Celtics’ analyst Brian Scalabrine calls team’s exit ‘probably fitting’: ‘They maybe cheated the game a little bit’

A recurring theme with regional network sports coverage is complaints about the broadcasters’ homerism. That’s a tough line to walk; those broadcasts are primarily for local fans of that team, but they are also watched by others through out-of-market packages, and even some diehard fans want fair criticism when things go wrong, with “homers” a repeated criticism of many local broadcasters in our announcer rankings. Well, Brian Scalabrine (NBC Sports Boston’s primary analyst on their local Celtics’ broadcasts) certainly didn’t provide much homerism on their Postgame Live studio show reaction to that team’s 119-81 blowout second-round Game 6 loss to the New York Knicks Friday, which saw them eliminated from the NBA playoffs:

“This is probably fitting…Because there are probably times where they maybe cheated the game a little bit in the way that they approached this series.”

Brian Scalabrine reacts to the Celtics getting eliminated in a Game 6 blowout against the Knicks. pic.twitter.com/Wb6fbtiHmL

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 17, 2025

“Before we get into the Celtics, the Knicks got beat by the Celtics four times, pretty handily. And at the time we thought ‘All right, let’s see what this team is about. There’s no way you can lose four times.’ The Celtics responded, [Jayson] Tatum was amazing, and they won in the regular season. The playoffs roll around, Celtics clearly the better team in Game 1, but blow a 20-point lead. Clearly the better team in Game 2, but blow another 20-point lead. They also blew another 14-point lead.

“So the bottom line is, whether you can say it’s maybe bad habits that creep in during the year, one way or another, this is probably fitting, maybe, for the Celtics to go out like this. Because there’s probably times where they maybe cheated the game a little bit, you know, in the way that they approached this series.”

The “They maybe cheated the game a little bit” line there is certainly some harsh language. In the context of the comments before that, that seems likely about the inability to close out games, allowing for remarkable Knicks’ comebacks. And that’s certainly a fair criticism, but “cheated the game” feels like stronger language than that perhaps deserves, especially with that being used to describe this elimination as “probably fitting.” And, at least in this clip, Scalabrine didn’t spotlight any specific preparation deficiencies that might merit a comment like this.

At any rate, it’s interesting to hear that kind of language from anyone, but perhaps especially so from a team’s regular analyst like Scalabrine. He’s been working on their broadcasts since 2012, and has been their main analyst since 2020. (He and play-by-play voice Drew Carter ranked 22nd of 30 teams in our recent local NBA announcer rankings.) So it’s certainly notable to have him out here dropping lines like “cheated the game.”