How are you mourning this Finals loss?

[JSD]

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing? Obviously everybody here is a pretty hard-core Celtics fan. For me I’m largely just avoiding all sports media. I unsubscribed to several things on YouTube, and Spotify. I’m also rediscovering music, revisiting Joe Budden’s discography.

How is everybody else coping with this?

[Roy H.]

Honestly, just waiting for free agency.  This one didn’t wound me deep.

[ozgod]

I'm ok personally. I'm not angry or upset. Been watching the Cs since 1985 so I'm fatalistic about these things. If they didn't win it was because they didn't perform well enough when it counted. I went to sleep and the sun still came up. I always feel that there's pleasure in the journey as well as the destination, and this team took us on a great journey - it was a tale of redemption as they turned their season around, and gave us hope, even if they fell short at the end. So I can't complain about that.

They need a bit more seasoning, to go through the pain of a loss to realize that it's not easy to win a championship and the other team is going to try as hard as they can to win, so you really have to take your opportunities. This experience will either make or break them going forward. Will it drive them to greater heights or will they pine for what could have been, or worse, blame external factors (the refs, etc) for the loss? How will Brad and Ime and Wyc respond? Will there be changes? Finding out the answer to that will be a lot of fun. 

[DocomoCelts]

Probably the biggest sports-related disappointment I’ve felt in years. After how we turned around the season and battled through the playoffs and EC finals, to fall like that at the final stage was crushing.

I don’t see any major changes this summer, so I can only hope that Ime and the players can find new levels next season.

[SCeltic34]

The most frustrating loss was game 4.  Game 5 sucked too, but about midway through game 5 I became certain that the Celtics would not win this series.  It was clear that they could not address their weaknesses.  A team that turns the ball over that frequently and fails to limit the opposing team's offensive rebounding does not deserve to win a title. 

More than anything I'm proud of our team, and this experience will only benefit the Jays.  I'll contradict myself by saying that I believe we overachieved - if Milwaukee was healthy they would have beat us in 6 or 7 games, and would have crushed both Miami and Golden State.  But we also underperformed in many games.  We were just too inconsistent. 

I slept just fine after the game 6 loss.  Contrast that to 2010 where I didn't sleep well for over a month.  That cursed game 7 haunts me to this very day.

[Larry for 3]

Honestly, just waiting for free agency.  This one didn’t wound me deep.

Agree totally. If this team was really a championship team they would have finished off the bucks & heat earlier than they did. The signs were there that it would end this way from round 1. I mean game 5 vs the bucks & game 6 vs the heat was just inexcusable. Good run though.

[Phantom255x]

I was sad but tbh like Roy I don't feel that demoralized or anything. I don't hate Golden State as much as say, a team like LA or Miami or Philly. It was a fun run and the team definitely grew along the way. I mean I definitely feel way better about our team than I did back in January.

I also agree with @Larry for 3, happy they won the series but I also felt the team just made it harder for themselves with all the boneheaded turnovers and brutal losses in some situations where if they won, maybe they'd make life easier for them and win series in less than 7 or even 6 games. Maybe then guys aren't as fatigued or we have more time to prep and make adjustments for the next series.

Oh well. On to baseball and (soon) football!

[LilRip]

I haven’t watched the game yet. I wasn’t able to catch game 6 live and normally, I stay away from spoilers until I’m able to watch the game on league pass. I ended up watching just the game recap because I don’t think I could stomach watching it in full.

Disappointed for sure because I thought C’s would respond and take them to the brink. Instead C’s drop 3 straight with the Dubs deservedly winning each of those games.

[PAOBoston]

Not super devastated tbh. Thought it would hurt more (for example, the Pats losing the the Giants for the perfect season literally left me in shambles for like a weeks). They got thoroughly outplayed that series and didn’t deserve it. Disappointing but not upset if that makes any sense.

[GreenlyGreeny]

It’s not nearly as bad as 2010. It still sucks, particularly losing on home court for only the second time ever, but mostly just waiting to see who we get for the MLE and TPE. We are surely making those moves soon. In Brad We Trust.

[nickagneta]

I'm not mourning this loss. I lost three people dear to me over the last 3 years. Them, I'm mourning. This is just basketball.

Now, am I disappointed? Nope. Not that either.

Unsatisfied? I think that is the right word, but, this team is super young and they'll be back and better as they grow. Should be fun to see this off-season unfold.

[blink]

I agree with Nick, I too have had a lot of loss and bad stuff happening for a couple of years.  The Celtics losing in the finals doesn't really even come close to that. 

I honestly was just happy and proud of our team that we turned it around and played so well for the 2nd half of the season.  I was so excited we got over the hump to just GET to the finals.  Obviously we didn't have the result we wanted, and after being up 2-1 it was hard to swallow.  But I don't see anything that happened in the finals as something not correctable and something our team can't get better from. 

JT and JB NEED to work on ball handling all summer, and get in a lot of watching game film to understand their own limitations, and how they can become the best versions of themselves that they can.  But both guys have shown improvement literally EVERY year.  I don't think that suddenly stops this off season.  I just hope that the Owners pull out the checkbook to give us a better bench for next year.

[tenn_smoothie]

Struggling with this loss.

Celts were up 2-1 and had the lead in Game 4 halfway thru the 4th quarter at home. That's what sticks with me.

Every other Celtics title group won their first trip to the finals. Our young core have a lot more experience in the league than those past players did, other than 2008. So I don't give much credit to the lack of experience excuse. Where that did hurt them was from the coaching staff. Very little creativity or adjustments in strategy during the series. Ime desperately needs to hire an assistant to act as his offensive coordinator for next season, similar to Thibs role with the '08 defense. This team needs a whole lot more than for Tatum and Brown to improve their dribbling. In fact, their ball handling skills are plenty good enough. They need to play in an offense that doesn't require them to dribble to create scoring.

I have two teams in sports that I have loved since I was 9 years old, the Celts and Vols football.
Either team suffers a tough loss, I don't do well with it.

[nickagneta]

JB's problem isn't ball handling, it's decision making.

When to drive. When to pass before running into a crowded paint. When is it time to take a three. When is it time to get to your mid range spots and shoot from there. When to make the easy and right pass rather than the difficult and flashy pass.

That's just experience being a top guy, which he has only been for two years.

[Birdman]

No..clearly Warriors was better team & we had a great ride during the playoffs..lack of bench play & too many turnovers doom us..2010 is the one that still hurts