In many ways, seeing how feeble the Celtics looked in the final three games against the 76ers warped my brain into thinking the team wasn’t that good, that they would have inevitably lost in the next round, and that they never had any real chance of winning the title. And while that may still be true, watching how the rest of the playoffs have played out has made the loss hurt far more.
For one thing, outside of the Knicks, nobody in the Eastern Conference has looked very good at all. New York absolutely steamrolled Philly and the Cavaliers, who squeaked past a Pistons team that didn’t look at all ready for the moment.
And yes, the Knicks look very good right now, but Boston could have given them a series. Joel Embiid got injured in Game 7 against the Celtics and was never right for the second round. Tyrese Maxey hurt himself during the series and wasn’t able to give them the performance they needed. Paul George finally started to wear down.
Celtics blew major opportunity
I’m not making excuses, but the best this Sixers team has looked in ages happened in those three games against the Celtics. Everything came together at the right time for them; they played out of their minds, Embiid and PG looked healthy, Maxey was amazing, the role players hit the right notes, and it resulted in the franchise’s best moment in 25 years.
At the same time, Boston’s best players turtled, Jayson Tatum got hurt, and Joe Mazzulla forgot how to coach. The Sixers deserve a ton of credit, and the Celtics deserve a ton of blame, but this outcome was still a fluke.
If Mazzulla and the players figured things out and took care of business in five or six games as they should have, Tatum is healthy, Boston has homecourt advantage, the team learns some valuable lessons from round one, and who knows? Maybe they go toe-to-toe with the Knicks and end their magical run before it really gets started.
Celtics were only real threat to Knicks in East
They certainly would have given them a much better series than anyone else in the East, and while the Knicks do match up well with the Celtics, that means the inverse is true as well. I may be viewing things through green glasses, but there’s no way the Celtics wouldn’t have given the Knicks a competitive series, and to think otherwise is revisionist history.
Past that, it’s hard to imagine the Cavs giving Boston much more trouble than they gave New York, and now, as we look to the Finals, the Knicks are going to draw a Western Conference team that will be beaten down by an exhausting seven-game series and dealing with major injury issues. Whether it's the Spurs or Thunder, that team is a lot more beatable than people would have thought a couple of weeks ago.
I’m not trying to sit here and say the Celtics should have won the championship or anything, but compared to how things looked and felt a couple of weeks ago, they definitely blew a real shot. They’re now dealing with the repercussions in what could be a tumultuous offseason, but this team is closer than people think at the moment, and running it back with a vengeance may not be the worst idea after watching these frustrating playoffs.
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