Crazy Day Drastically Changes Competition Around Celtics

Big changes for contenders in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday reshapes the look of the Celtics’ push for a top seed in the playoffs

It’s amazing how much can change in under an hour in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

At 11:11 a.m. on Tuesday, The Vertical broke news that the Orlando Magic agreed to trade Serge Ibaka to the Toronto Raptors for Terrence Ross and a first-round pick.

Ibaka, who stands as one of the top power forwards in the NBA (despite what his numbers suggest this season), adds a tremendous amount of range, length and athleticism to the Raptors’ front court. Toronto is currently in fifth-place in the East, but is just 4 1/2 games behind the Boston Celtics for the second spot and seven games away from the top spot.

But more on that later.

ESPN.com then reported just 46 minutes later (11:57 a.m.) that Cleveland Cavaliers star forward Kevin Love will be out for at least six weeks after receiving arthroscopic surgery on his left knee to remove “a loose body.” That’s a big loss for Cleveland, who are clinging to the East’s best record by just 2 1/2 games over Boston.

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What This Means

For obvious reasons, the path for the Celtics to obtain a top seed for the playoffs just drastically changed.

While the Raptors – losers of five of their last seven games – have started to become a little bit of an afterthought as they slip down the standings, this Ibaka trade certainly puts them back on map.

Remember; this is a team that everyone predicted before this season as the likeliest team to steal the East from the Cavaliers. And with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry putting up their usual numbers, that prediction looked like it could still come true even before the Ibaka trade.

But now that Ibaka is headed to Toronto, he adds much needed talent to the power forward position. Pairing him with Jonas Valanciunas in the starting lineup gives the Raptors a dynamic front court, as Ibaka can now take over the interior defense with his shot-blocking ability while Valanciunas continues to focus his efforts on offense. And let’s not forget that Ibaka’s 3-point range should help spread the floor on offense.

This is bad news for Boston, as it already had enough trouble beating Toronto. Now that the Raptors added more rebounding and interior defense, the Celtics front court is heavily out-matched. Even when Avery Bradley returns from injury, this Boston team will just have to keep winning and hope to avoid playing the Raptors in a seed-changing game down the stretch.

Luckily for the Celtics, though, they now have a greater chance at stealing the No. 1 seed from the Cavaliers because of the Love injury (if they can keep Toronto at bay).

With a win on Tuesday night, Cleveland proved that it can still be competitive without their star power forward if LeBron James and Kyrie Irving can continue to carry a heavy workload. But Love will miss AT LEAST six whole weeks, and maybe even more should he face a set-back. Can James continue to keep this up while logging 40 minutes every game for six weeks?

That’s a tough task.

James has been pleading for more depth for weeks now, so he obviously believes the Cavaliers don’t have enough depth around them to be a top team come playoff time. And this was before Love got hurt; imagine what he’s thinking now.

The Celtics, in the meantime, have proven to have plenty of depth. In fact, it’s their depth that has helped them win nine of their last 10 games, even when missing key starters.

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With Bradley slated to come back after the All-Star break, that 2 1/2 game difference from the top spot in the East is starting to become smaller by the game. The Cavaliers are barely holding onto it, and if Boston can manage to stay ahead of the surging Wizards and Hawks; the Celtics could be looking at home-court advantage up until the Finals.

If that happens, who knows what Boston could do.