Boston Celtics: Lessons all around as 2022 title dreams fall short

The confetti has been swept and the camera flashes have stopped popping. A celebration was had in TD Garden late Thursday night; one that saw the Boston Celtics on the wrong side of history.

For the first three minutes of Game 6 — and sporadic stretches throughout — the Celtics were playing with ease, knocking down shots and forcing turnovers while limiting their own.

Bright spots were few the rest of the game, with the script much the same. Big spurts from the Golden State Warriors while the Celtics dug themselves into a hole, only to bring the game back and provide an iota of hope.

In the end, the Celtics effort simply wasn’t enough.  Not enough depth. Not enough of a star player notching his legacy game. Not enough gas in the tank and, as it were, not enough experience.

Boston Celtics: So close and so far

The Celtics were five minutes away in Game 4 from making this a completely different series.  Five minutes away from taking a 3-1 series lead and one step closer to bringing the Celtics their first banner since 2008.

History has now been written in the other direction but the Celtics certainly have nothing to hang their heads about (for too long). A spirited third-quarter effort was the epitome of what Boston displayed most of the season. Down 72-50, Al Horford had the team on the comeback trail (finishing the game with 19 points, 14 rebounds, and one “crowd to their feet” blocked shot). With it, a sense of hope that maybe the tides would turn.

Much like the last three games of the series, it wasn’t quite enough for the Celtics. Offense efficiency disappeared, and the Warriors hit big shot after big shot.

Boston gave everything they had against a team that earned their fourth title in eight seasons, cementing a dynasty with a trio that has been through thick-and-thin together.

The Celtics have a chance to continue to build with a core trio of their own. Three players that have completed their fifth year together and is now a quartet thanks to the rise in play of Robert Williams III.

This is more than a solid foundation to build from and to use this experience in the Finals to improve. And it’s a team that has a lot to be proud of. From turning around their season in January, to knocking off the defending NBA champions, and to finally getting over the Eastern Conference hump that had stood in the way of Jayson Tatum and others on two prior occasions.

Tatum, as the focal point, will use this experience to learn and grow from, using this six-game series as motivation to take his game to that next level.

Boston Celtics: The stars and beyond

Playing in their first NBA Finals, the two stars for the Boston Celtics had their moments, both good and bad.

Tatum had a chance to show the world he’s much more than just a flashy scorer. His maturity as an all-around player was on display for much of the six games, averaging seven assists per game.

The scorer aspect of his game, however, failed to reach the heights previously seen from the 24-year old. Tatum managed 21.5 points per game but failed to reach 15 points in Games 1 and 6, scoring only 13 in the finale.

One of the oddities was that Tatum had his best three-point shooting in the playoffs (45.5 percent) since a 45.2 percent performance in round 1 of 2020. Tatum’s field goal percentage, however, was 36.7, his lowest since shooting 36.4 against the  Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 Eastern Conference semis.

While Tatum was struggling in Game 6, Jaylen Brown turned in his best performance of the series. Brown had a team-high 34 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. He was also Boston’s leading scorer in the series, averaging 23.5 on 43.1 percent shooting.

Brown also averaged 7.3 rebounds and Tatum pulled down 6.8.

It was turnovers that plagued these two players, with the two combining for 43 in six games. While it’s understandable that these two, who handle the ball so much, will have some turnovers, accounting for seven per game will not lead to many wins.

Tatum, Brown, and the rest of the starting five carried the majority of the weight throughout the series, something that weighed on this team the last three games. The bench, dwindled down to essentially three players with valuable minutes in the Finals, all but disappeared in Game 6. Grant Williams, Derrick White, and Payton Pritchard combined for five points.

And these three had opportunities, but shots were falling up short all game and White had trouble finishing around the rim.

Scoring off the bench consistently will definitely need to be addressed in the offseason (with my hopes that they finally get the knockdown shooter or scorer off the bench this team has desperately needed for years).

For now, it’s time for the team to reflect. Not to necessarily dwell about what might have been but to plan ahead, and to think what can possibly be.