Boston Celtics relaxing or relapsing in loss to New York Knicks?
The Celtics mailed it in again against the Knicks, falling behind by 30 before the bench made the final score look respectable. There isn’t really much to take from this game, but John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal tries to answer the question of whether the Celtics are relaxing to end the season, or relapsing into their worst habits. Also, a look at the playoff picture and why this loss might actually work out come playoff time.
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25 Comments
I get that wins and loses don't matter, and they aren't fully engaged. But this one was at home. Not everyone can make it to or pay for playoff games.
The home town fans deserve better than this. Protecting homecourt should still be something that's done.
Getting harder to podcast after such a meaningless game. I’m with you John on the fact that this team is not last years team.
The only thing I’ll add is the fear that the Jays will try too hard during the post season. I hope someone like Jrue and Al can calm them down and help them just simply execute. I think Sam Cassell helps immensely too.
JB for the most part has improved immensely on keeping his cool and just like he said, physicality and no calls cannot get to our heads. Luckily we have cool headed people like White and Jrue.
It's tough to watch as a fan, but as long as this doesn't happen in the playoffs, nobody will remember tonight or April in general.
It hard to play a proper complete and competitive game when 1. You have nothing to play for, 2. You are avoiding injury, and 3. You don’t want your opponents to scout your offensive and defensive sets. I think the team will be solid come playoffs. They are just in “let’s go through the motions” half hearted mode now and it is obvious. It wouldn’t even surprise me if they assisting teams with seedings based on opponent preferences. Losing to bucks and Knicks solidifys chances of playing Orlando/Cleveland in round 2 instead of New York or Milwaukee for example.
This Cs team will be smoked in the playoffs….there is no coaching and this team is too soft to win championship
Just keep throwing the bench out there, get those guys more reps just in case we need them
I know it's the end of the season,but us as fans still want us to win these games. TNT is our jinx by the way. 😂
It’s not relaxing…that’s the DNA of this team..it is clearly relapsing and with really bad coaching this. Team is going to be smoked in playoffs
It’s tough to watch. But people have to realized all this losing was right after we clinched. It’s normal for contending teams to slow down. Idk when this happened but people are like shocked they’re getting smoked lol. Did you not just see Giannis go down? Possibly ruining their whole season?! I don’t get it lol 😂
After all these losses I think it may be time to blow this up. Maybe try to tank for a pick in the upcoming draft if there's still time for that
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 OH NO THE SKY IS FALLING THE CELTICS DIDNT GO 82-0
After a celtics loss we all look forward to hearing john bc its a therapy session to calm all anger and hopefully ease the pain of a tough loss. To be honest im not all concerned yet bc the playoffs have not started. They have a week to prepare for the long grind to winning 16 more games. This is what we all have been waiting for and its finally here. Lets gooooo Celtics!! ☘️☘️☘️☘️💪💪⚡⚡🔥🔥
It feels like the starters are just playing back to avoid any unnecessary injuries right before the playoffs with home court already clinched. I’m not concerned. The 4th quarter gave me so much life with our bench playing the way they were.
This didn’t worry me at all. If anything it’s just annoying to lose to the Knicks at home. But they are still playing for seeding and just went harder tonight. I am however sick of JT’s whining to the refs. He really had gotten away from it for a while but it’s back & actually worse. Anyway they better win for Mike on Sunday. Thanks John. ☘️🔒
Our bench did great in the 4th closing up that gap. Starters avoided injuries before playoffs and bench got practice. Win-win.
Celtics ended the reg season against the Knicks 4-1. Essentially a sweep of NY because tonight's game didn't count.
I know the loss has no effect on their title chances but at some point, they should be concerned that losing is slowly becoming a habit.
Very well might see this version in the 1st Rd and they'll be history. These dudes,STILL don't get it
If the starters are going to keep half-a$$ing these games then have them sit. Jaylen is literally playing like he doesn't know how to shoot the ball. I'm more excited to see PP and Sam cook than Tatum complaining on every drive for foul calls. Let them sit Joe
Thanks for the perspective John. At the end of the day, hindsight is 20/20… If the Celtics were crushing these last games, beating every team by 30, and then they lose the first game of the playoffs, a ton of people would jump and say that Joe Mazulla should have rested the team, saved energy. Same if any of the starters gets injured.
Yeah it's scary to see the Celtics sucking like they did today but they didn't forget how to play, there are 62 reasons to prove that.
Unfortunately, I have been saying at the entire year turnovers, ill advise shots, lack of effort on the boards, things you just do not turn on and off, especially the turnovers which the Celtics have been doing the entire year. As much as I love this team and have seen many championships out of this team. I am not confident that this particular team this year with all the mental mistakes that are made will be able to overcome them and win a championship, I bleed green, but I’m also realistic and have been watching this the entire year.
if these games dont matter & the starters arent going to put forth any effort whatsoever why play ALL THE STARTERS & even take that risk? it cant be a “rhythm” thing to watch them all brick shot after shot.
cant have it both ways: if the games dont matter, dont waste KP & Al minutes now after managing their minutes all season. dont risk injuries to the starters. dont spend the last MONTH of the season (going back to the Hawks games) developing bad habits.
it’s copium. we all know momentum is a thing & it matters. we dont need another 6 game series against the fucking Hawks because the Celtics have mentally been on vacation for a month.
& saying “nothing comes out of this game” is poor analysis. TWO teams played tonight. no, the Celtics got nothing out of this game & showed nothing strategically, but the Knicks certainly gained momentum & a little bit of confidence winning a blowout against a fully healthy Boston team that they hadnt beaten all season.
please for the love of god take off the green goggles & stop treating this team as inevitable. nothing is inevitable with the Jays, as 1-4 record in the ECF can attest.
even KG tweeted that momentum matters. i know u had a long prestigious career John but KG has a ring. in Boston, not Bosnia. if he says momentum matters, IT MATTERS.
They ll turn up soon this is them in auto pilot
He thinks Miami will be a quick series lol he forgets jimmy butler is completely different player in playoff like an mvp candidate player lol… an they have bam defending with Spo and those shooters it’ll get 6 or 7
Either habits aren’t gonna get them mentally ready for the playoffs. I don’t trust this team in the playoffs