NBA Notebook: Celtics studied other championship runs before playoffs

The Celtics began playoff week as they did training camp. They conditioned, progressed through their offensive reads and talked about the 2008 team. 

Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo didn't show up like in October, Joe Mazzulla inviting former Boston players to camp to share their perspective and championship experiences. They had already heard it, so Mazzulla spent recent weeks taking his own deep dive into how former title teams reached the top. They discussed it as a team and learned that every run takes on its own life, not every champion tears through the playoffs and some of the squads now considered legendary came close to losing early in the postseason.

"We looked at the '08 team, we looked at the 2010 Lakers that won the championship and just how every path is different," Jayson Tatum said on Wednesday. "The '08 team, they went to two Game 7s, first and second round, so he's just getting us prepared. It's not always gonna go how we expect it or want it to go, but we've gotta be ready for that ... you've gotta be ready for the unexpected. The playoffs present a lot of challenges from game to game, and you've gotta be ready to respond and react." 

Tatum, who previously begrudged his 2023 team's inability to win at home last postseason, said they might've entered those games expecting them to go their way. So it's no surprise Mazzulla, who has utilized other coach's strategies, tactics from other sports and concepts from across life, aimed to harden Boston's mindset entering the first round. Especially after nearly one month passed since the Celtics clinched the East's No. 1 seed. The Miami Heat, severely undermanned, have pushed their previous three series to at least six games and won two of them. With Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier down, they can't expect to sweep through their rival. 

Jrue Holiday, the only champion player on the roster, arrived able to share his recent experience crossing the finish line. He's talked about the exhaustion and mental toughness necessary to get through the late stages of each series and the postseason. It's hard, he said at his Celtics introduction, more difficult than anything anyone on the roster has done before. He sees it coming down to the most connected team and observes that you can't win without being on the same page as your teammates. Even for Holiday, who's played in the Finals and many postseasons, the 2008 team's path stood out.

"(Mazzulla) asked me about the (2021) championship run and how it went," Holiday said. "Obviously, we had a different team than this one here, so things might be slightly different, but I think that we figured out it's going to be hard and you're going to have to adjust and be open-minded enough to adjust. That's part of sacrificing. Sometimes, if you have to be the magnet or the person who's going to have to attract two and make the right play and things like that. We've talked about that, we went over the 08 team and their route, we went over that a little bit (on Tuesday). Cool to see the different ways people got to the championship. They (lost) almost every road game, that's kind of hard to do. I mean, it's hard to win when you lose every road game. I know they were the one seed, but still. I feel like it's tough to win a series when you don't win on the road. If you get one on the road, anything can happen. You can tell they obviously protected home court, which is huge, but getting one on the road once every series is cool. It didn't seem like they got any." 

Boston infamously played two seven games series after going 66-16, two games better than the 2024 team, thrashing rookie Al Horford's Atlanta Hawks in Game 7, 99-65, before Pierce beat LeBron James in a classic round two battle after Cleveland won all three home games. The Celtics finally scored a road win in Game 3 at Detroit in the east finals with the series tied 1-1, sending them to a needed six-game series win before their iconic Game 4 comeback in the Finals at LA set up a 3-1 lead before the final road game of the series. Of note, the NBA played a 2-3-2 Finals format then, allowing Boston two chances to win at home with a 3-2 advantage. They took the first opportunity, 131-92. The league went back to 2-2-1-1-1 in 2014. 

Holiday's Bucks trailed 2-0 to the Phoenix Suns in 2021, a series played in July due to the start of that regular season getting pushed back to Christmas following the 2020 Bubble. They stayed in the series, winning the two home games that followed, before stealing a 123-119 Game 5 on the road. Giannis Antetokounmpo hit 17-of-19 free throw attempts in the finale, shaking off 53.2% start at the line through the first 10 games of that postseason. It led to chants mocking his free throw form, Nets fans counting to 10 during their classic second-round series after Antetokounmpo committed that violation and air-balled at different points in what became a seven-game series. Brooklyn took a 2-0 series lead and scored a 39-point win in the second game. Milwaukee scrapped out a Game 3 win at home and won Game 4 handily, Kyrie Irving going down and James Harden suffering through a hamstring injury late in the series. 

"What I really took from it, is they're all different," Derrick White said. "So there's really no one way of winning, we gotta do this or we gotta do that. That's not it. It's whatever it takes. I think that was the one consistent thing through all those runs." 

The Bucks still lost Game 5, but forced a Game 7 in Brooklyn, where they hadn't won and narrowly avoided disaster when Kevin Durant stepped on the three-point line in what would've proved the game-winning shot. Two exhausted teams played a 6-2 overtime, Milwaukee escaping. Antetokounmpo went down in the following series with what looked like a devastating knee injury, but the Bucks beat Atlanta in Game 5-6 without him, winning the east before he returned to average 35.2 PPG, 13.2 RPG and 5.0 APG on his injured knee in one of the great Finals performances of all time. Kobe Bryant's Lakers scored a similar break in 2010 when Kendrick Perkins went down while Boston led the title round 3-2, allowing LA to score revenge for the 2008 loss. Bryant didn't shoot well, 34.9% FG in the final two games, but saw through the series as Ron Artest delivered a clinching three late in Game 7.

The Celtics can pull from their recent runs too. They entered the east finals against last year's Miami team, albeit a much different roster, before falling behind 0-3. Boston's players talked about the feeling that they would simply return to the NBA Finals following 2022. The 2008 team's loss provides a fitting parallel for that team's outcome too. They started 2009 looking like a lock to repeat, only to see Kevin Garnett fall with a knee injury in the second round. Boston returned to the Finals in 2010, but it took 12 years to get back falling what became the end of a core originally capable of winning multiple championships.

The lesson: the road teams take to the title always gets forgotten. Who could've won, how the ones won did so and the narratives that stem from that path will disappear with history. Denver beat a play-in team in the west finals and the NBA Finals. Nobody remembers that now. 

"Having the expectation that a series is gonna go a certain way, there have been teams that gone down, there have been teams that have only lost a couple games," Mazzulla said. "At the end of the day, you just can't have an expectation that it's gonna go a certain way. It takes what it takes. The other team is trying to win a championship too, so you have to have a respect for your opponent. You have to have a mental toughness to withstand things. There are a lot of things that go on within a series. I think the most important thing is maintaining a mental toughness, maintaining a discipline toward what we do and then get rid of any expectation of how we think a series is gonna go and just be ready to play." 

Here's what else happened around the NBA this week...

Atlanta (36-46): Lost, 131-116, to the Bulls in the play-in game and ended both their season, with a sixth straight defeat, and likely an era. The Hawks made the East finals three seasons ago and slowly deteriorated since. The Quin Snyder hire, which showed glimpses of competitiveness, including a six-game playoff series with the Celtics last year, didn't materialize into further steps in his first full season. Trae Young and Dejounte Murray probably won't work together, and it's possible one or both could end up elsewhere this summer. Warriors counsel Onsi Saleh joined their crowded front office this week as an assistant general manager as the franchise tries to chart a direction. 

Boston (64-18): Meet the Miami Heat for the third straight postseason, beginning Sunday at 1 p.m. in Boston. The Celtics enter the postseason fully healthy, focused on treating the playoffs as they did the regular season, in Joe Mazzulla's words, since the same margins determine playoff games. Boston finished its fourth-best season in regular season and trailed only the 1996 and 1997 Bulls in net rating, posting a +11.6. The Celtics won the season series, 3-0, over Miami. The Boston Globe profiled how Sam Hauser, in the days following the 2021 NBA Draft, pivoted from the Heat to Boston. 

Blake Griffin announced his retirement after 13 NBA seasons, averaging 19.0 PPG, 8.0 RPG and 4.0 APG as one of the league's great dunkers and what-if stories. Injuries ravaged his career, especially following 2017-18 trade to Detroit. The Celtics tried to convince him to come back for the stretch run around December, but he settled focusing on his family and enjoying post-basketball life in Los Angeles. His greatest Boston legacy might've been keeping close friend Payton Pritchard mentally engaged through his lack of playing time and a trade demand last season. 

"Man, great teammate," Al Horford said. "Everybody here, we love Blake and there was a long hope that maybe he was gonna be around in some way. Just a lot of good memories from him. The year he was here, he made it enjoyable for me. It was fun coming into work with him everyday, getting to know him, getting to know him and some of the things off the court. Him as a person and just a great guy. Definitely a Hall-of-Fame player with everything he's accomplished ... at some point we'll celebrate, because he had an unbelievable career."

Brooklyn (32-50): Hired Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez as their head coach, a popular candidate in recent seasons who will oversee the Nets' young cast and inevitable rebuild. Fernandez, born in Spain and coaching since 15, will also oversee the Canadian national team through the Summer Olympics in Paris after Sacramento fell in the play-in tournament this week. He worked in the Cavaliers organization from 2009-2016, mostly in the G-League, before becoming a Nuggets assistant from 2016-2022 and the Kings' associate head coach under Mike Brown these past two seasons. In the last NBA GM poll, the league's executives voted Fernandez as the best assistant coach. 

Charlotte (21-61): With Jordi Fernandez and Suns assistant Kevin Young hired, the latter agreeing to coach at BYU next season, Nuggets assistant Rick Adelman and Celtics assistant Charles Lee remain as the two candidates most reported to be in the mix for the position. Jake Fischer previously noted Miami assistant Chris Quinn and Utah assistant Lamar Skeeter could enter the process too. Mavs assistant Sean Sweeney also met with them. Grant Williams finished his first season away from the Celtics averaging 10.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 2.3 APG on 45.6% shooting, posting 13.9 PPG in 29 Hornets games on 50.3% FG. He spoke to Boston Sports Journal about his past year and relationship with former teammates last week. 

Chicago (39-43): Eliminated in a horrendous offensive effort, 112-91, against the Heat on Friday after trailing by as many as 29 points. Coby White showed strides and the team established greater consistency following Zach LaVine's season-ending injury, though not by much. DeMar DeRozan enters unrestricted free agency, Lonzo Ball will try to play after missing the past two seasons and Chicago can pick at No. 11 after paying what it owed to Orlando following the Nikola Vucevic trade. There's a precarious path to competitiveness. It's hard to imagine it raising their ceiling by much. They probably need to rebuild. Embracing that decision is easier said than done for a franchise that hasn't made a single-player trade since 2021. 

Cleveland (48-34): Lost 6-of-10 entering the playoffs, seemingly dropped into the fourth seed to play a gritty Magic team and the Donovan Mitchell rumors won't stop flowing ahead of a critical run for this team. They likely have to get by the Celtics in round two to achieve a successful postseason, a tall task for a team that often couldn't find its footing in the regular season due to injuries. They're mostly healthy entering Game 1 on Saturday at 1 p.m., Dean Wade out with a knee injury and Ty Jerome sitting as he has been for most of his first season in Cleveland. The Athletic reported that the Mitchell trade rumors are real and multiple teams will pursue him ahead of the final year on his contract this summer. Reports have also stated that the Cavs will hold onto him while team owner Dan Gilbert has publicly expressed confidence that Mitchell will re-sign. 

Dallas (50-32): A slight favorite in Game 1 and their series against a Clippers team once thought to be on a short list of potential champions. They're such a popular pick against an LA team Luka Doncic has given fits but hasn't defeated yet, that a loss will feel like a letdown despite this being the most even matchup of any across the playoffs. They haven't played since December, with the Clippers winning the last two matchups and 2-of-3 overall. Dereck Lively II (knee) practiced in full on Friday and is on track to play Game 1 at 3:30 on Sunday. Tim Hardaway Jr. sat out the session with an illness. Kyrie Irving reacted to not making Team USA's Olympic team, saying he didn't fit with the roster. He and Doncic will make their first playoff appearances since 2022. 

Denver (57-25): Host the Lakers in a conference finals rematch, like the Celtics, but unlike Boston hope to repeat the result from last spring. That sweep involved games decided by six, five, 11 and two points, respectively, making it one of the closer 4-0 series you can imagine. LeBron James and Anthony Davis will challenge the Nuggets immediately, Nikola Jokic deeming it an interesting matchup strategically and James lauding Jokic as one of the greats.

Detroit (14-68): Announced they will search for a president of basketball operations above GM Troy Weaver, and while the Pistons are expected to retain Weaver and head coach Monty Williams, the decision could spell the beginning of the end for both after a setback season in a rebuild already on the ground floor. A report linked them to Tobias Harris, a former Piston who averaged 16.8 PPG across the 2015-18 seasons before heading to LA in the Blake Griffin trade. Ausar Thompson returned to light on-court work after a blood clot scare ended his rookie season early. 

Golden State (46-36): Missed the playoffs for the third time in five seasons after reaching five straight NBA Finals and seven consecutive postseasons. The Kings scored revenge for their seven-game first-round series loss with a 118-94 walloping that leaves Golden State on the verge of its core breaking up, at least in part. A Chris Paul departure seems inevitable as the Warriors can clear his $30-million non-guaranteed contract and boatloads of luxury tax with one decision. Klay Thompson, a franchise icon, enters free agency forcing Golden State to make a more difficult decision. Steph Curry, Draymond Green and GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. all expressed optimism they can retain Thompson, who shot 0-for-10 with 0 points in what'll possibly go down as his final game with the team. Reports point toward Thompson using Jrue Holiday's $135-million deal as a standard, likely a non-starter for the enormously expensive Warriors. Steve Kerr said there's value in keeping Thompson, Draymond Green and Steph Curry, but can they build around them?

Indiana (47-35)/Milwaukee (49-33): Their first playoff appearance since 2020 brought them a golden opportunity in a Bucks first-round series. They defeated Milwaukee in 4-of-5 regular-season meetings, two wins by 12 points and the other two by nine. They last played in January, and since then the Pacers maintained a second-ranked offense, the fourth-fastest pace in the NBA and a 21st-ranked defense that actually marked some improvement. Buddy Hield and Bennedict Mathurin are no longer around. Giannis Antetokounmpo should miss Game 1, with Adrian Wojnarowski reporting the Bucks are prepared to play the start of the series without him. Damian Lillard can still win games without him, placing some pressure on Indiana to build a series lead before the best player in the matchup returns. Tyrese Haliburton struggled while the Pacers finished 13-9, shooting 44.8% from the field and 30.1% from three. Lillard practiced in full on Friday and Antetokounmpo sat out live drills. Milwaukee finished sixth in offense and 19th in defense. 

Clippers (51-31): Kawhi Leonard (knee) is expected to play in Game 1 on Sunday, according to Ty Lue, who still said they're taking the star forward's status day-by-day after he missed the entirety of the team's April slate to close the season. Leonard suffered from inflammation in his right knee that he last underwent surgery on. Lawrence Frank called the ailment stubborn and unpredictable, and while they've seen improvement, more is needed to achieve basketball movements. Leonard received an injection in his knee, Shams Charania reported, and has ramped up since, cautiously optimistic about a return. The Clippers received a fine for their injury designations late in the season. Elsewhere, their new arena rollout continued. 

Lakers (47-35): Jarred Vanderbilt appeared in a walking boot during the Lakers' practice session before the Nuggets series begins on Saturday night. He's listed as out for Game 1, as is Cam Reddish (ankle) and Christian Wood (knee), who LA might have to get by without for the entire series against the team that swept them last spring. Darvin Ham didn't consider the boot a sign of a setback, more of a precaution for the big who's been out since Feb. 1 with a foot injury. Gabe Vincent, who missed most of the regular season before returning on the doorstep of the playoffs, will have to be a difference. 

Memphis (27-55): Marcus Smart's first Grizzlies season: 20 games, 14.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 4.3 APG, 2.1 SPG and 43% shooting (31.3% 3PT). He turns 30 next season. All the best to a team that dealt with more challenges than any other this year. Their absences allowed Lamar Stevens some run late, averaging 11.5 PPG and 5.1 RPG on 44.6% shooting. He enters unrestricted free agency this summer after Boston traded him for Xavier Tillman Sr. Zach Kleiman said Memphis star Ja Morant (shoulder) should be cleared for basketball activities halfway through the offseason. Yuta Watanabe will return to Japan, passing up the final year of his Grizzlies contract to retire from the NBA. 

Miami (46-36): Jimmy Butler injured his MCL in the opening quarter of the Heat's comeback play-in victory over the 76ers and will miss multiple weeks, likely taking him out of the first-round series between the Celtics and Heat. The loss marks an enormous blow to the hype entering an east finals rematch and another in a line of absences for Miami. Josh Richardson went down for the season in February, Erik Spoelstra expressed some hope Terry Rozier (neck) could return in the playoffs, but he missed the play-in tournament. Duncan Robinson played limited minutes through a back injury. Those losses thrusted Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic into the starting lineup against Chicago on Friday, while Haywood Highsmith played 31 minutes. Spoelstra can coach, this team can defend and Boston might overlook a Heat team down Butler. It's still impossible to imagine Miami winning four games.

Minnesota (56-26)/Phoenix (49-33): The Suns beat the Pelicans on the final day of the regular season to pass them into the No. 6 seed and avoid the play-in tournament, a major sigh of relief for a Phoenix organization that went all-in only to possibly miss the playoffs. They draw a Timberwolves team playing with similar urgency, looking to affirm the Rudy Gobert addition and further assess how he and Karl-Anthony Towns, recently back from his meniscus tear can lead Minnesota into the future. They had a tremendous year and Anthony Edwards believes he's on the verge of joining the league's elite. They've also let down immensely between two playoff series against Memphis and Denver the past two years. They have to beat Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to avoid similar disappointment. This'll become an extremely frustrating matchup for both title-starved fan bases. 

New Orleans (49-33): Beat the Kings to reach the playoffs for the second time of the Zion Williamson era, though it's unclear if he'll play in his first career playoff game after suffering a hamstring injury in their play-in loss to the Lakers. New Orleans will visit the unproven Thunder to open the postseason on Sunday, a potential opportunity against a team that lacks significant size. The Pelicans will evaluate Williamson in two weeks, likely knocking him out of the series after he dropped 40 points against LA. Brandon Ingram picked him up with 24 points and six assists against Sacramento.

New York (50-32)/Philadelphia (47-35): The 76ers open as favorites over the No. 2 Knicks, a surprise given Joel Embiid's apparent struggles with his knee continuing into the play-in win over the Heat where they trailed by double-digits early. Embiid managed 23 points and 15 rebounds in 38 minutes, passing as Miami turned up the pressure against him defensively late. Philadelphia has won nine straight since he returned, and if he's available for the length of the series, it makes sense that the Sixers could sneak past an excellent Knicks team. Jalen Brunson's run, OG Anunoby's availability and front court depth available to backup Julius Randle (shoulder), who will not return this season, makes the 76ers' favorite status feel a bit strong. This one could border on a classic, with two of the league's rowdiest fanbases roughly one hour of travel away from each other to invade the opposing arena. Embiid is questionable for Game 1 on Saturday. 

Oklahoma City (57-25): Why not them? Seeing the Mavericks or Clippers if they defeat the Pelicans could become a valid reason. Their youth and relative playoff inexperience could come into play, as could their size. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could also approach an MVP award this spring, and his play should give them a chance in any series up to and including the Nuggets semifinals they could be poised to make a run to. Don't count them out. Game 1 tips-off at 9:30 on Sunday, the first Thunder playoff game in Oklahoma City since 2019. The crowd should rival any other to begin the postseason.

Orlando (47-35): Arguably a better defense than their opponent that hangs their hat on defense. Like the Thunder, their playoff inexperience will get held against them. They might boast the worst offense of any playoff team. They can also throw Jalen Suggs, Jonathan Isaac and a massive array of perimeter defenders as Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and clog up the lane if Cleveland can't space the floor. They have a chance round one. Paolo Banchero will have to play fantastic, while Franz Wagner needs to shake off some late season struggles. 

Toronto (25-57): The NBA banned Jontay Porter for life after an investigation found he bet on Toronto Raptors games, his own performance and disclosed his injury status with a bettor, along with limiting his participation in a game. A sports book originally found irregular betting patterns on Porter games where he exited early. One better who allegedly received information bet $80,000 to win over $1 million in a bet that the book eventually froze. Toronto, in a statement, supported the decision to ban Porter, who played on a two-way contract with the team. The unprecedented penalty sends a stern message to players about interfering with the integrity of games, though concerns linger about how the league will maintain an environment where it partners with, relies on and tries to regulate gaming that's advertised relentlessly through its product and easily accessible. Adam Silver has stood by legalized gambling, saying regulations like the ones that led to the discovery of Porter's alleged behavior are better than inevitable illegal gambling. 

"There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter's blatant violations of our game rules are being met with the most severe punishment," Silver said.