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?
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.
