What's at stake for Celtics entering NBA Cup group finale vs. Bulls

The Boston Celtics' game against the Chicago Bulls on Friday isn't just any late-November road matchup against a sub-.500 team.

Celtics at Bulls (8 p.m.

ET on NBC Sports Boston) marks Boston's final game in the group stage of .

And there's plenty at stake for the Celtics, who need a win (and some help) to advance to the quarterfinals.

We'll get into how the C's can advance to the knockout stage but first, .

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Atlanta beat Boston to earn the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Bulls need a win over the C's to have a shot at overtaking the Hawks.

In addition to the group winners, one "wild card" team from each conference advances to the quarterfinals.

, so in order to earn the wild card, the Celtics would need to have a better point differential than every Eastern Conference team that also went 3-1 but didn't win its group.

Since there are more group play games next Tuesday, the C's don't know the exact point differential needed to earn the wild card spot.

So, they'll simply have to run the score up on Chicago as much as possible Friday night and hope for the best from the other group play games on Friday and Tuesday.

ESPN's Tim Bontemps outlined a few scenarios for Boston to advance as the wild card here; they revolve around the Orlando Magic and their NBA Cup games against the Brooklyn Nets (Friday at 7:30 p.m.

ET) and New York Knicks (Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

ET).

Given the Hawks won and put themselves in the drivers seat to win their group because they beat the Celtics earlier this month, this is Bostons path to advancing: 1.

Winning in Chicago by at least 15 tonight, leaving only Orlando (plus-37 currently through two games) as its...

Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) NBC Sports Boston's Celtics-Bulls coverage begins at 7 p.m.

ET with.

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