What must happen for Celtics to advance

Although the Celtics beat the Bulls Friday night, Atlanta clinched the NBA Cup knockout round berth from East Group C.

The Celtics and Hawks both won on Friday to finish at 3-1 atop the group standings. Atlanta owns the tiebreaker over Boston, thanks to a head-to-head victory in group stage play.

While the Celtics did not win East Group C, there are still a few scenarios that could allow Boston to advance to the knockout rounds. The Celtics could advance as the Eastern Conference wild card team if the point differential tiebreaker breaks their way.

The top two teams in East groups A and B all play each other on Tuesday.

The Magic and Knicks are tied at 3-0 in East Group A. They’ll face off at Madison Square Garden. The Bucks and Pistons are tied at 3-0 in Group B. They’ll match up in Detroit.

The loser of each game will be tied with the Celtics at 3-1. The next tiebreaker after head-to-head is point differential.

Here are the remaining paths for the Celtics to advance:

1. The Knicks blow out the Magic by 37 or more and Bucks beat Pistons by 5 or more. Orlando (+60) has a sizable advantage over the Celtics (+23) in point differential that can only be overcome if New York beats Orlando by 37 or more. If the Knicks beat the Magic by that much or more, the Celtics would have the tiebreaker over Orlando. The Pistons (+28) differential would fall below the Celtics’ (+23) differential if Detroit loses to Milwaukee by 6 or more.
2. The Knicks blow out the Magic by 37 or more and Pistons beat Bucks (+29) by 7 or more. Same scenario as above, except Milwaukee would be tied with Boston and would their point differential would drop below +23 with a 7 point loss or more.
3. Magic win, Pistons beat Bucks by 7 or more. The Knicks (+15) would be tied with the Celtics at 3-1, and since their differential is already smaller than the Celtics, any Knicks loss would give the Celtics the tiebreaker over them no matter the score.
4. Magic win, Bucks beat Pistons by 6 or more. Celtics would get point differential tiebreaker over these teams as explained above.

There are further tiebreakers beyond point differential. If two teams finish tied in point differential, the next tiebreaker would be total points scored in group play. The next tiebreaker after that would be the record from last year’s regular-season, and then if there was still a tie after all that, there would be a random drawing.

But, with point differential, the right teams would have to win by the exact right amount to need another tiebreaker, and that’s pretty unlikely.

Bucks-Pistons will be at 7:00 on Tuesday. Magic-Knicks will tip off at 7:30 on Tuesday.

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

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Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

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