Mission accomplished, right?
The Celtics split the first two games out west. They return to Boston for the next two games of the NBA Finals after the Warriors tied up the series with a resounding blowout win in Game 2.
No harm, no foul, right?
No one in green should be in despair after watching Sunday night’s 107-88 horror show, especially with the series even heading to a raucous TD Garden for Games 3 & 4.
Ultimately, the Celtics got the job done, right?
For the crowd who believes the glass is half-full, losing Game 2 won’t be considered a big deal. The Celtics thrive and play their best after losses. They love being on a roller coaster. They’ve been a resilient bunch, and typically rise after throwing up the kind of dud they did in Game 2.
It’s been their calling card all season, and especially during the playoffs.
See Milwaukee and Miami for details. So they’ll take the split and be happy.
For the glass is half-empty crowd?
The aftertaste of the Game 2 loss is rather unsettling.
The Celtics could very well wind up rueing the day they let Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors off the mat.
One would have hoped the Celtics would have changed their modus operandi for the NBA Finals. It might have been nice for the Celtics not to rest on their laurels, already having a Game 1 win in their back pocket.
It would have been nice if the Celtics didn’t settle for a split, even though the Warriors had a heavy hand in evening the series Sunday night.
Per usual, the Celtics just couldn’t stand prosperity, as a close game turned into a blowout in the third quarter, with the Warriors outscoring them 35-14.
Head coach Ime Udoka had hoped his team would “be greedy” and show the same kind of desperation they typically play with after losses, and head to Boston up 2-0 after their stunning Game 1 win.
But after falling behind by double-digits in the third quarter, just as they did in Game 1, they couldn’t muster another fourth-quarter barrage.
Udoka emptied the bench halfway through the quarter.
After a torrid early pace with 3-pointers, the Celtics cooled off. They had no response.
That will have to come in Boston.
It has to come in Boston.
To no surprise, the Warriors played with desperation. They needed the win, got it, and basically got their swagger back behind Steph Curry’s 29 points.
The Celtics, meanwhile, didn’t play with the same kind of urgency as the Warriors. They played fine for a half, but the notion of going for the jugular completely disappeared in the second half.
Their sloppiness and carelessness with the ball (19 turnovers, including 11 in the first half) made it impossible to really put the Warriors on the ropes heading to Beantown.
“We look at it as a disappointing loss in Game 2, a game we didn’t play up to our potential and our standard,” Udoka said following the game. “Regardless of what happened in Game 1, that’s behind us. We had opportunities. Like I said, to give up 18 of their 52 in the first half based off turnovers, and obviously allowed them to be in that situation up (after) two.”
That was before it all came crumbling down in the third quarter en route to the Celtics suffering their worst playoff loss to date.
While Jason Tatum came alive (28 points), others who put the dagger into the Warriors in Game 1 just didn’t have it.
Opening-game heroes Al Horford (2 points), Jaylen Brown (17 points) and Derrick White (12 points), who combined for 71 points in the first game, didn’t come close to duplicating the effort.
And three-point kings Horford, White, and Marcus Smart, who hit 15 from long distance in Game 1, hit just two 3-pointers in Game 2, both from White.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said there wasn’t much in the way of “strategic” changes. It was more a matter of ramping up their physicality and intensity.
The Celtics just didn’t match. They didn’t ramp anything up for Game 2.
Naturally, there’s comfort in heading home, and playing in front of the zealous and fired up home crowd. But the Celtics didn’t exactly take care of business at the TD Garden during their previous two series.
The lost Games 1 and 5 to Milwaukee in Boston. They lost Game 6 to Miami, forcing themselves to have to beat the Heat on the road in Game 7.
So it’s not exactly a guarantee they’ll hold home court, or take two in Boston with the crowd feverishly on their side.
Tatum was asked what had to change for Game 3.
“Just playing with a sense of urgency, I think. Human nature plays a part when you go on the road,” he said. “Obviously it’s a tough environment. I feel like recently we’ve kind of relaxed at home.
“Whether we thought because we had home court advantage, we came out a little more relaxed. Just having that sense of urgency, knowing that we’re at home, but that we need to play better at home.”
The urgency will be there, especially after suffering such a lopsided loss. Udoka, of course, will also have to make adjustments, and push all the right buttons once again.
That’s usually the formula for the desired Celtics response.
“We’ve just got to come out and play basketball for 48 minutes. We do the best we can every single night and it’s gotten us to the Finals. We’re not a perfect team, but we’ll figure it out going forward,” said Brown. “We’ve just got to come out and play basketball. We know the Warriors are a third-quarter team. We talked about it. They still came out and were able to go on a run. We’ve just got to be able to answer, and we didn’t tonight.”
Brown, meanwhile, said at this point, whatever has happened in the past doesn’t matter. It’s what they do going forward.
“Everything that happened in the last series and the series before, who cares? Right now we’re here playing a different opponent, a different team, and we’ve got to look at it as such,” he said. “We’ve got to come out and play our best version of basketball, because we’re capable of doing it. So we’ve just got to come out and do that.”
Too bad they couldn’t have done so in Game 2. They could have really put a serious dent into the Warriors, especially mentally, and really got them by the throat heading to Boston.
And while the series is tied, it just doesn’t feel like they impacted the Warriors much, if at all.
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