“We are men of action. Lies do not become us.”
Wesley, fresh out of the fire swamp with Princess Buttercup, looks Count Rugen in the eye and, with a knowing smile, delivers one of the more underrated lines from The Princess Bride. He knows he’s not being returned to his ship, and is instead being taken away to face an as-yet-unknown punishment. There was no need to lie to him about what’s happening.
Just like there's no need for me to lie to you about this loss to the Orlando Magic.
They could have won. They should have won. They didn’t for a lot of the same reasons why they lost other games. They know it.
They've also already forgotten about it. Before I even figured out how I wanted to start this piece, that loss was out of their minds.
This game didn’t teach them some grand lesson. It didn’t lead to some kind of epiphany. Turnovers and an over-reliance on three-pointers lead to the spoliation of winning streaks. Maybe someone with a marketing degree can turn that into a slogan that someone’s mom embroiders and hangs in everyone’s locker.
Other than that, if I may borrow a quote from a certain local football coach, we’re on to Miami.
Sometimes that's okay. They have had plenty of losses, like the one I keep going on and on about in Oklahoma City, that really mean something to a team and that fundamentally changes how they approach things.
Then there are times when you just step in a pile the dog left behind. You don’t look back on your life and remember where you were and who you were with every time you’ve had to wipe a shoe off in some dewy grass. You just let out an expletive matching the situation, you drag your foot in a puddle a few times, and you move on.
And make no mistake, the Celtics certainly stepped in it in Orlando. No one is dismissing the 18 turnovers, because they were the same turnovers that happen when the Celtics play like this. You wouldn’t have had to watch this game for me to look at you, purse my lips, and say “Jaylen Brown had four turnovers in the third.” You’d know exactly the four he made.
It works across the board.
Guys got too involved with the refs. Oh Jayson Tatum and Grant Williams were doing jumping jacks out there.
They settled for too many 3-pointers. Oh they were jacking them up off one or no passes.
They went four minutes without scoring. Oh they were missing layups.
And as I watched these guys talk after the game, I could tell they had already moved on before they even sat down. Tatum tends to take a deep inhale mid-sentence when he’s delivering one of his canned answers, delivering a breathy exasperation by the end of his predicate. It’s almost a “I can’t believe I have to finish this sentence” kind of feeling.
Brown broods when he’s upset. He gets introspective. When he’s happy, or at least not pissed, his delivery is a bit more uptempo. Concern weighs his words down, making them heavier in his head, and slower to deliver. The lack of it gives him a matter-of-factness to what he’s saying, and the thoughts flow more unencumbered.
Of course they wanted to win. And of course Brown didn't want to turn the ball over four times in a crucial stretch when Tatum was dealing with whatever abdominal issue forced him off the floor in the third quarter. They owned their mistakes, as they should. They would have preferred to not make them, to be winners of 10 straight, and to take that streak into Miami.
But they're going into Miami regardless of this result, and the Heat represent a bigger threat to Boston in the short term (we can revisit the Magic next season, when they may be a much different beast). The Celtics will probably be a much different team tomorrow versus today, depending on the progression of injuries.
It’s not that there isn’t anything to learn from games like this, it’s that when the lessons are the same and the circumstances are unique, the acknowledgment is quicker because the NBA is basically one big game of Galaga when you hit the double-digit stages. The games just keep coming and if dwell on the wrong things then the whole thing falls apart.
The catch, of course, is that the lessons have to sink in. No one is going to be perfect, but the hope is that when it matters, the focus and execution will be there.
Every once in a while the dog gets too close to the electric fence and needs a reminder of where the line is. It happens. Just be careful about where you’re stepping around him.