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The real National Basketball Association season is now underway.
Following the play-in session, which will produce the bottom two positions in the NBA playoff structure, the league will begin its journey to crown a new champion. The play-in session will provide its share of excitement, but when the smoke of that adventure clears, all that the Boston Celtics and their loyal fans will care about will be: “Who do we play and how fast can the Green move past the first obstacle in their march to NBA title No. 19?”
The Celtics will get a week of rest before taking on the seventh-seeded team, the Orlando Magic, in the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs on Sunday. Following a regular season record of 61-21, the Celts are the No. 2 seed behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have a record of 64-18. They must address specific questions as they attempt to become the first repeat NBA champions since the 2017 and 2018 Golden State Warriors.
Health is the major issue for the Celtics and every other NBA playoff participant. So, let’s start there.
The top priority for this Celtics team centers on the health of Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, three of the team’s key performers.
Brown, an all-NBA player and the team’s second-leading scorer is nursing an injured right knee that has slowed him down in the last couple of weeks.
Holiday, one of the top defensive and glue players in the NBA, has turned in a gladiator-worthy performance this season despite a damaged shoulder that may require surgery post-playoffs.
Boston’s Kristaps Porzingis scores against the Warriors. PHOTO: BOSTON CELTICS/NBA
Porzingis has struggled throughout this season with ankle and leg injuries. His playing status is tenuous at best. If he cannot play consistently, 38-year-old veteran Al Horford will have to play more minutes. This team can buy time with frontcourt reserves, but they can’t be expected to play at the level of Porzingis and Horford.
The backcourt situation seems strong, thanks to the emergence of Payton Pritchard, who has turned in a regular season that should net him the league’s Sixth Man of the Year award. Pritchard deserves special mention for his stellar play, which has carried over from last year’s postseason and throughout this regular season.
This current edition of the Celtics set impressive team records, particularly their record-setting 33-8 road mark and .805 winning percentage, tying the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls for the second-best all-time road record, and breaking the old team mark set by the 1972-73 and 1974–75 Celtics teams led by John Havlicek, Jo-Jo White and Dave Cowens.
Barring an upset, the Celtics will have to take the measure of the Cleveland Cavaliers in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference championship series. The Cavs hold the home-court advantage. If they are to advance to the NBA Finals, they may face the possibility of having to win NBA title No. 19 on the road. Despite their youth, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the overall No. 1 seed as an NBA playoff participant, would be a formidable opponent should the two teams match up. The Celtics are 2-2 against the Cavaliers and 0-2 against the Thunder this regular season.
Critics of this year’s Celtics squad will point out that this team still shoots too many three-point shots, but that is the formula by which it will live or die. This Celtics team’s health component and how well they play at the defensive end of the floor will be the deciding factors in their attempt to repeat as NBA champions.
WNBA news
As expected, Paige Bueckers, the top player on this year’s national championship Connecticut women’s team, has been tabbed as the No. 1 draft pick in this year’s WNBA draft. Bueckers led the Lady Huskies back to the top of NCAA Division 1 competition, the program’s record 12th national title and first since 2015. She will be one of the WNBA’s major star attractions due to her triumphant end to a college playing career interrupted by multiple significant knee injuries. If she can stay healthy, which is a legitimate concern when considering her injury history and the physicality she will have to endure in the WNBA, Bueckers, listed at 6’, is destined for stardom.
Dominique Malonga of France was the WNBA’s second pick. PHOTO: BASKETBALL FRANCE
The most intriguing story of this draft may be Dominique Malonga, the 19-year-old, 6’6” center and second overall pick by the Seattle Storm. Scouts consider the Frenchwoman to be a future impact player.
Sonia Citron, a 6’1” guard from Notre Dame, was the No. 3 pick and will join the No. 4 pick, Kiki Iriafen, a 6’3” center/forward from USC, on the Washington Mystics.
USC’s Kiki Iriafen was picked fourth by the Washington Mystics. PHOTO: USC BASKETBALL
Juste Jocyte, a six-foot wing from Lithuania, was the first-ever pick by the Golden State Valkyries to complete the top five positions in the draft. Due to major off-court transactions, the Mystics, with the third, fourth and sixth picks; the Connecticut Sun, with the seventh and eighth picks; and the Chicago Sky, with the 10th and 11th picks, own seven of the top 12 picks in the opening round of this year’s WNBA draft.
Dallas also holds the 12th pick in the first round. Seattle, No. 2, Golden State Valkyries, No. 5, and Los Angeles Sparks, No. 9, each possess one pick.
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