Boston Celtics Control Fate of One Seed

After taking down the Heat and gaining another game on the Cavaliers, the Celtics took over control of the fate of the one seed.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Washington Wizards on Saturday night, the Boston Celtics knew they had a special opportunity in their game against the Miami Heat on Sunday. With that loss the Celtics were just half a game behind the Cavaliers in the standings, and for the first time controlled their own fate for the one seed. Of course, that was predicated on them taking down the Heat, putting them into a virtual tie with the Cavaliers for the top seed in the East.

The reason this victory was so important is because the distance between them in the standings may be a bit misleading. The Cavaliers still have two games in hand, which means that they could make up ground, even if the Celtics tied things up with their head to head matchup.

Now, with the two teams tied in the standings, and just a one game difference in the loss column, the Celtics know that if they take care of their business, there is nothing the Cavaliers can do to make up for it, and that includes if the Cavaliers managed to secure the tiebreaker.

The prevailing opinion used to be that there was no real chance for any team to catch the Cavaliers for the one seed, and the final stretch would be to determine the two seed. Now, that narrative has flipped to the Cavaliers really do not care about home court, with the extremists taking it to the point that the Cavaliers are better off as a two seed, in order to avoid the Heat in the first round.

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There is no doubting that home court is not enough to make the Celtics favorites over the Cavaliers, but it is one of the more important factors that need to fall in their favor, if they want to have a chance to do what many are still saying is impossible.

The Celtics are a team that feeds off of doubt while being the most confident team in the league, and that is exactly how this situation is playing out. The Celtics now know that if they do everything in their power, they will be the number one seed in the East, and that is better than the vast majority thought was possible at any point in this season.

That kind of confidence can have an impact on a team like this, and playing that extra game in TD Garden is something that will add to the momentum of a team that is hitting their stride right at the right time.

That confidence is just one part, and another part is the inevitable doubt of going against James. No matter how well the Celtics play at any point, or how bad the Cavaliers play at any point, the Celtics will be underdogs in this matchup, and that is a position that they have loved to be in since Stevens taken over. And for a player like Isaiah Thomas, this is just the next thing on his list of things that he has been told would be impossible to do.

There is still a lot of work to do, including the matchup of the year coming up next week against Cleveland, but this is now a position the Celtics have not been in since before Stevens took over.

First, the Celtics made the playoffs when everyone was assuming they were tanking. Then, they competed for a top three seed when people thought they were a seven or eight seed at best. Now, they can take the next step and secure that one seed, after many thought they did not even have a chance to catch up to the Raptors.

The Celtics have handled their business up to this point, exactly because they have put themselves in a position to control their destiny for home court for the first time in years. This becomes the most important stretch of the regular season, because they know the advantages if they finish off the season properly.

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There is a long ways to go just to get to that one seed, so thinking about home court in the conference finals may be a little too forward thinking. That being said, putting themselves in this position and sweeping the series with the Heat should finally put to bed the nonsense talk of prioritizing a first round match up over home court to the finals.

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