Curran: From where these 2021-22 Celtics started, this run is all upside

Earlier than playoffs began, we have been having a type of boilerplate Early Version discussions we now have about each staff throughout each season. The essential gist: “How far do the Celtics need to go to make this season a hit?”

The subject will get trotted out seasonally as a result of it cuts to the chase: “How good did you assume this staff was when the season began? How good do you assume they’re now? How far ought to this forged of characters be able to going?”

I mentioned they wanted to get by Brooklyn. That was it. I’d be slightly disenchanted by a second-round demolition by, say, Milwaukee. However the Bucks have been defending champions and had the very best participant on the planet.

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The Celtics? No matter what they’d finished because the calendar flipped, I used to be simply comfortable I wasn’t hate-watching the product anymore. Which is what I’d been doing properly into January. Consuming each minute of each bleak sport, seeing them invent new and embarrassing methods to blow leads.

Over a seven-game stretch from Christmas via January 6, they misplaced 5 of seven. They blew a lead in opposition to Milwaukee. They bought chewed up by a G-League Minnesota roster spearheaded by Jaylen Nowell and Greg Monroe. Sport after sport in opposition to undermanned groups during which the Celtics appeared disinterested in defending, all about pounding the ball into the ground and taking part in “my flip” basketball on offense.

The Spurs sport on January 5 which featured turnovers galore and blown layup on the buzzer adopted by the Knicks sport on January 6 after they blew a 25-point lead and Evan Fournier ate them? That was the nadir.

Workforce-wide and particular person meltdowns left my psyche so dented, I didn’t belief them. I knew unhealthy basketball was within the DNA of the 2021-22 Celtics. To me, 48 minutes of competency was an aberration. So for the Celtics to get to 51 wins by sharing the ball, deferring to their finest participant, simply paying slightly little bit of consideration on protection, believing in Rob Williams and altering their power? That made me fairly proud of the season.

Beat Milwaukee? Get to the ECF? The Finals? Come on. When the season began, I figured they have been a 40-win staff. Then they performed like a 30-win staff. So being disenchanted if a staff with one celebrity (Jayson Tatum), a maddeningly erratic No. 2 (Jaylen Brown) and some extent guard who typically runs the offense like an ATV (Marcus Good) didn’t go deep? Provided that you didn’t bear in mind the place they have been in January.

However right here they’re. Screeching into the Finals on two wheels because of a white-knuckle Sport 7 win over Miami which adopted their white-knuckle Sport 6 loss to Miami.

They aren’t extra gifted than Golden State. Tatum may be higher than Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins however I don’t know if Brown is best than any of them. Good and Grant Williams can approximate Draymond Inexperienced’s protection and edge however Inexperienced is a superb offensive facilitator. The Celtics are, nevertheless, larger and higher up entrance with Rob Williams and Al Horford.

What this may hinge on is whether or not the Celtics’ dimension and defensive aggressiveness/athleticism can short-circuit the Warriors “stunning sport” offense. Be ready to detest Golden State in a method you’ve by no means loathed earlier than as a result of the bitching, moaning, flopping and crying goes to be off the charts.

The upshot of all of this, although, is that it’s bonus basketball. This run has the identical scent because the 2001 and 2018 Patriots runs and the 2013 Pink Sox championship.

I do know there shouldn’t be a “simply comfortable to be right here …” vibe, however this staff was a joke on President’s Day. Now, they’re within the NBA Finals on Memorial Day. No person noticed THIS coming.