The Boston Celtics’ regular season is ending the same way it started, with a devastating injury to one of their key players. Starting out with small forward Gordon Hayward dislocating his ankle in the very first game of the season to Kyrie Irving, the Celtics starting point guard and widely agreed upon best player, being ruled out for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, the Celtics luck hasn’t done them any favors.

Irving has been sitting out since March 24^th after undergoing knee surgery, but was expected to return at the start of the second round of the post season. The Celtics record during this stretch without Irving is currently 7-4. They had a solid six game winning streak beating notable teams like the Western Conference three seed Portland Trail Blazers and the white hot Utah Jazz, but recently they’ve lost two straight to the Bucks and Raptors.

Hope was still high in Boston until last Thursday when the news of Irving having another surgery to remove two screws from his patella became public. ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski was first to deliver the news via Twitter. This marked the end of Kyrie Irving’s season and instantly changed the outlook of the Celtic’s playoff picture. Irving’s recovery time is expected to be four to five months.

Fortunately for the Celtics, the team’s future is blindingly bright. Even though Irving isn’t playing anymore this season, the backcourt trio of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier is certainly turning some heads and commanding respect. Add in defensive cornerstone Marcus Smart, who is hoping to return in time for the playoffs from a thumb injury, and it’s hard to argue that the book on Boston’s season is definitively shut; however, the team has a considerably larger mountain to climb to reach the NBA Finals with its super star sitting on the bench.

The Celtics are currently sitting at the two seed in the Eastern Conference. The 76ers and Cavaliers are four and five games back from Boston respectively. The Celtics are four games back on the number one seed Toronto Raptors with only two games remaining in Boston’s regular season. The Celtics have the two seed locked up, and that makes things quite interesting for the lower half of the Eastern playoff teams. The seventh seed might be a more attractive spot than usual knowing that whatever team owns it will be playing a series versus a Kyrieless Celtics team.