The Boston Celtics were helpless as the Golden State Warriors walked all over them in the second half of Game 2 to even the series up at one win apiece. Golden State was stunned in Game 1 as the Celtics’ supporting cast went nuclear from three-point range and led them to a 12-point win. However, those same players were ice-cold in Game 2 as the Warriors stormed to a win of their own.
While Jayson Tatum had 28 points and Jaylen Brown had a decent outing with 17 points, the others on the Celtics faltered heavily. Derrick White was the third-highest scorer on the team with 12 points. However, three starters in Robert Williams III, Marcus Smart, and Al Horford all had just 2 points in the game.
The lack of contribution from the others was shocking as Tatum and Brown weren’t necessarily having fantastic games of their own. Mediocrity sank the team tonight and the Warriors took full advantage of that.
tale of 2 games for al horford, derrick white & marcus smart pic.twitter.com/1BXzhVJlLX
— buckets (@buckets) June 6, 2022
Role-players needing to step up is something that every championship-winning team needs. There is not a single title-winning team that didn’t have players across the roster to lighten the load on the stars or step up and create winning situations when people didn’t expect them to.
The Celtics players like Horford, White, and Smart over-delivered on the expectations set on them in Game 1, which is what makes their lack of contribution in Game 2 that much more shocking. They made up for Jayson Tatum’s poor shooting in Game 1, but Tatum couldn’t replace the 49 more points they got through these three in the series opener.
Hopefully, the Celtics can find a middle-ground with their role players and get consistency instead of the occasional games of brilliance. There are only 5 games more to be played this season at max, so the Celtics need to find an answer quickly.
