COMMENTARY
Just a pair of afterthoughts versus the Hornets remain in the Celtics’ 82-game warm-up act before they join the Thunder, Cavaliers, and, at least according to ESPN, the Lakers as the headliners on the NBA’s postseason stage.
The Celtics’ quest to become the league’s first repeat champions since the 2017-18 Warriors should be accompanied by cautious optimism, and such caution is necessary only because the NBA’s playoff gauntlet is the second-cruelest in sports, behind only the NHL’s ruthlessly compelling grind toward determining who gets to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Our optimism for what is to come for the Celtics is tempered only by the knowledge that unexpected postseason plot twists are often just a turn of the page (or ankle) away.