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The Boston Celtics have officially locked up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, meaning they will play out the fiddle over their final two regular season games before turning their attention to the NBA's play-in tournament, where their first-round opponent will be determined. After winning the 2024 NBA Finals, the Celtics will be on a quest to be the league's first repeat champions since the Golden State Warriors won it all in 2017 and 2018.
Boston hasn't always looked as dominant during the 2024-25 campaign as they did the year before when they posted the best record in the league and promptly coasted through the playoffs, losing only three games along the way. However, it's clear that when they are playing up to their peak potential, there isn't another team that can come close to matching them on either end of the floor.
The Celtics are uniquely positioned to go on another deep run, as they have loads of playoff experience on their roster, a knowledge of what it takes to win the Finals now, and a familiarity with each other that no other team possesses. Of course, much of what Boston's playoff run will entail depends on who they end up facing, so let's check out what the C's path to a repeat could end up looking like.
Can Celtics actually repeat as champions?
One of the biggest complaints that fans had about the Celtics 2024 NBA Finals run was that their path to victory wasn't exactly all that daunting. They took down a Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat squad in the first round, a Cleveland Cavaliers team that lost Donovan Mitchell in the second round, an Indiana Pacers team that lost Tyrese Haliburton in the Eastern Conference Finals, and a Dallas Mavericks team that was the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference.
Of course, you still have to go out and win these games, but it wasn't much of a surprise to see Boston coast to victory in each of these series. Had guys like Butler, Mitchell, and Haliburton stayed healthy, there's no doubt the Celtics job would have been more difficult, but given how well they were playing, it's tough to say that they would not have managed to win it all.
Whether or not they will enjoy the same luck this time around remains to be seen. As the No. 2 seed, the C's will take on the winner of the No. 7-No. 8 play-in game. Right now, that's set to be played between the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks, but the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat could still move up to the No. 8 seed and drop the Hawks down to the No. 9-No. 10 game.
Boston should beat each of these teams in a first-round matchup, but that's not to say it will be a cake walk. The Magic have a strong defensive unit led by Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner that can make life difficult for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Hawks height and ability to crash the offensive glass always gives the C's trouble. The Bulls appear to have a good thing going with Coby White and Josh Giddey in the backcourt, and the Heat are still the Heat, even though Butler is no longer in town.
In an ideal world, the Celtics are probably facing off against the Magic or the Bulls in the first round. Orlando can contain Boston's offense at times, but they don't have the firepower to truly stick with them through a seven-game series, especially when it comes to their three-point shooting. Chicago has been on a roll, but they don't have much on offense beyond White, Giddey, and sometimes Nikola Vucevic when he's engaged. They might squeak out one win, but the C's are clearly the better team.
Assuming the Cavaliers, who are the No. 1 seed, win their first-round series, the Celtics would face off against the highest remaining seed in the East in the second round. That's widely expected to be the New York Knicks, who Boston has swept in their season series this year. Could that result in an easy victory, or would New York actually give them a challenge?
We've seen this story play out several times this season, but the Knicks just don't match up well with the Celtics. They have guys who can keep them in games on offense in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, but they turn around and have massive targets on their backs on defense. Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart have the ability to limit Tatum and Brown, but they can hunt for Brunson and Towns and score at will on them. New York could make things interesting, but again, this is a series Boston should win.
That could set up a showdown with the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals, which is the way things have been trending seemingly all year long. Cleveland has looked revitalized under the lead of new head coach Kenny Atkinson and developed into a legitimate Finals contender. They would give Boston a real run for their money in a playoff series, but the Celtics would be the favorite to advance to the Finals.
The Cavaliers could very well be for real, but the problem is that, once again, Boston matches up with them quite well. Cleveland operates very similar to the way Dallas did last season. They have a pair of lethal offensive players in their backcourt in Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, while employing a pair of big men in the lineup alongside them in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. As we saw last year, the Celtics pretty easily beat the Mavs in five games.
These two teams split their four-game set in the regular season, but Boston wasn't fully healthy for any of these games, and even in their losses, they battled Cleveland hard, sometimes when they were at full health. The Celtics have the blueprint in place for how to beat the Cavs, and while this team is better than last year's Mavs squad, it says here that the C's should come out on top.
Should Boston find their way back to the NBA Finals, the team they don't want to see is the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have the high-end talent and depth needed to beat the C's in a seven-game series. They are pretty much a carbon copy of what the Celtics were last year. A young, hungry team that has put together a dominant season, and is now looking to finally get over the hump and win it all.
Could it be too early for the Thunder to win it all in the same way it was for the Celtics when they bumped into the Warriors back in 2022? It's certainly possible, especially when considering there are several teams in the West, such as the Los Angeles Lakers or the Dubs themselves, that match up well with them. Even if they make it to the Finals, though, would they have enough gas left in the tank to beat an experienced Celtics team?
Until the C's lose, they are the favorite to win it all, because that's the sort of respect you earn when you are fresh off a championship. This time around, though, there are bound to be more potential pitfalls that could disrupt their pursuit of a second straight title. They certainly have the ability to win it all, though, and if things line up the right way for them again, they could be playing basketball well into the summer once again.
