As the Boston Celtics are currently finding out, if you don’t have clutch players who can provide pivotal moments, the NBA playoffs can turn into a nightmare. Last season, the TD Garden side navigated those issues with relative ease, blowing teams out left, right, and center en route to a record-breaking 18th championship. Indeed, they lost just three of their 19 postseason games last term, but this season, it’s a different matter entirely.
In the first round, the seventh seed Orlando Magic was duly dispatched in the usual fashion. But in their ongoing Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks, Boston has found things far more difficult. Despite heading into the series as an overwhelming betting favorite to reach the Conference Finals for a third straight year, the Celtics find themselves in disarray.
Auraless Celtics in Dire Straits
Jason Kidd’s men currently find themselves 3-2 down through five in a series that has captured national attention, and they have surrendered double-digit leads in all three of those losses. After being a huge NBA betting favorite to progress before the first tip, they are now huge outsiders to complete the comeback. The latest NBA betting at Bovada odds now make the Celtics a +225 underdog to complete the comeback, as well as a rank +2200 outsider to claim a second straight championship.
That’s quite a big change in a somewhat short space of time! Of course, Knicks fans aren’t feeling particularly unhappy about this team’s woes…
Embed tweet here – https://x.com/bovadaofficial/status/1922147157617860626?s=46&t=Jxc74bqcdlQ9Bjed4TR1Jw
How Knicks +500 series winner bettors are feeling after tonight pic.twitter.com/OPjsdFdNnZ
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) May 13, 2025
Much of the criticism being thrown at the Celtics throughout the shocking series thus far is being aimed at their lack of clutch players. While Jalen Brunson continues to dazzle for the Big Apple outfit, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have gone missing for the reigning champions. In the first game at the TD Garden, the Celtics missed a record 45 three-point attempts, while in the fourth game, a series of fourth-quarter efforts from downtown also failed to find the mark.
The lack of clutch players has seen Boston become somewhat of a laughing stock to opposition supporters. If their best players don’t find their aura right now, then the reigning champions could well be dumped out far earlier than anyone expected. Luckily for Tatum, Brown, and Co., they can look toward these two players for some inspiration.
Jimmy Butler – 2023 Miami Heat
Jimmy Butler’s 2023 playoff performance wasn’t just clutch; it was iconic. The Miami Heat entered the playoffs as an 8th seed, and they had to play two play-in games to even scrape their way into that position, losing the first of them. As such, it’s safe to say that little was expected of the Floridians or their talisman Jimmy Buckets, but the Heat faithful were about to be taken on a ride unlike any other.
Once the playoffs got underway, Butler became Mr. Clutch and elevated his game to an almost mythical level. His 56-point game in Game 4 of the first round against the top-seed Milwaukee Bucks was simply out of this world. The veteran was on another planet throughout the entirety of the first round, top scoring in all five games as Giannis Antetokounmpo’s side were duly dispatched in perhaps the biggest postseason shocker of all time. And he wasn’t done there.
Throughout the playoffs, Butler averaged almost 32 points per game as he dragged the Heat kicking and screaming to a deep playoff run. His ability to deliver in crunch time defined the underdog narrative, with clutch buckets and defensive stops ensuring that his team became the first eighth seed in history to reach the NBA Finals. Admittedly, that would end in defeat as Nikola Jokic and his Denver Nuggets were ultimately one hurdle too many, but by that point, Butler had already cemented his legacy as the game’s ultimate clutch player.
Jamal Murray – 2020 Denver Nuggets
If any postseason could define “clutch,” Jamal Murray’s 2020 bubble performance for the Nuggets deserves its own chapter. Global events were the biggest headline surrounding that year’s postseason, but outside of that, it was all about one man. Facing impossible odds, the Canadian superstar spearheaded not one, but two improbable comebacks from 3-1 series deficits.
Murray dropped 50 points on the Utah Jazz in an emotionally charged display in Game 6 of their Western Conference first-round affair, delivering when the pressure couldn’t have been any higher. In the second round, he did the same again, this time dumping 40 in a Game 7 victory against the Clippers, securing progression and shocking the basketball world.
The young guard backed up his scoring with a will to win that inspired his team through grueling contests. Nikola Jokic acknowledged Murray’s unrelenting energy and competitiveness, calling him “a dog” and a “fighter” who elevated the entire Nuggets franchise. Denver ultimately fell short in the Western Conference Finals against LeBron James and the Lakers, but Murray’s moment in the sun would come as he and the Joker led the Mile High side to a maiden Larry O’Brien in 2023.
