Are you a glass half-full person, or a glass half-empty person?
Your answer will determine how you feel about where the Celtics currently are in the Eastern Conference standings.
At 33-24 after Sunday’s win over the Nuggets, the Celtics are 3rd in the Eastern Conference, 8.5 games behind the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers and 4.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
However, the Celtics can’t get comfortable. Why? Because despite the fact that they are 4.5 games out of second place, they’re only 3.5 games ahead of the Chicago Bulls . . . who are currently holding on to the eighth seed.
That’s right, just four losses could all of a sudden have the Celtics on the outside looking in. The Miami Heat are a game behind Boston, followed by the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks two games behind them. The Hornets are three-games behind.
The good news is that the C’s are well aware of that and don’t have any plans to coast.
“We’re as close to ninth as we are to second. That’s real. That’s what it is,” Brad Stevens told reporters before Monday’s game in Minnesota. “You guys have watched the teams play. Outside of Cleveland and Toronto, everybody else you can throw in a hat. We just happen to be able to put together some wins here but that stuff is going to go up and down. You’re going to have to play these last 25 games as well as you can. You’re not going to feel safe, that’s for sure.”
The Celtics host the Heat this Saturday, the only game they have against an Eastern Conference playoff team behind them in the standings until a Mar. 15 game in Indiana.