Topher and Mark celebrate a 4-0 week for the Celtics right after a tough game with the Miami Heat. The react to 70 points on Friday night from Devin Booker, 538 giving the C’s they best odds in the East to win the title, and loads of other shenanigans. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/celtics-lab-nba-basketball-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a new NBA season begins, every team is undefeated, and, at least mathematically speaking, a title contender as well. But for fans of the Boston Celtics, such slights of hand are not going to be enough to slake the thirst for Banner 18 raging in the gullets of Bostonians and their ilk. But the consensus seems to be that Boston is as well-prepared to do the deed as any team in the league next season, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets virtual co-favorites to win it all. When the dust settles on the 2023 NBA Finals, we will have our answer, but in the meantime, it is the duty of the league’s press corp to sort fact from fiction regarding the season ahead. To such an end, the hosts of the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast linked up with USA TODAY’s Jeff Zilgitt to do exactly that, from the preseason tilts we have seen thus far all the way on to the future of the league beyond this season and the next. Brace yourself for a few spicy takes plus plenty of agreement regarding this tea’s potential — no matter how it pans out, the NBA’s 2023-24 season already looks like the wildest of rides. The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two months out from the start of the regular season, and nearly half as long from camp, more than a few of us are starting to get antsy without basketball to watch.With that in mind, we decided it was time to dust off the microphones and record an episode of the CLPod to talk about the (very few) moves of note going down since the last time we recorded two weeks ago.And with the team in a liminal space between seasons, neither last season’s Celtics nor the next, Mark Allison and Justin Quinn got to thinking about all the different ways this timeline of Boston’s journey from one contending squad to the next could have gone differently.So, we put our heads together, and tried to imagine how the Cs might look if Danny Ainge had kept the last title team together longer, or if Brad Stevens had said no, or if Boston hadn’t signed Al Horford, or…well, you’ll have to listen to hear them all.So, if you’re as ready as we are for some real, live NBA games that count, you’re going to have to wait a while. But if you want some news and analysis on not just this timeline, but several others we don’t happen to be on, buckle up and listen to this week’s CLPod – we have at least another month of doldrums ahead of us, and a lot to be thankful for, if our thought experiments are as realistic as we think they are.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/celtics-lab-nba-basketball-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers is one of the oldest and most celebrated in all of sport, and for good reason. Somehow, nearly seven decades into the heated competition for dominance in greatness between the two storied franchise, the tally remains at a tie after the Lakers’ most recent title, with each club now at 17 titles each. This Friday, Nov. 19, the two teams will meet again on the Celtics’ home court of TD Garden, but this time around the two teams will not exactly be arriving at the tilt in the best of shape in terms of records, with each club struggling a bit early in the 2021-22 NBA season. On this episode of the CLNS Media podcast “Celtics Lab,” your usual hosts of Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn are joined by special guest Anthony Irwin of Silver Screen and Roll and the “Locked on Lakers” podcast to talk about what’s behind each club’s slow start, and what we can expect to see Friday among several other topics.  If you’re of the ilk with tribalistic hatred for all things purple and gold, this might not be the pod for you, but if you want an honest look at both clubs as they are this season, hit play on the clip embedded above. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/celtics-lab-nba-basketball-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices