As the dust from the 2021 NBA trade deadline settles and teams more or less know what they have to work with, only injuries and chemistry remain to shake up the Eastern Conference standings heading into the stretch run ahead of the playoffs.
With a three-team upper class of the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks virtually certain to finish out the season in more or less the same place barring an implosion of major proportions, where do the Boston Celtics stand in comparison to the rest of the East’s “middle class” of teams all within a few games of a .500 record?
And which are the teams we want to avoid ending up in a first-round matchup?
To that end, we got deep into the details of what’s left of the 2020-21 season for those ball clubs with the host of the CLNS podcast “The Garden Report” Jimmy Toscano with some cautious optimism mixed with a healthy dose of concern.
