On January 10 of this year, the Boston Celtics were just 20-21 halfway through the NBA regular season. A second half turnaround saw the team go 31-10 their final 41 games to secure the #2 Eastern Conference seed heading into the playoffs. That turnaround and a chance at winning the conference and advancing to the NBA Finals is on the line on Sunday night at FTX Arena in Miami against the Miami Heat in a winner take all Game 7.
Boston, after winning Game 5 in convincing fashion in Miami, lost out on a golden chance to close out the Heat in Boston at TD Garden on Friday night. Jimmy Butler put up a career playoff high 47 points to send it back to South Beach for the deciding game. The Celtics have been good in this years postseason in closeout games, other than the Game 6 loss to Miami. Boston got past Brooklyn 116-112 in Game 4 in a first round sweep, and then crushed the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks 109-81 in Game 7 of the second round. Alot will depend on the health of starting point guard Marcus Smart (ankle), and starting center Robert Williams III (knee soreness) who are both questionable for Sunday nights Game 7. Both players were in the lineup in both Game 5 and Game 6. If the C’s can get past the Heat in the decisive matchup, it will continue quite a run for a team that was under .500 at the beginning of the new year. The Golden State Warriors await the winner in the NBA Finals that would begin Thursday night in San Francisco.
