Boston's first-round elimination at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers has produced no shortage of post-mortems, but the framing offered by Colin Cowherd and Jason Timpf on The Colin Cowherd Podcast may sting Celtics fans the most. Cowherd argued that the defending core has been miscast for years as an elite offensive team when in fact the Celtics have always been a formula club, dependent on three-point variance and brittle when the formula breaks.
"I said the Celtics are more formula than fantastic. If you look at the Sixers, they have fantastic talent," Cowherd said, ticking off Joel Embiid's Hall of Fame résumé, Tyrese Maxey's emergence and VJ Edgecombe's playoff debut.
The statistical backbone of his argument was simple. Boston's seven-game series against Philadelphia broke cleanly along three-point variance.
"When we hit our threes we win, and when we don't we lose," Cowherd said. "In the four losses they shot 29% from three or less. And in their three wins they shot 36% on threes or more. It's a formula."
Cowherd then reached for a comparison Boston fans will not enjoy. "I kind of watched Boston and I thought they're the Eagles. In five years they've won a title, they've lost a title. And three head-scratching series and you're like, what the hell are they?"
Timpf, the host of Hoops Tonight, took the analytical baton and went one level deeper. He argued that the Celtics did not lose to the better team in the abstract — they lost to the specific team that exposed their roster construction once Joel Embiid finally got and stayed healthy.
"I actually think this was the worst possible team for them to run into a healthy Joel Embiid team," Timpf said. "Because when Joel Embiid enter the equation, he rendered their entire defensive starting rotation at the centre position useless. None of them could guard Embiid."
Timpf pointed to the absence of Al Horford, who joined the Warriors last summer, as the structural hinge. Earlier Boston teams were able to drag Embiid away from the basket because Horford could space him out as a five. With that gone, Embiid sat under the rim on defence, daring Jaylen Brown to drive into a wall, and the Celtics' offence collapsed into jumpers.
"It's kind of like Boston's formula ran into a specific kind of kryptonite in the form of a centre that neutralised their ability to attack the rim," Timpf said. "Which turned them into only a three-point shooting team. And then on the other end of the floor, they just literally couldn't guard the guy."
Cowherd was equally unsparing on Joe Mazzulla's choice to start three minimum-experience players in Game 7 alongside Derrick White and Peyton Pritchard. He felt the move handed Philadelphia early offence and surrendered the kind of nervous-pressure moments that win win-or-go-home games.
"He overthought the room," Cowherd said. "You're playing from behind four minutes into the game. You're chasing, which you know you're expending so much energy."
Timpf agreed, noting that an early Jaylen Brown turnover in the first quarter — a cross-body pass that went straight to the Celtics' bench because no teammate was in position — was effectively a confession that the lineup had never practised playing together.
For all the criticism, both hosts argued that Boston's window is not closed. Both sketched a roster fix that starts with Brad Stevens trading for a more dynamic ball-handling guard and a versatile big man, with Aaron Gordon out of Denver named as a possible target via a Derrick White swap. The pair circled the same diagnosis: this Celtics team needs more talent, not just more makes from beyond the arc.
"They have a formula starting with a brilliant GM down," Cowherd said. "And when the formula this year — they exchanged four starters — Tatum's hurt — the formula's just, they don't have enough."
The gentle word for that, in Cowherd's framing, is fantastic. The Celtics, by his measure, have not been that for a while.
