Celtics destined for dreaded play-in tourney

The postseason picture now looks a lot clearer for the Celtics, and it’s not pretty.

Tuesday night’s 129-121 loss to the Miami Heat at TD Garden all but guarantees that the C’s will be playing in the dreaded play-in tournament, which will determine the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in the upcoming Eastern Conference playoffs.

It’s been a brutal few days for the Celtics, who had been competing with the Heat for the No. 6 spot and the opportunity to make the playoffs outright and avoid the play-in tourney. But the Green Team came up empty in two head-to-head meetings in Boston against Miami, also losing 130-124 on Sunday.

The Heat (38-31) now have a three-game lead on the Celtics (35-34) with three regular season games remaining, and also own the tiebreaker by winning the season series.

On top of that, the Celtics announced Monday that they have lost all-star Jaylen Brown for the remainder of the season, due to a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist. Brown is expected to have the torn ligament surgically repaired later this week.

Oh, and the C’s are now 1-4 in the month of May. So, really, things haven’t been going well at all.

Now they have to hope they can make the best of a tough situation.

“There’s going to be a lot more required of our best players, and that’s a challenge they’re going to have to step up to,” said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens. “We’ve been here before when some of our best players aren’t available and you head into the postseason. We’ll see where we land and we’ll see what happens. But we have enough in the room to be a nuisance.”

One season after advancing to the Eastern Conference finals in the Orlando bubble, the C’s were expected to be more than a nuisance. But their play never reached its potential.

As of now, they sit in the No. 7 spot, which would put them in the best available place in next week’s play-in tournament. The C’s would face the No. 8 Charlotte Hornets, with the winner getting the 7-seed in the playoffs. The loser would face the winner of the game between the No. 9 Washington Wizards and the No. 10 Indiana Pacers. And the winner of that game would secure the 8-seed in the playoffs.

Essentially, the Celtics would have two chances to win one game and earn a playoff spot.

Of course, the reward for that would be to face one of the premier powers in the East — the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets or Milwaukee Bucks — in a first round best-of-seven series. Without the services of Brown, that would be a very tall task.

The New York Knicks faced the Los Angeles Lakers late Tuesday night. In order for the C’s to avoid the play-in, the Knicks would have had to lose that game and all of their remaining games, and the Celtics would have to win their final three. The Celtics play the Knicks in the regular season finale on Sunday.

But nobody was or is banking on that happening.

Now, a team marred by inconsistent play and an inability to rise to the moment in a key game will likely face a must-win mini tournament to keep their season alive and get to the real postseason.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point. We wouldn’t like to be here, obviously, but whenever you have an opportunity to still make the postseason, you can’t complain about that,” said guard Kemba Walker. “You got to find a way to be better together, find a way to win. At this point, you got to take it for what it is and try to move on.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3o7JHBQ