From Where These 2021-22 Boston Celtics Started, This Run Is All Upside

Curran: From where these 2021-22 Celtics started, this run is all upside originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Before playoffs started, we were having one of those boilerplate Early Edition discussions we have about every team during every season. The basic gist: "How far do the Celtics have to go to make this season a success?"

The topic gets trotted out seasonally because it cuts to the chase: "How good did you think this team was when the season started? How good do you think they are now? How far should this cast of characters be capable of going?"

I said they needed to get by Brooklyn. That was it. I’d be a little disappointed by a second-round demolition by, say, Milwaukee. But the Bucks were defending champions and had the best player on the planet.

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The Celtics? Regardless of what they’d done since the calendar flipped, I was just happy I wasn’t hate-watching the product anymore. Which is what I’d been doing well into January. Consuming every minute of every bleak game, seeing them invent new and embarrassing ways to blow leads.

Over a seven-game stretch from Christmas through January 6, they lost five of seven. They blew a lead against Milwaukee. They got chewed up by a G-League Minnesota roster spearheaded by Jaylen Nowell and Greg Monroe. Game after game against undermanned teams in which the Celtics seemed disinterested in defending, all about pounding the ball into the floor and playing "my turn" basketball on offense.

The Spurs game on January 5, which featured turnovers galore and blown layup at the buzzer, followed by the Knicks game on January 6 when they blew a 25-point lead and Evan Fournier ate them? That was the nadir.

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Team-wide and individual meltdowns left my psyche so dented, I didn’t trust them. I knew bad basketball was in the DNA of the 2021-22 Celtics. To me, 48 minutes of competency was an aberration. So for the Celtics to get to 51 wins by sharing the ball, deferring to their best player, just paying a little bit of attention on defense, believing in Robert Williams and changing their energy? That made me pretty happy with the season.

Beat Milwaukee? Get to the ECF? The Finals? Come on. When the season started, I figured they were a 40-win team. Then they played like a 30-win team. So being disappointed if a team with one superstar (Jayson Tatum), a maddeningly erratic No. 2 (Jaylen Brown) and a point guard who sometimes runs the offense like an ATV (Marcus Smart) didn’t go deep? Only if you didn’t remember where they were in January.

But here they are. Screeching into the Finals on two wheels thanks to a white-knuckle Game 7 win over Miami which followed their white-knuckle Game 6 loss to Miami.

They aren’t more talented than Golden State. Tatum might be better than Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins but I don’t know if Brown is better than any of them. Smart and Grant Williams can approximate Draymond Green’s defense and edge but Green is a brilliant offensive facilitator. The Celtics are, however, bigger and better up front with Rob Williams and Al Horford.

What this will hinge on is whether the Celtics’ size and defensive aggressiveness/athleticism can short-circuit the Warriors' "beautiful game" offense. Be prepared to loathe Golden State in a way you’ve never loathed before because the bitching, moaning, flopping and crying is going to be off the charts.

The upshot of all of this, though, is that it’s bonus basketball. This run has the same scent as the 2001 and 2018 Patriots runs and the 2013 Red Sox championship.

I know there shouldn’t be a "just happy to be here ..." vibe, but this team was a joke on President’s Day. Now, they are in the NBA Finals on Memorial Day. Nobody saw THIS coming.