Moranis,
How are you saying you said nothing about Vegas and the raptors???
"Cleveland and Houston, especially both have significantly higher title odds than Boston does. They aren't close (and that accounts for Houston having to beat not only GS but also a team like SA just to make the finals). San Antonio's are about inline with Boston, but that is really only because they would have to beat both Houston and Golden State just to make the finals. Then you have teams like Toronto, which right now would likely be favored to beat Boston in a playoff series
If you say someone is favored, you realize 99% of the population is going to assume you are talking about vegas lines. Nobody is going to think this is Hollinger's projection system you were referring to. You said something. It was wrong, you were corrected. Own it like every other poster on this site would for the love of god.
As far as I know, there aren't Vegas lines on a potential Toronto v. Boston playoff match-up. Thus I couldn't have been talking about any sort of Vegas lines, because they don't exist.
What there are, is future title and conference odds. I know you know of these because we have repeatedly debated them throughout the season. Even funnier, you referenced them earlier in your post talking about the title odds. This is pretty weak man. Toronto is considered less likely to win the east and less less likely to win the title by a very very significant margin. You said they would "likely be favorite" over Boston in a playoff series. Worse, you added "right now". THIS IS WRONG. What happens if you admit you said something wrong? Does your brain explode?
I know what the future odds say. And I know, pretty much everyone believes Toronto has a 0% chance of beating Cleveland, thus their Finals Odds are going to be terrible because of that and because not much money will come in on Toronto. Boston is more likely to beat Cleveland because they match-up with Cleveland better than Toronto does, and thus has better odds to make the Finals. Toronto, while having basically a 0% chance of beating Cleveland, matches up much better with Boston. Boston will struggle to defend Toronto and unlike Cleveland can't make Toronto truly pay on the wings or with interior scoring, which is Toronto's main weaknesses defensively.
Finals odds are based on a lot of factors, they aren't based on individual match-ups. Those come out after the match-ups are determined.
So based on your expectations: "That said, I actually expect Toronto to finish with the 1st seed and thus don't actually think Boston will play Toronto in the playoffs as I see Boston (the 3 seed) losing to Cleveland (the 2 seed) in the 2nd round"
You expect Toronto to play Cleveland in the conference finals where according to you they have "basically a 0% chance of beating Cleveland". By this, I would assume you think Toronto is a 0% contender.
Now, again based on your expectation, Boston "is more likely to beat Cleveland because they match-up with Cleveland better than Toronto does". So let's assume Boston has a 1% chance of beating Cleveland (against Toronto's 0% chance).
You seem to be saying, according to your expectations for how the seeding will play out, that Boston is more of a contender than Toronto, since the probability that Boston beats anyone leading up to Cleveland AND beats Cleveland is higher than 0%. Unless, you want to claim that Boston has a 0% chance of beating Toronto or that some team other than Toronto, Boston, or Cleveland would be in the conference finals.

Basically, I'm just trying to illustrate that you're throwing numbers out there to support your hunch, and then confusing your hunch with likelihood because there are numbers out there to support it.
Ultimately, the contender status of the Celtics comes down to how you define 'contender'. It's not something you can draw a clear line around using win/loss record or playoff projections in January.