2006 Boston Celtics: The End Of A Playoff Streak

A trip to the conference finals in 2002 started a run of four straight playoff years for the Celtics during an otherwise dry period of professional basketball in Boston. But the Celts had been progressively moving backward—a second-round loss in 2003, and then first-round exits in 2004 and 2005. The 2006 Boston Celtics continued the pattern by falling out of the postseason and ending the era.

Paul Pierce led the way, averaging 27 points/7 rebounds/5 assists per game. Delonte West averaged 12ppg in the backcourt. Ricky Davis provided some major juice to the offense, averaging 20ppg, while Delonte West kicked in 12ppg in the backcourt. The issue was up front. Kendrick Perkins was a good rebounder, but still only 21-years-old and not an offensive threat. No one in the low post averaged in double-figures.

Consequently, while the Celtics had a good offensive team overall, ranking in the top half of the league for efficiency, their defensive ranking was a meager 20^th.

Boston’s early schedule was difficult. They lost twice to the San Antonio Spurs and twice to the Detroit Pistons, the teams who had played in the NBA Finals the previous June. By the end of the calendar year, the Celtics were 12-17. Nonetheless, in a weak Eastern Conference, they were only two games out of the playoffs.

The Washington Wizards were a team they were chasing and Boston got two cracks at Washington in January. They lost the first one, a 103-102 nailbiter. On January 25, they lost another close one, 89-87. Who knows if those games going the other way might have changed the front office’s thinking, but on January 26, Boston pulled the trigger on a deal that shipped Davis to Minnesota.

It was essentially waving the white flag on the season. By the end of January, the Celts were 18-27 and five games out of the playoffs. They still had some good moments. On February 26, Boston went to Los Angeles on a Sunday night to renew their historic rivalry with the Lakers. Pierce dropped 39 points, West went for 19 points/10 assists and it was enough to survive a 40-point barrage from Kobe Bryant. The Celtics beat a playoff-bound team, 112-111.

On March 12, Boston beat another playoff team from the West in the Denver Nuggets. In front of the Garden crowd, Pierce poured in 36 points to key a 106-101 win. Their record was 27-36, but they were still four games out of the playoffs. Not insurmountable, but nor is it likely for a mediocre team with multiple contenders to leapfrog to make that up in a month.

And in either case, the Celtics did not play well in the season’s final stretch. They lost three in a row after the Denver win. They lost five in a row in April. The final record ended up 33-49.

This was a part of a bottoming-out process. Boston got worse in 2007, falling to 24-58. It was in the aftermath of that debacle, that the Celtics went out and got Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join Pierce. In the single greatest turnaround in NBA history, Boston won the championship in 2008. That’s an outcome that would have been hard to see in the spring of 2006.