The Boston Celtics embarrassed themselves during their gruesome Game 3 loss to the Miami Heat on Sunday night, putting them in an 0-3 deficit in the Eastern Conference finals.
In showing a highly questionable lackluster effort, practically allowing the Heat to take control of the series with no fight in response, the Celtics earned themselves well-deserved criticism with their season hanging by a thread. NBA greats such as Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson inserted their two cents and ripped the Celtics for putting forth an inexcusable sorry excuse of an effort in the 128-102 blowout defeat.
“Honestly I don’t care what people think,” Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon told reporters Monday, according to Jared Weiss of The Athletic. “I don’t really care. Everybody’s gonna have an opinion, but it’s about us in that locker room.”
Now retaking the floor in Miami in a do-or-die situation, the Celtics need to put aside all the outside noise that granted, they brought upon themselves by playing laughingstock for the most crucial of moments through Games 1, 2 and 3. Whether or not they will respond — which seems highly unlikely at this point — is solely up to them.
Down 0-3 to the eight-seeded Heat, the Celtics are working against history. Teams are 0-149 when down three games in a best-of-seven throughout the history of the NBA playoffs. So needless to say things aren’t looking promising for a team that was in the NBA Finals last year and was handed homecourt advantage this year.
Perhaps playing like a team with an ounce of pride would be an encouraging start, right?
