The Celtics entered the playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference looking to get back to their second-straight NBA Finals. They took care of business the Hawks in six games and showed their Celtic Pride to come back and beat the Sixers in seven games.
However, there is no Celtic Pride to be found now.
Boston faces a 3-0 series deficit in the Eastern Conference Final after the lifeless defeat in Game 3. The Celtics trailed by as many as 33 points in the third quarter in the 128-102 loss.
Nick “Fitzy” Stevens and Andy Hart of the Audacy Original Podcast “Breaking Boston” discussed this broken Boston team that evidently has more problems than anyone thought.
“This is a team- and organization-wide systemic failure by the Celtics,” Stevens said (8:08 in player above). “The kind of thing where everything needs to be reviewed, re-examined, questioned, and considered before Game 4, sure, but also heading into what is likely to be a choppy, emotional, turbulent offseason.”
The Celtics were huge favorites in all three of their playoff series thus far. They were still the betting favorites against the Heat after dropping Game 1 at home.
Then it all came crashing down.
“This reminds me of like in the aeronautical world after a plane crash or even after like NASA has a crash, they go back from step one and say ‘How did we get here?’” Hart said. “The littlest thing snowballs and all of a sudden you have tragedy. That’s what this feels like. This team exploded.
“This team is supposed to be rocketing toward space, it’s supposed to be going toward banner number 18 and unfinished business – the cute t-shirts –, and their star is humbly, all these things they embrace. They’re finished. You can remove all the ‘un’s and the cute little graphic design 18s. Toast. Finished. Finito. Doneski. Whatever you want to use, they are it.”
Instead of looking forward to the rest of the series and potentially another NBA Finals appearance, Boston is anxiously awaiting an important offseason.
“It’s like how did we get here? You almost need to bring in an outside consultant in the business world. How did we fall apart?” Hart continued. “You need to look at every aspect of our organization. We had two All-NBA players. We had a coach who’s young and vibrant and he’s at the All-Star Game. We’re doing all these things and then wha-, wha-, what happened?”
The Celtics will be asking themselves what happened all summer long if they can’t stage a miraculous comeback against the Heat.
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