The Boston Celtics snuck into the quarterfinals of the NBA's In-Season Tournament after blowing out the Chicago Bulls in their final group stage match, setting up a date with the Indiana Pacers. A late-game meltdown saw the C's crumble against the Pacers, though, and they crashed out of the tournament after suffering a 122-112 loss.
The In-Season Tournament has generally received mixed reviews to this point, but if it's something that the league is going to be incorporating on a yearly basis, it's ideally something you'd like to win. The Celtics made it clear against the Bulls that they wanted to win, as they ran up the score in the fourth quarter and played their starters deep into the game.
And yet, that didn't lead to much against the Pacers, as the Celtics fell apart down the stretch and let their opponent run away with the game. It's a tough loss to swallow, but at the end of the day, the main goal for this team still should be to find a way to win the NBA Finals, and losing to the Pacers could actually help Boston in their quest to achieve that goal.
The Celtics don't need to fret over losing in the In-Season Tournament
Now that the In-Season Tournament features single-elimination games, the Celtics don't have to worry about taking part in the remainder of the tournament. That means a potential trip to Las Vegas is no longer in the cards, and the team can spend much of the month of December in Boston. The C's next five games are at home, and they only have one game on Friday night over the next seven days, which should provide them a great chance to rest and get fully healthy.
It would have been exciting to be a part of the festivities in Las Vegas, but ultimately, winning the Finals is a bigger goal than winning this tournament. Obviously, there's a long way to go until June of 2024, but everything counts over the course of the season. Resting up in December could be what helps this team make a deep run this upcoming postseason.
In typical Boston fashion, a crushing loss on a big stage against a team they were supposed to beat has left many folks saying that the sky is falling. But realistically speaking, this is really only the Celtics fifth loss of the season when you take the context of the tournament out of the picture, they still have the best record in the Eastern Conference, even if they aren't in the running to win the tournament anymore.
As for the play on the court, you can make more of it if you'd like, but it seemed like a simple case of the Pacers getting hot at the perfect time to win this game. Turnovers remain an issue for the Celtics offense as a whole, and it would be nice to see Jrue Holiday find his footing on offense as his struggles continue. But to expect the C's to win every game is unrealistic, and unfortunately, they picked up a loss in a game that also doubled as an In-Season Tournament contest.
Rather than focusing on the remainder of the tournament, the Celtics can turn their attention to those aforementioned issues that have become more and more evident over the past few weeks. Being more careful with the ball on offense is a must, and making sure that Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are getting support on offense from the rest of the team is going to be critical as well.
The competitive nature of the team and their fans would have made it awesome to see the Celtics find a way past the Pacers, but it's not a massive issue that they were unable to do so. Being one of the final eight teams standing out of the gate was impressive, even if it was expected, and while Boston should have won this game, it's OK that they didn't.
The C's will be fine despite bowing out of the tournament, and considering the way their schedule looks for the rest of the month, they could go on a nice little run at TD Garden to help them overcome the sting of this loss. The main goal remains winning the NBA Finals, and in a sense, it's better to get this distraction off of the team's plate. Winning would have been nice, but bowing out of the tournament early also isn't the worst thing either, and now Boston can fully shift their attention to their championship dreams.
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