You can’t manufacture need. But the Boston Celtics showed you might be able to replace it with pride, so long as it’s laced with enough talent.
Starving for success, stress and that special kind of pressure that makes diamonds springs eternal from teams living and dying to win a championship. In some ways, it’s a jail cell, and a crummy one at that.
NBA public opinion is a cruel world, and the mocking that comes with being great and never winning is an eternal misery known only to a few. But with their backs plastered against the wall, the Celtics have always done their best work, and last year, they painted their masterpiece.
But now they must find new ways to get amped enough to survive the next three months of NBA basketball, known to us as “super exciting television” and to them as “the hardest thing ever.”
Against the Los Angeles Lakers, whose vibes are up in the damn troposphere lately, they needed something other than need to get them ready for one of the most highly-anticipated games of the NBA season. Where would they find their fifth gear?
It turned out to be a simple thing called defending your honor, which the Celtics will have to rely on to propel them past much harder obstacles than they faced last year. With their vibes soaring, the Lakers probably thought they could come into Boston and beat the Kristaps Porzingisless Celtics with their fresh dose of performance-enhancing-Luka-Doncic. But it was their Slovenian x-factor that was their undoing. Not because he was bad, but because he was there.
Jaylen Brown, who won the Finals MVP by going sicko mode on Doncic for five games, declared war on him again in the first quarter, taking the assignment more seriously than I’ve taken anything in my entire life. He made him uncomfortable on both ends, and was backed up by the other guy out here defending his honor: Al Horford, who activated boogeyman mode on defense and played better than he has in weeks. All because they had to defend their honor against rivals who thought adding Doncic would make things easier. Against the rest of the league, sure. Against Boston? No way.
The Celtics showed they can use things other than need to get them to their highest levels. Jayson Tatum played incredibly after dealing with a week of absurd criticism, and he had his two longtime teammates riding shotgun in Horford and Brown. Jrue Holiday, not-exactly-fresh off a concerning broken finger, showed he is still the backbone of the backcourt in big spots where Payton Pritchard gets hunted off the court. And it was all boosted by a double rivalry, to beat Doncic and to beat LA.
Great win, great vibes and a real blueprint to work on going forward. High fives all around.
