There are many reasons why the Boston Celtics fell in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat. Some of the most obvious: Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle on the first play of the game and wasn’t right after that, Jaylen Brown struggled to get anything going, Robert Williams was sick, the Heat shot three, Caleb Martin had the match of his life, etc.
In the most recent episode of his podcast, Draymond Green submitted his own theory as to why Boston hasn’t been able to get the job done with its season and a spot in the NBA Finals on the line. Basically, Green posited that the team that spoke and laid an egg on Monday night “is just what we thought it was”.
“The Boston Celtics are what we thought they were… They didn’t look like they were ready yet… All of a sudden they looked like they couldn’t play basketball with their left hand anymore. “
— Draymond Green
(via @TheVolumeSports)pic.twitter.com/LjXMC5PxDs
—ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 30, 2023
“The Boston Celtics are what we thought they were,” Green said with a smile on his face. “They arrived on time and they didn’t look like they were ready yet. All of a sudden, all shots were short again. All of a sudden, they looked like they couldn’t play basketball with their left hand anymore. All of a sudden they looked exactly like we thought they did.
Green went on to say that he saw some similarities between this Celtics team and the team from “last season’s closing game”, which is presumably a reference to the Golden State Warriors’ 103-90 win over them. in Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals where Boston trailed by as much as 22 points and Golden State opened up a major lead by going 21-0 through the first and second quarters. It got to the point, Green says, that “you start to wonder, like, does this become your MO?”