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BOSTON — The Boston Celtics host the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night in a regular-season finale that won’t affect the postseason.

But while the Celtics go through the motions on Fan Appreciation Night John Gibson Jersey , they will have a collective eye trained on the out-of-town scoreboard.

They are waiting to see who they will play in the first round of the playoffs that begin this weekend.

Tuesday night, second-seeded Boston had a chance to bury the Washington Wizards in the eighth spot in the final standings, leaving Washington in a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Toronto Raptors.

But the Celtics were thumped 113-101 by the Wizards, a team that played half the season without an injured John Wall and one you might want to avoid in the playoffs — with Wall rounding into shape. With the win, the Wizards, who engaged in a mean-spirited seven-game series against the Celtics last year, remained in a three-team scramble with the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat.

Through Tuesday, the Bucks were in sixth place, a game ahead of the Heat and Wizards — the Heat holding the 7-8 tiebreaker with Washington.

The Bucks will try to end the Philadelphia 76ers’ 15-game winning streak in Philadelphia (where the Sixers can clinch the third seed) Wednesday, thus finishing sixth — and also avoiding surrendering their No. 1 draft choice to the Phoenix Suns by finishing seventh or eighth.

Miami hosts Toronto in yet another potential first-round matchup and while the Raptors have clinched first in the East, they are in a close battle with the Golden State Warriors, second in the West Colin Kaepernick Jersey , for home-court advantage in a potential final.

The Wizards, 3-1 against Boston this season, are at the out-of-the-money Orlando Magic Wednesday night for the back end of a back-to-back.

In one scenario, if the Sixers win their 16th straight win, Washington and Toronto win on Wednesday night, the Celtics face No. 7 Milwaukee, which loses its draft pick.

Yes, it’s complicated.

Before Tuesday’s game, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said, “(The last-minute seeding) is no more than of a stress on our staff than the staff we’re playing against. At the end of the day, we’ll work and be ready to play Saturday or Sunday, whenever we play.”

Regardless of who they play Dave Robinson Jersey , the Celtics, who have lost four of their last five, will be without Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward and Daniel Theis, although they did get some good news Monday on Marcus Smart.

The energetic Smart, who had surgery to repair a tear in his right thumb, is on target for a six-week return, which would be later this month. But he still won’t be around in the opening round — the loss of Irving and Smart putting more of a burden on Terry Rozier, who has slumped and also suffered from an ankle injury in the last four weeks.

The Celtics are 3-0 against Brooklyn this season, but the three wins have been by a total of 12 points — and Irving was the leading scorer in each of the three games.

The Nets have won three straight — their first three-game winning streak of the season — and are 7-5 in their last 12 after losing 18 of 21.

“Things are maybe turning that corner that we wanted to get a little early in the season, but it’s better late than never,” Allen Crabbe said after his career-high 41 points led his team to a 114-105 win over the Chicago Bulls Monday night.

Boston is 7-0 against Brooklyn over the last two seasons.

With all the changes on the Seattle Seahawks defense – the leaders Derick Brassard Penguins Jersey , the voices, the veterans no longer around – will there be a new focus on a group of linebackers that at times has seemed underappreciated?

”It has always been about the guy in the middle,” Wagner said emphatically. ”So for me, it’s not no different because that’s how I look at it, but from the outside maybe it is different because those guys are gone and you guys are looking for someone who is going to be that leader. Y’all ain’t got to look. You’re looking at the guy right here. I will be that guy and we’re going to be fine.”

And with that, any question about who the leading voice is on Seattle’s defense was quickly answered.

For most of the past half-decade, Seattle’s highly regarded defense was defined by the secondary with the catchy nickname and the flashy personalities. From there, attention often shifted to the defensive line and the type of chaos Michael Bennett and others created on – and sometimes off – the field.

Then there was Wagner and fellow linebacker K.J. Wright. They have been regarded as two of the best in the league at their positions and sometimes have received that level of recognition. But they were often relegated to a secondary role on their own team in terms of recognition even with Wagner being voted first-team All-Pro three times and Wright being a Pro Bowl selection.

”The attention has gone elsewhere, I guess,” Wright said. ”Nothing will change. We’ll still be the bad-ass linebackers on this team. We’ll still lead the way. Stuff will still be run in order. We’ll still make plays and it’ll be fun out there.”

Seattle’s offseason defensive overhaul saw Bennett, Richard Sherman and Sheldon Richardson find new homes; Cliff Avril and Kam Chancellor step away from the game due to neck injuries, and Earl Thomas hold out in search of a new contract. There are changes everywhere across Seattle’s defensive alignment Jason Zucker Jersey , with the exception of the linebackers.

Wagner has been calling Seattle’s defense from the moment he arrived in the NFL and became a starter as a rookie. His partner the entire time has been Wright. With the departures, those voices they’ve used together for the past six seasons will be even louder.

”Yeah, they had the name, they got a lot of the attention and now the attention may shift to the linebackers,” Wagner said. ”But we pride ourselves on being the guys that lead this team and that has been my mindset since I stepped in. I had coach Norton teach me the way.”

Ken Norton Jr. has returned to Seattle to be the defensive coordinator. He was a mentor for Wagner and Wright as the linebackers coach when both arrived in the NFL. Now he’s returned with an even bigger imprint on what Seattle does defensively.

”He’s the linebackers guy and he put that responsibility more on us. He calls on me in the meeting room to answer most of the questions, calls on Bobby to answer the questions because he knows that we’re all on the same page,” Wright said. ”He knows that we’re the guys that can share our leadership abilities, share our knowledge of the game. He’s putting that on us.”

There may also be some schematic tweaks that give Wagner and Wright more freedom defensively. Wright said he believes the adjustments will make Seattle more fundamentally sound defensively and the linebackers could be the benefactors.

”I think this defense is hungry,” Wright said. ”We have a lot to prove. Myself, the secondary with all the guys leaving, the (defensive) line with the guys leaving. It’s going to be fun because you’ve got guys who want to come and show who they are.”

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