Coming off a whirlwind offseason, many people didn’t know what to expect from the Boston Celtics this year. With so many question marks and new pieces, there figured to be some growing pains. Not surprisingly, the Celtics have struggled to find their footing over the first few weeks of the season, going 4-5 over their first five games. Their uneven start has included a three-game winning streak, a three-game losing streak, multiple blowout wins and multiple close losses. While Boston is only 11 percent of the way through the regular season, several interesting trends have already started to emerge for Joe Mazzulla’s squad. One involves the Celtics’ starting five, which shockingly has the best net rating of any five-man unit in the NBA (min. 35 minutes). Boston’s starting five was decimated after losing Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford, leaving Jaylen Brown and Derrick White as the only returning starters. However, Payton Pritchard, Neemias Queta and Josh Minott have all flourished in their new starting roles after previously being bench players. Story continues below advertisement Another is that the Celtics surprisingly lead the league in turnover differential (+6.2) by a wide margin. Young teams tend to be sloppier and turn the ball over more often, but not Boston. The Celtics are averaging the fewest turnovers per game (10.9) in the NBA while forcing the fifth-most (17.1), giving them several extra possessions per game. https://open.spotify.com/episode/43UBeqRNFzOcE6oyNLHEk7 Lastly, Boston has the best defense in the NBA, leading the league in fewest points allowed per game (109.3). Despite losing most of their size, rebounding and rim protection over the summer, the Celtics force a lot of turnovers and limit opponents to the fewest shot attempts per game (83.8) and third-lowest field goal percentage (.438). It will be interesting to see if these trends continue throughout the season. Boston will try to get back to .500 tonight with a road win over the Orlando Magic in its second NBA Cup game. Story continues below advertisement