This has been a test of the Boston Celtics playoff system. Had this been an actual playoff game, the tone you heard would have been followed by instructions for how to react, including appropriate curse words and places to direct blame. This was only a test.
Joe Mazzulla was pretty happy to have some tough tests recently, remarking that they were able to simulate things that were impossible to simulate in practice.
Well, there was no better simulation of an intense playoff game than what we saw at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Monday night.
“When the building starts rocking, when you're in a home game in the playoffs, that's when special things can happen,” Rick Carlisle told reporters after his Pacers eliminated the Celtics from the In-Season Tournament.
I don’t know if that was a slip of the tongue or just a nod to the intensity in the gym. This wasn’t a playoff game, despite what Carlisle called it, even though it felt like it. The roar of the crowd felt louder. The reactions to the runs and big shots seemed bigger.
And the way the Celtics crumbled down the stretch felt a little too familiar.
“We just couldn't get organized. We had some turnovers, some bad shots that turned into fastbreak transition points for them,” Jaylen Brown said. “We got caught up in the rat race and we should have just settled down a little bit, and we didn’t in that third quarter, and I think that was the game.”
Getting caught up in the rat race is a classic Celtics problem, and it’s one that they have been trying to get past this season. The addition of Kristaps Porzingis was specifically designed to address that, but it’s hard to get the ball to Porzingis on a post-up when he’s in street clothes.
But the Celtics do have other options. Their starting unit is the best in the league. But those options were not particularly great either.
Jrue Holiday might as well have been in street clothes in the second half. He took one shot, two free throws, and had one assist. He had zero, zero, and zero playing all but 18 seconds of the fourth quarter. I didn't even know it was possible for a player like Holiday to do that little (he did have three rebounds) in that much time.
I feel like Ron Burgundy talking to Baxter on the couch. I’m not even mad. That's amazing.
Derrick White started out amazing, and then also faded after halftime.
“I felt like I was horrible in the second half and that led to them getting a lot of easy looks offensively,” he said. “I turned it over too many times for sure … I didn’t manage it the way I should have. I just gotta be better.”
White’s five second-half turnovers certainly did not help things. His fifth turnover basically started the fast break that led to Aaron Nesmith’s run-capping dunk that essentially ended Boston’s night.
Despite most of the things that went wrong, Boston still had the game tied at 105 with two minutes to go.
Yes, they were on the road.
Yes, they were in a hostile environment.
Yes, the Pacers REALLY wanted to win that game.
And Yes, Tyrese Haliburton was amazing, showing off in his first-ever TNT game.
But it was tied. With 1:57 on the clock. The Celtics are the best team in the NBA. They have been to the Finals. They have been to many Conference Finals. They have won multiple Game 7s.
“Sometimes in those environments, like a playoff environment, you gotta remain poised and stick to the game plan,” Brown said. “We took ill-advised shots, we didn't get to the right spots, and that's on our veteran guys to make sure that we're in the right positions and we're poised. It’s on everybody to make sure that we keep control of the game. And I think we didn't do that.”
Here’s the beauty of this situation: it happened on December 4. When all is said and done, this is a December loss to the Pacers. The NBA created hype around it because an elimination was at stake, but the only thing the Celtics are missing out on was a free trip to Las Vegas.
“I wanted to f---ing go to Vegas,” Jayson Tatum said. “I ain’t want to go home. I wanted to go to Vegas, so yeah, I’m mad. Next year, I guess.”
Jayson Tatum let his feelings be known about missing Vegas trip 😅 pic.twitter.com/T9y8DBbL05
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 5, 2023
The Celtics have real problems that need to be addressed, and them showing up in a fake playoff game is a pretty good time to own up to them and fix them. Finding your warts, even if they are recurring warts, is supposed to happen in the “2023” portion of the 2023-24 season, and the “2024” portion is where the fixing should be completed.
So consider this game a sort of check engine light for the Celtics. It’s one that keeps lighting up, which is frustrating, but right now there's still time to fix it.
“The league got what it wanted creating emotion and headlines and opportunity early in the year when it’s, not really, boring, I guess to watch the NBA? So they got what they wanted,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We had the opportunity to win at something and we didn’t do it. …
“Whether this was an in-season tournament game or the NBA Finals, the same things are gonna win and lose games. So it’s just get back to the drawing board and build the mindset and those habits on how can we be the first quarter team for longer periods; the first half team for the entire game?”
At some point, these guys are going to have to figure all that out, or else the season will be as disappointing as the unintentionally depressing tag line Brown came up with for an official team sponsor.
"We're not going to Vegas,” he said. “But I guess we'll have to settle for Encore in Boston."