The Boston Celtics are wrapping up their 2024-25 regular season as the 2025 NBA Playoffs draw near, and with that, thoughts are beginning to shift to what the Celtics may face in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. As they look to repeat as champs after beating the Dallas Mavericks in 2024, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast thought it might be a good idea to take the pulse of the West with a national journalist who recently wrote a book on the player that led his team to a finals berth last summer, only to be dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers in a Western Conference seismic shift.

The author, ESPN's Tim McMahon, talked to us about his new tome "The Wonder Boy: Luka Doncic and the Curse of Greatness" and all things West and postseason. We get into the deets on Luka Doncic, his time with Dallas and Kristaps Porzingis, the trade that broke all of our brains, and a ton of related questions. What teams are contenders in the West? Which teams are Boston's toughest matchups if they meet in the finals? What can we learn about Boston's future as a recently-sold team from what went down with the Mavs?

Make sure you tune in for this special episode of the Celtics Lab podcast for some behind-the-scenes perspectives and some spicy takes on Jayson Tatum to boot.

Celtics Lab is brought to you by Prize Picks.

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