You really think Boston gets "less" attention from the national media than it "deserves"?
Obviously Boston in general gets lots of attention.
I do think that for most of this Celtics playoff run, their opponents have been a greater focus in the coverage of each series than what the Celts themselves are doing.
I think Boris has it right, though -- it's easier to say that this is a fluke or that the team you thought would win is to blame than to readjust your assessment of the team that's unexpectedly winning.
There are plenty of places where the Celts are getting coverage, but I was struck by the fact that most of the articles I saw on places like The Ringer following that Game 5 were about either LeBron being tired, LeBron's team not being good enough, or how disappointing it would be for the Celts to make the Finals.
Now imagine what the coverage would look like right now if, as many were thinking would happen as of a few weeks ago, the Sixers were currently up 3-2 on the Cavs on the strength of great play from Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.
Do you think there would be many pieces lamenting the fact that we would be robbed of another LeBron Finals appearance because a young team was ahead of schedule? No, there'd be a million pieces fawning over how great Simmons and Embiid are and saying The Process was worth it all along.
That and your various podcast hosts a la Chris Ryan would be talking about how awesome the next decade of Joel Embiid memes are going to be.