Бостон Сэлтикс талбайдаа ялагдал хүлээж, цуврал 3-3 харьцаатай тэнцсэн нь тэдний сэтгэл зүйн байдал болон тоглолтын түвшинд эргэлзээ төрүүлж байна. Хэрэв Сэлтикс шидэлтийн хувьд тогтвортой байж чадсан бол Филадельфи 76ерс багийн эсрэг цувралын эхний шатыг хэдийнэ дуусгах байсан ч нөхцөл байдал эсрэгээрээ эргэв.
Зургаадугаар тоглолтод 106-93 харьцаатай ялагдсаны дараа Жэйлен Браун 76ерс багийн тоглолтын талаар “Тэдний тав тухтай байдал өндөр байна. Итгэл төгс тоглож байна. Тэд өөрийн гэсэн өвөрмөц “сваг”-тай болсон бөгөөд бид үүнийг нь авах ёстой” гэж хэлсэн нь анхаарал татаж байна.
Мөн тэрээр өмнөх тоглолтуудад Жоел Эмбиидийн тоглолтын тухайд “Тэр хэтэрхий амар хялбар оноо авч байна. Бид түүнийг илүү их хөдөлмөрлүүлэх хэрэгтэй. Түүнд маш амар байна. Бид өөрсдийн тоглогчдод итгэдэг ч тоглолтыг нь илүү хүнд болгох ёстой” хэмээн онцолсон юм. Энэхүү байдал нь Сэлтикс багийн дотоод асуудлууд болон тоглолтоо гүнзгийрэн шинжлэх шаардлагатайг харуулж байна.
Одоо цуврал 3-3-аар тэнцсэн бөгөөд долоо дахь шийдвэрлэх тоглолт Бостонд болох гэж байна. Хэрэв 76ерс баг ялвал тэд NBA-гийн түүхэнд 3-1 харьцаатай хоцорч байгаад цувралыг эргүүлэн авсан 14 дэх баг болно. Энэ нь Бостоны спортын хөгжөөн дэмжигчдийг цочролд оруулах үйл явдал байж болохоор байна.
Сэлтикс багийн хувьд энэ цуврал нь зөвхөн тоглолтын төдийгүй өмнөх алдаануудаас суралцах боломжийг олгож байна. 2010 оны Патриотс баг шиг анхны шатнаас хасагдсан тохиолдолд үүнийг хэн ч мартахгүй. Харин 2007-08 оны Сэлтикс баг шиг эхний шатыг хүндхэн давж, дараа нь аварга болсон шигээ тоглох нь тэдний хувьд хамгийн том зорилт байх болно.
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If the Boston Celtics were as consistent with their shooting as they are with their postgame oratory, their opening-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers would have been over days ago.
Take, for instance, an observation Jaylen Brown made about the 76ers late Thursday night, after Boston’s 106-93 loss in Game 6 at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philly. “Their comfort level is higher right now,” Brown said. “Their confidence is high right now. They’ve got a different swag to them, and we’ve gotta take that (away).”
Let’s rewind the tape a little more, and to something Brown said after Joel Embiid scored 33 points in the 76ers’ 113-97 victory over the Celtics in Game 5 at TD Garden. “Yeah, I feel like he got too many easy baskets,” Brown said. “We need to make him work. It’s just too easy for him. Even though we want to trust our guys to guard certain aspects, we have to make it a little tougher.”
Now then, let’s rewind the tape just once more, to the aftermath of Game 2, in which rookie VJ Edgecombe’s 30 points led the way in the 76ers’ 111-97 victory at the Garden. “I thought Edgecombe was just too comfortable,” Brown said.
No attempt is being made here to pin all of this on Brown. But he’s a team leader, and his words therefore have weight. And considering the Celtics face elimination in Saturday night’s deciding Game 7 in Boston, the weight of those words could hang in the air for a long, long time. That is, if the Celtics lose.
If it were a simple matter of seeing to it that the 76ers aren’t so “comfortable,” the Celtics could get, you know, more physical. They could play the role of the 1970s Big, Bad Bruins, and the 76ers could fight back in the spirit of Philly’s 1970s Broad Street Bullies, and oh man, would that be fun. But here in the real world, physicality, or lack thereof, isn’t a one-size-fits-all explanation as to why this series is tied 3-3 — unless playing harder is part of being more physical. And make no mistake: The 76ers are playing harder. It was an absolute shocker Thursday night, when, with 10:24 remaining in the fourth quarter, Boston trailing 88-65, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his starters.
Boston’s bench cut Philly’s lead to 12, but it wasn’t enough for Mazzulla to reignite the burners to his “A” team. That, right there, is a sign that what’s ailing the Celtics is less about looking at Philly’s comfort level and more about looking in the mirror.
Which brings us to Game 7. If the 76ers win, it’ll make them just the 14th team in NBA history to win a best-of-seven series after being down 3-1. And it’d be something that enraged Boston sports fans would talk about for weeks, considering how the late-season return of Jayson Tatum from his Achilles injury had turned the Celtics into a team capable of advancing to the NBA Finals.
Would it be the worst postseason exit by a Boston sports team this century? Well . . . no. The 2007 Patriots, who were undefeated until losing to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII, end these types of discussions before they begin. That is, unless you count Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium, in which soon-to-be-fired Red Sox manager Grady Little refused to remove a spent Pedro Martinez. And the 2017 Patriots losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII is right up there, especially since people are still talking about why Bill Belichick made Malcolm Butler disappear.
After that, it gets complicated. Yes, the Celtics losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals would be a candidate, save for the fact they were playing without the injured Kendrick Perkins. For pulling-your-hair-out frustration, there’s the 57-25 Celtics of 2022-23 playing the 44-38 Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. The Celtics went down 0-3, evened the series 3-3, and then got blown out at TD Garden in Game 7.
But perhaps the best way to look at this is through the lens of first-round postseason dismissals. Two that come quickly to mind are the 2010 Patriots and the 2022-23 Bruins. Those 2010 Patriots were 14-2 during the regular season, including a 45-3 “Monday Night Football” victory over the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium in early December. The Pats earned a first-round bye followed by a divisional-round rematch against the Jets, but in the run-up to that game, receiver Wes Welker signaled a departure from Belichick’s no-days-off mantra by using a media session to make a bunch of foot-fetish jokes about Jets coach Rex Ryan. The Patriots lost. As for the ’22-23 Bruins, they amassed an NHL record 135 points during the regular season, took a 3-1 series lead against the Florida Panthers in the first round … and then lost three straight.
We should probably stop there, lest there be complaints that it’s not fair to look past Celtics-76ers, Game 7, by making all these historical comparisons.
Fair point, except for the counterpoint that it looks as if the Celtics have been looking past the 76ers the entire series.
In that spirit, it’s probably to the Celtics’ advantage that all the pressure is on them in Game 7.
Nobody wants to be the 2010 Patriots. Better to be the 2007-08 Celtics, who needed seven games to get past the Atlanta Hawks in the first round (after easily winning Games 1 and 2) and then, six weeks later, rolled to a 131-92 victory over the Lakers in the clinching Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
