By Martin Rogers
Brad Stevens doesn’t deal much in predictions for the future, even the immediate future. He likes to keep it in the here and now. When the present looks like this for the Boston Celtics, who can blame him?
This fact hasn’t exactly been at the forefront of NBA focus lately, but the Celtics have been lights out during this unique postseason, winning six straight games ahead of today’s Eastern Conference semifinals Game 3 matchup against the Toronto Raptors.
While the hoops world has been permanently all about the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, got briefly sidetracked by a pair of Game 7 slugfests in the Western Conference, then bamboozled by how the Milwaukee Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo seem to be falling apart, Boston has been quietly doing its own thing. That is, if you can call winning six games in a row "quiet."
Stevens, seven years into his Celtics tenure, isn’t one for grand statements and inflaming the hype, but his team – at least according to statistics site FiveThirtyEight.com – is now the team with the highest probability to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Just don’t expect him to talk about it. Stevens, who looked set for a post-college career as a pharmaceutical sales rep before being drawn back into basketball, will extol the virtues of his players all day long. However, you’re not going to find him speaking about championships until his team is actually playing for one.
"We play with really good intentions," Stevens told reporters, which was his way of saying that spirit within the group has never been higher. "And we have a great deal of respect for (Toronto). Can’t say enough good things."
FOX Bet has the Clippers as title favorites at +230, with the Lakers at +275 and the Celtics third favorite at +500. Yet FiveThirtyEight gives Boston a 31 percent chance of winning it all, narrowly ahead of the Clippers. Stevens’ squad is a talented group that was expected to be good, but perhaps not this good.
Even in Boston, not everyone believes. The local media there has seen plenty of championship teams before, across all the major sports, and they still deciding whether this one has that kind of potential.
Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel has known Stevens since the coach was doing remarkable things with mid-major Butler, taking the Bulldogs to two NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011. In the first of those, Butler came within a Gordon Hayward buzzer heave of upsetting Duke. The fact that this Celtics run has come without Hayward, one of their stars, makes this effort even more impressive.
"Stevens commands an incredible level of respect," Wetzel told me via telephone. "Not just from his players but from his assistants and everyone in the organization. He gets that respect because of confidence and consistency.
"It is clear he knows what he is talking about and doesn’t need to be over the top. Think about what the average person wants in a boss - someone who knows what they are doing and puts you in the best position for success. He does that. He is the kind of guy who is impossible to dislike. His players would kill for him. It is an unnatural trait, to be that assured, but still that genuine."
Many around the NBA are finding it impossible to shake the narrative that the winner of the Lakers vs. Clippers matchup in the Western Conference Finals will then cruise to the title, assuming those teams get by the Rockets and Nuggets, respectively. It is a school of thought only enhanced by the Bucks and the Raptors, the East’s top two seeds, both falling into a 2-0 hole.
But don’t sleep on the Celtics, who are being buoyed by the elite play of Jayson Tatum, the smooth calmness of Kemba Walker and a ton of belief powering them forwards. They lost Kyrie Irving a year ago when he decided to depart for Brooklyn, and yet seem all the better for it.
"I am in shock," admitted former Celtics star Antoine Walker on FS1’s First Things First. "The Celtics had a lot of question marks. But yes, (now) I believe they can make a title run. They’ve got good chemistry right now. In Jayson Tatum you’ve got a closer who can finish games for you. He is playing just how he left off before the pandemic.
Even hardcore Celtics fans are only just starting to wake up to the fact that the Celtics may be a realistic title threat.
"The effects of the playoffs being in a bubble has changed how the city perceives it," longtime fan Mark Melli told me. "Without home games to feed off, it has been a slow burn. Suddenly you look at this team and think, wow, why not? Honestly, until a few days ago everyone was talking more about the Patriots and the new NFL season. We are waking up to it – and it is a good thing to wake up to."
The Celtics still have work to do, but they have confidence at exactly the time of year when you need it the most. And they have a coach who maybe, just maybe, is beginning to feel like something special is brewing here – although good luck getting him to admit it.
