Rolling green: Brad Stevens has led his starless bunch to the East finals

There was a vision for the Boston Celtics before the 2017-18 season, one that included franchise-altering additions of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward paired with the spoils of the most lopsided NBA trade in the last decade.

A team that had reached the conference finals the previous season seemed destined for more.

This was the culmination of a rebuild that began when Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers left the organization in the same summer. A rebuild that began with a 57-loss season and a first-time NBA head coach had morphed into a legitimate championship contender in five years.

It lasted for less than six minutes.

In the first quarter of the season opener, Hayward