Celtics to face unlikely postseason foes in Disney scrimmage games

The Boston Celtics will play teams it is unlikely to face early in the playoffs in scrimmage games held at the so-called ‘Orlando bubble’.

The Boston Celtics will soon be at the Disney NBA campus in Lake Buena Vista, Florida soon after the Fourth of July weekend to resume the 2019-20 NBA season, and a few weeks after that, the Celtics will begin holding scrimmages with other teams.

Those scrimmages won’t be able to gather too much intelligence against likely playoff opponents in the upcoming scrimmages though, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Instead, scrimmage opponents will be drawn from teams in opposing conferences or in some cases, unlikely first-round playoff opponents.

Such a move is likely designed precisely to avoid handing any teams an unfair advantage to robe the weaknesses of teams they could end up facing in a seven-game series before the games count.

For Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, the focus is on the postseason above all else, regardless of who Boston draws for scrimmage opponents.

“We want to be at our best on Aug. 17 [the date the playoffs start],” explained Stevens via ESPN. “We’ve got two weeks, a couple of scrimmages and then eight seeding games. The seeding games are important, but the most important time is Aug. 17. … It’s important to be able to play our best then.”

With zero new positive tests for COVID-19, the entire roster healthy and no players sitting out for the entire restart, the Celtics are in as good a position as any of the 22 teams participating in the restart.

How the team navigates a playoff series without Gordon Hayward and Vincent Poirier may prove key to the team’s postseason fortunes.

The pair will leave the ‘bubble’ and be quarantined on their return to be present for the birth of their respective children, both due in September while the Celtics could be in the thick of a playoff series.

Even so, given many other Disney restart teams are going to or could be without key players for the entirety of the ‘bubble’, you have to like Boston’s odds for a deep run come August 17th.

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