Maybe Game 5 Was Celtics’ First ‘Really Bad’ Showing — That’s Not Point

Off-nights happen.

And while it might be difficult to unpack how an off-night can take place in such a pivotal spot, a 115-103 Game 5 loss in front of the home fans at TD Garden on Tuesday, perhaps there is some truth to the notion. But that’s not why the Boston Celtics now are on the brink of elimination against the Philadelphia 76ers.

“That was the first time in the playoffs that we didn’t play well, in my opinion,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters after Boston was punked on the parquet, the final verdict not indicative of Philadelphia’s one-sided victory, per CLNS Media.

“So we can’t lose our perspective of we played really good basketball (prior). And that was our first really, really bad game of the playoffs.”

Jayson Tatum added: “I think we just didn’t have it (Tuesday). I think throughout the playoffs we’ve played really well, even though we’ve lost a few games. And I think today was just a tough day for us.”

The reason it’s unfair for the Celtics to shake off their most disappointing loss of the season and chalk it up to an “off-night,” though, is because the position they are in. That’s how the postseason works. The previously title-favored Celtics put themselves in a spot where a “really bad game” couldn’t happen. Not after dropping a pair of winnable playoff games earlier in the series and another earlier in the postseason.

Because the Green failed to capitalize on nights when they didn’t have off-nights, they’re now one loss from their season being over.

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The Celtics wouldn’t be staring down elimination if they didn’t throw up on themselves down the stretch in Game 1 — a contest in which they shot 58.7% from the floor against a Joel Embiid-less Sixers team. Boston, again in front of its home crowd, led by two possessions with under two minutes remaining and needed just one stop to put it away. Instead, James Harden’s game-winning 3-pointer with eight ticks left lifted the 76ers to a Game 1 stunner as the C’s couldn’t get a stop all night.

The Green wouldn’t be one loss away from the golf course if they protected their five-point lead in the final two minutes of regulation in Game 4, either, despite some really impressive second-half stretches. It’s all the more maddening to consider given how Marcus Smart missed a wide-open 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer, Jaylen Brown inconceivably left Harden for a game-winning 3-pointer and because Mazzulla failed to call timeout in the final seconds of overtime after he realized the Celtics weren’t playing with enough pace. Brown and Mazzulla each took ownership of those mistakes, but that only carries so much weight in May.

Heck, maybe the Celtics wouldn’t be in this position if they took care of the Atlanta Hawks in Game 5 of their first-round series rather than let it go six games. After all, that granted Embiid a few extra days of rest, and based on how it played out, it’s fair to believe Philadelphia would have been without the NBA MVP in each of its first two semifinal contests. He would have been working back into rhythm in Game 3 as opposed to Game 2. Instead, the Celtics played with their food, a staple of this recent era, and allowed the inferior Hawks to delay their demise. Boston was never in jeopardy of losing the series, but it was a sign of a lack of competitive fortitude if its collective back isn’t firmly against the wall. They don’t play with urgency until they absolutely have to.

All told, Boston now will head into Philadelphia hoping to just force a winner-take-all Game 7. As crazy as it is, that’s the best-case scenario for a team with the deepest roster in the league. They could very well win it, to be sure. But the win-or-go-home scenario is rooted in the fact the Celtics have a flaw that for some reason can’t be solved. Not because of the group’s first “really, really bad night.”