Boston Sports Extra

Celtics Ready for Finals Run After Lebron Signing

Well, there it is. LeBron James finally made his long-awaited decision, signing with the Los Angeles Lakers after months of speculation. The deal is worth $154 million over four years, with a player option in the last year. This signing will undoubtedly send Lakers fans into crazed states of excitement, but Celtics fans should also be rejoicing. This moves clears the way for the team to waltz into the NBA Finals.

https://twitter.com/KlutchSports/status/1013574315411849216

A Weakened East

Now that Lebron has spurned the Cavaliers (again), it’s time for the Celtics to finally make their move. Toronto had another successful regular season last year, but they choked in the playoffs again and fired their head coach. The Sixers have intriguing young pieces, but the Celtics easily dispatched them in the playoffs. The Bucks still have Giannis Antetokounmpo, but don’t have many strong players around him. The Pacers have a young star in Victor Oladipo, but not much otherwise.

Aside from these four teams, there isn’t really anyone else to compete in the Eastern Conference. The East was already the weaker conference, and now they are far inferior to the Western Conference. Boston should have no trouble moving past each and every one of these teams.

Oh, and in case you forgot, Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward are returning.

Photo via Getty Images

A Strengthened West

Of course, now the West is absolutely stacked. The Warriors, Rockets, Thunder, Jazz, Trail Blazers, and now the Lakers are all legitimate contenders. The Pelicans, Spurs, and Timberwolves are all also good teams. They’ll all have to fight each other to reach the Finals. If these teams can weaken each other in a fistfight to the top, the Celtics will be golden.

Of course, the Warriors are still the Warriors, there’s Lebron over there now, and the Rockets are always tough. However, the Celtics proved last year that they can hang with anyone in the league. If the whole team is healthy when it matters, this team can cause a ruckus in the playoffs.

Bottom Line

Bottom line is, the Celtics are now in a great position to contend for a title. There’s still a lot of free agency to go. The Kawhi situation has yet to unfold. The NBA landscape can still drastically change before the regular season commences. However, it feels like everything is coming up Celtics these days. With the biggest Celtics killer in recent history out of the way, this could be the year that Boston finally returns to basketball’s biggest stage. It could all go wrong, obviously, like it did this year. But if it doesn’t, the league should be on notice.

P.S. Prepare for a renewed Celtics-Lakers rivalry. Kyrie and Co. against Lebron and the Lake Show is going to be must-watch TV.

Photo via Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter for more: @jackbuffett_

The Boston Celtics were one of the most entertaining teams in the NBA last year. The 2017-2018 season had a lot of amazing games by the Celtics, which most notably consisted of comeback wins against the Rockets (26 points) and the Warriors (26 points). The season, though, was plagued with injuries, whether it was the Hayward injury that kept him out the whole year, or the Kyrie injury that made him miss the last few weeks of the regular season, the Celtics always found a way to make many of their games exciting no matter who they played.

The C’s are now one of the most feared teams in the NBA and cause many exciting matchups. Here are five opponents that will be the best to look for in the upcoming NBA season:

1. Philadelphia 76ers

The Philadelphia 76ers look to be Boston’s biggest threat in the east at the moment with LeBron’s destination still unknown. The 76ers are a very young team with Embiid and Ben Simmons leading them all the way to the playoffs. Philadelphia lost the regular season series to the Boston Celtics 3-1. One of those games took place in London, where the Celtics came from 22 down to beat them 114-103. The Celtics then lost the next game to Philly 89-80, but that would not be the end to this series.

Boston played Philadelphia in the semifinals of the Eastern Conference Playoffs that year. The C’s were very large underdogs as they opened +300 in that series. On some betting websites they rose all the way up to +750. This series was a dominant one for the Celtics. They won it in only five games consisting off a 22 point comeback in Game 2 and an overtime win in Game 3. Things also got very heated between the teams during the series.

Tensions ran high between Joel Embiid and Terry Rozier in Game 4. pic.twitter.com/eYNGlMsynQ

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 8, 2018

This Philly and Boston rivalry has grown very big ever since the Super Bowl, and will only get bigger with these two powerhouses going at each other.

2. Golden State Warriors

The defending back-to-back NBA champs come in at number two on this list. Golden State is arguably the greatest team of all-time, which is why they will be high on this list. The Warriors are coming off championship wins in 2015, 2017, 2018, and they look to continue that streak of dominance.

There is one team in the NBA who the Warriors haven’t consistently dominated: the Boston Celtics. Boston has split the season-series with the Warriors the past three years, and are the only team in the NBA other than the Warriors with a winning record in the Oracle Arena since 2015. The Celtics in 2016 were the team to stop Golden State’s record-breaking 54-game home win streak.

The Celtics beat Golden State in Boston for the first time since 2015. This game looked bad for Boston with Golden State going up 22. The Celtics then erupted to go on a 19-0 run and won by a score of 92-88. This lead many to believe that Golden State versus Boston could be a finals matchup of the future. Even Stephen Curry believes that.

"I heard the weather is great here in June." – @StephenCurry30 after loss to Celtics #InsidetheNBA pic.twitter.com/9L09XRGpTH

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 17, 2017

The Celtics were only one game away from facing the Warriors in the 2017-2018 NBA Finals, but came up short in Game 7 against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. With Golden State favored again to win the NBA championship and the Celtics healthy going into next season, this could be a possible Finals match-up in the making.

3. Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets were also only one game away from the NBA Finals, just like the Celtics. The Rockets ended the regular season last year with the best record in the NBA, going 65-17. The Rockets and Celtics played twice this year and split the season series in two of the most entertaining games of the entire regular season. In the first game the Celtics won 99-98 in a 26 point comeback. This game had Marcus Smart drawing two late offensive fouls on James Harden, which set up the game-winner by Al Horford.

https://twitter.com/LegionHoops/status/946587799716638720

The Celtics-Rockets series next year looks to continue on this excitement. Especially with the thought of LeBron joining one of these teams.

4. Los Angeles Lakers

The Boston-LA rivalry hasn’t felt as important as recent years, but that looks to change in 2018. The Lakers are filled with young talent like Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Julius Randle.

https://twitter.com/Ballislife/status/928446658748321792

The Lakers are also poised to get a big name via trade or free agency whether its Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, or LeBron James. There are even talks of them forming a super team with all three of those players. If the Lakers can acquire one of these players, the rivalry could be back on.

5. Toronto Raptors

Toronto has been a force in the Atlantic division for years now. The duo of Kyle Lowry and Demar Derozan has been one of the best backcourts in the NBA. Toronto finished first in the Eastern Conference, but got swept by Cleveland in the semifinals. This led to Toronto firing Dwyane Casey. Toronto may not be the force in the playoffs that they are in the regular season, but winning the games against them in the regular season could be the difference in home-court advantage for the Celtics in the playoffs.

The Boston Celtics were one game away from making it to the NBA Finals last year. With this set of opponents for next season, they can really see how they stack up against the rest of the NBA.