Heat, Bulls to play for eighth and matchup with Celtics, but both teams suffer key injuries

The Celtics will either face the Miami Heat or the Chicago Bulls on Sunday in Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series. 

The Philadelphia 76ers beat Miami on Wednesday night to take the seventh seed in the East. The Sixers are now on to face the New York Knicks in the 2-7 series. But the bigger story is the suspected MCL injury suffered by Jimmy Butler. He’ll undergo an MRI to get the official diagnosis. An MCL injury would not only knock him out for Friday’s play-in game against Chicago, but very likely for the entire playoffs and it could impact the start of his next season. 

The Heat would have a tough time if they advance to face the Celtics regardless, but losing Butler takes away a tough shot-maker and a defender who can make game-breaking plays. Without Butler, the Heat will have less ability to switch defensively, which would be death for them. 

Miami can’t really play zone against Boston because of the Celtics personnel. At full strength, Kristaps Porzingis is an ideal zone-buster because he’s deadly from the free-throw line and he can pass to dangerous shooters all over the floor. If Miami’s zone isn’t an option, then Porzingis can occupy Bam Adebayo and pull him away from the rim while the rest of the Celtics pick on bad defenders who have to be on the floor because they're Miami’s best offensive players. 

The Bulls easily dispatched the Atlanta Hawks behind Coby White’s big second-half flourish. 

The Bulls suffered their own significant injury when Andre Drummond stepped on Alex Caruso’s foot while running back up court. With the winner of Chicago-Miami coming to Boston on Sunday, the Celtics will face a hobbled team regardless. 

Caruso’s injury puts the Bulls in a similar bind as Miami because it takes away a switchable defender. Because Chicago’s bigs aren’t mobile, they’ll have to be in drop coverage. Without another switchable defender on the perimeter, not to mention a reliable shooter to space the floor, the Bulls are in a real bind. 

Boston was 3-0 against Chicago this year, including the 124-97 embarrassment in Boston where the Celtics were trying to run up the score due to play-in tournament tiebreaker rules. If there's any motivation for Chicago, it’s trying to make up for that. 

The Celtics were 3-0 against Miami as well, including a 33-point win in January. 

Friday night’s game is a rematch of last year’s second play-in game where the Bulls blew a fourth-quarter lead, giving Miami the eighth seed. All Miami did after that was make the NBA Finals, so I suppose we shouldn’t write anything off until the series is over. 

It should also be noted that while the Sixers avoid Boston in the first round, it’s not out of the question that those two teams face off later in the playoffs. The Sixers didn’t look great in their win over Miami, and Joel Embiid looked very tired, so the Knicks will be favored in that series. But the matchup isn’t a bad one for Philadelphia, and the Knicks are unproven in the playoffs as well. 

Again, I expect the Knicks to win the series because they're the better team, but not having Julius Randle hurts them. A Sixers win wouldn’t be an outrageous result. And with Milwaukee taking on the Pacers without Giannis Antetokounmpo to start the series, an upset there isn’t out of the question either. 

If we get to Sixers/Pacers in the East semis, a Philadelphia win might not even be an upset at that point. A Sixers/Celtics Conference Finals series isn’t far-fetched. It’s unlikely, and it would take some luck, but it’s not out of the question at all.

First things first, though. Miami and Chicago will play each other Friday night for the right to face the Celtics, and things are looking pretty good for Boston no matter who they face in the first round.