A Tale of Two Extremes
The potential outcomes of the Boston Celtics’ next 72 hours range from dream to nightmare
As the clock slowly ticks along on an anxious Monday in May, it feels right to kill some time by detailing the extreme volatility of emotion that Boston Celtics fans may experience over the course of the next 72 hours. As I write this blog, there are about six hours left to endure before the Celtics tip off against the Washington Wizards in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
That matchup will hopefully be the first thing for Celtics fans to celebrate this week. If it goes according to plan, they can enter Tuesday night’s draft lottery with peace of mind, knowing that the pain of an unlucky lottery can be soothed by a matchup the very next day against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference finals.
But, boy, oh, boy, could things go south. Let’s live through the two hypothetical extremes that we could wake up with on Thursday morning.
The Dream
You roll out of bed on Thursday morning. What a day! The weather is picture-perfect. It’s 88 degrees, a number that Beantown hasn’t reached since last summer. The birds are chirping, and you have a nice, relaxing day ahead of you without the stress of playoff basketball in your home city.
You are a little tired, though — it was a late night. The NBA’s Conference Finals games always start around 8:40 EST, because the league doesn’t care about your experience as a fan. But you hold no bitterness about that right now; the Celtics rode soon-to-be captain Isaiah Thomas to a huge series-opening win last night over LeBron James and the Cavs. The Garden was rocking. LeBron fouled out in overtime. Isaiah was vintage Isaiah in the fourth and fifth periods. Suddenly, there’s hope of avoiding a third straight Cavs-Warriors finals matchup.
It’s all house money at this point for the Celtics, anyway. Just a mere appearance in the conference finals, by everyone’s preseason standards, marks the season a smashing success. Being one of the final four teams standing in 2017 is nothing to scoff at for a franchise that tore it down to the ground in the summer of 2013.
That accolade became possible after their clutch, ableit anticlimactic, blowout win over the Washington Wizards in Game 7 on Monday night. It was the metaphorical volcano eruption that the C’s had been waiting for throughout the series — the game in which they finally imposed their will, locked it up on the defensive end, and buried their shots for 48 straight minutes. It showed how good they can be, even if not consistently.
But there’s something extra contribuing to your good mood on this Thursday morning. The week feels like a sandwich of Celtics heaven, really. Those two huge wins surrounded Tuesday night’s draft lottery, where the C’s punched their ticket to their choice of the rooks— finally securing the #1 pick in the NBA draft after so many long years waiting for the ping pong balls to bounce their way. With the luxury of choosing between a franchise-altering trade, Markelle Fultz from Washington, Josh Jackson from Kansas, or whoever Danny Ainge targets — stress levels are at an all-time low.
It’s time to kick back, relax, and watch the Spurs rattle off their second straight victory tonight, regaining control of their series with Golden State and taking a 2–1 series lead. Evil is finally succumbing to righteousness in the basketball world, and while there’s no guarantee it will continue, you’re enjoying the hell out of it right now.
The Nightmare
You roll out of bed on Thursday morning. Woof. You were looking forward to better weather, but it’s damn-near 90 degrees. The air conditioning is broken. Life sucks. The only thing you’re looking forward to is the Red Sox game tonight.
Wait… damn it. The Red Sox are in Oakland. First pitch isn’t until 10:05 PM. What a crappy Thursday.
It doesn’t help that you had to watch LeBron James roll to his 9th straight win to start (is that still the appropriate word when you’re three rounds deep?) the 2017 playoffs. It could have been the Celtics playing in that game — hell, you could have even attended the game at TD Garden — but the journey fell short at the hands of John Wall and Wizards in Game 7 on Monday night. It was the exact type of game you feared all along. Boston lacked defensive intensity, every role player had an ice-cold shooting night, and Washington’s backcourt had their way. It never materialized into a blowout, but you never really had the feeling it was going to happen. 48 minutes of slight hope and severe pain. A lot of people were left questioning the future of the team after Monday night, regardless of whether that’s a truly deserved reaction or not.
The question marks got highlighted on Tuesday night. As is consistent with the long and battered history of this franchise in draft lotteries, the Celtics drew the ultimate shaft — they fell to #4 in the lottery, seeing the Suns, Sixers, and Knicks leapfrog them. The silver lining was seeing the Lakers lose their pick, but then you came back to earth and realized the meaning of that one; Philly picks twice in the top five, and they’re beginning to look like a team that may start doing damage in the near future. Not much of a silver lining at all, when you think about it.
With the Suns at #1, the Sixers at #2, and the Knicks at #3, they have all entered the race for assets like Jimmy Butler and Paul George. The Bulls and Pacers know that they would be turning the Celtics into a Cavs-esque power in the East by sending their guy to Boston for the #4 pick. With those other three teams that are behind the Celtics in the rebuilding process, they can perhaps draw better future draft picks paired with the top-three selection this year. Many people think Danny Ainge may have to settle for drafting someone at #4, a spot at which both Markelle Fultz and Josh Jackson are likely to be gone.
To provide an extra kick to the groin on Tuesday, Kawhi Leonard missed Game 2 of the West Finals. The Warriors rolled to a 20-point win, bringing the combined record of Golden State and Cleveland to 19–0 in these playoffs.
So, needless to say, you’ve had better Thursday mornings.
Reality
As I come back to reality from those two narratives (side note: that was as much a narrative exercise as it was an experiment to prepare myself for this week), the truth will almost certainly fall somewhere in the middle. Still, neither scenario outlined above is implausible. In fact, they are both quite believable. The stark contrast in the two shows the type of stress that Boston fans — and to an even higher degree, the Celtics’ brass — are facing this week.
But who are we to complain? Stress is fun. It means you’re in the thick of the competition. In means you’re in contention. And for that, every Celtics fan should be thankful and optimistic heading into Game 7 tonight.
