{"id":27349,"date":"2025-01-20T07:49:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T07:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=27349"},"modified":"2025-01-20T07:49:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T07:49:17","slug":"how-long-will-that-championship-window-stay-open-celtics-rut-creates-additional-stress-to-match-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=27349","title":{"rendered":"How long will that championship window stay open? Celtics\u2019 rut creates additional stress to match expectations."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Before winning a title last season, Jayson Tatum and the Celtics felt the sting of losing the 2022 NBA Finals, when the Warriors celebrated on the TD Garden parquet floor.<\/span>Jim Davis\/Globe Staff<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The stress of building what he believed could be an NBA dynasty was still fresh enough in the memory of former Warriors general manager Bob Myers that he could recall it easily \u2014 almost anxiously \u2014 when the topic of the Celtics\u2019 strange rut came up on ESPN\u2019s \u201cNBA Today\u201d last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 7-7 stretch over 14 games raised questions about where the Celtics stood \u2014 questions that can raise anxiety.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why don\u2019t they look the same as they did when they won the championship a year ago?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

<\/main><\/section>\n<\/div>\n

Why does effort seem like an issue from night to night?<\/i><\/p>\n

Why aren\u2019t the threes falling?<\/i><\/p>\n

Are they still a championship contender?<\/i><\/p>\n

The Celtics, of course, still own the third-best record in the league and the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

But Myers knew better. He\u2019d done what the Celtics are trying to do. The Warriors blitzed the league with 3-pointers in a way no team had before. They had an army of stars led by Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, they won more regular-season games than any team in league history, they won titles, lost a Finals series, and Myers was at the podium in Oakland in 2019 when it all fell apart, tears falling from his face after realizing the pursuit of a title led Durant and Thompson to try to play through injuries it would ultimately take them years to recover from.<\/p>\n

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The anxiety\u2019s always there, he explained, and the expectations are always so high because the opportunities are so fragile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was the GM, I\u2019d sit there and go, \u2018I don\u2019t know how many years I can honestly say we have the best team in the NBA and when we do, we have to win,\u2019 \u201d Myers said on the program. \u201cWhen we beat the [Cavaliers] and went back to back with Durant, I had the worst migraine headache in my life because we have to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Celtics are in that situation now. They weren\u2019t built to win one title. They were built to win as many as possible in their window.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stress of a general manager or Brad Stevens or whoever\u2019s involved is this opportunity doesn\u2019t happen that often,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n

It felt as if the Warriors showered the league with threes for an eternity. In reality, their championship window \u2014 the stretch of consecutive seasons in which they finished the regular season as one of the four top teams \u2014 lasted just six years. They squeezed out one more title in 2022, when they beat the Celtics in the Finals.<\/p>\n

Championship windows feel like blips. The era of long championship runways like the Celtics and Lakers had in the 1980s, the Bulls had in the \u201990s, and the Lakers and Spurs had in the 2000s are over. The average championship window in the 2000s was 3.2 years. In the 2010s, it was 2.6. This decade, it\u2019s 1.5.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are the only franchise that\u2019s had a top-four team in the league in at least three of the past five seasons.<\/p>\n

LeBron James won a title with the Lakers in 2020, but his teams haven\u2019t been true contenders since.<\/p>\n

Durant joined Kyrie Irving and James Harden in Brooklyn and formed the super team that never was, the highlight of that four-year run being a second-round loss to the Bucks. The three stars went their separate ways and the Nets still haven\u2019t recovered.<\/p>\n

The Suns reached the Finals in 2021, giving Chris Paul the tiniest of windows to eek out a title at 35. They lost to the Bucks, never made it past the second round after that, and Paul was traded after three seasons.<\/p>\n

The window can close as quickly as it opens.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are in an odd spot \u2014 good enough to only lose back-to-back games once this year but unstable enough to win back-to-back games once in the past month (three straight wins over Toronto, Minnesota, and Houston). After starting the season 21-5, they\u2019re 8-8 in the last 16 games.<\/p>\n

The reasons for the rough patch have been explored \u2014 from reintegrating Kristaps Porzingis to addressing fourth-quarter issues to being more physical to dealing with opposing teams\u2019 physicality to empty offense leading to more difficult defense and of course \u2026 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n

The shortcomings bring about heightened scrutiny, and that scrutiny comes with heightened expectations after winning a title.<\/p>\n

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla considers those expectations a privilege.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful place to be in,\u201d Mazzula said after the Celtics escaped with a win over the Pelicans last week. \u201cI\u2019m serious. I think it\u2019s great. It\u2019s a great standard and expectation to have and we have to deliver. \u2026 That\u2019s how it should be because of where we\u2019re trying to get to. It\u2019s the ultimate compliment and we just continue to work through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flip side is the constant sense that they\u2019re not only chasing another banner but the ghost of the championship they just won. Last season, the Celtics won 64 games (fourth-most wins in franchise history).<\/p>\n

Mazzulla said he thinks about those expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would ask myself that in situations like this,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the [heck] did you expect? Do you expect we were just going to have another 65-win season and really just never going into making mistakes?\u201d<\/p>\n

On average, teams that win 60-plus regular-season games dive to 54.2 wins the next season. The Celtics are on pace to win 57.<\/p>\n

Only 22 of the 81 teams to win 60 games have done so in back-to-back seasons. One reason the feat might seem realistic rather than rare in Boston is that the Celtics did it six times from 1979-80 to 1985-86.<\/p>\n

Winning is hard, setting the bar that high and trying to reach it again is harder. Only eight teams won 60-plus games then came back the next season and won more.<\/p>\n

Four of those eight were Celtics teams.<\/p>\n

The 1979-80 Celtics won 61 games, lost to the 76ers in the conference finals, then came back the next season to win 62 games and the title. The 1983-84 Celtics won 62 games and beat the Lakers in the Finals, then won 63 in \u201984-85 and lost a Finals rematch with the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The 1985-86 Celtics won 67 games and the championship to end the 60-win streak, and it wasn\u2019t until the 2007-08 that the number was reached again.<\/p>\n

Before last season, the last time the Celtics won 60 games, they did it back-to-back. The first time was the \u201907-08 fairytale. They started the season in Greece, coach Doc Rivers brought Ubuntu to Boston, they had a 66-16 regular season, and won the title. In 2008-09, they got off to a dominant 27-2 start, then things unraveled. They ran over road spikes in December and lost seven of nine, and Kevin Garnett suffered a knee injury that cost him 13 games. They still went 35-18 the rest of the way to finish 62-20, but they lost to the Magic in the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Running through the regular season wasn\u2019t as much of a priority the next year. Garnett played 69 games (his lowest total in a season that didn\u2019t include an injury) and averaged 29.9 minutes (his lightest nightly workload since he was a rookie), but he was healthy and the 50-win Celtics reached the Finals again, falling short to the Lakers in seven games.<\/p>\n

It took the Celtics 12 years to get back to the Finals, and 14 to win another title.<\/p>\n

The reason the expectations \u2014 and anxiety \u2014 are so high now is because the Celtics have the rare team equipped to keep winning and the rare window to actually accomplish it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why you do what you do,\u201d Mazzulla said. \u201cThis is why you play for the Celtics. This is why you go after something that\u2019s extremely hard to do is for the challenge of it. And to have an expectation of it being anything other than challenging is the wrong way to attack it. This is what we ask for. This is why we do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The anxiety\u2019s always there, former Warriors general manager Bob Myers explained, and the expectations are always so high because the opportunities are so fragile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[133],"class_list":["post-27349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-celtics"],"yoast_head":"\nHow long will that championship window stay open? 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