Celtics Officially Clinch A Playoff Spot
FOXBORO (CBS) -- The Boston Celtics didn't play Thursday night, but the team still clinched its spot in the NBA Playoffs.
The Celtics punched their ticket to the postseason on their off night Thursday thanks to a Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the Atlanta Hawks. It's the eighth straight year that the Celtics are in the postseason and the 14th time in the last 15 seasons.
Unlike last year, the Celtics won't need a play-in win to reach the real postseason. They are a legit playoff team, and a contender to win the East at that.
That 18-21 start to the season seems like such a distant memory. Boston's trio of Jayson Tatum (five seasons), Jaylen Browns (six seasons) and Marcus Smart (eight seasons) have made the playoffs in every year of their careers. Ime Udoka is now the ninth Celtics head coach to make the postseason in his first year on the bench.
With the Philadelphia 76ers also losing on Thursday night, Boston currently sits in the three-seed in the East with five games to play in the regular season. With the top four teams separated by just 2.5 games, there will likely be a lot of jostling in the Eastern Conference standings between now and Sunday, April 10.
Udoka has said that the team will focus more on staying healthy than their positioning in the playoffs though, and keeping Tatum, Brown, Smart and the rest of the squad healthy is even more important with Robert Williams set to miss the next four-to-six weeks as he recovers from surgery on his recently torn meniscus.
It will be difficult for Boston to dictate where it finishes in the standings anyways, given how crowded it is atop the East with the Bucks (0.5 games back), Celtics (two games back) and 76ers (2.5 games back) all within striking distance of the top-seeded Miami Heat.
