NBA games of the week: Celtics chase down Raptors

The penultimate edition of the NBA games of the week is brought to you by the home stretch none of us saw coming.

Head back to Mar. 18.

In the west, the top two seeds were all but locked in. The Houston Rockets had just won their fifth straight game — they’d tack on six more since. The Golden State Warriors were without Stephen Curry, who would return and leave injured again a week later, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, both whom played Saturday against the Sacramento Kings. (Here’s to hoping Patrick McCaw makes a full recovery and is back on the court soon). Like all smart teams, the Warriors were fine with punting on homecourt in favor of being healthy in the postseason. So we’ve known for a long enough time that the home court in the West runs through Houston.

On Mar. 18, in the East, the top two seeds were also locked. The Toronto Raptors had just had their 11-game win streak snapped, but had 52 wins, a full five games ahead of the Boston Celtics in the win column. That same day, the Celtics lost to the New Orleans Pelicans. They were already without Gordon Hayward and were without Kyrie Irving, whose knee injury resurfaced fears of the 2015 NBA Finals when Irving’s knee required surgery.

The top seeds in the East were always murkier than the West. Now, it’s inching toward chaos. Since Mar. 18, the Celtics haven’t lost. The Raptors are 3-3, including a loss to the Celtics. Toronto’s five-game lead two weeks ago is now two, and it feels shaky. Brad Stevens is making his best case to steal Coach of the Year honors from Dwane Casey.

The top seed in the playoffs isn’t indicative of future success. But, if all holds below both teams, then the second seed gets LeBron James in the second round instead of the Conference Finals — and everyone should want to see LeBron as late as possible.

Here are the games of the of the week.