If the NBA manages to pull off a restart at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, we’ll get the first NBA championship won on a neutral court in the history of the league.
And while he doesn’t see the Boston Celtics racking up Banner 18, Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz does see the Celtics going pretty far in the 2020 playoffs.
Swartz envisions the Celtics locking into the third seed by the end of the restarted season, no surprise given Boston is three games behind the Toronto Raptors and 2.5 ahead of the Miami Heat in the standings at the moment.
Boston's Jayson Tatum, other young stars seek increased insurance https://t.co/Ife8U014MX via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) June 13, 2020
He also sees the Celtics facing off with the Indiana Pacers in the first round with the Pacers landing in the sixth seed to close out the season. That’s plausible, given Indiana is one of the three teams most likely to end up in that spot, along with the Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Bleacher Report writer projects the Celtics to come out on top in six games, moving on to face the Raptors in the second round.
This series is a bit more competitive to Swartz, but Boston comes away with the series in seven, largely due to their superior defense — and having All-Star forward Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics meet their match in the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals for Swartz however, falling in seven games to the eventual runners-up (the Bleacher Report writer projects the Los Angeles Lakers to best the Bucks in six games in the Finals).
Who are best injury replacement shooters Boston could sign in Orlando? https://t.co/pMSoj25kWr via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) June 13, 2020
Putting aside the prospect of the Lakers drawing even with the Celtics in number of titles, this is a fairly positive outcome for Boston, given nearly any path the team could end up presented with will likely be a tough one.
Given the extremely unusual nature now baked into the 2019-20 NBA season, any finish at all ought to be viewed as a success.
But that won’t stop Celtics fans from daydreaming about Banner 18, even if taking a team as good as Milwaukee to seven games in the Conference Finals would be a pretty solid end to the season.
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