Each playoff series is its own thing. What worked against one team doesn’t necessarily work against another. And just because one team was able to find success against you, it doesn’t mean another team can duplicate that.
Which is probably a good thing for the Celtics. Five games of what Orlando brought to the table is quite enough for them.
"It was challenging in many ways,” Al Horford said after the Game 5 win that eliminated Orlando. “They played really hard, competed, and it forced us to play in a different style than we're used to. But it was great for us to figure out a different way to win games and be efficient."
The Celtics pride themselves on winning in whichever way the game demands. But they also know who they are and like to do.
“You guys saw it. We want to shoot 60 3s when we’re out there,” Horford said. “Run and gun, play fast, and we couldn’t do that. Sometimes you have to get it done in different ways.”
The Celtics could barely manage six 3-pointers, never mind multiples of that, in the first half of what was looking to be another slow grind. The entire series could have doubled as an avant-garde interpretive dance homage to the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.
“It was probably exactly what we needed. A good test (for the) first round,” Jayson Tatum said. “A couple guys really banged up and dealing with some things, but showing that mental toughness of getting up and getting ready for each game and doing whatever it takes, whatever the game calls for and figuring out a way to win. That's all that matters this time of the year. As a group, we've been through it all and we showed it and proved it this series.”
In the end, this is where we should land after this matchup. The Magic did an incredible job of dictating the pace for most of five games. They stuck to their plan, stayed true to themselves, and challenged Boston for a significant amount of their time on the floor.
But the Celtics never truly bent to Orlando’s will no matter how willingly they climbed into the mud with them.
“They had to deal with our physicality as well, and they had to deal with our defense,” Joe Mazzulla said, bristling at a constant flow of questions on the matter. “I thought that was the theme of the series, was the trenches and the physicality there. Every series, every game presents lessons. You have to take those lessons if you're fortunate to move on, so there's a lot that we can learn from this series, and we've got to be ready for whoever we play against.”
Whichever team that is, we know that it won’t be nearly the kind of challenge Orlando presented. They were a second-round matchup repackaged as a first-rounder thanks to a round of strained obliques and a couple of catastrophic injuries. We forget that the Magic were the third seed through mid-December and fourth as late as January 14. In an alternate universe, I’d be writing about dispatching the Hawks as Orlando and Detroit beat the ever-loving hell out of one another.
In this universe, the Celtics had to put their adherence to their principles to the test. They have sworn up and down all season long that they don’t shoot 3-pointers just to shoot them. Mazzulla has reiterated that the goal is to take the openings that exist and exploit them because the Celtics have the players to do anything they need to win. The Magic dared them to prove it, and they did.
“Our guys did a great job of having an understanding of what's the matchup, what's the coverage, what's the best read versus that coverage,” Mazzulla said. “Our free throw rate was 30 percent so it was 10 percent higher in this playoffs than it was in the entire regular season. … our drives per game were up, and our free throw rate was up. That's what this series called for. Every series, every game, calls for different stuff, and I think the best thing this team has done this season is just have an understanding, you have to be able to win in different ways on both sides of the ball.”
It’s easy to be negative about what the Celtics couldn't do in this series. It’s very easy to gush about Orlando’s fight and physicality. They lost 4-1, but they did so much right that the words and coverage don’t necessarily match the result.
But the reality is that Boston took every push, shove, trip, and elbow, and came out on top in just five games. They were a couple of plays away from making it a sweep, but I’m sure the new owners don’t mind a few extra bucks being thrown into the coffers from one extra home game.
This was a good test for Boston. They are coming out of it better and smarter, brimming with the confidence of a champion who knocked out a tenacious young fighter who landed a couple of nice hooks. Whichever team is next won’t give Boston the same trouble Orlando did, but the Celtics will be ready for whatever trouble the Knicks or Pistons do bring, whenever that series gets started.
“Whatever the game calls for,” Tatum said. “We say it all the time, we can win a quarter, a game, a series in different ways. And we showed that in this series.”
