The Boston Celtics are back in tonight when they travel to Chicago for the last game of the NBA Cup Group Stage. Last year, the Celtics won their group with a 3-1 record — the lone loss coming to Orlando. With the scoring format, every margin of victory matters and last season we saw Joe Mazzulla have his team intentionally foul Andre Drummond to increase their scoring margin against the Bulls.
There were a lot of eyes on the Nets/Raptors matchup last season with the Nets having the same record as Boston, but only had a +20 point differential compared to Boston’s +27, which leads me to the first big thing:
Celtics can clinch if:
The Celtics don’t necessarily control their own destiny.