Celtics playoff picture: Boston makes notable move in No. 2 seed race

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Celtics playoff picture: Boston makes notable move in No. 2 seed race

Brian Robb · MassLive

Thu, Apr 2, 2026 ·

3 min read

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The Celtics took a massive step forward towards securing the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference on Wednesday night. Boston cruised to a 147-129 win over the Miami Heat , allowing them to maintain their 2.5-game lead over the New York Knicks for the No. 2 seed. The Knicks managed to keep pace with Boston in the standings with a 130-119 road win over the Memphis Grizzlies despite missing Jalen Brunson (sore ankle).

EASTERN CONFERENCE

	W	L	Pct	GB
y-Detroit	55	21	.724	—
x-Boston	51	25	.671	4
x-New York	49	28	.636	6½
Cleveland	47	29	.618	8
Atlanta	44	33	.571	11½
Philadelphia	42	34	.553	13
Toronto	42	34	.553	13
Charlotte	40	36	.526	15
Orlando	40	36	.526	15
Miami	40	37	.519	15½

The Knicks own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Boston (via divisional record) with one head-to-head game looming between the two teams in New York on April 9. However, it’s looking very possible that matchup will not be consequential in the race for the No. 2 seed if Boston continues to take care of business with the remainder of their schedule.

Boston (19th in opponent strength) has the far easier schedule than the Knicks (9th in opponent strength) with six regular season games remaining. Currently, Boston’s magic number to clinch the No. 2 seed is four.

Celtics remaining schedule (6 games): @ MIL, vs. TOR, vs. CHA, @ NYK, vs. NOP, vs. ORL

Knicks remaining schedule (5 games):vs. CHI, @ ATL, vs. BOS, vs. TOR, vs. CHA

Both teams will be heavy favorites on Friday night against their tanking opponents. After that, if the Celtics can win their next two games at home and the Knicks lose a tough road matchup against the Hawks , Boston will have clinched the No. 2 seed by the time they get to New York on April 9 to face the Knicks.

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Even if Boston doesn’t clinch by then, all they need to do now to clinch the No. 2 seed is finish 4-2 or better. That gives them some margin for error in the next two weeks, while the Knicks would have to win out to even give themselves a chance (barring a Boston collapse).

Home games against the Raptors and Hornets next week will not be gimmes for Boston, but the Celtics look like a team that’s going to be tough to beat any night right now with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown playing at this level.

Boston can lower their magic number down to three on Friday night when they wrap up their four-game road trip against the Bucks .

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