When thinking of Kemba Walker, who took March Madness to its logical extreme with a performance for the ages in 2011, “clutch” is usually the first word that comes to mind. How else would you describe Kemba’s late-game brilliance against conference rival Pittsburgh at MSG (RIP Gary McGhee’s ankles), a game that saw him drain one of the most iconic shots in NCAA history? Never the tallest or strongest (the Celtics list him at a generous 6’0”/184), what the UConn legend lacks in size, he more than makes up for in grit and determination.
But the ice veins version of Kemba we saw at Storrs has largely been absent this postseason with the four-time All-Star struggling to get anything going offensively. With Gordon Hayward still working his way back from an ankle sprain suffered in Boston’s playoff opener, Kemba couldn’t have picked a worse time to fall off. The 30-year-old Walker averaged over 20 points per game during the regular season but has cooled off considerably in the bubble. Never were his struggles more apparent than in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semis when Walker netted just five points on dismal 2-of-11 shooting despite logging a season-high 52 minutes in the Celtics’ double-overtime loss to Toronto. The slumping point guard wasn’t much better in the deciding Game 7, bricking all but one of his seven three-point attempts while largely taking a back seat to Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum in the Celtics’ five-point victory.
The start of Boston’s Eastern Conference Finals against Miami (proud owners of a 9-1 postseason record) offered Kemba a clean slate, but the tabula rasa did little to improve his fortunes in Game 1 as the yips Walker experienced throughout the Raptors series carried over into Tuesday night’s defeat. That’s not to say Walker wasn’t useful at times—his step-back J with 23.6 to go in overtime put Boston seemingly in the driver’s seat. But 6-for-19 shooting including 1-of-9 from deep is not what you’d expect from your $35-million-a-year franchise player, particularly in crunch time in the biggest game of the season.
Well aware of the narrative surrounding him, Kemba took ownership of his recent shooting woes (28.3 field goal percentage over his last three games) in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s heartbreaker, agreeing this hasn’t been his best stretch. “I’m just playing terrible, to be honest,” said Walker, who has shot a miserable 5-of-34 from three-point range (14.7 percent) over his last five contests. “Not much I can say, I just have to be better.”
Already a defensive liability due to his height (or lack thereof), when Walker’s jumper isn’t falling and he’s not getting to the free-throw line, there’s not a whole lot the ninth-year guard can do to help Boston’s cause. The good news is that even with Kemba in freefall, the Celtics still had a chance Tuesday night with Miami needing a pair of clutch buckets from Jimmy Butler and a herculean block by Bam Adebayo in the closing seconds to escape with a narrow three-point win.
We know Walker has it in him—he sunk Toronto in heroic fashion earlier this month, putting Serge Ibaka on skates with one of his patented step-backs in Boston’s Game 2 triumph. But if the Celtics hope to return to the Finals for the first time in a decade, they’ll need “Cardiac” Kemba to resurface in a hurry.
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