If you’re a Blazers fan, have I got a team for you.

The波士顿凯尔特人队are lighting it up right now. I know we love to hate on Boston, but their basketball team has got some surprising Portland connections. Plus the way they are playing is exactly the kind of basketball we all wish was being played here in Portland.

Udoka, their rookie head coach, was born in Portland and attended Jefferson Highschool. In college he played forOregon State, and in 2006 signed with thePortland Trail Blazers. His defensive prowess had him starting in 75 games that season, and he’s taken that defensive mind set to Boston.

Udoka has challenged his star players to share the ball and play a special brand of defense that you’ll have to watch to believe. He started out as an assistant under Greg Popovich. With stops in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, and he’s finally got his shot with a five star team.

He’s also taken another Portland native to Boston with him. His assistant coach is none other than Damon Stoudamire; 2 time Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School champion and also former Portland Trail Blazer. While he was a controversial figure at the time, I think us modern day Portlanders can look back on his tenure with at least some forgiveness.

Udoka, perhaps the most storied coach this season, has helped orchestrate one of the greatest mid-season turnarounds in NBA history. For the first half of the 2021-2022 season, the Celtics were an underwhelming 17-19, and just trying to maintain a spot in the play-in tournament.

The team was infamous for iso ball and losing large 4th quarter leads. We could all see little rays of sunshine through the wreckage, but they seemed trapped in a cycle of locker room and continuity issues. Fans and analysts were questioning whether their two stars, Brown and Tatum, could thrive on the same team together.

But then January started to unfold with the team going 10-6, a marked improvement. And on January 31st Jaylen Brown posted a now famous Tweet; "The energy is about to shift." The team was getting healthy, they got a break in the schedule, and things were starting to click.

Before we knew it, March had rolled around and the Celtics not only had the number one offense by a slim margin, they also had the best defensive rating by a land slide. To quote John Zannis from CLNS Media, "They are literally killing people." They were routinely blowing teams out by 20 to 40 points.

Then, to cap everything off, Marcus Smart, who was drafted by the Celtics 8 years ago, was named Defensive Player of the Year. No guard had won the award since Gary Paton in 1996. The award generally goes to a center who can rack up numbers in blocks and rebounds. But the Celtics’ defense had been so dominant, they had to give the award to its undersized conductor.

与杰森·泰特姆有一个MVP级别的季节,and Jaylen Brown playing All NBA basketball, the one two punch just got done steam rolling the first round of the playoffs. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were buried four straight times. Once with a buzzer beater for the ages in which all 5 Celtics touched the ball before it dropped through the hoop on a Tatum spinning layup.

Even better; it was over Kyrie Irving. Who national media has been mentioning in the same breath as Kevin Durant as one of the best offensive players to ever play the game. Complete blasphemy. After the 4 game sweep, TV personalities such as Cowherd and Brousard, who had song the Nets’ praises, were backpedaling so hard they almost tripped over their soap boxes. It was the most satisfying sweep in recent memory.

The Celtics now put away their brooms and get ready for the Milwaukie Bucks. But yet again, most analysts are either picking the Bucks or going with the Celtics in 7 (hardly an endorsement). This is insulting.

Not only were the Celtics clearly better than the Bucks in the regular season.

Not only did their JV squad (missing Tatum, Horford, and their Center Rob Williams; an ally oop, shot blocking phenom) almost beet the Bucks starters.

Not only did the Bucks tank at the end of the season to avoid having to play the Nets.

Not only did the Celtics just sweep Kevin Bleeping Durant.

The Bucks second leading scorer and closer, Chris Middleton is out with a grade 2 MCL sprain. The disrespect is unforgivable. When has there ever been a time when the number 3 seed loses its 2nd best player, and is favored against a healthy 2 seed who just came off a sweep?

I wonder if the first-half-of-the-season Celtics are sticking in peoples’ minds. However, they’ve made the ECF three out of the last 4 years, and while Giannis Antetokounmpo may be the best player in the series, Tatum is on his heals. Without Middleton, the Bucks have no chance.

BUT, it’s going to be a great series. This team has all the story lines of a true underdog; amazing midseason turn around, new coach who holds his players accountable, incredible defensive effort, an undersized defensive player of the year, and a team with 6 of there top 8 players coming through the draft. Payton Pritchard, their electric sophomore guard off the bench, was a Duck! It’s a team that plays the hard hitting, pass-first kind of basketball that we all love to watch. It’s a team you can root for, especially with its Portland roots.

Celtics in 5.