The Boston Celtics Are Headed To The NBA Finals!!!

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

[CelticSooner]

Expectations have taken some joy from me tonight. C’s are the best team in the league when they play smart ball. That’s hard to predict though.

Who here thought they would be this good this season though? I thought they’d be around.500. Their bad habits still show up but less than before overall. Just win baby from here on out.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

[Phantom255x]

Btw, how is Spoelstra's Game 7 Home Record looking?

 

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Btw, how is Spoelstra's Game 7 Home Record looking?

 

4-1 at home now in game 7's

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Phantom255x]

Btw, how is Spoelstra's Game 7 Home Record looking?

 

4-1 at home now in game 7's

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I believe Tatum and Jaylen are also now 4-1 in Game 7s all-time. Pretty good!

[Birdman]

Yessss & well deserved!!! Beat Nets with Durant & Kyrie, beat champions Bucks & best record in East in Miami

[Redz]

Boston began the season as a 50-1 long shot. Based on preseason odds, the Celtics would be the biggest long shot to win a title in the past 35 years, according to sports betting archive SportsOddsHistory.com.

Crazy!

I cashed in on a pre-playoffs wager when they were +330 to win the East.

Of course I think I lost what I won when I got a little overconfident for Game 6

[Phantom255x]

Still surreal to me that the C's finally made it to the Finals after so long. Suffered some tough losses in the ECFs over the last 5 years, and also 2012. Then you have Butler going 2012 Game 6 Lebron on us in nearly similar fashion this series to force Game 7. The path wasn't easy, but the C's stayed resilient and made it.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Awesome....Let's win the whole thing now~!

Next season: sign or trade for a Vet Shooter who can keep us from having these scoring droughts and work on Pushing the lead when we have it --NOT trying to kill the clock.

[bdm860]

The funny thing for me is that this was probably the least excited I'd been going into a Celtics season in a long time.

Going into 2015-16: Had that great IT momentum with the late season playoff run from the year before.  Had a couple of rookies/young guys to be excited about.  Had the Brooklyn picks.  Had cap room coming up.  Going into the season excited.

Going into 2016-17:  Landed Big Al (though missed on Durant).  Got the #3 pick (Brown).  Still had 1 Brooklyn pick + swap.  Team was just getting better and better and had a ton of assets.  Going into the season very excited.

Going into 2017-18: Kyrie+Hayward+Tatum added to a team that finished 1st in the East and just went to the ECF?  Still had future picks that looked promising.  Going into the season extremely excited.

Going into 2018-19:  After almost beating LeBron in Game 7 of the ECF the year before, a healthy Hayward+Kyrie, with growth from Tatum+Brown = championship.  And there's still the outstanding Kings and Grizzlies picks.  Going into the season extremely excited, more excited than previous year.

Going into 2019-20: Replacing Kyrie with Kemba is going to improve chemistry (along with losing Morris/Rozier).  Hayward is finally going to be healthy.  Tatum and Brown are about to make jumps.  There's nobody tough in the East besides Giannis. Going into season excited (but less excited than previous years).

Going into 2020-21: Kemba is going to be healthy finally (Romeo too), and the C's just made it to the ECF with Hayward barely playing or contributing, so losing him won't sting that much.  Tatum + Brown growth will make up for it.  This Nesmith kid has potential.  The C's can still do this.  Going into season not really excited, but hopeful.

Going into 2021-22: Danny's gone as GM, Stevens is gone as coach.  The team looked very uninspired the last year.  We lost Fournier for nothing.  No rookies to be excited for.  No future picks from other teams to look forward to.  No real assets other than Tatum/Brown.  Not expecting much from a rookie coach or rookie GM.  The team we laughed at for thinking they stole Josh Jackson from Danny just went to the Finals.  Going into season not excited or hopeful at all. (To be fair, the first 3 months of the season went pretty much how I thought the season would go).

And now here the C's are in the Finals.

[bdm860]

Also, I thought I jinxed the team.

I remember watching Game 7 of the ECF in 2018.  ~6 minutes left, Tatum dunks on LeBron.  Celtics steal the ball.  Tatum hits a 3, and C's are up 1!  At that moment I thought the C's had all the momentum, and I verbally said out loud the C's are going to the Finals.  Obviously that didn't work out.


Similar thing in Game 6 this year vs Heat.  99-99, ~2 mins left.  Lowry fouls Brown and fouls out, Brown's going to the line shooting 2 (the C's have only missed 1 free throw all night, he's definitely hitting these 2, or so I thought) .  I said the C's are going to the Finals (actually wrote out a post saying so in the game thread, but was waiting till the final buzzer to hit send).  I thought I jinxed the team again saying it before it happened.

Also, when the C's went up 3-2 on Miami in 2012, I also thought they were going to the Finals, though I don't remember actually saying it out loud.

[Phantom255x]

The funny thing for me is that this was probably the least excited I'd been going into a Celtics season in a long time.

Going into 2015-16: Had that great IT momentum with the late season playoff run from the year before.  Had a couple of rookies/young guys to be excited about.  Had the Brooklyn picks.  Had cap room coming up.  Going into the season excited.

Going into 2016-17:  Landed Big Al (though missed on Durant).  Got the #3 pick (Brown).  Still had 1 Brooklyn pick + swap.  Team was just getting better and better and had a ton of assets.  Going into the season very excited.

Going into 2017-18: Kyrie+Hayward+Tatum added to a team that finished 1st in the East and just went to the ECF?  Still had future picks that looked promising.  Going into the season extremely excited.

Going into 2018-19:  After almost beating LeBron in Game 7 of the ECF the year before, a healthy Hayward+Kyrie, with growth from Tatum+Brown = championship.  And there's still the outstanding Kings and Grizzlies picks.  Going into the season extremely excited, more excited than previous year.

Going into 2019-20: Replacing Kyrie with Kemba is going to improve chemistry (along with losing Morris/Rozier).  Hayward is finally going to be healthy.  Tatum and Brown are about to make jumps.  There's nobody tough in the East besides Giannis. Going into season excited (but less excited than previous years).

Going into 2020-21: Kemba is going to be healthy finally (Romeo too), and the C's just made it to the ECF with Hayward barely playing or contributing, so losing him won't sting that much.  Tatum + Brown growth will make up for it.  This Nesmith kid has potential.  The C's can still do this.  Going into season not really excited, but hopeful.

Going into 2021-22: Danny's gone as GM, Stevens is gone as coach.  The team looked very uninspired the last year.  We lost Fournier for nothing.  No rookies to be excited for.  No future picks from other teams to look forward to.  No real assets other than Tatum/Brown.  Not expecting much from a rookie coach or rookie GM.  The team we laughed at for thinking they stole Josh Jackson from Danny just went to the Finals.  Going into season not excited or hopeful at all. (To be fair, the first 3 months of the season went pretty much how I thought the season would go).

And now here the C's are in the Finals.

It was an insane turnaround. Feels like just yesterday Barrett hit that game-winner and the C's blew that lead to the Knicks and the C's were the 11 seed at the time and had pretty much hit rock bottom. Fast forward to today, and they're in the NBA Finals!

Tatum even said it postgame too, that moment against the Knicks was probably the toughest moment for him and the C's. But they grew from it and turned their season around after

[tenn_smoothie]

Being a fan of these Celtics is like the romantic relationship with the love of your life. You are crazy in love with the most exciting woman you have ever been with and who makes you happier than you have ever been .................. most of the time. Less often, she does things or says things that make no sense to you and sometimes make you as miserable as you can ever remember being.

Such is the plight of being in love with these Boston Celtics. Past championship eras have been less of a roller coaster with teams that played well on a much more consistent basis. I did not wonder from game to game how the team would perform during the Russell, Cowens, Bird and Garnett eras. Maybe, as many are saying, the inconsistency is the product of youth. Maybe. But our three core players now have at least 6 seasons of experience in the pros, more than enough time to grow out of the boneheaded mistakes this team repeatedly makes. Years of play far outweighs age of the players. The second half of the regular season looked like a corner had been turned and Marcus, Jayson and Jaylen had finally started putting the mental side of the game together with their immense physical talent. But as the playoffs have gone further and the stakes have gotten higher, we have seen some of the bad habits come back and at the worst possible moments. And this group has had plenty of playoff experience.

As much of an idiot as Stephen A. is, I think he got it right last night saying that the Celtics current level of bad decision making will not beat the Warriors. Possibly a healthy Rob Williams and much smarter basketball will give us a good chance. Or maybe our guys are simply very slow learners, but the excuse of being young does not apply anymore.

[Roy H.]

Enjoy the experience.  A lot of fan bases have never seen a Finals appearance, let alone a title.