East rival being exposed should trigger painful but vital reminder for Celtics

I’m sure many Celtics fans are laughing and smiling along at the misfortune of the top seed in the Eastern Conference, as the Detroit Pistons are now trailing 3-1 in their first-round series with the Magic.

On the surface, this is great news for Boston. The number one seed is on the verge of elimination, meaning the Celtics would be guaranteed home-court advantage all the way to the NBA Finals. On top of that, the only 60-win team in the East would be eliminated, and an Orlando squad that looked hapless for most of the season would move on to the final four of the conference.

But the Celtics and their fans need to recall a very similar scenario that played out just a few short years ago in 2023. That season, the Miami Heat limped through the regular season and looked lifeless in the first play-in game before squeaking into the 8-seed.

Magic have some 2023 Heat vibes going on

Don’t get me wrong, I was right there cheering the Heat along as they, seemingly miraculously, eliminated Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in the first round, which appeared to pave a golden path for the Celtics to cruise to the Finals.

We all know what happened next, and I’m not going to go into the painful details, but there’s an important lesson to take away from that season and how it ended at the hands of an 8-seed in the conference finals.

Say what you want about this Magic team and the season they’ve had, but it’s clear from watching this series that they have come together and become a different team with their backs against hte wall.

Celtics must treat every matchup with maximum urgency

Everything that they hoped would work coming into the season seems to have finally clicked into place, and watching these games, nothing seems fluky about it at all. In fact, if you didn’t know the seeding, you’d probably look at these two teams, see how it’s playing out, and assume that the Magic were the favorites.

I’m not saying Celtics fans shouldn’t be rooting for the Magic; potentially facing an 8-seed for a trip to the Finals would obviously be a dream scenario. But it’s important to give that team its proper respect and approach the series as if Orlando is the 60-win team that sat atop the conference.

That possible matchup is still a long way off, but it’s hard to watch that Magic/Pistons series and not be reminded of the (darkly) magical run that Miami went on in 2023. Hopefully, the Celtics learned their lesson, and things will be different this time around, but it’s still a good reminder for any fans reveling in the failures of the Pistons: Be careful what you wish for.

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