The Boston Celtics are my favorite basketball team. They are on the quest to win their 18th championship in franchise history. After getting to the finals last year, the Celtics lost, coming just 2 wins short of their 18th championship. They lost to future hall of famer and greatest point guard/shooter of all time, Stephen Curry. This team is looking to get back to the finals but win it all this time. The Celtics playoff motto is “Unfinished Business” but in cursive, making the I and S a cursive 18. Their first test, the Atlanta Hawks. With all-star guards Dejounte Murray and Trae Young. 

The Celtics won game 1 in dominating fashion. They had a 30-point lead going into halftime, the largest halftime lead for the Celtics since the 1987 NBA Finals. 74-44 at halftime, the Hawks started to gain momentum cutting the lead down to 12 in the 3rd quarter and holding the Celtics to just 38 points in the second half. But the deficit was too big of a hill to climb, and the Celtics won by a score of 112-99. Celtics all-star guard Jaylen Brown was their leading scorer with 29 points followed by all-star forward Jayson Tatum with 25 points. Derrick White also got inserted to the starting 5 and dropped 24 points. The Hawks shot an abysmal 5/29 from three-point range (17.2%) and only made 1 three in the whole first half and shot 38 of 98 from the field (38.8%). The Celtics never trailed in this game and the ending result was never in doubt. The Hawks got nothing from Trae Young who shot 5/18 and scored 16 points, which effectively makes the Celtics an insurmountable barrier. 

Game two was a battle. The Hawks got off to a great start leading by 11 midways through the 1st quarter, but the Celtics went on an 11-0 run after the Hawks were up 22-11 to make it twenty-two all. The Celtics then had a dominant 2nd quarter to go up by twelve at the half 61-49. Opposite to their performance in game one, the Hawks could not hold on in the third quarter. The Celtics took control over the game and never let up. The Celtics killed the Hawks with their efficient three-point shooting at 15/33 (45.5%). Every time it seemed like the Hawks were going to make a run, the Celtics kept on making timely shots to bury the dagger in the Hawks, giving them no chance of coming back. The Celtics now have a commanding 2-0 series lead and are looking to make it a 3-0 lead. In franchise history, the Celtics are 42-1 in series where they have a lead of 2-0. Jayson Tatum stepped up once again dropping 29 points along with Derrick White stepping into his role dropping 26 points. The Celtics as a team had a whopping 12 blocks as opposed to only 4 by Atlanta. The Celtics have been in control the entire series and have looked like the team to beat thus far. 

As a Celtics fan, this playoff run feels like last season’s finals run, but we can win it all this time instead of falling short in the finals. Our guys have gained the finals experience and they will be more prepared for a deep run cause last year, no one on our team had finals experience and now everyone does from last year. We are the third team in the last 27 seasons to be top 3 in both offensive and defensive rating. We have a lot more depth now with the addition of star guard Malcolm Brogdon coming off the bench that will bring us more energy when the starters need a rest. This team will use last year’s finals loss as fuel to win it all this year. This team is locked in, and we are not taking our foot off the gas pedal. I am extremely excited for the now and for the future of this basketball team.