The Boston Celtics Refuse To Stop Making Life Hard On Themselves And It Is Taking Years Off Our Lives
Nathaniel S. Butler. Getty Images.
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I don't know how they keep finding ways to do it, but this team has the ability to cause of a level of pain that I'm not sure I knew existed. Especially these last two series. I don't even know how to describe the feeling I have right now. It's a level of pain and frustration that I feel all throughout my body, but particularly my chest. Is it a broken heart? Is it this overwhelming feeling of doom? Is it heartburn because I'm getting old as shit and everything gives me heartburn now? It's hard to say, but what I will say is that I do not care for it one bit.
All I know is this. The deeper these types of losses happen in the playoffs, the more it hurts. The fact that they keep happening at home is something I can't really comprehend. I'd say the one thing that has kept me alive is the Celts record coming off losses, but in a Game 7 on the road, I'm not sure any of those previous performances matter. That's why you have to avoid Game 7s at all costs. One bad stretch at any point in the game and your season could be over. Are the Celts capable of going into that building and winning? Absolutely. They've done it twice already. But would it shock you if the Heat rode this new found confidence to a win? Why would it? This is why when you have an opportunity to bury a team, you have to bury them. The Celts didn't and now they could pay the ultimate price. That's where the frustration kicks in for me. You play with fire repeatedly like this and it's only a matter of time before you get burned.
Would I prefer the Celts be able to play well without experiencing these horrific losses? Yes. Very much so. In fact, it's all I've ever wanted. I will never understand why this team only chooses the harder path. I'm starting to wonder if they even know they don't have to do this to themselves and all of us. Like, you can just win at home. That's a thing teams do. A team that was gifted two seperate golden opportunities in this series where all they had to do was win at home, to come up short in both is almost unimaginable for a team that was so awesome at home all season.
It's almost as if they didn't learn anything from the previous series they JUST won. They let Jimmy Butler have the Tatum Game 6 vs MIL moment. That was enough to give the Celts all the momentum in the world for Game 7, they got the outlier Grant 7 3PM game at home and that was it. That's all it takes. The Celts were given life and with that life, they ended the Bucks season. Last night, the Celts gave the Heat life. Now they return home where it's certainly possible someone has a Grant Game 7 performance and the Celts season will be over. They had a chance to prevent that scenario from happening, and they choked it away. That's just so infuriating.
But like we always do, we blog through the pain. It's not going to be easy, I'm already sick to my fucking stomach for tomorrow night, but let's dive in.
The Good
- Nothing makes my blood boil more than wasting incredible postseason performances. We've seen this team do that a few times with Al, well last night in the biggest game of their season, they did the same shit with Derrick White
All postseason we were waiting to see Derrick start to make some threes, and then in a game in which he drops 22/3/5 with 3 steals and goes 7-14 (4-7) from three including HUGE fourth quarter makes, it's all for nothing. That stings in a way I didn't know something could possibly sting. His 11 points and 3-5 from deep in the fourth quarter felt like the turning point. They were getting that prayer performance from an unexpected source that would carry them to the Finals.
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Nope. They wasted it.
While I think White can still be effective tomorrow night, he's had a great last 3 games, I don't think we can reasonably expect him to shoot the ball like this again. When you can an opportunity like that, you HAVE to finish it. He carried this team back into the game, yet nobody else was interested in stepping up and helping him in that 4th quarter. He even managed to do well in his limited matchup minutes with Butler, holding him to just 1-3 shooting over his 5 possessions. Call me crazy, but I would have maybe given him a few more cracks at it.
- Normally I would find a way to put Tatum/Brown's first half in here, but I can't bring myself to do it. Even though both were lights out in those first 24 minutes and Tatum went 9-12 from the floor, at this point in the postseason how you finish is more important than how you start. I cannot think of another game the Celts lost in which Tatum went 9-12 from the floor, yet here we are. Unfucking real.
The Bad
- Much like in Game 3, the Celts did themselves no favors to start this game. I truly cannot understand how playing at home, in front of a crowd as electric as what we saw last night, this team cannot start off games well. It was the same old bullshit. Extremely terrible ball security (5 TOs) even worse effort on the defensive glass (6 MIA OREB), and then like they so often do at home in these huge games, they started off tight in terms of shooting the ball. All you had to do was start well and let the crowd do the rest. Instead? This is what we got
22 points on 35/33% shooting with 5 TOs
Compare that to the Heat's
29 points on 46/65% with 4 TOs
Remeber Game 3 when the Heat started 10-12 from the floor? It was essentially the same shit in this game. Jimmy Butler asserted himself in that quarter (14 points on 6-10 shooting) the same way Bam did in Game 3 to start that game off. When you repeatedly shoot yourself in the foot with careless turnovers, it gives this Heat team confidence, and once they have confidence all bets are off. They doubled up the Celts in points in the paint (14 vs 6) to start, and that simply cannot happen especially when you also aren't going to guard them from the 3pt line.
I think it goes without saying, if the Celts have a first quarter like this tomorrow, their season will be over. The fact that in 2 of the last 3 games at home they came out like this is so maddening and why they have no one to blame but themselves. It was all right there for the taking, the Celts just refused to take it.
- I'll say this about the "others" from this game. One player gets a pass for his off night for me. That's it.
It was very confusing why Al suddenly was having the worst game of his playoffs, and to me, this sheds some light as to why that may have happened. Losing a family member is always tough. It felt like a lot of Horford's issues were focus related, and who could blame him for maybe not being fully locked in mentally. He was doing things that made no sense. Horrible passes, missing bunnies, it was just a very off night for a guy who basically hasn't had an off night in 5 months. You forget at times that these players are real people that deal with real life shit.
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But the rest? Unacceptable. When I am able to write a tweet like this
after the first half, that's a problem. As we saw, Derrick eventually stepped up which was nice to see, but so much of this game was Jaylen/Tatum carrying and then absolutely nobody stepping up and helping. By the time one did, it was too late.
For all the awesome stuff Rob does, he had 1 rebound in 26 minutes. One. That just cannot happen. Grant was either fouling, or getting cooked by Butler. In just 7 possessions against Jimmy, Grant allowed 15 points on 5-7 shooting. 15 points on 7 possessions. That's insane.
- Then there was Smart. This was now back to back really brutal games for him, and while parts of me understands that his ankle is fucked, the other part of me doesn't really care. If you're on the floor, I need you to be better. We cannot have a situation where on offense, he's shooting 4-15 (1-9) and not really playmaking (just 3 AST to 2 TOs). Then defensively, we got this
There was no resistence. For some reason despite Butler showing all game that he was going Game 6 LeBron, this team just dared him to shoot. I dunno, maybe after his 35th point, stop doing that. With Smart, you can have one of those two things. The Celts can survive a poor shooting night as a long as he's elite on the defensive end. They can survive a poor defensive showing as long as he comes through offensively. What can't happen is getting both no offense and poor defense at the same time. They needed him to show up on one of those ends of the floor, and he didn't.
Of all his FGA, really only one truly bothered me. It came right before Jaylen's missed FTs with about 2:42 left. The Celts were trying to get Tatum the mistmatch, and Smart just….kept dribbling. Then he dribbled some more. Then some more. Then when that didn't work he had to force up a low percentage three
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he dribbbled that ball for the entire 24 seconds. I dunno, maybe bail out of that play and try something else once it was clear the Heat were not going to let Tatum get the ball at the FT line. Just horrible late game execution all around.
Of course, there was a lot of talk about his team leading 15 FGA. Part of that is on him and his decision making, but remember, there was the end of shot clock heave because White wouldn't take the 3PA to end the half. This was also somewhat scheme related. The Heat did a great job of trapping Tatum and forcing him to pass, which then forces someone like Smart to have to shoot because they spent the previous 20 seconds initiating offense. This is where my next issue is.
- Horrible time for Ime to have probably his worst performance of the series. A few things really ended up being costly. For some reason, despite having both White and Smart on the floor in the fourth quarter, we saw the Celts roll with the November Celtics offense. Possession after possession we saw Tatum be the one to initiate offense, they were slow in their sets because they were trying to force a switch, and then the next thing you knew the Heat were sending two at Tatum to force him to give the ball up to a non-shooter.
My question is…..why? We all knew that's what the Heat wanted to do, so why did you continue to play into that? Why not initiate offense with Smart or White so that it's Jaylen or Jayson who are the ones taking those shots? It was like Ime forgot everything that's happened over the last 5 months or something.
Then in that same 4th quarter, we saw Rob play 0:00. Is he hurt? Because if not, that really makes no sense to me. Especially with how well Derrick was playing, I'm wondering why he didn't swap Rob for Smart.
- When we talk about this game being a choke, a big reason is how the final 4:42 of this game went. White made his three to go up 97-94, and the Celts made JUST ONE bucket for the rest of the game. It was a Tatum floated with 1:08 left with the Celts down 105-99. By that point, things were pretty much over.
With a spot in the Finals on the line, you cannot have a 3+ minute stretch where you don't make a shot. The Heat closed on a 17-6 run after that White three. They responded and executed. Here were the Celts possessions immediately following that White make.
Smart missed 3PA
Jaylen missed 2 FTs
Tatum turnover
Bad White foul in the bonus
Horford missed 3PA
Bad White foul in the bonus
White missed 3PA
Tatum made floater
Tatum FTs
Jaylen turnover (offensive foul)
So, either the Celts were turning it over, missing threes, or committing awful fouls in the bonus. That is how you choke away a spot in the NBA Finals.
Of course, the huge swing play late was the missed Jaylen FTs followed by the Butler AND1. A 5 point swing at the worst possible time. You want to know why I care so much about FTs? This right here. Jaylen was 7-7 prior to those misses and none of that mattered because you need to make them when they matter. Instead, he didn't, Butler was able to get out on the break and that was that. Had you made those FTs, you get back and can get your defense and you give yourself a shot. The moment he missed that second FT I knew the Heat were about to stab me right in the heart.
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- In the final 4 seconds and under on the shot clock, the Heat shot 6-13 (46%) including 4-8 from three. I want to die. That was a pretty massive factor in how this game turned out, and they deserve all the credit for executing. Unfortunately NBA.com only has it 4-0 seconds, because really it felt like 2-0 seconds. Strus has some backbreakers, Jimmy had that one late in the 4th, they say this is a make or miss league and here's why it's hard to argue that:
By comparison, the Celts shot 1-7 (0-4).
There's your game. Now there are a few ways to look at this. First, it's unlikely that happens again. Second, who gives a shit. It just had to happen once, and it did.
The Ugly
- What do we say every time this team plays a game. As long as they don't turn the ball over, they should be fine. Well, guess what the Celtics did
Another 17 TOs leading to 20 MIA points. Look at those points off TOs in each of the three losses this series. Part of this is the Heat's defense, I think it's OK to give them credit, but WAY TOO MANY were simply the Celtics passing the ball to the other team with unforced errors. Are they aware that Jimmy Butler is not on the Boston Celtics, and if so, why are they passing the ball directly to him.
To start the game, the Celts turned it over 5 times. To finish the game, the Celts turned it over 5 times with Tatum having 4 of those TOs. For the second time this series, he finished with 7 TOs. In the other game they lost? Jaylen had 7 TOs. They are quite literally throwing away the NBA Finals. It's absolutely inexcusable that these issues are STILL popping up this late into the postseason.
- As great as both Tatum and Brown were in the first half, they were equally has bad in the second. They took a combined 2 FGA in the 4th quarter. TWO! Jaylen did not make a basket in his 20 second half minutes (0-3). He finished that half with 2 total points. Tatum took just 4 FGA over his 24 second half minutes (3-4). That's just…infurating. In no world should your two best players only take 2 FGA in the fourth quarter of the biggest game of the year. Where was Ime? You can't get these guys looks? Where was the killer mentality from either guy? You know who had it? Jimmy Butler. He finished with 17 points on 6-9 shooting in the 4th quarter. The Heat as a team took 15 FGA in those 12 minutes. Tatum/Brown accounted for just 2 of the Celts 16 FGA. When you play like that, you deserve everything you get.
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So this is it. The entire season comes down to tomorrow night. The Celts now have to do the unthinkable and win 3 seperate road games to make the NBA Finals. I expect Tyler Herro to be back, I expect the Heat to be ready and play well, and this is what happens when you refuse to handle your business. Playing with your food in a playoff series almost never ends well. I've also seen this Celts punch back whenever they do shit like this. You wish they didn't leave it up to an unpredictable Game 7, but this is the bed they made for themselves. They now run the risk at yet another 3-2 series choke job. As they say, if loving and trusting were easy, everyone would do it.
But now, their margin for error is gone. It was right there for the taking and the Celts refused to grab it. Let's just hope that doesn't happen again tomorrow night. You never know when you'll be back in this moment with this type of opportunity, so please wake the fuck up and play how we all know you can play. Do that, and you survive and advance. Don't do that, and well…..I might never recover.