The Celtics Losing Because They Couldn't Get A Missed FT Rebound Will Haunt Me For Years
Unfuckingbelievable. We knew a few things heading into this game, first that these two teams were going to play each other tough since every meeting between these two is a nail biting affair, and two that in order to beat this team you had to be nearly flawless. Well, I can’t help but sit here right now with this brutal 115-111 loss and feel like the Celtics gave this one away. I mean that play at the top of this blog sealed their fate and is so goddamn frustrating it’s going to keep me up until no later than 3:37am. How do you not box out and get this rebound? The worst part is this isn’t the first time this has happened this season! Call it a bad bounce off rim all you want, but you have to come down with this rebound. No excuses. To lose a game in that fashion, one that was extremely winnable is beyond frustrating. There’s no guarantee that the Celtics still score even if they do get the rebound but I’m trusting a Brad ATO 10 times out of 10 in that situation. To not even get that chance is maddening. The Celts shot the ball like shit but still had every opportunity to pull this out if not for some piss poor execution down the stretch. Really bad turnovers, you had Kyrie/Smart/Morris all with great looks in the final seconds and it’s not like the Warriors didn’t give you every opportunity to steal this game. That’s why it’s a make or miss league I guess but man what a blown opportunity,
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It was a lot of the same issues we see plague this team. Rebounding was a factor, inability to not foul three point shooters, and ultimately a lack of good end of game execution against a team you can’t fuck around against. As a measuring stick game, I walk away from this knowing this Celtics team can hang with the Warriors and I know that should make me happy but really all I feel right now is anger. Anger that they threw away what would have been the best win of the season all because they couldn’t get a fucking rebound. Unreal. Wasting a Kyrie performance like the one we got tonight stings for sure
and not allowing him to get one last shot should be an arrestable offense. That’s the moment he was put on the planet for, and we were robbed of it because Marcus Smart ran too far into the paint and nobody put a body on the FT shooter.
On a night where you had to be nearly perfect, there’s no denying the play of Morris/Hayward/Terry really hurt. In fact the entire bench didn’t do a damn thing the entire second half. I’m not kidding, they scored 2 points. TWO!!! That was supposed to be the advantage in this matchup and they put up a total of 16 points. Hayward with a horrific 0-5 and one of his worst performances of the season. That absolutely can’t happen and I don’t care if you’re even paying him $5M. He didn’t look right from the start and never snapped out of it. He seemed timid, and when that happens things only go downhill for him. I think that’s what bothers me most about this, if you just got an average performance from your second unit you probably win this game. Like just don’t be god awful for me one time and everyone’s happy and they couldn’t even muster that. To be honest the GS roster wasn’t all that outrageous. Steph only had 1 second half three, this loss is about the Celtics blowing it more than anything else and that’s annoying as fuck.
I’ll have more tomorrow once I calm down, if I ever calm down. The Celtics had this game and they blew it. Time to drink.