The Boston Celtics Created This Very Avoidable Mess, Now They Have to Live With It

What’s happening right now with the Boston Celtics could have easily been avoided. What Jaylen Brown is experiencing with renewed trade chatter, what Jayson Tatum is getting from former players questioning why he sat a Game 7, and what Joe Mazzulla is hearing from fans about his job, are problems that never should have existed. 

All they had to do was take care of business against Philadelphia. 

New York might have given them a bit of a beating, and we could have come to grips with that. At some point during that series we would have understood that this was probably the roster’s natural peak, and that getting as far as they did, as impressively as they had, was worth celebrating. 

At that point, Tatum’s knee might still have gotten stiff, which would have been poetic in a way. Brown could have still declared this his favorite season without all the gasps and pearl-clutching. And Mazzulla could accept his (presumed) Coach of the Year award without much question. 

All they had to do was take care of business against Philadelphia. 

The messed around with Game 2, and Brown said. “Any given night, you could lose a game if you don't come out with the right mindset.” 

They had a 13 point lead in the third quarter of Game 5 and immediately let it get away, and then they had the worst fourth quarter of their lives … at home, again. Payton Pritchard said, “We were just a little lackadaisical at times when we could have put them away. We just messed around with the game and when you have a team on the brink of elimination, you really got to put your foot on the gas and finish it.”

They were getting smoked in Game 6 and the end of bench guys came in and made it uncomfortable for the Sixers, even though the Celtics still lost. Brown said, “They just played harder. That group came out, was able to cut into their lead because they played harder. The group before that, we didn't play hard enough."

The wrong mindset, messing around with the game, and not playing hard enough. I’m not the biggest believer in actual karma, but man, the cosmos is really making a strong case for it right now. 

I’ve spent time trying to make some sense of the aftermath of this loss to the Sixers. This roster clearly needed some help, but it was never built to make a deep run. We got more out of Tatum than we ever thought possible, and we probably should have seen some kind of an issue with overcompensation coming. 

And to give the Sixers proper credit, they got some great performances and were clearly lifted by the return of Joel Embiid. Tyrese Maxey is a star, VJ Edgecombe is going to be an All-Star someday, Paul George turned back the clock, and guys like Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes stepped in to have big moments. They made this a tougher series than I expected. 

But the Celtics still should have taken care of business against Philadelphia. If they had done it when they should have, McGrady would never have blabbed, there wouldn’t have been a Game 7 to miss, and there wouldn’t have been a crazy starting lineup to set off the Mazzulla-haters. 

Trade machines are buzzing and talking heads are getting loud about Boston. Even if a lot of it is unfair, misinterpreted, or simple screaming for the sake of screaming, it’s all stuff that never should have existed. The gasoline should never have touched this flame. But it did, because they knocked the gas can over. Now they have to sit in the filth and live with it. Maybe it will get them to break this habit of making things harder on themselves.

All they had to do was take care of business against Philadelphia.