For a region that has celebrated over the past two-plus decades more world championships in the four major sports — 12 — than any other city (LA is next with 9, with double the number of teams), the Hub’s collective level of confidence in our teams to finish the job remains jarringly low. Even when one of our teams has a dominant season, perhaps even a record-breaking one, we can’t seem to be able to sit back and make plans for the championship parade until it actually happens, whether they’re “battle-tested” or not. Perhaps all cities are like this, with a history of missed-it-by-that-much heartbreak, but New England sports fans have too many examples of a team that on paper should have run away with a championship to cap off a superb season only to find a way to blow it — oftentimes against what is viewed as an inferior opponent.
This comes up now, of course, because after the Celtics’ Game 1 rout of the Dallas Mavericks in the opener of the NBA Finals Thursday night, Boston would seem to be in the catbird seat to finally chalk up its 18th championship, particularly because of the additions of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday, coupled with the departures of Marcus Smart and Grant Williams. After all, Boston was in the top five in nearly every statistical category, on both the offensive and defensive sides this season as the Celtics had the best record in the NBA and 64 wins that were seven better than the next-best team in the league. The C’s only los.