After another strong home win last night over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics have now won seven of their last ten games and are on a nine game home winning streak. Many fans are beginning to wonder just how far this Celtics team can go. It’s a fair question for a team that has been on a tear since the New Year and now sit at third in the Eastern Conference. With a conference that is for the most part weak, the Celtics will have a good shot at the very least of making it to the second round, and as always, the idea for the playoffs is win the first round and then see how far you can go. Well, let’s take a look at just how far these Celtics will be able to go.
The Eastern Conference has been thin for quite some time and this year is no exception. Really, the only powerhouse that the Celtics will struggle with are the Cleveland Cavaliers; Lebron and Co. handed Boston a four game sweep in the first round last year, and though this Celtics team would put up a fight, the end result would most likely be the same. In the end, a team like the Cavaliers who have players like Lebron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving, are just too talented for a team like the Celtics to beat. That’s not to say that a team like Toronto couldn’t pull off an upset, but Cleveland is still the favorite in the East.
Now, with that being said there really isn’t another team that is in playoff contention that I would say the Celtics don’t have a chance against. Other than Boston and Cleveland, the other six teams in the playoff picture right now are Toronto, Miami, Indiana, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charlotte — all teams the Celtics have beaten while not being overwhelmingly talented. For the record, the Celtics don’t have much talent either and are winning on sheer grit, as are other teams without much talent. However, their place in the standings illustrates how much better the Celtics are at winning with a blueprint formed around grit. The team has survived and thrived all year long by catching unprepared teams by surprise and making in-game adjustments to help the team in crunch time. It has helped tremendously to have Brad Stevens helming the bench, but really the whole team has a great system and dynamic going that has brought success and excitement to Boston’s basketball scene. All that might not be enough to win this team the NBA Finals or even the Eastern Conference Finals, but it certainly won’t stop this group from trying.