BOSTON — Because of the Celtics’ failure to close out Game 5, the margin/clock combination of what constitutes a safe or comfortable lead isn’t as obvious as it used to be.
But with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter and Boston up by 19, Marcus Smart missed a 3-pointer from the right corner. Payton Pritchard, the smallest guy on the floor, swooped in and snatched the offensive rebound away from Pat Connaughton and fired it back to Smart. From the same spot, Smart tried again and made the 3 this time.
On the bench, Ime Udoka told his team to keep going and that the game wasn’t over. He didn’t have to. It probably was out of reach, but they weren’t letting up. The Celtics attacked the end of Game 7 like there was a cash prize for winning by 20 or more. There was no hesitation, no scared clock management.
Even when the first “Beat the Heat” chants started reverberating from around the Garden, the Celtics players didn’t seem to notice. They weren’t done beating down the Bucks yet.
On this night there was no regretting that a tip-in was late or that Marcus Smart didn’t shoot free throws after a controversial call. The clock and the officials were irrelevant.
Boston kept playing defense and kept attacking until Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer waved the white flag and sent in his reserves with 2:03 remaining. Udoka did the same giving the Garden crowd time to salute his team and celebrate before heading out into their Sunday evening.
When it ended, Game 5 felt like a crushing loss, one of the Celtics’ worst in recent memory. The Bucks looked like a team that knew how to win a championship and Boston looked like a team incapable of capitalizing on a chance to eliminate the champs. They were tentative down the stretch and executed poorly.
Four days later and the Game 5 failure feels like a gift, the prologue scene that sets up the exciting finish in every sports movie. The Celtics not only learned something, but the loss sparked something inside of them.
“Guys were more pissed off about it than down and defeated,” Udoka said. “I don’t think our guys ever really got down. We were motivated by what we let get away.”
With the benefit of hindsight and two wins since Game 5, even Udoka said there was value in losing the way they did in Game 5
“I think you can take some value in the reminder,” Udoka said. “We lost our fair share of those early in the season.”
Jaylen Brown simply wasn’t ready to stop.
“We didn’t want to be over,” Brown said. “We didn’t overcome all the stuff we did earlier in the season for this to be it. We felt like those were games that we should have won. We probably gave them two games. ... We wanted to come out and leave it all out there, and I think that’s what we did.”
The Celtics struggled in Game 1 against the Bucks, partially because the Nets, who weren’t good at or interested in playing defense or being physical, were poor preparation. Beating Milwaukee should be good preparation for Miami and perhaps beyond. Udoka like what it did for their mindset.
“A hard-fought seven-game series will only benefit us with our belief in ourselves.”
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