Blake Griffin still believes the Boston Celtics will pull it off.
The former six-time All-Star played his final season with the Celtics and is familiar with most of the team’s current core, such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White and Al Horford. Although the Celtics are trailing in their series against the New York Knicks, 2-0, after losing their first two home games, Griffin isn’t counting out Boston. In fact, he predicts the Celtics to win in seven games.
“I think it goes seven games,” says Griffin in a one-on-one interview. “I think the Celtics tie it up and I’ll take the Celtics. I’ll go for it.”
The Celtics lost the first two games by a combined four points and have blown leads in both games. In fact, Boston led by 16 points at halftime in Game 1 and led by 12 points entering the fourth quarter in Game 2.
Boston cost themselves in Game 1 by overly relying on their 3-point shot, going 15-for-60 from beyond the arc (25.0%). In Game 2, they went cold, making one field goal attempt in the last eight minutes of the game.
“When you have a lead, sometimes it’s a classic thing — you sort of start playing not to lose,” says Griffin. “You sort of get out of your your flow of the offense, or however the game has gone the first three quarters and that’s what it looked like. In Game 1, it just seemed like they sort of started going to a little bit too much ISO, not as much drive, draw, kick, not as much of their original offense, their goal offense.”
Griffin hammers home how the fourth quarter has obviously been a major issue for the Celtics.
“It just seems like the fourth quarter obviously has been the nemesis for them, but it feels like they’ve just gotten outside of how they play,” says Griffin. “They played the first three quarters sort of the same way, getting up a lot of threes. I think they sort of change their style when they feel that pressure. They have to figure something out — I think they still can. The Knicks can go into TD Garden and win two. I think the Celtics can do that as well.”
While Griffin is pointing out the Celtics’ flaws in their two losses to the Knicks, he also makes sure to give credit to the Knicks for “forcing” Boston into struggling.
“You got to give credit to the Knicks, because they’ve forced them to do that as well,” says Griffin. “Offensively, the Knicks, I thought they just got out and ran. They’d get stops, they’d run, they’d get fouls, they’ve got the Celtics on their heels a little bit. I think it’s a combination of all those things.”
The former Rookie of the Year says that in order to beat the Knicks, you have to play four full quarters — not just three quarters or 45 minutes.
“The Knicks are just so well coached, it seems like they’re just in it for the long haul,” says Griffin. “You can’t play three good quarters, three-and-a-half good quarters. You can’t really play 45 good minutes against them. You have to play 48 because they just always find a way. I think they’re just sort of used to that, that style of basketball on the Celtics side.”
While Griffin is picking the defending champs, he makes sure to mention that it’ll be an “awesome” series regardless which way it goes.
“As a basketball fan, this has a chance to be an awesome series,” says Griffin.
