The Boston Celtics, coming off an NBA title last year, had high expectations entering this year's playoffs. After winning 61 games and finishing with the second seed in the Eastern Conference, they were expected to reach the conference finals at least, and at most win the NBA finals.
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However, they fell well short of those marks, losing to the New York Knicks in the second round in six games. That has left a lot of people wondering what went so wrong for a team that was viewed as a powerhouse entering the playoffs.
LeBron James on his podcast, "Mind the Game" tried his best to answer that question along with Steve Nash.
"Sometimes they get a little bored because of how great they are" is a very interesting way to put their latest struggles. The Celtics blew three double-digit leads to lose the series against the Knicks, which, being bored after dominating earlier on in each game, would explain a lot.
Being bored about being so great is not a legitimate excuse, but what point to something the team needs to fix. Even beyond the series against the Knicks, the Celtics have at times been prone to blowing leads or losing to the teams they are more talented than on paper.
They have such a clear and consistent game plan that often works, that when it works so well, it is easy to get complacent and let off the gas. Once complacency and boredom roll in, it can be hard to recover from them.
Celtics fans won't want to hear this type of thing in general about their team because, if true, it is a bad look, but especially not from heated rival LeBron James.
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James took down an early version of the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown-Al Horford Boston Celtics back in the 2018 playoffs, so he has seen how the team works firsthand in the playoffs. He also has tons of NBA experience with him entering his 23rd NBA season, so there is a good chance he is right about this claim.
The good news for the Celtics, albeit based on bad news, is that with Tatum potentially out for the season and Brown's injury status uncertain, the Celtics may have a gap year to work out some small things, like getting better at preventing complacency and holding leads late in games.
They could put less focus on winning each game and more focus on building better habits that will allow them to come back strong the following season once the team is fully healthy.
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