It’s not about talent.
The Celtics have plenty of talent, at least as much if not more than any other team in the NBA.
The question about Boston is and has been will their star players play up to that talent in the postseason.
For all of their success, the Celtics have given away winnable playoff games that have cost them series and maybe a banner. What have they learned from that?
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The 2024 postseason is a referendum on the Celtics’ heart, their toughness, their killer instinct and on Joe Mazzulla and Jayson Tatum.
The second-year Celtics coach deserves a lot of credit for his evolution this season. He’s looked more confident and comfortable and the team has reflected that. He’s on the verge of proving a lot of people wrong and deserves credit.
In a lot of ways, the Celtics are in a similar place at the end of the regular season to last year’s Bruins. But the best team in the regular season often falls short in the playoffs in the NHL. In the NBA, barring injury, the most talented team usually goes deep. But like their TD Garden co-tenants a year ago, the Celtics go into the playoffs having gone months without playing an important game.
The Celtics have faced nothing resembling pressure in a while. While other teams have jousted to get into the playoffs or for seeding the Celtics sewed up the best record in the NBA on March 24. The last 10 games have basically been exhibitions. Staying healthy was more important than staying ahead.
It’s good for load management and being careful with injuries, but it doesn’t foster playoff urgency, which has been a question mark with the Celtics. Maintaining playoff intensity has been an issue during recent playoff runs for Boston. The players have admitted it. They’ve addressed it, but they haven’t proven they’ve fixed it. Now they’re going to try to reach that level of intensity after weeks of needing nothing close to it.
The Celtics’ lackluster efforts in losses last week to the Knicks and Bucks last week might have simply been a team with nothing to play for coasting against two teams who still have things on the line. But those were reminders that when Boston isn’t at full throttle, the results can be underwhelming.
The Celtics are going to start the postseason with someone coming out of the play-in series. That could be the Sixers, who now have Joel Embiid back, or the Heat. No matter who is healthy or hot, playing Miami should scare the Celtics. Erik Spoelstra’s team came out of the No. 8 seed last year and went to the NBA finals and obviously beat Boston along the way. Put Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and a Spoelstra gameplan on the court and no opponent should ever feel comfortable.
While every other ownership in town is fighting off charges of being cheap, the Celtics have pushed all their chips in the middle. Wyc Grousbeck has given this team all it could ask for. It’s on them now. Anything short of a trip to the final would feel like a failure for this team now.
If they were to lose a tough NBA Finals series to Denver, most reasonable people could accept that. But if the Knicks, the Pacers or even Milwaukee beat the Celtics, Joe Mazzulla is updating his LinkedIn profile and the fanbase would be in an uproar.
The addition of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday added two elite veterans to the core. Holiday’s versatility, experience and leadership are immensely valuable and Porzingis is an incredibly difficult matchup for almost any opponent.
But in the end, it’s going to come down to Jayson Tatum. Is he ready to take another step toward being like his idol Kobe Bryant? Tatum is one of the most talented players in the world, but is he ready to be the alpha on a championship team? It’s time to find out.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
