The Eastern Conference is more or less settled when it comes to the top five spots, but the final three spots are up for grabs between six teams. Two of them face off in Boston Wednesday night, when the Celtics welcome the Miami Heat.
Both teams have been up and down lately, but mostly up. The Celtics suffered a three-game losing streak last week with two winnable games and one blowout, but rebounded with a huge away win against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
The Heat lost yesterday on a buzzer beater against the Milwaukee Bucks after losing Hassan Whiteside to a laceration between his middle and ring finger, that needed ten stitches, already in the second quarter.
The two teams can be even after the game
Before the game, Miami is 32-38 while Boston is 31-39, which means that a Boston win will equalize the season series at 2-2 and will make the two teams exactly even in the win-loss columns with 11 games left in the season for both teams.
It seems questionable that Whiteside will be ready for this game, in which he could face Kelly Olynyk, against whom he committed a flagrant two foul and got ejected the last time the two teams met. It was in the same game that the Celtics' Isaiah Thomas was injured after taking a big hit from Dwyane Wade mid-air and landing on his back and elbow. Thomas has been out since that game, but is listed as "probable" for this one.
So, if the tension wasn't big enough because of the importance of the game, there is bound to be some emotion added as well.
Dwyane Wade could be Boston's biggest problem
The two teams make for some interesting matchups. Most important question for Boston's head coach Brad Stevens is probably "how do we stop a healthy Dwyane Wade," since Wade has been on fire lately. Avery Bradley has previously, in his career, done admirably well trying to do that, but it's always a tough matchup. Compared to the two teams' last meeting, Miami will add Goran Dragic, which puts even more pressure on Boston's perimeter defense.
On offense, it might be key again for Boston to present their opponent with different looks all through the game, like they did in the game in Miami, where the Celtics bench scored 59 points in a 100-90 victory.
Miami will need to be more aggressive on defense than in that game, especially when closing out to the Celtics' parade of long range shooters and when going for the rebound.
This is an anything-can-happen game with Boston favored, especially if Whiteside sits out.