{"id":614984,"date":"2026-02-21T02:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614984\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T02:57:20","slug":"where-do-the-celtics-stand-in-the-east-heading-into-the-stretch-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614984\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do the Celtics stand in the East heading into the stretch run?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 20, 2026, 8:59 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Where do the Boston Celtics stand in the Eastern Conference order heading into the stretch run? With the teams making major moves in the conference starting to play some games with their new ball clubs, the new order of the East is starting to come into focus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Moves like James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kevin Huerter to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/detroit-pistons\/8\/\" data-autotag=\"3cf4207f-5b2d-4335-b9df-baab70e08bac\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Detroit Pistons<\/a>, Jose Alvarado to the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/new-york-knicks\/18\/\" data-autotag=\"8b753024-9401-4cc8-9e23-5a6cdca0282d\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">New York Knicks<\/a>, and of course Nikola Vucevic to the Boston Celtics will shake up the pre-trade deadline status quo at least to some degree. Are the Celtics legit contenders? What other teams have a shot at hanging a banner this summer? And where is Boston amid all of this?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The hosts of &#8220;Havlicek Stole the Pod&#8221; took some time to suss out their expectations in the East for the stretch run of the 2025-26 NBA regular season. Check it out below!<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"gnt_em_vp_a gnt_em_vp__yt_a\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AKkpByiuIPQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-g-r=\"vp_tg\" aria-label=\"Play YouTube video\" data-v-t=\"Sussing out the Celtics in the East order at the stretch run\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"gnt_em_vp_img gnt_em_vp_img__yn\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/AKkpByiuIPQ\/maxresdefault.jpg\" onload=\"if(this.naturalWidth&lt;200){this.setAttribute('onload','this.classList.remove(\\'gnt_em_vp_img__yn\\')');this.src=\" https:=\"\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Listen to &#8220;Havlicek Stole the Pod&#8221; on:<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Blue Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/CdKp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">iTunes: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/RK47<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">YouTube: <a href=\"https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/tiny.ee\/cOW3<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 20, 2026, 8:59 p.m. ET Where do the Boston Celtics stand in the Eastern Conference order heading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[72400,7,45,75,3798,46,6,72493,72494,72404,72471,73017,72444,72422,72611,72445,72406,72403],"class_list":{"0":"post-614984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bostonceltics","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sstssportsnbaceltics","16":"tag-sstsnceltics","17":"tag-tagbasketball","18":"tag-tagdetroit-pistons","19":"tag-tagkevin-huerter","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnba","22":"tag-tagnew-york-knicks","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagsports-news","25":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116106379558066448","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}