It's officially time to start taking the Celtics seriously as Eastern Conference contenders.
We know all the negatives. They don't have any stars, their talent level isn't up to par with some of the other elite teams and they lose silly games they have no business losing — like against Milwaukee (21-32) and Brooklyn (14-40).
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Yet, somehow, a collection of journeyman point guard Isaiah Thomas, overlooked small forward Jae Crowder and a band of middle-first round talent has won 10 of 12 games, moving into third place in the Eastern Conference at 32-23.