Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers On Track For 2020 Playoff Series If NBA Returns

The NBA continues to explore how it might resume the season during the coronavirus pandemic. There is increasing confidence that a 2020 champion will be crowned at some point during the summer.

Each team has somewhere from 15-19 games remaining on its regular-season schedule. The expectation is that only a handful of those contests will be played if the season resumes.

That likely means the standings won’t change dramatically and the playoff picture is largely set. Seven teams in the Western Conference are more than 10 games ahead of the No.9 seed. Six Eastern Conference teams are at least 14 games better than the first team out of the postseason picture.

The Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers are both in that group and headed for a possible playoff matchup. If the current standings hold, the rivals will meet in the first round of the postseason.

Boston (43-21) is the East’s No.3 seed, trailing the Toronto Raptors by three games and two games in front of the Miami Heat. Philadelphia (39-26) is the No.6 seed with two more losses than Miami.

The Indiana Pacers have the same record as the 76ers, but they are the No.5 seed because they own the tiebreaker.

The Celtics and 76ers met in the second round of the 2018 playoffs. Boston eliminated Philadelphia in five games, despite missing both Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, who had previously suffered season-ending injuries.

Both teams made it to the second round of last year’s playoffs.

Philadelphia could arguably benefit more than any team from the league’s hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic. Joel Embiid missed five games with a shoulder injury just before the season was suspended on March 11. Ben Simmons last played on Feb. 22 because of a back injury that was expected to sideline him for several weeks.

Jayson Tatum won the Eastern Conference Player of the Month award for February. The Celtics forward averaged 30.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 12 games.

The 76ers won the regular-season series with the Celtics 3-1. Boston beat Philadelphia 116-95 when the rivals last met on Feb. 1.