Boston Celtics begin the 2024-25 NBA season at the top of the NBC Sports league rankings

The 2024-25 NBA regular season is scheduled to begin tonight at TD Garden as the storied ballclub celebrates its Ring Night festivities, followed by its first game of the season against the new-look New York Knicks. With the championship high, will Boston be in danger of missing its home opener? Will they find a way to motivate themselves to a win against arguably their biggest threat in the league's Eastern Conference?

Whatever ends up happening, the team begins the season in NBC Sports' first top ranking of the season, and the reason they give for placing Boston there is, at least in our opinion, unassailable.

“Boston should really be on a level of its own — Boston ran roughshod last regular season and then lost three games in the playoffs,” Kurt Helin of NBC Sports writes.

“Now they get the seven best rotation players back from this roster – well, as soon as Kristaps Porzingis gets back from surgery around Christmas – and this team is poised to be the first repeat winner since the (Kevin) Durant/(Stephen) Curry (Golden) one become State) Warriors,” he adds. “The question is, how hard will the other teams in the East push them?”

Tonight, against the Knicks, we will get our first available data point to answer that question. And we suspect it will be tougher than the pressure the Celtics faced last season – perhaps by a lot.

Listen to the Celtics Lab podcast:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics begin the 24-25 season at the top of NBC Sports' NBA Power Rankings