What the Celtics had to say about their thrilling playoff run
The Celtics began the postseason with a 113-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at the TD Garden. Over the course of the next five weeks, Boston won 10 straight games on the parquet before finally succumbing to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Game 7.
The once-perfect home record was only one of the highlights the Celtics produced during their run to the brink of the NBA Finals. Others include the whiteboard chess Brad Stevens executed and the fearless brilliance Jayson Tatum displayed as he became the first rookie since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to deliver 10 games of 20-plus points in a single postseason.
For Jaylen Brown, the heartbreak was too fresh to properly assess Boston’s season and playoff run. But Al Horford and Tatum said that the group has “nothing to hang our heads about.”
Here’s what the Celtics had to say about their playoff run in the aftermath of their Game 7 defeat:
Al Horford
As a group, we have nothing to hang our heads about.
Obviously, we’re disappointed and we had our opportunities. We had our opportunities. Things just didn’t happen. But what I’ve been telling you guys throughout the playoffs, as a team, we’re learning. We haven’t been in these positions before as a group and all of this has been great learning experience for our group. I know that we’ll be better for this.
Jayson Tatum
Just an amazing ride that we had and how much fun it was playing with this group of guys night in and night out. Playing for our coaching staff. Just how I would have went to war with any of those guys on our team any day. I knew that we were going to give it our all every single night, no matter what the circumstance was, and the entire season we showed that. Like Al said, we have nothing to hang our heads about. We left it all on the floor and it was a lot of fun.
The postseason has been a lot of fun, from the first game to today. I’ve learned so much, I’ve just enjoyed everything that we’ve accomplished, everything we went through. I just had so much fun out there each and every night. No matter if we won our lost. Just how we competed and always gave it our all. It was my first year, so I was just out there having fun.
Jaylen Brown
I’ll probably assess it down the line. Right now it’s a little bit hard. Still in the moment, all the emotions are still there. It was a good year. It was a good season. It’s hard to believe that it’s over. I just wish I could’ve done a little more.
I think we will be alright.
Terry Rozier
I don’t know what to think. It’s a tough pill to swallow.
Brad Stevens
Every ending is tough. I guess that’s for all 29 teams that don’t win it. No matter how good of a season you’ve had, the ones that don’t end when you win a championship, it’s going to be a disappointing ending. But it was a pretty incredible run by an incredible group of guys, and an absolute pleasure and privilege to be around them every day.
It was a tremendous group from the standpoint of pulling together. It was just a great locker room, support for one another. Then I talked about how the pain is part of the path. We’ve been really fortunate to continuously get better the last couple of years and to put ourselves in better positions. But when it ends it’s painful, and that is part of the path. So we have to let it motivate us.
