Boston Celtics: 3 negative trends to watch out for in the NBA Finals
By Seth Quinn
Negitive Boston Celtics trend No. 2) Bad quarters
When the Boston Celtics start to play poorly, it tends to happen in relatively long stretches and can happen anytime.
Specifically, looking at playoff losses, each contained at least one extra bad quarter, either in timing, scoring droughts, or both.
In Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks, the C’s didn’t have a great scoring game overall, only tallying 89 points total. However, the fourth quarter specifically was their lowest scoring quarter, only putting up 19 points, and going on to lose by 12.
In Game 3, the Celtics had an astronomically bad third quarter, losing it 34 to 17, and, to make things worse, they only lost the game by two points. If they even had a mediocre third quarter, they likely win that game.
Game 5, Boston had a bad fourth quarter, leading to a blown lead and devastating loss to go down 3-2 in the series. The score of that fourth quarter was 33-21, meaning once again a low scoring quarter led to a loss, this time in the most important quarter of the game.
On opening night against the Miami Heat, the Celtics won all quarters except the third, in which they got crushed 39 to 14 and lost the game by 11. I didn’t think that was even possible, but this C’s team managed to do that in an important playoff game.
In Game 3, they came out extremely flat, losing the first quarter 39-18. They managed to bring it back somewhat but ended up losing by six, showing once again that without one terrible quarter, they likely win the game.
Finally, in Game 6 the shamrocks started a bit slow, going down 29 to 22. While they did get the lead at one point, the slow start made it an uphill battle the entire night, which they never fully overcame.
If the Celtics can avoid getting crushed in quarters, having slow starts, and struggling to finish games, they should have a much better time in the NBA Finals than in previous series.