Tag: 2021 NBA playoffs

WATCH: Do the Boston Celtics have any chance to beat the Brooklyn Nets in the first round?

The odds are stacked against Boston — but do they have any shot at all?

The Boston Celtics limped into the seventh seed — in some cases, literally — as a season full of injuries, COVID and bad luck knocked their title aspirations down a couple of notches. They get the dubious honor of facing one of the league’s most dangerous clubs in the postseason, with one of the best scoring lineups ever assembled.

Down All-Star wing Jaylen Brown, and operating with a hobbled Rob Williams III (if he can even play at all), the Celtics kick off their series with the Nets this Saturday. Can they hope to steal a game? Is winning the series entirely off the table?

The hosts of the CLNS Media semi-eponymous “Ryan and Goodman” podcast Bob and Jeff, respectively, do their best to answer these questions ahead of the series’ tipoff this weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZqCT2bAKE

Watch the video embedded above to get their take at what’s at stake in this series, and how hard of a row to hoe Boston has if it wants to win some games.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[lawrence-related id=50807,50803,50793,50690]

[listicle id=50768]

Sixers Round 1 series schedule announced for 2021 NBA playoffs

The Round 1 series schedule for the Philadelphia 76ers has been released.

The Philadelphia 76ers are still not sure of who they will face in the 2021 NBA Playoffs as they will know their opponent on Thursday night. They will take on the winner of the matchup between the Washington Wizards and the Indiana Pacers from the East play-in tournament.

They do know that their playoff journey will begin on Sunday, but they did not know the timing of the series opener. That changed on Wednesday night when the NBA announced the Round 1 series schedule.

While the only times announced for the series are for Game 1 and Game 2, they do at least know what day each game will be played. Game 1 will be Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT and Game 2 will be on May 26 at 7 p.m. EDT.

Led by Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the Sixers are the No. 1 seed for the first time since the Allen Iverson days in 2001 and they expect to make a deep run into the postseason in the Eastern Conference.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=46128,46125,46122]

WATCH: Jayson Tatum and Celtics breeze through play-in, will play Nets next

Boston will have its work cut out for it in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.

With their 118 – 100 win over the Washington Wizards in the team’s first-ever dalliance in the NBA’s play-in tournament, the Boston Celtics have won the right to represent the league’s Eastern Conference in the 2021 NBA Playoffs from the seventh seed.

However, this comes with the opponent currently slated to play the seventh seed, the East’s second-seeded Brooklyn Nets, one of the league’s most dangerous offensive juggernauts in recent if not all history. Do the Celtics even have a chance at winning games in this series after losing All-Star forward Jaylen Brown to a season-ending wrist injury and starting center Robert Williams’ status uncertain due to turf toe?

USA TODAY Sports senior writer Jeff Zillgit breaks down exactly what the Celtics are in for now that they have cleared the play-in tournament in the video embedded below.

Give the clip a watch to get up to speed about what exactly the Celtics are in store for — and what will give them the best odds at success.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[lawrence-related id=50716,50701,50698,50690]

[listicle id=50681]

Boston Celtics first-round series with Brooklyn Nets kicks off Saturday at Barclays Center

If the NBA continues the every-other-day schedule used in the Orlando bubble, the rest of the schedule apart from tipoffs can be inferred as well.

The Boston Celtics clinched the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed with their 118 – 100 blowout of the Washington Wizards in Tuesday night’s play-in tournament game, and with it, the honor of facing a formidable challenge in the Brooklyn Nets.

While the full schedule has yet to be released, we do know that the first game of the series will kick off this weekend with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday, May 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, with the game to take place at Barclays Center given the Nets have home court with the upper seed. And with the format for the postseason after the play-in tournament unchanged, we can extrapolate the remainder of the dates of the first round.

In normal seasons, playoff games are always separated by at least a day and sometimes two between games, but this model was condensed to every other day in the so-called Orlando bubble due to the pandemic and the constraints created by the hiatus and honoring broadcast deals.

Joel Embiid, Sixers to open 2021 playoffs at home on Sunday

The Philadelphia 76ers will begin the playoffs on Sunday at home.

The regular season is in the books and now is the time Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers have been waiting for. It’s time to begin what they hope will be a deep run into the postseason that will end with them holding the Larry O’Brien trophy.

They will not know their first-round opponent until Thursday when the play-in tournament ends in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia will face one of four opponents beginning Sunday. The start time for Game 1 of the series will be announced.

The Sixers are the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the Allen Iverson days in 2001, and they have a lot of hope for a deep run led by the talented duo of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[lawrence-related id=45995,45998,45992]

TD Garden to open with full capacity May 29; will Celtics survive long enough for it to matter?

Boston’s home arena will have no limits on capacity starting May 29, but the Celts need to survive the play-in tournament for it to matter.

The State of Massachusetts will lift the capacity limits of all sporting venues in the state as of May 29 — including the Boston Celtics home court of TD Garden — per multiple sources, but it will all be for naught unless the team makes it out of the NBA’s new play-in tournament it is slated to begin play in this evening.

The Celtics must either beat the eighth-seeded Washington Wizards for the right to play in the first round from the seven seed to face the Brooklyn Nets, or they must beat the winner of the Nos. 9 and 10 seed play-in game between the Charlotte Hornets and Indiana Pacers later this week should they lose to the Wizards this evening to secure the honor of facing the Philadelphia 76ers, the East’s top team this season.

If they lose, they won’t play in front of a capacity crowd until next season.

If they win, they will not play at home until Game 3 of whichever opponent they end up with, given they would not have home court advantage as a seven seed in either case.

The state had previously increased capacity last week from 12 to 25% without incident.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=video id=01f5ns1fjns0ygyx2at8 playlist_id=none player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f5ns1fjns0ygyx2at8/01f5ns1fjns0ygyx2at8-447d9288db3519a706d50caee3cdc5b5.jpg]

[lawrence-related id=50665,50626,50619,50617]

[listicle id=50635]

Celtics postseason scenarios: Breaking down Boston’s playoff picture post-Heat loss

A finish in the seventh seed and a trip to the play-in tournament is looking more likely after the loss to the Heat.

Whether you’re adept at understanding how the NBA’s new play-in game affects the Boston Celtics’ postseason picture or totally clueless how this new wrinkle shakes up the usual way the playoffs go down, we think we can help make understanding exactly what the Celtics are looking at in this new end-of-season series designed to help make Boston’s seeding make sense.

With each win or loss potentially critical for where the Celtics will finish their season — and with it, who they will face and in what format come the postseason — we’ve put together this guide to help you make sense of Boston’s postseason situation on a game-to-game basis-

After the loss to the Miami Heat, the Celtics’ postseason picture has really taken a turn for the worse, but let’s dive into what exactly the play-in tournament does first.

WATCH: Should the Celtics prefer the Knicks, Hawks, Nets or Bucks in the playoffs?

What would be the optimal matchup for Boston in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs?

While it might not be the postseason picture Boston Celtics had hoped to see take shape, the field of potential playoff opponents is coming into focus for the Celtics from a field of roughly four franchises — assuming they get in to the postseason either traditionally or via the NBA’s new play-in tournament.

And while the depressing alternative to that proposition certainly exists, we’ll table it for now to ask the question of which of those four teams — the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets or Milwaukee Bucks — Boston ought to want most as a prospective first-round opponent. The hosts over at the CLNS Media podcast “Celtics Beat” explore exactly this prospect, trying to divine which of the four most-likely outcomes would be most favorable for this particular Boston roster in the playoffs.

Watch hosts Adam Kaufmann and Evan Valenti debate the pros and cons of each potential matchup with guest Ian Thompsen of Sports Illustrated in the video embedded below while you make up your own mind on the subject — if you haven’t already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCgg9F8JHZQ

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[lawrence-related id=50073,50066,50036,50030]

[listicle id=50076]

WATCH: Are the Boston Celtics in danger of falling into the play-in tournament?

Celtics fans may want to adjust their postseason expectations based on recent performances.

While one can hardly blame the Boston Celtics for the COVID- and injury-riddled season they’ve had, the reality that the team may very well have to fight their way into the 2021 NBA Playoffs as a result of it via the league’s new play-in tournament is quickly coming into focus after Friday’s 121 – 99 road loss to the Chicago Bulls.

Even before that debacle arrived on the scene, CLNS Media hosts John Goodman and Bob Ryan of their eponymous podcast dug into this potentially painful reality. And with Robert Williams III looking like he’ll be out for at least a few more games, odds are not in the Celtics favor.

Check out the video embedded below as Goodman and Ryan try and make sense of where not only Boston is with regards to the play-in tournament, but also their long-time rivals the Los Angeles Lakers, who find themselves in a largely analogous situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZUyGy4G8Do

Goodman also makes his odd push to trade Jaylen Brown and the pair cover a number of other topics, so be sure to check it out.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

[lawrence-related id=50066,50036,50030,50017]

[listicle id=50056]

Celtics postseason scenarios: Breaking down Boston’s playoff picture post-Bulls loss

Boston’s postseason picture has been downgraded after the loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

Whether you’re adept at understanding how the NBA’s new play-in game affects the Boston Celtics’ postseason picture or totally clueless how this new wrinkle shakes up the usual way the playoffs go down, we think we can help make understanding exactly what the Celtics are looking at in this new end-of-season series designed to help make Boston’s seeding make sense.

With each win or loss potentially critical for where the Celtics will finish their season — and with it, who they will face and in what format come the postseason — we’ve put together this guide to help you make sense of Boston’s postseason situation on a game-to-game basis-

After the loss to the Chicago Bulls, we need to re-assess the postseason picture, but let’s dive into what exactly the play-in tournament does first.