The Boston Celtics wrapped up their season weeks ago. However, with multiple games left on their schedule, they were forced to go through the motions as they began the countdown to the postseason. We saw multiple members of the rotation miss games as Joe Mazzulla rotated his starting up, spreading rest and off-days around to ensure everyone was fresh.
Then, in the final two games of the regular season, against the Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards, the Celtics bench mob and two-way guys took care of business, winning both contests.
Those last two games were probably the most fun outings Celtics fans have witnessed in a while. Don’t get me wrong, every game is fun. Seeing Mazzulla’s team work on new things and bring back some stuff from earlier in the season was certainly interesting too. Yet, in those final two games, things were competitive. There was a reason to get behind a group of guys looking to leave an impression — not just on the Celtics coaching staff, but on NBA executives around the league.
All that is in the past now. 82 games of sheer dominance are consigned to the history books. How fondly we look back on them will be determined by what comes next. Fair or not, we often tie in our view of the regular season with what the team did in the playoffs. If the Celtics fall short, we will view their dominance as a false narrative. Feeling aggrieved would be the common emotional response. Get to the mountaintop, though? Well, then, we will be talking about this run with all the love and affection that such historical greatness deserves.
The play-in tournament was a great addition by the league. The additional meaning it adds to the end of the season has been incredibly entertaining. However, from our spoiled vantage point, it’s tough not knowing who you’re going to face in the opening round of the playoffs. It’s even harder knowing that we won’t know until Friday night.
Here are the four teams in the play-in tournament.
7. Philadelphia 76ers. 8. Miami Heat. 9. Chicago Bulls 10. Atlanta Hawks.
As a quick reminder, the winner of the Sixers vs. Heat will qualify for the playoffs as the seventh seed and face the New York Knicks. The loser will face the winner of the Bulls vs. Hawks. Whoever wins that game has the honor of being Boston’s first victim.
For the Celtics, it doesn’t matter who their opponent will be. Odds are, Mazzulla’s team will overcome them with the same dominance that we’ve seen all season. However, not all first-round possibilities are made equal.
Is it better for the Celtics to face Miami early and get over that hump? Is Joel Embiid back to the version of himself that was cooking the league earlier in the season? Can the Hawks prove to be a tough-ish out as they were in last season’s playoffs, where it took six games to dispatch them?
There’s no easy answer to any of these questions, not yet, at least. Perhaps there will be an easy answer after the first round of the play-in tournament when there are only two teams left on the dice roll, and we’ve seen how they look in a high-pressure environment.
Regardless of how things shake out, we’re heading into a playoff run that could, or maybe should, end with a championship banner. This is what we’ve been waiting for. It’s why we stayed locked in, even when the games no longer mattered and the players were mailing it in. It’s why we rooted from game 1 to game 82. And it’s why we’re daring to dream.
The games that matter are right around the corner. How many of those games we’re going to get is out of our control. How loud we cheer, how passionately we follow this team in the coming weeks, well, those are things within our power. Bring on the playoffs. Bring on an NBA Finals run. And do it for Mike Gorman. Go win this thing.
