MIAMI — The weight of Boston’s hubris has finally dragged them under water.
All season long … longer than that, actually … the Celtics have routinely let their perception of themselves cloud the level of effort necessary to beat teams they considered inferior. Content to let their talent shine and carry the day, Boston has routinely let those teams below them on the totem pole out-work and out-shine them.
‘No matter,’ many thought, joking that the good news is those teams don’t make the playoffs.
Except Miami did, and they’ve had a shocking run. Even the most ardent Heat fan couldn't have predicted their team up 3-0 in the Conference Finals, even IF they believed their team had something to offer in the playoffs.
“The ups and downs prepared us for these moments,” Bam Adebayo said after stomping the Celtics Sunday night. “So for us, it's not shocking, because y'all not around, but y'all don't see the work that a lot of guys put in. And it's speaking volumes right now in this postseason So for us, I don't believe it's a surprise or a shocker.”
They beat Milwaukee.
But Giannis Antetokounmpo was hurt
They beat New York.
What a lucky break after Cleveland choked
The Celtics swore they respected Miami in their rematch but that can’t possibly be true. Jayson Tatum sat at the podium after Game 2 seemingly without a care in the world. He was as unbothered by that loss as he was by some random January misstep by a good team facing some scrappy underdog. He was asked if Boston had it in them to win in Miami and he scoffed at the question.
There's no laughing now.
“We obviously wanted to come out and perform better, play better, have a different outcome, or at least give ourselves a chance,” Tatum said. “It's tough. For whatever reason, we didn't have it tonight. At this point of the season, you don't want to say that, but that's on us. As a unit, we didn't play well.”
People are going to look at an eighth seed dominating this series and wonder if the regular season matters as much as it should. What it actually proves is that the regular season is critical. Boston always swore their lackadaisical approach wasn’t a big deal, yet here we are with it costing them in what was a tailor-made run to a title.
And let’s make sure this part of the story is as clear as possible. The path to a championship for Boston was right there for them to take. Atlanta was a patsy ready to be steamrolled. The Sixers are a fraudulent franchise. Miami is a tough team, but Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin should not be torching a team with three guys on this or last season’s All-Defensive team, two All-NBA players, and the Sixth Man of the Year. Boston should have made short work of everyone but not only did they make life harder on themselves in the first two rounds, they’ve now jumped into a bear trap with both feet.
An 11-3 playoff record and 3-0 Conference Finals lead was absolutely supposed to be a storyline on May 22, 2023. I just thought I’d be the one covering the team, not Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel.
Habits are built in November, December, and January. They're honed in February and March. In April, they are on full display for the world to see in the playoffs. Boston habits have been set for a long time.
They went from a gritty, defense-first team that would take pride in being physical to a soft, offense-first team built solely on the mathematical advantage of hitting 3-pointers. Perhaps fitting into today’s algorithm-dominated world, Joe Mazzulla’s formula has become the equivalent of Twitter’s “for you” feed: It looks good for a while, but it can go off the rails quickly and make you wonder what the hell you’re even doing paying attention anymore.
“Normally we respond when teams go on a run,” Tatum said. “We respond, but tonight shots weren't falling, and I think we let that affect us a little too much, honestly.”
That's the epitaph. Here lies the Boston Celtics, a team that let missed shots affect them too much. It can be etched into a headstone in the shape of a Tatum statue with outstretched arms looking at an official in disbelief. Or maybe it can be one of those tilt cards that animates one of Tatum’s dismissive waves to the refs.
Tatum has paid more attention to the officials than his defensive assignments in this series, making me wonder whether he’s preparing for the next phase of his rising stardom: The guy who doesn’t have to play defense anymore. He definitely doesn’t seem to want to play much right now, which actually tracks with where this team is.
“We struggled to get stops, but to their credit, they're playing well above their means,” Jaylen Brown said. “I've got to give them respect, Gabe Vincent, Martin, (Max) Strus, Duncan Robinson, guys that we should be able to keep under control are playing their ass off.”
Yes, Miami is doing just that. Boston is nowhere close. The Heat are playing at a pace Boston can’t touch, despite being fully capable of doing so.
Technically, Boston is still alive, but not for much longer. Whenever their season ends, they’ll talk about learning from this, but it’ll all be one big lie just like the last one. This series is the culmination of all the lies they’ve told all season long.
They swore that they weren’t going to relax when they had chances to close a series. They swore they were going to respect their opponents. They swore the Finals loss taught them what it takes to win.
None of it was true. They think they're better than they are, and the fact that they couldn't even put in the work to make this game competitive is the proof. If they were capable of learning, I’d think they might be humbled into figuring things out, but I have little faith in that.
Championship opportunities like this are rare. As long as they believe things that aren’t true, they’ll keep lying to us and themselves about whether they can actually win one.
