The Boston Celtics have been maintaining a massive lead in the Eastern Conference for well over a month now, and have been at the top for essentially the entire 2023-24 NBA season. Now, with 11 games and well over two weeks remaining in the regular season, Jayson Tatum and company have a chance to wrap up home court advantage throughout the playoffs as early as Sunday evening.
Celtics Can Clinch The East As Early As Sunday
Nine straight wins for the Boston Celtics. They move to 11.5 games atop the Eastern Conference.
Magic number to clinch the Eastern Conference is down to 1.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) March 24, 2024
The Celtics spent the first two weeks of the season atop the East, before the Philadelphia 76ers enjoyed a 6-day stay between November 8th and November 13th. But Boston took over again after that, and have spent each day since alone in first place. Not only have they been the most dominant team all season in either conference, but the teams that were hoping to make a run and catch them fell on hard times due to coaching changes and injuries.
This allowed the Celtics’ lead to grow to 4.5 games over the second place team by the beginning of February, a lead that has since been stretched all the way to 11.5 games. By comparison, the same gap exists between the #1 and #9 seeds in the West as it does between #1 and #2 in the East.
Boston Has Soft Schedule For The Rest Of The Season
The Denver Nuggets are the second team to reach 50 total wins this season, behind the Boston Celtics.
Potential NBA Finals matchup? 👀 pic.twitter.com/J6lmHivjRn
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 24, 2024
And while they are not on the schedule for Sunday’s NBA action, the Celtics can actually clinch first place in the conference on Sunday. The Milwaukee Bucks will be playing in their 71st game of the season when they take on the Thunder this evening, meaning that there will be just 11 remaining. Given that Boston’s lead is at 11.5 games, it would be impossible to make any type of comeback, and would give the Celtics the conference crown well before the month of April even begins.
The Bucks are listed as a 2.5-point favorite over OKC.
Even if Milwaukee takes care of business and delays Boston’s clinching by another day, it shouldn’t be long before the Celtics make it happen. They have one of the easiest remaining schedules in the entire NBA, and will play twice against the Atlanta Hawks this week in their next two contests. When they return home from their road trip next Monday, they’ll play 6 of the final 7 games of the regular season at home.
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