Here's a reasonable take: the Boston Celtics are a great basketball team.
Their series against the Cleveland Cavaliers is going well. After game 5, they were up 3-2 in the series. What's interesting about that is the C's success when they're hosting games...
So far, the Celtics are 10-0 at home during these playoffs; they're scoring 11.5 more points per game at home during the playoffs than on the road. Plus, 538 said they're scoring 7.2 more points per game at home than they expected, so that's pretty good. That's the 10th best performance from 1984 to 2018.
What is there to say about the Celtics? They have a lot of guys contributing which is great. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are an amazing young duo. Those were the No. 1 and No. 2 point scorers for the Celtics in game 5. Plus, Al Horford had a double-double and Marcus Morris and Marcus Smart each chipped in 13 points apiece. Nice job, Marcuses. Not to mention the 8-point, 6-assist and 6-rebound performance from Terry Rozier.
So pretty much, the Celtics are playing good basketball--without Kyrie Irving (or Gordon Hayward). That's great news. It's not something everyone was expecting but hey, they're playing good at TD Garden and that's awesome.
If these trends hold, then the Celtics might just pull this series off in seven games. Why seven? Well, because they're at home and they don't lose at home. They're the best team ever at home, and it's not even close. That said, why wouldn't they win? They won game 5 by 13 points. That's one whole Marcus.
So now that leaves the question: if the Celtics were to make it to the NBA Finals, could they actually win? It's possible, let's leave it at that.