The Boston Celtics came one game shy of reaching the NBA Finals, going from being the wounded fawn without their stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, to the surprise Eastern Conference team that doled out plenty of headaches for their opponents. Hayward for one, thinks his team should have defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a crucial Game 7 that left them right outside the door to the NBA Finals.
“I still feel like they should've won that Game 7 and got to the Finals,” Gordon Hayward said, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. “It definitely wasn't a surprise.”
The Celtics nearly lost a seven-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, yet from then on, they looked strong enough to make a deeper run than most anticipated.
“We believed in ourselves,” Tatum said. “Nobody picked us to win any of the playoff series [we were in], but it's not about what the outside people say. It's about what we believe in this locker room.”
Having survived the rage of The Greek Freak and blazed past Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers, the Celtics ran into an experienced team in the Cavaliers, who mustered what no other team had done against Boston in the postseason — beat them at home — having gone a perfect 10-0 before that Game 7.
“I think this is all part of growth,” said coach Brad Stevens. “You're always in a different scenario every single year. Every year provides new challenges that all ultimately should make you better over the course of time.
“Those guys are still experiencing things for the first time. And, ultimately, last year provided a great deal of opportunity for them, and you saw the growth in the stage they were on. This year you don't see it as much maybe, but you should be getting better and you should be learning a lot.”
The Celtics have had to tweak things instead of building off of last postseason's success, as it hasn't been as easy as a plug-and-play for Stevens with the likes of Irving and Hayward returning this season.
Ultimately time will tell if this roster can figure out their chemistry and a strong sense of identity heading into this postseason, this time without the overwhelming home court advantage they enjoyed last year.
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