Boston Celtics Battling for One of Last Two Playoff Spots

The battle for the last three spots in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs continues into the last full week of the NBA regular season. Six teams are battling for three spots with 4.5 games separating the six teams.

Currently, the Milwaukee Bucks are in sixth place, while the Brooklyn Nets are in seventh and the Boston Celtics in eighth. Milwaukee leads Brooklyn by one game, Brooklyn leads Boston by one game and Boston leads ninth and tenth place Indiana and Miami by one game and Charlotte by two games.

Boston sits in eighth place and each night is trying to concentrate on winning their own game while having an eye glued to the scoreboard watching how the other teams fare.

Boston guard Isaiah Thomas admitted that while playing he tried to find time to look at the other NBA scores. He calls it fun, but hectic.

Over the past few weeks, the Celtics have moved as high as seventh and as low as tenth. After a loss on Friday to Milwaukee, Boston’s possible playoff chances looked poor while in ninth and dropping further behind Brooklyn and Miami.

However, Boston won in overtime over Toronto Saturday and that win together with losses by the Heat and Nets moved Boston back into the eighth spot.

With a one game lead over both Indiana and Miami, Boston holds its destiny in its own hands with 9 days left in the regular season.

Therefore, while watching the scoreboard is usually considered taboo, Boston finds itself watching their close rivals as the regular season winds to an end.

Jared Sullinger who was out 24 games with a fractured left foot made a surprise return last Friday to action for Boston. He said the downtime game him the opportunity to watch other teams. He admitted that he could tell anyone nearly everything there is to know about the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Sullinger added that although every player on the Celtics knows about the current race the team is having, very little is spoken about it in the locker room. Instead, the players have adopted the approach of coach Brad Stevens to focus only on the task or game at hand.

While Stevens want the players to focus on their next session of films or their next practice or game, he does not mind the excitement surrounding the playoff push by Boston late in the season. He simply wants his players to harness all that energy on the court when they are in control of what they can do and not be distracted by things that are out of their control.