BRIGHTON – Brad Stevens spoke with the media on Wednesday morning for the first time since the Boston Celtics’ first-round exit at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before any reporters had a chance to raise their hands, Stevens opened up with a detailed statement that included his thoughts on the series — and season — in general.
“One of the things when the season is over that’s tough to reconcile is just kind of the journey and the growth and the things that go along with the abrupt ending and certainly disappointing ending, no question about it,” Stevens said. “From a series review, before we get into specific questions, I thought we really struggled to generate good looks against Philly. I thought they deserved to win. I thought on the other end, they made it really hard on us, and really kind of felt in control in a lot of ways, especially as [Joel] Embiid got his legs under him.”
Embiid returned for the Sixers in Game 4, though Boston managed to handle business in Philadelphia in that game, cementing its 3-1 lead in the series.
He was, inevitably, a game-changer for Philadelphia, despite his relatively poor performance in Game 4. But the Celtics also struggled to maintain their offensive consistency as the Sixers strived to take away their usual pathways to success on that end of the court.
“I thought that probably one of the defining things that they did to us in games five through seven was they cleaned up the glass, which had been a real boost for us,” Stevens said. “Our first-shot offense wasn’t very good the whole series, but we really got a lot of good looks on second chances and off the glass, and I thought they did a really good job. So I think overall, obviously, we had chances to win, and I’m sure there’ll be specific questions about that, but I thought overall, Philly deserved to win, and played a great series and made it hard on us.”
More than anything, Stevens wanted to credit the 76ers. “I thought they certainly deserved to come back and win that series,” he said. Embiid was dominant, Tyrese Maxey imposed his will, and Boston’s offense ultimately fell flat.
Now, Stevens is shifting gears to the summer. Change is certain to be a hot-button issue. And it may be necessary.
“I’ve got a little sign above my desk that says: ‘What do you want? What’s true? And how do you get there?’” Stevens said. “And there’s no question what we want. There’s no question when you look at what’s true, that, though we did a lot of good things, we lost in the first round, and we were also 3-11 against the top three seeds in the West and the other top two in the East. And so we’ve got to get better. And that’s been the communication in here, just talking to the team.”
© Bill Streicher
Payton Pritchard and Joel Embiid
For Stevens, the offensive end took center stage. In all four of its first-round losses, Boston was unable to score 100 points. The 3-point shot failed them, but more than anything, and at the top of Stevens’ mind, the offense failed them.
“I thought we struggled to get to where we wanted to go on offense a lot of the series, but [it] was particularly in those last four games, when those four perimeter defenders who are all very good, had Embiid standing behind them,” Stevens said.
Boston will have time to assess its situation. To assess the 3-point attempts. To assess the offense. As Stevens doesn’t believe this season is the only problem.
In actuality, he sees the offensive issues as a trend of the past few postseasons. He referenced the Celtics’ second-round loss to the New York Knicks in 2024, as well as their matchup against the Orlando Magic the series prior.
“The other thing [is] that we haven’t been done this early in a while, and so there’s time to do deep dives, and it’s really important that we all do,” Stevens said. “I will say that I look at more of each shot individually, and my general feeling watching us play, in really each of the last two playoffs, in the second round against New York, even against Orlando in the first round, was, we had a hard time generating really good looks on that first shot. So, we got to figure out a way to do better in that.”
But it was the championship season, too. Game 2 losses to the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers may have been early warning signs. Signals of issues that would come back to bite Boston down the line.
“You go back to our championship year, and we did that in the Miami series and the Cleveland series, with a very experienced, good team,” Stevens said. “Now, you go back to the Miami series three years ago. We had a big lead in Game 1. Go back to the New York series last year. Big lead in Games 1 and 2. You go back to Game 5 this year.
“And so to me, it is somewhat prosperity within the game and being able to, in those moments, be even more dialed in and locked in and recognize that, yeah, we should have played better in games. We could have played better in Game 7. We could have played better on the road in Game 6. We had a chance to close that out in Game 5.”
It’s a trend. One that Stevens cannot ignore.
“There’s enough [from] those three years [that], I agree with you, and I would even say our championship year,” he said. “And we need to get better in those moments.”
As far as the threes, in particular, Stevens doesn’t view them as a
