Playoff expectations are the Celtics’ enemy

The word “expectations” means different things for different people.

For Boston Celtics fans, it means Banner 18. The 64-win Celtics steamrolled through the regular season, but none of that matters anymore. A championship was always the expectation for this group, and their historic run through 82 games doesn’t change that.

But for the Celtics themselves, that’s not what it means.

For them, it means not letting arrogance get in the way of a chance at a ring. Expectations are the antithesis of everything Boston wants to accomplish this postseason.

“The most important thing heading into a situation is having no expectations,” Joe Mazzulla said. “It’s not supposed to go a certain way. If you study teams that have even been fortunate enough—if we’re fortunate enough to even get to a Finals, if not win it—the road there is always forgotten by the result of winning. And so, it looks different every single year.

“There are teams that have had multiple Game 7s. There’s a team that’s only lost one game. There’s a team that’s had to come [back] from down 3-2. Had to go home for Game 7. It just doesn’t matter.”

Expectations lead to a Trae Young-led Atlanta Hawks squad winning two first-round games against a two-seeded Celtics eager to get back to the NBA Finals.

Expectations lead to Caleb Martin and the Miami Heat putting the Celtics in a 3-0 hole to start the conference finals.

Expectations lead to an OG Anunoby miracle three-point basket spearheading a Toronto Raptors series comeback, forcing Boston into a seven-game series.

Expectations lead to the Milwaukee Bucks drowning the Kyrie Irving-led Celtics in Round 2 after a red-hot 5-0 start to the postseason.

Expectations lead to failure.

This year’s Celtics team has taken a different approach. Rather than looking ahead and penciling in an anticipated result, they live in the present. Each game brings its own challenges for them to conquer, but once the contest is over, they move on.

Win or lose, the previous game moves into the past, and the next one—and only the next one—enters their vision.

Photo by Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

Ahead of their playoff run, the Celtics have been studying the 2008 championship team.

“We looked at the ‘08 team, we looked at the 2010 Lakers that won the championship, and just how every path is different,” said Jayson Tatum. “The ‘08 team went to two Game 7s in the first and second round. So just getting us prepared. It’s not always going to go maybe how we expected or wanted it to go. But we gotta be ready for it.”

The 2008 Celtics didn’t win a road game in the first two series they played. Yet they still managed to pull out victories by taking care of business at home.

For the past few seasons, Boston hasn’t taken advantage of their home-court advantage. This regular season, they changed their perspective in that regard. They only lost four games at TD Garden all year.

To fans, Mazzulla casting off the idea of expectations may come off as the acceptance of losing. The willingness to acknowledge losing as a possibility doesn’t resonate with Boston fans, who only expect the best. But it is possible. And ignoring it is ignorant.

The Celtics can’t afford ignorance.

The only expectation they accept is that they cannot have any.

“I know those things will be utilized to create narratives, but at the end of the day, there are no expectations heading in,” Mazzulla said. “It takes what it takes. However long it takes, that’s what we have to be able to go through. And we just have to have that expectation, is that it takes what it takes.”