All of your darkest fears are coming true
Rant incoming:
The Celtics are freaking embarrassing. It’s not just losing to the literal worst team in the league. The Rockets picked up their 16th win last night against Jayson Tatum’s Celtics with the entire Rockets arena full of Green jerseys. They started the game falling right into the trap of playing down to their competition and playing at their pace.
The Rockets are a street ball team. It’s nothing but Iso and 10,000 dribbles. Apparently Tatum and the boys were looking to get their rucker park on too to the tune of 13 turnovers and a dog shit shot selection.
The bigger problem is these are signs of a team reverting back to its worst self. Malcolm Gladwell has a saying, “Default to Truth”. It essentially means believing what we’re told regardless of who’s telling us or the circumstances surrounding. Welp, the Celtics may have defaulted our asses to a fake truth for the past year. Can they for once show a level of resolve or grit when facing push back or adversity? If you ask me the truth about this team is they are soft and always have been. They have lost their defensive identify to physically out play teams on the court and mentally, well their best player is a Dukie.
They are showing all the Hall Mark signs of the 2021 - 2022 Celtics before Ime shamed them into shape. Ime fucked his way out of town so the Celtics are now relying on 34 year old rookie head coach, Joe Mazzulla to get them playing winning basketball again. Mazzulla is a geek. He believes the Three Point Shot Rate is the most important stat in the modern NBA. That sucks. I’ll tell you why.
When the Celtics shoot 40% from behind the line this year they are undefeated. No shit. They shoot 40 3’s a game. When they don’t shoot 40% is some ugly ass basketball to watch. They don’t have another identity to win games. That’s when the hero ball starts and it’s a wrap from there. That’s when we see the turnovers, settling for 3’s, a bunch of Iso.
An even larger problem to consider is the lack of detail they. are showing to the little things. Against the Rockets they were out rebounded by 10. Giving up offensive rebounds and 2nd chance points have become a fatal flaw. FIFTEEN offensive rebounds for the Rockets on Monday. They don’t even play a center. Turnovers are a problem and timely stops on defense rarely ever happen. Does anyone have confidence in this team over coming a 7 point deficit with 4 minutes left? Spoiler alert: nope.
The little things come down to effort which stems from coaching. They really have not been doing the little things all year. They got away with it early in the season because they were shooting the lights out. For a team that is not mentally tough I really don’t see how they snap back into being a lock down defensive team that dots all their I’s and crosses their T’s in the hustle categories.
Jayson Tatum scored zero points in 4th quarter and missed an open layup to tie the game at the buzzer. Again. He started the game off undisciplined on offense and his defense is lazy as shit. Every time he bitches about a call, which is every time, he gives up an odd man break the other way and a bucket. Marcus Smart is back to forcing his own shot in the 4th quarter. He’s the Antoine Walker of this era. For every cheap charge he draws he fucks up with a turnover or terrible shot selection. And hows the DPOY playing without Time Lord behind him? Every time I look up the opponents best player is dropping his nuts on Marcus’ chin. Give me Derek White and Brogdon in the 4th all day. And, if anyone wants to point to the absence of Rob Williams as the reason for losing or the key to winning then boy are the Celtics fucked. Obviously he can’t stay healthy, but what does that say about your super stars? You can’t beat the Knicks or the Rockets because your lob threat is out, again!?
I really thought that they had jettisoned enough immaturity from this team with the Finals lost last year, but here we are again. Tatum and his team do not understanding they can’t just show up and win a Championship. Take your entitlement and burry it deep down under your yachts, cars, strippers, potato chips, sneakers, and mountains of money. You are not owed anything! You have not won anything. You’re embarrassing yourselves and us.