A year ago, Boston posted a 7-5 mark in 12 crunch-time games — score within five points, final five minutes — during its run to the NBA Finals. An anemic 89.1 offensive rating in those games that leaped off the page.
The Celtics seemed to be improving this past season while posting the second-best winning percentage in clutch games and going 24-13 . The dirty secret was that Boston triggered a handful of clutch wins while watching their offense go stagnant and opponents cutting double-digit leads down to single digits in the final minutes.springs to mind — there have numerous painful offensive lulls — and notable defensive miscues — that have once again complicated Boston’s playoff path.
To be clear, this isn’t an “Are the Jays clutch?” column. They’ve had their moments in key spots. But they simply don’t operate with the swagger that Butler oozes in those spots. Maybe they’ll grow into that sort of late-game killer. We’ll keep saying it: These Celtics don’t always respond well to adversity. They have a propensity to drift away from what has worked so well for much of the season.
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