Celtics keep prospering in season full of pitfalls
The Celtics have been mining possibility out of improbable odds throughout the 2017-2018 season.
A season filled with so much promise was jolted just five minutes into the season opener in October, when Gordon Hayward was lost for the year to a fractured ankle.
It looked to be derailed for sure when Marcus Smart suffered a torn ligament in his thumb in March, followed by Kyrie Irving being sidelined for the season a month later after he underwent a pair of knee surgeries.
Yet after completing a 4-1 series win with their 114-112 victory over the 76ers on Wednesday night, the Celtics are somehow back where no one believed they could be: headed to a second straight Eastern Conference finals.
A rematch with the Cavaliers and LeBron James awaits, but for a Celtics team that has had to trudge uphill throughout the season, still playing at this point of the postseason feels like reason to celebrate.
“I always hoped we would get to a point where if things don’t go our way, we’re still extremely competitive because we have a foundation in place,” coach Brad Stevens said. “Things haven’t always gone our way, but these guys are really talented, really tough. They fit Boston, and hopefully we keep playing well.”
According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Celtics are the first NBA team to reach the conference finals in backto-back seasons while returning only four players from one year to the next (Smart, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Terry Rozier). They are advancing to the East finals in consecutive seasons for the first time since doing so five straight times from 1984 to ’88.
“We didn’t want to go back to Philly,” Brown said. “We didn’t want to keep building their momentum. It was good to get a closeout game on our home floor.”
Draymond Green became the first Warriors player in team history to average a triple-double in a playoff series when he did so in the Western Conference semifinals against the Pelicans.
“He’s just incredibly engaged and locked in,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “This is the best I’ve seen him play all year. Draymond has to play hard to do what he does. I think the playoffs have energized him.”
Green averaged 14.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 10 assists in five games versus the Pelicans.
“I live for playoff basketball,” Green said. “It’s the most fun time of the year for me, but I don’t get fooled into thinking, ‘Oh, I averaged a triple-double in the series because of me.’
“That’s great to be the first person in the history of a franchise to do something, but you don’t get tripledoubles by yourself. I’ve got great teammates.”
The Warriors open the West finals Monday in Houston.