The Boston Celtics are back in the Finals after 12 years. After years of disappointment and a poor start to the season, the Celtics are reaching for their 18th ring, but the team couldn’t do without drama in Miami either.
“That was a typical Celtics victory,” head coach Ime Udoka summarized the game and one would like to agree with the rookie coach. As dominant as the Celtics have been in the past few weeks and months, when there was a crunch time, no leadership was safe. Such was the case in Game 7, when Boston either downplayed the clock too much or took unnecessary shots early in the shotclock.
The Celtics remained without a single field goal in the last 4:28 minutes and conceded a 0:11 run, which almost cost them the finals participation they believed to be safe. It went well in the end as Jimmy Butler missed the pullup three for a possible lead with 22 seconds left.
“It was nerve-wracking,” admitted Al Horford after the game. “I knew anything was possible when he stepped up to throw.” It was Horford who at least raised his hand and defended the attempt a little, but in the end everyone agreed that there was also a bit of luck in the 100:96 success.
Boston Celtics: 18-21 becomes a Finals team
The Celtics are back in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010 – after numerous attempts, peppered with disappointments and four lost conference finals. The focus was primarily on Horford, who finally reached the finals in his 141st playoff game. Like Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, it was the Dominican’s fourth conference finals, and they were contested successfully for the first time. One day before his 36th birthday, Horford will play his first Finals game in 15 years in the NBA.
Before the season, very few would have believed it. Brooklyn, Milwaukee and even Miami – all were rated pre-season higher than the Celtics team, which was dismantled by the Nets last year. Now the record champion beat exactly these three teams and suddenly reaches for the 18th title.
At the beginning of January, the Celtics were still 18-21 and there was a lot of debate in the media as to whether the duo of Jayson Tatum and Brown should not be broken up after all. “It can’t just rain. There has to be good times at some point,” said Tatum after entering the finals, stating that the defeat at the New York Knicks in early January, when the Celtics lost a 25-point lead and RJ Barrett hitting the game winner over Tatum was one of the toughest moments of his career.
Boston Celtics: It’s just not easy
The Celtics were even outside of the play-in tournament at this point, and the season, like the ones before it, seemed lost. Even midway through the season, Boston hadn’t won half of their games, becoming the first team since the Houston Rockets in 1981 to still make the Finals.
And yet no one would have been surprised if Boston had lost that night. The chance that the Celtics left on the table in Game 6 was too big. Instead, after Game 6 in Milwaukee, the Udoka team prevented the threatened end abroad for the second time this postseason.
“I feel like it was destined for us that it wasn’t going to be easy. We’ve now won two Game 7s in a row, that says a lot about our team. We’ve faced a lot of resistance and today’s game showed that symbolic,” summarized Udoka.
Miami had the best defense in the NBA at 0.99 points per play, but only achieved an offensive rating of 103. This was particularly noticeable in the crunch time, when Boston no longer had balance in the game and was completely in control of it seemingly won game lost. Even Tatum, who was the best scorer with 26 points and was awarded the Larry Bird Trophy as MVP of the series after the game, was no longer able to take control of the action – despite a Kobe sweatband on his arm.
Boston Celtics: The hardest Finals run since …?
Unlike Bryant, Tatum didn’t force anything, in the final phase one or the other touch wouldn’t have been wrong, even if it went well in the end: “Today it was all about winning for me,” said the all-star. “If we had lost you wouldn’t have talked about my points or how many shots I missed. It was just a matter of whether we won or not.”
And they did – they won together after the core had experienced so many disappointments. Tatum scored the most points, Horford reeled off 44 minutes and kept the place together. Brown showed improvement with his drives and Smart also made a great game for the first 44 minutes before some of his plays got the team into trouble.
These four have been the pillars of the Celtics since 2017 (Horford was away for two years), this time they were the guarantors and are now as close to the big goal as they have been in their career. Not a single Celtics player has finals experience, but now the title hamsters from San Francisco are waiting as the last challenge of one of the toughest finals runs in recent years.
“Great players and great organization,” Smart said, referring to the Warriors. “Nobody has to prove anything to them. They know exactly what they’re doing because they’ve been there so many times. It’s going to be very difficult for us again, but we’ll be ready for this test.”
But if you knock out Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jimmy Butler one after the other, anything is possible in these finals, even in the California sun.
NBA Finals: Warriors vs. Celtics – The dates at a glance
| Spiel | Datum | time | Heim | away | transmission |
| 1 | June 3 | 3 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Boston Celtics | DAZN |
| 2 | June the 6th | 2 O ‘clock | Golden State Warriors | Boston Celtics | DAZN |
| 3 | 9. June | 3 o’clock | Boston Celtics | Golden State Warriors | DAZN |
| 4 | June 11 | 3 o’clock | Boston Celtics | Golden State Warriors | DAZN |
| 5* | 14th of June | 3 o’clock | Golden State Warriors | Boston Celtics | DAZN |
| 6* | June 17 | 3 o’clock | Boston Celtics | Golden State Warriors | DAZN |
| 7* | 20. June | 2 O ‘clock | Golden State Warriors | Boston Celtics | DAZN |