Boston Celtics first-round series with Brooklyn Nets kicks off Saturday at Barclays Center

The Boston Celtics clinched the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed with their 118 – 100 blowout of the Washington Wizards in Tuesday night’s play-in tournament game, and with it, the honor of facing a formidable challenge in the Brooklyn Nets.

While the full schedule has yet to be released, we do know that the first game of the series will kick off this weekend with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday, May 22 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, with the game to take place at Barclays Center given the Nets have home court with the upper seed. And with the format for the postseason after the play-in tournament unchanged, we can extrapolate the remainder of the dates of the first round.

In normal seasons, playoff games are always separated by at least a day and sometimes two between games, but this model was condensed to every other day in the so-called Orlando bubble due to the pandemic and the constraints created by the hiatus and honoring broadcast deals.

With the NBA still trying to get caught up to something resembling the range of its normal season schedule, we anticipate a continuance of this scheduling approach. The every-other-day format followed by the league in the bubble would give us contests between Boston and Brooklyn on May 24, 26 and 28, with potential games on May 30 and June 1 and 3 should the Celtics defy the odds and make a series of the first-round matchup. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1394867415130034178?s=20

It should be emphasized that these are projected dates based on what we know about the situation, and not in any way representative of the official league calendar. We expect a finalized official postseason calendar soon, after the Western Conference play-in tournament is completed Wednesday evening and the full range of playoff teams set. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1394829970908852228?s=20

The normal order of home games for the team with the higher seed -- here, the Nets -- would have Brooklyn hosting the next game scheduled between the Nets and Celtics as well before moving to TD Garden for the following two games. After that, if neither team has a four-game advantage yet in the series, it will alternate between each club's home court, with Game 5 and 7 at Barclays Center and Game 6 at TD Garden, should they be needed. https://twitter.com/TheCelticsWire/status/1395037960899375109?s=20

Boston will need to be as healthy and locked in as they have been this season to have a chance at stealing a game or two, never mind the series. But after trouncing the heavily-favored Wizards in the play-in tourney, it looks like the Celtics have little plans to roll over and head into the postseason without a fight. This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook! [lawrence-related id=50705,50701,50698,50690] [listicle id=50695]

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