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 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 points differential, so the Celtics should have a better points differential than any Eastern Conference team that also went 3-1 but didn’t win the bracket.
Because there are more group play matches next Tuesday, the C’s don’t know the exact point differential needed to win the wild card in this scenario. So they had to increase the score on Chicago Friday night as much as possible and hope for the best from Tuesday’s results.
NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics-Bulls coverage begins at 7:00 PM ET with Celtics Pregame Live.
