The Boston Celtics are 75% done with putting an end to their season.
After dropping a third consecutive game to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, this time in humiliating fashion, the Celtics have dug themselves a 3-0 deficit with two options left on the table for Boston: Win four straight or pack up and take a flight of shame back home with nothing to show for it.
As opposed to Games 1 and 2 in which the Celtics were competitive for the better part of 48 minutes, Boston looked like a team more than willing to wave the white flag of defeat midway into the first quarter. The Celtics lacked urgency, intensity and overall awareness of the situation at hand that they’ve created, putting their chance at an NBA Finals appearance on thin ice with no safety raft waiting to bail them out.
“It’s definitely concerning,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon told reporters Monday, per CLNS Media video. “I think we’ve taken a few steps back, I think in these playoffs overall. It’s showing because we’re playing a very disciplined, consistent, well-coached team, but I think in the Atlanta series, I think in the Philly series, I think we got away with things that now are biting us. So that’s definitely troubling.
“I think it’s mainly on the defensive end. We haven’t been consistently great defensively all year long, and that was the team’s identity last year. I think that slipped away from us.”
The bad habits not only appeared for a third consecutive game, but they were also heavily emphasized and exploited by the much hungrier Heat squad.
Miami leaned on its depth — Gabe Vincent (29 points), Duncan Robinson (22 points) and Caleb Martin (18 points) — to back the tandem of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Meanwhile, Boston couldn’t even lean on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who combined for 26 points, to keep the game competitive enough for three quarters. That’s right. It got so embarrassing for the C’s that head coach Joe Mazzulla pulled Boston’s “stars” because they didn’t even deserve to be on the floor.
The Celtics had a chance to snag some sense of momentum, but instead elected to play lost puppy and reduce themselves to a recreational gym-like team that didn’t even belong on the same floor as the Heat.
So, what’s next for the once Finals-bound favorites turned pack of frauds?
Well, no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit after 149 previous attempts. So that’s what the Celtics are going up against in Game 4 on Tuesday night. Miami has already gone 7-0 on its home floor in the playoffs. Therefore, it’s up to the C’s to — at the very least — not to tap out, but tap into that play style that had some sense of identity during the first half of the regular season.
“We still believe we’re the better team,” Brogdon explained, per CLNS. “We have not played like it in any of the three games, but there is always a first.”
