BOSTON — It happened again. Late in the third quarter, the Boston Celtics were up by 20—a tale applicable to two straight games. In Game 1, it was a 75-55 lead. In Game 2, 73-53. In Game 1, Jaylen Brown got caught ball-watching, and OG Anunoby hit a three to cut the lead to 17. In Game 2, Jayson Tatum’s transition defense flopped, and Miles McBride got a dunk to cut it to 18. It was a mirror image.
From those points on, the Celtics failed in the details. Game 1’s off-ball defense and Game 2’s poor offensive spacing brought the entire lead crashing down in a harmony of collapses.
And both nights, Mikal Bridges crushed Boston’s hopes.
A fourth-quarter scoring barrage complemented his defensive prowess, and as he and his teammates screamed in delight, the Celtics’ faces remained stalwart. Still portraits hiding the immense frustration swirling through their bodies.
For the past two years, the Celtics have carefully cultivated a persona driven by the present. Nothing in the past matters, and nothing in the future can be a distraction from what’s happening at that current moment in time.
But anger still seeps in.
“I mean, absolutely. We're all human,” Tatum said after Celtics practice on Thursday. “Everybody was mad after Game 1 and 2. We never want to lose. We aren't thrilled [with] the way that we've played. So, I'm not saying nobody's frustrated.”
Nobody is more frustrated than the Celtics themselves
Perhaps the frustration can be bottled up and repurposed. Maybe it’s best to ignore it altogether. Even harnessing it could be an option.
“People go about it in different ways,” Horford said of handling the frustrations of losing. “I feel like you have to find a way that kind of suits you individually. Some people can use that as fuel. Some people need to just kind of flip the page and come into work, have a good session, and continue to get better. So, there [are] different ways that you go about it.
“And ultimately, all I care about is for our guys to get in the right mindset to go compete on Saturday.”
TD Garden doesn’t like losing. Fans don’t like losing. Nobody likes losing. But there is no one on the planet who likes losing less than those in the trenches. The coaches. The staff. The players.
In two straight games, the Celtics fumbled. They put themselves in a perfect position to win, and they squandered it within a matter of minutes.
Nothing about that breeds happiness.
“It should sting,” said Brown.
But that can’t change the outlook of tomorrow.
“Let it sting for the night, and then tomorrow's a new day. You move forward,” he continued. “Short-term memory. Going into a tough New York environment, you don't have time to dwell on the past. The next focus is Game 3. So, let's do it.”
Frustrations can be fuel, but they can't dictate Celtics' future
From one Garden to another, the Celtics now have the ultimate challenge ahead of them. “I mean, you’re down 2-0 heading on the road,” Joe Mazzulla said. “So, you have an understanding of you’re environment. What you’re up against.”
Not a single person in the organization is happy about what transpired over the last week. Two crash-out endings erased any semblance of a smile from the faces of anyone in green and white.
Every possible opportunity the Celtics had to close it out, they wasted. Every possible opportunity the Knicks got to surge forward, they snatched. One failure. One success. And once Boston’s crumbling commenced, nothing that happened before the fall mattered.
And it still doesn’t. It can’t.
“The playoffs is like an emotional roller coaster,” said Tatum. “You can't get too excited or too down to yourself from game to game. The really good teams don't do that. So, look in the mirror, understand that we put ourselves in this position.”
“What has already happened has happened, and the only thing that we can control is Thursday and Game 3. And it's going to be a good one.”
The Celtics know history has still yet to be written
Any pre-series talk is gone. The concept of ‘being favorites’ is out the window. And it goes against everything Mazzulla believes in.
“You just can't have an expectation that it's supposed to go the way that you want all the time,” Mazzulla said. “And I think there's actually a sense of, you could be very prideful and thinking, 'Oh, who are we that we're allowed to be down 0-2?' And so I think you have to eliminate that pride and have an understanding of, this is the way that it is.”
Simultaneously, the talk of the future has yet to be written. Stories are told with the complete picture in mind. Two more losses, and five years from now, the story will tell the beginning of the end. Four wins, and the story will detail a tale of mental fortitude.
It’s all up to the Celtics.
“At the same time, people don't become who they say they want to become unless they transition these moments into greater moments,” he continued. “And that may not be this year. It could be just in life itself. But you can't just have a pride and entitlement that we're holier than now that we're not allowed to be down 0-2. This is the situation that we're in. So, we have to have an understanding of why we're in it, and we got to fix it, and we have an opportunity to fix that.”
And they’re ready for it all.
‘So, yeah, I do relish that, because these moments are all forgotten if you transition them into taking advantage of the opportunity that you have,” said Mazzulla. “If you don't, then you have to use it as an opportunity for the journey that you're on. But we have to go into Saturday's game and win the game. That's just the way it is. We have to win.
“We have to win, we have to do what it takes to win, and we have to put ourselves in position to do that. And it's gonna be a tall task, but we're ready for it, and there's no better people I'd rather do it with than the guys in the locker room and our staff.”