There’s plenty of the blame pie to go around with how the season went for the Boston Celtics, and certainly how it ended. While he isn’t the most at fault, Celtics coach Brad Stevens deserves a slice of that blame and he took his helping following the team’s pitiful performance that ended the C’s season with a 116-91 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. It was evident throughout the season and in the series versus the Bucks that Stevens couldn’t get the collection of talent assembled to coalesce and play how he had envisioned. The fight, heart, and max effort on every single night that has been a signature of the teams Stevens has coached even dating back to his time at Butler, was nowhere to be found this season and it ultimately cost the Celtics. “That’s probably the part that eats at me the most,” said Stevens of not being able to get the determination out of this group. “I’ve been a head coach for 12 years and we let go of the rope more and cracked more than we probably should have. We need to be better than that. … As far as any other year that I’ve been a head coach, it’s certainly been the most trying. I did a bad job. At the end of the day as a coach, if you’re team doesn’t find its best fit together, that’s on you.” The expectations to start this season couldn’t have been any higher as the C’s came within one game of reaching the NBA Finals a year ago without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. With Irving and Hayward back in the mix to join emerging young players in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown along with a talented big-man Al Horford, the C’s were the odds-on favorite to win the Eastern Conference, but they reverted while battling the ups and downs that ensued over the course of the season. “I understand that we didn’t meet the outside expectations,” Stevens said. “We really rode a roller coaster a lot of the year. It was difficult. I told the guys in there, I did think they showed a lot of character at a lot of different times to keep coming back and to stay together. I’ve said from the get-go, this team in the locker room when they’re all together is great. We just couldn’t find it playing together as well as we had hoped.” Translation: This team was good on paper. Not on the court. And the team’s play reared its ugly head in the Bucks series after winning five straight games to open the playoffs. The Celtics lost all four games by double digits, each defeat more discouraging than the previous. It added up to the shellacking the C’s took in Game 5, where they held just one lead the entire night — coming in the first quarter — for a mere nine seconds. “(The Bucks) are better than we are and they earned that,” Stevens said. “It was clear throughout a five-game series.” Stevens added: “As more shots get missed, as we turned it over, as we made mistakes at the rim and they flew out on us, at that point, they just kept hammering at the rock until it cracked and we cracked.” The best plays as the Bucks close out the series (4-1) at home! !#FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/RCfkYefRGg — Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) May 9, 2019 With any season ending, it gives time to reflect on what happened while simultaneously looking at the future. The Celtics certainly had some good in its season, but mostly had the bad and the ugly. For Stevens, he turns into teacher mode now with no summer vacation, hoping that this tumultuous experience serves the Celtics well going forward. “All this stuff that we’ve been through, they’ll all be better because of it,” Stevens said. “It didn’t show itself on this stage by any means. They’ll all be better because of it because we learned a lot.”<doc-sep>The Boston Celtics’ 2018-19 season came to a rightful end on Wednesday night, with Brad Stevens’ team getting blown out by the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Stevens’ team was arguably the most-disappointing team in the league this season. They entered the year with NBA Finals hope and 65-plus win projections. It ended with a blowout loss in the conference semifinals. The future of the Celtics’ team is fairly unsure, too, with questions surrounding Kyrie Irving as his free agency approaches. For now, though, all there is to do is look back on the disappointment. Stevens was brutally honest following Game 5. Brad Stevens: “I did a bad job.” — Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) May 9, 2019 Stevens was probably the best coach in the NBA during the 2017-18 season, leading the Celtics to the conference finals despite losing Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. He wasn’t good enough in 2018-19, though – no one in Boston was. Milwaukee, meanwhile, has advanced to the conference finals and will take on either Toronto or Philadelphia.<doc-sep>Maddie Meyer/Getty Images The Boston Celtics' tumultuous 2018-19 season came to an appropriately underwhelming end Wednesday night with a 116-91 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. After losing the series 4-1, Boston head coach Brad Stevens made no excuses. "Our issues have been well-chronicled," the sixth-year coach said to reporters, according to The Athletic's Jay King. "And hats off to them. ... They're better than we are, and they earned that, and it was clear throughout a five-game series." Stevens went so far as to say, "I did a bad job" when addressing the Celtics' failure to sniff the high expectations surrounding them entering this season. From All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving publicly calling out his teammates in January to Marcus Morris admitting "it's not fun" to play with this Celtics team in February, and Jaylen Brown calling the organization's environment "toxic," the issues Stevens vaguely alluded to were countless. It all came to an ugly head against the Bucks. After taking Game 1 of the series 112-90, the Celtics were flat-footed for the next four games in which Milwaukee outscored them by 65 points. And no Celtic struggled more than Irving. Video Play Button Videos you might like The 27-year-old impending free agent shot 25-of-83 from the field since Game 1. After Wednesday night's loss, Irving side-stepped questions about his future. "I'll be honest with you," he said, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "I'm just trying to get back to Boston safely, spend time with my friends and family, decompress, do what human being(s) do." While Irving's decision whether to return to Boston is the largest issue surrounding Stevens' squad this summer, there are plenty of other questions that need answering if this team as currently constructed plans to contend the way it was expected to on paper.<doc-sep>Before the season, many pundits had the Boston Celtics coming out of the Eastern Conference and going all the way to the NBA Finals. Some even thought that the Celtics would be the team who could dethrone the Golden State Warriors. Unfortunately for Kyrie Irving and company, that simply wasn't in the cards as they were blown out in five games by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. Last night was the last game of the series, with the Bucks coming away with a 116-91 victory. Afterward, head coach Brad Stevens spoke about his team and how is putting the squad's disappointing season on himself. "I'll be the first to say that this, as far as any other year that I've been a head coach, it's certainly been the most trying. I think I did a bad job," Stevens explained according to Sporting News. "At the end of the day, as a coach, if your team doesn't find its best fit together, that's on you, so I'll do a lot of deep dives into how I can be better." Andy Lyons/Getty Images Stevens also explained that the rumors surrounding Kyrie and some of the other young players proved to be a distraction as the season went on. "There's no question. They have TVs, they have phones, they hear everything," Stevens said. "To be quite candid, when you live in it, you do your best to kind of just block out the noise and do your best to focus on what you can control, but these guys are also young men. The upcoming offseason could get pretty interesting for the Celtics as it is believed Irving will want to sign elsewhere during free agency.<doc-sep>
MILWAUKEE -- In the wake of the Boston Celtics seeing their disappointing season end with a 116-91 obliteration at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 of this Eastern Conference semifinal, Boston coach Brad Stevens pointed to one man as the reason for his team's failures: himself. "I'll be the first to say that this, as far as any other year I've been a head coach, it's certainly been the most trying," Stevens said. "I think I've done -- I did a bad job. At the end of the day, as a coach, if your team doesn't find its best fit together, that's on you. "So, I'll do a lot of deep dives into how to be better." The Celtics wouldn't have to look hard to find ways they could've been better Wednesday night. Boston shot a dismal 31.2 percent from the field, including 7-for-39 from 3-point range. Kyrie Irving had a fourth straight dreadful game, going 6-for-21 -- including 1-for-7 from 3-point range -- to bump his totals over Boston's four straight losses to a remarkable 25-for-81 from the floor. "I mean, truth be told, it's no time to be disappointed," Irving said. "I think that you take your lessons, you take your ass-whooping that they handed us, and you move on. "It's a basketball journey. Obviously, you want to keep playing, but they put a halt to that, and they deserve the series. They played like they wanted it." The Celtics, on the other hand, will go home for the summer wondering what happened to a team that was supposed to be among the NBA's best, but instead could barely muster home court in the first round and was drummed out by a far superior Bucks team a round earlier than they went home last season. Now, the Celtics' focus will shift to the summer, when the franchise has many questions it will need to answer. Several players -- including Irving, Al Horford, Marcus Morris and Aron Baynes -- could become unrestricted free agents, while Terry Rozier will hit the restricted free-agent market. Then there is the uncertainty surrounding Boston's possible pursuit of Anthony Davis, who is likely to be traded this summer. How hard the Celtics pursue him could be tied to what Irving decides to do this summer. Detail: Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant breaks down Kyrie Irving's playoff performance against the Pacers. Watch on ESPN+ "You don't really think about it," Stevens said of the potential changes ahead. "We all can pay attention to all the talk and everything else, but you don't really think about it until it's over. That's not really my lane, [though] I'm certainly consulted on it. "I understand that we didn't meet the outside expectations and we really rode a roller coaster a lot of the year, and it was difficult. But I do think, and I told the guys in there, I did think they showed a lot of character in a lot of different times to keep coming back and stay together. I've said from the get-go, this time in the locker room, when they're all together, is great. We just couldn't find it playing together as well as we had hoped." Because they couldn't, the Celtics are now headed home for the summer -- one filled with uncertainty about the franchise's future. And as they look back on what has been such a confusing and disappointing season, they will try to find answers that they couldn't to solve their woes over the past seven months. "I think [dealing with expectations] was the challenge for our group all year, and we really tried our best," Horford said. "I feel like everyone in the locker room really gave their best energies, their best effort. "It looked good, when you looked at it, and all our pieces. We just couldn't get over the hump."