A good example of this is to just look at what the Celts have done since January 11th.
On that night, we saw them get completely stomped on the road in MIL.
A beatdown so bad Joe pulled the plug at halftime.
Couldn’t make a shot, couldn’t get a stop, it was a bloodbath.
It also was a result that didn’t really bother you given the context around it.
On January 27th, the Celtics once again got their ass kicked.
It was once again, a bloodbath.
The way I look at it, it’s the MIL performance only without that context.
Getting blown out in that one is something most would chalk up to a “schedule loss”.
Doing whatever the hell we watched last night is simply getting your ass WHOOPED.
That is what we witnessed.
No team is immune to it and last night it was the Celts turn to take their whooping.
Whenever stuff like this happens, there always seems to be a rush to one extreme or another.
One side screams how this is a giant red flag and proof of what will happen in 4 months.
Both are somewhat right, and both are somewhat wrong.
Maybe that’s poor execution, maybe that’s lazy turnovers or bad defense.
The point is it’s losing basketball.
It is true that come a playoff run, it’s crucial that you be playing winning basketball.
That is seeing something in the regular season that you know will hurt you when it matters most.
It’s not nothing, but it’s mostly just a reminder of how this team cannot play.
The Celts have great wins against elite teams, and disaster losses against elite teams.
That’s basketball baby.
That wasn’t great.
The Bad
- Alright, where the hell do we begin?
It’s why I was put on this planet.
It’s your standard PTSD.
I know because I feel it too.
We’ve seen what happens when opponents cut off the dribble drive like the Clippers did last night.
The end result is a low percentage, contested, end of shot clock prayer that guess what?
Isn’t going to go in.
We see a version of basketball that is the exact reason why Brad went out and traded for Porzingis.
The thing is, not many teams can do both of those things.
The fear is that in a playoff series against a tough defense, this is what will happen.
What I mean by that is I don’t care about the slow shooting start.
I’ve seen plenty of shitty Celtics shooting starts.
What I care about is how those struggles started to bleed into everything else we saw this team do.
If your shot is broken, then you oughta be even more locked in defensively.
This is the stuff that cannot happen.
There are going to be times in a playoff game where the Celts go cold from the floor.
That’s the playoffs.
Sucking ass in the 3rd quarter isn’t a one off thing, in fact it’s a pattern.
Everywhere you look in that graphic gets worse than the next.
As a team, they finished just 24-51 in the paint.
So yeah, the 3pt shooting was awful.
The 2pt shooting was also awful.
That is also true.
I mean what else is there to even say?
The 5 OREB were cool, but this was an egg that the Celts couldn’t afford to have.
This was a battle of the old wings vs the new wings and the old wings got that ass.
Never do that shit again.
