Celtics -- You Really Need To Care About These Two Games Against The Pacers
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Celtics have tried to convince us that they don't really care about the rest of the regular season. It sounds much more like an excuse for their poor play rather than their actual feelings, but with this team, who really knows?
However, they should actually care about their final seven games, and two of them in particular. They will be the difference between a their first-round series starting on the road and their first-round series starting in Boston, and a potential deciding Game 7 at TD Garden rather than Larry Bird's backyard.
That's the corner the Celtics will try to fight they way out of and it starts Friday night with the first of their two most important games remaining, both of which are against the Pacers. In all likelihood, this is a first-round preview. Friday night, at least, is also essentially a playoff game for both teams.
Indiana did not completely fold when they lost star player Victor Oladipo three months ago, but they've returned to earth with their 13-15 record since the injury. The Pacers have since given up the three-seed in the East to the Philadelphia 76ers, yet somehow, they still hold a one-game advantage over Boston for the four-seed. That's because the frustrating and care-free Celtics, with their roster mostly healthy, went just 14-13 in that stretch.
Having split their previous two matchups this season, the Celtics can't view their two remaining games against Indiana as anything but "must-win" affairs. They will determine who finishes where in the standings, and whether the first-round will start in Indy or Boston.
The Celtics essentially control their fate for the four-seed; if they take both games against Indy, it should be theirs. If they split, they still have a decent enough chance thanks to tie-breakers (it'll come down to their records against the East, since neither the Celtics or Pacers are division champs or in the same division). If they drop both, there will be no hosting of a playoff series for the Celtics this postseason (unless of course the Celtics advance and someone else gets dealt a major upset, but those aren't the hypotheticals we're dealing with here).
Whoever wins the season series will, likely, clinch the four-seed. If the two split, we get into the mess of tiebreakers. At the moment, both teams are 30-15 against the East, which is why all seven of their remaining games are important. But should they split, and the Celtics win one more game than Indy in their other five games, the Celtics would finish with a better conference record and earn the four-seed by way of a tiebreaker.
There's still a chance that the Celtics could take both games from Indy and still end up at the five-seed, if the Pacers beat everyone else and the Celtics stumble along the way. But winning Friday night would greatly improve Boston's chances of at least one round of home-court advantage. Like the Celtics, five of Indy's seven remaining games come against playoff teams. The Pacers should have a hiccup or two along the way. Unfortunately, does anyone think the Celtics won't stumble either, given how the first 90 percent of the season played out?
The Celtics have no one but themselves to blame for this situation, and they continue to beat the drum about flipping the switch in the playoffs. Friday night is essentially a playoff game for them, and maybe they'll actually treat it as such.
