Basketball News

A missed golden opportunity for the Celtics

The Celtics had however been clear: they wanted to quickly end the series against Atlanta to avoid the misadventures of last season, with series that lasted a long time and bodies that suffered from stringing matches.

This Game 5 at home against a private team of Dejounte Murray had the perfect profile to match words and deeds, and for 36 minutes, Boston did what it took to join Philadelphia in the conference semi-finals.

Then in the last quarter, when they had a thirteen-point lead eight minutes from the end, they foiled. Trae Young did the rest with his team’s last 14 points and the decisive shot.

Trae Young did a lot of damage

“We had a golden opportunity”recognizes Jaylen Brown for ESPN. “We controlled the game for the majority of the time, but Young had an outstanding performance in the last quarter. This last basket hurt us. »

But to explain this quarter lost 37-25, is it really the only fault of the Hawks playmaker? Wouldn’t the Celtics have also fished out of complacency?

” You could say that “, Brown concedes. “We made a few mistakes, a few fouls. We gave Atlanta opportunities to come back. We had to conclude. We kind of let the game slip through our fingers. They took the important shots. When we leave a team alive, we also give them a chance. That’s what we did. »

“We lost the rhythm offensively”

By scoring just 8 points in the last six minutes of the game, the 2022 finalists were very messy at the worst time.

“I think we had some good shots, but we didn’t execute our attack normally”observes Joe Mazzulla for the official franchise website. “We lost the rhythm offensively. We wanted to play faster and finally, the rhythm went away, and the Hawks were able to put pressure on us and cut our passing lines. »

The Celtics will therefore fly to Atlanta with regrets in their heads, but also with new pressure since the Hawks are pumped up and will find Dejounte Murray for Game 6.

“It is in these situations that we show that we are made for these moments”, announces Jaylen Brown, author of 35 points in this fifth round. “This match is behind us, there is nothing more we can do about it. We have already known that. It is certainly unfortunate and we can look for those responsible or take control of the situation. We have a new opportunity to qualify in front of us, two even. We have to be mentally ready for the next game. »

Shots Bounces
Players GM Minimum Shots 3 points LF Off Def Early pd bp Int CT party Points
Jayson Tatum 74 36.9 46.6 35.0 85.4 1.1 7.7 8.8 4.6 2.9 1.1 0.7 2.2 30.1
Jaylen Brown 67 35.9 49.1 33.5 76.5 1.2 5.7 6.9 3.5 2.9 1.1 0.4 2.6 26.6
Malcolm Brogdon 67 26.0 48.4 44.4 87.0 0.6 3.6 4.2 3.7 1.5 0.7 0.3 1.6 14.9
Derrick White 82 28.3 46.2 38.1 87.5 0.6 2.9 3.6 3.9 1.2 0.7 0.9 2.2 12.4
Marcus Smart 61 32.1 41.5 33.6 74.6 0.8 2.4 3.1 6.3 2.3 1.5 0.4 2.8 11.5
Al Horford 63 30.5 47.6 44.6 71.4 1.2 5.0 6.2 3.0 0.6 0.5 1.0 1.9 9.8
Grant Williams 79 25.9 45.4 39.5 77.0 1.1 3.5 4.6 1.7 1.0 0.5 0.4 2.4 8.1
Robert Williams 35 23.5 74.7 0.0 61.0 3.0 5.4 8.3 1.4 1.0 0.6 1.4 1.9 8.0
Sam Hauser 80 16.1 45.5 41.8 70.6 0.4 2.1 2.6 0.9 0.4 0.4 0.3 1.2 6.4
Mike Muscala 20 16.2 47.2 38.5 69.2 0.7 2.7 3.4 0.6 0.5 0.2 0.3 1.4 5.9
Payton Pritchard 48 13.4 41.2 36.4 75.0 0.5 1.3 1.8 1.3 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.8 5.6
Blake Griffin 41 13.9 48.5 34.8 65.6 1.1 2.6 3.8 1.5 0.5 0.3 0.2 1.8 4.1
Luke Kornet 69 11.7 66.5 23.1 82.1 1.2 1.6 2.9 0.8 0.4 0.2 0.7 1.2 3.8
Justin Champagnie 2 11.7 16.7 20.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 2.5
Jd Davison 12 5.5 42.1 28.6 50.0 0.2 0.6 0.8 0.9 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.4 1.6
Mfiondu Kabengele 4 9.1 28.6 0.0 100.0 1.3 1.3 2.5 0.0 0.3 0.5 0.0 0.8 1.5
noah vonleh 23 7.4 45.8 25.0 100.0 0.8 1.3 2.1 0.3 0.5 0.1 0.3 1.5 1.1
justin jackson 23 4.7 25.9 25.0 50.0 0.1 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.9

SEE ALSO:  Darius Bazley on relaunch with the Nets
Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please disable your ad blocker to be able to see the content of the page. For an independent site with free content, it is literally a matter of life and death to have ads. Thank you for your understanding!