Little by little during the 2021-22 NBA regular season, a number of popular prognosticatory analytics grew increasingly enamored with the Boston Celtics making a deep run, and as the Celtics’ second-half surge really began to take off in February onward, they quietly slid into a top position among teams seen as likely to make or win the 2022 NBA Finals.
But such metrics do not remain static and have to account for the way that Boston approached its final games of the season to end up securing the second seed in the East — but also one of if not the toughest paths to the finals after ending up drawing the Brooklyn Nets in the first round.
Add in that they could have to face the defending NBA champs in the Milwaukee Bucks in the next round and the first-place Miami Heat after that with tough outs like the Philadelphia 76ers also waiting in the wings if Boston advances and those odds to win it all were definitely affected.
But how much? This question was recently delved into by ESPN’s Zack Lowe on “NBA Today” — to get up to speed on how the team is seen by our best tools to predict Finals success, check out the clip embedded above.
This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!