It's time to kick it into high gear.The Celtics have just five regular season games left: @ Toronto, vs Washington, @ Milwaukee, @ Chicago, and vs Milwaukee once again. These five contests all constitute very winnable games for the Celtics and it's critical that they win them all.
Toronto's Chris Bosh suffered a facial fracture last night and could miss a few games. Toronto, currently sitting in the 8th spot in the conference, stands to suffer quite a bit from any time that Bosh is out of the lineup.
Washington's been atrocious all season--but that doesn't make it a guaranteed win. The Celtics have lost games all season long that they simply shouldn't, and cannot afford for 14th place Washington to play the spoiler role.
Chicago, vying for the last playoff berth with Toronto, is just one game out and the team has recently seen their level of play surge forward. However, they face a daunting task as they have to play the Celtics, Cavs, and Bobcats all within the season's final week.
Milwaukee, like the Celtics, have solidified their spot in the playoffs but after just losing star center Andrew Bogut to a season-ending elbow injury, it will be a much higher wall to climb should they hope to beat the C's in this season's final week.
At 48-29 and 4th place in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics are slated to play (of all teams) those pesky Bucks in the first round. Should the standings hold true over the final week of the season, we should get a good preview into a first round matchup for the C's.
A playoff series with Milwaukee could be very dangerous for the Celtics. The Bucks have a young, talented group of players such as electric rookie Brandon Jennings, outside sniper Ersan Ilyasova, and Carlos "magicman" Delfino that can catch fire at any moment. Despite the loss of Andrew Bogut, the Bucks still stand to make some noise come playoff time, and if the Celtics learned anything from last year's first round scare from the Bulls, they should know that no opponent should be taken for granted.
The more favorable matchup for the Celtics would be against Miami Heat. Dwayne Wade can never be counted against come playoff time, but the Heat simply don't have the depth nor veteran leadership that the Celtics do. Garnett, Perk, and Baby would eat up Haslem, Beasley, and O'Neal in the post.
Let's hope the Celtics use the final five contests to prepare for a serious run at # 18, because we all know what likely awaits us before we can even make it to the Championship Round--King James and the NBA-best Cavaliers.
A playoff series with Milwaukee could be very dangerous for the Celtics. The Bucks have a young, talented group of players such as electric rookie Brandon Jennings, outside sniper Ersan Ilyasova, and Carlos "magicman" Delfino that can catch fire at any moment. Despite the loss of Andrew Bogut, the Bucks still stand to make some noise come playoff time, and if the Celtics learned anything from last year's first round scare from the Bulls, they should know that no opponent should be taken for granted.
The more favorable matchup for the Celtics would be against Miami Heat. Dwayne Wade can never be counted against come playoff time, but the Heat simply don't have the depth nor veteran leadership that the Celtics do. Garnett, Perk, and Baby would eat up Haslem, Beasley, and O'Neal in the post.
Let's hope the Celtics use the final five contests to prepare for a serious run at # 18, because we all know what likely awaits us before we can even make it to the Championship Round--King James and the NBA-best Cavaliers.
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