Having Exceeded Expectations With Playoff Berth, Celtics Aim For More

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4718899/having-exceeded-expectations-with-playoff-bid-celtics-aim-for-more




Having exceeded expectations with playoff berth, Celtics aim for more






AP Photo/Tony Dejak


Chris Forsberg, Celtics reporter, ESPNBoston.com





The Boston Celtics are headed back to the playoffs.

Even though the odds suggested that was a foregone conclusion in recent days, it still didn't sink in until the Celtics formally clinched their spot Monday night when the Chicago Bulls defeated the Brooklyn Nets. The 2014-15 season has been so unpredictable, Celtics fans couldn't really exhale until Boston's berth was assured.

Now they can. And the Celtics can wrap up the No. 7 seed with another victory or Indiana loss. That will cement a first-round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Celtics versus LeBron -- just like old times.

The Celtics weren't supposed to be here, and maybe that's what makes this playoff appearance that much sweeter for a fan base that was resigned to enduring another season of rebuilding pains. Oh, sure, there were plenty of those along the way, particularly early on, but Boston's inspired play over the past two months has improbably allowed the team to extend its season.

Boston's 2014-15 campaign has featured 11 trades and 41 total roster players. If Chris Babb gets into one of the Celtics' final two regular-season games (at home Tuesday against Toronto and Wednesday at Milwaukee), then Boston will have set a franchise record by utilizing 23 different bodies on game days this season. That turnstile roster included shipping out Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green early in the season. Just when everyone thought the Celtics would plunge to the high lottery, this young team found something and instead embarked on a spirited two-month playoff push.

Since Feb. 3, Boston has won 22 games, tied with the Houston Rockets and Cavaliers for third-most wins in the league in that span (only the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs have more). The Celtics were 14 games under .500 at 16-30 after a loss to Miami on Feb. 1, but own a .647 winning percentage since that point.

What happened? Their 38-year-old coach, Brad Stevens, established himself as a master in-game tactician and a late-game wizard of the dry-erase board, the trade deadline delivered an influx of much-needed talent, including reserve point guard Isaiah Thomas, and Boston spent the past 34 games playing collectively at a level far beyond what you would expect possible from these players individually.

The Celtics didn't shy away from this playoff push, they embraced it. While Stevens implored his team to avoid allowing scoreboard-watching to become a distraction, he encouraged the players to use the playoffs as motivation to make progress on the court.

Led by Thomas, the Celtics were acutely aware of the standings. They found a way to win every single must-have game in recent weeks. Sure, they caught some breaks along the way, including when their potential playoff opponent chose to get some extended rest the past two games, but Stevens often reminds his players not to fret about what they cannot control.

Even before the final buzzer in Chicago's lopsided win over Brooklyn on Monday night, Thomas took to Twitter to write, "Let's get it." Evan Turner, who has posted three triple-doubles since late February and has been so vital to the team's success this season, went on Instagram and posted a picture that split-screened part of Boston's roster with Jim Mora's infamous "Playoffs?!" press conference beneath. Jae Crowder, the only player remaining from the Rondo trade and someone who has maintained a desire to reach the playoffs since he arrived in mid-December, utilized his all-caps preference on Twitter to write, "HAHAHHA TOLD YALL TO BELIEVE!"

Turner was part of an eighth-seeded Philadelphia team that knocked off the top-seeded Bulls (then took Boston to seven games in the conference semifinals) back in 2012. He wouldn't mind a repeat experience with this young team. Thomas, so desperate to taste postseason basketball for the first time in his career, salivates at the idea of wiping the slate clean in the playoffs.

Yes, Boston is playing with house money in the postseason. Las Vegas pegged the Celtics for 27 wins this season, and the team's in-season maneuvering did little to suggest it would even reach that number. If Boston plays hard to the regular-season finish line, it could potentially be a 40-win team.

Make no mistake, the team is not satisfied to simply be sneaking into the playoffs in a downtrodden East. The conference was wretched this season, and that allowed six sub-.500 teams to jockey for two final playoff spots over the past month. There's a case to be made that, in most other seasons, the Celtics, at four games under .500, would be lottery-bound with little to play for this time of year.

What's more, some believe Boston is setting its rebuilding process back by making the playoffs. The Celtics are now likely to end up with the 16th pick in June's draft, though they'll also have the Los Angeles Clippers' choice, which is currently projected at No. 26, as well as Philadelphia's second-round selection -- projected at No. 33 -- among their pile of picks.

But none of that matters at the moment. The Celtics are going to the playoffs. For a city still shaking its head after the local hockey squad fizzled and missed the postseason for the first time in eight years, there's great pride that the other TD Garden tenant found a way to make an unexpected run.

Celtics fans should savor this. Rebuilding processes are typically a grind -- but Boston has made it fun and exciting. The Celtics are spitting in the eye of your typical rebuild and trying to prove that you don't have to bottom out to return to contender status.

Nobody expects Boston to have a long playoff stay. That's fine by these Celtics; nobody thought they'd get this far.



bob



.

Sure. Why not aim for more?? There is no sense going to Cleveland for games one and two fully expecting and playing to lose.

A short series is not always won by the team with the best players. Upsets can happen in sports at all ages.

Wide

The term you use "Short Series" is a bit misleading to me, as all series are 7 games max. And generally IMHO the better team almost exclusively wins in these, albeit even teams that take it to 7 games you are splitting hairs to determine who is better.

Now take the NFL and the single game elimination...likewise the recent NCAA Tournament....there you truly can have teams over achieve and beat a better opponent.

beat

beat,

I was referring to the seven game series as "short" when related to the full 82 game schedule where the much better teams always have the much better records at the end.

Any playoff series can turn on one or two plays in only one or two of the games.

But, I do recognize that most of these series do go to the better teams, and your examples of the NFL and the NCAA are well taken in regard to not always the better team wins in the sudden death situation.

Don't worry, Chris.  Plenty of savoring from this corner.

• Savoring the playoff reward for these players, who have worked their asses off, and played their hearts, and magically coalesced in a remarkably short period of time

• Savoring the playoff reward for Saint Stevens, who proved that—at least in basketball—reason trumps bluster, shrewdness trumps guesswork, and unruffled trumps ruffled

• Savoring the playoff reward for the President of Basketball Operations, who chose confidence in his own ability to assemble a team that could "go for it" rather than to settle for some ridiculous tanking affront to Celtics tradition

• Savoring the playoff reward for the segment of fans, who chose unrelenting support of winning over any other mindset

There are many ways to acquire needed players, especially when a team has a lot of assets and an executive who accomplished a whole lot with barely a sniff of assets.

Go Celtics!

Sam