtic players in fact in the top 10 defense players half of them were Celtics players. Al Horford, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown were above Kyrie in terms of defense statistics. As the season wears on it will consistently change by how the players play their defense but it's still an impressive feat so far.

Kyrie Irving was said to be the Robin to Lebron James's Batman during his time with the Cavaliers. Now with him being in Boston he wants to be 'the man' and everyone will look to him as not only the superstar but as a leader for the young Celtics. Despite being a talented player many people have doubts about him, he was primarily a scorer in the Cavs with James being the facilitator in the team but he has proven doubters wrong so far. Blasting News described Irving has someone who has developed from an offensive weapon capable of scoring on any given possession, to a reliable point guard who now values making the right decision rather than the most exciting. Of course Irving will still show off his signature crossovers but his 'team first' mentaliy is indeed helping the Celtics move in the right direction.

The young but talented Boston Celtics last year was the number seed in the East but were eliminated by the Cavs lead by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Now that they managed to sign Irving during the offseason along with some great veteran players like Al Horford, the Celtics might have a chance to beat everyone in the Eastern Conference and go on to the NBA Finals.