Well, the 2020-21 Boston Celtics regular season is over, and their record perfectly reflects the ups and down the year saw since the season started on December 23rd in an empty TD Garden Arena.
36-36. .500. There was good, there was bad, but the Cs ended up with the most mediocre record you could have in the NBA’s 72-game pandemic-shortened regular season.
It was miraculous to have actually pulled off a season with travel discouraged and the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocol pulling players out of the rotation left and right. Plenty of games were canceled throughout the year, but now that it’s over, it’s easy to accept this Boston Celtics team lost as much as it won.
This afternoon’s spirited comeback was exactly what you wanted to see from the reserves, but this season was far from a success, and the postseason could provide more of the same disappointment.
In fact, the NBA Play-in Tournament could preclude the Cs from even playing in a postseason series at all.
The Boston Celtics are hosting one of the hottest teams in the league, one led by a former MVP and a 2021 All-Star starter:
Boston vs Washington will be at 9 PM ET on Tuesday night.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) May 16, 2021
The Washington Wizards have won 13 of their last 18 games to surpass the Charlotte Hornets–who they defeated 115-110 earlier today–and the Indiana Pacers to only have to win one game to qualify for the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
What lineups will Brad Stevens deploy to combat the triple-double machine Russell Westbrook and the recently returning Bradley Beal and advance to the postseason?
HH is looking to decipher that before Tuesday’s (and possibly Thursday’s) tilt: