I always felt it was going to go 7. Two must win games, no more excuses, no more room for complacency. This is when they have played at their best in the past, let's see if they can pull it out. But we cannot win if we get caught up in the officiating again like we did tonight. These guys are mentally soft to keep getting thrown off their game by bad calls. They started complaining about non-calls at the start of the 4th when the Warriors really started to put daylight between us and them.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ime Udoka made a point of emphasis all season long that the Celtics would not be a team that complains to the officials too much. However, in the team’s biggest game of the year, the Celtics found themselves in several volatile situations with officials.
Boston was whistled for two technical fouls during the team’s 104-94 loss to the Warriors and found themselves in several heated discussions with officials throughout the 48 minutes.
“I think it was a little bit of that throughout the game,” Ime Udoka admitted. “So not necessarily only in the fourth. Probably something we shouldn’t do as much and we all did too much.”
Udoka was whistled for a technical foul at the end of the first quarter after Rob Williams was whistled for a foul with under a second remaining in the frame.
However, the Celtics head coach also was seen having a heated discussion with official Tony Brothers in the fourth quarter who was the target of many Boston complaints throughout Game 5.
“He didn’t like how I pointed at him,” Udoka said of the discussion.
Marcus Smart was also whistled for a technical foul with 9:16 remaining in the fourth quarter shortly after a Klay Thompson 3-point shot that Smart felt he pushed off on beforehand.
“Not our best moment,” Al Horford said of the complaints. “As you guys know, I feel like we’ve been able to fend those things off, especially throughout the Playoffs. For whatever reason tonight I feel like it got to us.”
With the Celtics facing elimination on Game 6 back in Boston, Horford wants to see better focus from his team in looking past what could deemed tough whistles.
“It’s one of those things that we kind of brought it back,” Horford said. “We were able to focus back in, but we can never let that (officiating) get to us. We can’t let that affect our game, the way that things are being played. We feel like we can control a lot of those things. It’s something that we have to move on from and be better on Thursday.”
https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2022/06/celtics-issues-with-tony-brothers-officials-haunt-them-in-game-5-loss-to-warriors-not-our-best-moment.html
Ironically we had 31 free throws to the Dubs' 16. Shame we missed 10 of them. Don't think that was the fault of the officials. They need to stop moaning about calls and getting hacked and just play.
Winning a championship isn't easy. There will be bad games and setbacks. It's how they respond to setbacks that will define this team. They did an admirable job turning their season around to win the ECF, doing it the hard way. But as can be seen in this thread, nobody remembers that - they will remember this team for the bad stretch in the finals, which reminds people of the bad stretch to start the season. They will be remembered as chokers who blew a chance at bringing a championship to some long suffering Boston fans.
It's up to them how they want to be remembered.
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