The Boston Celtics entered the 2017-18 NBA season with great expectations, given the offseason acquisitions of All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving. After injuries derailed the seasons of both players, however, fans and pundits alike were left wondering if this team had enough to win even a first-round playoff series, let along contend for an NBA championship.
Enter Brad Stevens, a roster of hungry youngsters, and you have an improbable success story that defies everything we thought we knew about the style of the NBA in the late 2010s.
Ever since Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett joined forces with Paul Pierce to create a Celtics superteam in the summer of 2007, teams have adjusted the way they build contending teams. Less attention is placed on creating depth, with more vigilance concerning the free-agency market. Stars like LeBron James (2010, 2014), Kevin Durant (2016), and Hayward/Irving (2017) have turned offseasons upside-down with their heavily publicized free agency decisions. As we know, James and Durant were able to throw championship parades in their new cities (James in ’12 and ’13 in Miami, and again in ’16 in Cleveland, while Durant helped Golden State to a title in ’17).
Unfortunately, we’ll never know if Hayward and Irving would’ve brought Boston a championship in 2018, since both were shelved with injuries by mid-March. I suppose it would have been easy for the Celtics to pack up and call it a season, given the long odds they faced going into the postseason. But that’s just not how this team operates.
The Celtics find themselves three wins from the NBA Finals after a 108-83 thrashing of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Sunday’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Three Celtics finished with at least 20 points, while LeBron James managed just 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting for the Cavs. Cleveland was -32 with James, the best player in the world, on the floor.
The Celtics were clearly the better team on Sunday, in every facet of the game. The Celtics are long, with Al Horford and Aron Baynes showing their ability to spread the frontcourt and pick up multiple offensive players at once. However, it’s what the Celtics are doing on the three-point arc that is turning a lot of heads.
The Cavaliers, admittedly so, are reliant on the three-pointer. It’s how a lot of their veterans contribute to the offense. I’m talking about Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, and Kevin Love, all three of which are 30 or older. When these three deep men are on fire, it allows LeBron to temporarily remove himself from the watch of all five defenders. When Korver, Smith, and Love are not connecting, however, the Cavs find themselves in trouble, because all the offensive production falls on LeBron’s shoulders. On Sunday, that’s exactly what happened, and it’s because the Celtics are the best defensive team the Cavaliers have faced in this postseason.
Oh, and with the exception of Al Horford, these Celtics are devoid of ANY player who has appeared on just ONE All-Star roster.
A team with no stardom has managed to stunt the offensive mojo of LeBron’s Cavaliers. Jaylen Brown (21 years old) and Jayson Tatum (20 years old), along with Terry Rozier (24 years old) and Marcus Smart (24 years old) are showing the Cavaliers what defensive dominance looks like, in an era defined increasingly by startling offensive firepower.
Defense remains a facet of basketball that is defined by discipline. By playing physical, but not letting your emotions get the best of you. And the Boston Celtics, a team that looks more akin to a college squad than NBA supremacy, have used this style of play to make a run no one saw coming.
And it’s not over yet.
