The Boston Celtics have lost two games to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals through four games thus far. In scoring fewer than 100 points in both of their losses, putting 87 and 97 on the scoreboard, head coach Ime Udoka feels the offense hasn’t been good enough to date.
Finishing with the 12th-best scoring offense and the No. 1 scoring defense during the regular season, Udoka suggests the defense hasn’t been failing them, even with Stephen Curry going off for 43 points in Game 4.
Boston Celtics not operating efficiently on offense
Just because the Warriors can splash threes from anywhere on the court doesn’t mean the Celtics need to try and match what their opponent is doing. Instead, they just need to focus on their game, which hasn’t been good enough so far.
Jayson Tatum in particular has let his team down from an offensive standpoint, shooting less than 40% from the floor in three of his four games against the Warriors. We have yet to see Tatum’s best form emerge in the Finals, but he’s a strong bet to bounce back.
Speaking on Sunday to the media ahead of Monday’s Game 5 matchup, Celtics coach Ime Udoka didn’t sound pleased with how his offense has operated this series.
“If we are playing offense the right way, we’d be 3-1.”
Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka
Basically, despite Curry playing phenomenally, likely placing him on track to win Finals MVP, Udoka and the Celtics don’t plan to change their defensive gameplan. Instead, they need to play within themselves, reducing turnovers while taking good shots. We just haven’t seen enough of that in this playoff series, with the C’s combining for 33 turnovers in their two losses.
Meanwhile, Celtics forward Grant Williams believes it’s been a matter of discipline.
“Last game a lot of time we had six-point leads and then we took a bad shot on offense or had a turnover or we had a lapse of judgment on the defensive end and gave up open threes. Things like that, just like the mental blips. I feel like we haven’t been the most disciplined team this series between the two teams.”
We knew the Celtics entered the series with less experience than the Warriors, especially with Udoka being a first-year head coach, but being tied at 2-2 isn’t the worst place to be. Still, coach Udoka feels his team should be up 3-1. We’ll see how Game 5 goes on Monday night.
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