Injuries may have cost the Boston Celtics an NBA Championship this season. At the very least, it’s going to cost them a legitimate shot at making a run at one. On Thursday, it was announced that star guard Kyrie Irving will not only miss the remainder of the regular season but he’ll also miss all of the playoffs. With Gordon Hayward already out for the Celtics, this news couldn’t be any worse for Boston.
As a result, the Celtics odds to win the NBA Championship have tumbled significantly. The oddsmakers at BetDSI had them posted at 14/1 and that was with the assumption that Irving would be back at some point in time for the playoffs (as previous reports had indicated). Now the Celtics have fallen to 25/1 for now and they could fall even lower.
While the Celtics have depth, losing Kyrie Irving for the remainder of the season is going to hurt. It’s going to be a loss that this team can’t overcome. While players like Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier have filled in admirably, this team was hoping that Irving – who had played like an MVP at times this season – would be the player that led them in the playoffs. He has the experience and the savvy while the rest of the Celtics are short on deep playoff runs. Irving was also the player who took the key shots down the stretch and often willed this team to win.
What’s also hampering the Celtics playoff odds is that they are going to have a couple of tough playoff series in the first two rounds. While the Washington Wizards – the Celtics likely first-round opponent – have struggled this season, they are a talented team that’s made it out of the first round before. The Celtics could also face the upstart Milwaukee Bucks. While both series should result in a Celtics win, they’ll be long and hard-fought without Irving. And in Round 2, the Celtics are either going to face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers or a young Philadelphia 76ers squad that has won 12 straight games. Both matchups don’t seem very enviable.
Without Irving, the Celtics will have a tough time making it out of the second round of the playoffs – if they even get that far.
