It s so difficult to defend the title? The defending champion has failed for 7 consecutive years and has failed to break through the second round for 6 consecutive years

The Celtics lost to the Knicks 81-119 away today, ending the season with a 38-point defeat. They were eliminated by the Knicks 2-4 in a big score and missed the Eastern Conference Final.

It is worth mentioning that the Celtics are the defending champion this season and have also achieved a record of 61 wins and 21 losses in the regular season, ranking second in the Eastern Conference, but they stopped in the semi-finals in the playoffs, missed the Eastern Conference finals, and failed to defend the title. Although the Celtics' semi-finals did not perform well enough, Tatum's injury was also an important reason for their elimination. The elimination of the Celtics also means that the defending champions in the past seven years have not been able to defend their titles successfully, which means that no team has completed a row of championships. The last time the team won two consecutive championships were the Warriors in 2017 and 2018. The Warriors also reached the finals in 2019, but lost to the Raptors and failed to win three consecutive championships.

Not only that, the defending champion has not broken through the second round for six consecutive years, and has not even made the division final, so it is certainly impossible to defend the title. After the Raptors won the championship in 2019, they lost to the Celtics 3-4 in the second round in 2020 and missed the Eastern Conference Final.

After the Lakers won the championship in 2020, they lost to the Suns 2-4 in the first round of the second year, and failed to even make the semi-finals. They are also the only defending champion in the first round of the past few years, but this is also because Thick Brow was injured.

After winning the championship in 2021, the Bucks lost to the Celtics 3-4 in the second round in the second round and missed the Eastern Conference Finals. After the Warriors won the championship in 2022, they lost to the Lakers, who lost 2-4 to the Black Seven in the second round in the second round and missed the Western Conference Finals. After winning the championship in 2023, the Nuggets lost to the Timberwolves 3-4 in the second round of the second year and missed the Western Conference Finals. Then there is the defending champion of this season, Celtics, who lost to the Knicks 2-4 in the second round.

The defending champions in the past six years, except for the Lakers who were in the first round, the other five teams have reached the semi-finals. Among them, the Raptors, Bucks and Nuggets have all reached the tiebreak battle, which is only one step away from the division final, so their performance is not that bad, but their luck is a little bit bad. But no matter what, the defending champion couldn't even enter the division final, and his performance was indeed a bit bad. The reason why these defending champion teams missed the title and failed to defend the title was, on the one hand, because some teams had some changes in the team's lineup after they won the championship, and on the other hand, because some teams suffered from injuries in the playoffs. In short, in today's league, it is difficult to win consecutive championships, and it is difficult to have dynasty teams like the Warriors again.