The Boston Celtics have been far and away the best team in the NBA this season, and they are the favorites to win the NBA championship. However, there are some concerns regarding the Celtics' ability to win close games, and how that will impact them in the playoffs. Austin Rivers voiced those concerns in a discussion on ESPN regarding the gap between the Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference.

“They've won, and they've had the best regular season. But that's the key word here is regular season,” Austin Rivers said on ESPN. “This team is very vulnerable in some ways. Closing the game is one. They don't close the game the best. That guy right there, Jayson Tatum, one of my favorite players. But he has not been the best down the stretch, particularly in the clutch. Nor has Jaylen Brown. And we saw last year a team that was not even in the realm of what we're talking roster, Miami Heat, go in and punk that team and beat them in a Game 7.”

It is not a lock that the Celtics come away as champions this season. The talent is there to pull it off, and the roster is arguably better than last year's team that almost reverse-swept a best-of-seven series with the Heat before Jayson Tatum got hurt early in Game 7. However, Rivers' concerns have been voiced before, even by some Celtics fans.

Why Austin Rivers needs to see it from the Celtics to believe it

“Both games against Denver this year they've lost,” Rivers said on ESPN. “So, are they better than Milwaukee? Sure. But we're talking about a team that in the playoffs vs. Giannis, who I've seen reach the mountaintop, who I've seen go win a championship. They have a new coach who has playoff pedigree, and a championship pedigree. They have Damian Lillard, who is one of the best closers in the game. We just talked about Boston's lack of clutch. That's all Dame does. So are they better than Milwaukee? Absolutely, there's definitely a game there, but in a seven game series, I have to see Boston be that team that we all want them to be.”

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Rivers is sharing the sentiment that many Celtics fans themselves hold, and that is that they have to see this group of players put it together and win a championship to believe that it will happen. Some fans hold the belief that the Celtics are build on finesse, and that does not favor them when it comes to crunch time and winning close games.

If the Celtics to not get it done this spring, many will lose even more faith that this group of players will be able to get it done. It comes with the pressure of playing in Boston. Until it is truly done, there will always be skepticism, no matter how much talent there is.