BOSTON - For most of this season, Celtics coach Brad Stevens has been reminded by the media about losing Gordon Hayward at the start of the season and most recently, being without Kyrie Irving for the playoffs.
In between, there were more injuries, more setbacks, more justifiable reasons for this team to come up short in its goals, its dreams, its aspirations to be one of the last teams standing.
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To handle all that and still be one of the top teams was not easy.
So, it seems only fitting that a not-so-smooth path lies ahead of them if they are to advance to the next round, where they would face the well-rested Philadelphia 76ers.
Still, any talk about Philly will have to wait.
Because Boston must first put away the Milwaukee Bucks tonight in a winner-moves-on Game 7.
Boston Celtics
And while most of the Celtics will experience a playoff Game 7 for the first time tonight, the basketball setbacks and adversity experienced by them this season has developed a Teflon-tough mindset to where if they don't play well, it won't be because the moment was too big for them.
“We got nothing to lose,” said Boston’s Jaylen Brown. “Everybody has been writing us off anyway. We got our backs on the wall, we're at home. We're going to come out, bust through that wall, whatever it takes.”
Stevens has been able to maintain more of a real-world outlook on some of the unexpected challenges Boston has faced and more often than not, found a way to overcome.
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"First of all, the way we talked about it in this locker room and around is this isn't real adversity, right?" said Stevens. "We're really fortunate to do what we do. The injuries stink, but at the end of the day, those guys are gonna come back fully healthy. And their careers won't be impacted by those at all. So ultimately, it's opportunity. And the opportunity is for the guys that are in the building and the guys that are playing."
Tonight's Game 7 falls in line with what has been the season-long education of the Celtics.
"You know, this is again, everything that we have over these first six games of the playoffs is new for a lot of these guys," Stevens said. "And it's just more opportunity to experience new things. And so, Game 7 in TD Garden on a Saturday night, after things didn't go your way in Game 6, you know...let's play!"
Here are five under-the-radar storylines heading into tonight's Game 7 battle:
MILWAUKEE'S LENGTH
SECOND-CHANCE POINTS
ROZIER THE PASSER
BOSTON, DRIVE-THRU LANES
GAME 7 FACTS
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