Boston Celtics: Good news and bad news ahead of postseason run
By Gio Rivera
The Boston Celtics officially punch their ticket into the 2020 NBA playoffs with a 114-111 win against the Indiana Pacers Tuesday night.
Following a nail-biting, barely enough, three-point victory over the current fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers, the Boston Celtics alas have officially clinched their spot in the 2020 NBA postseason.
A feat Boston should’ve reached against the Utah Jazz or Oklahoma City Thunder the nights of action prior, yet continuously delivered concerns of an inability to close out games late in the fourth despite attaining early double-digit leads over opponents.
Punching their playoff ticket for the sixth consecutive season was something the C’s made just that much harder on themselves, and the story wasn’t anything different in Indiana either.
Boston began the night was a very efficient first half from the field, shooting 44.4 percent (20-for-45) from the field, 40 percent from three-point territory (8-for-20), and went perfect from the line on 11 attempts. Jayson Tatum led the way with a 20-point first-half off 63.6 percent shooting from the field on 11 attempts. That 20-point first-half was the 12th notched by Jayson Tatum in his NBA career, and the seventh since 2020.
The second half, leading to the later quarters, followed the unfortunate trend of a recent downward stretch for the Celtics as inefficiency made its presence on the floor.
In the third and fourth quarters, the Celtics would fall, allowing Indiana to soon erase a 19-point deficit Boston built by halftime. There the C’s would shoot 72.7 percent from the line, missing three free-throws, and also shoot 29.4 percent from the outside as they missed 12-of-17 three-pointers.
Last night’s victory in Indiana best exemplified what we can pen the Boston Celtics as for the season entirely. A team with more than enough upside to be appropriately labeled as an NBA Finals contender.
However, with that being said, they have also got just the right amount of downside to play crucial and serve as the anchor that sinks their ship in the playoffs.