To avoid elimination from the NBA In-Season Tournament, the Boston Celtics sealed the deal Tuesday night with a somewhat intricate but nonetheless crucial victory over the Chicago Bulls.
This guaranteed the Pacers and Boston a quarterfinal round meeting on Monday night, providing the Celtics with yet another advantageous matchup. The odds are in favor of the current Eastern Conference leader after Indiana’s
But, even with Group C play officially over for the Celtics moving forward, there’s still plenty to unpack from what we’ve seen so far.
1.) In Boston’s opinion, the competition has been a generally successful product for a variety of reasons beyond our wildest expectations.
Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, deserves praise.
It was impossible to match the dramatic consequences of the Celtics being driven to the brink of attempting to defeat the Bulls by a minimum of 23 points while pursuing the Nets-Raptors score. There is no other circumstance where the drama of playing Chicago in November has any real significance.
Nevertheless, the Celtics delivered a game worth watching for the TD Garden supporters.
The competition between Boston for the No. 23 spot created an atmosphere that wouldn’t last outside of the competition. It was distinct, brand-new, and it managed to dispel all the negative publicity surrounding the tournament’s preseason introduction.
“We didn’t talk about (the 23-point goal), but I think everybody knew about it,” Celtics guard Derrick White told reporters postgame, per CLNS Media video. “So that’s just the nature of today’s day in age and everybody’s connected. … I think everybody wanted to go for it, and why not?”
2.) Will the Celtics and their circumstances ultimately benefit from the playoff-like environment created by the tournament?
Winning the NBA’s first-ever In-Season Tournament would be a huge positive sign for Boston and the start of their new roster’s next chapter.
Granted, the tournament accomplishes nothing more than draw more spectators to games that otherwise would have remained empty and reward players with an additional $500,000— for the victorious team. Apart from that, though, there’s still enough in place for the Celtics to view the game’s consequences as more significant than they would have in a normal preseason encounter against punching bag competition.
Unlike many other teams in the tournament, the Celtics have a lot to prove this season. Boston’s ownership and front office backed the team, putting the roster through an entire overhaul by welcoming in new faces Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday along with a whole new staff behind head coach Joe Mazzulla.
