The Boston Celtics looked to be on their way to leveling up the Eastern Conference Finals when Grant Williams put them up 96-87 midway through the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, he then made the mistake of talking trash to Jimmy Butler, who proceeded to lead the Miami Heat on a 24-9 run as they won 111-105. While the basketball world got on Williams, Bill Simmons isn’t putting this loss on him.
“Hanging that loss on Grant Williams is ridiculous. The ‘he woke Jimmy up’ people need to get the F out of here. Jimmy has done that all playoffs. And the Celts have blown that exact game like 15-16 times this season. They get out-thought and out-executed in 4Q by any smart team.”
Hanging that loss on Grant Williams is ridiculous. The “he woke Jimmy up” people need to get the F out of here. Jimmy has done that all playoffs. And the Celts have blown that exact game like 15-16 times this season. They get out-thought and out-executed in 4Q by any smart team.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) May 20, 2023
The Celtics have had their issues in crunch time this season and it showed up again here. Scoring just 9 points in over 6 minutes of play is simply not good enough and while Williams may have caused Butler to go off, he wasn’t responsible for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown being no-shows in the fourth quarter.
Tatum hasn’t made a single field goal in the fourth quarter in this series while Brown only made one in the fourth in Game 2. If your two stars melt in the big moments, then you’re not going to win, especially against a Heat team that is just on fire at the moment.
Is This Series Already Over?
The Heat are now in total control of this series after winning two games in Boston and you’ll have a hard time finding reasons to be optimistic of the Celtics’ chances to turn things around. Sure, they have won four of their last five road games in these playoffs but the Heat are a perfect 5-0 at home.
Winning one game in Miami might still have been doable but winning two out of three just seems highly unlikely, which is why winning this game was so important. The Celtics only have themselves to blame for this disastrous defeat and it appears their bid to get back to the NBA Finals is going to fall just short.
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