The Celtics transformed a 32-point lead over the Atlanta Hawks in Game 1 into a series of nagging questions concerning their ultimate fate in the NBA playoffs.
“Does Boston have the killer instinct to win a championship?”
“No,” until further notice.
“Who wants to carry this team on their back?”
The line forms here.
“Will there be any pre-game playoff guarantees?”
Don’t want to upset a fellow Nike athlete.
The names on the Celtics roster have combined 5,135 regular-season and 678 playoff games on their collective resume. None has won an NBA championship. Gone, too, is the multi-banner pedigree of Danny Ainge in the front office.
Winning was once the longest strand of Celtics DNA. For instance, the 1986 Celtics had a combined 11 rings on the roster before they took the court in Game 1 against the Rockets in the NBA Finals. Coach K.C. Jones added nine on his dresser as a player and coach.
Now the only Celtics’ ring-bearers at TD Garden reside in the owner’s suite, seated at courtside, or are at the broadcast table.
Cedric Maxwell can only play so many minutes these days. He is 67, after all.
The 2023 Celtics need their own version of a pre-Medicare-eligible Maxwell. Talk trash, play brash, and back it all up with winning.
The first three quarters of Saturday’s game offered a team-press-release version of just how talented and deep this team can be at its best. A healthy Rob Williams was unstoppable inside. A wily Marcus Smart moved the ball at will and couldn’t miss. Jayson Tatum was not worried about making friends or fetching likes on Instagram. Jaylen Brown excelled through whatever pain/discomfort was emanating from his gashed hand.
Boston led Atlanta 76-44 early in the second half Saturday. The game had all the makings of an old-fashioned, TD Garden, springtime rout.
What happened? Bad shots. Sloppy play. Poor defense. All played a part.
“I just thought we lost our offensive purpose. Playing passive offense instead of keeping it moving, being aggressive, and maintaining that level of pace that we had in the first half,” Celtics’ head coach Joe Mazzulla said of his team’s second-half performance.
“Being aggressive” is 2023 coach-speech for “stepping on their throats.”
Boston let a 32-point lead in the third quarter dissipate to 12 in the fourth.
That 32-point lead could have swelled to four dozen as easily as it shrunk to one.
As concerning for some fans over 21 was the fact that Tatum needed to make his first two free throws of the game with 1:05 to play to put Boston up by 15 and ice the 10-point cover.
And let’s be clear, we’re not here to fulfil some sort of obligation about the potential of the Hawks. The emphasis remains on whether the Celtics can win another title, not merely reach the second round.
“We can’t take our foot off the gas,” explained Derrick White.
White rarely displays emotion or alters his facial expressions, always a good sign when looking for a potential champion or a serial killer. He delivered 24 points, added seven dishes, five rebounds and threw in a pair of blocks, just because.
“We gotta be a little better in those situations when you have a lead like that. Human nature plays a part, but we don’t want things like that to haunt us coming up,” added Tatum, “there’s a lot of things we can learn from.”
Green Team audio porn.
Tatum remains the solar epicenter of the Celtics universe. That he was less than 100% pleased Saturday is indicative of progress, however small, in the proper direction. Now, if he calls his teammates “sisses” after their next playoff loss, we’ll lay aside our concerns about his willingness to crush the competition above all else.
The Celtics fizzled in the Finals last year in part because they were caught in the star gaze of Steph Curry, the merciless determination of Andrew Wiggins and steel trap of Steve Kerr.
In addition to those 100 turnovers, the Celtics were crushed in the “head game” department.
We won’t plot the outcome of this series based on Game 1. Nor do Game 1 blowouts always result in ultimate victory.
The Memorial Day Massacre of 1985 comes to mind. Back then you could refer to sports events as “massacres” without absorbing the wrath of social media. The Celtics beat the Lakers 148-114 inside the OG Garden. Six Boston players scored in double figures. Those Celtics had no problem in beating opponents without mercy or favor. Their trash talk continues to echo four decades later.
Still, Boston fell in six games. Partly because the 1985 Lakers were among the top three NBA teams of all time. And partly because Larry Bird slugged a bouncer after the Celtics went up 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals and mangled his right index finger in the process.
Bird’s aim was off during those Finals, the ailing digit undoubtedly wrecking just enough havoc to help deny what would have been Stage 2 of a Boston three-peat The truth about Bird’s involvement in that fracas was not publicly acknowledged until the following November.
Brown suffered a deep cut on his right hand, allegedly after picking broken glass from a vase while watering his plants. We’ve come a long way from bar fights at Chelsea’s. Maybe by the fall, we’ll get the full story on that one, too.
Hopefully it will come only after the Celtics spent three months celebrating their 18th championship. And not making excuses for missing it.
Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos) can be reached at bsperos1@gmail.com