Down 2-0, the Celtics head to New York with more questions than answers

Melissa Rohlin

Fox Sports NBA writer

While in the middle of a fall in December and January, in which the Boston Celtics lost almost as many games as they won, they urged patience.

This was just the crisis of a long season. The hangover of a championship. A blip.

“I think we will reach the right point of view,” said Kristaps Porziņ European on January 23 before the Celtics closed their season winning 19 of their last 22 games, assuring their skeptics that they know how to activate it when it counts.

But after the Celtics blew their second consecutive advantage of 20 points to the New York Knicks to lose game 2 of their second round playoff series on Wednesday 91-90, it is time to wonder if Celtics’s problems were more that they are that Thhan Than Thhan Thhan Than Than Than. Thew. Thew. Thew. Thew thew.

The collapse of the Celtics in game 2 was not only left VU of game 1, when they exploded a 20-point advantage to fall to the Knicks in extra time, 108-105; Symbolic of a major problem.

The Celtics are wasting great advantages and collapsing in Crunch’s time situations, a problem that would be understandable for a young team, not a couple of superstars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, who have played for the Seoft Championship years last year.

Actually, this was repeated mental failures, an important problem for a team that knows that the margin of error in the postseason is incredible. The last postseason never followed a series and never lost more than one game and cutting on a 16-3 winning race with the title.

So why is this happening?

“I’m not sure,” said Brown, who had 20 points, six rebounds and six ball losses. “We have Goths at great beginnings. We wake up, we play physical, with energy today. To start the fourth quarter, I thought about four or five large looks that were not, so maybe they are a data to see. What we are made or.”

The problem for Celtics in this series has been the fourth quarter. In games 1 and 2, they fired a 9 of 45 (20 percent) combined from the field and 4 of 24 (16.7) from beyond the arch in the last 12 minutes.

On Wednesday, Brown was left without score in the last quarter, while Tatum was 1 by 5 from the field.

Meanwhile, the Knicks saw that the Celtics hit a wall and capitalized. Mikal Bridges scored the 14 points in the last quarter. He also made the theft of setting the game against Tatum in recent seconds with the Knicks above, 91-90, preventing Celtics from shooting a potentially winning shot of the game.

Jalen Brunson, who won the clutch -year player of the year, showed why he deserved that honor, scoring the six points of the Knicks in the last 2 minutes.

Now, the Knicks are two victories from their first appearance in the final of the conference since 2000.

And the reigning champions are on the strings, looking at a 0-2 hole with games 3 and 4 in New York.

Melissa Rohlin is a NBA Fox Sports writer. She previously covered the Sports Illustrated League, the Los Angeles Times, the news group from the Bay area and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @Melissarohlin.

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