With 8 games remaining, who is the Celtics most likely 1st round playoff foe?

[chambers]

Atlanta or Orlando? Or even Indiana (I doubt it- their schedule is easy)?
I think we pretty much have the Atlantic locked up.
Who do we face in the first round and who would we rather face out of the above three?
I'm honestly not fussed between Atlanta or Orlando- we just need to keep the 4th seed and avoid playing Indiana.
Indiana have size and they can run.
Orlando has Howard. KG can handle him and our defense will force them to get hot from the three for 4 of 7 games which I doubt they do. Their locker room is in shambles too.
Match up wise they give us a problem with Ryan Anderson against Bass- but Rondo and Bradley should be sweet against their front court.
Atlanta has Smith and Johnson. No inside presence, weak bench.
As Lebron would say, I dare Josh Smith to shoot like he did tonight against us again in the first half.

I think we most likely play Atlanta and I probably want it that way. Their schedule is easier than Orlando's combined with Orlando's in house garbage.

8 games to go!

[drax]

Im fine with all of them but if i could choose:

Orlando>Atlanta>Indiana

Orlando pretty much would be ideal. We can defend there threepoint play pretty easy with our defensive line up and if anyone can handle Howard its KG. Only Anderson could be dangerous but i have faith in Bass.

Atlanta in the play offs its pretty much give Johnson the ball and hope he makes 3 pointers. But with Bradley in charge on ball pressure all day long.

Indiana has size thats a problem so hopefully we wont get them.

But i'll say this: With the defense from the first Miami game anyone can come and i won't be afraid.

[theswitch]

I'm cheering for the Hawks in the first round for sure. We match up pretty well with them.

[Fafnir]

I'm not concerned with playing either Orlando or Atlanta. The Pacers have been playing rather well lately, so I'd probably least like to play them.

But either way since I'm cautiously optimistic about this team's chances of making an upset heavy playoff run the first round opponent shouldn't matter. If we can't take care of any of the other also rans fairly easily in the conference (not Miami/Chicago) well then we'd get annhilated by the big boys.

[theswitch]

I'm not concerned with playing either Orlando or Atlanta. The Pacers have been playing rather well lately, so I'd probably least like to play them.

But either way since I'm cautiously optimistic about this team's chances of making an upset heavy playoff run the first round opponent shouldn't matter. If we can't take care of any of the other also rans fairly easily in the conference (not Miami/Chicago) well then we'd get annhilated by the big boys.

As long as we win the series, I'm cool with it going to 6 games. I want this team to keep its flow, and last year it felt like we were a little out of rhythm after a week off following a sweep of the Knicks. In the playoffs you always get at least a day to rest before your next game so I'd almost prefer for a nice 5-6 game series where we can keep the flow and maybe get a few days off at the end.

The championship team almost lost in the first round too.

[RyNye]

As long as we win the series, I'm cool with it going to 6 games. I want this team to keep its flow, and last year it felt like we were a little out of rhythm after a week off following a sweep of the Knicks.

I remember back in the play-offs last year John Hollinger (or some other ESPN Insider article, anyway) was talking how, historically, few championship teams sweep their way through their 1st round matchup. In fact, there seems to be a correlation between the difficulty of the first round matchup and the depth of the play-off run; whoever wrote that article made the case that the team needs to get into that tough, desperate, crunch-time playoff basketball atmosphere as soon as possible. It's all mental.

[Fafnir]

The championship team almost lost in the first round too.

No they didn't.

They lost 3 close games on the road, any of which the C's had a good shot at winning but Joe Johnson killed us by isoing on Ray and hitting everything. Meanwhile in Boston we blew out the Hawks a whopping four times. We won by 23, 19, 25, and 34, meanwhile we only lost by 9, 5, and 3 points. All decided in the last few possesions.

It was in the semi finals against LeBron that we were actually in danger of losing. They actually outscored us for the series and had us in serious trouble in game 5 near half time. Rondo hit two threes in a row and we went on a big run to get it close at the half. That was the game/series we almost blew.

[Donoghus]

The championship team almost lost in the first round too.

No they didn't.

They lost 3 close games on the road, any of which the C's had a good shot at winning but Joe Johnson killed us by isoing on Ray and hitting everything. Meanwhile in Boston we blew out the Hawks a whopping four times. We won by 23, 19, 25, and 34, meanwhile we only lost by 9, 5, and 3 points. All decided in the last few possesions.

It was in the semi finals against LeBron that we were actually in danger of losing. They actually outscored us for the series and had us in serious trouble in game 5 near half time. Rondo hit two threes in a row and we went on a big run to get it close at the half. That was the game/series we almost blew.

Depends on how you look at it.

An 8 seed took a 1 seed to an elimination game.  The elimination game proved to be a non-contest but they were pushed to a Game 7 so you could easily make the arguement that they "almost" lost in the 1st round.

I agree that the 2nd round matchup with Cavs that playoffs was a much more hard-faught battle, though.

[mgent]

I'm cheering for the Hawks in the first round for sure. We match up pretty well with them.

Same, however I don't think we match up with them very well.  I've always found them one of the toughest teams in the league to match up with for anybody.  Still I'd unbelievably prefer them over the Magic who we match up with almost perfectly because Dwight can easily dominant the game with rebounds alone every night.  That's the only way to beat us.

I'd much rather face one of those two than the Sixers or especially the Pacers as they are the most complete teams.  Actually Indiana has 8 players that could go off for 20 points on any given night, and each starter is perfectly capable of 30.  Add 2 excellent defenders in Jones and Lou.  That's some serious balance.  However the scariest/most dangerous part of meeting them in a playoff series is the two near-elite down low scorers in their frontcourt.

[pearljammer10]

I voted for Atlanta, but I think I immediately wanted to change my decision to Orlando...Which all the drama that is going on in Orlando right now, I think that they could implode easily if we got a good jump on them. I honestly dont know how Orlando is that good because I think Howard is the only good player they have honestly. I think we could handle the Hawks in seven to but would be more worried about their run and gun style wearing us down.

[j804]

Orlando

[alajet]

Doesn't matter that much.
Since Al Horford went down, Atlanta went off everyone's radar mainly because their self-confidence looks to be gone already.
I just can't see the "How far can we go" attitude in their play at the moment. They are more like showing the face of "When will we get eliminated"
With that mindset, they're not to achieve great things in this post-season.
Orlando is still in a Howard frenzy and with Nelson not giving his head to the game, they only have Ryan Anderson as a working piece from the supporting cast.
I'd not be scared by Indiana, either. Paul could outplay Granger and Bass is playing too good to lose an inside battle against West.

[amenhotep04]

Gotta be Atlanta. With so few games left I can't see the Cs topping Indiana, nor Atlanta caving in to Orlando. And the Cs will come close to sweeping Atlanta.

[Boris Badenov]

I don't much care about the first round matchup - I think we'll beat anyone we play (assuming we don't fall to 8 and play Chicago).

The only thing I care about this year, honestly, is sending Miami home again. That alone will make this season a complete success.

I think the easiest route for this to happen is for us to win the Atlantic, but with the 6th best record overall. Isn't that right? Then we play Miami in the second round.

[chambers]

I don't much care about the first round matchup - I think we'll beat anyone we play (assuming we don't fall to 8 and play Chicago).

The only thing I care about this year, honestly, is sending Miami home again. That alone will make this season a complete success.

I think the easiest route for this to happen is for us to win the Atlantic, but with the 6th best record overall. Isn't that right? Then we play Miami in the second round.

I'm hoping for something similar, just busting Miami would be so great-but if we got that far we'd have to prey for the rebounding and FG% gods to help us vs Chicago. Their size and depth is just painfully good come conference final time.