The Boston Celtics will either win or they won’t.
That is the extent of the analysis involved at this point of the series. It’s very Yoda. Do or do not. There is no try.
They know what they need to do. It’s just a matter of doing it.
Jayson Tatum will either drive strong to the rim and play off two feet, or he won’t. Jaylen Brown will either give the ball up before getting too deep and turning it over, or he won’t. Marcus Smart will either organize the offensive attack and make the right passes instead of taking quick shots, or he won’t.
And while this seems to be a flippant attitude to tonight’s game, I think it encapsulates the difference between the Warriors and the Celtics. Golden State does what it does, and while there are minor tweaks along the way, they generally don’t deviate from their “stuff.” They run it, and if someone stops it, they just keep moving until they are unstuck from the situation. From there, they live with the shots they get, trusting in their process of getting to that point.
Boston’s process has come and gone. At times, it’s like trying to watch a video on spotty WiFi. It stalls out as it buffers, then you can barely make out what’s happening when it starts up again with low-quality play. It’s frustrating and unsatisfying.
Earlier this season, when things were going poorly, it seemed like the Celtics didn’t trust each other. That has mostly gone away, but the pressure of the spotlight has, I think, caused players to look more inward than outward and ask themselves if they're doing enough individually to win.
What needs to happen over these next two games is players need to forget themselves and their capabilities. Instead of saying to themselves “I’m Jayson Tatum” or “I’m Jaylen Brown,” the mantra should simply be “I’m a Celtic” and every player should have an equal role in the offense.
The “nameless, faceless opponents” mantra that Ime Udoka preached earlier in the season should be modified to “nameless, faceless teammates,” where everyone is just a passer, a cutter, or a shooter, and whichever guy gets the ball in whatever situation just makes the best play possible in that moment.
Forget the head-down drives to nowhere. There should be no more wasted motion in the offense. If a player moves, he moves with a purpose. Like Ime Udoka said about this early and late-game offense on Monday, “we got a little stagnant again, as opposed to what got us back in the game, which is drive and kick, have them kind of flying around in the third quarter, 10-0 run to start the quarter and what got us a lead.”
I know Boston has big-time players and a lot of the talking points right now are about how one of them needs to step up, but that's not going to be possible if the offense isn’t running efficiently. We can’t get a Tatum 20 point fourth quarter until everyone else has run the Warriors' defense so ragged that Tatum or Brown can provide the death blow late in the game.
“We've fought off three elimination games, won some Game 7s. But you can't just rely on that, that we've been there,” Udoka said. “You have to do things well to start the game, not put ourselves behind the eight ball like we did last game … You have to go out there and take it.”
There is only one way to do that. Boston knows what that is. They've known it for a while.
They are either going to do it, or they won’t. It’s up to them.