I know the mood is dark right now, and if you want to stew in your feelings a little bit longer I totally understand. Feel free to move to the next article or rip me apart in the comments or whatever it is you do to cope. As for me, I woke up and chose, …the opposite of violence. I’m choosing peace.
This isn’t blind faith or pollyannish looking only for the bright side. I know how this is going and I know in general the way this is likely to go. Chances are I’ll have to gear up the offseason articles in the near future, and I know that’s where a lot of fans heads are at. But not me, not today.
I’ve never been to Vegas, but I have to imagine that this is how it feels when you lose your first couple of big bets. You have the rest of the time ahead of you, a decent amount of money left in your pocket, and no other place to be. You knew heading in that you’d likely lose all your money, so you might as well play a few more games and see what happens.
Going back to what I wrote yesterday, this team is what it has been all year. They are inconsistent and fully capable of wild swings in any direction. I actually take comfort in that. They can look terrible for a game or two and come back and look dominant the next. They hit all the highs and lows in the first two rounds, why can’t they do the same here?
You knew that the Heat would have a couple of Jimmy games in them. You knew that they would get hot and Coach Spo would have adjustments that keep the Celtics off kilter. I just thought they’d happen later in the series. Like in Miami for example. But there’s still reason to believe that the Celtics will adapt and adjust and win a few games on sheer talent.
Remember that the randomness of this team is somewhat by design. By leaning into three point shooting, you are subject to the whims of shooting variance. Players get hot and cold and either swing can be contagious to the rest of the team. It isn’t that hard to imagine the first quarter of the next game starting off with 4 three pointers in a row that turns into a runaway victory. The catch is that there’s also no comfort in one or two victories because this team is just as likely to blow the next one as well. We’re rolling dice every night with this team. Sometimes you just get hot and stay hot for a while.
So I’m choosing to lean into it. Maybe I’m giving away my cold hard cash to a casino that has stacked the deck against me. Maybe I’m putting my heart on the line for a team that doesn’t have much of a statistical chance. But hey, we’re here anyway. I’m going to be watching anyway. Why not spin the wheel a few more times and see what happens?
You never know.
