Celtics playoff seeding: Looking closely at race for No. 2 seed

· Yahoo Sports

The Celtics saw their three-game win streak come to an end in a loss to the Hawks on Monday. It was going to be an uphill battle for the C’s considering they were on the second game of a back-to-back, plus they were without three rotation players.

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The defeat dropped the Celtics to 50-25, so they’re now two games above the third-place Knicks. The C’s have seven games left in the regular season, so the race for the No. 2 seed is coming down to the wire.

Here’s a look at the East standings following Monday’s slate of games:

PlaceTeamWinsLossesGames backNo. 1Detroit Pistons5421--No. 2Boston Celtics50254No. 3New York Knicks48276No. 4Cleveland Cavaliers47287No. 5Toronto Raptors423211.5No. 6Atlanta Hawks433311.5No. 7Philadelphia 76ers413413No. 8Orlando Magic393514.5No. 9Miami Heat403614.5No. 10Charlotte Hornets393615

The Knicks currently have the 2-1 tiebreaker over the Celtics. The teams face April 9 in New York for the final time in the regular season. However, the Knicks already have the tiebreaker over the C’s no matter what happens in that April 9 game. New York has a 12-3 division record while Boston is at 9-5. Since the Celtics can finish 11-5 at best within the division, the Knicks already have that head-to-head edge.

It’s pretty close when it comes to the rest-of-season schedule in terms of win percentage. While the Celtics lost to the Hawks on Monday, their recent three-game win streak was huge for them in the standings. The C’s recently beat the Thunder, Hawks (last Friday) and Hornets, all teams that have been playing great ball of late.

Here’s a look at the schedules for the C’s and Knicks for the rest of the season:

Celtics: at Heat, at Bucks, vs. Raptors, vs. Hornets, at Knicks, vs. Pelicans, vs. Magic.

Knicks: at Rockets, at Grizzlies, vs. Bulls, at Hawks, vs. Celtics, vs. Raptors, vs. Hornets.

The Celtics have two games against non-playoff foes in the Bucks and Pelicans. The Knicks have the same amount of such games facing the Grizzlies and Bulls. Otherwise, every other team on the schedule is either in playoff or play-in position, meaning they’re likely to be playing for seeding.

Looking at the bottom of the East standings, those teams are bunched up. Only 3.5 games separate the fifth-place Raptors down to the 10th-place Hornets. The Celtics face four of those teams that are fighting for their playoff lives (the Heat, Raptors, Hornets and Magic). The Knicks get three of them (Hawks, Raptors and Hornets).

The Celtics are one of the favorites to come out of the East. They’ve exceeded every expectation out of them compared to preseason projections. But if the C’s want another deep playoff run — which has been commonplace this decade — getting home-court advantage in the second round would go a long way.

It’ll likely be a close finish even with the Celtics up a couple games. That April 9 game in New York will have a big swing on which team ends up with the No. 2 seed come the playoffs. Until then, as long as the Celtics continue winning games, they’ll put pressure on the Knicks to keep up.

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