NBA play-in predictions for Celtics-Wizards, other potential games originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The NBA play-in tournament added plenty of excitement to the end of the regular season by making many of the games over the weekend actually matter.

Now that the matchups for the first two games in each conference are set, it’s time to make predictions.

Our friends at SportsRadar have calculated their playoff win probabilities for all four of the initial games, in addition to the potential matchups later in the week.

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SportsRadar has the Celtics as very slight favorites to beat the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night at TD Garden. The Wizards were 1-2 versus the C’s during the regular season, but they were red-hot down the stretch with a 16-7 record in their last 23 games. 

The uber-talented Wizards backcourt duo of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook also could pose plenty of defensive issues for the Celtics. Beal was the league’s second-leading scorer and Westbrook averaged a triple-double for the season. Beal, however, is nursing a hamstring injury.

All the Celtics need to do is beat the Wizards and they earn the No. 7 seed in the first round, where they would play the Brooklyn Nets.

If the Celtics lose to the Wizards, they would play the winner of the Charlotte Hornets vs. Indiana Pacers play-in game. SportsRadar very much likes Boston’s chances to beat either Charlotte or Indiana. If the Celtics beat one of those teams, they would secure the No. 8 seed and play the Philadelphia 76ers in Round 1.

Two play-in losses for the Celtics would result in them missing the playoffs and entering the draft lottery.

Check out all of SportsRadar’s play-in game win probabilities in the table below.