Celtics Recap

By KATHERINE McDONOUGH

On the day the Celtics organization announced that point guard Kyrie Irving would be out for the rest of 2018 season, many fans began to count the Celtics out for any shot of making it to the NBA finals, even though the team was ranked 2nd in the eastern conference at the end of the season. Not only did the Celtics enter the playoffs without their best player—who also happens to be one of the best point guards in the league—the Celtics were also lacking elite forward Gordon Hayward, who suffered a broken ankle in the first game of the season. With the two best players out, the Celtics were left with a starting line-up comprised of young and inexperienced players. In the playoffs, the starting line-up generally consists of Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Al Horford, with Aron Baynes and Marcus Morris alternating in and out of the last frontcourt spot. Of these 6 players, 3 of them are 24 or under; to put that statistic in perspective, the average age of NBA players is 29 years old. The youth of the players and the inexperience that comes with that, along with the loss of the Celtics’ best players, caused many people to immediately eliminate the Celtics from any noble playoff run. Yet, in a league where age, experience, and your top players mean everything, 3 weeks into NBA playoffs the Celtics remain one of the 4 teams left standing. So, how did this happen?

The Celtics’ first series against the Milwaukee Bucks went a gruelling 7 games, with Boston winning every home game and losing every away game. In game 7, the Celtics came out on top mainly due to their tenacious rebounding and strong defensive effort. A poor rebounding team last year, Boston dominated the Bucks on the glass by out-rebounding Milwaukee 51 to 36 while also collecting 5 more steals. The effort the Celtics showed on the boards and defensive side of the ball created 10 more shot attempts than the Bucks had, which ended up making the difference. By creating more scoring opportunities, the Celtics advanced to the quarterfinals against the Philadelphia 76ers. The series against the Sixers went 5 games, and again the young Celtics team emerged on top in a 4-1 series win. Although the overall series result may look like the Celtics simply dominated, the individual games themselves were extremely close, with 3 out of the 5 games having a final score of the teams within 5 points of each other. In particular, game 5 had the Celtics down by 3 with 1:37 to go in the fourth. Then, with 2.4 seconds left and the Celtics leading by one, the Sixers fouled Celtics’ guard Marcus Smart. Smart—in typical Marcus Smart fashion—tried to make the first free throw and put the celtics up by 2, but he missed. Then, in attempt to create a rebound crazy enough to eat up the clock, Smart randomly chucked the basketball at the rim, hoping to miss. He got it in. So, with 2.4 seconds left, the Sixers had the ball and only needed one basket to tie the game. Sixers rookie phenom Ben Simmons inbounded the ball from under his own basket, and, in a “hail mary” style, threw the ball cross-court to the left corner, only for a Celtics player to steal the ball out of thin air from a waiting Sixers. To no one’s surprise, that Celtics player was Marcus Smart.

The Celtics are currently playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Conference Finals, and the young Celtics team is up 3-2 in the series against one of the greatest of all time, LeBron James. The Celtics have been able to advance so far within the playoffs while missing their top players because of their resilience and drive. Although the team is comprised of young, relatively inexperienced players, head coach Brad Stevens, who has had arguably the most important role in the Celtics’ domination, sums it up best: “Don’t use your youth as an excuse.” Many people talk about how good the Celtics will be in the upcoming years, and while these playoffs have for sure been evidence of that, the team’s mentality is that there should be no reason to wait until next year to win the championship. The youth of the team cannot be seen as an excuse for losing, but instead as an advantage over the aging Cavs team.