After beating the Bulls, what’s it going to take for the Celtics to move on in the NBA Cup?

Sam Hauser’s buzzer-beating three stretched the Boston Celtics’ margin of victory to nine in their win over the Chicago Bulls Friday. It’s not often that you see teams fire up a last-second attempt when they’re up by six, but that’s the magic of #TheCup.

“One, it’s the point differential, so you want to exhaust as much as you can,” said Cs coach Joe Mazzulla of the final bucket. “But I like it because this tournament and the point differential kind of eliminates all the unwritten rules that you’re supposed to follow or not follow, where in a normal situation you wouldn’t do that, but in this one, you get to look at a need and you get to draw up a play to try and get better in that situation.”

Teams actually have to care about how much they win/lose by, since point differential is used in tiebreakers.

After beating the Bulls, the Cs still have life in the NBA Cup, even though they did not win their group. If they have the best point differential amongst the Eastern Conference’s “second-place teams,” they’ll secure the final Wild Card spot in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, they won’t be in control of their own destiny. Boston’s fate is now in the hands of the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, and (our) Detroit Pistons.

As it stands now, the Wild Card Race looks like this:

Now, both Detroit and New York could win their way out of the above scenario on Tuesday, during the final night of group play. The Bucks will play the Pistons, while the Knicks take on the Magic. Both of those matchups will decide the winners of each of the remaining groups.

Here’s what needs to happen in order for the Celtics to advance in the NBA Cup:

First and foremost, the Celtics NEED the Knicks to lose.

Why?

Well, the Magic are currently holding the largest point differential in the NBA Cup with a +60. In order for them to fall below Boston, they’d have to lose by 38 points in New York, to be exact.

That just doesn’t feel remotely realistic.

If Orlando beats New York, then there is no way for the Cs to fall down in the wild card race — they can only move up.

In order for that to happen, the Milwaukee/Detroit game will have to be decided by five or more points, depending on the winner.

If the Pistons win, then it needs to be by at least seven, since the Bucks have a +29 differential.

If the Bucks win, then it only needs to be by six, because of the Pistons’ +28 net total.

Should the loser in that game end up tied with Boston, then the deciding factor will be points scored. For perspective, the Pistons would have to score 143 points or the Bucks would have to score 149 to pass the Celtics in that category.

While this all might feel pretty complicated, an easy way to look at it is, “If the Magic beat the Knicks, then Boston has some serious life.”