Boston's collapse to the 76ers in Game 7 after leading 3-1 wasn't luck running out—it was exposure. Regular-season overachievement papered over a critical weakness at center that finally caught up in the playoffs. The deficit persisted because the regular season structure doesn't punish interior defense weakness the way playoffs do.
Week-to-week matchups rarely present the same kind of sustained pressure—dominant centers, night after night, in high-leverage situations. Boston won plenty while the problem sat dormant. It took a center of Embiid's caliber and a Tatum injury in the playoffs' brightest spotlight to expose what the regular season had allowed to hide.
All season, Boston looked dominant. Beneath the wins was a rim-protection problem the regular season never demanded they fix. When Joel Embiid got cooking and Jayson Tatum hit the sideline, Boston had no answer.
The Celtics couldn't contain the league's most dominant big man. Philadelphia walked out with an improbable Game 7 win. That loss forces an ugly reckoning.
Front office has salary flexibility, but deciding what to do with it is harder. Upgrading interior defense is non-negotiable. Thornier question: does Boston rebuild around the core trio of Tatum, Brown, and White, or accept this roster's architecture is broken?
Which young rotation pieces get extended? Which get moved? The solutions are few and expensive.
Upgrading interior defense typically requires trades, which means moving salary and making hard choices about roster continuity. The front office now decides: bring in a rim protector and try again with Tatum, Brown, and White, or accept that roster architecture needs deeper change. Both paths carry cost.
The coming weeks will show whether leadership sees this as a one-year aberration or evidence that the roster was built wrong. Tatum's Game 7 absence became a stress test the roster failed. A championship team should survive losing its best player for a single playoff game.
Boston had Brown, White, and a full rotation to lean on. Instead, the Celtics crumbled without a center solution. That gap—between an elite roster on paper and an inability to improvise without one piece—exposes fragility in the construction itself.
A properly built contender adapts. Boston couldn't. The offseason window compounds urgency.
Free agency moves fast, trades cluster together, and the Eastern Conference won't wait for Boston's deliberation. Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, and others will be active in the same weeks. Salary flexibility only matters if deployed decisively now.
Delay costs real assets—the market moves forward, competitors strengthen, and opportunities evaporate. The front office has maybe three weeks to answer its core questions about direction and roster viability. What's next: Celtics must decide whether to patch the defense and run it back, or undertake more fundamental reconstruction.
Either way, the margin for error in the Eastern Conference just got thinner. Read at SB Nation
Why this matters
The Celtics' upset loss isn't just another playoff exit—it's a watershed moment for the Eastern Conference. Boston was supposed to be a Finals lock. Their Game 7 collapse signals that defensive weaknesses can't be hidden forever, even across a full regular season. Now the front office faces genuine crossroads: they have salary flexibility, but must answer harder questions about whether Tatum, Brown, and White can anchor a championship contender. Their offseason decisions will reshape the conference balance heading into 2026-27.
Frequently asked
Why did the Celtics lose Game 7 despite leading 3-1?
Interior defense collapsed without Tatum. Joel Embiid dominated down the stretch with no answer from Boston's center position. The regular-season record masked a fundamental rim-protection problem that emerged in the playoffs.
What's the Celtics' biggest offseason priority?
Upgrading interior defense is table stakes. The team's weakness at center was hidden by regular-season success but exposed in Game 7. Shoring up rim protection and deciding on personnel changes are now non-negotiable.
Will Boston rebuild around Tatum, Brown, and White?
That decision looms immediately. The front office has salary flexibility but must determine if their core trio can anchor a title contender or whether fundamental roster reconstruction is necessary.
How does this affect the Eastern Conference?
A major upset reshuffles Eastern Conference power dynamics heading into 2026-27. The Celtics were presumed Finals favorites. Now the conference is wide open and Boston's roster construction weaknesses are fully exposed to competitors.
