Celtics have tunnel vision on Magic as they begin their attempt to repeat as NBA champions

BOSTON (AP) — It’s been six months since Celtics star Jayson Tatum stood at center court in Boston’s TD Garden and addressed fans minutes after receiving his 2024 championship ring and watching the franchise’s 18th banner raised into the rafters.

Tatum welled with emotion as he thanked fans for their support during the title run. He then paused and expressed one final desire.

“Let’s do it again,” he said.

That quest begins Sunday when Boston, the East’s second seed, opens its first-round playoff series against the seventh-seeded Orlando Magic.

No team has won back-to-back NBA championships since the Golden State Warriors last did it in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

The Celtics are in good position to end the repeat drought, coming off their second straight 60-win season.

But Tatum said that is the farthest things from their minds at this point.

“We’re not worried about anything besides the Magic right now,” Tatum said. “We’re not looking past the second, third, or fourth round. We’ve got to try to make it out of this one. That’s all that’s on our mind is trying to get ready for Game 1.”

There is one big question mark for the Celtics entering the postseason, which is the health of last season’s conference and Finals MVP, Jaylen Brown, who has a lingering right knee issue that caused him to miss the final three games of the regular season.

Coach Joe Mazzulla confirmed that Brown received an injection in his knee recently, while also adding that Brown had no limitations and has been a full participant in practices this week.

“I’m not here to talk about my knee guys,” Brown said Saturday when asked about it’s current status. “It is what it is. I’m focused on Orlando.”

But he also acknowledged that playing through whatever pain he has in his knee is motivation.

“You could say that. I don’t put too much pressure on myself,” he said. “I just take it one day at a time and let things fall where they may. I’m very blessed and grateful to be in this position in the playoffs with a great opportunity. I’ve been playing basketball for a long time. I’m one of the best athletes in the world. It’s enough. We’ve got enough. So, we’ve just got to figure it out one day at a time.”

Orlando arrives in Boston as a team nobody expected to be in this position after guard Jalen Suggs was ruled out for the remainder of the season on March 4 after undergoing knee surgery, and forward Moritz Wagner was sidelined for the year after tearing the ACL in his left knee and having surgery on Jan. 9.

Yet, after ending the regular season by winning 11 of their final 15 games and then routing Atlanta in the play-in tournament, in his fourth season, coach Jamahl Mosley has the Magic back in the playoffs for the second straight season.

“However you get there, you get there,” Mosley said. “Sometimes the path is one way. And for us it was a lot of injuries, a lot of tough nights, a lot of close games lost, but then finding a way to get the job done now. That’s the goal, to get there. But also, to make some noise in there and not just settle for saying we just accept just being there. This group believes in what they’re capable of doing on any given night.”

Despite posting the best road season in team history (33-8), Boston lost the season series to the Magic 2-1, with both losses in Orlando.

Boston didn’t have Tatum in either loss. But what wasn’t a fluke is that the Magic held the Celtics to their fewest 3-point makes this season per 100 possessions during three matchups (11.3).

Orlando also enters the series coming off making 11 3-pointers against the Hawks, a strong sign for any team looking to compete with a Boston team that set a new NBA record with 1,457 3-point makes this season.

But Mosley said they don’t expect to try to go toe-to-toe with the Celtics in that department.

“You’re not going to try to get in a rat race with them. They shoot 50 3s a game, that’s not our identity and we won’t try to make it our identity,” he said. “But at the end of the day for our guys to go 11 for 29 (in play-in against Hawks) and still have 28 assists says something about this group, and for our ability to get the defensive stops, which is where we hang our hats.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba