Life is about choices.
From the moment we all wake up until we fall asleep every day, we are making dozens of choices. Some are simple (What to wear, what to have for lunch, whether to have another cup of coffee). Some are more difficult (should I confront someone about something that bothers me? Should I start looking for a new job? Is this the relationship for me?).
Make one choice and life goes one way. Make another and everything could be different.
The Celtics have choices to make, too. And the most pressing at the moment is this one:
Who do you want to be?
The answer will determine whether they raise a banner this season, or whether they join the Boston Bruins in the blank stare club.
Who do you guys want to be?
Do you want to be a fast-paced, ball-moving offense that relies on the power of its collective talent, buoyed by two elite-level scorers? Or do you want to be a star-dominated offense that relies on two extremely talented players to do most of everything?
Do you want to be a defense-first team that thrives on choking out possessions? Or do you want to be an offense-first team looking to put up 130 points a night?
Frankly, I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I do know that they can’t be all of these things. I know they can’t spend parts of the game being one thing and then shifting to the other in the middle of it.
Jaylen Brown seems frustrated by the different choices being made by different players. Late in the game, he was pushing the ball up the floor but he had to pull it back.
“I wanted to push the pace but if we’re not running you’ve gotta make sure you take care of the basketball,” he said. “I could have played in transition there but if I don’t have any outlets, nobody’s running, it’s a bad possession. And you always want to make sure your guys are running with you. And right there I just felt I was running by myself.”
Brown doesn’t say things like that for no reason. There were chances in the final few minutes to push and run and try to score some easy points, but after getting caught too deep and turning the ball over, he decided to slow it down when he saw there was no help.
He wanted to be one thing. Other guys wanted to be another.
When James Harden started to show signs he was on his way to a special night, the Celtics made the choice to double-team him from time to time, and it allowed role players to start picking Boston apart. When asked about those role players getting going and keeping the game close early, Malcolm Brogdon shot back at the strategy.
“Well you don't double. You gotta pick your poison,” he said. “I thought we doubled Harden a little too much and it cost us. … Some of them are reads, some of them Joe (Mazzulla) is calling. I think everybody, we're all at fault because that's something that the players do as well.”
They weren’t on the same page and it cost them. When Boston went up 12 with 3:31 to go in the second quarter, they had a chance to close strong and take control. Instead, De’Anthony Melton got loose for a couple of 3-pointers. Tobias Harris was left wide open for another. Instead of starting the second half with a significant lead, they were only up by three.
The Celtics scored 66 points in the paint in Game 1. They had 40 points in the paint at the half and 66 total points on the board, which should have been more than enough to be comfortable. But after the game, Mazzulla was more concerned with the 3-point total.
“We only shot 26 3s, so I don’t know if that’s the best way to go about it,” he said. “So I think it’s a matter of staying spaced, making quick decisions and reading the game. I don’t think 26 3s is a recipe for our success as a team.”
What is the recipe for success? Is there one?
To me, the choice seems obvious, and that's really to forget all of the numbers on either side. Throw it all in the trash and just focus on attacking the weak spots all game long. The Celtics lack a relentlessness that the best of the best seem to have. Instead of bludgeoning opponents with the thing that is working the best, the Celtics seem to make poor choices and get away from what’s working and hand their opponents ‘get out of jail free’ cards.
38 first-quarter points with 26 points in the paint? Seems like 3-point shooting is the problem.
What?
The only choice Boston seems to consistently make is whichever one makes things harder on themselves.
“I really believe that … Embiid being out tonight, as much as you don't want to say it wasn't a factor, I think it was,” Al Horford admitted. “We have to be better. We have to understand that we have to be able to play with whatever happens, whatever variables. But with our team, I've just seen it happen for us for whatever reason. … we all have to look in the mirror with that and make sure that we have to be better for Game 2 on Wednesday.”
Every day the Celtics don’t make a choice about who they want to be as a team is another day the Celtics leave themselves open to another game like this. Every day they don’t find themselves marching in lockstep with one another is another day they leave themselves open to a tough loss.
Until they make this decision, they're just going to keep repeating their mistakes.
