Bleacher Report has Boston Celtics heading to 2022 NBA Finals

This year’s Eastern Conference Finals hasn’t even tipped off yet, but we already have fans and media pundits alike predicting future endeavors and situations that may be on the horizon for the Boston Celtics.

After enduring such a tumultuous first half of the regular season, going 20-21 through their first 41 games played, Ime Udoka‘s squad pulled a complete 180 and went on an absolute tear from the midway point on, sporting a 39-13 record since January 12th till now while also seeing Jayson Tatum be selected to his third consecutive All-Star appearance and Marcus Smart being the first guard to win the Defensive Player of the Year award since 1996.

With this historic turnaround, the C’s have managed to clinch the No. 2 seed in the standings where they’ve gone on to sweep the star-studded Brooklyn Nets in round one of the playoffs, down the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks in round two, and are now heading into a highly anticipated round three against the top-seeded Miami Heat.

Now, to some, even if the Boston Celtics are ousted in the Conference Finals, considering where they were just a few months back, their 2021-22 campaign would be viewed by the majority of people as a triumphant run and a tremendous success.

However, obviously, the end goal is to see this ball club exact revenge against the team that sent them packing from the Lake Buena Vista bubble two years ago at this same point in the postseason bracket and, in turn, advance to their first NBA Finals in over a decade and contend for the opportunity to hoist banner No. 18 into the rafters back at TD Garden.

Many are under the impression that the shamrocks have a legitimate chance of accomplishing such a feat, and the folks at Bleacher Report have even gone on to predict a Finals berth for the boys in green.

Citing their tremendous play since the second half of the regular season on both ends of the floor, despite Miami’s impressive assortment of talents, writer Andy Bailey believes the Celtics will simply prove to be too much for Erik Spoelstra’s squad to handle:

"Miami has homecourt advantage and quite possibly the best player in the series, but the Celtics have played like a juggernaut for months. With the number of options they have to throw at Butler and Tatum in the middle of his own superstar stretch, Boston should prevail.From January 1 to the end of the regular season, the Celtics were plus-12.7 points per 100 possessions. And the distance between them and second place was about the same as the distance from second to ninth. In the playoffs, their net rating trails only, well, Miami’s, but the Heat didn’t have to face the defending champs.Boston’s dominant defense will slow down everyone but Butler in the conference finals, and should flip first and second on that net rating leaderboard."

While there are still a minimum of four games to be played in what should be a highly competitive Eastern Conference Finals series, seeing a sizeable media outlet such as B/R on the side of the Boston Celtics is a good way to head into Game 1.