Every play counts - the Celtics needed just a few breaks that they didn’t get

I couldn’t watch the game live so I DVR’d it. I can’t do that thing where you wall yourself off from the world and try to watch it without knowing the outcome. I have to know, so I knew the Celtics lost. I even got a chance to see the last couple minutes of frantic play and the ultimate result of Boston coming up short.

That was disappointing in itself. What was even more painful, however, was watching the rest of the game from start to finish knowing how any single play could have turned things for the better for the Celtics.

What if, instead of rolling the ball in at the end of the first quarter, Marcus Morris just handed it to a teammate to heave up a desperation shot? Instead, Matthew Dellavedova scooped up the ball and floated it in for a couple of points that never should have been.

I’m not one to complain about the refs, but they badly missed a call late in the game when Jaylen Brown was hacked/stripped and the Bucks got the ball back. What if Brown makes a couple of free throws instead?

What if Al Horford finishes that dunk and gets the and-one free throw? What if Jayson Tatum got the ball more in the first half? What if Terry Rozier III hits one more of his 10 three point attempts?

What if, what if, what if? There’s truly nothing that can be done about it and you could drive yourself nutty with this kind of analysis. I suppose I just wanted to vent after seeing the game on DVR delay.

You could flip this the other way and point out that the Celtics were lucky to be anywhere close to stealing this win after the way they put up 35 points in the first half.

Basketball is a game of bounces and sometimes the breaks go your way. More often than not they go the way of the home team. The Celtics still have home court advantage and can take back control of the series with a win on Tuesday. They even seemed to figure some things out in the 2nd half that could lead to strategic advantages going forward. It just would have been nicer to head into game 5 with an opportunity to close out the series.

What if’s are worthless though. Learn your lessons and move on to the next game.