C’s squander shot at seed
One-point home loss to Thunder reverberates beyond Garden
It was Celtics-Thunder, but it was more than that. If the scoreboard above the center court leprechaun were being honest Sunday, it would have included a side panel with the current Eastern Conference seedings and mentioned how this outcome could reverberate well beyond the Garden walls in the event of a loss.
Coaches are fond of pointing out that no one game means more than another in the 82-game marathon. But the Celtics are now dribbling up Headache Hill after a dumbfounding 105-104 loss to Oklahoma City.
They had the ball and a 1-point lead with 13.8 seconds left. Then Dennis Schroder stole the ball from the ultra-reliable Kemba Walker and scored with 8.5 on the clock.
The crowd that had risen to its feet in the thrilling final moments now stood stunned. When Jayson TatSo um couldn’t score over Chris Paul, many of the same people who had hooted on their heroes after recent losses could manage on to murmur in disappointment as they headed for the exits.
And it was about more than this one outcome.
With a road trip to Indiana and Milwaukee next on their itinerary, the importance of not losing further touch with second-place Toronto was brought into greater relief. So this one could very well leave a mark.
In losing three straight at home on their way into this one, the Celts have become infamous for squandering that which they have earned. They blew leads of 17, 21 and 11 against Houston, Brooklyn and Utah, respectively.
So the Shamrocks needed this, too, for their own mental well-being.
Here they were ahead by as many as 18, and while they did give that up to trail early in the last quarter, it appeared they had gathered themselves late and steered out of this skid.
Down to just one missing starter here (Jaylen Brown), the C’s still couldn’t get it done.
The warnings were heard early, though the Celtics surely knew the stakes as they took the floor.
But as they began the second quarter in a 29-26 deficit, a voice from somewhere in the stands behind their bench cut through the early evening.
“If you want a championship, let’s go,” the fan shouted.
And the Celts seemed to heed that call for a while as Gordon Hayward immediately pulled up and hit a jumper. And there was more good bucketry for a time, too.
Where there had been forced jumpers early in the shot clock and, therefore, poor defensive floor balance against Utah two nights prior, now you had Walker driving to the hoop and sending a slick pass to the oncoming Robert Williams for a dunk and a sixpoint second-quarter lead. And on the next possession, there was Walker smiling with the ball up top after missing a chance to drive. He then hit Williams again on a play that led to two free throws.
And while there seemed to be more and better offensive execution and a sense of rock-sharing that was largely absent against the Jazz, there was also defense. A bunch of it — for example, Hayward as beastly rim protector, stuffing a Danilo Gallinari drive in the second quarter.
A little more than a minute later, Hayward displayed the absence of hesitation that made him a max-level free agent — and which hasn’t been a consistent enough part of his game here. He set up in the right corner as Marcus Smart hurried the ball over midcourt, took the feed and drilled a 3-pointer. It was evidently catchy. The Celtics recorded treys on their next four possessions, as well, with, in order, Tatum hitting a pair then Daniel Theis. Hayward closed out the bombing run two minutes and 25 seconds after it began, converting a 26-footer off a Tatum pass.
The Celts’ lead went from five to 18, but they committed two of their mere three first-half turnovers in the last minute of the period to guide the Thunder by the hand to the final seven points of the frame.
What, you thought the C’s were going to make this easy on themselves?
First they made it uncomfortable. Then they made it difficult. And as their layups inexplicably came up short in crunch time, they made their task essentially impossible.
There is still time for quite a bit to happen, still 19 games to play musical chairs in the standings. The numbers, with a nod to probability, say the Celtics could still slip into the fourth seed and be looking at a second-round series against Milwaukee — an exercise that brought their unceremonious demise last season and would be odds-on to do the same this year.
But even remaining in third could make for a precarious situation should they get past the opening round versus Indiana or Philadelphia. I mean, how comfortable would you — or the Celtics even — be about going from there to a best of seven against the playoffhardened Raptors with a potential of four of those games being in Toronto?
As the season moves to within some six weeks of the playoffs, the Celtics are moving in an uneasy direction.