The first round wasn’t just weird — it was eye-opening. The margins in today’s NBA have shrunk to almost nothing.
Jaylen Brown was still coming to terms with the Boston Celtics’ painful first-round exit — a shocking loss to the Philadelphia 76ers sealed by a tough Game 7 defeat at home — when asked to sum up his emotions. The first word that came out? Great. And he meant it.
“Great season,” Brown said Saturday night. “Obviously, it didn’t finish the way we would have liked. … Just from our guys, to come out for a Game 7 and play with that level of intensity, play with that level of trust, that’s the style that we feel like we’ve been doing all year, and I loved it. It was a pleasure.” The Celtics had “come up a little bit short,” but there was “nothing for our team to hang our head over.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla echoed the sentiment, talking about the push for greatness and accepting its flip side. The Celtics’ year was full of twists: Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury last spring, a major roster rebuild, early doubts, and a strong midseason surge. They won 56 games without their star for most of the year. Brown stepped up as a fringe MVP candidate, and Tatum returned strong in March.
Boston built a 3-1 lead over the Sixers, only to drop the next two games and lose Tatum to knee soreness in Game 7. They became just the eighth No. 2 seed to fall to a No. 7 seed and the 15th team ever to blow a 3-1 series lead.
Everything Jaylen Brown addressed in post-Celtics elimination livestream | CelticsBlog
It stings in the record books, but this wasn’t a typical season or matchup. The Sixers, despite their ups and downs, boasted serious talent with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, and rookie VJ Edgecombe. “I don’t feel like that was a traditional seventh seed,” Brown noted.
The entire first round felt chaotic, with longer series, razor-close talent levels, and big surprises:
- 48 total games, the most since 2014.
- Six of eight series went at least six games.
- Three series reached Game 7.
- Two teams overcame 3-1 deficits.
- Top seeds like the Celtics and Nuggets were knocked out early.
Superstars such as Nikola Jokic, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Kevin Durant, and others saw their seasons end sooner than expected, while 41-year-old LeBron James guided the Lakers through a first-round win.
Stan Van Gundy called it one of the best first rounds he’d ever seen, with six strong series out of eight. The clear standout teams? The Oklahoma City Thunder, who swept the Suns, and the San Antonio Spurs, who handled the Trail Blazers in five.
Beyond those two, the gaps were tiny. Talent from the middle of the pack to near the top felt remarkably even, creating intense, competitive matchups almost every night.
Injuries played a huge role too — from key absences for the Celtics, Nuggets, and others — showing how one twist can shift everything in this era of tight parity.
For Boston, it means another offseason of big questions despite a strong regular season. Across the league, the message is clear: the difference between great and gone is smaller than ever.