With The NBA Finals Rematch On The Horizon, It's Beyond Clear How Much The Pain Of Losing A Title Has Molded This Year's Celtics

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Prehaps you haven't heard, but there's a pretty huge matchup tomorrow night out in the Bay with the best team in the NBA coming to town to face the defending NBA Champs in a 2022 NBA Finals rematch. I don't really care how well the Celts are currently playing or how bad the Warriors might be playing, you can throw all that shit out the window when talking about this game. 

Despite it being over 6 months since we all watched the Warriors celebrate their title on the Garden floor, I'm obviously nowhere close to being over it. That's probably going to be a thing for the rest of my life, just like the 2010 Game 7 loss to the Lakers. I'm at the point where I still haven't watched those Steph Game 4 highlights despite it being one of the greatest NBA Finals performances in history and I'm a big time sucker for NBA history. Every time I close my eyes it haunts me.

Heading into this season, I think we were all curious how that pain of being up 2-1 to then losing 3 straight and an NBA title would impact the players. I think we all hoped they would use it as fuel for the upcoming season, but that hadn't always been the case in previous years. This group has had plenty of postseason heartbreak in their time together, but it didn't always translate into dominance that next season.

In 2022-23? That's exactly what's happening. It could not be more clear that the Finals pain hits different, and I would argue that it took something that painful to truly change the DNA and mindset of this team. Now that we've seen what the Celts have been able to accomplish up until this point and how their playing, I think it's important to remember where this all started. From Media day until now, this team has had one singular focus. They've all talked about how that pain truly fucked them all up

To be talking like this on Media Day isn't really a surprise. Tons of players talk this way at that time. It's how you generate buzz for the season. The thing is, once the games actually started happening, nothing changed. Their focus remained the same. Every single opportunity they've had, the Celts have talked about one thing and one thing only. Winning a title. They've talked about how much that pain of losing changed their entire outlook.

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After their win the other night over the Suns, I couldn't stop watching this clip of Jaylen in his postgame presser

Listen to that. You can feel the pain through your screen. If you were to ask what feels different about this year's team, this clip pretty much sums it up.

No longer do we see the Celts play like a team that thinks they can just show up and win. No longer do we see a team that thinks things will simply be handed to them just because they're talented. They were humbled on the biggest stage, with a title ripped from their hands. It's no surprise Tatum and Brown have been talking this way since Media Day and are now both having the best seasons of their young careers. They set the standard and the rest of the players fall in line. Their success so far isn't just because Mazzulla Ball is revolutionizing basketball forever, it's not just because of the impeccable roster that Brad built, it's because they've failed at the highest level. Sometimes it takes going through some shit like that to truly change and maintain your focus on the right things.

We've seen shit like this before throughout recent NBA history. The 2009 Lakers won the title after losing in the Finals in 2008. So did the 2012 Heat, the 2014 Spurs, and the 2017 Warriors. If healthy, this team has every bit of a chance to do the same.

But I truly don't think that's possible without this mindset shift. We've seen talented Celts teams before, but this feels different. This is not a group that talked the talk early but then when the games started they couldn't walk the walk. They've backed up EVERYTHING they said months ago. You hear Tatum/Brown be asked about their individual success and their answers are always the same. Nobody gives a shit, they want to get back to the Finals and win a title. That is the only thing that has mattered to this team since June, and you can see it on the floor when they play.

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That's why tomorrow night is so important. It's a chance for this team to exorcise some of their demons. While a December regular season game does not make up for what happened in June nor does it guarantee how the rest of the year will go, I do think there's a huge level of importance for this Celts team at this moment. 

In previous seasons, I'd be worried about their mindset heading into this game. Best team in the league, just blew out the Suns by a billion, they'd be buying their own hype and then some. But now? This is the most focused Celts team I've ever seen since 2008. Let's just pray they have the same end of season result.