Boston Celtics must position themselves for playoffs as they get healthy

While the Boston Celtics continue to lose winnable games as the regular season nears its end, the rest of the Eastern Conference is climbing up the ladder and tightening the gap in the overall rankings as the playoffs are vastly approaching. One thing’s for sure, given the way they’re playing, the Celtics will need to reposition themselves to make any type of playoff run.

The Boston Celtics need to reposition themselves in the rankings as they regain health for the playoffs.

Considering the Celtics have a favorable 10 games remaining on their schedule, there’s still a sliver of hope for them to ascend in the rankings to be in a better position for a playoff push. However, losing winnable games based on carelessness and sloppy play isn’t going to keep the hope alive for the fans or the team.

At this point, it looks like the Boston Celtics need to close out the regular season by winning the rest of their remaining games and pray that teams like the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, and Charlotte Hornets all lose at least six games before the regular season ends. However, this theory only works if the Celtics are able to pull themselves together and run the table for the rest of the regular season.

It’s worth mentioning that the Boston Celtics have the third easiest remaining schedule overall in the NBA in regard to opposing offenses. Here’s what the remaining games on the schedule looks like for the Boston Celtics:

• Charlotte Hornets (4/28)
• San Antonio Spurs (4/30)
• Portland Trail Blazers (5/2)
• Orlando Magic (5/5)
• Chicago Bulls (5/7)
• Miami Heat (5/9)
• Miami Heat (5/11)
• Cleveland Cavaliers (5/12)
• Minnesota Timberwolves (5/15)
• New York Knicks (5/16)

Yes. There are a handful of games remaining that should favor Boston in more ways than not. But as you go down the schedule, these are all teams that the Celtics have struggled with down the stretch to close out games this season. When you look at it from this perspective, how favorable is the final stretch of games for the Celtics?

Most recently, Boston got embarrassed by the Hornets in a blowout loss. The C’s did beat the Trail Blazers last time they met, however, it was a one-point victory in a shootout. Next is the Magic, who they’ve been successful playing against this season, followed by the Bulls, who defeated them just five games ago.

More from Boston Celtics

• Why the new and improved Celtics are a major threat
• These two Celtics will be crucial to unlocking Kristaps Porzingis’ potential
• The new-look Celtics are closer than ever to an 18th title
• 3 Reasons Boston will regret trading Marcus Smart
• Ranking the 5 best available power forwards in 2023 NBA free agency

At this point in the stretch, the two games against the Heat are the most important for the Celtics. The two teams are neck and neck between the sixth and seventh seeds, which could determine which team is invited to the play-in tournament. From there, the next two games against the Cavaliers and Timberwolves should be victories. However, the Celtics only beat the Timberwolves in an overtime thriller at the beginning of April.

The final game of the regular season against the Knicks will be a showdown for the Celtics. The Knicks are on fire right now and have one of the top defenses in the league this season. Having to go through them to determine where they’ll stand in the playoffs is not ideal at all for the Celtics. But it might be the bed the Celtics will have to rest in if they keep playing poorly to finish out the season.

What’s hurting the Celtics the most right now is the health of their team. The injury report has been a lengthy list as of late and seems to include an additional player by almost every game. Currently, Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, and Robert Williams are the only players on the list and did not play in Tuesday’s game against the Thunder. However, April’s injury report has featured a majority of the team, including Walker, Tatum, Williams, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Romeo Langford, Tristan Thompson, and Evan Fournier at one point or another.

In consideration of the number of players trying to come back from injury, it puts the Boston Celtics in an extremely tough position in regards to making a playoff run this year. Running through the final stretch of the season with an incomplete team like the Celtics have right now is not the best-case scenario, as the Celtics continue to dig themselves deeper into the hole that’ll most likely lead into an early second-round exit.

Looking further into the rankings of the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics are currently sixth and are floating anywhere between the fourth through ninth seeds. It seems like a huge jump, but with how tight the conference is right now, that’s how far and how quickly the Celtics (or any team) could drop in these next 11 games.

For the Boston Celtics to be as successful as possible in their remaining games, they need to play much more sharply and stop playing sloppily, which has resulted in 52 turnovers over their previous three games.

The Celtics next play on Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets.