The Celtics may have won this game by scoring more points than the Hawks, but I’m putting this one in the “L” column because they let them come all the way back after being up by hundreds of points. That may not sound fair, but for a team like the Celtics who were supposed to win 67 games, there’s a different set of standards. Just scoring more points is not enough to earn the win, except in the eyes of the league.
By my count, considering the expectations of the team coming into the season, Boston is 2-68 this season. The first of their two wins was versus Chicago on December 8, where the final was 133-77. The adjusted score of that game was 102-101, with the Celtics pulling it out on the back of Daniel Theis’ +50 plus-minus. The second was versus Milwaukee on February 21, where the final was 97-98 in favor of the Bucks. The Celtics actually won this game because I think Kyrie Irving’s game-winning attempt should’ve gone in.
So, yeah, a disappointing season all around for the guys in green. Jaylen Brown is complicit in the disappointment; I was told that he was going to be a star this season along with Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, and Brad Wanamaker. Did the people thinking about how the Celtics were going to do this season not realize that there’s only one basketball in play at any one time? And did they not realize that a guy who can’t really shoot free throws is surely going to regress from three-point range?