There is no over-stating how devastating that loss was last night. Forgive me if this gets dark, but I had to process this by writing it out. Another epic collapse, punctuated by Jayson Tatum going down with what appears to be a serious (non-contact) injury. This goes beyond a gut punch. It is the worst case scenario and the sum of all our fears.
A quick time-out here to put some perspective guard-rails on this. This is still just sports and all that. Tatum will recover eventually. We did just have the blessing of last year’s title and we are spoiled by rooting for the greatest franchise in the history of basketball. None of this changes that and banners fly forever.
However...
As much as I want to give the Knicks credit for continually fighting back and taking advantage of every opportunity, I put this on the Celtics for giving into their worst habits time and time again. They build a huge lead by playing a certain way, then give it all back by playing a different way. This collapse wasn’t as bad as games 1 & 2, but those losses amplify this one.
Some of that is on the coach. Mazzulla has to steer them back on target when things are going sideways. Some of it is on the players as well, who stood around waiting for a hero to save them. I get that it is hard not to ride the hot hand when Tatum is going off like that, but the offense got too predictable and boiled down to a single point of failure.
Speaking of Tatum, he faces an uncertain road to recovery now. A guy that has been defined by his durability for his whole career is almost sure to miss significant time with this injury. We don’t know the full extent of this right now, but non-contact injuries like that are almost never a day-to-day sort of thing. I’m no doctor, but that looked like the sort of thing that will take several months to recover from.
Technically the series isn’t over yet. I’m throwing dirt on the season while there’s still at least one game left to play. I could see this team rallying together and making one last effort to extend the series. But without Tatum, I don’t see how they advance to the next round, never mind get to the Finals.
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