The Celtics Played Like Complete Assholes And Dropped Game 1 In Horrific Fashion

Adam Glanzman. Getty Images.

WOOF. That was horrendous. Easily the worst we've seen the Celtics play in 2022 and in my opinion not the best time. All that work to establish homecourt in the second round is gone until further notice, which is not exactly where you want to be. I'd say the Celts played well for about the first 4-6 minutes of this game, got up 8 and then the Bucks made back to back threes and it was all downhill from there. What did I say in the preview? If you turn the ball over against this Bucks team, you die. Well, the Celts couldn't stop turning it over and it led to 25 Bucks points. You can't win with that shit. To put it simply, I saw a Celtics team that was not ready to play. They were totally caught off guard by the Bucks ball pressure to the point where they couldn't even get the ball over half court while bringing it up. What is that shit? 

When you play the Bucks, you have to play near perfect basktetball. You can't come out and shoot 33/36%. That's beating nobody in these playoffs let alone the defending champs. I wouldn't even say their defense was that bad either which is what makes this loss all the more frustrating. The Celts offense looked pathetic against a Bucks team that was middle of the pack all year. Jaylen Brown had maybe the worst game of his season and couldn't even get by Grayson Allen without turning the ball over. If he's going to have more TOs than FGM, the Celtics are cooked. If this offense gets back to settling for threes, not moving the ball, playing with no movement, and instead trying to iso the Bucks to death, it won't work. We got the same officiating bullshit at times just like we knew would happen, and I didn't love how the Celts handled that adversity. Everything was homerun threes on one end and then no stops on the other. The refs aren't responsible for that shit, the Celtics are. 

Instead, the Bucks role players were the difference. Jrue outplayed Smart, the Bucks bench came in and started making every three they took (6-8 start), and the Celts had no answer. The Bucks played harder, they were quicker to every loose ball, and they got this win without a huge offensive showing from Giannis. Even with that, he completely controlled the game which is a bit of an issue. In a game where the Celts needed their stars to show up and carry, they didn't. In a game they needed the role players to be consistent and outplay the Bucks reserves, they coiuldn't. It's hard for the Celts to play much worse than they did in Game 1, and now they know that if they play like assholes this series will not go how we all want.

Perhaps this could be the wake up call they needed, I'm not sure. This is a very unusual performance for the 2022 Celtics but they have no one to blame but themselves. We knew that for them to win this series, they were going to have to play to their potential. That did NOT happen in Game 1 and they paid the price. Now they find themselves in a bit of a hole with Game 2 now becoming the most important game of the series. You cannot go down 0-2. That's why today was so important. Instead, the Celts choked away a prime opportunity to assert themselves in this series.

In fact, the exact opposite happened.

We'll reconvene in the morning, but boy did this game suck ass.