Instead of elevating Banner 18, the Celtics have opted to wave a white flag.
Boston trails Miami 3-0 within the Eastern Conference Finals. Game 4 is in South Florida tonight.
Miami’s airport abbreviation is MIA. The Celtics have been all that in additional throughout this sequence. Boston was DOA 10 minutes into Game 3. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, it was RIP for this run to the NBA Finals. Afterward, your complete basketball universe requested “WTF?”
In 2023, the DNA of the Celtics not consists of successful championships. It’s been 15 years. This model lacks coronary heart, hustle, and muscle. They are extra 1998 than 2008. They’ve changed “Ubuntu” with “Oh, not you, too?”
The excellent news? According to ESPN Analytics, the Celtics nonetheless have a 114% likelihood to win this sequence.
The motto of those Celtics has morphed from “Unfinished Business” to “Next Question.”
There shall be so many this offseason.
Will the coach be fired? Will they provide Jaylen Brown a max contract? How rather more Marcus Smart can anybody take? Has anybody seen Al Horford?
We slammed the Celtics on this house on Sunday for not backing up Grant Williams’ after he dared to “poke the bear” that’s Jimmy Butler Friday night time. Everyone else caught up Monday.
After Game 2, Brown infamously answered “next question” when requested about Williams’ tête-a-tête with Jimmy Buckets.
No one trash talked Gabe Vincent Sunday.
Yet, the undrafted Miami guard outscored Jayson Tatum and Brown mixed with 29 factors for the victorious and dominant Heat.
Sunday, after the Celtics had been curb-stomped by the Heat 128-102, Brown stated the loss was “embarrassing” and that the staff let down its “fan base, organization,” and “ourselves.”
If he solely was in a position to do one thing about it.
Gary Washburn of the Globe tweeted that Brown is “biting his tongue from telling his truth,” “has a lot on his mind,” and that there are “real issues in that locker room.”
How lengthy will it take for Brown to assert he’s a sufferer of systemic oppression?
Brown’s self-castigation rings as hole as he and his teammates.
Anything to keep away from the field rating.
Brown’s “truth” won’t ever be confused with Paul Pierce’s.
Neither Brown nor Tatum have met the problem on this sequence. At least Tatum obtained you right here.
In phrases of choke jobs, Brown is making an attempt to surpass the 2023 Bruins all by himself. Brown’s solely “real issue” is that he went a mixed 13-for-40 in Games 2 and three whereas hitting simply 1 of 14 tried 3-pointers. He has been outscored by each Caleb Martin and Vincent on this sequence.
Don’t be stunned if we get a 2023 model of “chicken and beer” quickly. We’ll be informed about locker room dysfunction. That the staff was cut up into factions. That Tatum and Brown barely communicated all season. Blah. Blah. Blah.
None of this great things is ever reported in actual time. It if was, 1000’s would have saved tens of millions backing this staff to win the NBA Finals.
The Celtics misplaced the Finals final yr, partially, as a result of they had been awestruck by being on the identical court docket with Steph Curry, dedicated 100 turnovers, and possessed a evident lack of offensive manufacturing off the bench.
Their effort was by no means questioned, even when their “inner dog” had lengthy since been neutered.
Joe Mazzulla can solely shoulder a lot of the blame for this Old Testament calamity. The 34-year-old rookie coach went straight from the kiddie pool to the shark tank. The devilish duo of Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley would give the Ghost of Red Auerbach matches. Don’t blame Clueless Joe for benefiting from the chance he obtained this season because of Ime Udoka’s boorish habits.
Mazzulla wasn’t as much as the a part of the job that included having his staff “ready to play” in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals when it was in an 0-2 gap.
The NBA is a participant’s league. It has been since Magic Johnson tuned out Paul Westhead 42 years in the past. His commerce request in 1981 resulted in Riley changing into coach of the Lakers.
Could Boston be headed for its fourth coach in 4 years? This staff is ailing. Can Nick Nurse be a healer? Should they web page Doc Rivers?
No coach can repair what’s unsuitable with this group.
In the phrases of Taylor Swift: “It isn’t love. It isn’t hate. It’s just indifference.”
Eddie House flat-out stated the “Celtics quit on their coach” in the course of the NBC Sports Boston autopsy Sunday. This staff has a factor for quitting on coaches. They did it to Brad Stevens, too.
The scenario is so despondent for the Celtics that Magic and Charles Barkley expressed their sympathies.
Can it get any worse?
Magic tweeted it was “time for the Boston Celtics to make major changes,” after posting that “I never thought I’d see a Boston Celtics team, a franchise with 17 Championships, quit. I know Celtics fans all over the world must be disgusted and devastated.”
Barkley ripped Boston’s lack of “mental toughness” and talked about Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Kevin McHale, Pierce and even M.L. Carr (he of the towels) amongst Boston legends who’ve been aggrieved by this staff.
“They have the toughness of a flea.”
Sir Charles noticed the Biscayne Bay Iceberg at halftime.
““I’m embarrassed for the Celtics,” Barkley stated when Boston was shedding by solely 15 factors. “The lack of mental toughness, it’s embarrassing. That was embarrassing as a Celtics fan.”
After the sport, the triumphant Vincent tried to pay the Celtics some respect.
“They’re a really good team, a well-coached team. They got stars. They’re not gonna lay down,” Vincent stated on TNT.
Barkley wasn’t having any of it. “Yeah, clearly you didn’t watch the game tonight. Well-coached and don’t lay down? Go look at the tape again.”
No thanks, Chuck.
We’ve seen sufficient.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF & @BillSperos) will be reached at bsperos1#@gmail.com.
Source: www.bostonherald.com