If you ask Kendrick Perkins, it's a no-brainer who the Celtics should be pulling for in the first NBA play-in game Tuesday night.
The Miami Heat and the Atlanta Hawks are set to battle it out at Kaseya Center, where the winner will claim the seven seed and move on to play Boston in a first-round series. After watching the Celtics and the Heat grind out a seven-game set in last season's Eastern Conference finals, Perkins believes Boston should be somewhat fearful of Miami if it takes down Atlanta.
"If I'm the Boston Celtics, I'm praying that I don't see the Miami Heat in the first round," Perkins said Monday on ESPN's "First Take." "We have to remind the world -- Jimmy Butler, playoff Jimmy Butler, is a difference-maker. The Jimmy Butler that I've seen walk into the Garden and drop 46 in Game 6 and take it to a Game 7, with a 3-point shot away from actually sending Boston home. When I look at the Miami Heat and I look at Bam Adebayo and what he's been doing, I'm starting to see the culture and the chemistry come together.
"You have to be careful when you're dealing with a team like that at the seven seed. You have to be careful when you got an experienced head coach in Erik Spoelstra and you have Joe Mazzulla, who it's his first time making a run at it. You have to be careful with these types of situations. ...I just don't want the Celtics to match up with the Miami Heat in the first round."
The Heat definitely match up better than the Hawks against the Celtics, boast a bonafide superstar and should have a level of confidence in wake of recent success against the reigning East champions. That said, the Celtics -- arguably the NBA's team when they're firing on all cylinders -- should be able to handle whoever comes out of Tuesday's game in South Beach.
Boston's postseason opener is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday at TD Garden.
