Celtics clinch home-court

With the Pacers' 92-88 loss to Orlando last night, their 38th, the Celtics have clinched the home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA play-offs. Who they will play is still up in the air, as the 6th seed could be either Indiana or Philadelphia. Right now, with each team having one game remaining, Indiana is 1 game ahead of Philadelphia. If Indiana wins in Chicago on Wednesday OR Philadelphia loses at home to Atlanta on Wednesday (yeah, right) then the Pacers would be the 6th seed. If, however, Philadelphia wins AND Indiana loses, they'd finish tied, and Philadelphia would get the 6th seed, and the Celtics in the first round, by virtue of their 4-0 record against Indiana head-to-head.

The Celtics have 2 games left, and they're both relatively meaningless - they are already locked into the 3rd seed and the home-court in the first round. It is conceivable that they could catch Chicago for the 3rd-best actual record in the conference, or drop behind Washington to 5th, but it's unlikely that either scenario would have any actual ramifications. As the 3rd seed, they are, in all probability, going to play Detroit in the 2nd round if they get through the first, and it doesn't matter if they finish ahead of Washington and Chicago, behind them, or in between...