Revisiting Celtics' NBA championship odds after the All-Star break

Revisiting Celtics' championship odds after All-Star break originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics have their work cut out for them if they're to compete for an NBA championship this season.

After riding a four-game winning streak into the All-Star break, the C's were defeated by the star-studded Brooklyn Nets in the first game of the second half, 121-109. The matchup, in which the Nets played without both Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin, showed just how lopsided a playoff series between the two teams might be.

Celtics-Nets takeaways: A rusty Jaylen, a spry Smart

That potential lopsidedness is recognized by oddsmakers as the Celtics' NBA title odds continue to slip. Meanwhile, the Nets have leapfrogged the Los Angeles Lakers as the championship favorite.

Boston's updated odds are +3300, trailing the powerhouses of the Eastern and Western Conferences as well as the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat -- odds provided by our partner, PointsBet Sportsbook.

PointsBet is our Official Sports Betting Partner and we may receive compensation if you place a bet on PointsBet for the first time after clicking our links.

Chris Forsberg broke down these numbers on a brand new episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast.

Celtics Talk Podcast: Will Ainge wait until summer to use the Hayward traded player exception? | Listen & subscribe | Watch on YouTube

"The Celtics haven't shown us consistently enough that they are a championship-level team, and I think that showed in the Brooklyn game the other night," Forsberg said. "Fourth quarter, two-point game with about four minutes to go, crunch time. The Celtics played in a lot of crunch time games and they started playing better before the All-Star break but on this night, they crumbled again. And it wasn't just on the defensive side where they've had their biggest issues. ...

"On the offensive side, I thought they really lost their way. There were some bad shots, Daniel Theis missed an open shot, Kemba [Walker] missed a bad forced stepback, Jaylen Brown turned the ball over a couple of times, so did Jayson Tatum. And so, I'm waiting for this team to show me that they can just save their best basketball for when it matters most. Right now, it seems to be going the other way."

The C's will look to start improving those odds when they visit the Houston Rockets on Sunday.

You can listen to the full episode of the Celtics Talk Podcast above, or watch on YouTube below: