The Celtics Played Like Shit And Finally Lost A Playoff Game, So It's Now On Them To Adjust And Punch Back

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There's a saying that you can't win a playoff series after Game 1 and that's true. You need 4 of those bad boys to advance. That saying also goes on to explain that you can't lose a series after Game 1 either. This is also true. At the same time, if you lose Game 1 you have to be careful because you now are putting yourself in a bit of a pickle. Teams down 0-2 are just 31-408 all time in NBA playoff history. That's right, you have a 7.1% chance historically of moving on if you find yourself in that 0-2 hole. I'll have you know, we did just see this 4 separate times in the 2021 playoffs. Both the Bucks and Clippers did it in two difference series after falling behind 0-2. So while it's not impossible, it's not exactly a place you want to be.

Which is why it brings me much sadness to inform you that a 4-4-4-4 run for the Boston Celtics is finally off the table. The last team to experience a playoff loss is the first team to drop a second round game. I think we all expected a much different series against the Bucks compared to what they just went through with the Nets, and right away that came to fruition. As expected there was some major overreaction to the Celts first playoff loss, and I get it. They played like absolute dogshit. Easily their worst performance of 2022, and something that honestly has not happened in a long, long time.

The last time the Celts were held to 89 points, it was December 29th. That was the 4-42 from three loss against the Clippers at home. Yesterday was literally one of the worst offensive performances of their entire season. The last time this team lost a game by double digits was February 27th so if anything, what we witnessed was the exception, not the rule.

It's virtually impossible for them to be any worse on that end of the floor. So to me, there are a few ways of looking at this. For starters, what the fuck. You pick now to have one of your worst showings of the year? In a massive playoff game at home? That's annoying as shit. The Celts didn't look like a team that was ready which is very frustrating. If this is how they are going to look, it'll be a quick series for sure.

But once you calm down you realize it's also very uncommon for them to play like this. As we know, the playoffs are all about adjustments so what, we thought the Celts would never lose a game? That's silly. I just think the timing of this loss is what's most annoying, but every time this team has had some adversity, they've punched back. I think when you've had the last 5 months they have, you've earned the benefit of the doubt. You either believe in this team or you don't, and if one loss where they play some uncharacteristic basketball is enough for you to lose faith in what you've watched over these last 5 months, that sounds like a you problem.

We knew this was not going to be easy. We know the Celts have a history of making things tougher on themselves. The defending champs came into their building and punched them right in the mouth, no two ways about it. Credit to them. They now have put all the pressure on the Celts and it's now up to Ime & Co to respond and even this series if they want to keep their season alive. That terrifies me but also excites me because I believe in this team. Sometimes teams just play like absolute shit at the worst possible time. It's about turning the page, learning from your mistakes and making the necessary adjustments to ensure this shit doesn't happen again.

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With that said, let us begin.

The Good

- I know most of the focus is on the final score and how pathetic the offense was, but let's not ignore the fact that the Bucks did score just 101 points. Giannis and Jrue didn't exactly shoot the ball all that well, and while you could argue this is actually bad because the Bucks won despite those two struggling, I see it as the Celts defensive scheme being pretty effective and honestly rather sustainable.

I thought both Rob and Al were about as good as you could expect against a Greek God like Giannis, especially when it came time to contest Giannis at the rim with their length. They did a great job at forcing misses without fouling to the point where Giannis was only 4-9 in the restricted area in this game. Look, you hold Giannis of all people to 44% in that zone, you've done your job. 

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I thought Rob looked a whole lot more like the Rob we know and love which is great to see as he continues to work his way back into game shape, and Playoff Al was really the only starter who found a way to be effective offensively. There are obviously other things the team needs to clean up, but I thought their work on making Giannis' life as tough as humanly possible was successful. We were all hoping Rob's length and Al's steady defense would be effective, and it was. That should encourage you moving forward. It's not like Giannis will always shoot 9-25, don't be crazy, but if this team is going to win this series, they need to continue to be elite on the defensive end and holding this Bucks team to just 101 points is a good sign. 

As a team, the Bucks only shot 41/35% which is manageable. My biggest takeaway from Game 1 was that the Celts issues in this game didn't really have anything to do with their defense. Considering defense travels, that is encouraging. You could make the case that as long as the Celts don't have the worst offensive showing in their history, they'll be fine.

- That's it. We can move on, I just wanted to shoutout the defensive effort from Rob/Al. 

The Bad

- It's not exactly a hot take to suggest that if Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown don't show up, the Celtics are in trouble. You don't have to be an expert to realize that, you just need at least one working eye. Let's tell the truth, they were brutal. The Bucks two best players found a way to carry their team and the Celts best two players didn't. In fact, more often than not they did more harm than good. The combined numbers are pretty tough

10/31 (7-18) with 10 TOs

is not going to beat the defending champs. Not when Jaylen had 7 TOs by himself. Tatum went the entire first quarter without making a shot (0-4). They were 5-18 at the break with more combined TOs than FGM. So much of their issues came down to bad decision making. Jaylen repeatedly over-drove the ball only to get himself into trouble that resulted in horrible turnovers. Other times he couldn't even dribble. Plays like this absolutely kill you against this Bucks team

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What made these turnovers so brutal was essentially every single one immediately led to a transition open three for the Bucks, which they made. It was pretty clear that both Tatum and Jaylen were thrown a little off by how physical the Bucks were, and it sped them up to a point where it got them out of their offense and more into isolation. Given how well the Bucks defend the paint, this proved to be a big time issue. 

We've said it before and it's true. This team will only go as far as their two best players. When they both lay eggs in the same game, beating elite teams is very difficult. 

- Ime essentially confirmed it after the game, but the full court pressure clearly made an impact. We watched a Celtics team that couldn't seem to find a way to even get the ball over half court. There were two separate offensive foul calls on screens just trying to free up the ball handler. We had Marcus Smart dribbling off his leg because he couldn't shake Jrue. 

Guess what? This is going to be something the Bucks do all series. They did a great job speeding the Celts up considering they couldn't really get into their offensive sets until around 13-15 seconds left on the shot clock. It was your classic case of the Bucks being the aggressors and the Celts being forced to be reactionary. What you want is a team that imposes their will and forces a defense to adjust. In Game 1, the exact opposite happened. My guess is they'll be much more prepared for that pressure on Tuesday, but if this team is going to compete in this series I'm going to need them to at least be able to bring the ball up the floor. That's Day 1 stuff.

- I talked about it in the preview and I had some people call me crazy for it, but we saw what an impact Brook Lopez makes in terms of rim protection without fouling. The Bucks completely owned the paint on either end, and that's a problem. They won the points in the paint 34-20, and it got so bad offensively it actually ended up being the worst 2pt FGM performance in Celtics history

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A quick look at their shot chart confirms this

just 10/22 at the rim and 0/9 in the paint. Woof. A combined 10/31 in that zone is about as bad as you can get and what we learned is there is a rather gigantic difference in the Bucks rim protection than what this team went through with BKN. Lopez for whatever reason never fouls, Giannis is the most devastating weakside defender in the league, even Bobby Portis held his own. You could tell the Celts didn't even want to fuck with the paint as this game went along and that's not a great sign for a team that is what I would call….streaky when it comes to shooting the basketball. Tatum and Brown were a combined 3/11 in that zone. You're not winning with that. 

This should surprise no one because the Bucks and Celts were the 1st and 3rd best team at limiting opponents points in the paint this postseason, and to me this was one of the biggest stories of Game 1.

- For the Celts to win this series, Marcus Smart needs to outplay Jrue Holiday. That did not happen. On one hand, it's clear Smart gave his all and played through a billion different injuries, so for that, he should be commended. At the same time, we did not see the best decision making on offense. As expected he was baited into taking threes and he finished 1-6. When the Celts started to cut things close and got it down to 6, we immediately saw some brutal TOs that sort of killed that momentum. Like this play to Al

I don't think it's wrong to suggest that in his ever important battle with Holiday, Jrue won Round 1. Smart was still effective defensively, he held Holiday to just 5 points on 26 possessions, but this was not the best we've seen Smart play, not by a long shot. 

- About the shooting. No matter how you slice it, 50 3PA is a lot. It's what the Bucks want you to do. If you make a shit ton of threes and win? So be it. They are cool with daring you to do it again. The thing with this is it wasn't like the Celts took bad threes. Of their 50, a total of 45 were deemed to at least be "open". They made 18 3PM on the night which is usually enough to win. It's not like they went 4-42 or some shit.

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But the problem is even if you make 18, you still missed 32. We saw the Celts play right into the Bucks gameplan of trading 3s for 2s. If you're going to miss that many threes, the Bucks are going to go right down and get an efficient look, probably Giannis at the rim. Their approach was all kinds of fucked up

- The point totals may have been similar, but I think you're crazy if you suggest the Celts role players didn't get outplayed by the Bucks role players. That's the type of shit that cannot happen on your home floor, and it was a huge factor early in this game. The Bucks bench guys came in and immediately started knocking down their threes. Their 3 bench guys finished a combined 9-18 (6-12). The Celts side, much worse. Just 6-20 (6-13). We all knew whichever side's role players made their open threes would probably win, and yesterday that was the Bucks. White came in, immediately missed two bunnies and then couldn't stop turning it over. That helped the Bucks recover from an early deficit and they never looked back.

Defensively, we cannot live in a world where Jaylen Brown can't even beat Grayson Allen off the dribble. That needs to be something I can rely on, and it did not happen. Nobody punished Jevon Carter on the defensive end, shit he finished a +25 for crying out loud. 

- Giannis gave this team a prayer when he stupidly committed his 4th foul with about 3 minutes left in the third quarter. The Celtics lost those non-Giannis minutes. That's how this game went. You are not going to win this series if you cannot dominate the minutes Giannis sits. Careless turnovers, poor shot selection, and bad defense were the cause of it and that's the stuff they need to clean up. 

What we got instead was another scoring drought. This happened on several occasions which is what I would call, not great. Up 8 with 3 minutes left in the first quarter, the Celts went the final 2+ minutes without a point. In the second quarter, they went the final 2:15 without a point. In the 3rd quarter, they only had 4 points over the final 3:37. 

It goes without saying, you cannot have this many scoring droughts against the Bucks and think things will work out well for you. Especially when you can't stop turning it over and that only compounds the damage.

- I really didn't understand how the Celts finally had Tatum cooking a little bit from three in the 3rd quarter with back to back buckets in the first two minutes. He made this three with 9:32 left to cut it to 6

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Tatum did not take another shot until the 4:38 mark. That is inexcusable. Instead we got a whole bunch of Smart/Jaylen turnovers, some missed jumpers and then by the time Tatum took another shot, he missed a layup and then a three. Not taking advantage of that Tatum rhythm is a mistake and something I hope Ime addresses. They needed someone to step up offensively and carry, and then once that started to happen for whatever reason the ball never found Tatum again for nearly half a quarter.

The Ugly

- You turn the ball over, you die. The reason this game was so frustrating is because so much of their issues were self inflicted. On what planet do you think that turning the ball over 18 times is going to work? It decided the game if we're being honest. The Bucks had a 25-6 points off turnovers difference in a game they won by 12. That's the game right there.

The Bucks had their issues in the first quarter, but the Celts only had 6 points off those turnovers. If you simply take care of the basketball, I'm not sure the Bucks offense was good enough to win this game. That's what is so fucking annoying. When your best players are that careless with the basketball, that's a problem given their high usage. When your point guard adds to the fire rather than limit the damage, that's an issue. 

We saw the Bucks destroy this team in transition, finishing with a 28-8 advantage in fastbreak points. You want to know why that happened? Turnovers. Careless basketball. Mental mistakes. 

- I'm not so sure this is going to be a Theis series. The Bucks frontcourt size seems to be too much for him to handle, which isn't all that different from what we saw in 2019. It's a tough matchup for him and why he only played 4 minutes. That's a big of a concern.

- This is now the second series in a row where we've seen a very apparent goaltend be missed. What a massive swing in that moment that you simply cannot fuck up. Could not have been more blatant this was a goaltend. That was tough

I don't care about 50/50 foul calls. I don't care about touch fouls. I do care about blatantly missing points in what is a close game late in the third quarter. 

- I hated everything about their 4th quarter approach. To be honest, it was a November Celtics type 4th quarter. Of their 16 FGA, 11 were 3PA. They finished with nearly the same amount of TOs (4) as FGM (6). They started the quarter with nothing but homerun threes, which almost never works. Whenever they do that shit, we usually get a quarter like this and finishing with just 19 points is not going to cut it. This is what the Bucks want you to do, they want you to try and beat them with homerun threes they know you'll probably miss, and then they come down the other end and get a high percentage look. This was only an 8 point game with an entire quarter to play, yet that is not how the Celts approached that final frame. It's OK to get some body blows in to make the Bucks start to sweat, and then if there is an open three you can take it. Playing outside/in is not how you beat this team and that's what they did in that fourth quarter. No surprise they finished with just 35/36% splits.

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We now get to see what this team is made of. They were punched in the mouth and punked on their home court. The momentum has immediately swung to the Bucks so it'll be interesting to see how the Celts respond. If they clean up their own mistakes, this can be 1-1 heading back to Brooklyn. There's a lot of basketball left to be played in this series, I just need it to look nothing like what we all watched in Game 1. Burn that tape and never play like that again. Thank you.