2009–10 Boston Celtics season for the twenty-first time in franchise history. The Celtics made it back to the NBA Finals after a one-year hiatus and played against the defending NBA champion and their rival, the Los Angeles Lakers. In a rematch of the 2008 NBA Finals, in which the Celtics defeated the Lakers in six games to capture their seventeenth championship, the Celtics were defeated this time by the Lakers in seven games. 2009–10 Boston Celtics season The 2009–10 Boston Celtics season was the 64th season of the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Celtics finished with a record of 50–32,
Original Celtics fourth place, while first-half winner Cleveland slumped badly to fifth place. Cleveland’s fall was precipitated by the hasty mid-season departure of star Honey Russell, who was exiled to Chicago after a disagreement with team owner Max Rosenblum. The Celtics easily disposed of the weakened Cleveland team in three straight games to take the ABL championship. In 1926, the American Basketball League, developed by sports entrepreneur George Preston Marshall, effectively railroaded the team into joining its ranks by prohibiting member teams from playing against them. The Original Celtics responded by winning the next two ABL titles. During their first full season