The Boston Celtics are at risk of becoming the Buffalo Bills

Celtics are in the conference finals for the sixth time in eight years

Celtics fans need to see Banner 18 or this season will be a complete failure.

Although the Celtics didn’t take the floor on Sunday, there was no bigger winner from what happened on the NBA court than the Boston basketball team after the Pacers beat the Knicks at MSG and the Timberwolves came from behind to eliminate the defending champion Nuggets. in Denver.

With the victories, which mark the first time in NBA history that a pair of road teams have won Game 7s on the same day, the Celtics (64-18 in the regular season) need only four games against the Pacers (47). -35), then four others against the T-Wolves (56-26) or the Dallas Mavericks (50-32) to bring Boston its 18th championship banner.

Anything short of the Celtics, who are playing in the Eastern Conference Finals for the sixth time in eight years, picking up those eight wins and winning the NBA title has to be considered a failure. If they don’t, the Celtics certainly have a place in the conversation with the Buffalo Bills, who appeared in four Super Bowls from 1991 to 1994 and lost each time, and the Atlanta Braves, who dominated the MLB and qualified for the playoffs every year from 1991 until 2005, but won only one World Series, as an all-time underachiever.

Favored to win the title all season and throughout the playoffs, the Celtics have more experience and playoff skills than any of the remaining teams. They also have home court advantage and two star wings, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who can score and defend against almost any player in the league thanks to their size and athleticism. Tatum, 26, and Brown, 27, are still young, but they have already been to the Conference Finals more times together than the Magic, Raptors, Hawks, Nets, Kings, Clippers and Grizzlies in their entire franchise history . They have a lot of time ahead of them, but the time to win it all is now.

“Jaylen Brown makes over $300 million, soon Jayson Tatum makes over $300 million. It’s a failure,” Warriors forward Draymond Green, who faced the Celtics in the NBA Finals two years ago and won, said on his podcast. “You’ve won over 60 games. You built your team (to be this good). Go out and get Jrue Holiday. You go out and get (Kristaps) Porzingis. The season went exactly how they thought it would go and wanted it to go when you did those. moves. Because the season went like this, you extended Jrue Holiday. So guess what? It’s time to win. . An appearance in the final is not enough. You have to win everything.

Whoever wins it all – whether Boston, Indiana, Minnesota or Dallas – will represent the sixth new NBA champion in the span of six seasons, something that hasn’t happened in the NBA since the 1974-75 to 1979-80 seasons. . If that champion isn’t Boston, the Celtics should be considered a team that was handed a title on a silver platter and somehow managed to drop the ball, again once – just like the Bills.