Another home playoff loss.
That is such an insane record (and not in a good way) that it defies logic.
Needing to always rely on road wins is what lower seeds are supposed to be doing.
I think that’s what I feel most.
Last night was the 5th worst home playoff loss in Celtics franchise history.
In fact, the Cavs are actually responsible for 4 of those 5.
In 2010, they won by 29.
In 2017, they had wins of 44 and 33.
You play losing basketball, you pay the price for it.
You fuck around and don’t handle your business?
You aren’t going to like what you find out.
It’s that simple.
With that said, let us begin.
The Good
- Do you even deserve this section after what we saw last night?
There’s no spinzone.
There’s no need to make excuses for what we saw.
What exactly would you say the Celts did well in this game?
Payton Pritchard’s performance I guess?
Can we move on?
I think it’s time.
The Bad
- Now this is a challenge.
Where do we start?
Let’s begin with the two best players.
The Celtics will only go as far as they go.
Which is what makes their Game 2 performance so annoying.
Offensively both went a tough 7-17 from the floor, with Jaylen adding in a brutal 0-6 from deep.
He was a -29 in his 31 minutes, Tatum a -22 in his 37.
Tatum’s offensive issues are a little more concerning.
For starters, he has been unable to win his matchup vs Max Strus through 2 games.
That is a real sentence.
I mean what are we doing?
This wasn’t a case of Tatum being double or triple teamed.
While that does happen at certain times, that was not the case last night.
Shit like this is inexcusable.
This is not a random game in January.
This is the second round of the playoffs.
To make matters worse, things were even more of a disaster on the defensive end for both guys.
So while the entire roster no showed on both ends, it starts and ends with their best players.
If Tatum and Brown aren’t going to execute on both ends of the floor, nothing else matters.
- One of the most important parts of playoff games is ending quarters strong.
When you have a chance to bury your opponent, you have to do it.
With around 4:16 left in the second quarter, the Celts found themselves up 8 points.
They recovered from the Cavs first quarter run and looked like they were about to right the ship.
What is Jaylen doing here?
That is losing basketball.
To me, these last 4 minutes are where the issues started, not just the disaster second half.
Most of his looks were pretty clean, so maybe he was just due for a game like this.
The problem was his backcourt mate was just as ineffective offensively.
This is not a singular instance.
This has been his entire playoffs so far
His TS% in this series is a brutal 42.9%.
For the entire playoffs, it’s 45%.
All of the fears you may have had about his playoff offense dropping is happening in real time.
That was supposed to be what put the Celts over the top right?
That their 5th option can still kill you.
Well, when does that happen?
That is horrible, regardless of where you are in the offensive pecking order.
For the Celtics to win in the playoffs, EVERYONE needs to show up.
- The main Celts 2nd unit players totaled 18 points, 13 coming from Pritchard.
On the other end?
Caris LeVert had 21 points.
It’s how he scores.
If you make him shoot 3s, he’s going to struggle.
So what do the Celts do?
If you don’t defend, you die.
Giving up 118 points on 54/46% is inexcusable.
The Celtics simply did not play defense.
When the Celts played drop, the Cavs buried 3s.
When the Celts got away from drop coverage and switched instead, they were beaten repeatedly off the dribble.
This is what getting completely outplayed looks like, and it came at the worst possible time.
In the second half, all non-Tatum starters were 3-18 (0-13).
What the shit is that?
Jaylen 4-8/Tatum 3-8 vs MIA, Jaylen 2-7/Tatum4-7 vs CLE.
10 3PM allowed vs MIA, 10 3PM allowed vs CLE.
6 TOs vs MIA, 5 TOs vs CLE.
52.6% from deep for MIA, 55.6% from deep vs CLE.
40 points vs MIA, 40 points vs CLE.
The exact fucking same.
As they say, sometimes it’s a make or miss league.
The issue of course is the Cavs are better than the Heat.
That’s not really true for CLE.
Donovan Mitchell can absolutely explode.
That’s what makes dropping games like last night so annoying.
You had an opportunity to bury a team, and instead, you gave them life.
Keep screwing around, and only bad things will be in your future.
