You most likely felt just a little like this should you watched the Boston Celtics’ 118-114 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Christmas.
It was a day when Celtics followers skilled virtually each emotion attainable whereas watching their workforce battle it out; pleasure, frustration, hope, defeat, and plenty of extra. The sport was actually a rollercoaster.
However, why?
Other than the truth that basketball is a recreation of runs, the big selection of feelings could be attributed to the Cs taking part in a few of their very best and absolute worst basketball inside the identical 48 minutes — or as head coach Joe Mazzulla put it, “inconsistent basketball.”
“We simply didn’t have nice offensive rhythm and we didn’t have nice defensive execution,” mentioned Mazzulla. “Pay attention, we’re taking part in inconsistent basketball. So, we’ve to be higher at each ends of the ground. We should be extra constant on each ends of the ground.”
The inconsistency stems previous this one recreation, however to Mazzulla’s level, Boston appeared misplaced offensively to open the fourth quarter.
“That’s a good criticism from him. We now have to essentially dive into our work just a little extra and perceive that we will’t chill out in periods of the sport,” mentioned Al Horford, who ought to be exempt from all criticism after his classic efficiency towards Philly.
Hastily their two-point lead changed into a 15-point gap and it felt like each shot that they put up was a tricky one, even when it was a makeable shot.
Is it unfathomable to suppose that Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown would sink the above photographs?
No, we’ve all seen them do it loads of occasions. That doesn’t change that these are powerful appears to be like, even when it’s widespread for them to drop. Philadelphia did an incredible job of creating Boston work for every little thing to open the ultimate body and it wound up being a giant distinction on this recreation.
It doesn’t assist that the 76ers have been creating wide-open appears to be like on the opposite finish on virtually each possession.
They have been unfastened, whereas the Celtics have been taking part in tense.
“I believe we performed effectively the final six minutes of the fourth,” Tatum defined. “I believe simply that begin of the fourth quarter, actually, we struggled on each ends of the ground.”
JT wasn’t mendacity. The ultimate six minutes of this recreation noticed Boston play a few of their finest basketball of the 12 months.
As soon as they have been all-but pronounced useless with the third Caleb Martin (30% three-point shooter this 12 months, by the way in which) three of the quarter, Boston primarily sat up of their chair and locked in, particularly on the defensive finish.
The engagement on protection was night time and day from what we’d all watched for the primary half of the quarter. As soon as they locked in, the Cs took away Philly’s open appears to be like and turned them into contested mid-range jumpers and turnovers, and unexpectedly the massive deficit was erased.
The actual concern right here is that the engagement is all the time underneath their management. Positive, you possibly can’t management if somebody like Caleb Martin unexpectedly is a sharpshooter, however you possibly can all the time management your individual focus.
“Yeah, I believe we’ve obtained to take some possession,” Tatum continued. “We’ve obtained to be higher. We’ve obtained to acknowledge the issues that we’ve accomplished, not that, you understand, not so nice. We obtained to look within the mirror and man up. And we simply obtained to be higher. We totally consider in ourselves, you understand, the issues that we will do after we’re totally locked in, and we’ve accomplished it time and time once more.”
Tatum’s proper. The Celtics have earned a mulligan or two from the group. An NBA Championship will do this. On the identical time, they’ve now misplaced three of their final 4 video games, and 4 of their final seven. Boston is 6-5 in December after shedding to the 76ers — inconsistent, if you’ll.
