The 82-game NBA regular season is officially in the books, but thanks to the play-in tournament, we still don’t know the Celtics' round one opponent. But we do know that it will be one of two teams, whoever wins the 7/8 play-in game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic.
That game was supposed to take place on Tuesday night, but thanks to a scheduling conflict with the Flyers, it will be moved back a day and be played on Wednesday night in Philadelphia. So, Boston will have to wait one extra night, and won’t know who they’ll host in round one until late Wednesday night.
This all could have been a bit simpler, but the Celtics went out and complicated things by pulling off a massive upset on the final day of the regular season, beating the Magic, 113-108, despite missing Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Neemias Queta, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard, Nikola Vucevc, and Hugo Gonzalez.
Orlando simply needed to beat the Celtics’ backups to clinch homecourt advantage in the 7/8 game. But their full-strength lineup wasn’t enough to overcome the likes of Baylor Scheierman, Luka Garza, and Ron Harper Jr. on Sunday night, and they’ll now have to go on the road to earn the 7-seed against the Sixers.
Celtics should be heavy favorites over Sixers or Magic
A week ago, I wrote that the Celtics should prefer to play the Magic over the Sixers. But then, Joel Embiid got surgery for appendicitis and was ruled out indefinitely, so I flip-flopped and wrote that I’d rather face the Embiid-less 76ers than the suddenly healthy and peaking Magic.
But after Sunday’s game, the answer has become clear: it doesn’t matter. The Celtics are a class above both of these teams. The Sixers are simply not a very good team without Joel. They don’t have a reasonable frontcourt without him, they ask too much of Tyrese Maxey and Paul George, and they don’t have a lot of great options to make up for the loss of defense, size, and scoring.
Orlando may look solid on paper, but they have to be completely demoralized after this result. In a game they went for, they came up short against Scheierman, Garza, Jordan Walsh, four players who started the season on two-way deals (RHJ, Max Shulga, Amari Williams, and John Tonje), and a player who was signed off the street on Saturday (Dalano Banton).
Celtics may have made round two easier as well
If the Magic can’t even beat that squad, how are they supposed to compete with the Celtics at full strength? This Orlando team has looked off all season long, and the vibes were as bad as can be on Sunday. The team looks desperate for a new coach and some personnel shakeups this offseason, and the way things are going, that should be sooner rather than later.
I’d still rather face Philly, but it’s close, and there’s no wrong answer at this point. The Celtics should cruise through round one regardless of their opponent. By winning on Sunday, there was another positive effect, as that Magic loss gave the Raptors the tiebreak over the Hawks, bumping Atlanta to the 6-seed, so they’ll face the Knicks in round one.
That’s not insignificant, as the Hawks have been one of the best teams in the league in the second half of the season, and have played the Knicks hard, while Toronto has beaten up on bad teams and gotten dominated by good teams, including getting swept by New York. The Knicks will likely still advance and face Boston in round two, but it can’t hurt to make them work a little harder.