Boston Celtics: Was Fred VanVleet right about Cs being in trouble?

We can’t help but think Fred VanVleet’s haunting words following Toronto’s Game 3 victory over the Boston Celtics could potentially be a harbinger of doom.

After a Game 4 loss to the Raptors, the Boston Celtics are admittedly on the ropes a bit following a second consecutive game where Toronto’s stars seized the moment and Boston’s stars shied away from it.

Kemba Walker took just nine shots, Jaylen Brown went 4-18, and worse yet, Kyle Lowry and Pascal Siakam looked like the All-Stars that steamrolled every non-Celtics team in the bubble. That can’t happen again–particularly on the Brown/Walker front–if the Cs want to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. 

It’s starting to genuinely seem like the season could be in peril. Nick Nurse’s Raptors engineered a similar comeback in last year’s conference finals when they were able to figure out how to stop the Milwaukee Bucks. Now granted, Boston has three players (four when Gordon Hayward is healthy) that can create their own offense, whereas Milwaukee was/is almost entirely reliant on Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The thing is, Fred VanVleet was very passionate following Game 3’s heartbreaking buzzer-beater and may have spoken something very spooky into existence when speaking to Masai Ujiri after the thrilling contest:

"“They f—ed up,” VanVleet told Ujiri and Webster, per Amick. “They f—ed up now.”"

After two consecutive losses, it appears that he may be onto something. The feel of this series changed in the second half of that pivotal third game when Lowry and Siakam started to pick up their play and Boston grew more stagnant on offense.

Then again, it’s entirely possible that the Celtics turn things around and make VanVleet more fake news perpetrator than soothsayer.

What do you think Boston Celtics fans? Do you think that the Cs–um–f’d up?

Drop a comment below!