BOSTON — An electrified crowd generated an atmosphere at TD Garden that hasn’t been felt on Causeway Street since the Big Three were in town.
The Boston Celtics could have used the likes of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen on Friday night, however.
The Celtics went toe-to-toe with the undefeated Golden State Warriors for nearly 60 minutes but simply couldn’t seal the deal in a 124-119 double-overtime loss.
One obviously could take a moral victory from Friday’s incredible effort against a Warriors team in the midst of an historic run. But one observation makes Boston’s loss tough to swallow: The Celtics had the ball and a chance to win at the end of both regulation and the first overtime.
Isaiah Thomas had his 3-point attempt blocked with 2.9 seconds remaining in regulation, and Kelly Olynyk’s buzzer-beater with 0.2 seconds left went wide. Thomas had the ball again at the end of the first OT, but his short jumper also missed the mark.
“We felt like we were a couple shots away from winning the game,” forward Jae Crowder said. “We put ourselves in position to win the game defensively, but we still need probably one or two more (shots) to win the game, and we didn’t do it.”
The loss dropped Boston to just 2-5 this season in games decided by 10 points or less. The C’s made an impressive run to extend the game in the first place but shot 7 for 22 (32 percent) over both overtime periods while committing three turnovers.
The Celtics also struggled at the free throw line, shooting just 56 percent (9 for 16) from the charity stripe. Yet Crowder pointed to Boston’s lack of execution down the stretch as the reason his club fell short.
“Free throws hurt us. Loose balls hurt us,” Crowder said. “But I think turnovers down the stretch, not getting a shot… You’ve got to get a shot up every possession in overtime sometimes, and we failed to do that sometimes.”
Thomas is the closest the Celtics have to a go-to scorer, but he couldn’t deliver in two clutch situations. Avery Bradley, the team’s second-leading scorer, fouled out early in the first overtime, and while Olynyk made a few big plays down the stretch to finish with a team-high 28 points, Boston still suffered from its lack of a big-time playmaker.
The Celtics nearly toppled the best team in the NBA, but if they want to convert moral victories into actual ones, they need someone to take the ball with the game on the line and deliver.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
