Underachieving Celts fighting for home court in first round

BOSTON — The final days of March were supposed to find the Celtics jockeying for prime playoff position. 

They were expected to be closing in on the top spot in the Eastern Conference in these final days of the regular season and perhaps going head-to-head with the Golden State Warriors for the NBA’s best record. 

Instead, the Celtics have been reduced to being involved in a much less significant "race’’ heading down the stretch. [...]

BOSTON — The final days of March were supposed to find the Celtics jockeying for prime playoff position. 

They were expected to be closing in on the top spot in the Eastern Conference in these final days of the regular season and perhaps going head-to-head with the Golden State Warriors for the NBA’s best record. 

Instead, the Celtics have been reduced to being involved in a much less significant “race’’ heading down the stretch. 

The way things are shaping up, the best the underachieving Celtics can hope for is moving past the overachieving Indiana Pacers to finish fourth in the conference, giving them home-court advantage when the playoffs get going April 13-14. 

Barring any changes in the season’s final two weeks, the Celtics and Pacers are going to be squaring off in the opening round with the site of Games 1 and 2 still to be determined. 

As a preview for that potential matchup, the Celtics and Pacers will be meeting on consecutive Friday nights, first at the TD Garden this week and then in Indiana next week. 

Those two games will go a long way in determining whether the Celtics are home to get the postseason going to traveling as the No. 5 seed. 

Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Pacers (45-29) were ahead of the Celtics (44-31) with the Philadelphia 76ers (47-27) closing in on the No. 3 seed. 

Two wins by the Celtics over the Pacers could shift things around. No matter what happens, the two teams will likely be seeing a lot of each other in the upcoming weeks. 

“We want to play well against them and also try to get home court,’’ said Gordon Hayward following a Wednesday afternoon practice at the Auerbach Center. “They’re a good team. They play together. They move the ball well. They play to their strengths. They’re going to be tough. 

“It’ll be a fun game for us and hopefully one we can look to improve in and kind of get ourselves going.’’ 

While the Celtics, the preseason pick to win the East with Hayward and Kyrie Irving returning from injuries, have flopped, the Pacers are putting together a solid season. 

They were 32-15 when top scorer Victor Oladipo suffered a ruptured quad tendon on Jan. 23 and it seemed the Pacers would drop in the standings. But they were 13-14 prior to Wednesday since he was sidelined. 

“Oladipo’s a great player and somebody that they turn to late in games, for sure, and is a big-time shot maker,’’ said Hayward. “But some of the things that they do haven’t really changed. They’re playing the seams. They play through their bigs. They make the right reads, the extra pass. That part doesn’t change. 

“They’re also really physical and they really play hard. It definitely hurts them that they don’t have Oladipo, but they’re still really tough.’’ 

The Celtics broke a four-game losing streak on Tuesday night, holding off the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Coach Brad Stevens had them right back at the training facility roughly 12 hours after the plane landed to get more work in with only seven games to go before the regular season ends April 9. 

He will be more focused on the Pacers should the playoff matchup materialize next month, but right now, Stevens is trying yet again to get the Celtics going in the right direction. 

“I’m pretty locked in on us right now,’’ said Stevens. “Certainly we prepare and scout and we’ll be ready for each of those games. We’re very cognizant of where the standings are and the likelihood of that playing out. You’re looking at it with a great amount of interest and maybe even an enhanced level of detail. 

“But ultimately we also can’t miss the boat of focusing in on us because we have enough to work on ourselves.’’ 

Stevens said he won’t be hiding anything for the Pacers, even with them on the playoff radar in the not-too-distant future. 

“I don’t really worry about that stuff,’’ he said. “There’s seven games in a series. That stuff all comes out. We have 75 games of film as do they. People are easy to scout for the most part. 

“You might add something as the series goes on. You might tweak things. But I think sometimes when you focus on trying to trick people it’s more important just to be you and be the best version of you.’’ 

-- Jim Fenton may be reached at jfenton@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFenton_ent.