There are a number of must-watch NBA games on Wednesday. Heat vs. Celtics is not one of them. (No offense to Isaiah Thomas, who is apparently returning to action.) But perhaps no game has the playoff implications of Boston-Miami, at least in terms of determining who actually gets in.
Why Heat vs. Celtics is so important for the East playoff race
It’s a must-watch game you probably should not watch.
Right now, Miami is the No. 7 in the East and Boston is No. 8. The Heat have a one-game lead. The Hornets, Pacers and Nets are, respectively, half, one and one and a half games behind Boston. The race is tight as heck. There’s a chance we could have identical records among two to five of the teams involved. And so we turn to tiebreakers, which is where Boston-Miami earns its import.
The Heat lead the season series with the C’s 2-1. If Miami wins, it clinches the head-to-head tiebreaker with Boston, meaning that the Celtics would need to be one game better than the Heat in the standings to land above it for No. 7 or 8. If Boston wins, the season series ends in a 2-2, sending us to the next tiebreaker: in-conference records. (There’s an in-division record tiebreaker for teams that share a division. This would be an issue for Charlotte-Miami or Boston-Brooklyn only.)
Currently, Miami leads Boston by one game in the in-conference standings. But if Boston wins, both teams will be 20-22 against the East. Boston would need only to finish with a better record against the East than Miami to snag the tiebreaker. If Boston wins on Wednesday and the teams finish the season tied in the standings and in the in-conference standings, the next tiebreaker is record against other East playoff teams. Right now, Miami is 5-13 against the top six seeds in the East. Boston is 3-12.
So Boston’s best chance at getting that critical tiebreaker is to win on Wednesday and finish at least one game stronger than Miami against the East. If Miami wins, Boston’s going to need to beat Miami in the overall standings to get ahead. This could very well determine which team gets into the postseason given that Charlotte is up, 2-1, on both Miami and Boston in their season series, has a better in-division record than Miami and has a better in-conference record than both teams.
Confusing enough? Be sure to check out our East playoff guide, updated daily throughout the remainder of the season.
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