The Boston Celtics are on the brink of elimination down 3-0 to the Miami Heat in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, and Boston fans are less than optimistic about making history. No team in the 76 years of the Association has come back in a playoff series when down 3-0, and the Celtics gave their fans the impression that they had given up Sunday nightwith a 125-102 loss.
“When a game gets that out of hand and you have to get up in the morning, the conversation goes on internally [of] ‘Should I be going to bed now?,’” said 98.5 The Sports Hub morning co-host Fred Toucher on Monday. “I could go to bed and nothing’s going to change, but for some reason, I was fascinated. I couldn’t stop. After the game, I couldn’t turn it off. I just kept watching and watching and watching. I was fascinated by it.”
There is a plethora of Boston sports fans and personalities calling for the Celtics to relieve head coach Joe Mazzulla of his duties once the season ends. After all, there are a variety of proven and established NBA coaches on the open market. Most Celtics fans seem to expect the season to come to a crashing conclusion Tuesday night, moribund towards the state of the franchise and ready for seismic changes.
“After the game, the whole Mazzulla press conference and Jayson Tatum wearing that shocking white outfit that he had specifically picked out for his trip to Miami like he was out of Miami Vice that really didn’t ring all that true after you got pantsed like that,” Jon Wallach said. “I don’t know how you could turn it off. It was really fascinating to watch.”
The Miami Heat outscored the Boston Celtics 32-17 in the third quarter, and it led to co-host Rich Shertenlieb sending a plethora of text messages to his friends about the state of the game. In fact, his thumb was sore Monday morning from the action, and he was shocked at the lack of adjustments made by the team. It kept him watching though, almost in a state of shock regarding the downfall of the team.
“It’s one thing to lose a game – we know that – or to lose a series; but sometimes the way in which you lose it just makes you reevaluate everything,” Shertenlieb said. “To be quite honest, if you’re going to lose, I’m glad it’s kind of in that fashion that way there’s no hesitation hopefully in changing and fixing what’s wrong.”
