The Boston Celtics are their own worst enemy, at least when it comes to putting obstacles to success in front of themselves. All season during the team’s 2022-23 campaign, we saw the Celtics lose to clubs that had no business beating them, simply because of effort, focus and cohesion evaporating when a team dared to punch them in the mouth.
In the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs, Boston had trouble putting away the .500 Atlanta Hawks, only to have their problems grow with a hobbled Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
