Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishWhile everybody was busy worrying about their brackets and parlays, the NBA world was concentrating on record-breaking sales, positive trends, troubling stretches and some playoff races that give us March Madness! We’ll dive into it all, including the big story of the Boston Celtics being sold for a record price and what that could mean for their future core.Here’s your latest NBA Rewind!NBA Stock Report extended📈 LA Clippers (40-31): They barely dropped their Sunday showdown with Oklahoma City, but that doesn’t mean the Clippers haven’t been great lately. They’ve won eight of their last 10 games, and there are some pretty serious wins in there. LA was pretty close to having wins against Cleveland and OKC in the past week. The Clippers’ success lately isn’t just stemming from them making games ugly with their defense and slogging through the muck. They have been excellent on offense. They’re scoring as well as anybody in the league. Norman Powell is back, and Ivica Zubac has been a monster in the paint. The Clippers are making a massive push to the No. 6 seed to avoid the Play-In.📉 Cleveland Cavaliers (57-14): The Cavaliers were able to snap their season-long four-game losing streak thanks to the Utah Jazz, but they’ve still been trending in a troubling way. It’s not alarming to the point of no longer believing in them or thinking they could actually lose the No. 1 seed in the East. But you want to be playing your best basketball leading up to the postseason, and the Cavs are playing their worst basketball. Donovan Mitchell had a horrendous six-game run and took accountability for it. Darius Garland hasn’t been hitting like you’d expect him to. Cleveland doesn’t have an easy schedule coming up, but it’s one in which it should right the ship.📈 Indiana Pacers (41-29): Once again, here come the Pacers as we get closer to the postseason. Even when they were missing key starters and their best players, the Pacers found ways to win. The role players have stepped up, and this bodes well for another surprising run. The problem with that may come with their playoff positioning, but there’s no way to avoid it. They would face either Cleveland or Boston in a potential second-round series. They’re in the driver’s seat for the No. 4 seed, winning six of their last seven games. Indiana is winning close games and doing it with offense rather than defense.📉 Sacramento Kings (35-35): Most of this stretch has happened without Domantas Sabonis, so it’s understandable. But the Kings have lost six of their last eight games. All of a sudden, they might be in a little bit of trouble retaining the No. 9 seed in the West, as Phoenix looks a lot more competent trying to secure a Play-In Tournament spot. Sacramento is now just 1.5 games ahead of the Suns. The Kings really need their best player back. Jonas Valančiūnas has been fine replacing him, but the Kings’ defense is atrocious, and he can’t do what Sabonis does offensively.📈 Chicago Bulls (31-40): The Bulls have won seven of their last nine, including their latest game in which they smacked the Lakers around. During this stretch, the Bulls have the ninth-best offense in the NBA. They have this surprising way of dropping a lot of points on you out of nowhere. Coby White is averaging just under 30 points per game (29.9) during this span while making 50.8 percent of his shots. Josh Giddey was two steals shy of a quadruple-double against the Lakers, and Tre Jones has been a tremendous pickup. The Bulls might challenge the Orlando Magic for eighth in the East. They’re just two games back and own the tie-breaker.
Josh Giddey was special against the Lakers.
15 PTS | 10 REB | 17 AST | 8 STL pic.twitter.com/RkzSXsXSDf
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) March 23, 2025📉 Denver Nuggets (45-27): The Nuggets are in the hunt for the No. 2 seed, but not having Nikola Jokić over the last week hurt them. Even after snapping Houston’s win streak on Sunday without Jokić, they need Big Honey back on the court. And a reminder: The last game of the season between Denver and Houston will decide their head-to-head tiebreaker. This stretch may be helping Jokić’s MVP case, but it’s not helping the Nuggets get ready for the postseason. Aside from the loss to Washington, they don’t have bad losses despite dropping five of their last nine. But they’re running out of time to get moving toward their best basketball for the playoffs. Big Story: What’s next for the Celtics?The big story before the weekend — outside of March Madness — was the record-breaking sale of the Boston Celtics. The $6.1 billion sale to Bill Chisholm is the largest purchase for a North American sports franchise. It exceeded the Phoenix Suns and Mercury selling to Mat Ishbia for $4 billion in 2023 and beat out the $6.05 billion for the Washington Commanders in the same year. It makes sense for one of the most storied franchises, not just in the NBA but in sports in general. On top of that, the Celtics are the defending champs, have nearly their entire core outside of Al Horford signed through next season and are in a great position to kick parity to the curb by becoming the first back-to-back champs in the NBA since the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors.,There’s one little problem with this whole Celtics thing: The league is currently designed to break them up. It’s not just them. This isn’t some targeted attack of parity designed by the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks or Moron Mountain Monstars. The NBA has been obsessed with getting in the way of successful teams after the Golden State Warriors had the good fortune and freak luck to have the cap space to sign Kevin Durant into a 73-win team in 2016. The owners in multiple collective bargaining agreement negotiations since then have been trying to find ways to stop the good teams from being too dominant and to help the incompetent teams be more competitive by default.Maybe it even goes back to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh showing up together on the Miami Heat in 2010, but it feels like it got ramped up post-2016. The new CBA isn’t just about taxing teams. It’s about setting up roadblocks for signing too many players that make you good, even if it’s your own players. The Celtics are going to have to pay that toll now, and the toll isn’t just about money. We got this breakdown on social media from ESPN’s Bobby Marks earlier in the week:
Currently under contract: 11 players for $225.2 million
Estimated minimum salary: $230 million
Projected luxury tax second-apron threshold: $207.8 million
Projected tax penalty: $270 million
Projected salary plus tax penalty: $500 million
Key free agents this summer: Horford, Luke Kornet, Torrey Craig
This is a potentially very complicated situation for Chisholm to inherit. Wyc Grousbeck will be the CEO and governor through the 2027-28 season, but Chisholm is going to be involved in every single move. And the long-term health of the Celtics organization is not some can you are allowed to kick down the road. They’re in the second apron now, so the clock has already started ticking. This isn’t like ordering an inordinate amount of sushi and saying, “That’s a problem for Future Zach!”Consecutive years in the second apron start limiting your ability to make trades and signings, and even trading your future draft picks. To get under the second apron this summer, the Celtics could move Jrue Holiday and the remaining three years, $104.4 million left on his deal (the last season is a $37.4 million player option). It would get them close to being under the first apron too. I’d imagine it would also require attaching a first-round pick to take the money he’s owed. It’s fair to wonder if they’d even have interest in doing that if they win the title again or if they just miss out (either losing in a long Eastern Conference finals or NBA Finals). At what point do you pull the plug on the entirety of this group by trading away at least one key piece?Holiday may already be past the tipping point of consistent effectiveness. He’s had a rough season with health and play by his standards. It might just be a brief blip, or it could be a sign of things to come. You don’t stay in the second apron for that, but it might cost you some decent draft capital to get out of it (if potential trade partners are shrewd and smart). The Celtics have good enough scouting and development to fill roster spots with potential role players, but if the rotation isn’t overwhelming in the future like we saw last year (and maybe see this year), will it lead to more titles?The Celtics are one of the few franchises that base everything on title or no title. And now that they’ve won another one, that focus gets even more intense, and the fan base won’t be rabid for anything short of that. Chisholm has inherited a potential problem, and an expensive one at that. It also might be a good problem to have. It’s not like he’s trying to make a bad franchise relevant. But keeping up the standards of this Celtics squad in this economy? The league has set him up for a tough road.The Week Ahead: Who wants the No. 6 seed?My favorite playoff race is the quest for the No. 6 seed in the West. You’ve got the Warriors, Clippers and Minnesota Timberwolves all crowding around that opportunity to avoid the Play-In Tournament and guarantee themselves the postseason berth. They’d probably be fine anyway against either Sacramento or Phoenix/Dallas/Portland in the Play-In if they had to battle for eighth, but you want that guarantee. Let’s break down where this race is headed this week and the rest of the season. Golden State Warriors (41-30): They’ve started a six-game road trip, and Steph Curry is missing some time with the back injury he suffered at the end of their recent homestand. They are calling it a pelvic contusion, but he landed on his back. I’m not a doctor, but I have eyes! The Warriors are playing the best basketball of these three teams since acquiring Jimmy Butler. However, they need to be healthy for that to continue. This is how their remaining schedule looks:
Easy games: at Pelicans, at Spurs, Spurs
Teams who should still be fighting: at Heat, at Suns, at Blazers
Tough opponents: at Grizzlies, at Lakers, Nuggets, Rockets, Clippers
Remaining strength of schedule: 16th
Tie-breakers over LA or Minnesota? Not over LA, yes over Minnesota
This week, the Warriors are in Miami on Tuesday (Butler revenge game?!), in New Orleans on Friday and in San Antonio on Sunday. So, at least they’ve got plenty of time in between games and don’t have to endure too difficult of travel during this stretch. These are all winnable games with or without Curry. They should be able to keep pace, but they still need to create some distance between both teams.Minnesota Timberwolves (41-31), half-game back: The Wolves should end up with the sixth seed. They have by far the easiest schedule compared to their other competitors. However, this Wolves team also just lost a home game to Indiana (with the Pacers missing their best players) and followed that up with a home loss to New Orleans. Inexcusable. They’d be leading this race if they’d taken care of business.
Easy games: at Nets, at Sixers, Nets, Jazz
Teams who should still be fighting: Suns
Tough opponents: at Pacers, Pistons, at Nuggets, at Bucks, at Grizzlies
Remaining strength of schedule: 23rd
Tie-breakers over Golden State or LA? No over Golden State, yes over LA
The Wolves get a chance at revenge in Indiana on Monday night. Then, they’re home this week for Phoenix and Detroit. That’s a tough start to the rest of their schedule, but it’s getting a lot of the potentially tough games out of the way. We’ll see if the Wolves can get back to the great basketball they were playing before the Pacers loss, when they were beating up on lesser competition.LA Clippers (40-31), one game back: The Clippers are surging at the right time, but they also have the toughest schedule if Dallas gets any kind of health recovery. Even then, LA should be able to handle them, but you never know. The Clippers are playing great basketball right now, and they’ve hit their stride at the right time. Knock on wood, but they’re also healthy. Finally.
Easy games: at Nets, Pelicans, Spurs
Teams who should still be fighting: at Magic, Mavericks, Mavericks, at Kings
Tough opponents: at Knicks, at Cavs, Rockets, at Warriors
Remaining strength of schedule: 13th
Tie-breakers over Golden State or Minnesota? Yes over Golden State, no over Minnesota
They’re also heading on the road this week. They go to New York on Wednesday, stay for Brooklyn on Friday and then have a rough back-to-back in Cleveland and Orlando on Sunday and Monday. They’ll be home for an extended stretch after that, but this road trip will let everybody know how seriously to take the Clippers in this pursuit of sixth place. I’d say pretty seriously.(Top photo of Jayson Tatum celebrating the 2024 NBA championship: Adam Hagy / NBAE via Getty Images)
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