Insane Celtics win probability adds insult to injury in another loss to Knicks

After coming up short at the last second in Game 1 against the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics once again found themselves at the precipice of sending their fans home happy from TD Garden.

Boston was up 73-61 heading into the fourth after winning two of the first three quarters and just had to maintain their lead in a scrappy, low-scoring game of hard-nosed hoops.

… but then, the game started to fall apart.

By the two-minute mark, the game was actually one point in the Knicks’ favor, and after exchanging shots, blows, and fouls down the stretch, New York came out on top, securing the win 91-90 as fans from the five boroughs danced in the streets.

How much should this loss sting? Well, as Zach Kram of ESPN pointed out, the Celtics at one point had a win probability of 99 percent and still lost the game, marking the second time they had a game borderline in the bag only to throw it away this series.

“Celtics had a 98% win probability in Game 1 and lost. Celtics had a 99% win probability in Game 2 and lost,” Kram wrote. “Thunder had a 98% win probability in Game 1 and lost. Cavaliers had a 98% win probability in Game 2 and lost. And that’s all in the last 48 hours.”

Yikes, unfortunate stuff, right? Well wait, it gets even worse, as according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, this loss went against the Celtics’ trend in a major way, as during the regular season, they had the best winning percentage in clutch games of any team in the NBA.

“The Celtics had the best winning % in clutch games this season,” Marks wrote. “Last 2 games in the 4Q/OT FG: 11-58 (19%) 3P%: 5-29 (17%)”

Where do the Celtics go from here? Well, in the short term, the answer is Oklahoma City, where they will now see if the Thunder’s home court treats them better than Massachusetts. If they keep shooting sub-20 percent from beyond the arc and the free throw line, however, a change of scenery likely won’t correlate with a change of outcomes.