The Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics both were able to earn the home ice and home court advantages when they both kickoff their first round best of seven Eastern Conference playoff series this week.
The fourth seed Boston Celtics and fifth seed Indiana Pacers will match up in a first round series to start Sunday afternoon. Boston (49-33) won the regular season series to also win the tiebreaker with Indiana 3-1, that included a 20 point win on the Pacers home floor last week. Indiana finished 48-34 in the regular season.
The two teams have also had the fourth and fifth best home records in the Eastern Conference this season, as Indiana is 29-12 and Boston 28-13. The Pacers have eight players averaging double figures this season, led by Victor Oladipo who puts in 18.8 points per game. Also helping Indiana to the Eastern Conference five seed are Bogan Bogdanovich (18 PPG), Domantas Sabonis (14.1), Myles Turner (13.3), Thaddeus Young (12.6), Wesley Matthews (12.2), Darren Collison (11.3), and Tyreke Evans (10.0). The Celtics have been carried most of the season by Kyrie Irving at 23.8 points per game, as six Boston players have averaged double digits. Jayson Tatum puts in 15.7 PPG in his sophomore season in the league, Marcus Morris (13.9), Al Horford (13.6), Jaylen Brown (13.0), and Gordon Hayward rounds it out with 11.5 PPG after returning from a broken leg he suffered in the 2017-18 season opener that sidelined him the entire year. The Celtics also re-signed guard Jonathan Gibson, who played four games with them in 2017-18. It isn’t clear whether Gibson will be on the playoff roster or was just a roster spot that needed to be filled ahead of the regular season finale scheduled Tuesday night at Washington that had seven regulars not playing. Gibson has been playing in the Chinese Basketball Association this season averaging 33.1 points per game. With Boston he averaged 8.5 PPG on 60% shooting, and put in an 18 point performance at Brooklyn last April in the regular season finale. Overall the New Mexico State graduate has played in 21 NBA games averaging 6.7 points.
Boston did get some bad news however. Marcus Smart, undoubtedly the best defensive player on the Celtics, tore his oblique muscle and will miss four to six weeks. Here is the full series schedule:
Indiana vs Boston Eastern Conference Quarterfinal (best of seven):
Game 1- Sunday, April 14 at Boston 1 pm
Game 2- Wednesday, April 17 at Boston 7 pm
Game 3- Friday, April 19 at Indiana 8:30 pm
Game 4- Sunday, April 21 at Indiana 1 pm
Game 5- Wednesday, April 24 at Boston TBD (if neccessary)
Game 6- Friday, April 26 at Indiana TBD (if neccessary)
Game 7- Sunday, April 28 at Boston TBD (if neccessary)
The second seed in the Eastern Conference is the Boston Bruins. Boston finished the regular season with a 49-24-9 record, as they finished with the third best record in the NHL behind Tampa Bay and Calgary. The first round opponent is a familiar one in their Atlantic Division rival and three seed Toronto Maple Leafs. The best of seven first round series will begin Thursday night in Boston at 7 pm. Game two will be at TD Garden as well Saturday at 8 pm, before the series moves north of the border on Monday.
Boston has been led by Brad Marchand, who had a fantastic season becoming only the 10th Bruins player ever to hit 100 points in a season, and just five other players in the league this year have reached that plateau. Marchand has 36 goals and 64 assists, including three shorthanded goals. David Pastrnak is also coming off a great regular season, with 38 goals and 43 assists while also being a key contributor to the powerplay with 17 powerplay markers. Patrice Bergeron has 32 goals and 47 assists, and led the team in shorthanded goals with four. Rounding out the big four for Boston is David Krejci with 20 goals and 53 assists. Tuuka Rask has seen just a bit more of the action in the regular season in net finishing 27-13-5 with a 2.48 goals against average and a .912 save percentage. Jaroslav Halak has been a big acquisition in goal to back up Rask, finishing the regular season 22-11-4 with a 2.34 GAA and .922 save percentage. Halak will be a big key to the series if Rask struggles. Toronto who finished the regular season with a record of 46-28-8 for 100 points just seven points behind Boston, also had four players who top them in points. Leading the way has been Mitchell Marner with 26 goals and 68 assists, John Tavares (47G, 41A), Auston Matthews (37G, 36A), and Morgan Rielly (20G, 52A). Frederik Andersen has been the work horse in net for the Leafs finishing with a 36-16-7 record, 2.77 goals against average, and a .917 save percentage. Garret Sparks also appeared in 17 games going 8-9 with a 3.15 GAA, and .902 save percentage.
This will be the third time since the 2012-13 season that Boston and Toronto have met in a playoff series. In game seven of the 2013 Eastern Conference quarterfinals, the Leafs blew a 4-1 third period lead to see the Bruins force overtime and then win it on a Bergeron goal. Last season the two teams again went seven games with the Bruins also taking the first round series with a 7-4 win, after Toronto had rallied to even the series despite being down three games to one. This season Boston has taken three of four meetings with Toronto, the last was a 3-2 win in Toronto back on January 12.
A look at the Bruins-Leafs Eastern Conference Quarterfinal schedule (best of 7):
Game 1- Thursday, April 11th at Boston 7 pm
Game 2- Saturday, April 13th at Boston 8 pm
Game 3- Monday, April 15th at Toronto 7 pm
Game 4- Wednesday, April 17 at Toronto 7 pm
Game 5- Friday, April 19 at Boston TBD (if neccessary)
Game 6- Sunday, April 21 at Toronto TBD (if neccessary)
Game 7- Tuesday, April 23 at Boston TBD (if neccessary)
