Boston’s head coach wants the team ready when the East postseason begins for the Celtics.
The Boston Celtics are, along with the rest of the league, drawing close to the end of their 2021-22 regular-season schedule, with playoff seeding coming into focus at the same time the final adjustments the team will have a chance to make heading into the 2022 NBA Playoffs can be tinkered with.
And after playing some of his core players heavy minutes while other players newer to this iteration of the Celtics in need of some floor time to get more comfortable in the flow of the team’s switch-heavy defense, Boston head coach Ime Udoka was asked whether he might sit some guys ahead of the postseason some nights, or give key players nights off.
“It could be both,” he offered.
According to ESPN’s Tim Legler, the Boston Celtics are the top defensive team in the East https://t.co/7Ss4Noey6x
Where will Boston be in the standings among their East peers come season’s end? Who should Boston want to face in the first round? In this episode, we dive deep into all things Celtics between today and the end of the regular season.
It won’t be long now until the remaining games for the Boston Celtics of the 2021-22 NBA regular season can be counted with single-digit numbers, and with the 2022 postseason nearly upon us, we can start to get a picture of how the Eastern Conference standings might look when the dust settles on the season.
With so much parity in the East among playoff teams, seeding could be as important as it has been in many years for postseason success, with the play-in tournament looking like it may well have an epic showdown brewing with a legitimate contender likely to end up in it, and the range in which the Celtics are likely to fall anywhere from favorable to fraught depending on which East foe they end up drawing.
To that end, on this week’s episode of the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast, hosts Justin Quinn and Cameron Tabatabaie try to suss out where they think each team will end up using strength of schedule, health, and desirable matchups.
They also get into how the team has been playing of late, a last look at the (we hope) end of the feud between Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and everything else newsworthy for Boston between now and the last game of the regular season.
No one wants to face the Celtics in the East playoffs – and for good reason.
Even before the Boston Celtics managed to convincingly dispatch the nearly complete Brooklyn Nets 126 – 120 at TD Garden this past Sunday afternoon, national NBA analysts were starting to take note in recent days of just how dangerous of a team the Celtics have become in the second half of the 2021-22 season.
With a league-leading defense and a top-10 offense led by what is suddenly shaping up to be a borderline MVP level of play from All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, Boston has become a popular pick for a deep postseason run from analytics models and NBA personalities both.
One such example of that sort of analyst is ESPN broadcaster Stephen A. Smith, who recently gushed about the Celtics potential to shake up the East picture, and how opposing teams who might face them in the postseason ought not to take them lightly.
Check out the clip embedded above to hear what Smith has to say about Boston as the Atlantic Division team makes a run towards the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
The Boston Celtics showed they are capable of losing a key starter in Jaylen Brown and still come back from a deep deficit in their win against the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden on Tuesday night, and helped dispel some concerns about the team after a short return to the sort of uneven play that plagued them in the first half of the season.
As Boston slowly climbs the standings with their elite brand of defense that’s been driving their recent success, we begin to get a clearer picture of what sort of team they can be. Having a bench the team can lean in in moments of trouble coupled with their defensive identity has them on the fringes of contender status, but just how far off are they from being the real deal?
The host of the eponymous CLNS Media “Cedric Maxwell” podcast got together with cohost Josue Pavon to debate just how dangerous the Celtics are this season as they head into the stretch run.
Watch the clip embedded above to get their takes on Boston’s capabilities to make a deep run into the postseason.
Or should they try to secure a favorable first-round matchup?
What is more important for the Boston Celtics as the team starts thinking about its positioning for the 2022 NBA playoffs: a favorable matchup and path to the conference finals or home-court advantage for the Celtics?
It makes sense to focus on winning as many games as possible as they fight their way (hopefully) to a top-four finish in the East. But could it make sense for Boston to consider strategic losses to rest players if it puts them in a position to end up with an easier path to a deep run into the postseason?
The hosts of the CLNS Media “A-List” podcast recently discussed what approach the Celtics ought to take as the stretch run arrives ahead of the playoffs. Hosts Gary Washburn, Kwani A. Lunis, and A. Sherrod Blakely debate what approach Boston should take heading into the postseason.
Check out the clip embedded above to hear their points of view.
This is a question on the lips and fingers of quite a few NBA analysts at the moment, most of whom are trying to suss out where exactly to peg the Celtics in the East’s projected playoff picture ahead of the stretch run and just after a nine-game winning streak’s end that has since seen Boston’s game show signs of vulnerability again after looking like world-beaters throughout the month of January.
The hosts of the Uninterrupted “Certified Buckets” podcast dialed down on this question in a recent episode, as well as where they ought to be ranked in comparison to their East peers.
Watch the clip embedded above to hear what Ashley Nicole Moss, Kristian Winfield, and Lethal Shooter have to say about the Celtics as we dive into the thick of the 2022 stretch run.
With the way this team has been playing, it doesn’t seem that implausible despite Boston’s rough early start.
The Boston Celtics are currently seen as the most likely team in the entire NBA to win it all according to a new assessment by FiveThirtyEight’s 2021-22 NBA Predictions Raptor analytics model. If that seems optimistic to you, recall the model had the Celtics third in such an assessment just ahead of the team’s 135 – 87 obliteration of the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.
The rating, which leans heavily on the point differential of which the Celtics are the leading team in the league’s Eastern Conference and currently second in the NBA overall, also uses simulation models and individual NBA player projections to arrive at such conclusions.
At present, FiveThirtyEight puts Boston at having a 99% chance at making the postseason, a 37% chance of making the NBA Finals, and a 23% chance at winning them.
Their nearest competitor is the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, both tied with a 17% chance at winning it all.
These assessments should of course always be taken with a grain of salt, but when contrasted with the eye test and recent play, certainly doesn’t seem to be beyond the pale.
The question is no longer whether the Boston Celtics will be a competitive team in the 2022 NBA Playoffs — after racking up the league’s longest winning streak at nine games, the question is more just how competitive of a ball club the Celtics will end up being in the postseason.
After pumping up their point differential to among the Association’s best with the second-best defense and a very solid offensive game to their name, fans and analysts both are wondering whether, in a season so seemingly wide-open, Boston could hang its 18th banner by season’s end — or at least get fairly close with some luck.
The hosts of the CLNS Media podcast “The Garden Report” recently debated just how high the Celtics’ ceiling is when the playoffs roll around.
Check out the clip embedded above to hear their takes on how Boston stacks up in the Eastern Conference standings from their points of view.
Optimistic? Perhaps. But Boston’s excellent recent play isn’t just getting noticed by our eyeballs.
It might surprise you to hear this, but the Boston Celtics’ recent spate of excellent play has them moving up — WAY up — some analytical models which attempt to track which teams are going to be standing when the 2022 NBA Playoffs end.
The model in question, FiveThirtyEight’s 2021-22 NBA Predictions, is updated after every game and using their forecast based on RAPTOR player ratings, sees the Celtics in a tie with the Los Angeles Clippers as being the fifth-most likely team to win the NBA title with 7% odds. Yes, you read that correctly. Currently, the Phoenix Suns sit in first place with a 17% shot, the Milwaukee Bucks second with 16%, the Utah Jazz third with 13% odds, and the Miami Heat just ahead of Boston and the Clips with an 8% chance.
The projection model also sees the Celtics with a 15% chance of making the Finals and an 86% shot at securing a place in the postseason.
It can’t be stressed enough that these models can change a lot with just one or two bad losses, but even so, it’s nice to see some analytics that gibe with the level of play the eye test has been recording of late.
