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The Milwaukee Bucks are going to finish with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. It's inevitable. They will also be the odds-on favorites to reach the finals once the playoffs begin.
But with Kawhi Leonard no longer in the East, it's debatable as to who the Bucks' biggest threat is.
Most people felt it was the Philadelphia 76ers going into the season, but a flawed roster and locker-room dysfunction have stunted the 76ers' growth.
The Toronto Raptors look really, really good and have a championship pedigree, but it's hard to imagine them making an incredibly deep run with Leonard gone.
I liked the Indiana Pacers early on, but it doesn't look like Victor Oladipo is going to be able to get back into form over the next month-and-a-half.
But what about the Boston Celtics?
Yes, the Celtics team that just about everyone ruled out over the summer after it lost Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier to free agency while also trading away Aron Baynes.
Sure, Boston signed Kemba Walker, but the general feeling was that the C's were stripped of too many key players from last year's roster to be a big-time threat.
Obviously, no one anticipated the massive leaps that Jayson Tatum (my goodness) and Jaylen Brown have made, and the fact that Gordon Hayward was a wild card was also a sticking point.
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Tatum is morphing into a superstar before our eyes, Brown is a two-way stud and Hayward is looking very much like the player we saw in Utah three years ago.
In Walker, Tatum, Hayward and Brown, the Celtics boast four players who can drop 30 points on any given night, something very few (if any) other teams around the NBA can say.
Not only that, but Boston is a dominant defensive club, ranking fourth in the league in defensive efficiency.
The East may be wide open as far as challengers to Milwaukee are concerned, but right now, the C's represent the biggest threat to the Bucks.
The scary thing about the Celtics is that they are 39-17 and have barely even been healthy throughout this season. Walker, Hayward and Brown have all missed time, and Boston has also dealt with injuries to its frontcourt.
That has not stopped the C's from winning, and against top competition, no less (heck, they probably would have completed the season sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers this past Sunday had Walker played).
The thing about the Bucks is that outside of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, they don't have any significant scoring threats (Eric Bledsoe is decent, but he isn't going to give you 25-30).
If the Celtics can just limit one of those two and prevent Milwaukee from going bonkers from three-point range, they will have a shot to beat this team in a seven-game series.
Would Boston be favored? Absolutely not. The Bucks are rolling for a reason. However, there is no doubting that the C's are a scary matchup for Milwaukee due to their versatility.
The Celtics and Bucks have met in the playoffs each of the last two years, splitting their series. I'd say it's time for a rubber match.
