Though they are only one victory away from the NBA Finals, not many people are very impressed with the Boston Celtics‘ postseason performance. Indeed, several fans and analysts—including ESPN’s Zach Lowe—have deemed their run as utterly unimpressive due to their opponents’ terrible injury luck. During the Get Up show on Monday, the expert stated,
“I haven’t done the whole historical deep dive, but if it’s not the easiest path to the Finals, it’s going to be top three or top four… The Celtics have effectively gotten a bye to the NBA Finals. That might be unprecedented. There has not been a moment of stress in these playoffs.”
.@ZachLowe_NBA says the Celtics effectively got a bye to the NBA Finals 😅 pic.twitter.com/pbKP77iEpV
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 27, 2024
How right is Zach Lowe about Celtics?
Lowe’s analysis is accurate. The expectation was that the Celtics, who were clearly the greatest team during the regular season, would easily go past the first round before encountering more significant obstacles in each subsequent round. But thus far, the franchise has had nothing but easy sailing.
In the opening round matchup, they faced the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler and lost one game before winning three in a row to move on. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Donovan Mitchell to a calf injury in Game 3 of the East Semifinals, forcing the guard to miss the remainder of the series. The Cavaliers had begun the game without standout center Jarrett Allen.
Tyrese Haliburton, an All-NBA guard for the Indiana Pacers, hurt his hamstring in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals and hasn’t been able to play since.
Strangely enough, the opponents of the Celtics have lost their top players in every series, which has dulled the shine on their otherwise impressive record.
The Celtics intend to break the franchise’s 16-year drought for an NBA championship, thus they will disregard the rumors and concentrate on their current task. And according to one analyst, cosmic forces are at work to ensure that they do.
