ORLANDO (Florida) • Kemba Walker is a most unusual National Basketball Association (NBA) star.

Even though he is a four-time All-Star, who honed his game at the Charlotte Hornets under owner Michael Jordan, the guard is pretty low key for a player of his calibre.

He rarely trash talks. He is not interested in a career in film, television or music. His social media presence is bland. He rarely makes headlines or goes viral in clips that do not involve his play.

In a league where individual players almost always make their presence known, Walker is content being in the background.

So why is the 30-year-old always so happy?

For the first time in his NBA career, he is playing for a team who have a real chance of making the Finals for the first time since 2010.

On Tuesday, the Boston Celtics went up 2-0 against the Toronto Raptors, the defending champions, in their Eastern Conference second-round play-off series after a 102-99 win at Disney World.

Walker had a terrible shooting night, going 6-of-18 from the field, but he made clutch plays down the stretch to finish with 17 points.

In Charlotte, he made the play-offs twice and was bounced in the first round each time. He has never had the expectation of winning on his shoulders until now, and he has never played with teammates this talented.

One of his best friends on the Celtics team, Walker said, is Jayson Tatum, who led all scorers with 34 points against the Raptors.

The 22-year-old forward has blossomed into one of the best players in the league, earning his first All-Star nod in February.

Tatum's ascension also means that Walker is in an unfamiliar position.

He may not be the best player on the floor at times, but that does not bother him as he considers it to be a blessing to be part of a young, exciting team that swept their oldest rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, for the first time in the previous round.

Asked why he celebrated the win over Toronto with a fist-pumping victory lap, Walker said: "You know what I've been through. Everybody knows what I've been through... haven't been in the second round.

"A lot of times in my career, in games like that, it probably would have been a blowout.

"But for me to have these guys, who can step up and just make huge plays the way they did, man, it's special.

"And it's a great feeling to know guys got my back like that. I just really appreciate my teammates."

For the Raptors, they are now at the crossroads of the Eastern Conference semi-finals, having seen their eight-game winning run end in emphatic fashion.

But Toronto have been in a similar losing position before. Last year, they went 2-0 down to the Milwaukee Bucks in the East Finals, only to reel off four successive victories.

The only difference is that back then, they had Finals Most Valuable Player Kawhi Leonard, on top of home-court advantage.

Still, All-Star guard Kyle Lowry, who had 16 points, feels his team can bounce back in Game 3 today.

"We have to go back and look at the film and understand what we've done wrong and look at what we can do better," he said.

"We just lost two games. We have a chance to get one game. That's all we have to do. Get one game, and take it one game at a time.

"The Celtics, they are playing extremely well. We have to find a way to get ourselves going better."

REUTERS, NYTIMES