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Thomas & Co. Believe in Boston as it Enters ECF

addByline("Taylor C. Snow", "Celtics.com", "taylorcsnow");

WALTHAM, Mass. – There was hardly any talk at the beginning of the 2016-17 season that the Boston Celtics could be a legitimate title contender.

Yet, here they sit in the middle of May, just four wins away from a berth in the NBA Finals.

As outlandish as it seems, the Celtics believed they would be here. They believed they could earn the No. 1 seed in the East. They believed they would be one of the final four teams standing despite being a young, inexperienced group.

“If I were to tell you all that, everybody would’ve probably laughed at me,” Isaiah Thomas said Tuesday afternoon, roughly 30 hours ahead of Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “But that’s just the way I think. I believe in every team that I’m a part of, and I think we have a chance. This team believes we have a chance. We know we have a chance. We’re the No. 1 seed for a reason.”

Avery Bradley entered training camp with a similar upbeat mindset. He’s been with the C’s longer than any other current member, and he saw something special about this group as it was about to embark on the season. According to AB, his fellow teammates agreed with him.

“We believed if we worked hard and came in every single day with a positive attitude and were open to learning throughout this season, then we’d give ourselves a chance,” Bradley said following Tuesday’s film session at the team’s training facility in Waltham, Massachusetts. “I think we started believing more once it got to the end of the season when we saw that we were the No. 1 seed. We were like, ‘Man, we can really do this if we continue to play the Celtic basketball that we’ve been playing.’

“Now we’re here, and now it’s our chance to show the world that we’re supposed to be here.”

Even though they are here, many NBA pundits believe the Celtics are not as good as their seeding indicates. Despite having the best record in the Eastern Conference and owning home-court advantage, most people say Boston has no chance at dethroning the defending champion Cavaliers.

Thomas says external experts are welcome to their opinions, but the perspectives of those outside the Celtics locker room mean absolutely nothing to he and his teammates.

“We’re not focused on the outside noise and what they think we’re going to do,” said Thomas. “The first couple of rounds they didn’t think we were going to get past that, so we’re not really worried about what others are thinking. We’re just going to take care of business as we go.”

“We’ve been counted out since I’ve been here,” he added. So it’s nothing new.”

Thomas and the C’s, on the other hand, have never counted themselves out at any point during the 2016-17 season.

That’s why they’re in the position they’re in right now. That’s why they’re one of the final four teams standing. And that’s why they believe they have a legitimate chance of giving the Cavaliers a run for their money during the Eastern Conference Finals.