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Surging Celtics Go Confidently into Postseason

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MILWAUKEE – So, this is what you expected all along, right?

Right?

The Boston Celtics of today are very different than the squad that took the floor on Opening Night. It was a gradual transformation over the long, relentless winter in Boston, but when the snow finally melted, the Celtics emerged as a drastically improved team. It just so happens that they’re playing their best basketball when it matters most: heading into the NBA Playoffs.

Cue Jim Mora. “PLAYOFFS?!”

If the idea of the postseason is still catching you off guard, consider the following: the Celtics closed out the regular season Wednesday night with a 105-100 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. The victory marked their sixth straight win overall, and 11th win in their last 12 games that came in the second half of a back-to-back. They also closed the season with a 24-12 record since Feb. 2. Only the Cleveland Cavaliers posted a better record in the Eastern Conference during that time frame.

Bottom line, the Celtics have exceeded expectations.

“We’ve really come together as a team, the last couple months especially. We’ve got everybody buying in,” Kelly Olynyk said. “Coach has been on us the whole year to play the right way, play together, play hard on both ends of the floor. It’s all coming together. We’re excited to get this next chapter rolling.”

The team plane (and the bandwagon) leaves on Saturday for Cleveland. Game 1 at Quicken Loans Arena tips off at 3 p.m. Sunday on ABC.

When asked before Wednesday’s game about playing on national TV, Evan Turner laughed out loud.

“We played all 82 games on TV,” Turner said.

As for those 82 games, the Celtics’ final 40-42 record isn’t exactly the mark of a world-beater, but when you consider where this team was at the start of the season, let alone January, the turnaround is pretty remarkable.

“I think everyone’s just bought in and everyone’s in it to win it,“ Olynyk said.

LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and company present a challenge that the Celtics are embracing.

“They’re not inhuman. They’re pretty close – just kidding. They’re definitely beatable,” Olynyk said. “For us, we’ve just got to go in there and take care of our jobs, and wherever the cookie crumbles, that’s where it crumbles.”

Early on, it appeared the season was ready to crumble before it even began. This fall, the Celtics featured Rajon Rondo, Jeff Green (remember them?) and a lot of spare parts who appeared to be pieces to somebody else’s puzzle.

With Rondo breaking his hand in the shower just before Media Day and rookie Marcus Smart sustaining a gruesome-looking ankle sprain early on, things looked bleak at times. By Thanksgiving, it seemed like a stretch at best, and downright impossible at worst, that the Celtics (4-8 at the time) would still be standing after Tax Day.

An overhauled roster and a renewed esprit de corps changed all of that.

“We’re just feeling confident with all the wins we’ve been having these past couple of months. We’ve been playing good basketball and we’re coming in with a lot of confidence,” said Jonas Jerebko, who started the season in Detroit, and admitted that the late playoff push from his new team caught him by surprise after he was traded to the Celtics in February.

But he won’t be surprised if his team is able to hang with the heavily-favored Cavaliers.

“We know we’re playing one of the best teams in the NBA, but we [will] keep playing good basketball. We [will] keep playing our game,” Jerebko said.

Brad Stevens is looking forward to the challenge of playing the Cavs, who stand as favorites to reach the NBA Finals from the East.

“You get a chance to participate in the playoffs, you get a chance to play against the best, and we’re getting a chance right out of the gate to do both,” Stevens said. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to see where we stand.”

The fact that the Celtics are still standing for the postseason at all is an impressive accomplishment considering the hole they’d dug to start the season. The challenge awaiting them against the Cavaliers is equally daunting.

Stevens made his name in the collegiate ranks by getting his teams to over-achieve in the NCAA Tournament. Now he’s got an opportunity to do the same thing in the NBA Playoffs, earlier than anyone outside of Waltham expected.