Boston Celtics Face Crucial Upcoming Stretch of Games: A Fan's Take - Yahoo! Sports

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Boston Celtics Face Crucial Upcoming Stretch of Games: A Fan's Take - Yahoo! Sports Mar 30th 2012, 22:00 By Ryan Kekoufski, Yahoo! Contributor Network Currently the Boston Celtics are 28-22 heading into tonight's matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves and are coming off of a three game win streak. They are 2.5 games up on the New York Knicks and only 1 game behind the Atlanta Hawks for the sixth seed heading into the playoffs. While I do think the Celtics will be able to get into the playoffs, a lot will be riding on these next few games for the team. Ray Allen Wikimedia Commons Over the next 7 games, these are the opponents the Celtics will come up against: Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Atlanta Hawks. This will be a crucial stretch of time for Boston in my opinion, for two reasons. Celtics Need to Show They Can Compete More than anything else, the Boston Celtics need to show that they can compete against some of the top teams in the National Basketball Association today, especially with the playoffs coming up in a matter of weeks. The more interesting matchups to watch will be against the Heat, 76ers, and Hawks more so than the other teams, for various reasons; the Celtics are currently in position to play the Heat in the first round, they are currently tied with the 76ers in the Atlantic Division, and the Hawks are just ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings. While all of the seven games will be important for the Celtics to win, the games played against these three teams are the ones more interesting to watch. Playoff Seeding Not only do the Celtics need to show that they can compete against these teams, but they need to win at least four of them in my view if they want to have a chance to beat out the Philadelphia 76ers for the Atlantic Division. This will ensure them at least the four seed heading into the playoffs, which right now would mean a matchup against the Pacers. If they don't get by the 76ers and play poorly over this seven-game stretch, they will most likely be the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, presenting a matchup against the Heat. The 76ers also have a much easier schedule than do the Celtics, so the season for the team could really come down to how they perform over the next week or so. Ryan is a lifelong Celtics fan. He covers sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and currently resides in Virginia. Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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