Maya Angelou said, “When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.” The lesson in that message is that we tend to look past certain faults in people, even when they have made it clear that their behavior is who they are.
That applies to a lot in life. The question on a lot of Celtics fans’ minds is whether it applies to their team.
The Celtics have spent enough of the regular season playing down to their competition that they’ve created fear amongst the fans that their malaise is terminal. The Celtics, including Blake Griffin, push back on that notion.
“You hate to say this, but the regular season, it is different,” Griffin told Boston Sports Journal. “We played Utah in Utah, it's our second night of a back-to-back, fifth game of a six-game road trip, and Utah came in after four days of rest. So like, you don't want to ever make excuses, but the regular season is the regular season you can't quite compare the two.”
Jayson Tatum admitted that he was fighting off boredom over the last couple weeks of the regular season “because obviously everybody is just super eager to play in the playoffs and get it started. But now it’s here, so we’re all excited and ready for the moment.”
This is where the line between explanation and excuse blurs, and the nuance to Angelou’s quote emerges. Because the Celtics have shown both disdain for their weaker opponents and bouts of ruthlessness. To hear some talk about the season, we might think Boston never beat a bad team rather than carry a 24-10 record against teams below .500.
You can stare into a magnifying mirror and find blemishes in anyone’s skin. It’s not hard to find faults wherever you look around the league. Change the perspective and the wording -- like, saying Boston has the third-most wins in the East against teams below .500 (and the most in the NBA against teams above .500 -- and the tenor changes a bit.
Milwaukee only has three more wins against bad teams. They also lost to Charlotte, Washington, Houston, and San Antonio. Those four teams have also beaten Philadelphia.
At least Boston didn’t lose to the Spurs, right?
Still, bad losses are bad losses, and we’d all prefer that they didn’t happen. This team is going to have to prove that those days are behind them. They have to prove that there weren’t showing their true colors on those lazy days, and that their current tone of being locked in and focused is who they really are.
Keeping them on that task will fall partly on Griffin.
“I spoke to the team maybe midway through (the season),” he told BSJ. “I just said I maybe had one, maybe two real cracks at (a championship) … I asked Al (Horford), you've been in the league like 16 years, how many chances have you really had, and he said probably just one …
“And I said that's 30 years of NBA experience, and you're looking at two, maybe three, three might be a stretch. So don't think this window stays open all the time. As a young guy, you kind of forget that everything has to go right. This is obviously a great team. We have a great chance but you can't take this for granted.”
The Celtics are in a unique position. It’s hard to get back to the Finals in consecutive seasons, but the Celtics seem to be built for that kind of run. They have the talent and the chemistry to keep this thing rolling, but that can be fleeting.
“Being in a special group and a special team is not guaranteed,” Tatum said. “It’s a character trait that’s involved in that. You could have a lot of talent but maybe guys don’t mesh well, or being healthy is a big part of it. I’ve been very fortunate to be on some very good teams that had some really good guys in the locker room, and this is a really special group on and off the court, very close-knit, together, and everybody is just essentially on the same page. Everybody understands that and appreciates this moment, and not trying to take it for granted as well.”
Horford, Griffin, and Malcolm Brogdon have been able to add a certain perspective that will come in useful at times like this. They're all very aware of how limited the opportunity to compete for a title is. Tatum and Brown have had many deep playoff runs, and while this might be their best chance to win a championship, it’d be easy to understand if they felt good about getting more bites and the golden apple.
Griffin doesn’t believe that's the case, though. He has seen dysfunction up close, so when he tells me “I just really like these guys’ poise,” it carries some weight. While you might fear these Celtics scoffing at Atlanta and making life harder on themselves because of it, he sees a team ready to prove its mettle.
"In the playoffs, playing down to your competition, that's a losing mentality,” Griffin said. “And I don't think we have that as a team. I'm not saying we're gonna run the table and win every game that we're supposed to. But these guys are mature enough to realize what's at stake."