In two games, the Celtics have produced two polar opposite performances. On Sunday, they exorcised their demons known to most as the 10-seeded Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry, liquidating them by 52-points without Kristaps Porzingis and prompting ESPN’s Steven A. Smith to apologize to America at halftime.
Two nights later, as if none of that even mattered, the Celtics blew a 22-point lead in nine tiny-little minutes to the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s a tough loss, but sometimes the other team just has the best guy in the game: Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade. Nobody would blame the Celtics for losing to such a legendary figure, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter to heroically lead another gloriously comeba—
(Checks notes) Dean? You mean Dwyane, right? It says Dean—guys can we get a proofreader and a fact checker on these notes before I get them?
(Proofreader and fact checker checks notes) It’s actually Dean?! Like Kansas State’s own Dean Wade?! You’re telling me—I’m sorry…. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THE CELTICS LOST TO A 20 POINT FOURTH QUARTER FROM… DEAN WADE!?
I don’t even know what to say about what transpired Tuesday night. This Celtics team has been the president, CEO, CFO, and founding partner of Slamming the Door LLC. For 11-straight games, the Celtics weren’t a basketball team, they were a T-1000 Terminator, activating kill mode in the fourth quarter to refuse comebacks like a bouncer at a German club refuses someone in a hoodie and track pants.
Each team has one or two losses like this every season, but some would say this Celtics team faces expectations that just do not allow for this level of buffoonery. “Dean Wade 20-point fourth quarter propels Cleveland in furious comeback” is a headline so outrageous that I’d think it was written by an AI chatbot who is randomly generating NBA-related content for Sports Illustrated.
Those expectations demand a higher degree of precision, and thus such a choke-job is wholly unacceptable. On that, we can all agree. But that misses the main problem the Celtics currently face with their fans, myself included:
We don’t have expectations for this team. We have demands.
There are no more excuses. None. The Tatum-Brown Celtics have arguably been the single most consistently competitive team since the Tim Duncan-era Spurs, yet continuously lose at the hands of absolutely ridiculousness like Jordan Poole hitting half-court shots or Caleb Martin becoming Tracy McGrady.
“Championship expectations” is a word that suggests the Celtics are expected to win a title, and if they don’t, everyone will be disappointed. But I wouldn’t say I expect them to win the title, nor would I guess many others would.
I do, however, demand that they win the title. This is Boston, not some tiny horticultural village in the south of Finland rooting for a 273-year-old soccer team that hasn’t won since the Jefferson Administration. No one is just happy to be here, and success is not a luxury or a treat. It is formally requested, first politely, then impolitely, before becoming a full-fledged demand.
Nevertheless, losses like this produce incredibly divisive responses, with the fervent desire and audible demand for a championship washing out any sense of rationality. Some are ready to cry apocalypse and declare that this team fails at several important clichés: “they just aren’t tough enough” or “they don’t execute well enough down the stretch.” Perhaps they “need to tighten up.”
This is the basketball-fan equivalent of not knowing the answer on a multiple choice test and just circling the space between B and C and hoping your teacher gives you the benefit of the doubt, thus improving your chances to 50 percent. You still don’t know the answer, but your odds of appearing to know the answer have just doubled.
That response usually elicits an even more annoying counter-response, in which various fans, media members and fan accounts will all post the same relative sentence across social media: “Wow, guys. I didn’t realize the _______ (insert amazing Celtics record) Celtics season ended with one loss in March.”
It doesn’t matter who’s right because both reactions represent my least favorite thing about discourse between human beings: telling each other how to feel. Freaking out about blowing a massive lead to Dean—not Dwyane—Wade is a completely understandable feeling, and everyone should be allowed at least 24-hours of unmolested freak out.
Remaining calm is likewise admirable, but it becomes unreasonable if one demands everyone else remain calm alongside them. Being a Celtics fan is fun specifically because one can experience such a dramatic range of emotions about something they have no control over and then go back to their lives when it’s all over. Demanding a championship is fine, but demanding that everyone calm down isn’t.
If you read all this way and want to know where I stand, I’m not really sure. I’m certainly calmer than I was last year when this stuff was happening, though there is a part of me that still finds sketchy losses hugely concerning given the highly-emotional nature of this team. Will they bounce back from this disaster like they have every time this season? I have every reason to think so, but it’s always possible this turns into a tailspin that sees the Celtics looking vulnerable even at the top of the Eastern Conference. But no need to worry about that unless it actually happens.
I, for one, will be trying to develop a zen master mentality over this next month. I’m not in control, and that’s okay. Excuse me while I go repeat that 17 times while practicing deep breathing.
