NBA playoffs: Teams in the East seem to want an underdog to make it through

My Celtics look as though they aren't going to make it to the semi-finals after today's game where they looked strong in the start. They looked like the Celtics that deserved to be this far in the tournament actually, and then it all fell apart. You gotta be able to play the entire game, that is for sure.

They now find themselves in a bad spot, one that only 13 times in the history of the NBA has it ever happened. The most recent of which was 5 years ago.

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This was such a tragic loss for any Boston fan because at the start the team was looking fantastic and appeared as though they were going to cruise to a 2-2 tie in the series.... but I guess I got too hopeful because that is not what happened at all.

When you go into the locker rooms at halftime up by 11 and appear to be commanding the floor it is extra frustrating when you lose the 3rd quarter by 14 points. To make matters worse for Boston, Jason Tatum had to be carried off the court due to injury and this is no small thing seeing as how he had 42 points in this game alone.

When the 4th quarter started, I already had lost any hope of victory and while the margin was only 8 points, this has a lot to do with the fact that the Knicks were playing defensive basketball in the 4th and were not trying to run up the score, they were trying to protect it.

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You can see in the chart above that once again, the Celtics were favorites to win basically the entire game, until they weren't. This has been happening a great deal in the post-season and I am kind of getting some amusement out of the fact that this is something that is becoming quite common.

The Celtics are not alone in the East as far as teams are concerned with squandering games. The big surprise is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who made incredibly quick work of the Miami Heat in the first round and they too are down 3-1 against the Indiana Pacers, who basically nobody picked to make it this far.

Cleveland is looking even worse though, as they dropped their last game by 20 points on the road. Will they too get sent packing in front of a no doubt, sold-out crowd at home in game 5? It's kind of looking that way unless they can find the magic that lead to them losing around half as many games as their opponents at this point. They were down 80-39 and the half for crissakes.

It's been an explosive tournament so far with basically none of what was predicted actually happening. For me, I am just still very happy that the Lakers are not in the picture.