Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was ultimately honest in his assessment of this entire 2017-18 season, hating to fall short after an 87-79 shortcoming in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

“No matter how good of a season you've had, if it doesn't end in a championship, it's a disappointing ending,” said Stevens, according to Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports.

The Celtics have overachieved in the eyes of many throughout this season — somehow landing the second seed in the Eastern Conference after losing their newly-signed star Gordon Hayward five minutes into the season-opener, then managing to take LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to the brink of elimination — falling only a game shy of the NBA Finals.

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Stevens noted the painful feeling is just a part of the path this team is supposed to experience before conquering their ultimate goal.

“The pain is part of the path. We've been really fortunate to keep getting better and put ourselves in better positions,” said Stevens, according to Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News. “But when it ends, it's painful.”

The Celtics have discovered plenty about themselves by taking apart teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, the Philadelphia 76ers, and taking the Cavs to their absolute limit in these playoffs, finding young, intrepid cogs in their rotation like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier, who all shined throughout this long postseason run.