Boston Celtics are…
… exceptionally talented
… frustratingly inconsistent
… a nightmare to defend
… apparently intent on hitting themselves
… convertible and adaptable to any situation
…unable to get out of their own way
…amazingly catches when their backs are against the wall
…the mind is numbingly unable to maintain focus at any other time.
At some point you are who you are and we’ve seen this story often enough to know that it isn’t going to change anytime soon. If the formula is right, the Celtics will bounce back in the series, stumble again, be forced to the brink, and finally prevail in the end. If they did, it would be largely because their talent overcame their lack of sustained focus.
If they can’t keep up the same script and actually lose the series, they’ll have a lot of big questions to answer in the offseason (that’s another column for another day). If they can pull this off, they’ll have a much tougher road to the Finals against a well-equipped machine like the Nuggets or a LeBron James-led Lakers a team.
We can’t keep making excuses for this team thinking they’ll somehow ‘get it’ in time for the next game. They won’t. That’s what they are.
The crazy thing is, it might be enough. There is a lot of randomness in these results and sometimes talent wins. You know Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown can explode offensively. Some nights, the Celtics fire up Level 3 lights and overwhelm their opponent with math. Sometimes the defense will have flashbacks from fever dreams to last year and shut down the other team for entire quarters. Perhaps these random positive events will add to the blunders and the Celtics will win enough games to hang a banner.
Just don’t be surprised if they don’t. The outcome of the first game was underwhelming but could hardly be described as shocking. Thermal culture defeated Celtic pride. Or in this case you can call it Celtic overconfidence. They can talk all they want about respecting their opponent, but they (again) get sucked into scoring combos and forget to put in a full 48 minutes of focused effort. I would say “now they know they have to stay focused against the Heat” but they’re not going to do that. If this lesson was not learned before, it will not be learned now.
I’ll attend finger-pointing sessions and blame the pies baked until the end of the season. There is no real value to it now. We don’t change trainers mid-chain and you can’t trade anyone now. There will be plenty of time for that later and of course the end result will have a lot to say about all of that.
For now, all we can do as fans is join in, call up your emotional support friend, and walk in on the good luck rituals you think will help you. None of this will be easy.