NBA Game of the Week for the Week of April 2-April 8
The Philadelphia 76ers, who have led the Atlantic Division for practically the entire season, suddenly find themselves a game behind the division-leading Boston Celtics with just 25 days remaining in the regular season. This week's NBA Game of the Week is the third and final regular-season meeting between these two division rivals.
This will be the fourth game of the week for both teams. Before playing Philadelphia in the NBA Game of the Week, Boston will host the San Antonio Spurs and visit the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers. The 76ers will visit the Miami Heat and host the Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic before the Celtics come to town.
Philadelphia, who won both of the prior meetings by double digits, has already clinched the three-game season series with Boston. As winners of the season series, the 76ers own the tiebreaker and would win the Atlantic Division should Philadelphia and Boston finish the season with the same record.
(All statistics and records are through April 1)
Sunday, April 8, Philadelphia 76ers (29-23) at Boston Celtics (30-22), 6:00 p.m. on NBA TV
Heading into the All-Star break, the 76ers were 20-14 and held a four-game lead over the 15-17 Celtics. Since the break, Boston has gone a stellar 15-5 (two of those losses were at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center) while Philadelphia has treaded water at 9-9.
The 76ers have lost four of their last five road games and with 10 of their final 14 games away from the Wells Fargo Center, they will have to reverse that trend if they want to have any chance at winning the Atlantic Division for the first time since the 2000-2001 season. Reversing that trend will not be easy with Philadelphia's next two road games coming against the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. The 76ers have not won in Miami since 2008 and have lost five of their last six trips to Boston.
But since Philadelphia owns the tiebreaker, if the 76ers can win just one more game than the Celtics over the next three and a half weeks, they will win the Atlantic and guarantee themselves one of the top four seeds in the 2012 Eastern Conference Playoffs.
Boston has won eight straight home games and five straight overall. If the Celtics can continue their winning ways, they will secure their fifth straight Atlantic Division title. With 10 of their final 14 games against teams with winning records, it may not be easy for the Celtics to continue their streaks. So far this season, Boston is 12-16 against teams above .500.
Except for the 76ers and San Antonio Spurs, the Celtics have already proven that they can beat all of the teams remaining on their schedule.
With only one game separating the Celtics and 76ers for the Atlantic Division crown, each and every one of their remaining games can have playoff implications for both teams. But the biggest game of them all is likely to be the final head-to-head matchup that is this week's NBA Game of the Week.
Mark is a lifelong NBA fan who has loved the game of basketball ever since his first trip to an NBA arena. Mark has watched more basketball games than anyone can count and has more than 100 articles about the NBA published on the internet. Mark also shares his random NBA musings and game-by-game predictions on RandomNBAFan.com.
Information from ESPN.com's NBA Schedule and 2011-2012 NBA Regular Season Divisional Standings was used for this article.
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