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CHAD FINN

Did Brad Stevens win this series for the Celtics?

Not every call went the right way for Brad Stevens and the Celtics, but Game 6 turned out quite well for them.Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff/Globe Staff

CHICAGO — In what must be a disappointing development for Brad Stevens’s small but disingenuous cadre of caterwauling detractors, the Celtics coach now has added a series victory in the playoffs to his résumé.

After losing the first two games of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff matchup with the Chicago Bulls — at TD Garden, no less — the resilient Celtics completed their comeback Friday night, beating the Bulls for a fourth consecutive time with a 105-83 victory at the United Center. The victory clinched a series they appeared in serious danger of losing just a week ago without even requiring a seventh game.

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In Stevens’s four seasons since president of basketball operations Danny Ainge pried him away from Butler University in July 2013, the Celtics’ regular-season win total has risen from 25 to 40 to 48, and then to 53 and the top seed in the Eastern Conference this year.

It was rapid progress by any measure. But the Celtics had not yet escaped the first round — they lost in six games to the Atlanta Hawks last April, and Stevens entered this postseason with a 2-8 career playoff record. Chirps could be heard suggesting the record — which included a hardly unexpected sweep by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers two years ago — somehow reflected on Stevens’s tactical or motivational capabilities, rather than a growing team that wasn’t ready for prime time.

“I’m not defined by this stuff. I want everybody in there, coaches, players, to experience the greatest highs of this,’’ said Stevens after Friday’s victory. “But I think we’ve been through it enough that we’re not going to ride the emotional roller coaster, the lows. We have perspective on the highs.”

It’s no surprise that the perpetually even-keeled Stevens downplayed the achievement. But for those who have grown weary of hearing about what he hasn’t accomplished rather than appreciating the Celtics’ quick return to relevance, well, here’s to the timely death of another context-free talking point.

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Because it’s not just that Stevens has now won a playoff series. An argument can be made that Stevens actually won the playoff series.

The most pivotal development in this series was probably the injury to Rajon Rondo, the Bulls’ talented, enigmatic point guard who flashed back to his peak form while tormenting his former team through the first two games.

Rondo broke the thumb on his right hand late in Game 2 and never took the court again. “Losing him was obviously a huge deal for them,’’ said Stevens. “That should be acknowledged.”

But the second-most pivotal development — and arguably a close second — was Stevens’s bold tactical decision that paid off. After Game 2, a maddening 111-97 loss, Stevens pored over film and came to a decision: The Celtics needed a change, and a fairly drastic one. So he made one. They turned to Gerald Green.

Green, a mercurial player who can knock down a 3-pointer with textbook form, dunk in a crowd, and botch a defensive assignment all in a matter of a couple of possessions, never started a game for the Celtics during the regular season, playing in 47 total. But Stevens inserted him into the starting lineup for Game 3, essentially replacing center Amir Johnson, who was overwhelmed by the Bulls rebounders early in the series.

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“The coaches were forced to look at the group and the lineup change I think really helped us,’’ said center Al Horford. “When we brought Green in and I moved to the 5, we were able to spread them out. We took advantage of certain looks we had not gone to all year. For us, that was the difference.”

Green contributed 8 tone-setting points in Game 3, then raised his game even more in Game 4, scoring 18 — including a 16-point burst in the first half. Green was quiet in Game 5 (2 points in 12 minutes of playing time), but delivered again Friday night, scoring 16 total, including 10 in 13 minutes in the first half. Not bad for a guy who played 5 minutes and 34 seconds total in the first two games.

“I think we all knew what Gerald could do,’’ said Stevens. “For us, what this series came down to was we basically conceded that we were probably going to get beat on the boards. We just wanted to minimize it as much as possible. We wanted to create a situation where Jae Crowder was at the 4 and Horford was at the 5, to utilize their skill. So the options were a couple of guys on our team, and Gerald was one of them. And Gerald played great.”

Stevens acknowledged that winning one playoff series, while a meaningful step in the Celtics’ progression, is far from the ultimate goal.

“The way I look at it, the franchise has gone through good progress,’’ he said. “We haven’t gotten too caught up in the results, we just try to stay the course day to day. If that results in us winning more games or winning in the playoffs, whatever the case may be, that’s good, but there’s only one goal in Boston. There are 17 banners above us. We don’t have a choice. We only shoot for one thing there.”

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Chad Finn can be reached at finn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.