2011 NBA Playoffs: Boston Celtics Season Eulogy
The Boston Celtics were eliminated by the Miami Heat in five games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Considering the success this team has had in the past, and the catch phrase for the season "It's All About 18," this season could be considered a disappointment because of the championship aspirations this teams had.
But even though they did not meet expectations, it still was a good season.
They came off a crushing defeat in Game 7 to the Lakers and were determined to win it all the next season. They made bold free agency moves in the offseason to better their team, signing veteran centers Shaquille and Jermaine O'Neal and former Celtic Delonte West.
There was a lot of hype around this team and the potential it had. People talked about the Boston Celtic's bench as having the potential to be the best bench ever. Our chance to win the title at the beginning of the season seemed very good. We had hope.
That hope was ever amplified by the Celtics fast start to the regular season, beating the Heat twice in the first month of the season.
The Celtics were still managing to win, but had to endure injuries to nearly every player on the roster throughout the season (Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are the only players not miss time all season due to injury). Delonte went down, Jermaine went down, Rondo went down, Kevin Garnett went down, Perk was already down, Shaq went down, Wafer went down.
But the most crippling of all the injuries was the injury of Marquis Daniels. Although he wasn't the best player, he was Paul Pierce's back up and had played well. His injury forced Boston's hand and made them trade away one third of their roster. Suddenly, it was a different team. It was not the same team with all of the hype at the beginning of the season and we would never get to see that team ever play as a whole.
The season went on and the Celtics struggled while trying to integrate new parts into the system. But still, we had hope.
The struggles took the Celtics right into the playoffs where they would face the Knicks in the first round. And we had hope.
They won the first two games on late-game heroics and easily closed out the Knicks in the next two games for the sweep. And we had hope.
They were then set to face the Miami Heat. And we had hope. They dug themselves into an 0-2 hole early in the series. But we still had hope. They went down 3-1. And hope was still lingering. In Game 5, LeBron's late three destroyed all hope. And the Celtics season was suddenly over.
It hasn't quite hit me yet that the season is over. In recent years, we have come to expect that the Celtics will play until June. When it does hit me that the season is over, I'm sure I will be sad, not because the team did not meet expectations or they lost to the Heat but simply because I watched nearly every minute of this team playing this season, and I loved every minute of it, I wouldn't take any of it back.
I'm going to miss this team. I know a similar Celtics team will be playing next year (assuming there will be a season), but that seems too far away. Despite them not meeting expectations, I loved this team and will miss them.
