The Celtics blew it again, and their title defense hangs by a thread: Takeaways
For all of the plaudits he received (and richly deserved) during the Magic series, Jayson Tatum has been nearly invisible against the Knicks.
COMMENTARY
The Celtics blew a 20-point second-half lead for the second consecutive game against the Knicks on Wednesday, falling 91-90 and dropping both home games to dig a 2-0 series hole.
Here are the takeaways.
Where do we even start?
Let’s begin with Jayson Tatum, who had another abysmal game. For all of the plaudits he received (and richly deserved) during the Magic series, he has been nearly invisible against the Knicks – a team who should be eminently exploitable for a player with Tatum’s skillset. On Wednesday, he finished a horrific 5-for-19 from the field, and while he didn’t hoist nearly as many 3-pointers, he took several nasty looking turnaround jumpers, and his turnover on the final possession sealed the Celtics’ fate.
Jaylen Brown was little better, shooting just 8-for-23 from the field for 20 points. While he got all the way to the rim more consistently than Tatum, he also turned the ball over six times.
The 3-point shooting was abysmal. We’ll talk about that more in a bit.
Kristaps Porzingis was more effective in his minutes, but he still played only 14, and the Celtics took themselves out of their flow a little bit trying to get him involved on multiple possessions.
But what might – and should – rankle the Celtics most over the next two days before the series picks back up again in New York is the fact that they have proven in two consecutive games that they are fully capable of taking a 20-point lead against the Knicks even without the benefit of 3-pointers. On Wednesday, they held a 16-point lead with 8:40 remaining after Payton Pritchard buried one of the 10 triples the Celtics made.
And then for the next eight minutes and 22 seconds, they went without a field goal. Their entire anemic scoring output as they tried to fend off another furious charge by the Knicks consisted of four free throws and a dunk by Tatum that – in its solid execution – threw into stark relief how bad the offense has been.
Most concerning for the Celtics is the re-emergence of their collective struggles down the stretch – a trend that went away last year and seemed to be more or less eliminated.
The 2-0 deficit is bad, but it can be overcome given the somewhat inescapable fact that the Celtics are the better team. But if the fourth quarters in Game 1 and 2 were a microcosm for the series – games the Celtics should absolutely win but were incapable of grabbing with both hands – then an early playoff exit isn’t just possible, but likely.
The Celtics’ fouling made little sense
The Celtics really didn’t want Mitchell Robinson on the floor, but their strategy for making the Knicks big man sit down may have cost them dearly.
With 2:42 left, Boston committed back to back take fouls, intentionally putting themselves in the bonus. The Knicks responded by taking Robinson off the floor, which – according to Joe Mazzulla – was his aim all along.
“He’s a +[19] and he’s really effective for them,” Mazzulla said. “That’s something that we need to do a better job in those minutes, is be more effective when he’s on the floor. Plus 19.”
When pressed on it, Mazzulla stuck to his guns.
“Yeah, he’s a +19,” he repeated. “All their starters were in the negative.”
At the risk of analyzing a game with perfect hindsight, however, the Celtics may have cost themselves an opportunity to steal the game back. They didn’t commit another foul until – after Tatum’s go-ahead dunk – Jrue Holiday made the inexplicable decision to try to sneak behind Jalen Brunson and steal the ball from the Knicks’ star as he went up for a jumper. Brunson – perhaps the NBA’s preeminent head-snap-back foul drawer, with apologies to Trae Young – drew the foul and went to the line.
Had the Celtics not put the Knicks in the bonus on purpose, Holiday might have had an opportunity to foul Brunson before he got into his shooting motion, forcing the Knicks to try to score again.
Instead, Brunson went to the line, made both and forced the Celtics to try to make their second field goal of the final 8:40, which went about as disastrously as the rest of the quarter.
Kristaps Porzingis’ situation is officially weird
Porzingis played better, but he was still on the court for just 14 minutes. In those minutes, he grabbed three important offensive rebounds and scored eight points, but the Celtics – of course – miss their star big man, whose situation remains bizarre.
“I’m just dealing with some … I don’t know what to call it. I’m just not feeling my best,” he said cryptically after Game 2. “I’m not feeling my best at all, but it just kills me inside that it’s happening in this moment.”
Porzingis added that he has a lot of support from the organization and from the fans, but “it’s tough for me.”
“But who cares,” he said. “Nobody feels sorry for us, sorry for me, and we have to keep going.”
Is it related to the illness that cost him 11 games in February and March?
“Probably,” he said. “Probably, probably. I’ve had ups and downs up until this point, just now had a big crash now, and my energy and everything hasn’t been good, but who cares? Have to look forward, and I know it will get better from this point on.”
Porzingis was 3-for-5 from the floor and made his lone 3-point attempt.
The Celtics’ defense was a lot better
The Celtics struggled defensively in Game 1 (which wouldn’t have been an issue if they had made 3-pointers), but they were much better in Game 2 (which would have turned the game into a blowout if they had made 3-pointers). The Knicks managed just 13 points in the first quarter and 20 in the third. Joe Mazzulla likes to keep track of the quarters in which an opponent scores fewer than 24 points, and the Knicks – on average – scored just 22.75.
That, of course, is unbelievably cold comfort on a night when the Celtics not only surrendered home court, but lost both games on their own floor to a team they swept in the regular season.
The fire alarms went off afterward
As if the evening wasn’t weird enough, TD Garden was cleared out after the game due to a fire alarm.
The Celtics later issued a statement saying that no one was injured and the cause of the fire alarm is currently under investigation.
However the alarm was triggered, it allowed Tatum to leave without speaking to the media.
If someone pulled it, he may owe them a gift basket.
The 3-pointers really might just be bad luck
After going 15-for-60 on Monday, the Celtics were a similarly icy 10-for-40 (25 percent) on Wednesday.
As noted by ESPN’s Zack Kram: The Celtics underperformed their expected field-goal percentage by 15 percent on Monday in Game 1, which was their worst performance against expected field-goal percentage … until Game 2, when they underperformed it by 17 percent.
The Celtics aren’t just in a shooting slump. They are in the worst shooting slump of their season by a mile. They are missing shots they have to hit if they want to win games, but they are also missing shots that they are absolutely correct to take, according to the numbers.
On the one hand, that’s the problem with a make-or-miss strategy – a playoff series is not a one-off game where a cold shooting night can cost you a season, but string two cold performances together and you could find yourself, well, here.
On the other hand, the Celtics really just need to see some open ones go in. Kram wrote that if the Celtics simply matched their expected field-goal percentage from deep in Game 1, they would have scored 30 (30!!) extra points. Presumably, the number in Game 2 is similar. Joe Mazzulla is clearly a big believer in math, and probability dictates that the Celtics will find their level at some point. Even if they don’t, they really just need to pull out of this nosedive a little to give themselves a great chance to level the series.
On the other (other) hand, the problem with giving away a 2-0 lead is that you no longer have wiggle room. The Celtics can’t afford another loss. They can’t afford to shoot like this in New York.
Is this how it ends?
All season, the Celtics have defended their title with pride befitting a championship team. They won 60 games and played professional, smart, strong basketball.
It would be a shame if their title defense (and, given the rumors about their salary situation this summer, maybe their championship roster) ended like this – with a return to habits that they had seemingly kicked, and with a streak of bad shooting that is difficult to chalk up to anything but bad luck.
“It should sting,” Brown said. “Let it sting. Let it sting for the night. Then tomorrow’s a new day, we move forward. Short-term memory going into a tough New York environment. We don’t have time to dwell on the past. The next focus is Game 3. So let’s do it.”
Game 3 tips off at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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