'Last year is over with' - How the Celtics can save their season - ESPN

BOSTON — As fans started leaving TD Garden midway through the fourth quarter of a stunning Boston Celtics loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night, the words they were murmuring in the aisles and the concourses were «last year.»

As in the 2022 NBA playoffs — in this same second round, against a potent Milwaukee Bucks team — when the Celtics dropped a very disappointing Game 5 at home in a 2-2 series and were facing a daunting task of going on the road to avoid elimination in Game 6.

Then Jayson Tatum had one of the best games of his life, scoring 46 points with unstoppable force to lead the Celtics to a punch-back win against the Bucks that changed the course of the series.

After the 76ers finished off their 115-103 Game 5 victory — in which they were never seriously threatened in Tuesday's second half — Boston fans naturally drifted toward the positive thoughts of last year's team-defining win in Milwaukee.

As for the prospect of needing to win a Game 7 to get out of this series now that Boston is down 3-2, that isn't uncharted, either. Go right back to those words, «last year.» The 2022 Celtics won two Game 7s to get through the Eastern Conference playoffs, including grabbing the rarest of gems, a Game 7 road victory at the Miami Heat.

So that, naturally, is what Celtics fans in coping with disappointment were clinging to. Except ...

«Last year,» said Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, «is over with.»

Simple and profound.

This series has laid bare just how different the Celtics are from last year's team that came two wins shy of winning its 18th championship. Almost all of the faces are the same. The ones that are different, namely Malcolm Brogdon, have been terrific additions; all Brogdon did was win the NBA Sixth Man