Celtics Review - Game 30
Just when I was saying how much I love Celtics basketball, we go and do sh*t like this. I didn’t get the chance to watch this game, but after checking out the highlights and box score, it’s pretty clear what happened. We sucked. We couldn’t defend, we had trouble scoring, and we just overall looked like a bad basketball team. Now, I’m not worried per say, because I know we’re better than this and that we’ll bounce back, but it’s just demoralizing to lose this bas after such a hot streak of winning. Boston fans have super high standards, and the way we played last night was nowhere near to living up to them.
It all started in the first quarter, where we ended up being down pretty big. That never changed. There were little spurts of hope where we brought the score within 5 or within 3, but we never truly had the momentum back after we gave it up in the first. It just looked like we were super unpolished out there. Ironically enough, we looked like Pascal Siakam when he got drafted. He knew how to play the game, he was super good at it, he just needed to refine his skills in order to compete at a high level. That sentence describes the way we played last night perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, some players did well, but that doesn’t matter in the end because it’s a team game. If you don’t get the win, it doesn’t matter how well you played.
In the end, this was one of our worst losses of the season by far, especially when you take into consideration that Toronto’s best player didn’t even play. We beat the Raptors up bad on Christmas Day, but they returned the favor last night. A part of me is glad I didn’t watch this one, because I would have just been caught in an endless loop of hope that would keep getting destroyed. I also don’t have much else to say since I didn’t watch this one, other than this: we better get our act together by the next game.
Ouch Award - Gordon Hayward
This was a tough one between Marcus Smart and Gordon Hayward, but since this was Smart’s first game back from an injury I cut him some slack. Hayward may have had 13 points, but in the process he missed 10 of his 13 shots. That’s bad, in case you’re wondering. He only went 1-7 from behind the three-point line, and that killed us in a game where we struggled from the field in general. Hayward’s one of the guys I can usually count on to make his shots, and take smart shots, but last night that was not the case at all. I just hope he can come back from that kind of performance and be the Hayward he showed that he can be at the start of the season.
Love of my Life Award - Kemba Walker
Another night where Kemba played out of his mind and yet we still couldn’t get the W. He Scored 30 points on pretty efficient shooting, and yet we still lost by 16 points. We all know what Kemba is capable of, this just showed us even more proof that he’s the only guaranteed All-Star on this roster. I will admit, though, it’s weird that when Kemba does well and others struggle, we lose, but when Kemba struggles and others play well, we win. I don’t know what that’s about, but what I do know is this team is much better with Kemba on it, and one bad loss is not going to change my mind about that.
