The Celtics are out of the playoff sooner than expected, which led to an out-of-pocket take from a 2008 champion.
Jalen Brunson led the New York Knicks to a dominant win over Boston at Madison Square Garden on Friday. Tom Thibodeau’s side eliminated the Celtics in six games in the second round, and it left fans wondering what was next, especially after Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury.
That played a huge factor in the series, but Boston still blew big leads and went down in the series when Tatum played. Brian Scalabrine believes the C’s went out in “fitting” fashion because of that.
“… This is probably fitting, maybe, for the Celtics to go out like this,” Scalabrine said on NBC Sports Boston. “Because there was probably times where they maybe cheated the game a little bit in the way that they approached this series.”
One can probably guess Scal referred to the Celtics’ 3-point volume and the way Joe Mazzulla wants his team to play. And while yes, that didn’t help, it might be a bit much to say Boston “cheated the game.”
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Mazzulla wants to play a high variance game. The Celtics can be competitive in every game if they hit all their 3-pointers. They didn’t in this series but did during the regular season, and that’s just variance.
Scalabrine’s analysis also doesn’t give enough credit to the Knicks, who made the proper adjustments and came in with a strong mindset as an underdog. Thibodeau also out-coached Mazzulla with his rotations and matchups he wanted to exploit.
Boston didn’t change who it was, and it didn’t pay off. The Celtics roster will change this offseason, and their play style will change just as a result of not having Tatum.