Celtics Preview: A Look at The Final Week of the Season

Chris Forsberg does a great job of breaking down the final week of the season:

As we enter the final week of the NBA season, the Eastern Conference playoff picture is slowly coming into focus. While the possibility still exists for three different opponents — Atlanta, Orlando, and Indiana — the odds are heavy on the Hawks and the only real interesting area to watch this week will be whether Atlanta can hang onto its current grasp on home-court advantage in that 4-5 matchup.

The Hawks, winners of three in a row, still have a small chance to shuffle up to the No. 3 seed, but need an awful lot to go their way (sitting 2½ games behind the Pacers at the moment). Orlando’s overtime loss Saturday night might have ended any hope of them shuffling up to the No. 5 seed (sitting 2 games back of Atlanta). The Hawks are a 1½ games ahead of Boston in terms of overall record, which will be the deciding factor in home-court advantage (Boston does own the head-to-head tie-breaker in the event of matching records).

A glance at the standings through Saturday’s action:

The remaining schedules for the key players:

Boston: Heat (4/24), Bucks (4/26)
Atlanta: Knicks (4/22), Clippers (4/24), Mavericks (4/26)
Orlando: at Nuggets (4/22), Bobcats (4/25), at Memphis (4/26)
Indiana: Pistons (4/23), Bulls (4/25)