Boston Celtics: 3 goals for the team post All-Star break
By Mark Nilon
Attain the second seed in the Eastern Conference
The Boston Celtics have been playing, arguably, their best basketball they have all season. They shown that they can compete with the “big boys” in the NBA and, from a talent perspective, are just as good as any team in the league.
Holding the East’s third seed is by no means something to scoff at, as it guarantees home court advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs. However, to say they should be content with remaining in this position would be the wrong attitude to have.
Currently speaking, the only two teams ahead of the C’s in the conference’s standings are the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks. While the Bucks — baring an unforeseen turn of events — will probably remain as the top team out east, the Raptors are well within reach of surpassing.
As of this moment, Toronto holds a stellar record of 40-15, just two wins more than that of Boston’s record. So far, the teams have squared off three times and the Celtics are leading the season series two games to one.
We discussed previously that the Boston Celtics have 28 games left on their schedule, with 18 of them coming up again playoff contenders. For the Raptors, they have 17 more games remaining on their schedule with 15 of them coming up against similar competition.
If the C’s can achieve their first goal (keep up this consistency), the Raptors come up short on a few of these outings and Boston beats them in their final meeting of the year (March 20th) to win the season series, attaining the second seed is well within the realm of possibility for the team by season’s end.