The Boston Celtics finished a disappointing regular season at 36-36 with a road loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday. Boston, the #7 Eastern Conference seed, will now have two chances to win one game to get into the First Round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
The C’s will host the #8 seed Washington Wizards (34-38) at TD Garden in Boston at 9 p.m. Tuesday night in the NBA ‘play-in’ tournament. A win would send Boston to Brooklyn for the first two games of a best of seven series. A loss would force them to play the winner of the 9 vs 10 between Charlotte and Indiana (those two teams also playing Tuesday night) for a chance to finish as the #8 and face the top seeded Philadelphia 76ers in the first round. That Boston vs Charlotte/Indiana matchup would also take place (if necessary) at the Garden Thursday night at 8.
Boston had a winning 2-1 record against Washington, Indiana, and Charlotte in the regular season, while they went a combined 0-8 against Brooklyn and Philadelphia (0-4 vs both). The Celtics will enter the play-in round without Jaylen Brown, as he is out for the remainder of the season with a torn ligament in his wrist which he underwent surgery for back on May 13. Brown will be expected to return to basketball activities in three months, according to the team.
