Quite frankly, it's remarkable the Celtics didn't lose Game 5 by more. Chalk that up to an impossibly bad 3-point-shooting performance from Steph Curry. No chance he has another off night in Game 6, never mind a night that bad. There's much more the Celtics need to concern themselves with following their loss on Monday, anyway.
Miserable start. Careless with the ball. Poor free-throw shooting. Constantly chirping the refs. Not closing out after flipping the script in the third quarter.
"It's hard to explain that start," Ime Udoka said. "We lacked the physicality early. They took the fight to us a little bit early, and we were struggling to finish in the paint. That was pretty evident early on. I think the second (quarter) we kind of got back into to get it close enough at halftime, and then obviously the third quarter. Fatigue could've played a part in the fourth.
"Poor start overall. That's hard to explain why that is, but we got back into it. … We were guarding well enough. They had 27 — for the most part, they had 19, 17 with a few minutes left, but our offense was stagnant (and) unaggressive."
But just like Curry posting back-to-back poor shooting nights is unlikely, the Celtics putting together another clunker like this and losing three straight is hard to imagine. Still, forcing a Game 7 puts the Celtics in a far more difficult position than the one they were in on Monday.
"All season, it's kind of been like us vs. everybody," Jaylen Brown said. "I look at (Game 6) as no different. … My faith (in this team) is higher than it's ever been before, so I'm looking forward to Game 6."
Derrick's White overused quote from the Eastern Conference Finals is front of mind once again: "If it was easy, it wouldn't be us." The Celtics have handled all the important challenges thrown their way this season, but it feels like they may have pushed their luck a little too far after letting Game 5 slip away.
