Celtics, Nets peaking at right time

Earlier in the season, both the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets appeared dead in the water. The Celtics basically punted on their season by trading away Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green while accumulating a boatload of assets for the future. The Nets have no such future assets like the Celtics, and Brooklyn was just a bad, boring and underachieving team.

However, somehow, someway, both of these teams are currently in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Both teams have a 36-42 record, but Boston holds the No. 7 seed by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over Brooklyn.

So how the heck did these teams get here?

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Well, for one, the Eastern Conference is awful. As well as both squads have been playing of late, they’re still just 36-42. That shouldn’t be a record that gets one team in the postseason, let alone two. But here we are, because the East is miserable.

However, it’s not like we can blame these two teams for that! While they both stunk to start the year, they’ve turned it around and have been playing legitimately strong hoops. The Celtics have won two games in a row and are 6-4 in their last 10 games. The Nets just lost a tough one to the Atlanta Hawks, but Brooklyn is 7-3 in its last 10.

In Boston, head coach Brad Stevens has done a masterful job with a roster that has had a lot of moving parts. With Rondo gone, the Celtics have a bunch of young players capable of handling the ball, including Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner and Isaiah Thomas, who was acquired at the trade deadline from the Phoenix Suns. Thomas put up 34 points in his last game and is making a push for Sixth Man of the Year, while Turner has notched three triple-doubles this season.

In the frontcourt, Jared Sullinger recently returned from a foot injury that was supposed to keep him out for the season. There are a bunch of other contributors up front as Stevens spreads the love around, with Tyler Zeller, Brandon Bass, Kelly Olynyk, Jonas Jerebko and Jae Crowder all seeing minutes. Stevens really has done a heck of a job juggling all his players and getting the most out of his talent.

Over in Brooklyn, the Nets’ expensive stars have finally stepped up. Brook Lopez looks as healthy as ever and is dominating down low. Deron Williams is doing that thing where he starts playing better after the All-Star break. And like the Celtics, a trade at the deadline helped provide a boost. Brooklyn shipped the aging Kevin Garnett to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for a younger, more productive player in Thaddeus Young. Needless to say, that has worked out quite nicely.

Neither of these teams will likely win a first-round series, but the way they’re playing, they could give higher seeds a run for their money. Of course, they need to get in the playoffs first. At this point, it’s looking like at least one of them will get in, but we’ll see how things shake out.