On Saturday May second, the Boston Celtics were eliminated by the Philidelphia 76ers in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The second-seeded Celtics came into the series as the favorites, with 87% of bettors predicting that the Celtics will eliminate the seventh seeded 76ers. However, the Celtics lost this series in 7 games on their home court, despite having a commanding 3-1 lead. This left Celtics fans frustrated and now the question is, what went wrong?
The Cetlics came into this series with something to prove. In the previous season, Celtics star Jayson Tatum tore his achilles in heart breaking fashion against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals. Tatum made a historical return in just 10 months to a Celtics team who beat all odds and were the second seed in the eastern conference. The Celtics dominated game one, winning the game 123-91. Many people believed that this game represented how the series would go; the Celtics winning with ease. However, this wasn’t the case for the whole series.
In game two, the momentum was on the Celtics side. Both teams came out of the first quarter ready for battle with the score at the end of the quarter28-25, Celtics. However, the Celtics fell apart, allowing 37 second quarter points. The second game of the series ended with a final score of 111 – 97, Philadelphia taking it home. The Celtics went 13/50 from the three this game, which seems to be a common result when the Celtics lose games.
Thankfully, the Celtics managed to bounce back in a much closer game three, winning 108-100. The three pointer was on for the celtics this night, shooting 42.6% from beyond the arc, with Jayson Tatum hitting the dagger from deep. The Celtics kept this momentum pushing through game 4, winning 128-96, shooting 45.3% from beyond the arc. However, this momentum couldn’t last forever and thing quickly went south for the Celtics.
In game 5, the 76ers had their backs against the wall. All odds were against them on this night with 80% of sports-betters putting their money on the Celtics. The game was neck and neck going into the 4th quarter with the score being 85 – 86, Cetlics’ game. However, the 76ers silenced the home crowed, holding the Cetlics to 11 4th quarter points, while scoring a solid 28 of their own. In another Celtics loss, the team shot a poor 28.2 percent from three, leaving fans concerned with these common results of poor shooting. Although the Cetlics had a 3-2 lead in the series, the 76ers still had all the momentum. The Sixers then took game 6 with a final score of 93-106, with the C’s again shooting poorly from deep.
Game 7 had a lot riding on it. Many counted out the 76ers in the beginning, with them not beating the Celtics in a playoff series since 1982, despite having 6 playoff meetings after. With all the momentum on the 76ers side, the Celtics were only 4.5 point favorites, despite them being the home team. In addition, Celtics star Jayson Tatum took the game off due to injury, which only caused more worries for fans. The 76ers came out hot, holding the Celtics to under 20 first quarter points while scoring 32 of their own. The C’s bounced back the second quarter, with the score at halftime being 50-55. After letting up a 33 point quarter, the Celtics were down 13 going into the fourth. Despite holding the 76ers to 21 4th quarter points, this effort wasn’t enough and the Celtics lost game 7, 109 -100.
This left fans across Boston disappointed with the result of the post season and wanting to know what went wrong with the team. Many people might believe that it was because of the team chemistry being off, Tatum being out, or even the officiating. However, when you take a deeper look, you will find that every time the Celtics lost, they shot under 30% from three while having around 40, sometimes even more every game. This reveals that despite any other problems, the Celtics have been relying on the deep ball all season and this came back to bite them in the end. So, despite other factors coming into the loss, the biggest reason seems to be that without the 3 ball, the Celtics don’t bring enough to the table.
