The Boston Celtics still have some steps they can take to reach their full potential before the NBA Playoffs start in another month.
The Boston Celtics currently hold the third seed in the Eastern conference, but with the way they have played of late, they look like a fifth seed.
Luckily for the C’s, who have gone a subpar 5-5 in their last 10, the teams behind them have also been playing less than ideal, as the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers have suffered injuries or a tough stretch of the season.
Even the Indiana Pacers, who are 7-3 in their last 10, have to play without their point guard Malcolm Brogdon for a few weeks.
So while the Celtics remain in limbo, other teams are giving the Celtics a sort of “cushion” until they get back to full health. At that point, they should be able to comfortably remain in the third seed, or even try and jump the Toronto Raptors for the second seed.
Make no mistake about it, though: The Celtics need to improve in various facets of their game in order to make some serious noise come the postseason.
If they fail to address the concerns that’ll be presented in the upcoming slides, Boston fans may be subject to a first or second-round loss. That would put them in comparison with the results of last year’s team, and that team is not one to be sharing anything with.
The good news for the Celtics is that many of these things will be fixed once they are healthy, but that may be a problem in itself. With not too many games at full health, it’s hard to determine where their ceiling truly is.
Eastern Conference Finals? NBA Finals? Nobody truly knows until we have more to base our predictions on.
As stated before, though, many of these things can be fixed with a healthy roster, so we’ll assume they get back to full health within the next week or so. If that’s the case, these next few things need to be improved upon as soon as possible.