How the Celtics' greatest strength all season was wiped out by the Sixers

For most of this season, the Boston Celtics didn’t follow the script. This was a rebuilding season after all, the kind of season that’s usually defined by promise and potential, not playoff seeding.

And there were the Celtics, once again near the top of the postseason playoff food chain, a number two seed facing a familiar foe in Philly, a franchise Boston has owned like no other in the playoffs.

So it was only fitting that in a season that did not go according to plan, the same would hold true for its ending.

The Celtics’ season came to an unexpected end following their Game 7 loss to Philadelphia. This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill series with the lower seed advancing.

The 2025-2026 Boston Celtics became the first team in franchise history to lose a best-of-seven series after leading 3-1.

Certainly, the left calf injury of Jayson Tatum that kept him out of Game 7 was a factor. But his absence in the winner-take-all Game 7 doesn’t explain away how, with a full roster, Boston had two opportunities to close the series out before Game 7 - one at home in Game 5, and another on the road in Game 6.

And they failed to do so.

Having had a moment to reflect upon how the Celtics stumbled so mightily after one of the best feel-good stories of the NBA season, there are a few factors that contributed mightily to the team’s demise.