The Boston Celtics were a complete disappointment, failing to put away the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, coming up short yet again.
After overcoming a 3-0 deficit to Miami to tie the series up, the Celtics laid an egg in the biggest game of the season.
Isaiah Thomas, who was in attendance among a star-studded crowd looking to watch the Celtics pull off what no other team in NBA history ever has, fired a blunt, but honest (and fair) shot at his former team for blowing their shot at the finals so miserably.
“Everybody’s not built for these moments,” Thomas told Sean Deveney of Heavy Sports. “So you got to tip your hat to the Miami Heat. They played a hell of a game, Game 7 on the road. And then with the Celtics not having their best player at full strength, that hurts. Nobody expected that. You expected Jayson Tatum to probably get 50 tonight, because he loves those moments.”
Harsh, but not completely unwarranted.
The Celtics have gone from a team that competed with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers with a rookie Jayson Tatum, a second-year Jaylen Brown and sidelined Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, to a team that can’t match the intensity of Jimmy Butler. And that’s with Tatum and Brown in their prime years fresh off All-NBA nominations.
Tatum and Brown were especially bad, combining to shoot a putrid 18-of-90 from 3-point territory in the series.
“Some teams, their positive energy and their good defense is dictated by how well they’re playing on offense — and obviously you can’t win a championship like that,” Thomas explained.
