Celtics enter tough stretch of schedule

                                               (Photo courtesy of boston.cbslocal.com)

With 20 games left in their regular season schedule, the Boston Celtics are entering a tough stretch. It starts on Saturday, when the Celtics will travel to Cleveland for the second game of a back to back to face the Eastern Conference leading Cavaliers. The Cavaliers have not been playing all that well as of late, but history has demonstrated that LeBron James typically steps his game up when the haters come out. Cleveland will also be looking for revenge after Boston squeaked by last time they were in Cleveland with an Avery Bradley buzzer beater being the difference.

The Celtics will play the Toronto Raptors twice in five days near the end of March. Toronto is 4.5 games ahead of the Celtics for the lead in the Atlantic Division, and is in second place in the Eastern Conference. These will surely be good games as both teams will be looking to see how they matchup against one another before the playoffs start. Toronto is also not totally out of reach for Boston, so two wins against the Raptors would be a big boost for the Celtics.

The Celtics will also see their fair share of Western Conference contenders in this stretch. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be coming to Boston in March, and the Celtics will also travel to play the Los Angeles Clippers and league best Golden State Warriors before the season is over.

With all of these top tier opponents left on the schedule, Boston Celtics fans will probably have a good idea of just how legit of a contender their team is before the playoffs roll around.