The Celtics still haven’t quite figured out or developed “it.”
What “it” is exactly is hard to define, of course, but there are certain intangibles shared by most championship teams. The hope, if you’re a Celtics fan, was last year’s disappointing NBA Finals loss was an unfortunate but needed lesson to learn.
A year later, however, the Celtics in some ways, look like the same team for all the wrong reasons. They played with their food in the first round against Atlanta, Philadelphia pushed them to the brink in Round 2, and now the C’s find themselves in an early Eastern Conference finals hole after a disastrous Game 1 loss to the Miami Heat.
Boston guard Marcus Smart, who’s more than willing to reveal insights about his team, put forth an alarming assessment after the Game 1 loss.
“We get tired of doing the little things sometimes,” Smart admitted in his postgame press conference. “I think that showed exactly what we was talking about earlier, our spacing. We have a lot of great players, but when we’re all on top of each other, nobody can be great. You’ve got a good defensive team like Miami, they’ll make you pay for that.”
Smart added: “We’ve got to make sure we do those little things, and we can’t get bored with those. And we’ve got to realize what has got us the lead or what was working for us.”
That’s not exactly inspiring a ton of confidence moving forward. The Celtics are wildly talented — far more so from top to bottom than the Heat — yet the two teams have essentially split their meetings over the last few seasons. That’s in large part because Miami does have Jimmy Butler, and the buttoned-up Heat are well-coached under Erik Spoelstra. But the Heat also have a little bit of “it,” which is to say the “little things” Smart mentioned seem to come naturally to Miami.
The concerning thing is that if the Celtics haven’t learned that lesson yet, it’s worth wondering whether that breakthrough will ever happen. If they can’t do the “little things” with a trip to the Finals on the line, when will they do it?
Ultimately, it might not matter. Boston’s team is that talented, and in the NBA, talent often is the deciding factor. But that’s a risky game to play, especially against a team like the Heat that seemingly looks prepared to do whatever it takes to win the race to four wins, a race in which they already lead.
