Kemba Walker Blames Himself For Celtics’ Game 4 Playoff Loss To Raptors

Kemba Walker expects more from himself.

The Boston Celtics guard scored just 15 points on 4-of-9 shooting Saturday night in his team’s Game 4 loss to the Toronto Raptors. With the win, the Raptors evened the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which they once trailed, 2-0.

After the game, Walker put the blame squarely on his own shoulders.

“I got to be more aggressive,” Walker told reporters, via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “I wasn’t aggressive enough.

“That’s unacceptable on my behalf, to be honest. There’s no way I can just be taking nine shots. That’s unacceptable.”

While Walker’s words surely appreciated in Boston’s locker room, the reality is the Celtics as a team didn’t shoot well, and at times played legitimately dumb basketball. The Celtics tried to shoot their way out of a bad shooting night — to be fair, there really is no other way — but when that wouldn’t work, often charged the basket despite walls of defenders. They looked out of sync, and frustrated.

Walker, though, believes the game ultimately came down to Boston missing shots on a night in which Toronto made 17 3-pointers.

“Honestly, man, I thought we had great looks,” he said. “I thought we had great looks throughout the whole game.

“We just really missed. We missed a lot of open ones that we know we can make. Like I said, we gotta make them. We have to make shots. When guys get shots, when guys are open, we gotta knock them shots down. We’ll do better. We’ll do better.”

The Celtics and Raptors will meet Monday night for Game 5 of their second-round playoff series.

Tip-off inside the Walt Disney World bubble is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.

Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images