Disaster struck twice for the defending champion Celtics in just a span of three days.
Blowing yet another 20-point lead, going ice-cold in the fourth quarter, and just like that, Boston’s title defense is in serious trouble.
But hope is not lost, according to reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.
“Just like we're down 0-2, we can tie this thing back up," Brown insisted in the aftermath of the Celtics ‘dismal 91-90 loss to the New York Knicks in Game 2 of their East semifinal series.
Another deflating loss put Boston into a 0-2 hole, becoming the sixth defending champion to face the deficit in the last 14 years. Of those six teams, no one was able to win the series let alone force a Game 7.
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Brown churned in 20 points, but he struggled mightily from the field after a horrible 8-for-23 shooting and six turnovers.
"Two games, we're up 20 points [and] somehow end up not winning is inexcusable," the 28-year-old Brown admitted.
New York ignited a 36-13 run to turn a 73-53 deficit into a 89-86 lead after Jalen Brunson scored four straight with under 56.1 seconds left to play in regulation.
Jayson Tatum then scored the next four Celtics points – the final two off a breakaway slam — that gave Boston their last lead at 90-89.
Brunson then got fouled and hit the clutch free throws to make it 91-90 in favor of New York with 12.1 ticks remaining.
Instead of calling a timeout, Boston tried to run the same play they did earlier but Tatum couldn't execute as Mikal Bridges — who scored all of his 14 points in the fourth — made a clutch steal and saved the day for the Knicks anew.
“(We) got a good look on the exact same play 20 seconds earlier, tried to execute the exact same thing. They did a better job of their lower pick-up point,” head coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters in the post-game press conference.
Overall, the Celtics missed 14 of their 15 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, got outscored 23-6 in the final 8:30 seconds of the game, and shot a combined 4-of-26 on threes in the last two fourth quarters of the series.
"We put ourselves in position and we just didn't make the plays," Mazzulla bared.
Brown agreed to his head coach and added: “We have the ability to make plays and tonight we just didn’t. That was the story of the game.”
Down 0-2 as the series shifts to New York, the Celtics continue to find solutions to the Knicks and even answers to their own shooting woes especially in the fourth.
“We've got to make sure we're ready to come out for Game 3. I think we're due for a lot of makes. I think we had a lot of great shots tonight that didn't go in. We've just got to relax, take a deep breath and play Celtics basketball,” Brown vowed.
Boston should, or else, they will suffer their earliest playoff exit since crashing out in the 2021 playoffs in the first round.
