BOSTON — When the Boston Celtics needed it the most, they delivered their worst offensive performance of the season.
The Celtics hadn’t scored below 90 points all season until their shooting went ice cold in a crushing 103-84 defeat to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals at TD Garden on Monday night. Boston shot 39% from the field and a putrid 9-for-42 (21.4%) from beyond the arc.
Basketball Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley sure didn’t let the Celtics off the hook for their performance, ripping into them as they had to watch the Heat celebrate a trip to the NBA Finals on their home floor.
“They play bad basketball,” Barkley said, per a video posted by Awful Announcing. “They’re so undisciplined and un-fundamentally sound. They win games strictly on talent. They don’t even run an offense. That’s what disappointed me the most. You can win a lot of games on just talent. But against a zone, they just settle for jumpers. There’s no ball, body movement.”
The Celtics never found their groove from beyond the arc in the winner-take-all contest. They missed their first 12 3-point attempts and didn’t hit their first triple until 2:07 into the second quarter.
Boston trailed 52-41 at the break and the lackluster play from the Celtics, especially continuing to hoist 3-pointers even though they weren’t falling, which made Barkley frustrated and irate.
“Watching these (expletive) Celtics play is making my head hurt,” Barkley said at halftime, per NBA on TNT video. “I can’t let it go, man. If you just come to the game and say, ‘We’re just going to jack up threes, and if we win, we’re going to win. If we miss them, we’re going to lose.’ … It’s so bad to watch them play.”
