Alright, so, I feel I tweeted this early within the second half of the Boston Celtics’ 135-132 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
(Shoutout to The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn)
On the time, it was correct. The reigning champs seemed fairly disinterested. They weren’t working the ball round on offense, they have been getting killed in transition, and have been getting ROUTED by the Pacers.
Boston was down by as a lot as 24 within the second half and 21 within the fourth quarter.
But, the sport ended up in extra time.
How did that occur?
Simply someday after he proclaimed that he’d prefer to see the NBA permit in-game combating, Joe Mazzulla’s staff fought on the ground.
“They outplayed us. I believed we have been a step behind in every part, Mazzulla stated after the loss (h/t NBC Sports activities Boston). “Their velocity. Their tempo. They have been a step forward of us…I believed we missed a ton of layups…We simply didn’t play our greatest and Indiana performed nice…You’ll be able to deal with that, or you may deal with the truth that we stayed in it.”
Impulsively, they have been forcing the Pacers to should earn their buckets, which they struggled to do fairly a bit. Indiana made simply three discipline objectives for the ultimate 8:54 of regulation. To place that in perspective, they’d made 4 within the opening minutes of the fourth quarter.
With the shortage of makes, the hosts acquired frazzled, turned the ball over, and fell sufferer to their very own fast-paced assault.
As soon as the Cs have been operating, they began to get simple seems nearly each time. They solely tried three-pointers or photographs on the rim, throughout their steep climb again to even. It was peak modern-day offense.
Go forward and scroll the fourth quarter play-by-play on NBA.com. You’ll see an assortment of threes, layups, and dunks for Boston.
The simple seems helped re-establish confidence and vitality for the Celtics, which they used to get essential stops within the closing minutes (I can’t stress sufficient how they principally acquired no stops for the whole remainder of the sport). It was like watching a totally completely different staff.
On the finish of the day, that’s what Mazzulla is selecting to deal with, the struggle.
“There’s two issues to deal with. Ensuring we’re not a half of a step behind. However you see what we’re able to at our greatest, high to backside, and the blokes fought, in order that was good.”
Positive, it’s fairly unusual that I’m writing an ethical victory article a few staff that simply received a championship, however combating again was fairly the feat. Sadly, it doesn’t change the truth that they picked up their first lack of the season in a winnable recreation.
What it does change is that they misplaced the sport as a result of they missed three free throws in extra time (and perhaps took some questionable photographs) on an evening the place Pascal Siakam tied a career-high in made three-pointers — not as a result of they performed like they didn’t care.
