basketball

Havlicek Stole the Pod: Sizing up teams the Celtics could play in the first round

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The 2025-26 NBA regular season is more than 90% over, with the Boston Celtics having just six games left to play. But after that of course comes the 2026 NBA Playoffs, and the Celtics are poised to make some serious noise in the Eastern Conference postseason scrum thanks to an MVP-caliber campaign from star Boston forward Jaylen Brown, big steps forward from several rotation players, and a surprisingly capable incoming cohort of rookies, new Celtics, and a healed Jayson Tatum. This then begs the question of which East ball club Boston will likely face in the first round of the 'offs -- and more to the point which teams we most (and least) want the Celtics to face in the first round.

With three likely opponents and another trio of less likely ones pending who comes out of the play-in tournament (and where Boston finishes in the standings), the hosts of "Havlicek Stole the Pod" took some time on this episode to talk through the field of potential opponents for the Celtics, along with which we feel would be the biggest (and least) challenge for Boston. We also get caught up on all your late-season Celtics news, so be sure to tune in! Listen to "Havlicek Stole the Pod" on: Blue Wire: https://tiny.

ee/CdKp iTunes: https://tiny. ee/RK47 YouTube: https://tiny. ee/cOW3 This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Sizing up the teams the Celtics could play in the first round of the playoffs