Stop me if you've heard this before. The Celtics failed to show up
The biggest problem for the Celtics continues to be defined as “leadership”. When you have a complete collapse in performance across the board it lends itself to a larger problem as opposed to individual performance. There were enough of those shitty ones, Tatum as the exclusion.
Tatum has actually been consistently one of the best players on the court this entire post season minus the game 2 seven point stinker. That stats speak for themselves, but the eye test has been more convincing. Take last night’s game 6 as the perfect example. His team was struggling and with every chance he had he forced the issue offensively. Drawing fouls and aggressively attacking the rim to either distribute, score, or get to the line. He’s of course not with out fault, but he’s not THE reason for the situation they are in. So who is? Mazzula?
Sure, we can go with the coach. He’s in over his head. They are very little adjustments especially on defense. The Embid Pick and Roll with Harden was some grade A horse shit defense. Can we apply some pressure? Looking llike the Bruins up 1 in game 7 out there.
Look, what is really comes down to is this.
Uninspired defense
76ers are playing great. They are playing with confidence and pace. When there is little to no resistance that’s fairly easy to accomplish
They can’t shoot.
Joe Mazzula’s nerd vision as the 3 pointer being the most important stat in basketball doesn’t quite translate to Playoff basketball. It’s like the Rays winning with a bullpen and wide spread distribution. When you get in a series that pins you against the same team for seven games the nerds stats get skewed. A team going cold for a couple games during the regular season evens itself out over the course of a couple weeks or so. You don’t have that luxury in a best of 7. Eventually you need a bad mother fucker to win you a couple games.
I’ll end with a note of positivity. For those that want to bitch about the coach remember old hot hands Udoka had this team in the exact position against the Bucks last year. It took Tatum’s laying his pipe on the table in Milwaukee to send it back to game 7 at the garden. The Celtics have SUCKED at home in the playoffs which should at least give you a vote of confidence for game six. Also, remember James Harden is one of the great losers of his generation and Doc Rivers is the only coach in history to blow THREE 3 -1 series leads in the playoffs. Some would say we have them just where we want them.