Skip Bayless said “Shannon you picked them, and they self destructed”.
1st round: They swept KD and Kyrie. A team that the Bucks and other teams wanted to avoid playing in the 1st round. Smart even said they wanted to face them and did not want to duck/dodge no one and said they would eventually have to see them in the playoffs so they may as well just get them outta the way.
2nd round: No Middlleton for the Bucks but everyone else was there. Went to 7 games, and they won a Game 6 at Milwaukee who were still the reigning defending champs. Holiday did make big defensive plays in Game 5, but they blew them out in Games 6 & 7.
3rd round: They couldn’t stop Butler when he had those big games, but managed to find a way to win. The Heat could have also made the Finals that year, they were also knocking on the door.
Finals: Now the first 4 games, we could tell that no team had the advantage. They came back from being down or something if I remember. Then JT just shrank I guess. How do they do all of that in the previous rounds, and just not show up vs the Warriors? Was it just based on experience, or maybe fatigue?
An argument could be made that the Celtics were a better roster but the gap between Curry and Tatum was so big it didn’t matter
Curry had one of his best series of his career while Tatum had one of his worst