By The Celtics are back in the NBA Finals, punching their ticket to the sport’s biggest stage for the second time in three years after sweeping the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. Boston’s path to this year’s Finals was much different, though, than when the group made it there in 2022. The C’s held the best record in the NBA during the regular season, winning 64 games and posting one of the best point differentials in league history.
The Celtics carried their regular-season dominance into the postseason. They went 12-2 through the Eastern Conference bracket, avoiding a Game 7 after playing in four over the last two years. As many members of the Celtics’ core prepare for their second Finals appearance, Al Horford admitted that the grueling path to the 2022 matchup against the Warriors hampered them.
“The first Finals was very challenging,” Horford told reporters. “If you look at our route, that first-round series against Brooklyn was a hard-fought series even though we swept them. Then, a seven-game series against Milwaukee.
The champs, took them to the limit. Then, right away, a seven-game series against Miami. Literally, two, three days off and having to play Golden State in the Finals.
It was a lot for our group. It was very overwhelming. It felt like we were trying to catch on the whole time.
” Horford, who’s played in the third-most playoff games without a title in NBA history as he prepares for his 38th birthday on June 3, acknowledged that th.
