Eric Williams says he’s a man who sees signs in the numbers. And for Williams and the Celtics, the road to the Eastern Conference finals has had more intriguing signs than one of those old Burma Shave ads.
Consider: The Boston Celtics and the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers are the only teams to reach the conference finals after missing the playoffs the previous six seasons.
The ’77 Blazers went 49-33 in the regular season, as did the 2002 Celtics. And tying it all nicely together, Celtics coach Jim O’Brien is married to the daughter of Jack Ramsay–coach of those Blazers.
“There’s a lot of irony in this whole situation,” Williams said Thursday as the Celtics began preparations for Game 1 against the Nets Sunday in New Jersey. “It’s my seventh year in the league and we’re trying to get the 17th championship for the Celtics. That’s my birthday number: 7/17. There’s signs, a lot of elements, riding along with us.”
Williams’ numerology aside, the Celtics’ rapid transformation from lottery fixture to the league’s final four is almost as surprising as that of their conference finals opponent. But even the Nets made the playoffs three years ago.
“It’s an unbelievable ride,” Williams said. “You can’t say you knew this was going to happen. It’s a great experience, being under a tremendous amount of pressure and still being able to perform. It’s a check for yourself, and you just want to be able to see what you’re going to do when a situation like this comes about.”
The Celtics have crossed several checkpoints since the playoffs began, as a roster with virtually no previous playoff experience has grown up in four short weeks.
They’ve gone from winning a playoff game to winning a series to winning a road playoff game to clinching a series on the road.
“We’re definitely a different team,” said Paul Pierce, who leads the Celtics with a 25.2 scoring average in 10 playoff games. “We’ve grown with each game, each series. It’s a learning process, being that a lot of us haven’t been in this situation. You can feel the confidence in the air in the locker room. Our confidence just continues to grow.”
That confidence was never more evident than in closing out Detroit in Game 5 of the conference semifinals Tuesday night. Even with Pierce and Antoine Walker on the bench with five fouls for a long stretch of the fourth quarter, the Celtics never relinquished the lead in the final 9:14 of their 90-81 victory.
“The maturity, you can just see it rise every game,” Celtics general manager Chris Wallace said. “It’s rare that a team improves in the playoffs like we have, at both ends of the floor.”
