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Mike Gorman takes center stage as Celtics close regular season with win: 7 takeaways
The Celtics defeated the Wizards 132-122 in the final game of the regular season behind another monstrous performance by Payton Pritchard, but the biggest story was NBC Sports Boston play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman
The Celtics defeated the Wizards 132-122 in the final game of the regular season behind another monstrous performance by Payton Pritchard, but the biggest story was NBC Sports Boston play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman, who gave a deeply emotional farewell to the Celtics franchise as he called his last regular-season game before retirement.
Here are the takeaways.
1. The Celtics pulled out all the stops for Gorman in a well-deserved tribute that resulted in numerous well-deserved standing ovations throughout the game. The team extended halftime, and the ownership brought Gorman out to honor him. Steve Pagliuca spoke for a couple of minutes, then called for Celtics fans in attendance to yell “GOT IT” — Gorman’s signature catchphrase — on the count of three. The team also put together a lengthy tribute video, highlighting some of Gorman’s most legendary calls.
Gorman’s best quality as a broadcaster was (and, for a couple more playoff games, is) his ability to recognize the weight of the moment and the noise of the crowd. When the rumble of TD Garden turned into a roar, Gorman seemed to have a preternatural sense of when to pull back and let the crowd and the events on the court take center stage.
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It felt appropriate, then, that in Gorman’s last regular-season game — a game that prominently featured the Stay Ready group and the Celtics’ G-League team for the second contest in a row — that the Celtics returned the favor, stepping aside and letting Gorman take center stage.
At halftime, Brian Scalabrine briefly interviewed Gorman in front of the Garden crowd. The two discussed Gorman’s career and some of his favorite moments, before Scalabrine offered the 43-year veteran a chance for any closing thoughts.
“To the team, I just want to say, go win this thing, will you please?” Gorman said. “Just go win it.”
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Gorman returned to the call for the final quarter, and after the final buzzer sounded, the NBC Sports Boston camera panned to him one final time. Gorman addressed the viewers at home.
“It was mind-blowing for me to have an experience like this, and I can’t say enough about the Boston Celtics as an organization,” Gorman said. “Usually, when you retire, somebody gives you a watch or something and you just disappear into the woodwork. That isn’t the case at all.”
If Gorman does disappear into the woodwork in retirement, you can bet the wood will look like a parquet.
2. On the court in front of Gorman, Payton Pritchard absolutely dominated the Wizards, submitting his second consecutive career-high in points and his second consecutive star-level stat line. Pritchard was 15-for-21 from the field with 38 points and 12 assists, and he came one rebound short of a triple-double, which had the TD Garden crowd on the edge of its seat for a big portion of the fourth quarter. After the Celtics took a shot-clock violation on their final possession of the game, Wizards guard Jared Butler dribbled up the floor and — egged on by both his coach and Joe Mazzulla — he took a mid-range jumper and made it.
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A reporter asked Mazzulla afterward if he wanted Butler to shoot so Pritchard could get 10 rebounds if he missed.
“His coach told him to go,” Mazzulla deadpanned. “So I was just reiterating what his coach said.”
We’ll note, perhaps for the last time this year given his role and the return of the stars to action, how impressive Pritchard’s performance was down the stretch. Not only did he allow the Celtics to rest their top six respectably in the final two games, he made a strong case for a larger role — in whatever capacity that takes — next season.
“A lot of us have to start from the ground up,” Pritchard said, when asked about leading the bench. “We’re not going to be like high draft picks or anything like that. So you’ve got to get it through your work, showing up every day, grinding. That’s kind of how I’ve gotten to this point now. I just try to feed that to all the young ones that are coming in, like, do the little things, show up every day, keep getting better and better. You don’t know how far you can take it.”
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3. Neemias Queta submitted another wild stat line: 19 points, nine rebounds and six (six!!) blocks in just 19:30 of game time. His best blocks were his last two, both of which came in the fourth quarter, and both of which he scooped up and collected as rebounds after pinning them against the backboard.
Not a bad performance for a player who wasn’t even eligible for the postseason until last week.
4. Svi Mykhailiuk was red-hot as a shooter: 10-for-13 from the field and 6-for-8 from deep en route to 26 points, which tied his career high.
“When we asked Svi to come here, one of the things I told him was, ‘It’s going to be inconsistent at times, but because of how we play, we’re going to rely on you guys to win us games, so the things you do daily are important,’” Mazzulla said. “And he bought into that, and that was great. Playing against Charlotte the other night, in the middle of the game, [Steve Clifford] had a great compliment for him as well. So Svi is an NBA player, he’s done a lot of great things for us, I love his work ethic on a daily basis, and he helped us win games this year. It’s important.”
5. The Celtics have only won 60 games three times since the legendary 1985-86 team that stormed to the Finals — once each in 2007-08 (when they won 66 games and a championship) and 2008-09 (when they won 62 games and looked for all the world like a potential repeat championship team until Kevin Garnett got hurt).
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This year’s team sandwiched in between those two campaigns at 64.
“You have to appreciate that,” Mazzulla said. “Like I said, winning can be just as dangerous as losing. If you hang on to a loss, it could kill you. If you hang on to a win, it could kill you. So it’s important to take it for what it is, have an appreciation of it, focus on the relationships and the things that we were able to build this season, and take that into the playoffs.
“So I think both things are important. It’s not a matter of appreciating, it’s just a matter of you can’t hang on to it for too long. But it’s definitely something that you want to be grateful for.”
6. Sunday’s action finally locked the standings into place.
Damian Lillard and the Bucks got smacked by the Magic and slid into third, where they will face the 6-seed Pacers in a rematch of an in-season tournament semifinal that got very testy.
The Knicks claimed an incredibly ethical win — and potentially a tougher first-round opponent, if the 76ers win their play-in tournament game against the Heat — by beating the Bulls, which vaulted them into the 2-seed. If the basketball gods are just, the Knicks deserve to be rewarded over the Bucks and Cavaliers (who sat their best players, lost to the Hornets and slipped to the 4-seed).
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Meanwhile, the Magic avoided the play-in tournament and claimed the 5-seed.
That leaves the Heat, 76ers, Hawks, and Bulls as potential first-round opponents for the Celtics. The Heat and Sixers will play each other, and the winner gets the Knicks. The Hawks and Bulls will play each other for the chance to play the loser of the Heat and Sixers, and the winner of that game will get the Celtics.
7. The play-in tournament ends on Friday, which means the Celtics will get their first game of the postseason in one week.
The regular season is over.
The games finally matter again.
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