NBA watchers are still a little shaken after seeing the Boston Celtics blow a 17-point lead and eventually fall to the red-hot Miami Heat in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. This includes former Celtics forward Brian Scalabrine, who had watched the Los Angeles Clippers lose to the Denver Nuggets earlier this week.
Scalabrine was at a loss for words after Boston stumbled into a 2-0 deficit in its best-of-seven series against the Heat.
The White Mamba compared the Celtics to the Los Angeles Clippers, who just endured one of the biggest choke jobs in recent playoff memory against the Denver Nuggets.
“I don't understand how they can fall off this bad. From what I understand about basketball, the Celtics were supposed to respond. They did not do it.” Scalabrine said on NBC (via NBC Sports Boston). “They look like the Clippers out there.”
After dropping Game 1 in overtime, the Celtics did come out swinging and Game 2 and took control of the game early. They were up double digits by the second quarter thanks to starting guard Kemba Walker who seemed to have come out of his personal shooting slump. Walker had a team-high of 23 points and was 9/19 from the field.
The Heat though came roaring out of the dugout in the second half and carefully dissected the Celtics defense. Bam Adebayo had a huge third quarter and the tandem of Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic was a huge stabilizer to push the Heat up in front. This, per Scalabrine, was where the Celtics were supposed to come back with a counterpunch of their own but unfortunately, the hits were few and far between for Boston.
Miami was able to keep Boston at bay and gain a huge series advantage coming into Game 3 on Saturday.
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