The Boston Celtics Have Done Everything Possible to Regain Crunch Time Trust

The Boston Celtics capped off a four-game sweep of the Indiana Pacers to advance to their second NBA Finals in three seasons. Monday's Game 4 wasn't necessarily pretty, but it certainly was telling.

Boston has been at the forefront of national media scrutiny throughout this current playoff run. Many have done their best to try and nitpick the 64-win Celtics team that is now just four wins away from hanging Banner 18.

Of all of the criticisms, the loudest has been the team's inability to win close games -- a trend that has haunted the Cs for years.

I supposed you could look at the Eastern Conference Finals as one big exorcism then. Of the four games Boston won, three of them required some pristine late-game execution.

Jaylen Brown credited the way that the team's coaching staff has prepared and organized the team for these moments.

“Yeah, I think we- I give credit to our coaching staff, we were very organized this year," Brown explained. "We went over a lot of late-game situations and stuff like that. We're always trying to think the game, and we got to be in those positions. Everybody talks about what our late-game offense looks like, and I thought we got some great opportunities in this series to display that. And we came out on top, so that was great.”

Stat legend Dick Lipe compiled all of the winning stretches that the Celtics had against the Pacers.

The closing bursts by the Celtics in the 3 clutch games in the series:

Game 1: 23-13 over the final 6:45
Game 3: 15-4 over the final 3:00
Game 4: 15-4 over the final 5:50

That's big time!
— Dick Lipe (@DickLipe) May 28, 2024

Lipe's tweet is on the money. This is absolutely big time.

In order for Boston to win the margins in the way that they did, it required big plays from all of the team's stars.

Whether it was the big steal and clutch three from Brown in Game 1, the Game 3 bucket and steal for Jrue Holiday, Jayson Tatum's behind-the-back pass to an open Al Horofrd for a massive three in the same game, or Brown's block, drive, and assist to Derrick White in Game 4, everyone showed up in their own way.

“We feel confident. It starts in practice," said White. "‘Championship stations’ that Joe (Mazzulla) loves to do. It starts there and then just continue to trust one another. So, we feel comfortable in any type of game, and we feel like we've got the answers for anything that the teams throw at us, no matter what the scenario is. We ust got to find the right ones.”

If you asked me to list off four separate clutch moments from the last three playoff runs, I'm not sure I could do it. Yet, from this one series, we all witnessed the Cs lock in as the seconds ticked down.

Just looking back one year ago, the Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat was the polar opposite of what we saw in this series. It was full of missed opportunites and blown games.

Both of Boston's early home losses to Miami featured collapses. In Game 1 they scored just 13 fourth-quarter points as the Heat stole the series opener. Then, they followed that up with by being outscored by 15 points over the final 6:36 of Game 2.

Even in Game 6, a game that they managed to win thanks to a heroic shot from White, they held a nine-point lead with three minutes left, and needed that miracle put-back to come out on top.

Regaining lost trust can sometimes be an impossible task, but this Celtics group is doing everything they can to earn it back.