Celtics eliminated from NBA Cup as Magic fall to Knicks originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics have officially been eliminated from the 2024 NBA Cup.

Their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the tournament were dashed on Tuesday evening. To secure the wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference, they needed several scenarios:

1. The Orlando Magic beat the New York Knicks OR the Knicks win by more than 38 points.

2. The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons by 6+ OR the Pistons win by 7+.

Milwaukee held up its end of the bargain with a 128-107 victory over Detroit, but Orlando suffered a 121-106 loss to New York.

As a result, the Knicks won East Group A with a perfect 4-0 record in group play. The Magic secured the East wildcard with their lead of +45 points as a tiebreaker. The Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks were tied for the best record in East Group C (3-1), but the Hawks secured the tiebreaker with their win over the C’s on November 12th.

The NBA Cup will continue without the Celtics when the knockout round begins on December 10th. As for the C’s, they will add two regular season games to their schedule: one on December 12th or 13th and another on December 13th or December 15th or 16th (locations and opponents to be announced).

First, the C’s will face the Pistons again on Wednesday evening. This match is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.