Friday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls was a damning blow to the Boston Celtics’ hopes of avoiding the postseason play-in games that could determine whether or not the Cs even qualify for the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
To go from the conference finals to the lottery would be a seismic step back for the franchise, and one that will almost assuredly bring about change. Brad Stevens has a long leash, but squandering a year of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s emerging primes to such a degree–in a year that also saw the team pay Kemba Walker $34 million–is a crime that could mean the hypothetical guillotine.
A 22-point fall to a team that has fallen out of the postseason play-in race themselves and is headed for a fourth straight lottery finish despite making one of the trade deadline’s biggest splashes (Nikola Vucevic) is hard to write off this late in the season with so much on the line. Make excuses about the loss of Jaylen Brown all you want, but you don’t see the Denver Nuggets letting the loss of Jamal Murray bring keep them down.
Nikola Jokic is an MVP candidate, though. Maybe even the leading candidate. Jayson Tatum is clearly not there yet, as evidenced by the egg he laid at the United Center on Friday night.
On the bright side, Kemba Walker looks to have regained his star form…but is it too little too late? His constant absences this year have made it difficult to find the best rotations possible, and it doesn’t seem likely the Boston Celtics will be heading into whatever the next round is with any sort of lineup synergy.
In many ways, the Cs are living on a prayer, but prominent Celtics super-fan and founder of the Ringer, Bill Simmons, doesn’t believe said prayer will be answered.
If you ask the prominent Masshole, Murphy’s law will be in effect this May:
This 2021 Celtics team is almost supernaturally equipped to fall to a 7-seed and then squander both play-in games — it’s been their destiny for months and now we’re almost here.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 8, 2021
Understandably, Bill is upset about what he just saw. We all should be. Chicago just won the battle in rebounds, assists, and steals and turned the ball over less in a thoroughly dominant performance from the Eastern Conference bottom-feeder.
Finally, to address the final possible Boston Celtics fan excuse, if the loss of Robert Williams is that damning, then clearly there have been issues at the 5 all season…that trading Daniel Theis for Luke Kornet and the recently released Moritz Wagner did not fix in the slightest.
Simmons could be onto something. While the Houdini’s money will be on the Celtics finding a way to avoid an early-round elimination just as they have the past four postseasons, it isn’t something we would bet the ranch on.
These Cs seem like they could lose just about any game. It’s been that kind of season.