Since the turn of the calendar year to 2022, the Boston Celtics have been one of the hottest teams in the NBA and now, as we trudge along through this final two month stretch of the season, we at HH, along with the vast majority of the franchise’s faithful followers believe that this high-end production will continue to be on full display.
Frankly, it’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago this same team that currently resides in the sixth-seed out in the Eastern Conference standings was constantly finding itself submerged below a .500 record and, in turn, out of the play-in picture.
However, here we are four months in and, fans should truly be exuberant about where this team finds itself and, frankly, where they could wind up finishing during their final stretch of action.
With how Boston’s been playing as of late, the potential for them to continue their upward trajectory from now until regular season’s end seems rather high, with some even predicting that they could go on to finish with a top-3 seed in the standings.
Now, of course, in order for the C’s to accomplish this goal, they’ll have to ultimately surpass a few of their formidable conference rivals along the way.
With this in mind, we at HH pinpoint 3 teams we believe the Boston Celtics could legitimately surpass in the standings prior to year’s end:
Team the Boston Celtics could surpass No. 1) Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavaliers have easily been one of the biggest surprises from this year’s campaign. After enduring mediocre season after mediocre season since the (second) departure of LeBron James, the Cavs have seemingly managed to turn things around in 2021-22.
Despite seeing key figures in Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio go down early on with season-ending injuries, Cleveland has ultimately gone on to play like one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference thanks to the excellent production of Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen–both of whom went on to receive their first All-Star selections–and, as a result, the team boasts an impressive record of 36-24, good enough for the fourth seed in the standings.
Now, while the ball club certainly deserves the rest of the league’s respect, including the likes of the Boston Celtics who, though they won the season series two games to one, were shown some serious fight in all three outings, the vast majority of spectators believe that their run near the top of the standings is bound to dip a bit eventually.
Considering the fact that they came into All-Star weekend already trending downward, as they dropped three of their final four matchups, and in their first 10 games post the break they’ll be squaring off against nine playoff-positioned teams, five of which are considered to be legitimate contenders, we may see the dip come sooner rather than later.
Should this happen, being that Cleveland and Boston both have the same amount of wins, if the latter were to end up going on yet another scorched-earth run during this span, they could easily breeze right by them in the standings.