Weekend brings challenging tests for Celtics

BOSTON – A big weekend for the Celtics? Yes. And No.

With home games against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic, the only other teams in the East who, at present, look to be conference contenders (we’ll hold off on Detroit unless they give the Jamaal Tinsley treatment to Allen Iverson), it figures to be an important 48 hours for Doc Rivers & Co.

Especially the game against the Cavaliers, with whom the Celtics are battling for the top seed in the conference. It’s the old “four-pointer” in hockey parlance, given that the two teams are so close and homecourt advantage is so critical in this matchup. It’s also the first time in NBA history that two teams have met with each holding a division lead of 17 or more games.

As Rivers put it Friday morning, “it’s big because it’s a two-game swing with 20 games left. So, yeah, there is a sense of urgency. They haven’t beaten us here [in Boston] and we don’t want ’em to. And we haven’t won there and we want to.”

The Cavs hold a one-game lead (two in the loss column) over the Celtics going into the game. The teams split the first two meetings and there is one more to come, April 12 in Cleveland, the last Sunday of the regular season. To date, the Cavs are a rather imposing 27-1 at home.

But you only have to go back to last season to understand why this game looms large for both teams. The Cavs’ record in Boston the last two years: 0-7, including four defeats in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Celtics’ record in Cleveland over that same span of time: 0-6, three of the losses coming in the conference finals.

But the Cavs went into Friday with one big advantage: The Celtics are without Kevin Garnett, who is out for at least another week recovering from a knee injury. The game still counts in the standings, even without KG, although there should be an asterisk. The Celtics are two different teams with and without Garnett and while they’ve shown the ability to win without him, they haven’t been a particularly good defensive team without him.

So that is why you can’t really place either of these games on Boston’s “critical” list because, without Garnett, it isn’t the same Celtics team that Cleveland, Orlando, or anyone else, is going to meet in the playoffs. Rivers isn’t about to use that as an excuse, even as he acknowledges that Garnett’s value to the Celtics is almost incalculable.

“He holds everyone accountable on the floor. You hear that voice,’’ Rivers said.

Then why not have him on the bench, in civvies?

“Not a good idea,’’ the coach said. “Players never want to listen to a guy wearing a suit. They barely listen to me. Now they’re going to listen to two guys wearing suits? I don’t think so.”

Garnett missed a game against the Cavaliers last season and the Celtics gave up 114 points. He was healthy for the others when the Cavs were held to 70, 87 and 109 points (in overtime.)

“The last thing you want in a game like this is to be without your main guy,’’ Rivers said. “But I look at it as a challenge, a chance to build character. It will be a good test for us.”

Rivers worries about defending the Cavs even with Garnett.

“They have shooters,’’ he said. “You choose to help on LeBron and someone makes a three. You don’t help and you have to deal with LeBron. They have shooter after shooter after shooter out there.”

If the Cavaliers can somehow break through in Boston, then hold serve at the Q next month, they’ll have the valued tiebreaker should the two teams finish with the same record. That would come into play should they meet in the conference finals, which everyone figures is destined to be case, as it was last season with Detroit and Boston.

But there’s Orlando, hanging around as well, with only two more losses than the Celtics and with just one road game left against a Western Conference team. (Cleveland has three, all winnable, while the Celtics have two, one of them in San Antonio.) The Magic got hammered in their first visit to Boston back in December, when they were without injured point guard Jameer Nelson. They will again be without Nelson for Sunday afternoon’s game; he is out for the season following shoulder surgery.

Orlando also lost at home to the Celtics on Jan. 22 in what was then seen as a put-up-or-shut-up game for the Magic. The Magic had won seven straight and 11 in a row at home and were flexing their muscles a bit. The Celtics won 90-80, holding Orlando to a season low in points. End of strutting.

It’s somewhat amazing that the Magic are where they are considering they’re starting a backcourt of Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee. But the Magic, like the Cavs, have shooters. Do they ever. And they’ve got MVP candidate Dwight Howard in the middle, rebounding, dunking, blocking and altering shots.

These two teams meet one more time, later this month, in Hooterville, making Sunday’s game a must-win for Orlando if the Magic are to have any chance of overtaking the Celtics. A Boston victory would give the Celtics no less than a four-game lead over Orlando with 20 games left (if you include the fact that they’d won the season series). That’s a deficit that will be hard for the Magic to overcome, especially with the likely return of Garnett on the horizon.

So the message to the Cavs and the Magic this weekend: Get the Celtics while you can. Because the next time you see them, they’re likely to have the reigning Defensive Player of the Year lurking about and that alone makes them different – not to mention considerably more difficult to beat.