THE CELTICS SURVIVE IN AN OT THRILLER TO TAKE GAME 1!!!!
Brian Babineau. Getty Images.My fucking heart.
This team man. Either they are going to win the NBA title or they are going to murder me trying. Those are really the only two options on the table right now. No basketball team on the planet takes your for an emotional rollercoaster like the Boston Celtics, and it doesn't matter if it's December or Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they are going to drag you through hell. The highest of highs and lowest of lows all in the span of 2.5 hours. They'll look like a wagon, then look dead, then come back to life, then look dead again, then come back to life again at just the right moment to pull out the win.
The Celtics were on life support after blowing 3 separate double digit leads. A 12-0 run to start the game, another 10 point lead in the first half, and then a 13 point lead late in the 3rd quarter. Each and every time they fucked around and immediately gave it back. The non-Tatum minutes to end the 3rd were a disaster, and it felt like there was a shit ton of Pacers Dark Magic at work
Falling down by as much as 5 late in the 4th quarter, the Celtics needed a prayer to stay alive. They were going to need the Pacers to open the door for some sort of prayer. After Siakam mishandled the inbounds pass with 8 seconds left, the Basketball Gods gifted us that prayer
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What an insane shot by Jaylen. Boy am I happy Rick Carlisle didn't have his players fouling in that situation, because if they do, there's not prayer to be had. That in and of itself is an additional prayer to the Jaylen shot, so really that won play included multiple prayers. Whatever, fine by me! You see at a time like this everyone had to be all hands on deck. The players on the court and me on the blog. That's why I opened up the back end and fired up this title in the drafts
That my friends, is your classic blog reverse jinx. Is this what enabled Jaylen to hit his shot? Many people are saying yes, but not me. That shot is mostly due to Jaylen Brown's hard work and clutch gene. Not the first big shot he's made as a Celtic and it won't be his last, so if you want to give me like 45% of the credit, I'll allow it.
Once things got to OT, finally Jayson Tatum came to life
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Big time shot making in the biggest moments of the game and another 36/12/4 from Tatum in his 46 minutes. The moment everyone says Tatum needs to have, he had. When the game needed him to step up and close it out, he did. When the game needed Jaylen to come up with a huge steal on Siakam in the final minutes, he did. The Jays came through in the clutch in a high pressure situation with Game 1 on the line. Was it perfect? Fuck no. But they rose to the occasion when they had to and that matters.
While exciting and a relief the Celts pulled it out, the bigger takeaway is if the Celtics play like they did in Game 1, they will lose this series. Their defense for the majority of the night was nonexistent, and they have to figure something out with the bench. All of Hauser/Pritchard/Kornet were pretty much unplayable, and the P&R team defense is still dogshit. Sometimes you need lucky wins while on a playoff journey, but it cannot become a habit.
I think it's fair to suggest that the Pacers gifted the Celts this win, and the execution in Game 2 is going to have to be a whole hell of a lot better. The Pacers can hang, and their shooting is not an accident. This isn't the case of the Heat randomly hitting 23 3PM, this Pacers offense is serious and you simply cannot have multiple defensive lapses like we saw tonight. The good news is you learned that lesson and still got the win. At the end of the day, it's the first to 4, regardless of how it looks.
Also quickly, what a fucking performance from Jrue Holiday. Simply incredible stuff for the 4th game in a row
and it couldn't have come at a bigger time. The Celtics don't win this game without what Jrue Holiday did on both ends, between his offense and the on ball pressure to force that late Haliburton turnover, what a performance.
We'll regroup in the morning and dive into everything, but for now, we exhale. A win is a win is a win
9 down, 7 to go.