The Celtics Are Officially Dead After Getting Completely Destroyed In Game 6

I don't even know what to say. The Celtics are dead. The season is over. The title defense is over. 

This game was tied at 16-16 about midway through the 1st quarter. From that moment on, the entire Celtics roster completely shit their pants as the wheels completely fell off. I'm talking one of the worst collective performances of their entire season, at a time when you needed them to be at their best. Zero stops, zero production from anyone not named Jaylen Brown early, the Celts were outhustled and out-executed in every facet of the game, and once the Knicks got rolling, that was it. Credit to them, they played exactly how you need to play to close out a series, while the Celts couldn't stop playing losing basketball. Poor rebounding which led to momentum 2nd chance points, even worse turnovers that allowed the Knicks to score in transition and get the crowd juiced, the entire roster missing every shot they took, it was like a combination of Games 1 & 2 of this series mixed with the 2023 ECF Game 7. 

Just a complete and utter no show in the biggest game of the season. So frustrating, so deflating. It's not even just about not having Jayson Tatum. They didn't have him in Game 5 either, and their performance was nothing like what we saw in Game 6. This time around, they were completely outplayed in every aspect of basketball. I mean hell, Jaylen Brown fouled out in 3 quarters for crying out loud. This is what things looked like before Joe pulled everyone with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. 

To win a game like this, the Celts were going to need a full collective effort, similar to Game 5. Instead, they got the opposite. The guard trio of DWhite/Jrue/Pritchard started 1-18 (0-10). Hauser missed his wide open looks early. KP was good for a possession or two, but was mostly a non-factor. I think deep down, this was the fear for a game like this, that one poor shooting night ends your season. Well, one poor shooting night combined with a whole bunch of other poor execution around the margins is why the Celtics season is over. Fucking around and blowing Games 1 & 2, when you had a healthy Jayson Tatum and two different 20 point leads is why their season is over. The Celts fucked around in this series and they found out exactly why you can't do stuff like that in the playoffs. 

When you do, stuff like this happens.

I'm going to need some time to mentally process this complete ass whooping, so we'll regroup tomorrow. For now, I'll just end things here and let the commenters do their thing. 

We'll always have 2024 though, never forget that (thank fucking GOD).