The Boston Celtics' NBA Cup hopes are still alive after Friday night's hard-fought victory over the Washington Wizards.
They improved to 2-1 in the group stage with their 108-96 win, which boosted their point differential to +14. Point differential is a tiebreaker in the tournament along with head-to-head matchups.
Shortly after the C's triumph, the East Group C-leading Atlanta Hawks dropped to 2-1 with their 136-122 loss to the Chicago Bulls. That gives Boston a chance to overtake Atlanta for the top spot if it beats Chicago and the Hawks fall to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their final group stage games next Friday.
If Atlanta defeats Cleveland, it will earn the tiebreaker because of its victory over Boston in the NBA Cup opener. The Celtics can advance to the knockout stage, however, even if the Hawks win the group.
In addition to the six group winners (three in the Eastern Conference, three in the Western Conference), there are two "wild cards" that advance to the next round. These are the teams in each conference with the best record in Group Play that didn't win their groups. If more than one team has the same Group Play record, point differential is used as the top tiebreaker.
That being the case, we can expect to see head coach Joe Mazzulla try to run up the score on Chicago next Friday. If the Celtics finish 3-1 in Group Play, and the Hawks win the group, the C's would need to have a better point differential than every other 3-1 team in the Eastern Conference that didn't win its group to advance as the wild card team.
Boston will take a break from NBA Cup action with their next two games coming against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers at TD Garden. C's-Wolves is set for a 3:30 p.m. ET tip-off Sunday on NBC Sports Boston.
