[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqE6Jy-JCk]
The Celtics played the Hawks, who didn't have Al Horford or Zaza Pachulia and then saw Josh Smith limited by a knee strain. They were set to face the winner of the Bulls-76'ers series, and the Bulls lost Derrick Rose to an ACL injury and Joakim Noah to an ankle injury. Now they face the 8th seeded 76'ers who, if you believe all the analysts out there, will do little more than slow down the Celtics and set up an inevitable Celtics-Heat matchup.
Which brings us to this: Chris Bosh is out indefinitely with an abdominal strain.
Of course (a) the C's still have to get past Philly. I obviously think they will do that, but I've thought things before and, amazingly, I'm wrong from time to time. (b) The Heat have to still get past Indiana, which has a strong point guard and size to combat Miami's strengths. The loss of Bosh, all jokes aside, means a player that's nowhere near as good will now start. And that leaves a back up that a lot worse than that in to face a deep Pacers team.
But if we assume for a minute the C's and Heat DO meet up, this will be a big problem for them. Kevin Garnett is already having a monster playoffs, and not having Bosh's length to bother him will make those looks even cleaner.
I'm not going to get deeper than that because, well, I just don't want to go down that road yet. Maybe later. Maybe when this series is something more comfortable than 1-0 on a 1-point win. Still, it's another obstacle down for the Celtics. There are many others left, but I'll take whatever kind of clearing the C's get.
As for tonight, all 15 guys went through shootaround today, setting up the "everyone is going to play" story for later.
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