Plenty of blame to go around

Game Seven literally turned Monday night  when Jayson Tatum’s ankle twisted on the Celtics’ very first possession of the night. It was game over after that. It shouldn’t have been, but it was. These are your 2022-23 Celtics.

The Celtics were looking to become the first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series, yada, yada, yada. After Game 6’s storybook ending, it was already a foregone conclusion that the Celtics were going to do what had never been done before. Cue all the 2004 Red Sox highlights when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the arch-rival Yankees. This was a done deal. They just had to go through the motions in Boston. Heck, would it have surprised anybody if the Heat didn’t even show up?

Alas, Jayson Tatum is no Curt Schilling. Tatum was not able to overcome his ankle injury and he would be a non-factor the entire night, despite playing 42 minutes. The stage was set for Jaylen Brown to step into the spotlight. Instead, Jaylen staggered, stumbled, tripped, and fell when the blazing lights turned his way.

The Celtics, as a team, reverted back to their bad habits which cost them the first three games of this series and which plagued them in the Philadelphia and Atlanta games. The Celtics lacked cohesion. There was zero ball movement. There was too much “hero ball” going on. Brown tried taking on the entire Miami defense by himself, rarely passing the ball when it got in his hands.

The team lacked intensity. They lacked mental strength. When Tatum fell to the floor with his injury, you could feel the entire team’s will to win deflate with every Tatum grimace. They weren’t strong enough mentally, or were they not willing to rally behind Jaylen Brown?

Tatum and point guard Marcus Smart seem to have a special bond. It is almost as if Smart has hitched his wagon to Tatum and has been more than willing to ride his coattails. Brown has had to play second-fiddle to Tatum his entire career despite being drafted third overall coming out of college - same as Tatum.

So while Smart may have been Robin to Tatum’s Batman, Jaylen and newcomer Malcolm Brogdon seemed to have grown a similar bond. Both were critical of the head coach at various times and both questioned the team’s intensity and focus. They sat at the podium together after a Game 2 victory against Philadelphia. But Brogdon injured his shooting elbow in the first game of the series, and despite making an effort to play in the final game, he wasn’t effective and sat out the final three quarters.

So it all fell on Jaylen Brown’s shoulders. Al Horford was no help. He had begun to show his age in these playoffs. He appeared to expend all of his energy on defense, covering the likes of Joel Embiid and Bam Adebayo, and had nothing left for his shots - shooting less than 30% from three. Robert Williams only played in short spurts, and, when he is on the floor, he is not one to create his own offense. Grant Williams and Derrick White rely on Tatum and Brown’s penetration to the hoop for kick outs for wide open threes.

It had to be Brown to take the reins. There was no other choice. Just like Prince Harry was always considered Prince William’s spare, so it is with Brown and Tatum. And now the King was impaired.

Brown responded with eight turnovers. Could it be that he has the yips? Old time baseball fans can remember second basemen Steve Sax and Chuck Knoublach, inexplicably, being unable to make the short throw from second base to first base late in their careers. Red Sox fans remember pitcher Daniel Bard going from being a lockdown 8th inning setup man, to a guy who kept throwing pitches to the backstop. Same for St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher, Rick Ankiel. Have you ever seen Charles Barkley swing a golf club? That is the definition of the word “yips.”

Could that be Brown’s problem? The yips. Could that explain how a player with such a pure shot struggles from the free throw line late in close games? Could that be why he sometimes appears to be playing on skates when he penetrates to the hoop in critical games? He may not have it to the extent of the players listed above, but he has it to an extent that it keeps him from joining the elite tier of NBA players.

As easy as it is to blame Brown, coaching has to be served a huge piece of the blame pie. Coach Joe Mazzulla was asked after the game if his team’s poor shooting from three makes him reassess his philosophy of relying so much on the three. He quickly and succinctly replied, “No.” Next question.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Brogdon who only played seven minutes, but for some reason was at the podium after the game, when asked basically the same question, replied that teams win championships with defense, not by focusing their teams around their offense. He mentioned that good defense will beat good offense most every time - noting that the Celtics had the best offense in the league. Sounds like a burn to me.

It is the three-point happy philosophy that cost the Celtics the game. It was also what caused Tatum’s ankle injury. If you go back to the play, Horford penetrated to the hoop and appeared to have an easy bunny in the lane, but instead passed it to Tatum in the corner - who tried to penetrate to the hoop.

This is what the NBA has become. I gave up a long time ago complaining about it. I see three pointers more in a season now than I ever did watching basketball in the entire 1980s. It used to be a strange thing to see Danny Ainge, Scott Wedman, or Michael Cooper shoot a three. Now you have every center in the league doing it. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar only made one three-pointer (in 18 attempts) during his entire 20-year career.

Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors changed all that. Players like Jimmy Butler and Embiid are now the anomaly - guys who have a consistent mid-range game. The problem is that these teams live and die with the three, and it doesn’t have to be that way. These are, humbly, the greatest basketball players on the planet. They should be able to hit 15-foot jumpers upwards of 70% of the time. So why pass it out in the hopes of a guy making a 24-footer 40% of the time. I know the numbers guys, the sabermetricians, will tell you in the long run you score more points by shooting threes, but not when you are shooting 21% from three like the Celtics did in Game 7. You need to have a Plan B.

The Celtics offense, all too often, seemed to come down to whoever has the ball crossing half court is going to be the one to shoot. Do they have any plays designed? Or is everything one-on-one? End of period plays were always Jayson Tatum holding the ball at midcourt until there are ten seconds left, dribbling between his legs four or five times in rapid fire succession until there are three seconds left, then pulling up for a three. Every time!

Good coaches adjust. Mazzulla cannot be so stubborn and stand-offish when faced with the question of re-examining his philosophy. His team needs to be taught that it is okay to take the easy two points. His teams need to be taught to pass the ball. Maybe the Celtics need to hire Gene Hackman from Hoosiers. Nobody shoots until you pass the ball three times. The team needs to go back to the basics of defense. Miami shot only six free throws on Monday night. What does that tell you? No, not that referees suck. It tells you the Celtics were not contesting shots and were, instead, giving up easy layups and dunks.

And Mazzulla needs to hold his players accountable. It is noble for Mazzulla to take the blame for not getting the team ready, but these are millionaire professionals. Mazzulla’s job should be to bring the team together. Take the team to the movies like Belichick used to do. Go bowling. Build some kind of team chemistry. His job should not be to motivate players for a Game 7 for the chance to go to an NBA Finals. Have some pride, Celtics! Show a little heart.