It by no means was the season the Boston Celtics hoped to have.
Boston finished fourth in the Eastern Conference after being pegged as the favorites heading into the 2018-19 NBA season. Everyone certainly had good reason to believe so, seeing as Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving would be ready to go, and the bench depth seemed unmatched.
But things got rough for the C’s. Irving called out his teammates and seemed visibly frustrated at times, and didn’t exactly double down on his promise to re-sign with Boston come season’s end.
Fast forward to the playoffs and the Green have a 2-0 series lead over the Indiana Pacers. Irving is playing some of his best basketball and the team seems to be clicking. But head coach Brad Stevens knows it wasn’t an easy road to get to the postseason, but knows his squad is happy to be in the position they are now heading into Friday’s Game 3.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt,” Stevens said, via MassLive. “And I think that goes for the whole team. In a lot of ways it was not an easy year. And yet we still managed to be a reasonable team that achieved some things. Not what we had hoped, not what the outside had hoped. But I think that last Tuesday gave us a reset. And I think our guys are all excited about that.”
Boston looks to give itself and its fans something to get even more excited about as the Celtics look to take a commanding 3-0 lead over Indiana on Friday night.