In terms of the record they are, but come on, you watched that shit last night.
That was not your normal regular season game.
It just wasn’t.
That’s lame as hell.
The Pacers outplayed them and earned their right to advance.
But I also think it’s important to keep perspective.
It’s all one in the same for me.
When it came time to win the game, the Celtics best players were outplayed.
This is what they’ve done all year.
Their 134.8 clutch time ORTG is #1 in the NBA, and you saw why last night.
We have a lot to get to, so let’s dive in.
When they each scored 30, the Celtics win.
In fact, it was only the second time in their entire careers this has happened (24-2).
Last night the team needed him to get buckets and to defend, not really create for others.
- And honestly, so did Tatum.
Was this the best we’ve ever seen Tatum play?
I don’t think so.
Not by his standards.
Was it good enough to win?
In my opinion yes.
This was not a Tatum no show game like we saw against the Magic.
He delivered in those moments exactly how you would expect a #1 guy to play.
Of all the problems we saw in this game, I would not put the Jays into that category.
- What else is there to say about Sam Hauser?
Outside of the Jays, he was the only real other positive to take away from this game.
I know that sounds crazy, but it’s the god’s honest truth.
The numbers are irrefutable.
Hauser had a poor first 3 games of the season from deep (3-15), but since then?
That 48.6% is coming off legit volume with 6.5 3PA.
I’m going to ask you to read those numbers again.
This isn’t even factoring in the reality that Hauser is legitimately locking people up defensively.
He’s no longer “holding his own” on that end in my opinion.
He’s putting opposing players in hell.
Did you know Hauser allows just 0.89 points per possession and 40% shooting while defending isolation?
Last night, Hauser was basically the only Celtic who could consistently make an outside shot.
There’s your ballgame.
- Shoutout Luke Kornet.
That was a dude who was playing for his life and his chance at $500K.
If you don’t bring it defensively, you’re dead.
Remember, this is a player that absolutely torches the Celtics whenever he plays them.
As far as I’m concerned Haliburton has moved to the top of the list of current Celtics killers.
Haliburton finished the second half 7-10 (4-7), shaking whoever he wanted whenever he wanted.
In the fourth quarter, Haliburton completely controlled everything.
Aaron Nesmith was scoring against Tatum at will in the 4th quarter, which cannot happen.
That’s losing basketball.
Jrue was a team worst -15 in his 38 minutes with his 3-9 (1-5).
Not getting anything defensively and then also not getting anything offensively can’t really happen.
Especially on a night where there’s no KP and everyone sort of has to play up a level.
The concerning part with Holiday is the fact that he’s currently shooting 37% on drives this season.
The offense is still nowhere close to what I think anyone expected, even with his reduced role.
Just really poor decisions/passes from a guy who never makes poor decisions/bad passes.
Add in that he was also getting cooked by Jrue, and you could see the issue.
Then there was Pritchard, who did nothing with his minutes other than go 0-5 (0-4).
In this game, the Celts won the rebounding battle 56-41.
They dominated in the paint 56-44.
They crushed 2nd chance points 20-9.
So how the hell did they lose?
Well, a place to start is the 3PT line.
You have to stay attached in the 3pt game in 2023, that’s just how it goes.
The Celts didn’t do that, finishing just 12-41 vs the Pacers 19-40.
The Celts did do that.
Again, they won the points in the paint battle 56-44.
It was just like the first 3 games vs MIA in the ECF.
Here’s the problem.
Tatum’s FTA rate has dropped from 39% to 33%.
Jaylen’s has dropped from 24% to just 20%.
Again, these are your two best players.
They cannot be this punch in of liability at the FT line.
To drop from 85% to 79% seems impossible for a player of his caliber.
I don’t know what the deal is here, but this is completely unacceptable.
Think of how things started last night.
- It makes no logical sense how the hell Tatum is a -33 in his last 9 games.
We’ve never seen anything like this before at any point of his career.
The crazy part is, the bench players he’s playing with haven’t been terrible!
- With 1:57 left in this game, the score was tied at 105.
The Pacers then closed the game on a 17-7 run.
Offensively things were stagnant, and this is even with White handling a lot of the initiating offensively.
The Pacers finished 4-4 over the final 1:57, with 3 of those being 3PM.
It felt like after the 4pt Haliburton play, that was the final death blow.
- Finally, there’s of course the turnovers.
The Celts finished with 17 in this game and we all know that’s way too many.
This is the same trend we’ve seen for years with this era of Celts.
If they get careless with the basketball, they lose.
When they don’t, they win.
Pretty simple yet they can’t seem to stop turning it over, especially as of late.
You could say the Celts got what they deserved in this game, and I would agree.
It wasn’t good enough and playing like this won’t be good enough come Spring.
Luckily, it’s December 5th.
That’s the good news.
That has to be figured out.
