The Boston Celtics are absolutely incredible as a unit. Their defense is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the NBA.
They’ve got a rotation of 8 excellent defenders just waiting to pounce on the opposition. That’s why they’re just two wins away from an NBA championship and, if not for Steph Curry, they’d be even closer.
But they’ve got one Achilles Heel and it’s a pretty big one. It’s their clutch time offense.
The Celtics have been awful in the clutch all year. Now, granted, they haven’t had too many crunch time scenarios where the game is within 5 points with 5 minutes or less because they’ve spent a lot of time blowing teams out this year.
But when they have had crunch time minutes? It’s generally been awful. And we’ve seen that in these playoffs and these NBA Finals. They’ve shot so bad that it even makes Draymond Green look good and that dude has no offense right now.
Let’s break it down a bit. So far, they are a whopping -101.6 in 5 total minutes of crunch time play against the Warriors. That number is bad. Really bad. Even when you consider the fact that it’s such a small number, it still shouldn’t be that jarring.
Aside from about half a minute of crunchtime play in Game 1 before the Celtics blew the doors off the Warriors, Game 4 has been the biggest stretch of clutch minutes in this series.
In that stretch, Boston shot 0-6 from the field. For the series, they’re just 1-8 with that one make being an Al Horford 3-pointer from Game 1. Sounds like a Draymond Green shooting night, doesn’t it?
Now, look. I know the sample is small and I know it’s only two games we’re talking about here in one series. But it’s a much bigger thing than that for Boston.
Don’t believe me? Here’s The Athletic’s Mo Dakhil, a former video coordinator for the Clippers, with some sobering numbers for you stretching back to Game 7 in Miami.
One of my concerns about Boston has been their clutch offense, combining their game 7 numbers against Miami and last night's final minutes against Golden State, Boston is 1-13 from the field. The one make was the Horford three. That is BRUTAL! ONE MADE FIELD GOAL, WOW!
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) June 11, 2022
That means in the last 3 crunch-time situations, the Celtics are 1-13 from the field. They’re not making anything.
So far in these playoffs, only the Brooklyn Nets have been worse than the Celtics in crunch time. The C’s are currently shooting 26.8% from the field in the clutch. The Nets are below them at 16.7% — but that was only through 3 games with clutch minutes. The Celtics have played 11.
Really, no matter what way you cut this, this is bad for Boston. They’ve had major problems when they’ve found themselves in clutch scenarios. And that’s already come back to bite them in these Finals.
Only time will tell if it costs them the series. Luckily, they don’t play too many minutes in crunch time because they’re actually that good.
Before this happens again, though, they need to clean this up.
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