After one of the most epic runs in NBA history over the last week, with what could have been one of the great buzzer beaters in sports history at the end of Game 6, the Boston Celtics no showed in the biggest game of the season on Memorial Day evening at the TD Garden.
It was an ugly one from the start, with Jayson Tatum getting hurt on the first possession of the game and the Celtics only scoring 15 points in the first quarter. As my old high school coach Ed Hickey would say - 'If you're in the paint, moving towards the hoop, shoot the damn ball', and Al Horford very much did not do that and it led to a Jayson Tatum tweak of the ankle. Missing your first twelve 3PA was not a good omen for the evening either...
Derek White was the one bright spot, along with Robert Williams doing some Time Lord things... that guy is the best. They were able to cut it to 8 a handful of times in the third quarter, but when Jimmy Butler had that breakaway dunk to put them up 17 at the beginning of the 4th, it was all but over. The Kyle Lowry pull up jumper with about 7 minutes to go did us no favors either.
Eight (8) turnovers for Jaylen Brown... it was ugly. Not going to be a pretty offseason for him; he's a great player, but really showed some inconsistency during this playoff run. Brogdon was a total non-factor with his forearm injury on shooting hand, Marcus Smart did not have the same energy from last three games, and Grant Williams still tries out there.
Gotta give some credit... the Heat have an amazing organization, and they got their revenge from 2022. To have that many undrafted, unheralded guys straight battling, there really is something special about the Heat culture. They played a super small ball lineup, and relied on their speed to disrupt the lack of Celtics offensive organization, not even playing Kevin Love or Zeller (their two bigs outside of Adebayo) all game. That front court pressure back to a zone was a huge issue for the Celtics flow; Celtics were barely even getting into their offense until 14-15 seconds left on the shot clock, and then playing a lot of 1 on 1 from there. Side note: I could see the zone making a comeback in the NBA, because a guy with his back to the basket in the high post, turning around and hitting a 15 footer consistently seems like basketball of yesteryear, helping the defense.
Caleb Martin was a problem ALL damn series, and no different in game 7; Jimmy Butler did what he does, which is facilitate and bury mid range jumpers with the occasional defense - to - offense fast break, and their other contributors were good too: Duncan Robinson has 10, Gabe Vincent hit some big shots, and even Highsmith had a big steal on Tatum that led to a dunk at the beginning of the second half (if I recall correctly... could have been second quarter...)
This is a team that LOST the play-in game to the Hawks, and were behind to the Bulls by 3 points with less than 4 minutes to go to get eliminated from playoff contention; unreal man. Sneaky reminds me of the UConn 2014 run where they were a 7 seed and pretty much dominated every game besides the first round matchup, and almost lost to St Joe's without a bit of luck down the stretch. Then played Florida in the Final 4 and the Gators could barely get the ball past half court. Credit to the Heat, wish them the best of luck in the finals, should be a great series.
I'd like to finish this masterful blog by taking accountability and falling on the sword for the Celtics failure and loss. After the game 6 victory, the histrionics, the pomp and pageantry, the excitement, I did not blog an after game round up/recap. I had my electric reaction video as the only proof that I did indeed watch the game, as I watched every bounce of the basketball this season.
As I was in the process of leading the double jinx that I had set out after my blog 'Requiem for the '23 Celtics', I knew that the universe would allow us to stay on our hot streak as long as I kept blogging the postgame wrap ups. But on Saturday evening, my emotions and excitement got the best of me and I made a deal with the devil that the Celtics were too hot, in too good of shape, playing too well to have a lowly blog like mine have any sort of affect on the outcome of one of the great series of modern NBA basketball, and I decided to let some hedonism creep into my existence. But I could have not been more wrong... and that was what clearly led to the demise of Boston on Monday evening. Taking accountability is the key to leadership in any endeavor, be it sports, business, or in the process of building a media empire. We need more of that in this world, too much finger pointing - this one is on me, that's leadership and I deserve credit for that.
Not too many questions headed into the offseason... but there are definitely some. What do the Celtics do with their 2nd team All-NBA star Jaylen Brown? He has become a bit of a turnover machine, though his athleticism is still out of this world. Will they let other suitors come in after the '23-24 season? We'll see what Brad Stevens has cooked up in his nerd laboratory. Also, what do the Celtics do with Al Horford? Could very well be time to go and retire... will be curious to see what a guy like Gallinari can be next year if he's able to come back healthy, and another year of development for the younger Celtics as well (Hauser namely) in that stretch 4/power forward slot. Five ECF appearances in the last seven seasons with three head coaches... will the Celtics be able to get over the hump? They may need to copy a little bit of that Miami 'dog' culture to do so.
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