BOSTON (AP) — By now, the Boston Celtics have come to expect adversity.
They were barely five minutes into the season when Gordon Hayward’s gruesome ankle injury offered the first collective gasp in what would be an 82-game schedule replete with more head-shaking moments.
The most recent setback, season-ending knee surgery for Kyrie Irving, left teams in the East almost hoping for a chance to face the wounded Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.
Boston enters as the No. 2 seed. But it is certainly vulnerable opposite a seventh-seeded Bucks team with which it split four games this season.