Watching your time lose a playoff game is never fun. The result can release thoughts of uncertainty and angst into your brain and you probably won't be able to shake them until your team rights the ship in the next game. Even if your team is the heavily favored Boston Celtics, it's going to happen.
That's okay. I'm here to let you know that you're not alone. I too have been sitting here for the past X amount of hours, shaking my head in disbelief after Boston's Game 1 collapse against the New York Knicks.
When the team went up 20 midway through the third quarter, I felt as if all of my pre-series confidence was vindicated. Now, I wonder if the Knicks have done enough to give themselves a chance in this series despite being 2-8 in their last 10 games against the Celtics.
As we head into Game 2, here are a few "What Ifs" that have been tormenting me:
What if Mikal Bridges remembers how to play offense?
The man that some Knicks fans have called "Garbage Time (Michael) Jordan" finished Monday's Game 1 with just eight points on 3-of-13 from the field. He looked just about as lost as he had in the four games that New York lost to the Cs this season.
He would've been 2-of-13 if he didn't somehow bank in a corner three to give his club a six-point lead in overtime.
He did, however, leave Knicks fans feeling pretty justified in their team giving up five first-round picks in a trade for him last summer. Bridges sealed the win in the series opener when he ripped the ball away from Jaylen Brown on Boston's final possession in overtime.
It was a big moment for him. He celebrated as so.
So far in the playoffs, Bridges has been pretty inconsistent. If you look at his game-to-game output against the Detroit Pistons in the opening round, it basically equates to a coinflip. What if that play alone is enough to spark his confidence on offense and make him a consistent player?
What if the Celtics are just bad at threes now?
The entire discourse surrounding Boston's Game 1 loss has been their second-half three-point woes. They fired up 34 threes on 41 shots in the final 24 minutes of regulation, and it didn't go well.
They sank just 15 of their 60 attempts from distance for the game, and looked like a shell of the mathematical machine that we've all seen them be for the past three seasons.
Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics have leaned so heavily into being able to create a high volume of good looks from beyond the arc and it has been a key pillar to their success. The only issue is that when it goes bad, it goes so bad that you begin to doubt all of the evidence that's been presented to you during Mazzulla's tenure.
You're left thinking, "What if water doesn't find its level?"
What if New York's bigs don't stink?
Of all of my worries, this one has to be the most realistic. Karl Anthony-Towns had one of the best seasons of his career with New York this year. He averaged 24.4 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game on 52.6/42.0 shooting splits. There's a pretty good chance he winds up on an All-NBA team when the votes are finalized.
With that being said his first seven playoff games have been hit or miss. Much like Bridges, his performance has felt like a coinflip. He had that great close to his 27-point Game 4 in Detroit, where he sank a few clutch buckets to hold off the Pistons, but then followed that up with a 5-of-14 outing in Game 5.
Both Game 6 and Game 1 of this current series have been flops. KAT found himself in foul trouble each time and wasn't able to be overly impactful because of it.
While he watched on the bench in Boston, Mitchell Robinson was called upon to eat some extra minutes. Eat those minutes, he did, as well as some intentional fouls from the Celtics. Boston sent the big man to the charity stripe several times and watched him miss seven of his 10 attempts.
It got so bad that Robinson had to intentionally foul to stop play and get himself subbed out of the game.
It's not great that both of these guys were pretty lackluster and New York still stole the win to open things up with Boston.
The good news is that KAT has been a pretty consistent foul trouble guy this spring. He's picked up four or more fouls in six of his seven outings.
Nonetheless, I'm left here thinking, "What if he and Mitch get it together and seriously put their fingerprints on a game?"
Listen, the sky is not falling. The Celtics have a good opportunity to make things right and win Game 2 on Wednesday. It's just protocol to think of everything that could possibly go wrong when the stakes get higher. It's what we do as outsiders.