Game 7 tomorrow night at 8pm versus the 76ers, who would have thought? Unfortunately, the worst case scenario for Celtics fans has come true. The Celtics will have to try and close out the young, recently down and out 76ers team at the TD Garden.
I honestly don’t even know where to begin. This series should have been rapped up in 6 games at the most, but instead, the Celtics allowed their opponents to live for a 7th game.
How did we even come to this? For a team that has the experience its gained over the past 5 years, it’s inexcusable that we should even be talking about a Game 7.
Is it the old legs? Is it the list of injuries the Celtics have had to endure, and most recently losing their best defensive player in Avery Bradley? Or the lack of execution both offensively and defensively late in games? It could be a bit of all these elements, but one factor that I did not expect to be a problem in this series is coaching mistakes.
Throughout this series, Doc Rivers has made some questionable calls. First, making Rondo foul with 20 seconds remaining in Game 2 when the Celtics had a chance to have the ball with about 6 seconds barring an offensive rebound. Then, not playing Greg Steinsma much on the road in this series, which I think he really needed to be out there in Game 6 since Ryan Hollins wasn’t doing much. And lastly, bringing in Marquis Daniels into the game for Ray Allen with about 5 minutes remaining in Game 6. Usually thats a good coaching call, but when you factor in that Daniels has only played 7 minutes in the entire series, how does Doc expect him to come up big especially in the 4th quarter?
Don’t get me wrong, I like Doc Rivers as a coach, but clearly he has made a few errors throughout this series.
Since we can’t change anything about this series, we just have to look forward to Game 7. The Celtics will have to come out early and pretty much dominate every aspect of the game. They will have to rebound, which they haven’t done well lately, run the fast break, and play solid defense instead of watching their man dribble right past them to get an easy layup. The lack of rotation on the defensive end for the Celtics have been horrendous. They’ll have to do much better if they want to win tomorrow.
In most series that we have had to play a Game 7, I’m very confident in our chances. Right now, I’m concerned. The 76ers have already beaten us on our home court once in this series, and with that they will feel confident coming into the game. For the Celtics, the injuries have piled up so much, that I really don’t know if they even have the horses to go much further even if they win Game 7.
The thing that concerns me more is the fact that the Miami Heat will be resting while we are playing a Game 7. While I’m not very confident in the Celtics chances tomorrow, I do think we’ll win. The Celtics are home which should give them the advantage, but in this series, anything is possible.
One thing that Celtics fans everywhere are talking about, is the possibility of tomorrow being the last game in the Big 3 era. I refuse to give in and start talking about it now. If we lose, then it will have to be mentioned, but leading up to Game 7, the thought of victory and advancing onto the Eastern Conference Finals is all I want to think about right now. So lets go Celtics and lets make one more magical run for Banner 18!
