It is now or never for the Celtics

No more messing around for the Celtics. Their time has arrived. The time is now. No more excuses. The team has pretty much been on cruise control since the end of January, but it is time to put it all together and step on the throttle.

The Celtics went 27-7 in February, March, and April. They rested their starters at various times over those months. None of their starters played the final two games of the regular season.

This will be the test for these Celtics. This is Jayson Tatum’s seventh season in the NBA. Jaylen Brown is playing in his eighth season. The Celtics have only been to one NBA Finals during their careers, and they choked in those Finals when they lost two home games after taking a 2-1 series lead. Brown and Tatum have lost four times in the Eastern Conference Finals. Their time is now.

The Miami Heat beat the Celtics in two of those Eastern Conference Finals. This is the fourth time in the last five years these two teams have met in the playoffs. The series is set to begin Sunday at 1pm.

Despite all those series being hard fought, the Celtics have their sights set way beyond Miami. They expect to play in June. Boston won a league best 64 games this year. They made it look easy at times this year.

But now it is playoff time. The Celtics aren’t playing the Hornets, Wizards, Pelicans, or Pistons anymore. No one has ever doubted the talent on this team. Tatum and Brown are two of the top fifteen players in the NBA. And this year they have an incredibly strong, deep supporting cast. They have gotten significant contributions from players no one had ever heard of at the beginning of the season – Queta, Brissett, Tillman, and Mykhailiuk. Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Kyle Kornet have all continued to improve and have shown terrific chemistry within the second unit. A team with a starting lineup of the second unit of the Celtics would make the playoffs, in my opinion.

The biggest difference this year for the Celtics this year will be the biggest subtraction they made from a year ago. Many viewed Marcus Smart as the leader of the Celtics over the last few years. Smart definitely did. Smart may have even viewed himself as the coach of the Celtics last year. But he was the biggest reason for the team's failure the past few years. He viewed himself as part of the Big Three. He wasn't and never was.

The ripple effect of trading Smart stretches far beyond just the addition of Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis has been great. He loves to play the game and it shows on the court. He is the perfect complement to Brown and Tatum. He keeps things loose on the court. Not only can he shoot threes, effecively, but he gives the Celtics a low post presence and a rim protector. It is like having three players in one single 7-foot-2 frame. 

Most importantly, Porzingis knows his role and he is more than comfortable with it. It has allowed Tatum and Brown to become the unquestioned leaders of the team. The chemistry and the ball movement of the team is far superior than last year. Last year, I wrote about there being an obvious division on the team between Tatum/Smart and Brown/Malcolm Brogdon. Smart and Brogdon were dealt away. Tatum and Brown were forced to play together and iron out their differences, if indeed there were any.

Derrick White replaced Smart in the starting lineup. White saw his numbers improve in every category. He finished with an over 90% free throw percentage. He has proven to be an above average rebounder and blocker as a point guard. Essentially, he does all the dirty work that maybe some of the stars don’t. And he does it quietly and with no fanfare, and he is fine with that.

The absence of Smart also makes it easier for head coach Joe Mazzulla. I called for the firing of Mazzulla after last year’s pathetic playoff performance. The Celtics fell behind the Hawks, 3-2, and the Sixers, 3-0, in both of their series last year, and didn’t even reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Throughout the playoff run, Mazzulla exhibited some borderline psychotic behavior during his press conferences.

So how is Mazzulla going to handle the pressure of the playoffs his second time around? This team had better make it to the NBA Finals. Anything short of that has to be considered a failure, and despite winning 64 games, a coaching change will be needed.