What’s at stake for Celtics entering NBA Cup group finals vs. Bulls originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics’ game against the Chicago Bulls on Friday isn’t just another road game in late November against a sub-.500 team.
Celtics at Bulls (8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston) marks Boston’s final game in the group stage of the 2024 NBA Cup, the league’s regular-season tournament. And there’s a lot at stake for the Celtics, who need a win (and some help) to advance to the quarterfinals.
We’ll look at how the C’s can progress to the knockout stages, but first here’s a look at the updated Group C standings.
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Since the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, the Celtics have been unable to win Group C. Atlanta defeated Boston in the opener of their group play to earn the head-to-head tiebreaker. The Bulls need a win over the C’s to have a chance to overtake the Hawks.
In addition to the group winners, one “wild card” team from each conference will advance to the quarterfinals. The main tiebreaker for wild cards is the points differential, so to earn the wild card the Celtics would have to have a better points differential than any Eastern Conference team that also went 3-1 but didn’t win the pool.
Because there are more group matches next Tuesday, the C’s don’t know exactly how many points are needed to earn the wild card spot. So they will just have to increase the score against Chicago as much as possible on Friday evening and hope for the best from the other group matches on Friday and Tuesday.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps outlined a few scenarios where Boston could advance as a wildcard; they revolve around the Orlando Magic and their NBA Cup games against the Brooklyn Nets (Friday at 7:30 PM ET) and New York Knicks (Tuesday at 7:30 PM ET).
Considering the Hawks won and put themselves in the driver’s seat to win their bracket as they defeated the Celtics earlier this month, here’s Boston’s path to progress:
1. Win in Chicago by at least 15 tonight, leaving only Orlando (plus-37 currently through two games) as his…
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) November 29, 2024
NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics-Bulls coverage begins at 7:00 PM ET Celtics Pregame Live.