The Boston Celtics have clinched a playoff berth. While inevitable, their clinching of one of eight Eastern Conference positions came earlier than expected, sneaking up on the NBA community and carrying a slight touch of surprise. This Celtics team has been counted out for a majority of the season with people disregarding the team’s successes and jumping on the team’s failures.
With the 114-111 win over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night, they are locked in on at least the No. 3 seed, barring a catastrophe in the last 18 games. They have now clinched a playoff berth in the last six seasons.
The Celtics could have clinched a spot as early as last Friday, but their recent slump delayed the inevitable. Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker and co. are now one of four NBA squads to punch their ticket for the playoffs, joining the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Lakers, even though they are not ranked as a top-five team anywhere in NBA circles.
The Bucks are running away with the No. 1 overall seed in the East and Boston sits three games back of Toronto for the No. 2 seed. With Tuesday’s win, the Celtics now own a two-game advantage over the Miami Heat for the No. 3 seed.
The race to the finish should be a pretty good one for Boston over the final five weeks of the season. The Celtics have taken two out of three against the Raptors and will have a chance to cut the deficit on March 20 in Toronto. Boston has two more matchups with Milwaukee before the playoffs arrive (March 12 in Milwaukee and April 1 in Boston) and two more against the Heat (April 1 in Boston and April 11 in Miami). The Celtics have 18 games left in the regular season with 10 of them against teams currently in the playoff picture. Of Boston’s eight games in April, six will come against current playoff teams.
While the team will celebrate their small victory, the eyes will be ahead on Thursday in Milwaukee as the playoffs approach.
