Celtics
“That’s what all the work you’ve put into your whole life is for being right now.”
Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown will make their first trip to the NBA Finals, and the first for the Celtics since 2010. Matthew J. Lee / Globe Photo
We could do 7-game analysis between the Celtics and the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for.
After all, you know what happened: the Celtics never perceived and barely won. They led to 17. The lead was reduced to two in the last minute, and Jimmy Butler almost gave the Celtics their most overwhelming shot since 2010 with a triple that would have given the Heat a one-point lead. point it seemed. com 20.
Instead, the Celtics held on and headed for the final. Jayson Tatum pounded his fist and roared as the doorbell rang. Everyone hugged. At Horford he fell to the ground.
“I didn’t know how to act,” admitted a lively and visibly relieved Horford after the game.
Ime Udoka reminded his players in the locker room after the game that the Celtics do not hang banners to reach the Final, but the Celtics earned this opportunity to celebrate, even if only for one night.
“I think it’s okay to be proud of ourselves today and enjoy that,” Jayson Tatum said. “We are not satisfied. We know we still have a long way to go. “
The Celtics can think of the Warriors in the morning. For takeaway food, it’s probably worth taking a look at what Sunday’s victory means for some of the Celtics players.
Jayson Tatum
As Tatum hugged Jaylen Brown after the game, two young stars, both inextricably linked to the Celtics’ past, present, and future, as well as between them, Tatum slapped Brown on the back.
“They said we couldn’t play together,” Tatum said, as the two players smiled broadly.
Players are often a little hyperbolic when they paint the media in broad strokes “them”, but here Tatum was not: “They” literally said that he and Brown could not play together, some of them “the Friday “so recently. when the Celtics dropped the sixth game at home. “They” questioned the list, the chemistry, the resolution. Many of “them” asked Tatum.
Tatum can’t blame them, however, he also wondered.
“It was tough,” he said. “As a matter of fact. There have certainly been some difficult times throughout the season where, don’t doubt yourself, but maybe ask, oh, ask, can we do it? You’re starting to realize how hard it is to win. “You’re starting to question yourself, are you good enough to be this guy?”
Tatum wore a bracelet to Kobe Bryant in Game 7, a constant, purple reminder that Tatum sees himself as a piece of basketball history. He is under pressure to achieve recognition at the same age as his superstar predecessors. She has a timeline and wants to see it finished.
He is famous, when Tatum was a child, he used to tell his mother that he did not want to be like Kobe, but that he wanted to be like Kobe.
Bryant won his first title at the age of 21. Tatum is 24. However, he is now one step closer and is undeniable for his teammates.
“She’s a superstar and she deserved that,” Jimmy Butler said after the game. “They deserve the victory. I wish them all the best to move on. He’s a hell of a player, that’s for sure.”
Jaylen Brown
It’s wild to remember that Brown was booed when the Celtics took him to the third team in 2016 because fans wanted the team to take Kris Dunn and trade him for the aforementioned Butler.
Still, Brown seemed to never oppose anyone.
“I’m going to war for this city,” he told Celtics.com, a quote that came from a viral tweet after Sunday’s game.
Before being selected, Brown attended a Warriors game in the final and met Andre Iguodala. In a different clip that came back on Monday, Brown and Iguodala shook hands and Iguodala told him to keep working.
“I want to get really bad,” Brown, 19, said, nodding his head and looking at the beams. “I’ll be here.”
Six years later, Brown was instrumental when the Celtics got it.
“That’s what you’ve done all your life to be in these moments, to play in the Finals, to represent not only the organization, but also your family, your community, your extended community,” Brown said. “It’s not much better than that.”
Al Horford
On Thursday, Horford lost his grandfather, a man with whom he was “extremely close.”
This has been a tough week.
“My family [was] he just told me to go out there and play, “Horford said.
Fortunately, Horford seems to have found a home that can embrace him in Boston. His path began to meander in strange directions as he left Atlanta, his only NBA city for years, for the Celtics in the summer of 2015. He and Isaiah Thomas formed a successful duo until the Celtics traded for Kyrie Irving, at which point Horford paired up. perfectly with the young core of the Celtics (but not so much Irving). He’s been to Philadelphia. He’s been to Oklahoma City. Life went by and, fortunately, your phone keeps track of it.
“Last week, I was looking, on the phone, looking at photos from a year ago, exactly what I was doing at the time, and today my son graduated from kindergarten,” Horford said. “So I remember we had photos for him and I picked him up at school and we had the cupcakes and we had all these things.”
Horford has had a phenomenal career. He can boast five All-Star appearances, an All-NBA team and 141 playoff games, the highest in NBA history without playing a game in the finals.
His 142nd playoff game will be his first.
“No one deserves it more than this guy on my right here, man,” Brown said. “I am proud to be able to share this moment with a veteran, a mentor, a brother, a boy like Al Horford, a man. It’s been great all season, really my whole career. “
Marcus Smart
Marcus Smart always wanted to be a baseman, but the Celtics just got them.
First it was Thomas, who was supposed to be a microwave scorer from the bench, but who somehow turned into a star. Then there was Irving, the first of a hypothetical duo or trio to arrive. Then came Kemba Walker, who, as it turned out, was much closer to the end of his career than anyone knew.
Smart had been waiting for a long time. This season has finally had its chance.
At first, the experiment looked like it could be undone. But after all the drama, the Celtics teamed up and built a real contender with Smart as the main ball manager.
“I think growth is inevitable when you do things like that, when you bleed and sweat and cry together,” Smart said. “It’s okay for us to build together to come up with something fantastic, and that’s to overcome that hump for us.”
Robert Williams
Robert Williams made a great block, though.
“He can’t be himself at his level and what he wants to do, and we’re not asking him to be Rob when he’s 100 percent healthy,” Udoka told reporters. “You have to understand that.”
Grant Williams
Grant Williams has played a bit of everything in his career, from the little ball of five, to the forward-pivot, to the iteration of this season as a kind of reinforced and sparse wing. Last year he played in moderation during the post-pandemic season, but became one of the best three-point shooters in the league for much of the year. On Sunday, when his 3-point shot missed him, he still managed to score 11 points on a 5-of-8 shot.
Derrick White
Derrick White’s chaotic season is hard to imagine. They changed him while he was on the road and he had to pack his bags for Boston quickly. He and his pregnant wife lived outside a hotel for a while, and while the playoffs warmed up, he and the team prepared to waste time on the birth of their son. When his wife came in part, he flew home, met his son Hendrix, and then joined the team after missing the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Now, after a successful Eastern Conference finals, he can say that it was a critical part of a finals race. The NBA is a difficult place, but it can also be rewarding.
Ime Udoka and Brad Stevens
Stevens’ term as president of basketball operations began on unstable ground, but he quickly showed that he was ready to build a contender: he moved decisively to free himself from Dennis Schröder and Enes Freedom after signing both for the low season, incorporating players like White and Daniel Theis, both have played a role. He figured out what the Celtics needed and what they needed to unload, and it looks like he’s hitting
Udoka, meanwhile, took over from Stevens and has proven to be all the Celtics needed both schematically and mentally.
“I didn’t want it to be easy,” Smart said of Udoka. “She did not ask, she did not cry because of the circumstances. He didn’t cry about where we were in the standings earlier this year. He just stayed with us to continue. When you have a coach like that, it’s a little hard not to follow him because you don’t want to be that guy who says’ Oh man, here we go, we’re this, we’re this, ‘when everyone else is moving forward.’
The Celtics have a lot of work ahead of them. They know it. But since this core began trying to put together a contender after the Celtics selected Smart in 2014, the changes have faltered wildly …