Boston Celtics Cannot be Looking Down at the Standings
The Boston Celtics need to be focused on the one seed, and not potential first round matchups
The Boston Celtics will be in a tight battle for the top seed with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the remainder of the season. They are currently tied, and have one meeting left. The Celtics have the easier schedule, but that is no guarantee with a Cleveland team that all of a sudden has a lot to prove.
During this race, which is the best testament to how good they have been this season, an odd trend is emerging in the media, and that is preferring to have the two seed in order to avoid the Miami Heat in the first round.
There is no doubting that the Heat are the hottest team that is fighting for that final playoff spot, but to suggest that Boston’s focus should be on who they match up with, rather than home court, is ludicrous.
First of all, it was never an guarantee that the Heat were going to be the eight seed, and now that the Pacers continue their slide, the Heat find themselves as the seven seed. All those people wishing for the Celtics to punt the top seed in order to avoid Miami conveniently ignored this possibility.
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The point is that the Celtics should never be worried about what the other teams are doing. Even if the Heat were still in the eight spot, it would be just as ridiculous to suggest the Celtics would be better off as the two seed. The Celtics are not going into this post season with a first round victory as their ultimate goal, and they will never threaten their potential in the long run because they think it may be easier in the first round, where they should get a victory without a problem.
Even if the Celtics decided that they wanted to focus on their matchup rather than the top seed, it still ends up being ridiculous because of how close it is. At no point has it ever been clear that one team would definitely be the eight or seven seed. There has been a cluster of four or five teams that have all been separated by around two games, and picking which team will land where is just a guessing game at this point.
Once again, the only thing that really matters for the Celtics is what they are doing, and right now that means securing the one seed, even if that guaranteed that they would play the Heat in the first round.
The same goes for the second round. There has been a lot of nit picking about whether they would rather play the Raptors or the Wizards and the bottom line is that they need to be able to beat both of them.
If the Celtics are concerned about these matchups then they are playing with a losers mentality. If the assumption is that home court in the Eastern Conference finals is irrelevant because of the Cavaliers, then the Celtics are sorrily selling themselves short with a willingness to settle for an ultimately unsuccessful playoff run.
The good news is that this mentality is something that really only exists in the media. Sure, the players will have certain teams that they would prefer, but there is not a single player on this Celtics team that is at all interested in threatening home court in order to get that preferred matchup in the first round, or the second round.
The Eastern Conference has been incredibly close this season. The four teams at the top have all been fighting for playoff positioning, and the four teams at the bottom have been doing the same.
The Celtics got first hand experience of what happens when they blow home court last season. Who knows if that would have been the difference against the Hawks, but it is absolutely ridiculous to suggest the Celtics should hurt their positioning because they are scared of a Heat team that they just finished sweeping this season.
For the remainder of the regular season, the Celtics will only be looking up at the standings. For now, there is no team that is above them and that is exactly how they want to and need to keep it. If the Celtics start focusing on what is happening behind them, getting caught up on potential matchup ramifications, then they will be selling themselves short and, quite frankly, revealing that they do not believe they can make it to the finals.
As unlikely as it may be for the Celtics to take down the Cavaliers, the Celtics flourish with confidence. If they are already going to concede the conference to the Cavaliers, then that means their confidence is non existent, and based off of anything any player has said at any point this season, that is no where near the approach they are taking.
Next: Inconsistent Offense Becomming a Concern
This Celtics team has always been a confident bunch, and even if that confidence may be a bit far fetched, the worst thing that could happen to them would be losing that edge, and losing the belief that they can overcome yet another obstacle that everyone wants to tell them is impossible.