The Boston Celtics just embarrassed themselves on their home court, in Game 7, against an inferior team.
There are exactly 0 excuses for what has just occurred.
The Celtics scored 79 points AT HOME in an elimination game. I don’t know what to say. I’m in complete shock. Instead of forcing the issue by driving to the basket, the Celtics took nearly 40 shots from behind the arc and ended up shooting 17.9% from 3-point range. There are absolutely no excuses for that kind of performance, and there is definitely no justification for the fact that the Celtics kept taking those shots despite them rarely falling. I’m still not sure why Brad Stevens didn’t do anything about that. It seems to me that a coach should instruct his players to lay off the sharpshooting when they’re never hitting the target.
I’d also like to point out that the Celtics got lazy down the stretch. The most notable example of this was late in the game when Al Horford (who otherwise was nowhere to be found in the 4th quarter) took a 3, and there were no Celtics going after the rebound—what an utter disgrace. I was physically revolted by that scene. That is not Celtics basketball.
Also, Terry Rozier was garbage in this series, and particularly in this game. 4 points? Really, Terry? You’re gonna act all arrogant and make a video saying “boo” to LeBron with El Pres, and then put up 4 points in Game 7 at home? Are you kidding me? Unscary Terry’s stock has completely plummeted from the heights it enjoyed earlier in the playoffs. If the Celtics can even get a bag of old socks for Rozier at this point, I’d be surprised.
Furthermore, is it too much to ask for Marcus Smart to stop shooting? Seriously, @MarcusSmart, STOP SHOOTING THE BASKETBALL! I have had enough. The city of Boston has had enough. You can’t shoot, so stop taking dumb shots that make you a liability to the team.
And can someone tell me where Jaylen Brown was tonight? Did he board an airplane to the wrong city? Perhaps he fled the country or got stuck in traffic and missed the game because I didn’t see him out there tonight. All I saw was some fraud impersonating him.
Look folks, the Celtics have a bright future. They have Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward coming back to join a team that made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but that doesn’t mean they should be exempt from criticism for the way they played tonight. There are no excuses for it, and my fellow Celtics fans shouldn’t make any.
(Stats via ESPN)
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