Perhaps we all were just prisoners of the moment.
The Celtics were among the favorites to reach the NBA Finals this season after a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals last season without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Boston hasn’t lived up to the hype so far, though, and Nick Wright isn’t all that surprised.
Wright, who has taken some shots at the Celtics recently, explained Tuesday on FS1’s “First Things First” that Boston’s 2018 playoff run was “overrated” and caused people to “wildly” overreact. The Celtics didn’t suddenly flip a switch when Irving went down late last season, Wright argued, but Boston’s postseason success created unrealistic future projections.
It sure was easy to get swept up in the Celtics’ playoff run. They played an entertaining and inspirational brand of basketball before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games and falling one win shy of the NBA Finals. But maybe we were too quick to consider Boston the NBA’s next big thing.
The Celtics entered Tuesday ranked fifth in the Eastern Conference and seemingly are dealing with chemistry issues while failing to build on last season’s success.
