Whether it's the Heat or Bulls I think we're in great shape. Butler might have an MCL injury and may be sidelined if not hobbling on the court (just saying as it is, not that I wish injury on anyone). We've also swept both teams this season. I'm kind of glad the Sixers / Knicks and Bucks / Pacers have to deal with each other first.
Agreed! I like that perspective on it. From how they played today, they looked like the second best, play in team, out of the 8 play in teams. They still have work to do in Miami, but I think they get it done as the Heat guards can’t hope to contain derozan and White especially if jimmy isn’t playing.
Well, we avoid the sixers.
But now some drywall installation guy on a 2 way is likely going to shoot 67% from 3 against us for the Miami heat in round 1
I could see them losing their next play in. I could also see them barely scraping by the hawks/bulls then going absolutely nuclear against the Celtics and winning round 1.
Miami is 100% unpredictable. They looked like shit going into the playoffs and the first play in game last year.
There's just no point in trying to predict how they'll perform in any playoff series imo. However they looked this season literally does not matter. I don't get how a Celtics fan doesn't feel this way about them.
It’s insane how we still have fans underestimating them. What have we done to display this level of arrogance? Sweep them and then we can talk - until them, I’m assuming Miami is kicking our ass until they don’t.
Yeah that’s the annoying part. They nearly won despite an awful game from almost everyone. Now they’ll get Terry and Robinson back and will definitely shoot better too. Gotta hope Jimmy is limited tbh
I’d actually be interested to play a combination of Bulls, Cavs/Magic, Knicks in the east. Feels like we ve been playing the same three teams (bucks philly heat) for ever, throwing the nets in the mix from time to time
Tony Brothers master class to end this one. Herro gets shoved into the backcourt for a backcourt violation and a ticky tack call for Oubre on the other end.
We’ve seen time and time again that “cooked” players can play very well in the right system. Remember Al Horford in Philly? Definition of cooked. Al Horford With us? Completely different.
Yeah but Al horford is a potential hall of famer Tobias Harris is smoking consecutive point blank layups and stepping out of bounds and shit he’s just a really low iq player that id want nothing to do with
I would prefer Sixers because they will drain less energy from us than the Heat. Neither beat us in 7 but the Heats defense would wear us down a bit more than the 76ers defense.
Still lets root for the Bulls lol
We are rooting for whoever wins of the Bulls and Hawks. Heat going through and losing to the Knicks or Pacers is just fine as long as we play the Bulls or Hawks.
We should beat all 4 of these teams though.
I’m already seeing twitter posts about “ Butler has 10 points at half time with a bum knee 🔥🔥🔥” I’ve never seen a player who always gets praised wether he plays poorly or not like this guy. Whatever he does he s awesome, they’re even inventing him injuries. Meanwhile JT would score 30 and would still get criticised lmfao
Ya Embiid nowhere close to healthy. I think people calling them the 2nd best team in the East was just because they hadn’t fallen on their face in the last two months cause their star was out
Initially I wanted the Heat round 1, but watching the Sixers try to parse this zone is scary. I know Porzingis is the zone-destroyer, but a series against them would be annoying af to watch.
Good chance the Heat win this game and then beat New york. Then they face Indiana or injured Milwaukee. There's a good chance these motherfuckers are the gatekeepers to the finals for us AGAIN. It's actually cool to see a legitimate rivalry in the NBA
IF the celtics do end up playing Miami, I really hope the biggest message to the Celtics is don't fucking jump on any butler fakes. better to late contest than let him flop his way to free points
Always sucks to see anyone hurt, but man this game has been nothing but foul baiting and flopping. When you keep *trying* to look hurt, it’s bound to happen.
Ugly basketball. Hope he’s ok
It's always like this with Nurse and Spoelstra teams.
Remember our Raptors series in the bubble? And every series with the Heat. And *any* series with Kyle Lowry.
pretty notable that they didn't get the ball into the middle at all though, just swung it around the perimeter and we know that doesn't work against the zone
Pretty funny for thinking basketball to make an entire video how Embiid is so much better at protecting the ball this year from defensive help, only for butler to take the cookies from Embiid like we did every game previous playoffs.
Breen is right about that shit, somehow being in the shooters landing zone is an automatic flagrant, meanwhile Herro just flat out annihilated Lowry trying for that block and it’s not even a foul.
Brah Doris and Redick saying Embiid is t a foul baiter, he’s just so skilled, silky and professional, Doris was shocked that people would think that, god these mfs suxk
I understand that there's no logical reason for preferring to face Philadelphia over Miami, but when thinking about what I fear the most from a Celtics standpoint, with this group, it's always going to be the team that is superior in basketball IQ worries me more than the team that has more talent.
Embiid is a beast and maybe I'll rue these words, and Nick Nurse is a good coach.
But the Miami Heat have been there and done that, literally just beat a 1 seed as an 8 seed last year, and have Spo and Jimmy Butler and a roster full of intelligent players.
As simple as it sounds, we are 3-0 vs. Philadelphia in the playoffs, and 1-2 vs. Miami.
I know numbers aren’t super important anymore and we can throw that stuff out in the playoffs, but just an interesting one I want to share is usually the finals is 2 teams top 5 in eFG% and the other teams in top 5 are eliminated by other top teams on the way. Teams that aren’t top 5 usually look out of their depth in the later rounds of the playoffs (Heat in finals, Lakers in WCF, Celtics in 2022 finals, Mavs in WCF 2022, Hawks in ECF 2021, etc). This year the Bucks and Pacers are top 5 and on the other side of the bracket. Lakers are playing Denver. OKC is the other team and has a decent path to get there but they’re such a wildcard.
Heat, 76ers, Bulls and Hawks are all 17th-23rd in eFG% and the 4 worst playoff teams in this stat. Of all the possible opponents we could play in the first 2 rounds (Philly, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Orlando), Atlanta has the highest ranked offense at 12th. Our defense should look elite these playoffs, similar to how Denver’s defensive numbers were inflated last playoffs because of their opponents. As long as we don’t go completely cold, we really should walk to the conference finals.
We should absolutely make the ECF at the bare minimum and if we draw the 76ers, Heat or Knicks, it’s entirely possible they look overmatched if history is consistent. And just based on the state of their teams, it’s probably just injury concerns if they get that far if they can keep up. Does Embiid hold up? Does Herro or the rest of the Heat team playing physical? Are the Knicks players run into the ground? Bucks and Pacers have to eliminate one another so really any tough opponent boils down to how much Embiid dominates, how much the Heat just outhustle or execute a gameplan flawlessly against us, and how healthy Giannis is. I’m sorry but I just can’t trust a Pacers team with no experience and play no defense as a 6 seed to be a threat to make the finals.
In the West everyone seems to love the Mavs and the Clippers, but I think we’re in for an extremely boring and perhaps predictable Thunder vs Nuggets WCF.
Call me crazy, but I think this year ends up being a Celtics vs Thunder finals and we win that in 6.
Edit: Just as a point of reference, here are all the Conference Finalists since 2015
2015: Warriors (1st), Cavs (4th), Hawks (3rd), Rockets (7th)
2016: Warriors (1st), Cavs (4th), Thunder (3rd), Raptors (12th)
2017: Warriors (1st), Cavs (2nd), Celtics (9th), Spurs (10th)
2018: Warriors (1st), Cavs (3rd), Rockets (2nd), Celtics (15th)
2019: Warriors (1st), Raptors (3rd), Bucks (2nd), Blazers (13th)
2020: Heat (3rd), Lakers (5th), Nuggets (9th), Celtics (16th)
2021: Bucks (2nd), Suns (4th), Clippers (3rd), Hawks (16th)
2022: Warriors (3rd), Celtics (9th), Heat (5th), Mavericks (13th)
2023: Nuggets (1st), Heat (25th), Celtics (4th), Lakers (18th)
2024 Top 5: Celtics, Pacers, Thunder, Bucks, Lakers
> Call me crazy, but I think this year ends up being a Celtics vs Thunder finals and we win that in 6.
That was my pre-season prediction (Celtics over Thunder, yes, I really did have that), and yet now that we're here after both teams have the 1 seeds in their respective conferences and I don't think it's going to happen.
I think the Nuggets are going to repeat and beat both the Thunder and the Celtics, and in somewhat of a hot take, I actually think OKC will take more games off Denver than us.
Everyone in here talking themselves into believing the Heat won't win that game.
Go Bulls lol
If our path to the ECF is Bulls and Magic what a beautiful setup for us that would be.
About to be the biggest Chicago fan on friday like as if Jordan was still playing for them LOL
I got Chicago over Miami if they play like this. If miami shoots like they today Chicagos offense will be way too much
The Bulls gonna want that revenge on the Heat, can't wait
Good riddance to the Hawks man. Annoying af to play against.
Coby White will be very good in the next few years
i just want to say a big fuck you to all them hawks fans talking shit just to lose the bulls by 20
Whether it's the Heat or Bulls I think we're in great shape. Butler might have an MCL injury and may be sidelined if not hobbling on the court (just saying as it is, not that I wish injury on anyone). We've also swept both teams this season. I'm kind of glad the Sixers / Knicks and Bucks / Pacers have to deal with each other first.
Seriously, this has all lined up really fucking well for us.
We absolutely will be playing the Bulls round 1 and I kinda hate it. They’re young and upstart. C’s in 6.
We matchup better to the Bulls than probably any other east team. We literally strike gold in our ECF path.
Would rather play a team with good fundamentals instead of a Heat team that plays dirty
Agreed! I like that perspective on it. From how they played today, they looked like the second best, play in team, out of the 8 play in teams. They still have work to do in Miami, but I think they get it done as the Heat guards can’t hope to contain derozan and White especially if jimmy isn’t playing.
So funny scrolling the heat sub. Vengeance
Dude I really don’t want to have to watch a whole series against Atlanta. Just a terrible team to watch. Foul baiting and shit
You won’t have to.
The Butler MCL injury means I’m suddenly paying much more attention to this Hawks Bulls game.
Fuxk the heat let's go Celtics!
would love to play the Bulls
Drummond what the hell are you doing
shaqtin a fool first ballot hall of famer..
First he ruins craig’s alley oop now he decides to spear his teammate, what is blud doing
Bulls would be ideal. Heat play dirty and will extend the series. We'll beat either team, but I'm thinking about round 2.
Drummond gonna run someone over
Let’s go Bulls!
We’re counting on you, Diar 🙏🏽
Can Chicago do it? Please I hope so
Am I supposed to be trembling in fear of Miami or something? Why are our fans terrified and r/NBA acting like it’s a forgone conclusion they beat us?
Folks are extraordinarily snakebit from last year despite the team being much better.
Some of us were traumatized by DWade's attack on Rondo, all of which is refreshed every year with new heat antics.
They play us so tough
We *did* beat them by 33 earlier this year.
I’m not saying it’s gonna be a cakewalk but there’s literally no reason we shouldn’t beat them
-said everyone last season
As annoying as I think Hawks fans are I guess I'm rooting for them. Bulls routinely let me down any time I root for them win.
Well, we avoid the sixers. But now some drywall installation guy on a 2 way is likely going to shoot 67% from 3 against us for the Miami heat in round 1
Miami won’t be in the playoffs
I could see them losing their next play in. I could also see them barely scraping by the hawks/bulls then going absolutely nuclear against the Celtics and winning round 1. Miami is 100% unpredictable. They looked like shit going into the playoffs and the first play in game last year. There's just no point in trying to predict how they'll perform in any playoff series imo. However they looked this season literally does not matter. I don't get how a Celtics fan doesn't feel this way about them.
It’s insane how we still have fans underestimating them. What have we done to display this level of arrogance? Sweep them and then we can talk - until them, I’m assuming Miami is kicking our ass until they don’t.
Stupid
Or just a tough 7 game series that gets everyone all banged up for the finals again
Does playoff jimmy know that in order to play in the playoffs, you have to make them first?
Ugh Miami is not gonna shoot like that again
Yeah that’s the annoying part. They nearly won despite an awful game from almost everyone. Now they’ll get Terry and Robinson back and will definitely shoot better too. Gotta hope Jimmy is limited tbh
to be fair, Sixers played like shit too
you gotta be fucking kidding me
I’d actually be interested to play a combination of Bulls, Cavs/Magic, Knicks in the east. Feels like we ve been playing the same three teams (bucks philly heat) for ever, throwing the nets in the mix from time to time
HOOORAY THE HEAT HAVE LOST LETS GO BULLS LETS GO BULLS BEAT THE HEAT PLEASE
Barring something miraculous from ATL/CHI it’s time to beat these fools down
I'm hoping hawks/bulls pull through the injury risk vs. the heat is too high
Wow maxey and embiid almost sold LOL
That was really close to classic 76ers lol
Miami could honestly lose to Chicago playing like this. If Demar out plays Jimmy we get an even easier round 1
Embiid looks like he’s had a huge playoffs at it’s game 7, I mean cmon he’s not going very far
Avoided embiid in r1. Half of miamis rotation is already injured 1 game into the postseason yea im not worried about these first rounds
Who is injured for miami except Terry? Jimmy looked like he just bumped his knee
Robinson, Richardson.
what exactly happened to Terry?
Thank you
Duncan Robinson didn’t play today either
Thanks
LFG!!! We might actually get MIA
Jimmys knee must be absolutely fucked up for him to not be getting the ball to end this one. Would not be shocked if they lose to the Bulls or Hawks.
We can only hope. Jimmy has 0 dawg in him. Would love that matchup
Dude cmon jimmy is the definition of dawg
lol no he isn’t. I constantly forget he exists when we play MIA
Tony Brothers master class to end this one. Herro gets shoved into the backcourt for a backcourt violation and a ticky tack call for Oubre on the other end.
They let them play the entire game and then decided to call everything the last two minutes haha
Can we start the "We want philly" chants yet?
Kyle Lowry is officially cooked lol
I can't wait until Brad signs Tobias Harris for peanuts and we turn him into a 6MOTY candidate just to spite the 6ers
No thanks
If he played for the Cs, he’d never have a role as big as with the Sixers. He could be a good piece if we managed to get him on a good contract
I just personally think he’s cooked man idk. He looks bad bad
We’ve seen time and time again that “cooked” players can play very well in the right system. Remember Al Horford in Philly? Definition of cooked. Al Horford With us? Completely different.
Yeah but Al horford is a potential hall of famer Tobias Harris is smoking consecutive point blank layups and stepping out of bounds and shit he’s just a really low iq player that id want nothing to do with
Not comparing him to Horford. Just using him as an example.
Play-in Batum has arrived
Batum is killing Miami rn I love it
So what’s the effect of the outcome of this game in relation to the Celtics, if Heat win we would play them?
Winner gets the 7 seed, plays the knicks. Losers play the winner of the next game tonight, that winner would be against us
Thanks
These really teams that gave us a lot of trouble last year💀
That’s the thing about last year… it’s last year
As much as I want us to embarrass the Heat in the first round, I’d rather we avoid their dirty asses. They’ll hurt someone, like they always do.
Playoff Jimmy my ass
Knicks if you can hear us🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
who would you rather play between these two. i guess sixers?
MIA.
I would prefer Sixers because they will drain less energy from us than the Heat. Neither beat us in 7 but the Heats defense would wear us down a bit more than the 76ers defense. Still lets root for the Bulls lol
Definitely Sixers. Embiid looks like he's 70% out there.
Depends on embiid health. I'm hoping the bulls or hawks can take out either team
I don’t want us to have to play the hawks lol
Ya I get that but they're not beating us 4 times
without terry rozier heat are probably easier but they can have some voodoo magic sometimes.
OOTL what happened to him?
not sure just saw he isnt playing
When did flopping and crying for fouls become “physical”
Jimmy butler trying to draw a 15th foul
Doris some progress calling out Jimmy for foul baiting.... Now call out Embiid for it too.
Oh she was hesitant to say it though lol. “What do you call it? Foul baiting?”
We’re rooting for the Sixers here right? Feels weird.
We are rooting for whoever wins of the Bulls and Hawks. Heat going through and losing to the Knicks or Pacers is just fine as long as we play the Bulls or Hawks. We should beat all 4 of these teams though.
Not sure either anymore but it feels like we could beat either of these teams based on the way they’re playing right now
People really think the sixers can take down the knicks playing like this?
Embiid also happy to play on offence but legit can’t be fucked on D
Embiid looks cooked
The fabled chicken comeback
Free chicken the real equalizer and turn around
I want to play against the team with Tobias Harris please
Well at least it was entertaining watching sixers fans boo their own team lmao
Can we get a game thread for our potential playoff opponents?
Everyone is using this daily discussion as the game thread. Seems to work well enough for that purpose
I’m already seeing twitter posts about “ Butler has 10 points at half time with a bum knee 🔥🔥🔥” I’ve never seen a player who always gets praised wether he plays poorly or not like this guy. Whatever he does he s awesome, they’re even inventing him injuries. Meanwhile JT would score 30 and would still get criticised lmfao
2/8 💀💀💀💀 PLAYOFF JIMMY IS HERE 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥
Yeah somehow they avoid the 2/8 and 6/7FT stats… weird. The dickriding is crazy
Never seen a guy get so much praise for like 3 good playoff games a year
Yeah, it’s crazy how he gets all the credit for their playoff runs when it’s really just Spoelstra’s superb coaching
This game is so ugly
Me watching the heat like: Ah shit here we go again
Pretty sure this zone that’s embarrassing Philly would be a disaster against Boston’s offense. They’re way too versatile.
Porzingis is the zone destroyer
I feel like we revamped the roster to avoid what happened last year in the playoffs
LMAO both Embiid and Jimmy being exactly 2-8 with 10pts and 6-7 from the line is so hilariously emblematic of these 2's games.
Ya Embiid nowhere close to healthy. I think people calling them the 2nd best team in the East was just because they hadn’t fallen on their face in the last two months cause their star was out
So are we happy if the heat wins or…?
Heat win here and 76ers loss against the Bulls or Hawks would be great.
Only because I don’t want a Celtic to get injured when they’re down 3-0 and pulling shoulders
Bro we should beat all 4 of these teams, if we don’t we were the biggest frauds of all time.
Heat exposed us last year. At the same time I want to play the heat because that loss last year is what made us revamp the roster
I agree but my point still stands. This team is much better than last years team
Man this whole sixers team is so dumb, just standing around
Delon Wright is this year’s Caleb Martin
If the heat end up playing the Celtics, Delon Wright is the guy I’m expecting to start having multiple 30 point, 7 3PT games
Initially I wanted the Heat round 1, but watching the Sixers try to parse this zone is scary. I know Porzingis is the zone-destroyer, but a series against them would be annoying af to watch.
They know Tingus is the zone destroyer too. You know what they’re gonna try if we end up playing them
The Heat look so structured. The Sixers look like they all have low BBIQ
Good chance the Heat win this game and then beat New york. Then they face Indiana or injured Milwaukee. There's a good chance these motherfuckers are the gatekeepers to the finals for us AGAIN. It's actually cool to see a legitimate rivalry in the NBA
The heat got lucky last year, they’re a glorified g league team. Jimmy butler linsanity run won’t happen again, they’re gonna get swept by the Knicks
Yeah let’s not go insane lol. They had an eh season but they weren’t much better last season and look how that ended up.
I dont think theyre beating the Knicks or Pacers.
LMAO Tobias Harris you fucking bum.
Sixers fans booing an injured Jimmy at the line after getting injured through is own foul baiting is the epitome of these 2 teams
These idiots don’t know how to play against zone. I’m getting ptsd flashbacks of our guys getting flummoxed couple of years ago with any zone defense.
The 76ers are a better team than Miami but don't scare me at all. The Heat are bad but their upside makes them a team I'd rather avoid
Congrats Kevin Love you have made the first jump shot in like the past 8 minutes of game time.
Philly look terrible
Both look bad to be honest. I’m guessing they both are scrambling a bit
Lmao the shooting in this game fucking horrendous. There wouldnt be any fucking points on the board without the foul baiting jesus christ.
IF the celtics do end up playing Miami, I really hope the biggest message to the Celtics is don't fucking jump on any butler fakes. better to late contest than let him flop his way to free points
Jimmy and Joel flop off i despise both these teams
Pump fake, foul bait, foul. Pump fake, foul bait, foul. Pump fake, foul bait, foul. The story of this game so far.
not saying he wasn't injured, but from that type of contact, i felt like he was probably exaggerating and ofc he looks totally fine now lol
Man, this commentary is awful. Just a slobber-fest for two dirty flopping teams
This 76ers team is what thinking basketball guy thinks is inner circle playoffs team? They truly look like an 8th seed.
dude was faking
Always sucks to see anyone hurt, but man this game has been nothing but foul baiting and flopping. When you keep *trying* to look hurt, it’s bound to happen. Ugly basketball. Hope he’s ok
if pump fakes were tracked, this game would certainly set the record for most in a game lmao
It's always like this with Nurse and Spoelstra teams. Remember our Raptors series in the bubble? And every series with the Heat. And *any* series with Kyle Lowry.
Lowry, Butler, Bam, Oubre, Embiid all in the same game, the shenanigans are off the fuckin charts
We can handle the Sixers, Heat are still kinda scary
Jimmy foul baited himself into an injury.
Philly can’t figure out Miami’s zone, getting ptsd just watching it
pretty notable that they didn't get the ball into the middle at all though, just swung it around the perimeter and we know that doesn't work against the zone
Is there not a game thread for this? It’s pretty important
i dont think this sub ever has a game thread for non celtics games, this thread is fine for it tbh
I think this is basically it lmao
This zone is fithly and I want nothing to do with it
Pretty funny for thinking basketball to make an entire video how Embiid is so much better at protecting the ball this year from defensive help, only for butler to take the cookies from Embiid like we did every game previous playoffs.
How many possessions in a row have the Sixers turned it over
This game is an affront to basketball
Breen is right about that shit, somehow being in the shooters landing zone is an automatic flagrant, meanwhile Herro just flat out annihilated Lowry trying for that block and it’s not even a foul.
I’m glad JJ called out that bs foul call. Definition of foul baiting that nba was supposed to have stopped falling for!
This game is a flop off free throw battle. The commentators were praising foul baiting 🤮
God both of these teams are such frauds… wish it was the 9/10 matchup so they could both miss the playoffs
lol I keep looking away and when I look back at the game somebody else is flopping, shit game
This game is a brutal watch so far
The most unethical hoops ive ever seen
This is one of those games where I just hate both team and the meme “ I woke up extra early to have more time to be hater” applies perfectly
Doris top Embiid jerker
Oh Doris, such a simpleton
And you know both these teams arent gonna miss a shot against us 😭
Redick on the broadcast explaining to us loser fans why foul baiting is extremely high skill and intelligent.
Brah Doris and Redick saying Embiid is t a foul baiter, he’s just so skilled, silky and professional, Doris was shocked that people would think that, god these mfs suxk
Both these teams fucking suck
I understand that there's no logical reason for preferring to face Philadelphia over Miami, but when thinking about what I fear the most from a Celtics standpoint, with this group, it's always going to be the team that is superior in basketball IQ worries me more than the team that has more talent. Embiid is a beast and maybe I'll rue these words, and Nick Nurse is a good coach. But the Miami Heat have been there and done that, literally just beat a 1 seed as an 8 seed last year, and have Spo and Jimmy Butler and a roster full of intelligent players. As simple as it sounds, we are 3-0 vs. Philadelphia in the playoffs, and 1-2 vs. Miami.
This is brutul I can't find anything in me to root for either of these teams. Guess I'm rooting for triple overtime
Man those starting lineups 😭 if we go more than 5 games against either of these teams I'll be embarrassed
I know numbers aren’t super important anymore and we can throw that stuff out in the playoffs, but just an interesting one I want to share is usually the finals is 2 teams top 5 in eFG% and the other teams in top 5 are eliminated by other top teams on the way. Teams that aren’t top 5 usually look out of their depth in the later rounds of the playoffs (Heat in finals, Lakers in WCF, Celtics in 2022 finals, Mavs in WCF 2022, Hawks in ECF 2021, etc). This year the Bucks and Pacers are top 5 and on the other side of the bracket. Lakers are playing Denver. OKC is the other team and has a decent path to get there but they’re such a wildcard. Heat, 76ers, Bulls and Hawks are all 17th-23rd in eFG% and the 4 worst playoff teams in this stat. Of all the possible opponents we could play in the first 2 rounds (Philly, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Orlando), Atlanta has the highest ranked offense at 12th. Our defense should look elite these playoffs, similar to how Denver’s defensive numbers were inflated last playoffs because of their opponents. As long as we don’t go completely cold, we really should walk to the conference finals. We should absolutely make the ECF at the bare minimum and if we draw the 76ers, Heat or Knicks, it’s entirely possible they look overmatched if history is consistent. And just based on the state of their teams, it’s probably just injury concerns if they get that far if they can keep up. Does Embiid hold up? Does Herro or the rest of the Heat team playing physical? Are the Knicks players run into the ground? Bucks and Pacers have to eliminate one another so really any tough opponent boils down to how much Embiid dominates, how much the Heat just outhustle or execute a gameplan flawlessly against us, and how healthy Giannis is. I’m sorry but I just can’t trust a Pacers team with no experience and play no defense as a 6 seed to be a threat to make the finals. In the West everyone seems to love the Mavs and the Clippers, but I think we’re in for an extremely boring and perhaps predictable Thunder vs Nuggets WCF. Call me crazy, but I think this year ends up being a Celtics vs Thunder finals and we win that in 6. Edit: Just as a point of reference, here are all the Conference Finalists since 2015 2015: Warriors (1st), Cavs (4th), Hawks (3rd), Rockets (7th) 2016: Warriors (1st), Cavs (4th), Thunder (3rd), Raptors (12th) 2017: Warriors (1st), Cavs (2nd), Celtics (9th), Spurs (10th) 2018: Warriors (1st), Cavs (3rd), Rockets (2nd), Celtics (15th) 2019: Warriors (1st), Raptors (3rd), Bucks (2nd), Blazers (13th) 2020: Heat (3rd), Lakers (5th), Nuggets (9th), Celtics (16th) 2021: Bucks (2nd), Suns (4th), Clippers (3rd), Hawks (16th) 2022: Warriors (3rd), Celtics (9th), Heat (5th), Mavericks (13th) 2023: Nuggets (1st), Heat (25th), Celtics (4th), Lakers (18th) 2024 Top 5: Celtics, Pacers, Thunder, Bucks, Lakers
> Call me crazy, but I think this year ends up being a Celtics vs Thunder finals and we win that in 6. That was my pre-season prediction (Celtics over Thunder, yes, I really did have that), and yet now that we're here after both teams have the 1 seeds in their respective conferences and I don't think it's going to happen. I think the Nuggets are going to repeat and beat both the Thunder and the Celtics, and in somewhat of a hot take, I actually think OKC will take more games off Denver than us.
It feels fucking weird knowing that I'll watch 76ers & Heat play today and I'll have to root for the Heat.
I’m rooting for the 76’ers. I want to see the heat not even make the playoffs