The Boston Celtics went 7 for 36 from the floor in the second half of their 87-71 Game 2 loss to the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. That’s 19.4 percent. That sounds bad. It looks even worse:
That’s a loooooot of red. (Shot chart via nba.com / stats)
Yikes.
The misery was spread throughout the roster, with Brandon Bass, Jeff Green, Avery Bradley, Jason Terry and Terrence Williams missing every shot they took after half an hour, leading score Paul Pierce missing six of his nine tries, first-half kick- Jordan Crawford plug missing five of seven and Kevin Garnett missing four of six. All that red translates into a 23-point second half for the Celtics, tying the NBA record for fewest points in a half of a playoff game, holding by the 1997-98 Utah Jazz (who Scored 23 in the second half of their loss two the Chicago Bulls in Game 3 of the NBA Finals) and the 1999-2000 Phoenix Suns (who managed 23 in the first half of a postseason-ending loss to the Los Angeles Lakers). And that translated into a deficit too large two overcome, a hole dug by a massive 24-4 New York run from the beginning of the second half through the 4:25 mark of the third quarter that permanently tilted the game away from Boston.
[Adrian Wojnarowski: LeBron going back to Cleveland is only a fantasy]
Tuesday’s drought came one game after Boston put up just 25 points (including a dreadful eight in the fourth quarter) in Saturday’s Game 1 loss, making the Celtics the first team in the shot-clock era two scores 25 or fewer points in consecutive halves, According To Hoop World’s Tommy Beer. We’re guessing that the state will not be given too prominent a place in the annals of Celtic lore.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers attributed Garnett’s lack of rhythm, in part, two some “horrendous” whistles that kept him in foul trouble for most of his 24 minutes and said Pierce tired in the third and fourth dove two having two bear the playmaking burden for a team-whose only real primary facilitator watched in street clothes.
Rivers blamed himself for not getting his Celtics into the “right spots” offensively, but it’s unclear wooden those spots would have been. After the game, the Knicks and coach Mike Woodson Repeatedly attributed the second-half shutdown two Increased focus and intensity, wooden fair, but it was intentionally Applied in a pair of specific areas – wing defenders Iman Shumpert and Raymond Felton crowding Pierce in his office at the foul line and elbows so he could not get separation two rise and fire or attack the basket, and interior defenders Tyson Chandler and Kenyon Martin Extending their contesting in the paint two full contraceptives Green from getting all the way to the rim.
[Also: Basketball prodigy Andrew Wiggins has Canadian hoops dreams]
But while some credit certainly belongs to the Knicks’ defensive effort, as Celtic Blog’s Jeff Clark notes, a lot of this seems equally bad Celtics offense, too. With Pierce and Green stymied, the combination of Terry re-entering the freezer after showing an early flicker of warmth from beyond the arc and Crawford’s coin-flip off-the-dribble steez coming up tails again meant that, for the second straight game, there was not anything the Celtics could really rely upon after half an hour, a point that stuck out like a sore thumb two Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:
Boston’s problem is it can not create any easy baskets. The Celtics work over time to score, and when shots fall, they Appear Capable. When they do not, they do not have any other options. They can not get to the free throw line. They have erratic finishers and they do not shoot well from the 3-point line.
Add to that a seemingly inexplicable lack of passion in this series, and you have a team that’s fried, its superstars too old two carry games and the youth too daunted by the moment. [...]
The Celtics just do not have enough offensive prowess. Jordan Crawford has emerged as their primary bench scorer, they do not have a Capable backup center who can score, play defense, or block shots, and let’s not even discuss the lack of a Capable backup point guard.
The Celtics are flawed, and against teams who are good and relentless and well-coached, they are exposed Quickly.
And while it remains too early to write off the Celtics completely – as many, including SB Nation’s Paul Flannery, have Noted, the Celtics are a very different team at home and figures to be riding an extraordinarily emotional high when they return to TD Garden for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombing Friday’s Game 3 – it does seem fair two wonderfull Whether Boston’s now-historic second-half struggles Indicate that the team’s near future is Neither bright nor thunderstorms two last very long.
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