SYou know the situation from the two previous rounds: the overpowering feeling that you no longer have any buffer for mistakes and breakdowns if you want to achieve the really big goal of winning the championship. Because in the quarter-finals of the North American basketball league NBA against the defending champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics were 2-3 down after five games. They still progressed because they were able to tap into enough energy reserves in games six and seven.
Two weeks ago in the semi-finals there was a comparable constellation against the Miami Heat: again it was about giving everything in the seventh and decisive fight. Again it was enough. If only just.
The fact that the Boston Celtics are also 2: 3 behind in the final series against the Golden State Warriors and that it is therefore all or nothing in the next game on Friday night (3 a.m. CEST at DAZN) in front of their own audience was not predictable. His squad should actually be in the lead in the interim standings, coach Ime Udoka told journalists on Sunday. “If we would raise our offensive in the right way.”
Fatal tendency to dally
In fact, the Warriors’ prodigy throwers named Steph Curry and Klay Thompson don’t seem to be the problem, whose points the Celtics could mathematically accept if they didn’t make any blunders in attack. But unlike previous playoff rounds, the team, which includes fairly young players Jayson Tatum (24) and Jaylen Brown (25), tends to fritter away the ball. Statistics explain why this is a problem: the team wins almost every time the number of turnovers is fifteen or less. If the value rises above that, the games are lost.
Publicly bemoaning one’s own mistakes may be a psychological tactic to urge the team to be absolutely focused. Jason Tatum, for example, admitted Monday that this is a problem after he blundered four times. But it’s one that doesn’t come out of nowhere. The Warriors take the number 0 of the Celtics in double coverage whenever possible and Tatum uses a lot of his usual freedom of movement.
On top of that, the view ignores an important factor: the opponent’s defensive work. With their good, quick positional play, they force all Celtics on risky ball relays. Not to mention a simple fact: Golden State came into the finals series with just sixteen matches on the clock. Because the team had to overcome little resistance against the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Dallas Mavericks. Boston had to play a total of eighteen often very strenuous games along the way.
It’s curious how Udoka, in view of such a wear and tear of fitness, decided not to use a man like Daniel Theis, for whom participation in the final is “a dream of my childhood”. Instead, the center from Salzgitter usually sits on the bench, acts as the cheerleader for his teammates and has only played a total of 20 minutes in the previous five matches. In contrast, a core group of just eight Celtics is on the pitch almost continuously.
Flights across the continent
The final format, with six-hour flights from San Francisco to Boston and back across the continent, is an additional drain. What Udoka, who was able to shape the Celtics into title contenders in his first year as head coach of an NBA team, does not deny. “Maybe,” he said on Monday. But the substitutes “didn’t produce very much” on the pitch. So he saw no other option than to use the stars longer than he would have liked.
The fact that they are losing their strength can be seen, among other things, from the fact that they are capricious about discussions with the referees. So game six already becomes an indicator of how much energy the Celtics still have in the tank. While the Warriors can already prepare themselves to win their fourth NBA championship in eight years after a dry spell.
The team, which had implemented a culture change in the best basketball league in the world with its speed and distance throws, achieved its last success in 2018. The fans of the Boston Celtics, together with the Los Angeles Lakers the most successful club in the history of the NBA, are already waiting much longer to such a triumph. The team won their last championship (of a total of seventeen) in 2008. They may have to be patient a little longer.
