Just a horrific night’s sleep for your truly.
That’s the good news.
At the end of the day, winning playoff games is about execution.
When the Celts needed to execute and put Game 4 away, they came up short.
Not just once, but multiple times.
The playoffs are hard and filled with good teams.
We just saw it happen in Game 3.
That was close in the end, and the Celts executed on both ends to secure the win.
Games 1 & 4 were the exact opposite.
In a sense, the Celts are playing with their food, which tends to not always end well.
Those would be tough, but easier to stomach I think.
Sometimes it’s just not your day.
But it just goes to show, you have to play a full 48.
We now move to a best of 3, with 2 games in the Garden.
Should it have even come to this?
We have a lot to get through, so let’s dive in.
That’s not me exaggerating, that’s the truth.
Often times when we see Tatum have that early stinker, it turns into a 48 minute stinker.
Last night he dug his way out and nearly carried this team to a win.
That’s a positive for sure.
He didn’t hide behind his slow shooting start and punt the game.
Those went in, last night’s didn’t go his way.
- Everything I just said about Jayson is also true when it comes to Jaylen.
Just like with Jayson though, two things are true
1.
Jaylen absolutely filled his role and carried this team during the times Tatum was struggling
2.
As the franchise guys, that’s tough to stomach.
Al was everywhere in that second half defensively
so to waste a performance like that hurts.
The Celts didn’t, and now it’s as if it never happened.
Couldn’t mean less.
That’s very fucking annoying.
- For the 4th straight game, the Celts had very few offensive issues.
Even with a brutal 1st quarter, the Celts still scored 115 points.
They still shot 47/38% from the floor with 17 3PM.
They finished with 25 AST and only 10 TOs, and the rebounding battle was tied at 44.
They dominated fastbreak points 22-9.
Points in the paint were even.
The point is, offensively the Celts were more than good enough.
The Celts have the #1 offense of these entire playoffs (both rounds) at 120.6.
They have the #1 net rating in the playoffs as well.
It all comes back to the same thing.
It doesn’t matter what you do offensively, if you do not defend, you die.
Last night was about the inability to defend.
That’s partly what makes this so hard to stomach.
I want to start with something very early in the game, because it proved to be rather impactful.
For starters, this is just a bad decision by Marcus.
As soon as it left his hands you knew that was going to be a turnover.
So that was bad.
Maybe he fouled him, maybe he got out of the way.
The point is the entire thing was avoidable had you not turned the ball over.
It’s safe to say that had a massive impact on what happened next.
Jaylen came out at the 4:33 mark with the score tied 15-15.
Here’s where that early foul comes into play.
At the start of the 2nd quarter, Joe put a lineup of
Smart/Jaylen/Brogdon/Grant/Rob
on the floor.
A good mix of offense and defense.
The only issue was, because Jaylen had 2 fouls, he could not guard James Harden.
That fell mostly on Brogdon, which did not work.
That unit had a Drtg of 215.5 in their 4+ minutes together on the floor.
Turns out, that turnover was a VERY big deal.
- Let’s now move to the 3rd quarter.
Well, that group allowed points on 7 of their first 8 possessions and had a Drtg of 212.5.
In fact, the Celts went 7 total minutes in that 3rd quarter without forcing a single stop.
From 11:16 to 4:16, the Sixers got points every single time down the floor.
You cannot win on the road in the playoffs if you cannot stop your opponent.
It didn’t even matter that the Celts scored 33 points on 72/50% themselves in the 3rd quarter.
Doesn’t that feel familiar to Game 1?
The Celts picked two quarters to not defend, and it cost them the game.
- In a tough playoff games, attention to details matter.
The smallest thing can completely change a game.
One thing that has plagued this team all year is late game rebounding.
To make matters worse, 5 of those in the 4th quarter came in the final minute.
Immediately following that rebound, Joel Embiid hit a jumper to bring it to 112-111.
These are the bang out of late game execution mistakes that cost you playoff games.
You HAVE to rebound late.
In OT, Jaylen saw that Tucker was crashing the glass and still have a pathetic box out attempt.
Tatum once again went up with 1 hand instead of two, which is just fundamental basketball.
That’s fucking sick.
- In Game 3, Al Horford’s dagger 3 went in.
In Game 4, somehow it didn’t drop.
On the other, the Celts helped off a strong side corner shooter, and Harden made his dagger.
That’s how razor thin the margins are in these games when you fuck around.
Joe left him in, and this immediately followed
Another example of a soft switch fucking this team up.
Again, it’s the small things that add up.
4 of the 5 Celtics touched the ball on that possession, everyone but Jaylen.
Smart brought it up and gave it to Tatum who had Maxey posted up at about the elbow.
Everything comes down to execution.
The Ugly
- Let’s just tell the truth.
Jaylen’s mental error defensively at the end of OT was the biggest mistake of the night.
I’ve watched it time and time again and I just do not understand.
The lack of situational awareness simply cannot happen.
Who gives a shit if Embiid scores here.
What can beat you is a 3PM.
Even if Embiid or the Sixers score there, OK fine no big deal.
Now you have the ball for the last shot in a tie game.
I just do not think the risk outweighs the reward in that situation.
As we saw, the Celts got burned by the risk, just like in Game 5 vs ATL.
- Then of course there was the final possession.
Of course, people are mad Joe didn’t call a timeout in that spot.
There seems to be this idea that calling a timeout automatically equals a bucket.
It’s almost like people forgot about Game 1.
After Harden hit that 3PM, the Celts took a timeout and didn’t even get a shot off.
In Game 3, there were no late timeouts and the Celts executed.
It’s not about whether or not you take a timeout.
It’s about the players understanding and recognizing the situation.
With 19 seconds left, you oughta play faster.
Joe says it, the players say it, and yet they never do it.
The Celtics crossed half court with 13.4 seconds left in the game
There was no real sense of urgency.
Again, nobody is really doing anything or moving.
That’s partly why you call a timeout right?
To get a matchup and shot you want.
The Celts did that without a timeout, but their issue was simply the players taking too long.
Everyone from Smart at the 19-11 second mark to Tatum in the final 7.8 seconds.
That’s not on Joe, that’s on the players.
