The Celtics started their semifinal series against the Bucks with a lethargic effort. Unfortunately, the same uninspired energy also carried over to the announce team.
Mark Jones and Doris Burke were on the call for Game 1 Sunday, and weren't at their best. For starters, it was difficult to hear them at times, due to some apparent sound mixing troubles. And when they were audible, they didn't add much insight and missed some basic points, such as not mentioning Marcus Smart's absence when criticizing the Celtics' defense.
Speaking of which, Burke caught some flak for her overzealous praise of Al Horford when he blocked Giannis Antetokounmpo in the third quarter, and caught a lot of extra hand.
"Look at that — that's just beautiful defense by Al Horford," she said.
Not quite.
A respected and knowledgeable analyst, Burke is usually on top of the action and the teams she's covering. But on Sunday, she relied a little too heavily on cliches. Several times, we heard about how much "passion" Bobby Portis was playing with, and Burke unfairly criticized Payton Pritchard for taking open threes. While Pritchard was horrible beyond the arc Sunday, he was strong from distance all season long — just like Burke is usually strong behind the mic.
The Celtics and ESPN's broadcast crew could use some improvement before Game 2.
