Funny how the Boston Celtics took off once Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens were out of the way

The Celtics, with Udoka at the helm, look and feel like a team that can make a difference.

A few weeks ago, it wouldn't have been a surprise if the Celtics were upset by the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. It was too tempting of a pick to ignore the fact that the Celtics have been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team that has been a team

That was during the Danny Ainge/Stevens regime. This feels like the Celtics under Udoka.

Around January, we got our whole team. After the Celtics 116- 112 win in Brooklyn, the best player in the series said that they were always right there. We were composed. We stayed together. We didn't lose sight of what we were trying to accomplish. It was only a matter of time before we looked back.

It's not just that Boston swept the Nets, it's how they did it. The two most skilled players in the game were put in a cross-face chicken wing submission hold by Udoka. There weren't any lanes to enter. The jumpers were challenged. The help-defenders were always in the right place. It was like watching a pack of animals. There is strength in numbers.

When Stevens took Butler to back-to-back national title games in 2010 and 2011, he was immediately tabbed as the next wunderkid of coaching. He was white. Stevens never produced anything of substance when it came to winning the games that mattered, despite the fact that he was on the sideline.

Gordon Hayward's shot was close to going in against Duke. The team shot 18 percent from the field in the loss to Connecticut in 2011.

The team that put together the worst shooting performance in the history of the national title game was defeated by the team that plays defense. If you really like defense, take a clip of this game, we play defense and eventually our length got to them.

It sounds like Steve Nash would describe Udoka's defense, given how the Nets' offense was tranquilized throughout the series.

After the third game of the series, KD said that he was thinking too much.

I feel like the first two games I was trying to be too aggressive. I felt like I was still trying to force the first two games and watching film, a lot of my teammates were open and they were knocking down shots, so I felt my approach to this game was to play off of everybody.

After drafting Jaylen Brown, having Tatum fall into his lap, and acquiring Irving and Hayward via trades and free agency, outside of putting together the 2008 team that won the Celtics' 17th title, Ainge's greatest legacy in Boston as an executive may be. All of the draft picks that Ainge had never led to him landing a high-profile free agent like Anthony Davis, Chris Paul, or James Harden.

The Celtics team is not about who 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 Udoka dispatched the same team that sent Ainge to retirement and then sent Stevens off the bench. The changes that came in Boston at the end of last season happened a day after the Nets eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs.

If the Celtics go on to win it all, it will be because of who they hired as their head coach and how he took this team to a level that the old regime could not.

Udoka has the luck of the Black Irish on his side. Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, M.L. Carr, Doc Rivers, and Udoka have been the Celtics' Black coaches. Carr and Udoka were the only ones who won titles. Carr has a higher winning percentage in the regular season and playoffs than Stevens.

When Danny Ainge hired Brad Stevens, he said his teams always play hard and execute on both ends of the court. Brad is a coach who has already enjoyed lots of success, and I look forward to working with him towards Banner 18. It will be deserved this time.