Learning Curves: Precocious Young Celtics Still Figuring It Out (No Lead is Safe in the NBA)

I love the NBA. I love watching the puzzle of a playoff series unfold over the course of seven games. A single game is dramatic. A series of games becomes an unraveling story. We make predictions before. We watch. We react. We celebrate. We praise. We blame. The complexities inherent in any game’s result — 10 players on a court, 5-on-5 — get boiled down to a hero’s journey. Jayson Tatum. Kemba Walker. Bam Adebayo. Jimmy Butler. Each on their own career arc, meeting at this singular point in time, with a chance to advance to the same court and do it all over again in the Finals — -all in a hermetically sealed Orlando bubble.

The Miami Heat were not the favorites in the East. The Boston Celtics were not the favorites in the East. That designation belonged to the Milwaukee Bucks, who dominated the early season (which started almost a full year ago). The Bucks may have won the NBA title had it been played in June — certainly, they would have had a collective sense of certainty that appeared to fall away during the restart in late July and early August. The regular season is not the playoffs, and these playoffs are not like any playoffs we’ve seen before. No crowds, no travel, just a hotel room, a…