Through the first five games of the 2019-2020 NBA season, the Boston Celtics have a 101.4 defensive rating, good for 9th best in the league.
With the departure of All-Star big-man Al Horford and always reliable center Aron Baynes, the Celtics were expected to take a step back on defense, while constructing a better offensive team this year.
However, so far that has not been the case. With their 101.4 defensive rating, Boston is 5.6 points better than last year, as they had a 107 defensive rating for the 2018-19 season.
This begs the question: is Boston’s defense for real, or is it another example of a small sample size?