Celtics Showing Against Heat Was ‘Sickening,’ And It’s OK To Be Mad About It

http://nesn.com/2015/03/its-ok-to-be-mad-at-celtics-for-sickening-showing-against-heat/

There’s no sugar-coating what happened Wednesday night at TD Garden. There’s no silver lining, there’s no moral victory. Nothing.

The Boston Celtics flat-out embarrassed themselves and missed a chance to strengthen their grip on a playoff spot in 93-86 loss to the Miami Heat, a team the C’s are battling with for precious playoff positioning.

The loss might have been the most disheartening of the Brad Stevens era. It was, as big man Jae Crowder put it, “sickening.” And you know what? That feeling — shared by the Celtics and their fans alike — might be one of the biggest reasons to believe they’re heading in the right direction.

It’s OK to be mad at the Celtics for what they did Wednesday night. It means the Celtics are making progress.

Being upset with that sort of effort and that result means there were expectations. Sure, the Celtics fell embarrassingly short of those expectations. The Heat were playing the second half of a back-to-back after a crushing buzzer-beating loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night. Miami also was without the services of Dwyane Wade and defensive stalwart Hassan Whiteside. It’s a game the Celtics needed to have and it’s a game they should have won. Instead, they trailed by 20 points entering the fourth quarter and got yet their latest reminder that showing up for a quarter or two — as they’ve done too many times this season at either end of the 48 minutes — just simply isn’t good enough.

But again, we only point out these things to show how big of a missed opportunity Wednesday night was. The fact that the Celtics are in late March and “missed opportunities” have more to do with playoff jockeying than lottery jockeying is an encouraging sign. But when you put yourself in that position, you also open yourself up to criticism, and the Celtics deserve all the criticism and then some for what they showed vs. Miami.

To the Celtics’ credit, they know that wasn’t good enough.

“We’ve just got to know what’s at stake as a unit,” Crowder said. “In this game right now, we’re playing for something. If that doesn’t motivate you to come out and be prepared and be ready to go, I don’t know what will fire you to do that. But we’re playing for something — that’s all I’ve got to say. If you love this game and you love to play for something, you have to strap them up and be ready to play.”

Crowder’s words were echoed by his teammates after the game. So they obviously know how bad they were, and they know if they’re going to have any shot at the playoffs, they’ve gotta be so much better moving forward.

If they’re not, they’ll get an early start to summer. And if the Celtics do miss the playoffs, it’s OK to be mad at that, too. It’s OK to call the season a disappointment. The Celtics have earned those expectations, and believe it or not, that’s a good thing.

The Detroit loss was worst

but no excuse for lack of effort against  a Miami team with a bunch of D-league players playing last night either.

The Detroit game and this one may be looked back on as the games that cost this years team a playoff spot.

I thought that Boston put forth a good effort particularly in the 4th QTR when they outscored the heat 24-11.

I thought our free throw shooting was poor and our 3 pt shooting was also poor.

Lastly, the Celtics only put up 69 shots in the game. The Celtics are not blessed with efficiency on the offensive end and are sometimes able to overcome that because of the number of FGA.

It was a disappointing loss but that gives me no cause to be mad about it.

dboss

JAE CROWDER        ✔ @CJC9BOSS
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I APOLOGIZE FOR THE LACK OF EFFORT FROM MYSELF & THE GUYS TONIGHT.!! WILL LEARN AND GET BETTER MAN!! #CELTICSNATION #PLAYOFFPUSH #99PROBLEMS
7:45 PM - 25 Mar 2015



bob



.

Back in the days when winning was the definition of "normal," hiccups would occasionally ruin what otherwise might have been darned close to perfection.  Often those hiccups were occasioned more by the return of a player than by the absence of a player.  I think we saw some of that last night from both teams.

By being short-handed, the Heat had to go small, which was one of the main reasons they won.  Be welcoming back their wounded warrior, the Celtics implicitly must have anticipated (if not a real boost) at least some vestige of an extra spark that never materialized.

When the hiccup happened, I always felt that the team could use the game like a basketball defibrillator to shock them back to normal.  Last night, I half expected shouts of "Clear!" from the crowd as EMTs brought out the paddles.  Only the paddles were of the ping pong variety, and the only concerted energy from the Celtics came during the usual fourth quarter comeback.

The way this team plays the game, it seems as though they require adversity in order to succeed—perhaps as a function of of added adrenalin expressed by sheer desperation.  Lately, the desperation has usually won; but, last night, the adversity prevailed.

Let's hope that, today, the entire team is drinking water upside down and expelling the hiccups.

Sam

Sam,

Are you sure you are not talking about WATER BOARDING?

112288

112288,

It's a possibility.  Perhaps I've really drowned, and the life I think I'm living is only a matter of being in the death throes.

Sam,

Perhaps your in over your head!   LOL

112288

112288,

That wouldn't have to be very deep.

Sam