The news that Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the season didn’t make Boston’s hopes of an Eastern Conference breakthrough impossible, but they’re damn close. But LeBron James and his Cavaliers? Their road just got a whole lot smoother.

James and Irving teamed up to lead Cleveland to three straight finals, with a Batman and Robin image that the latter clearly chafed at. When he forced his way out of Cleveland in an offseason trade, it caused waves between the two and made the Celtics a legitimate contender with a bona fide star.

That is until the news that Irving — who had his third major left knee surgery on March 24 — will be out for the next 4-to-5 months. The news, first reported by ESPN and confirmed by the Celtics, will shake up the NBA playoffs.

While the rest of the league may feel sympathy for Irving, they’re sharpening their collective knives for the Celtics. Despite the loss of Gordon Hayward at the start of the season, Boston is 53-25 and had been considered among the favorites to reach the NBA Finals. No longer.

With the Celtics sitting at the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, the biggest beneficiaries of a further weakened Boston (without Marcus Smart after thumb surgery) are first-place Toronto and whoever ends up as the third (likely Cleveland) and seventh seeds.

James hasn’t missed a Finals since 2010 (the recession was going on, Osama Bin Laden was on the loose and the iPad was brand new), and he just got help in gunning for an eighth straight.

The Heat (43-36), Wizards (42-36) and Bucks (42-36) are vying for the seventh seed and a first-round date with Boston.

Toronto is having its best season and is trying to break through after being eliminated by Cleveland the past two seasons. While the Cavaliers certainly aren’t the team they’ve been, Irving’s injury may have opened the door for the Raptors just enough.

Cleveland and Philadelphia are both 48-30, but if the Cavs can win their showdown Friday in Philadelphia and hold onto the third spot, they would get a first-round matchup against a team they’ll be favored to beat, and could get a severely wounded Celtics squad in the second round that is a shell of its former self.

Bovada gave the Celtics the second-best odds to come out of the East (3/1) at the start of last month, before Irving’s injury. Since then, they had dropped to (18/1), and their odds are currently down for evaluation. Boston’s odds to win the title are 40/1.

Cleveland’s are likely to be moving, too, in the other direction.