Boston Celtics to face Milwaukee Bucks or Chicago Bulls in Eastern Conference Semifinals with potential Game 1 on Sunday

The Boston Celtics became the only team in the NBA to sweep their first-round series on Monday night after a 116-112 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 4.

At the moment, they are the only team in the East that has secured themselves a spot in the second round. However, that could change in a hurry with the No. 3 seed Milwaukee Bucks holding a commanding 3-1 lead over the No. 6 seed Chicago Bulls in the best-of-seven series. The Bucks will be hosting Game 5 of that series on Wednesday night at home with a chance to secure a spot in the second round against Boston.

If the Bucks win their series in five or six games, league sources tell MassLive that Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals could start as soon as Sunday afternoon (or even Saturday night if the Bucks win in 5). If the Bulls-Bucks series goes seven games, the series would begin on next Tuesday. Boston will host Game 1 of any potential series against Milwaukee or Chicago at the TD Garden after securing homecourt advantage for their second round series on the final day of the regular season.

“We said it quite openly, we’re not running from anybody and we’ll let the chips fall where they may,” Ime Udoka said of going after the No. 2 seed and homecourt advantage for Round 2 despite facing the Nets. “We want to play our best basketball going into it. Obviously on the final day, some teams did what they did and we had to win because we could still go from 2 to 4 so we still had things to play for. The overall message that I gave the team and they relayed back to me is we’re not scared of anybody and we’re not running from anybody. If you are going to win, you have to go through certain teams at certain times anyway so might as well get a really good test early. I think it will help us going down the line.”

Milwaukee is likely to be without Khris Middleton for at least the start of a potential second-round series due to a sprained MCL after suffering the injury in Game 2 against the Bulls. The Bucks announced last week that he would be re-evaluated two weeks after suffering the injury, which could be Game 2 of a hypothetical matchup with Boston.

For now, Boston will have at least five off days to rest their legs after taking care of business quickly against Brooklyn.

“It’s huge,” Jayson Tatum said of the rest. “Obviously more time for Rob. And then myself, everybody, this was a very taxing four games. It took everything on both ends of the floor. So getting these five or six days off are going to be very beneficial for everybody.”

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