The Story Of These Boston Celtics We Are Watching Today. Blood, Sweat and Tears of 2022.

The Boston Celtics have finally found what we all hoped they would for the past 5 years or so. Danny Ainge is somewhere in Salt Lake City just sitting back with a smile on his face. He should get a ring when we finish this thing off. And yes I said WHEN not if we finish this. When you follow anything as close as I've followed basketball throughout my life, you start to notice patterns. The signs are all there. In baseball, you know when a pitcher is going to complete a No-Hitter when someone makes highlight reel catch. Diving infield stab or climbs the wall to save a homerun. It always happens. And dont say the words "No-Hitter" if your guy is the one on the mound. Someone makes an error with two outs in the ninth...next pitch is gone, or atleast a base hit. Don't even mention it. You see it in football when the annoucer calls out a kickers perfect record on TV. Automatic shank. Finkle. Patterns. The championship patterns I see in the Celtics right now is a storyline. Made for TV movie. Here what I see.

So lets go back to the beginning of the season. We started the season with Dennis Schroeder at the point. I loved it. The probem was he was a scoring guard. This team wasn't meshing and he was traded away. We then saw Marcus Smart struggle at first to fit in, but in true Marcus Smart style he spoke his unpopular but accurate opinion that the Jay's need to get more comfortable passing the ball. Now listen. Take that with a grain of salt. When I say accurate, I mean they had to start playing team balll. Chemistry. Mesh. I never in a million years meant pass the ball more to Marcus for him to shoot. But that has worked out at times as we saw in the greatest 4th quarter shooting performance in the history of basketball in Game 1. Marcus was indeed correct, and many think the season changed when Marcus dropped that buzzer beating dime to Tatum for the win mid season. The Trade for this man has been incredible...Derrick White...I wasn't all that crazy about giving up Romeo Langford but I'm not Brad Stevens.

I'll be very honest. I didn't believe Derrick White was going to be THIS good but I did like the trade before the playoffs. He's played solid defense since the minute he got to Boston. He was 5-8 from the arch in Game 1. But the times he's dropping these are crucial. If the C's start to wilt even a little bit, he has stepped right up and sparked them. Im more than comfortabe with him shooting at any point. The ball movement going on with this team right now is ironically "Golden State-like". When someone like this steps up the way he has, it leads to the promise land. This headline aged well...

21points(5-8 3pt)

As it turned out Big Al was homesick in OKC. He said he never wanted to leave Boston, but had to do what was best for him and his familys financial future. Understandable. His time away was so miserable, this is the result of being grateful. Is this Al Horford's coming out party? We completely owe Al's performance to The Sixer's, OKC and Giannis for igniting the fire inside Big Al! I was upset when he left. Was glad to see him back as well as Daniel Theis. This is no doubt the pinnacle of his career and he isn't wasting a second. He was 6-8 from 3point land in Game 1. 26 points (9-12 FG, 6-8 3Pt, 2-3 FT), six rebounds, three assists and one steal in 33 minutes of play. Clutch performance and a great story overall. When things like this happen, the ship tends to come our way.

Jayson Tatum showed that he has grown up and he is ready to be in the finals. I'm not sure he learned this from Kobe, but he stopped shooting. He couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat in game 1. I think this was a good example to set for Marcus Smart as well as Jaylen Brown. He just started taking the ball down court and making plays en route to breaking the finals records for most assists in a game. He also had 13points and 5 boards. Not a bad game by any means and showed maturity far beyond his years. He remained poised and continued to grind with his team, and trust his teammates. We are all watching Tatum turn into the player we knew he could be. A bonifed star.

And last but not least. The first year on the job, Ime Udoka. So Listen, I can't help but give Danny Ainge credit for resigning and moving on. The chemistry just wasn't there anymore. Also have to give Brad Stevens credit for giving his seat up as well. He just wasn't the guy that could get this team over the hump. Now I dont exactly know what the happened other than the Marcus Smart call outs in the beginning of the year but he fielded that nicely. He actually came out and said maybe Marcus has something there. The Jay's did need chemistry. I do know one thing. Marcus Smart is all heart and no bullshit. Coach Udoka sided with the guy that has the most heart rather than his two superstar players. The Ego's. Times were getting rough out there in the media and fingers amost started to point, but Coach didn't let it happen. Heart! Chemistry Grit and Balls as KG used to preach. Blood, Sweat and Tears. We have seen countless video's of Marcus Smart and Al Horford in the middle of hype speeches to the team. Veteran Savvy. Overall it's heart, chemistry and one hell of a Coach that's going to carry this team to #18.