Win Game 7 And Advance. Simple As That.

Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.

You know, I thought about waiting until the morning to write this blog after I slept on it and had time to digest what happened on Wednesday night. But then I remembered there was no fucking chance I was going to fall asleep so here we are. Live, in the moment reactions. Full of emotion. Full of pain. Before we go through everything that went on in Game 6, can we just take a minute and talk about the emotional rollercoaster of this series?

The Celts jump out to a 2-0 lead and look great. Then they make a play at the end of Game 3 to snag the lead with 0.5 seconds on the clock. Game over right? Wrong. Disaster strikes and we get kicked square in the dick so hard you puked out your testicles. Only to then come out and look like shit in Game 4. Now there's a little bit of concern, mostly because the team didn't respond how you thought they would. Well that came in Game 5. A complete beatdown and the confidence was back in full swing. They regained control of the series. And then Game 6. Another heartbreaking loss, this time in double goddamn overtime in a game that was filled with both missed opportunity and questionable whistles. It's almost as if the Celtics can only lose the most painful way possible. You thought 0.5 seconds was tough? Here's a little double OT heartbreak just to twist the knife. To go from where we started to now facing a Game 7 is brutal. That's all I can say. It's brutal. A series that should have been over, is now up for grabs. None of the other shit matters. Whoever plays better over the course of 48 minutes will advance. I'm nauseous just thinking about it.

So about Game 6. I want to make myself crystal fucking clear for every single person reading this blog. The officiating is not the reason why the Celtics lost this game. It may have been a factor, but I can point to a million different issues of their own doing that were just as costly. You have to own that. Was there suspect shit? Yeah, and we'll get to it. But you still need to rise above it. The Raptors didn't get every call, they still found a way to execute down the stretch. Celtics didn't. Period. 

Now I know this will be painful. I don't even want to type another word in this blog. But we don't run from the painful losses. We embrace them. We are molded by them. So the Celts are gonna have to win this shit in 7 games. Ok by me. Let's fucking do it. But first, let's talk about last night.

The Good

- Aside from blowing a chance to end this series, what makes this loss so hard to stomach is the great individual performances that were wasted. A lot of Celts played great and in the end it means jack shit. That's annoying as hell. For example Jaylen Brown

Advertisement

what a performance from Jaylen. Ever since his rough Game 4 this man has been a monster. This time it was a 31/16 performance on 11-30 shooting. Not that efficient but man did he carry this team early. He also made a little history

Defensively he once again held his own against Siakam, holding him to 8 points on 3-8 shooting. I will say Jaylen had his shooting issues in the second half going just 2-8 and then he missed both his shots in the 2OT, but overall I thought Jaylen was pretty good. 

- Then there's the effort and play of Marcus Smart. Wasting his performance is what really stings

He was huge. What other way can we saw it? He did everything on the floor, played great defense holding Lowry/FVV to just 6 points on a combined 33 possessions and he continued to make play after play when the Celtics needed him most. Granted it all means nothing since they lost, and that's what bothers me. Huge steals, even bigger threes, sacrificing his body, this was about as perfect a Smart performance as you can have and they fucking wasted it.

Advertisement

- And then there was Jayson Tatum, who had himself a weird night. He started off terrible, couldn't buy a basket to save his life. But ultimately he finished with 29/14/9

A huge second half was very much needed, and Tatum did set a career high in playoff assists and you really have to be impressed with how his playmaking is developing while they are in the bubble. The man is much better at reading defenses and making the right pass. But it wasn't all good and we'll talk more about this later. I just hope that he can ride this momentum into Game 7 and not start off so poorly because basically the season is now on the line. 

- Grant made a couple huge threes so that was pretty cool.

- I like the fight I saw in this team when they blew the lead in the third quarter. They didn't panic and clawed their way back. That was good to see that they didn't just fold and quit. 

- I don't know what more Daniel Theis has to do to get a fair whistle. I really don't

Advertisement

It was good to see him finally dunk then ball strong, and it looked like they had things figured out with dribble penetration and lobs to Theis. Incredible that once again they still lost despite him scoring late. 

The Bad

- OK well we may as well talk about all the real reasons the Celtics lost this game. Let's start off with their offense. It was mostly dogshit. I'm not exactly talking about the percentages, although those weren't all that great at 44/41%, I'm talking more about their decision making offensively in big moments. It didn't look like they had any plan for large stretches of the fourth quarter and OT. Maybe that's why they shot 36% in the final frame. Where was Brad? How about you call some plays or something and don't just let the guys do whatever they want in huge moments when you need buckets. Rushed threes, no sort of organization on the offensive end forcing the team to take tough end of clock contested jumpers, the whole thing was a mess.

- For the millionth time this series, the Celts were done in by the 3rd quarter. I honestly have no explanation for it at this point. It doesn't matter what lead they have, you can bank on them giving it away in the third. This time they allowed 33 points on 55/66% while also having 6 TOs to only 9 FGM themselves. It's just so pathetic. They allowed FVV to get hot, they didn't guard the three point line, and once again the momentum shifted in this quarter. It's truly remarkable how bad they continue to be in those 12 minutes. It's costing them gams and very well could cost them their season. 

- Let's talk about the turnovers for a second. What is the one thing we all agree on when it comes to beating the Raptors? You cannot turn it over and give them easy points. Well, 15 TOs led to 16 Raptors points and there was no bigger culprit than Jayson Tatum. He had 6 TOs on the night and some were terrible passes, other times he fell over while dribbling and sparked fast breaks, just inexcusable sloppiness from your best player. He had the ball multiple times in closing moments, high pressure situations, and he turned it over. Jaylen did that shit too but Tatum's were the ones that really hurt. 

- I really want an explanation why the Celts didn't find a way to switch Kemba off Kyle Lowry late in this game. You know they are going to attack that matchup every time, Smart had been great again all night, and when it mattered most they had to rely on Kemba getting a stop and that's just not going to happen when Lowry takes him into the paint. That was tough.

- Weird that certain plays can be reviewed for being a hostile act despite not being called a foul and others aren't, ya know?

Like I get it, Tatum hit a dude with his arm inadvertedly and they decided to review it. It wasn't intentional but was still a tech for a hostile act. Why wasn't the same done for Lowry who legit very clearly undercut Jaylen Brown? On a play that actually was called a foul? That seems weird.

Advertisement

The Ugly

- Let's just get this out of the way and talk about the officiating. Raptors fans want to say it was bad both ways, I say whatever. One side had to deal with calls that directly impacted the result of the game. Remember, I am not saying the Celtics lost because of the refs or anything like that, but it's hard to deny the actual facts that their decisions played a role. We'll start with the play on Kemba

Be objective. That's a foul. It just is. There's clearly contact on Kemba's arm as he takes the layup, and FVV even got him with the body. This is a foul. I said it during the game that sometimes the no calls are just as fucked up as the fouls they do call. You have to make that call, ESPECIALLY when they call a simple touch foul for TOR about 5 seconds later. There's no way you can justify calling one and not calling the other. They had already done something similar with Tatum and Siakam a few minutes earlier. That's a series ending play. Period.

Then of course, there was this

Advertisement

Absolutely horrible pass by Jayson Tatum. Let's make that clear. It's also very much against the rules for Nick Nurse to do what he did. I'm not kidding, I looked it up. Read it yourself

"A technical foul shall be assessed for unsportsmanlike antics such as:

5. A coach entering onto the court without permission of an official.

That's exactly what happened. Nurse was out of his coaching box and on the court. I don't care what you think about the Celtics, that's a technical foul by the letter of the law. You can't just straight up ignore the rules as an official. You want to say the Kemba play was bang bang play fine, whatever. But how do you excuse that? Officials are looking right there and yet they don't do anything about it? That's fucked. 

You then factor in the tech FT review on Tatum in the OT that proved to matter, and there was a whole lot of bullshit that only makes you wonder as a fan. We all knew it was going to take a huge effort to beat the Raptors in Game 6, and it's supposed to be a coincidence the Celts are now like 3-12 in games done by Tony Brothers? I dunno.

This series has been so good, it's stuff like this that annoys me. The officials made themselves way too present in the game's biggest moments both in the calls they made and the ones they didn't. 

You can say I'm being salty and crying or whatever, I dunno how many times I have to say this was NOT why the Celtics lost, but how can you look at those plays objectively and think they were called correctly? At such huge moments in a playoff game? So bad.

I look forward to the league covering it's ass in the L2M report today too. No chance they admit that they blew a call on Kemba that would have decided the series. But we all have eyes, we saw what happened. 

- We need to be consistent. If Kyrie had the Game 6 that Kemba had we would destroy him. We can't just give Kemba a pass because we like him. His 5 points in 50 minutes is hard to stomach. He couldn't make a shot to save his life, he turned it over, they just needed him to score like 10 points and this series is over. His second stinker in 6 games, that played a much bigger role in why the Celts lost than the refs. He picked a poor time to have one of his worst performances of the season.  

Kemba talked about one of the reasons he came to Boston was for moments like this, and he choked. I love him, but that's the truth. On a night where the Celts just needed anything from Kemba, he gave them nothing. That's really tough. Luckily we've seen him bounce back in this series after a clunker, but who knows in a Game 7. The fact is Kyle Lowry showed up and Kemba didn't, and that's why this series is still going on. 

So here we go, A Game 7 for all the marbles. The Celts are on the verge of legit losing 4 out of their last 5 to lose this series. I almost can't believe what I just typed. They have no one to blame but themselves for being in this position, all the momentum from Game 5 is gone, and now the pressure builds. I'm already sick just thinking about it. Friday might just be the thing that does me in. Of course this team has to make it tough. It's the only way they know. 

Advertisement