Well, that could have been a disaster.
Whatever, survive and advance.
It was your classic Celtics double digit favorite experience.
We’ve all lived that before.
No shit the Pelicans played them close.
That’s how it works.
They may be the only team in the NBA that has this issue, but whatever.
They find ways to win and that’s all that matters.
That shit is fun.
It’s taking years off my life sure, but it’s electric.
Sure, I’ll never turn down blowouts and rest.
I will also remind you of the #1 rule of the regular season.
At no point, under any circumstances, do you ever apologize for winning.
That any time you end a game with more points than your opponent, it’s actually good!
It’s about stacking Ws, period.
I don’t care if it’s by 1 against a bad/injured team or by 40.
Just win the goddamn game and move on to the next.
That’s the respect you earn as the King.
NBA players are good, even on dogshit teams, and that’s the beauty of the NBA.
On any given night you might get caught regardless of who you’re playing.
In those moments, your best players have to carry you.
You’ll never believe this, but that’s exactly what happened.
Let’s dive in.
The Good
- New blog rule, if you hit a game winner, you start the blog.
What makes him so devastating is the ways he can beat you.
If you have a smaller player on you, go to the fucking rim and finish strong.
Punch with efficiency, especially at that point in the game when things are still somewhat in the balance.
Make or miss, just double-check you don’t give them a chance to respond.
Instead of settling, Tatum was once again aggressive.
Attacking his mismatch and getting to his spot then going up with confidence.
There was no hesitation or double clutch before he shot it.
There was no side step fadeaway.
It was perfect
That angle might be the coldest game winner you’re ever going to see.
It legit looks like a 2K commercial.
The camera work, Tatum’s face, the reaction, it’s all perfect.
I’m pretty sure that was the talking point of an entire postseason run.
This is fact, not opinion
This is how you know Tatum is one of them ones.
Where people now have to pretend his career doesn’t exist, all to push a false narrative.
That’s the person what weirdos suggest is not clutch.
Make that make sense.
Just this week Tatum has made a game tying layup and a game winning jumper.
This is what he does.
What makes the Celtics the Celtics is because you have and use THEM BOTH.
The Celts don’t win this game if they get this Tatum performance but a no show from Jaylen.
They also don’t win with Jaylen’s performance and a no show by Tatum.
The power and the dominance comes from having to deal with both.
We see the same thing with Derrick and Tatum.
Confidence is everything when digging out of a slump.
Over his last 5 games Jaylen has 23 total assists and just 3 total TOs.
A 7:1 ratio??
Jaylen Brown???
This is what a passing leap looks like.
Why some are obsessed with some sort of weird Civil War, I’ll never understand.
We are blessed to have both.
That’s been completely shut off.
missed FTs his night would have looked even better.
His buckets were huge down the stretch because they were what I would call “exhale” buckets.
You could not go empty on those trips.
That’s what those KP buckets accomplished.
But seriously, make your fucking FTs.
The Celtics have won all 3.
No player on the roster makes more big time 4th quarter 3PM than Derrick White.
That’s his thing.
You’re going to get the ball and the open looks in situations you HAVE to make.
Whether that was Derrick White from the corner last night or Al Horford in the ECF vs IND.
Making that shot on a consistent basis is key to everything.
- Another solid Mazzulla Ball showing and they needed every bit of it.
Trading 2s for 3s does not work when the other team is making 3s at a high clip.
You have to fight fire with fire, and last night the outside shooting came through.
- When I tell you Luke Kornet was perfect, I’m not being hyperbolic.
He was legitimately perfect.
This is the Celts 3rd center by the way.
Just wanted to point that out.
Even coming off the rest, maybe it was rust?
- I wasn’t exactly thrilled seeing Payton Pritchard get so severely outplayed by Jose Alvarado.
He didn’t seem as aggressive, and to me that’s half the battle with his role.
He has to be aggressive with that second unit, especially if Al isn’t hitting shots.
Pelicans won that battle 43-27, and it’s why this game was close to begin with.
It’s as if they aren’t watching the actual games or something.
Every single one of Murphy’s 3s was either contested, or was a 35ft bomb.
That Jaylen defense was perfect, and he still banked it in.
Taking that on the chin, on the road and still winning is great, but enough already.
Can I kindly just have a game where everyone plays to their season averages?
Can we not have career nights of 3PM every game, even when the Celtics actually play defense?
That, is very bad.
It’s no different from the first NO game where they put up 119.
For whatever reason, the Celts have not defended this team well.
That shit has to be figured out.
KP missing 4, Tatum missing, Jaylen missing, what are we even doing.
Is that so hard?
If you look through the last 6-7 Celtics losses, they’re missing 6+ FTs in all of them.
Going through the rim is illegal.
But by not calling it, you’ve got the option to’t challenge it.
It’s every game!
Will there be any repercussions?
As I said, a win is a win is a win.
It does feel like they’re starting to get back to themselves, but time will tell.
