A few days ago, I came on here and wrote about the lottery-like scenario that would need to transpire in order for the Boston Celtics to survive into the final day of Emirates NBA Cup group play.
They needed a Washington Wizards win over the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, a victory of their own against the streaking Detroit Pistons, and then one of the New York Knicks or Miami Heat to lose their Wednesday cup game.
To be honest, I didn’t expect this parlay of a pathway to last beyond its first leg. There was just no way that the Wizards, who had lost 14 straight, were going to show up against a Hawks team that’d won seven of its last 10.