Sometimes when a team makes a deep playoff run, the opponents don’t really mean anything beyond the fact that they’re the next team standing in the way.
During the Bruins’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019, for instance, there was no deeper meaning to be found in beating the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes to get to the Final. Those weren’t rivals, or opponents they had lost to a year or two prior, or era-defining teams that had championship resumes.
Other times, the path to a championship looks like it was set up by a video game writer, with a meaningful opponent placed on every level along the way, each with its own backstory and each presenting another major hurdle that must be overcome.
That’s what this 2022 Celtics postseason is. First up was the Brooklyn Nets, with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant -- one the Celtics’ savior-turned-enemy whose time in Boston could have done irreversible damage to this current core, the other one of the 15 greatest players ever and still one of the best in the game. The Nets were also the team that beat the Celtics in five games in the first round last year, and the one from whom they acquired the draft picks that eventually became Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
As is the case with any good video game, Level 1, despite its intimidating look upon first blush, would prove to be the easiest.
Next came the Milwaukee Bucks, the defending NBA champions led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP and arguably the best player in the league today. Of course, there was a backstory here, too. While the Celtics had beaten Milwaukee in seven games in 2018, just as Giannis was really leveling up to full power, the Bucks walloped Boston in five games the next year.
The Celtics nearly died on Level 2 this year, but they stared down an elimination game on the road before winning Game 7 at home in a blowout.
Level 3: The Miami Heat, the team that beat the Celtics in six games in the conference finals just two years ago. The Celtics were supposed to have been the better team then, but they didn’t quite know all the ins and outs of the game yet. Of course this was the team they would need to beat to prove they had learned their lessons and were ready to take the next step.
Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals wouldn’t be at home, and it wouldn’t be a blowout. It went right down to the final seconds, but the Celtics survived.
Now it’s time to face the game’s final boss, which had to be the Golden State Warriors. They have been the NBA’s most dominant franchise for the last eight years. They’re in the Finals for the sixth time since 2015, and they’re looking for their fourth title in that time. Some may have believed they were dead after back-to-back tough seasons that saw Durant depart for Brooklyn, Klay Thompson battle two serious injuries and Steph Curry one.
Instead, they are very much alive. Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green are still there. Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Kevon Looney have emerged as critical contributors who have helped reopen and extend Golden State's championship window. They have lost a total of four games through the first three rounds.
They’re a team Boston has played well over the years, and one many envisioned the Kyrie-Gordon Hayward Celtics facing in the Finals at some point. Obviously, that never happened. But now, the Tatum-Brown Celtics have proven they’re ready for Level 4, and it is sill the Warriors who await as the Western Conference’s big bad.
With all due respect to the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies or anyone else out West, facing the Warriors just feels more fitting, doesn’t it?
LeBron James and the Lakers would have been quite the story as well -- a reignition of both the Celtics-Lakers rivalry and the Celtics-LeBron rivalry. But the LeBron version of the Lakers appears to have only had one good run in them, at least for now. They didn’t even make the play-in tournament this season.
So, the Warriors it is. This is expected to be Boston’s toughest adversary yet. The Celtics will be the underdogs for the first time this postseason. This will be the ultimate test of just how good they are.
Lose in four or five games, and it will be proof that, despite getting further than they have before, this core still has work to do to win it all. Lose a long, hard-fought series, and they will be viewed as just about championship-ready, with another chance to beat the game next year.
Or they can beat the Warriors, and finish off what would go down as one of the toughest paths to a championship in NBA history. That would leave no doubt that these Celtics have completed their journey from novices to experts.
Related
