The defending champion fell down with a bang, thinking about his eighth-game finals back then

Without Tatum in charge, he also has to face the fanatical New York fans of the Madison Garden Arena. Who should stand up to take the banner of such a game where the right time, place and people are not on his side? On the Celtics, Horford, Holiday, White, Porzingis and Prichard looked at each other. Jaylen Brown sighed and drew his sword and looked at him at a loss. So, last season's FMVP received the sixth foul early in the third quarter, which completely ruined the suspense of this one-sided game. The powerful defending champion fell down and became the background board for the Knicks to return to the Eastern Conference Finals after 25 years.

Before the start of this season, no one would have thought that the lineup had no shortcomings, and the Celtics, who spent a huge amount of money to retain the original team in the offseason, would fall in the second round. In fact, during the regular season, the Celtics could no longer find their dominance last season. At that time, everyone disagreed with it, and felt that the defending champion had reached a state of enlightenment. They had long disdained to compete with the challengers in the regular season. The playoffs were the time to see the truth.

It was not until the Eastern Conference semi-finals that the Celtics lost two home games in a row - the two leads were reversed by 20 points. Everyone realized that they were not hiding their weaknesses, they were really having problems. The reason is attributed to the key ball ability of the Double Tanhua, the data bar that the Positive God directly cut in half, the cliff-like decline Zhu Ge, and the playoff lost Prichard are all unfair. The problems of the Celtics are all comprehensive and multi-faceted, which also reflects a cliché-talk-two-faced topic - it is easy to play, but it is difficult to defend the league. Looking at the NBA, there are only a handful of teams that can be achieved. Obviously, although the Celtics have very good books, they cannot reproduce the miracles created by their predecessors, the Lord of the Rings and his teammates.

The East has also changed completely. Butler, a regular player at the Eastern Conference Finals, went to the West and settled in Golden State. Antetokounmpo also wanted to change the environment. The Celtics' dominance was not there, and Philadelphia became the object of teasing everyone after dinner. Who would have thought that the final winner of the Eastern Conference would be the young Pacers and the Knicks led by Thiboddeau. After all, Halliburton was so sluggish that it made people feel that his magic might be just a flash in the pan. Thiboddeau's employment even made it a luxury to keep the five main players healthy.

Today, the East has become a real hero, and it is no longer the back garden of that man like before. LeBron James, who was in his prime, entered the finals in the East for eight consecutive years. At that time, no one felt anything and laughed at him for returning home in a miserable manner on the finals stage, passing by O'Brien's Cup, and laughing at him for being in his hands. Looking back, it doesn’t mean that the six-time champion of Gang Qiao is not as great as James. Look at the youngsters today. After him, which team in the East can make it on the finals for two consecutive years?