CLEVELAND — As the Celtics finish all of their playoff games, a rare-yet-intriguing trend has continued. Through eight playoff games, the C’s have yet to play a single clutch minute or game, which the NBA defines as at least a five-point game with less than five minutes to go in the fourth quarter or overtime.
Of course, the C’s have played in tight games in the earlier parts. But by the middle of the fourth quarter, the Celtics are either blowing out their opponent or getting blown out. It’s a fascinating trend as some teams, like the Knicks, are playing close games seemingly every time they touch the court.
This time, in Game 3, the Celtics built up a 23-point lead early in the third quarter. When the Cavs cut it down to a nine-point game multiple times in the fourth quarter, it finally looked like the C’s might backdoor their way into a clutch game. But the Cavs never found that momentum-boosting shot, and by the end of the 106-93 C’s victory, Boston went another game without playing in a close game.
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“Just trying to take all of it,” Jaylen Brown said of the win. “I think that’s what we need. I think we just need everybody to be on the same page and everybody to come out with the right effort. That’s 85% of the battle right there. We come out, we play hard and then we’re on the same page and the rest will take care of itself. We got enough talent in the locker room to beat teams.”
As a result of the strange circumstances, C’s fans haven’t had to pace-and-wait for the end of a classic playoff finish. Instead, all eight of those games have resulted in teams just dribbling out the clock for a foregone conclusion. In fact, the C’s haven’t even finished a playoff game that has finished within single-digits. The closest margin the Celtics have seen thus far is the 10-point Game 2 loss to the Heat in the first round.
For now, the trend doesn’t exactly have to be worrisome for C’s fans. The Celtics are, after all, 6-2 these playoffs. And while they have dropped a pair of blowout losses, both of those defeats can also be partially attributed to shooting variance for both the Heat and Cavs. There are other issues from those losses, but the C’s also bounced back with double-digit Game 3 victories on the road in both instances.
There is a point, though, where fans and critics wonder how the Celtics will look in a tight playoff game. In the regular season, the C’s had a great showing as they finished 21-12 in clutch games. For a team that’s been heavily scrutinized in close games in the past, they took a positive step this season. But those questions will again have to be answered in a playoff context — it’s just that the C’s haven’t been able to prove themselves yet with all these blowouts so far. Perhaps they’ll get their shot next time with Game 4 set for 7 p.m. Monday in Cleveland.
“Earlier in my career, I never lost playoff games at home and (expletive), I never won playoff games on the road,” Jayson Tatum. “It’s kind of like the reverse now. I think we just gotta fight human nature. We have the best crowd, we love being at home, but we have to look at it from their point of view. When we go into somebody else’s house, we understand how tough it’s gonna be, we understand how connected we have to be.”
