Can the Celtics get to 50 wins? Maybe, but it will take a great finish

The Boston Celtics are currently sitting at third in the Eastern Conference standings at the moment, and 7th best in the NBA, with a 35-25 record. That's pretty damn good, and just 15 wins away from that nice round 50 number. Is it possible they could get there?

While nothing is ever a shock with this team, it would certainly take an above average finish to pull it off. At 35-25 right now, the Celtics have a .583 winning percentage on the season. By my tally (risky) their record against their remaining opponents is 19-13, a .593 winning percentage. To get to 50 wins they would have to go 15-7, which is a .681 winning percentage.

Trust my math at your own risk

Now over a larger sample size those numbers would mean more, but with this small of a pool just one extra win or loss moves those numbers around a lot. So while the 15-7 finish would be an uptick in performance, a 13-9 finish would be .590, pretty consistent with their season. If you factor in that they have 12 home games and 10 road games, maybe toss them an extra "expected" win that would put them at 14-8, or 49 wins.

There is a 5 game west coast road trip that will have a lot of influence with how many wins the Celtics finish with. It includes matchups with the Warriors and the Clippers, but the Celtics took both of them to overtime (although at home) and are 1-1 against them. The other 3 games on that road trip are against the Suns, Lakers, and Trail Blazers. Anything less than 3-2 on that trip really makes 50 wins nearly impossible. Even 3-2 would mean they would have to go 12-5 in their other remaining games.

If after that road trip 50 wins is still on sight, the C's have 5 games remaining with 4 of them at home. The Pelicans and Bucks at home, the Hawks away, and then the Hornets and Heat to close it all out. That Heat game could see the Celtics playing with focus regardless of that 50 number, just due to the tightness between the two teams records.

So what do you think? I think 50 is a lot to expect, but this team has been playing great. To be honest, I think they come up just short, but if they somehow go wild on that west coast trip everything changes. Luckily, 50 wins is just an arbitrary number that won't mean anything in regards to their success, but damn it'd be a cool number to have Stevens and the C's finish their season with.




Top Photo Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports



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