NBA playoff predictions: Why Mannix thinks Celtics beat Hawks in five games originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Earlier this week, the Boston Celtics were staring at the possibility of having to play a tough, well-coached Miami Heat team in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs.
It would have been a difficult series for the Celtics. They barely got past the Heat in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals that went seven games. But the Heat were upset by the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament. Now it’s the Hawks coming to Boston to play the Celtics in Round 1.
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How much better of a matchup are the Hawks than the Heat?
“(The Celtics) dodged a bullet because I didn’t want any part of Jimmy Butler in the first round,” Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix told NBC Sports Boston’s Abby Chin. “I didn’t want any part of Bam Adebayo. I didn’t want any part of Joe Mazzulla versus Erik Spoelstra in a first-round series. That was not a series I wanted. In fact, if Miami had won, it might have been a series where I would have picked an upset in that first round.
“Atlanta, I feel completely differently because the Hawks all season long have been the very definition of mediocre. They were a mediocre .500 team under Nate McMillan. Quin Snyder comes in, they make some changes, but they are still a mediocre .500 team. All credit to them — the way they played against Miami was brilliant. Trae Young showed up. Dejounte Murray showed up. All their bench players showed up. They rebounded the hell out of the basketball.
“But this is still a team that I think the Celtics have huge advantages over at multiple positions, and I think this is the matchup the Celtics want.”
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How does Mannix see this Celtics-Hawks series unfolding?
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“I do think the Celtics win this series in five games,” Mannix explained. “I’m just not big on Atlanta. I’ve seen a lot of them this season. They’ve been dysfunctional for most of it, average at best. They did…
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