The Boston Celtics will play the Milwaukee Bucks tonight for a chance to claim, at least for one night, the 7th seed (if Brooklyn loses) and move within two games of 6th.
They hold tie breakers on some teams. They don’t with others. In seven remaining games, they face only one team that’s not concerned with playoff seeding (Detroit, on Wednesday). I have a feeling about how those games will go, but none of that is guaranteed. I don’t know which opponent will play hard, or who’ll be rested, or who’ll wake up with a back spasm, or who Shavlik Randolph will elbow next.
But I do know this.
Whatever happens over these next seven games, this season is already a success.
Missing the playoffs isn’t a failure. Far from it. And I don’t mean that in a “yay, we get to play the lottery” way, either.
This team’s determination, grit and balls if you will, has fully presented itself. Regardless of adversity, regardless of player lost, this team has come out most nights with a singular focus. The home loss to Miami and Marcus Smart’s nut punch aside, the Celtics have been squarely focused on executing Brad Stevens’ daily plan.
Sure, they couldn’t always do it. Teams like the Clippers walked right through Boston as if the Celtics were those logo-standees in the skills challenge. That’s going to happen when one team is fighting for home court out West while another is currently a lottery team from the East.
Still, this team has given us a lot of hope for the future. It’s given us a glimpse into what kind of coach Brad Stevens really is (hint: he’s really good). It’s given us an idea of how he can adjust to day-to-day lineup changes due to injury, and how he can make in-game, real-time adjustments based on what’s he’s seeing on the floor. He’s shown no fear to put a player out on the floor after a string of DNP’s and sit a guy who might have a pretty good recent history of playing well.
The best part of this is the players have responded.
There are no out-of-control egos derailing the plan. Even Evan Turner has bought into this system, playing unlike the Turner of old, eschewing hero-ball and churning out triple-doubles.
Fans are (mostly) happy. They’re caught up in the fever of a lovable bunch of kids scratching out improbable wins. The overreactions fueled by unbridled enthusiasm are back (ok, sure, the top seeded Hawks are a better matchup! Let’s just roll with that!).
And most of all, it’s April, and these games mean something. ESPN just put a Celtics game on national TV. We’re not playing out the string. We’re rearranging schedules to make sure we catch games. It’s entirely possible game 82 will be the make-or-break game in this chase.
It doesn’t matter if they lose that one. It doesn’t matter if they flub a chance to make the playoffs at this point.
Because the Celtics have given us more than we could have ever hoped for. We know what this team was supposed to be, and we know how far ahead of that they are. Whether they make the playoffs or not, this team has overcome, and excelled.
This is a team you can be proud of. And that makes this season a success.
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