I’m still not even sure how to explain what happened last night.
I’m in this weird blend of shock, relief, excitement, disbelief, all of it.
We should have woken up this morning with the Boston Celtics season being over.
A shot at redemption and an 18th banner wasted.
And yet here they stand, alive.
Heading back home (gulp) with an opportunity to return to the NBA Finals.
All I can do is sit here and shake my head.
I’m sorry, but there may not be a more difficult path than what we saw last night.
We got their worst 3PT shooting performance of the season.
The entire fucking season.
In fact, the Heat doubled them up from deep, and had a +21 point advantage.
The Heat had 17 OREB and 7 fewer turnovers.
They shot 35/20% in the 2nd half and only scored 104 points.
We’ve only seen the Celts win 4 games ALL YEAR when they score 104 or less.
They allowed 31 points in the final quarter, the one quarter they needed to show up defensively in.
Game 7 it is.
Let’s just call this what it was.
The Celtics game we watched was one we saw them lose essentially every time that shit happened.
In Game 6, we were gifted a prayer from God.
I don’t know what God you want to suggest it came from, but that was a prayer.
And that’s OK!
You need prayers along the way to a title.
Every championship team gets lucky at some point during their run.
Not only that, but I almost feel like we were owed this buzzer beater.
Lord knows we’ve been through hell with those things.
I’ll tell ya
As incredible as last night was, we have to remain focused.
Winning 3 is not winning 4.
Do not do it.
This series is not over, not by a long shot.
In the meantime, we’re going to talk about Game 6.
I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but something is up.
Let’s dive in.
The Good
- How could we possibly start anywhere else.
The entire reason this blog has the tone and subject matter it does, it because of one person.
Not just the actual play, but the context surrounding it?
I feel like it has to be up there.
Defensively, after having issues for much of this series Derrick White finally had his night against Jimmy Butler.
You want to know why Butler only went 5-21 from the field?
Because he went 0-8 vs White.
The way White was also able to protect the rim in transition as a guard?
But don’t sleep on White’s huge buckets in the 4th either.
Massive, massive shots.
Those were the only 3PM the Celts made in the final quarter, everyone else went 0-7.
With Malcolm Brogdon cooked, it’s going to require White to be more aggressive.
Especially while he’s on this heater.
53/55% splits this series?
It felt like he was due for a big Game 6.
In a game where you needed your stars to show up, this was great to see.
Now his 10 minutes in the 2nd quarter were nowhere close to as good.
He could mentally let that ruin his night, or he could bounce back and continue to fight.
Yes, there was that one brutal miss which you absolutely cannot have.
But 5-6 in those pressure spots was good enough I guess.
There’s a reason Jaylen was a team best +7 last night.
When this team needed their guy, he showed up.
Jaylen’s extra effort last night was a huge reason they won this game.
- This is also true of their franchise player.
With the season on the line 31/12/5 while going 15-15 from the FT line.
His eruption in the 2nd quarter for 16 points is what turned this game in the Celts favor.
The way he played aggressively to start is how the Celts got their initial separation.
To win a game in which Tatum goes 0-8 from deep is insane.
That shouldn’t happen.
Then there was also this
Let’s face it, Tatum got bailed out a little bit by Derrick.
He went just 1-9 with 3 TOs in the 2nd half, including 1-6 in the 4th quarter.
Things have changed for the Celts defense once they shifted Tatum onto Butler basically full time now.
He’s been Butler’s most frequent matchup these last 3 games and the results speak for themselves.
He has his chance to make up for what happened in 2022, I trust he understands that.
Smart has been fantastic with the Celts season on the line.
He’s shooting 51/47% with 4.0 3PM over these last two games putting up over 20 a night.
Not just in terms of the total production, but the efficiency as well.
I would just ask that moving forward, c’mon stop jumping to pass along the perimeter.
That’s Day 1 stuff really.
- Bam had his block on Tatum in the 2020 ECF.
When the Celts needed stops?
What a way to show up big.
If you defend, you live.
Don’t get me wrong, the perimeter defense was dogshit.
What was dominant was the interior defense.
Some of that is probably due to luck, but that’s what length and intimidation can do.
Players start to rush and they miss bunnies.
The Celts do not win unless they took away the paint.
That’s been true in all 3 of their wins.
I’m pretty sure my heart stopped at the one with 24 seconds left.
As soon as I saw Bam pass the ball my heart sank.
I still have no idea how it didn’t go in.
It’s the same voodoo we saw with Jimmy Butler last year in Game 7.
This is what I mean by prayers, you need them sometimes.
- Another stellar game by Joe.
That challenge basically saved the entire season.
Then again, what do I know?
The Bad
- OK, where to start.
I suppose the whole 43/20% shooting thing would be a good spot.
Just 35/20% with 6 TOs.
Seemingly all their 3PA were rimming out in the most excruciating way possible.
That cannot happen on Monday.
- I mean 7-35 from deep as a team.
How do you win a game with that?
It makes no sense.
- Whatever the defensive gameplan was to limit the Heat shooters, try something else.
There is absolutely no excuse for the way the Celts kept losing the Heat shooters.
At least make them hit contested 3PA.
Caleb Martin didn’t take a contested shot all night it felt like.
The Celts did a great job at limiting the Heat’s two best players, but everyone else?
Those 3 guys alone went 10-20 from deep, all of which were pretty wide open looks.
I also do not believe all turnovers are created equal.
Last night we got the stupid ones, and they came from pretty much everybody.
- Then there was the final Heat possession.
To think that the Celtics season could have ended on this play makes me sick.
For starters, that looks like a pretty clear double dribble to me.
Pretty sure you could’t do that.
In terms of the actual foul, that’s pretty iffy too given the situation.
Butler basically lost the ball, threw himself around and hoped for the bailout….which he got.
I mean that play should have been blown dead the second Jimmy touched it with two hands.
It’s almost as if the Basketball Gods corrected this or something.
- The rebounding continues to be very frustrating.
It’s not like the Heat have size, they just have Bam.
Box him the fuck out already, what’s the issue here?
He and Butler combined for 14 OREB.
A killer Heat 3PM.
If the Celts want to win Game 7, they need clean defensive possessions.
The Ugly
- Up 10 points with 4:10 to go.
You’re doing it.
All you have to do is just not shit your pants and your season is alive.
So what do the Celtics do?
They shit their pants.
Because why take the easy way right?
The Celtics missed 11 straight shots before Derrick White’s game winner.
Look at how painful this is
That’s the last 4 minutes of this game.
That shit usually comes with a loss, we’ve seen it time and time again.
I am convinced something happened to the clock where it moved slower than normal.
That was the longest 4:10 I’ve ever experienced.
But it’s over.
They won despite their horrific close.
Now just never do it again.
So here we go.
NBA history and a spot in the NBA Finals is on the line Monday night.
This is why we Love and Trust.
