NBA Playoffs 2012: How the Boston Celtics Match Up in the Eastern Conference

Who has the Celtics' number?

Whose number do the Celtics have?

The playoffs are a mere four days away and the Celts are set to open a best-of-seven series with the Atlanta Hawks this weekend, either in Atlanta or in Boston at the TD Garden.

If the Celts are to advance, the likelihood of them meeting anyone in the Eastern Conference other than Miami or Chicago is slim. But you never know.

Let's take a look at how the C's match up against this year's Eastern Conference playoff participants from the best possible matchup to the worst.

1. New York

Never mind the 118-110 bludgeoning laid down by the Knicks last week at Madison Square Garden. If these two teams met in a playoff series—which they did last season and it ended in a clean sweep for the C's—there's no way in hell or high water that the Knicks would shoot 19-for-32 from long range, or that Steve Novak would score 25 points, total, in the entire series.

The Celtics split the season series with the Knicks, two games apiece. But prior to this year, they absolutely owned their rivals from New York, sweeping eight games last year (four in the postseason), winning three out of four in 2009-2010 and also taking three of four in '08-'09.

The Knicks are 16-6 since Mike Woodson took over for Mike D'Antoni in the middle of March, mostly by employing a strategy of getting the ball to Carmelo Anthony and having everyone else get out of the way or allowing J.R. Smith (and sometimes Novak) to fire up as many three-pointers as he wants.

There's a little more defense being played now. Rookie Iman Shumpert has emerged as a very good perimeter defender. And the Knicks have allowed just 91.7 points per game since Woodson took over.

But there really isn't a question of who the better, more adept team is. The Celts are still first in the league in opponent three-point percentage at 45 percent. They're still first in opponent's overall field-goal percentage at 42 percent. And they're still third in points allowed at 89.6.

The Celts could probably slow Anthony down to the point where he'd have to work much harder to get his. Or they could simply let him do his thing and force the wildly inconsistent Smith or the hobbled Amar'e Stoudemire step up and contribute in a supporting role.

However the C's chose to go about playing this version of the Knicks, it's very difficult to imagine them taking any more than five games to win a seven-game series. 

2. Orlando

The Indiana Pacers have to be licking their chops. The Magic are a disaster.

Just when it looked like the soap opera being perpetrated by Dwight Howard (who has made LeBron James appear honorable with his behavior this season) was finally over when it was announced he needs back surgery, he stoked the fire by asking to be traded. Again.

Since a three-game winning streak in late March, Orlando has dropped eight of 12, costing them home court in the first round of the playoffs. The Magic sit in the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference.

Coming into the season, the Magic were probably a title contender, albeit a fringe one. Thanks to Howard and his childishness, they are a shell of themselves. And the Celtics have benefited from the Magic's dysfunction. 

The Celts swept the season series this year, including wins on both ends of a home-and-home set back in January, the first of which was a 30-point blowout and the second involved a 27-point second-half comeback on the road.

Orlando is such a mess right now that anyone would match up well. Especially the Celtics.

3. Atlanta

The team set to meet the Celts in the first round is a good matchup for Boston. Maybe not as good as Orlando or the Knicks would be, but a good one.

Without center Al Horford, the Hawks are thin on the glass, something about which these Celtics could run a clinic. In the first two regular season meetings between the two teams (both Celts wins), Atlanta barely outrebounded the C's in the first and were dominated in the second.

Did we mention the Celtics are the worst rebounding team statistically in the league?

The last time these two teams met, the Hawks, playing at home with their full complement of players, were taken to the wire by a Celtics without Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett or Paul Pierce.

Atlanta has two elite players in Joe Johnson and Josh Smith, but the Hawks offense seems to get bogged down with Smith camping out around the three-point line more often than not while neglecting to take advantage of his superior post skills.

If Horford were healthy, this would be a much tougher task for the Celtics. As it is, the C's should take the series in six.

4. Philadelphia

Before the Sixers went into a bit of a tailspin around the All-Star break (14-23 prior to their current four-game winning streak), they had the C's number.

Twice in March, Philly thrashed the Celts at the Wachovia Center, once by 30 and then, two weeks later, by outscoring them by 20 in the third quarter en route to a 13-point victory.

After that second game, the Sixers lost 12 of 15 games, costing them the Atlantic Division and relegating them to the likely No. 8 seed in the playoffs and a first-round matchup with Chicago.

Philly plays great defense (their 89.2 points allowed per game rank ahead of the C's), but they don't score too much (93.8 PPG, 22nd in the league) and, other than potential Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams, they don't have a go-to guy.

They are also not terribly well equipped up front with veteran Elton Brand as their top scorer among big men at 11 points per game.

The Celtics will have trouble scoring against Philly's stingy D and the Sixers are seventh in the league in rebounding, which also doesn't bode well for Boston. If these two teams are to meet, the C's will have to hope that Garnett can control the paint at both ends and that their disadvantage on the boards won't hurt them too much.

5. Indiana

Big ups to the Pacers for earning the No. 3 seed in the East and proving that last year's excellent first-round performance against the Bulls was no fluke.

The Celts certainly have a truckload more experience playing in the postseason than the Pacers do and that will help them. But if these two teams are to meet up and the series goes long, Indy's youth and athleticism will become a major factor.

The Pacers have six players averaging double-digit points per game and a seventh, George Hill, averaging 11 points and five assists in April.

Center Roy Hibbert scores 13 points, grabs nine boards and blocks two shots a night. Garnett has been a revelation at center for the Celts, but Hibbert is a bad matchup for him. Indiana is also deeper, particularly in the backcourt and on the wing.

It's hard to picture these two tams meeting up as the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds, but if they do, the Celts will have to hope their guile and know-how can carry them.

6. Miami

The Celtics proved during the regular season that not only are they not intimidated by the Heat, that they can beat them fairly routinely as well.

They proved that last regular season too, though. And look where it got them in the playoffs.

The bottom line against the Heat is to limit their Big Three as much as possible and make someone, anyone else step up and contribute. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh got pretty much whatever they wanted in last year's Eastern Conference Semifinals, rendering the rest of the Heat roster unnecessary.

It's not known how healthy Wade and Bosh are. And Bosh has been a shell of his former self this year. His 18 points per game is his lowest total since his rookie year in Toronto and he's managing just eight rebounds per game. And when ESPN's John Hollinger calls him a defender who's "not particularly tough," he's going really easy on him.

The Heat will go as far as James, Wade and Bosh take them. There are major question marks as to whether James and Bosh have what it takes to win. And the Celts clearly know how to play and beat the Heat.

Still, given how much talent is on their roster and how much younger and more spry they are, it's hard to see the Heat falling to the Celts in a best-of-seven scenario.

7. Chicago

The Bulls should be considered the favorites in the East. They have the league's best record for the second straight year, have the reigning Coach of the Year (who has a great case to win it again) and learned to win without their best player, Derrick Rose, who missed 28 games but saw his team go 17-9 in his absence.

The Celts have had a lot of trouble with Chicago the past couple years. They were just 1-3 against the Bulls this season with two of the losses coming when they were at full strength and the Bulls were without Rose.

The great defense that's been a hallmark of the Celts for the past five years is now a hallmark of the Bulls, too, thanks to coach Tom Thibodeau, who crafted the Celts into a force on D during his time as Doc Rivers' top assistant.

If the Bulls are going down, it will be because they don't score enough (96.3 PPG, 18th in the league). And the Celts are good enough on defense to keep the Chicago offense at bay.

But Boston has offensive troubles of its own (91.9 PPG, 26th in the league) and can be controlled by the Bulls tenacious D. Rose and Rondo shapes up to be a great duel and the C's probably win close individual matchups of Garnett vs. Carlos Boozer and Pierce vs. Luol Deng.

There's just too much top to bottom for the Bulls, though. They are the team the Celtics want to see the least.