Will a loaded January schedule bring out the best in Celtics?

Calendar year 2024 was a magical trip around the sun for the Boston Celtics, and the team closed out a ridiculously successful 12-month run with one of the most lopsided wins in franchise history on New Year's Eve. But things are about to get a whole lot more difficult.

With 40 percent of the 2024-25 regular season in the rearview mirror, the Celtics have yet to play more than two consecutive games against teams that currently own a record of .500 or better. They’ve done that five times total this season, but eight of their final nine games in 2024 were against teams with records under .500. And Boston still limped to a 5-4 record in those games.

The difficulty meter spikes immediately to start 2025. Every opponent on Boston’s four-game, Western Conference-road trip that opens Thursday night in Minnesota currently has a record of .500 or better, and Boston will play teams currently slotted in the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 8th spots in the West standings during that trip.

What’s more, there’s a stretch in mid-January that features seven straight games against teams currently .500 or better, including another road trip that will pit Boston against teams currently sitting 4th, 6th, 7th, and 10th in the West.

After playing just four games against West teams over their first 33 games of the season, Boston jousts with West squads in 12 of its 16 games in the month of January.

Winter doldrums be damned. The Celtics are (finally) going to taste a steady diet of playoff teams, and we’ll learn a whole lot more about this team’s preparedness to chase a second title over the course of what’s usually one of the sleepier months on the NBA calendar.

The good news: The Celtics are 9-5 this season against teams .500 or better, the third-best mark in the league behind only Cleveland (12-4) and Oklahoma City (15-5). Some of Boston’s more notable performances have come with playoff-caliber opponents on the other side, including an Opening Night stomping of the Knicks, a win over the previously undefeated Cavaliers in mid-November, and a 32-point shellacking of the Clippers during Kristaps Porzingis’ season debut in late November.

A season ago, the Celtics were an NBA best 34-15 against teams .500 or better, but also feasted on teams below .500 with a 30-3 mark. The 2024-25 squad hasn’t been as locked in against poor teams -- posting a 15-4 mark thus far -- but it absolutely seems more engaged against the best teams.

All of which should deliver some very intriguing basketball in January.

Health will be vital for Boston, too. The Celtics have navigated a recent stretch without Porzingis as he battles another ankle injury, while Jaylen Brown popped up on the injury report ahead of Thursday’s game. The schedule does them no favors with an immediate back-to-back that includes having to travel from Minneapolis to Houston -- a three-hour plane ride -- after Thursday’s tilt.

But there are no shortage of storylines on this trip. The Celtics and Timberwolves played two of the best regular-season games of last season -- both spilling into overtime -- and Boston fended off the Wolves with a two-point triumph at TD Garden on November 24. The Rockets, led by former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, are young and feisty and have the sixth-best record in basketball.

Sunday takes the Celtics to Oklahoma City in a matchup of the two teams with the best odds to meet in the NBA Finals. This young Thunder squad looks poised to take another leap this season, and this game will carry a heavy "Finals preview?" buzz. Boston wraps up the trip in Denver, where it will have to deal with MVP-chasing Nikola Jokic and a Nuggets team that wore the NBA crown before Boston.

Maybe this is just what the doctor ordered for a Celtics team that perhaps hasn't been as laser-focused as it was for long stretches last season. Everyone knows Boston can’t achieve its ultimate goal until June, but it’s a lot easier to get up for a bunch of sexy Western Conference opponents than it is for a double dip against the Bulls in mid-December.

January typically delivers some of Jayson Tatum’s best basketball. Does another New Year’s boost await? The Celtics will find out just how much they can lean on their available depth this month, all while Brad Stevens ponders potential tweaks in advance of an early February trade deadline.

If the Celtics want 2025 to be as memorable as 2024, the quest for June bliss starts with cranking up their own intensity to start the month of January.