Is this the hardest road ever to a championship?

[Drucci]

I’m so glad and amazed that the team completed its revenge tour against the three teams that knocked us out in the last three playoffs - and each in the round in which we previously lost.

Regardless of how the Finals end up for the Celtics, could this path to a championship be the hardest ever for a NBA team or even just a Celtics team ?

I mean :
- the first round ended up in a sweep but it was still a competitive series against two of the greatest scorers in the game, against whom no 10+ point lead was ever safe.
- the second round was against the defending champs and the best player/freakest athlete in the league.
- the ECF was against one of the toughest defenses in the NBA, led by a great coach and great star with mental toughness all around
- the Finals are up against the last NBA dynasty full of scorers/shooters and experience all around.

I mean, by comparison the 2008 and 2010 runs were almost « easy » !

[Goldstar88]

C’s definitely chose the path of most resistance. They are battle tested, though.

[johnnygreen]

Not to diminish what this team has accomplished, but I'm going to say no.

New Jersey was a shell of themselves. They traded Harden, and his replacement never played. Irving refused to get vaccinated, and the team never developed any chemistry.

We simply can't dismiss the fact that Middleton never played in the series against us. For some reason, his best games seem to be against the Celtics.

As for Miami, their sixth man of the year,  barely played, and Lowry was either slowed down by his hamstring injury or just too fat now.

For this playoffs, I think the Celtics had the most difficult road, but they definitely caught some breaks.

[SparzWizard]

2010 run was crazy. We had to play prime Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and then Kobe Bryant to 7 games.

We were underdogs as the #4 seed.

[Roy H.]

I don’t think so.  Look at the ‘95 Rockets, for instance.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Not to diminish what this team has accomplished, but I'm going to say no.

New Jersey was a shell of themselves. They traded Harden, and his replacement never played. Irving refused to get vaccinated, and the team never developed any chemistry.

We simply can't dismiss the fact that Middleton never played in the series against us. For some reason, his best games seem to be against the Celtics.

As for Miami, their sixth man of the year,  barely played, and Lowry was either slowed down by his hamstring injury or just too fat now.

For this playoffs, I think the Celtics had the most difficult road, but they definitely caught some breaks.

meh. we have beaten middleton the in playoffs before. see 2018.

nobody ever gave us any breaks when we fell 1 game short of finals in 2018 WITHOUT kyrie and hayward. 

we had smart and TL hurt all series and who knows who else. tatum was hurt awhile also but he played.

[Kuberski33]

Would have been harder if Milwaukee had Middleton and Herro was healthy for the entire series. Injuries matter - big time - in the NBA. The Celtics would have won in 2009 if KG hadn't gotten hurt and may well have won again in 2010 if Perk didn't get hurt in Game 6.

[celticinorlando]

Pretty darn tough

[Roy H.]

Would have been harder if Milwaukee had Middleton and Herro was healthy for the entire series. Injuries matter - big time - in the NBA. The Celtics would have won in 2009 if KG hadn't gotten hurt and may well have won again in 2010 if Perk didn't get hurt in Game 6.

Yeah, if we have a healthy KG, there’s no doubt in my mind that we threepeat.

[moiso]

I think it's been a pretty easy road.  Nets are a joke, Bucks didn't have Middleton, we let Miami hang in there way too long. 

[SHAQATTACK]

Nobody else volunteered to play any of our opponents. We were funneled down the hardest road . Next to Boston ,  these were the the three most difficult teams in the East to knock off.

[No Nickname]

There have been several games where we didn’t have Horford, Smart, Williams, and White... but it’s always the other teams’ missing players that are noticed more.

[keevsnick]

No, not even close.


Look the Nets are fine, above average for a first round team but they also stink defensively and outside of their top two lack actual NBA players.

The Bucks are very good with Middleton, but without him they aren't the championship level team they were last year.

The Heat are fine, but they were never some historical dominant #1 seed.

I'd say the path may have been above average inters of difficulty, but ever? No.

[celticinorlando]

Certainly was 10 times tough than what the warriors had

[Celtics2021]

For what it’s worth, 538 has the Bucks, Heat, and Nets ranked the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best teams in the NBA, with the C’s being the best.  So it might be a more difficult road than a lot of people seem to think.