The Boston Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-98 in Game 5 of their NBA Playoffs series Wednesday night, winning the Eastern Conference semifinals 4 games to 1 and advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.
Despite the advancement, TNT NBA commentator Charles Barkley isn’t thrilled with how the Celtics are playing:
Said Barkley on the Celtics, “They’re the worst offense I’ve seen for grown folks. It’s like they just give the ball to one guy and go 1-on-1… The way they play offense right now, they can’t win a championship like that.”
While 113 points isn’t anything to sneeze at, the Celtics have struggled to get going at times in the playoffs over the last several seasons. While Boston does have a pair of great one-on-one players in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the offense can tend to stagnate and have moments of the two players taking turns driving to the rim.
The Celtics shoot a lot of 3-pointers as well, which can lead to significant variance in the offense’s effectiveness. Should Boston want to make a legitimate Finals run this postseason, they’ll need to figure out a way to add some dynamic looks.
Celtics advance to NBA Conference finals
Despite Barkley’s concerns, the Celtics shot well on Wednesday against the Cavs, connecting on more than 52 percent of their shots – including 44 percent from the 3-point line.
For a large chunk of the first half Wednesday night, however, it looked like Boston may struggle at home yet again, despite Cleveland playing without star guard Donovan Mitchell (left calf strain); guard Caris LeVert (left knee bone bruise), and starting center Jarrett Allen, who missed his eighth straight game with a bruised rib.
Cleveland led for chunks of the first half — mainly behind a red-hot shooting performance from former Celtics big man Marcus Morris, who had 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the opening 24 minutes — before Boston eventually managed to grab a 58-52 lead into half time.
In the second half, veteran big man Al Horford scored 13 points with three 3-pointers to go with 12 rebounds and three assists. His plus-14 in the second half was the best among all Celtics players during that window.
After the game, Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla made sure to let everyone know how much he and the team appreciated the effort of Horford in the series-clinching Boston victory.
“I thought he was tremendous,” Mazzulla said of Horford during the postgame press conference (h/t Daniel Donabedian of Clutchpoints). “Grateful for Al.”
After securing their sixth trip to the Eastern Conference finals in an eight-year span, the Celtics will now await the winner of the other Eastern Conference semifinal between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. New York leads that series 3 games to 2 heading into Friday’s Game 6 in Indianapolis, with the conference finals set to begin at TD Garden either Sunday afternoon or Tuesday night.
