It was your standard moral victory stuff, and there was some truth to it I guess.
It was the other side’s time for a moral victory.
The Celtics choked this win away.
I’m supposed to feel good about that?
The world is not ending, and it’s on to the next one.
At the same time, these H2Hs against CLE will ALL matter when it comes to potential tiebreakers.
This roster has enough talent even without White/Brown to close a game like that out.
At the end of the day, it came down to execution.
Your guys didn’t, their guys did.
On a night when the “others” needed to step up, yours didn’t and theirs did.
When it became closing time their star came through, yours didn’t.
It’s OK to admit that, it won’t hurt.
With that said, let’s dive in.
It was a glaring issue when it came to a lack of rim protection on the Celts' side.
The Cavs finished with just 40.
Offensively, his impact is twofold.
If you don’t, you’re risking allowing a near 40% shooter to catch fire.
That’s not a great strategy.
Despite the loss in this game, that was pretty much proven to be true.
Given the offensive firepower that was out, this could not be a Tatum no-show night.
He had to produce, and he had to be efficient while he did it.
He’s simply able to adapt his game to whatever the team needs in that moment.
Nothing about what we see from him on a game-to-game basis is surprising anymore.
Sadly, Pritchard was really the only one who got the memo.
Even as a smaller defender, Pritchard still finds ways to get stops.
In a playoff series, that was always going to be the risk.
For him to be playable, he can’t become a target.
- That’s really it, let’s move on.
The issue is this was not a one-off.
That is a brutal number.
He has the 2nd most restricted area FGA over that stretch and the lowest FG%.
That’s a tough combination.
You have to make your layups, especially when the team is shorthanded.
The problem wasn’t just the offense and the poor decisions to drive into traffic and turn it over.
Holiday also found himself getting cooked defensively on multiple possessions by Mitchell, especially late.
- I know he has lifetime immunity, but this was a tough shooting night for Al.
No rules need to be changed.
Too often, especially late, we saw the Celts revert to iso basketball.
You’ll never believe this, but the offense cratered when that happened.
- I didn’t exactly love the execution when it came to the late game ATO down 3.
Celts basically blow teams out or lose close, it’s actually crazy.
The Ugly
- Everything about the 4th quarter.
Entering this frame, the Celts had a 12 point lead with Tatum on the bench.
At this point, all it’s crucial that you do is survive those minutes.
If you’re free to extend the lead?
But at the very minimum, you gotta find a way to survive those minutes of Tatum rest.
Shockingly, the Celts did just that!
From there, they allowed the Cavs to close 31-18.
It was a complete and utter collapse on both ends of the floor.
I mean look at this shit!
That’s what you call puking all over yourself folks.
Especially the one at 51 seconds down 103-101.
This is what I mean when I talk about a difference in execution.
If you execute down the stretch, you win this game.
Said another way, that’s losing basketball.
