“Critics, including Barkley, O’Neal, and House, tear apart Celtics after losing Game 7”

EL NUEVO DIARIO, SANTO DOMINGO.- The illusion of having been close to winning has been one of the factors that has destroyed the Celtics, ironic as it may sound, and that is that they have disappointed some of their fans, including players from the same sport.

The Celtics were a team that was going to lose by sweep, going 0-3 against the Heat in the Eastern Finals. However, they started the engines and managed to tie. They were just one game away from becoming the first team in NBA history to come back from that deficit.

Until in game 7, they lost by 19 points. The number two from the East was defeated by number eight. And likewise, criticism has fallen towards the green team, which ended up injured (Jayson Tatum twisted his ankle) and in the uncertainty of what will happen in the future.

One of the most forceful has been the former player and NBA MVP, Charles Barkley, who stated in “Inside The NBA” that the Celtics are a team that played bad basketball and that win games only because of talent.

“They are so undisciplined and unsound. They win games strictly because of talent”, he said, showing himself in “shock” because the team not only lost, but also because of the difference in points, which is close to twenty.

He highlighted that the Celtics squad, made up of the current Sixth Man of the Year, Malcolm Brogdon, two great players, which could refer to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Defender of the Year 2022, Marcus Smart, was talented, but inconsistent .

Also, he said he was disappointed in the style, mentioning that they can “win a lot of games just with talent. But against a zone, they only settle for jumpers. There is no movement of the ball, body.

Sitting next to him was Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who did not hide his feelings for the team that has not won a championship trophy since 2008.

He commented that the Celtics, nervous about a Game 7, wanted all their plays to be “pretty,” which could have cost them their lack of adjustment, which O’Neal called one of his biggest mistakes.

“They wanted to shoot from three. They were actually trying to get the crowd involved. But when it was 0 for 12…they should have said, “Hey, settle down. Let’s get the pace of the game back in our favor. Let’s make high-percentage screens”, he commented, and that is that the Celtics were unstable from the line of three and even so, they kept trying to score the ball from that distance.

O’Neal, who played with the Celtics in his last professional season, gave an example from his own experience, saying what he would do in a similar situation, where a team goes 0-10 on 3-pointers in the first quarter; warn his teammates to shoot more than the line of three and if they don’t listen, he’ll punch them in the face.

But he wasn’t the only former Celtics who was hard on the green team. Eddie House, a member of Boston’s 2008 championship team, asked the team a stark question.

“At what point are you going to get tired of someone celebrating on your home court? At what point are you going to get tired of someone hoisting a trophy? When are you going to get tired? When are you going to get tired of it and be on the winning side?” House asked on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame coverage.

This is because in the current 2023 season the Celtics lost at TD Garden. Also in 2022, against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. And, furthermore, because since that distant 2008 the greens have not seen the golden glow of Larry O’Brien.

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