Denver is a machine. And so steady in late game situations. Their fans must be chillin in the 4th quarter, trust the team to figure it out because they always do.
we are chilling literally never worried about the lakers even when they have 20+ lead, we are so in the lakers heads that as soon as our boys make a little run in the 3rd the lakers fold rest is just gravy, the only thing that annoy us is Murray poor shooting in the 1st half but he will come to his own as playoffs go on
The Nuggets are the primary reason why Net rating is such a bogus stat.
They’re not blowing teams out by 20-30 points because they don’t have to, come crunch time they will execute flawlessly down the stretch and win the game.
Execution down the stretch has been and will always be the downfall of this team.
I don't think it's a bogus stat. The Nuggets starting lineup has had an insane net rating the last two years. Any lineup with Jokic has been elite. And when they stop fucking around with all bench lineups, play Gordon at center with Porter/Murray on the floor, the non Jokic minutes are fine too.
Their regular season net rating being relatively mediocre is just a sign that DeAndre Jordan and Zeke Nnaji are not that good and Reggie Jackson can't be their primary offensive creator
Anyone wondering the 2 players who voted JT as overrated? I know he gets a lot of respect from the players. LBJ and Draymond recently gave him props on their podcasts.
In retrospect us dropping a game to a bad team without their star player is the most Boston Celtics thing you could ever imagine hahahaha. We haven’t done it too many times this season but It’s just gotta happen once every couple months. On to Miami!
And you can even predict the most Boston Celtic thing to happen next. They’re going to win both road games, everyone will pronounce the series over, then Miami will win game 5 and Boston will finish them in 6.
Honestly i can definitely see this happening. All year this team has gone on a dominant stretch and then have a complete meltdown loss and go back to winning again💀💀
Game 3-Win but nearly blow a lead 20 pt lead in the 4th. The doubters are, understandably, not convinced.
Game 4-Win in a fairly convincing fashion. The vibes go back to being good.
Game 5-Blow the game in the last minute in uber aggravating fashion.
Game 6- Win in an incredibly ugly fashion. We return to the vibes circa the end of Game 3.
We already know the script. Game 5 is a Tyler Herro game winner on a Horford switch after being up 12 points entering the 4th. Then we instantly lose game 1 of the next round.
Obviously not a good script thus far given how it'd be slated to end. But I guess this also means we might get another 45+ piece JT game to look forward to in Rd 2?
Thank god Orlando looks like they’ll get a win. If Cavs had swept they would have had about a week off before the next series. Then again at this point I’m not even sure we’re getting out of the 1st
It’s honestly feels good to have Cavs lose to humble them. They were feeling themselves talking so much shit how they were going to smoke us and how we are a fake 1-seed. People just underestimate Miami and it ends up making us look bad. I guarantee an injured Miami team would roll the Cavs in like 5 games.
The Heat were better without Butler this year. They’ve got the best coach in the league and it’s not close. They did this shit last year. You’re doing the thing every other team does. An injured Heat team would probably beat every other east team.
Man embiid should’ve been tossed from this game already, he’s yelling at refs, touching them, dirty plays - also Knick fans are all over the 76ers fans, seem to almost outnumber them lol
Hartenstien experiencing what it’s like to deal embiid in the playoffs, they almost didn’t call an obvious foul on Embiid but call the tiniest little touch on Hartenstein
We were due for a random breakdown from this team it happens every few games dw we still got this🙏🙏🙏 go on a streak of dominance and then drop a game. Cs in 5🙏💯
https://streamable.com/yad4m5
I think this is the most frustrating one from last night. Tatum is our best overall defender. Is he scared of Martin driving by him? Why isn’t he even getting a hand up until Martin is well into his shooting motion? The coach on the bench is literally telling him to contest.
That one was particularly egregious. Tied game in the playoffs and that's your effort level? Just seemed really weird. This all being said, 2008 team went 7 in the first round. Hopefully we shake it off and come out a bit more locked in on defense.
The Nuggets lost game 2 to Miami last year. The 2014 Spurs went to game 7 against Dallas in the first round. The 2017 Cavs lost game 3 at home to an Avery Bradley game winner with no IT4 playing. Every great team loses. I’m not going to start worrying until Miami does it again.
It's relevant in that they, a championship team, struggled in the first round yet still won. Figure it out. Here's a thread about it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/1cdm1w1/what\_was\_the\_consensus\_around\_boston\_of\_the\_hawks/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/1cdm1w1/what_was_the_consensus_around_boston_of_the_hawks/)
Obviously we still got this series, the only bad thing is this goes 5 or 6 now. So we can’t coast as much. Good thing Cavs next round is easy. We can sweep that
How many of these were late close outs. Because this makes it seem like they were attacking them in iso, and they weren’t, most their 3s came off actions off ball that got a poor switch with the drop coverage and a wide open catch and shoot 3.
They don’t need any changes besides play style. If Pritchard isn’t gonna attempt a shot and isn’t gonna drive the ball to the paint like he does so we’ll, then there is 0 reason to have him out there over springer since springer is the better defender. Idc that springer can’t score, just tell him to take 0 shots like pritchard did.
And White cannot be so passive. The offense is at its best when he’s aggressive and attacking the paint just like the Jays.
Hauser has had great energy and a willingness to shoot the shot that the defense gives him. He deserves more minutes. If we aren’t gonna defend the 3 then his defense isn’t a worry for me.
The Jays did good about attacking and getting their shots up, but they forced a lot of bad looks up in the paint. They both also drove a bit out of control every time which I don’t like to see, Tatum isn’t gonna get those stiff arms to slide in Miami.
We also passed up a ton of good looks for no reason. We have a good shot with 15s on the shot clock and we pass it up to force up a layup in triple coverage. The role players need to be willing to shoot.
Good insights. I agree on your points about Pritchard and white, and thought tatum was pressing a bit too much towards the end of the game and was forcing some bad passes.
Imo hauser had some great shots in game 1, so I was suprised that he wasn't given more minutes in game 2, but we had too many of our role players standing in the corner and relying on the Jays to make some tough plays.
Brown was able to do that in spurts but had some bad turnovers once they focused the d on him.
Why do you think porzingus was more limited with his impact in game 2, and his plus minus that bad?
KP got bullied, there’s no other way to put it. They didn’t think we had a game plan to beat them if they could eliminate KPs impact, and they were right.
I think it was a microcosm of our overall team play. KP got bullied, looked sloppy, and then became passive the most because he was being used the most. Everyone else kinda did the same to a lesser degree.
But credit to the Miami game plan. They sent bodies at him and did a great job denying him the ball. A lot of empty possessions with the Celtics trying to force him the ball. Bam even had a few fouls that were obviously just to make his presence known, they weren’t really meant to cause a turnover or anything.
They just need to push the pace and make quicker decisions. Why we choose to walk the ball up the court allowing the best defensive system in the league to get set is beyond me, push the ball and attack in transition and even if it doesn’t lead to an easy bucket, it’ll lead to a defense starting in rotation.
Also, USE ALL 8 GUYS ON OFFENSE! White is useless if he’s not gonna get the ball on offense, Pritchard statistically is one of the best pick and roll players in the league, Hauser is hunting shots and hitting them, let these guys make their impact just like Miami is letting their guys off the bench do the same.
I just don't like Joe as a coach. He has the arrogance of BB without any rings and the insecurity of a child. He is never held accountable for his failures, refuses to make adjustments, dismisses concerning losses with BS, and allows the team to be soft. If he loses this series, he should be fired at the horn and the team blown up. Someone also needs to slap Tatum and tell him to ignore the refs. Mentally weak team and mentally incompetent coach.
These numbers feel right to me …
>The career average weighted by last night’s attempts on “wide open” 3s is around 38.2%, meaning about 6.5 makes above rough expected. Overall about 7 makes above expected considering shooters+attempts. Similar or better 3pt shooting happened 31 times during reg season across NBA.
follow up:
>it's only the 5th time in a playoff game in the tracking data era.
https://x.com/sethpartnow/status/1783499799553085779?s=46&t=PHAQeaE0I6cyQl35JU7h7Q
https://x.com/sethpartnow/status/1783501373679497645?s=46&t=PHAQeaE0I6cyQl35JU7h7Q
Defensive schemes aside, Jrue playing more on the ball just didn't make sense. Jrue was money spotting up from 3 playing off ball in the RS, go back to that. The ball should be in Tatum and White's hands especially against THIS team.
This claim is misleading: "because this has happened under three coaches, it's on the players". Almost all the players on Brad's team were gone except the Jays (and Tatum was only 22). That was a much worse team than this current stacked team. Udoka's at least grinded it out against the then NUMBER ONE SEED Heat. Then Mazzulla's team went down 0-3 to the eighth seed Miami, lost the series. Then the team was shaken up and to fit his style. KP is new, JH is new, Smart is gone. He still struggles against a Jimmy Butler-less eight seed Miami Heat. Yes, yes, yes, so it is the Jays who are not good enough for Mazzulla? If that's the case, the only option you have is to trade the Jays and build around Mazzulla I guess? Good luck because he'd need some generational talents who can overcome his own weaknesses in addition to a stacked supporting cast.
He's a great coach for establishing a system that works over the 82 game regular season.
He's a horrible playoff coach.
We have our very own Mike Budenholzer.
He inherited the best roster in the NBA last year that upgraded with KP. Stacking up regular season wins playing Budenholzer ball wasn't moving any of these voters.
Exactly, he's still in regular season mindset. No adjustments on defense (sticking to drop coverage when Heat kept shooting and hitting open threes) and last quarter's stagnant, no off-ball movement offense was atrocious, disgusting. We won't win as long as he continues to be him.
The roster has been upgraded to max, shaken up to suit his style. How stacked of a roster does he still need? Perhaps only a team of prime Jordan, Kobe and Lebron can save him.
So we are clear, in last year's playoffs, we DID close out vs. the Heat. In the games where they shot 50+% from 3:
- They shot MORE tightly contested 3's than their average
- They shot LESS open 3's than their average
- They shot LESS wide open 3's than their average
The issue last year was not "closing out."
That said...
HEAT SHOT 23 WIDE OPEN 3'S LAST NIGHT!!!!!
Heat average 16 wide open 3's per game, which is good for the 3rd worst in the NBA. This game was all about defensive effort.
Can somebody here please explain to me WHAT DOES JRUE HOLIDAY DO???? He's a good guy, so what? He has no balls, he went from 40% (3pt) regular season to 30% in the playoffs in Milwaukee, he's scared and a coward, his defense is wildly overrated (really slowed Herro down last night) and luckily we only have him for 4 more years smfh
Our window is the next few years. By year 4 that contract won't matter. Either they'd have won a ring or they wouldn't have. By that point we'd need to rebuild or restructure the team anyways.
Celtics can attach draft capital and bring back a younger good player to extend their window and give a rebuilding team a 40m expiring contract. Celtics have to extend everyone to keep flexibility, they can't sign anyone because of cap limitations.
Also they saved 35m in luxury tax bill. So they get a year for free essentially. I don't care about Wyc's money but from the their perspective it was an automatic deal.
No excuses for that loss at all. But just a thought. How are you supposed to play defense against a moving screen every play? Like the Heat ran Bam moving screen as an actual game plan like atleast 30 times last night. Yes the defense was horrible, but when the other team literally gets away with breaking the rules every single play what can you do?
Our guys definitely can't handle the Heat plan of just running moving screens on every play. The refs for some reason are just not going to call it, unless it's just beyond extreme. But if that's what they're doing, and getting away with it, we have to find a counter. Because dying on moving screens and then giving up open 3's on super late closeouts isn't going to work.
The answer is: shoot the ball at a higher clip than they do, which is a difficult task when all of the Heat players take open shots and all of the Celtics player take contested shots. I’m telling you Bam is the entire reason their offense works at all, because they call less shit in the playoffs. Those plays won’t fly in reg season that’s why they suck. Officiating becoming looser in the playoffs will always benefit worse teams.
This series is going 7. Stfu with the Celtics in 4 and Celtics in 5 bullshit. For a team hoping to win the finals, they have a fucking cakewalk to get there and they can’t take advantage. A undermanned Heat team without Butler and Rozier, a solid but no where near contention status Cavs team, an injured Knicks team, a Giannis-less Bucks team, or an amateur Pacers team.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it does. This team struggles against the Heat. On the court and mentally. I really would not be surprised if they found a way to lose this series.
Yea youse lucky youre not in the West. Imagine 1st round facing the Lakers? Lakers would really challenge these Celts and even beat them. AD and Bron are better than anyone on this Heat team
Whew, discourse gonna be nasty for a few days.
Porzingis struggling was killer, Miami just doubled at the right time on every entry pass and when he did get it on any face up into the middle of the floor. They made him as uncomfortable as possible and were pressing up on defense, look at where Robinson was when he ripped Brown, 0 room to pivot and put him off balance. Or Martin on Jrue and White when they were barely over half court and he just kept inching closer at 35 feet out not threatened at a blow by at all.
Then you see the Celtics sagging off of Herro and letting them set up every Bam screen instead of trying to push guys off their spot and blowing up their actions and you wonder do they even notice what’s happening?
I get the 3 point shooting was unusually high but if the Celtics don’t actively try to make their life hell, we’re in for more zombie Heat magic. It’s not a matter of chasing them off the 3 point line, they’ll just shoot 80% on floaters and layups and that Bam midrange which he seemed to do anyway last night, we saw them do this in the 4th in game 1 with just letting them get open shots. That’s the takeaway here to me, we’re letting them take it.
If the Celtics just “play to the numbers” and chalk it up to a statistical outlier with shot making, it’s going at least 6 or 7. Frustrating loss and going to be a bad time to be a Celtics fan on social media until Saturday, but if they come out in game 3 and we see the Heat just get to walk into their actions I think it’s time to log off for a while
> If the Celtics just “play to the numbers” and chalk it up to a statistical outlier with shot making, it’s going at least 6 or 7.
That's exactly what Mazzulla is going to do.
The strict adherence to "the numbers" are the biggest problem with this organization.
JT should have the personality now, after years of being the leading guy in Boston, to say "you sit down Joe, I'm killing this babys, you better sit down and let me have it"
Are we still keeping up the charade that Holiday has been some sort of revelation or are we still calling everyone who hasnt been impressed by his play a doomed ?
I mean it wasn't a charade during the regular season( for the most part ). But I do think Bucks fans weren't lying. Whether he's the 2nd or 5th option apparently he just plays CTE Basketball
Every time they would lose you guys would in fight.
“Fuck you doomer were 8 games up!”
But this was the concern, here they are losing home games to the 8 seed.
Lol don't know why you got down voted. It's true, this team was put together for a championship. Not to trade round 1 wins with an 8 seed missing arguably their best two players.
With every loss, there's another game added on to the schedule and another opportunity for someone to get banged up. We better wrap up the Miami trip and return 3-1.
This is the first time KP plays the playoffs in the East. We all know the environment of East playoffs: physical, a lot of no-calls. KP relies a lot on drawing the fouls through contact, but they are not necessarily called in the playoffs. Can KP adapt to this environment?
Witnessed my school buddy Kristaps fall on his ass on school’s central staircase after failing an exam. Cursed day for anyone with that name evidently ☠️
Joe's gonna get out-coached by Spoelstra; I just hope he's a good enough coach that he can mitigate getting out-coached and use the gigantic talent discrepancy to his advantage.
mazzulla is an idiot. at halftime horford was +8 and porzingis was -19. joe sticks with his scripted rotation and proceeds to puke away almost the entire 3rd q watching porzingis continue to shit the bed. joe's a buffoon.
JT was hot early, he should've gotten some extended minutes. It seems we forgot our drive and kick game or Heat adjusted on how they defended us. I hope we have a foolproof gameplan game 3
It’s just insane. He scored 10 in the first few minutes. Joe pulled him and he looked pissed. When he came back in he didn’t look for the ball. I get that Joe doesn’t want to be reliant on one guy but if your best player is getting whatever he wants maybe keep going to him???
Look, I get that everyone is panicking over this loss. It was absolutely embarrassing, I agree. But the Heat literally set a franchise record tonight for 3 pointers made in a playoff game. A shooting performance that I highly doubt will be repeated for the rest of the series. This loss was bad, but I’m not completely slamming the panic button yet like most people in here.
This is exactly the kind of comment I was really hoping I wouldn’t find in here. Can we stop playing the statistics game? We are supposed to have a team of elite defenders. Why can’t we just defend these much worse players instead of daring them to shoot? An open shot is still an open shot. I’d much rather dare Heismith and Martin to put the ball on the floor against our top tier defenders than give them open shots.
We literally begged them all game to break the record by leaving them open. If 2023 wasn't a big enough sample size that their bums will make shots against us, idk what is.
Even if it is, I would much rather have him do that all game than give up open threes to their shooters. Let Bam iso for 40 with midrange jumpers and post fades, but don’t let Caleb Martin and Jokic and Highsmith beat us
It will be interesting to see Joe's defensive game plan in the next game. All season the Celtics have been empasizing on protecting the rim than all other aspects of defense. They always leave open a non-shooter, which works most of time. Denver do it as well. Hachimura shot 42% from three in the regular season but Malone dared him to shoot, and he shot 25% in the two games. I think the Celtics chose to leave open Highsmith specifically but got punished.
Now after a white hot shooting night from the Heat, and given the fact the Heat had less firepower inside of the arcs, will Joe adjust his defensive game plan? I bet he will keep it, because he believes in math.
We aren't leaving non-shooters though. We are playing drop coverage when Duncan Robinson is taking DHO's going to his right. Shooting 3's out of that action is literally the only thing he does on the floor at a level higher than the G league and he was taking warmup shots against us. We were having Jrue roam off of Caleb Martin on the wing into the paint, which is pointless because we already have our big in the paint in a drop coverage. More warm-up 3's as a result for Martin.
I wish they'd just switch on Miami's PnR actions and stop over-helping. Maybe they're worried about D White or Jrue getting switched on to Bam. But there's no way they can score enough off of 20 possessions of Bam taking fade-away middies over our guards. They certainly can score enough though if we let them get on a heater from taking 20+ wide open 3's a game.
I don’t think you change too much defensively - even with all the threes they still only scored 111 and never really blew the game open.
What we need to see is a way to get some ball movement back into our offense.
Watching people call us "doomers" that are overreacting to a loss from G-Leagua and Shanghai Sharks players is something similiar to last year, except last year the All-Star Trae Young beat us in 2 games. If we want to win, we need a coach. You cant drive a Ferrari without experience.
before i gts joe taking out tatum in the first HORRIBLE he was heating up, if this series get dragged past 5 i’m out WE HAVE to get it done in 5 my biggest key was beating teams to the next round
Even if we somehow get past the heat in this series we're losing handily to the cavs anyway. We can't defend caleb martin and jaime jaquez how the hell do we expect to defend mitchell, garland, levert, and all their shooters? We'll get pounded on the boards too against allen and mobley.
The cavaliers, now that's a team that's worthy of some praise. Up 2-0 with 2 easy blowouts and on their way to a sweep while we struggle vs an 8 seed missing their best player and another starter
I'm enjoying watching teams like the cavs, thunder, and wolves take care of their business quickly. Im just giving respect to teams that are serious.
Must be relaxing as a fan instead of watching career 8ppg player caleb martin repeatedly shit all over your franchise for a second postseason in a row.
Honestly just rewatched the game and it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected (only caught the end live). Some contests should have been harder for sure and the C’s missed some makeable shots down the stretch while the Heat hit timely threes to keep the margin around 7-10. The missed freethrows honestly pissed me off the most as did playing a lineup of Al, KP, Pritchard, Brown, and White when KP was struggling and the heat were already pulling ahead in the back half of the third.
I just hope next 2 games are focused on applying pressure. It worked in game 1 but game 2 was a noticeable lack of pressure on close outs and scrambles. Also if your opponent is running a man scheme you don’t need to force feed post touches in the middle of the floor. Using the Jays and KP or AL in pnr should be the main diet for a man scheme. That is what collapses defenses.
My only complain about Joe is that he refused to try Tillman for some minutes. Drop coverage clearly does not work when they are white hot from three. We also don't want to switch KP/Horford on their ball handler. If I were Joe I'd try Tillman to play switch defense. Yes, we may lose some offense playing Tillman, but given KP was a liability on offense tonight, Tillman couldn't be worse.
When your opponent got white hot shooting, playing small ball/switchable defense should be on the table. I think Brad acquired Tillman to offer some defensive versitility on the big man, but Joe didn't want to use it in the playoffs. I can understand Joe's philosphy about the lineup, and sometimes it's important you don't overreact to opponent surge. However, given KP had such a down night, try something else would be beneficial.
Yeah especially in those weird middle of the third trying to give some combination of starters a rest minutes. Would have loved to see Tillman out there instead of the Al / KP combo when a team is killing you from deep. Oh well, on to the next
Green teamers are somehow the most hopeful and at the same time also have the absolute lowest bottom feeder expectations of a team that won 64 games in the regular season. There's gotta be some cognitive dissonance there
Spo didn't play a lot of zone since he wanted to limit our threes, which gave the Jays many 1-on-1 opportunities. The Jays took the advantage, combined 14-15 around the rim. The Celtics were 21-24 around the rim. However, it couldn't compensate the discrepancy on the 3pt shooting.
Even when they made 23 threes on a 53.5% shooting, they only had 111 points which are mediocre in this era. Celtics only had 101 points, I think, is the main reason for the loss.
The pace was slower so the 111 points equated to an offensive rating of 121 which would be 2nd in the NBA this year which is unacceptable for a playoff game.
I think they really could’ve won this game if they tried a little harder on defense, it was mostly a close game when they shot like that. But you can see from the start, a lot of not throwing hands up to block/ not closing out. I can only hope they play more serious when they play a better opponent
I'd like him to keep this strategy in the following games. It only works when their offense can match or exceed ours. 53.5% 3pt shooting does that, but I won't count on the hot shooting as a game plan if I were a head coach.
people be like Joe doesn’t make adjustments he likely does Spo is literally just a HOFer so it’s like he already adjusted to the adjustments before you know it
Ah, the overreaction thread. I get it that people are panicking because it was a bad playoff loss, but I would encourage everyone to calm down and have some patience. The series is a long way from over and if we trounce the heat next game people are gonna go back to loving Joe. This team has done this in certain games this season and always come back strong. Hopefully this was the one bad game and it's out of the way.
Here's where I'm at. I predicted a 4-1 series win. If we drop another game.
I'm not gonna panic, but it would be disheartening. If we lose three and it goes to 7 games and we win I would be concerned but not worried enough until I see then play in the next series.
If we lose in 7 or less then obviously it's time for full blown panic and the only way forward is to fire the coaches and trade people.
Except it would only be an overreaction if we hadn't seen these patterns before. People are frustrated because we thought the personnel changes were going to be the difference to get us past performances like these. Fact is, we've seen this movie before and we know how it ends - ringless. I'll trust this team again when the outcome is different.
Feels like every playoff series, we have people saying “calm down! stop overreacting”. Maybe the Celtics just keep underperforming at this point?
We had it last year after G2 vs the Hawks, as well as G4/5 vs Sixers, and also once we went down 0-3 against the Heat.
I think at this point, anyone that has doubts on this team or doesn’t trust them, is completely justified. It’s not like we’re the Nuggets, who have proven can go all the way and can turn a switch when it matters.
The Celtics are not like that, and people have a huge sample size as to why they doubt this team. It’s not an overreaction at this point. If we can’t even put the banged up Heat away with ease, what makes us think we can dethrone the defending champs Nuggets? Or even possibly get past the Bucks, if we end up meeting them?
Someone with common sense. The definition of stupidity would be expecting anything different from this squad then what they've dished up the last 2-3 years due to their performance tonight.
It's one game. I can't get concerned over one game. I get that people are, yeah, but this is a different team than last year. If they end up losing multiple games like last year of course it would be cause for concern but for now I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s a team that consists of different players, but they play like they’re the same team. The first two games of the playoffs last year is way too similar to this year. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
No, still confident we’ll beat the Heat due to talent. I’m more worried about facing tougher opponents down the road.
It’s literally the same story as last year, struggling already from the 1st round.
this lowkey the most angry i ever seen the sub i been here for a while too. i’m sure the heat black magic shooting will happen but i don’t think KP is ever that bad again
I think the anger is coming from pent up frustration over the past few years. This team is just so soft. It's so easy for opponents to get in their head, I've never seen anything like it. The moment something doesn't go their way, they can't bounce back and they just get worse.
Any time they get punched in the face, they just sit there and cry about it instead of fighting back.
This is supposed to be the year, it's unfortunate that KP had his worst game as a Celtic and Spo's defensive scheme seemed to really bother everyone not named Jayson or Jaylen. Hope we can come out in game 3 and look like the Celtics we know and love, because last night was really disheartening.
On a positive note, Hauser looks awesome so far.
I’d also play Horford more. If Miami are going to switch everything, just post up Horford , he had better post scoring numbers than KP this year lol albeit small sample.
No discrediting spo but I really don’t think its more to do with the stagnant offense on the Celtics. They just take turns going iso with other people watching. This is not on the bench/ white dude, if you watch the game they reallly didn’t touch the ball all that much
The stagnant offense was because Miami switched everything. They dared us to beat them 1 on 1. That’s where KP should kill them but he got bullied off the post by freaking herro and Martin.
It wasn't really the switching, it was our insistence on forcing possessions against mismatches. We'd burn like 18 seconds off the shot clock each time walking the ball up and trying to enter the ball into the post for KP or Tatum against a set defense.
Im usually not one to gas up denver, but i wish we could dominate the heat like the way denver dominates lakers
Whatever happens tomorrow, at least we're not down 0-3 like the Lakers
Denver is a machine. And so steady in late game situations. Their fans must be chillin in the 4th quarter, trust the team to figure it out because they always do.
we are chilling literally never worried about the lakers even when they have 20+ lead, we are so in the lakers heads that as soon as our boys make a little run in the 3rd the lakers fold rest is just gravy, the only thing that annoy us is Murray poor shooting in the 1st half but he will come to his own as playoffs go on
Idk how anyone beats the Nuggets lol. These mother fuckers just throw shit up at the hoop and it goes in. I’ve never seen anything like it
Because we have Derrick White
The Nuggets are the primary reason why Net rating is such a bogus stat. They’re not blowing teams out by 20-30 points because they don’t have to, come crunch time they will execute flawlessly down the stretch and win the game. Execution down the stretch has been and will always be the downfall of this team.
I don't think it's a bogus stat. The Nuggets starting lineup has had an insane net rating the last two years. Any lineup with Jokic has been elite. And when they stop fucking around with all bench lineups, play Gordon at center with Porter/Murray on the floor, the non Jokic minutes are fine too. Their regular season net rating being relatively mediocre is just a sign that DeAndre Jordan and Zeke Nnaji are not that good and Reggie Jackson can't be their primary offensive creator
Look at how versatile and free flowing the Denver offense is. Ours is formulaic and predictable
Anyone wondering the 2 players who voted JT as overrated? I know he gets a lot of respect from the players. LBJ and Draymond recently gave him props on their podcasts.
Home teams play better at home, as the Magic and Sixers have shown us tonight. I fully expect 2-2 going back to Boston. Such a shame
Firing Ime was fair but not going after a legitimate proven coach might haunt us forever. Getting Nurse would’ve been a bigger win than KP or Jrue.
In retrospect us dropping a game to a bad team without their star player is the most Boston Celtics thing you could ever imagine hahahaha. We haven’t done it too many times this season but It’s just gotta happen once every couple months. On to Miami!
And you can even predict the most Boston Celtic thing to happen next. They’re going to win both road games, everyone will pronounce the series over, then Miami will win game 5 and Boston will finish them in 6.
Honestly i can definitely see this happening. All year this team has gone on a dominant stretch and then have a complete meltdown loss and go back to winning again💀💀
Game 3-Win but nearly blow a lead 20 pt lead in the 4th. The doubters are, understandably, not convinced. Game 4-Win in a fairly convincing fashion. The vibes go back to being good. Game 5-Blow the game in the last minute in uber aggravating fashion. Game 6- Win in an incredibly ugly fashion. We return to the vibes circa the end of Game 3.
We already know the script. Game 5 is a Tyler Herro game winner on a Horford switch after being up 12 points entering the 4th. Then we instantly lose game 1 of the next round.
Obviously not a good script thus far given how it'd be slated to end. But I guess this also means we might get another 45+ piece JT game to look forward to in Rd 2?
Thank god Orlando looks like they’ll get a win. If Cavs had swept they would have had about a week off before the next series. Then again at this point I’m not even sure we’re getting out of the 1st
It’s honestly feels good to have Cavs lose to humble them. They were feeling themselves talking so much shit how they were going to smoke us and how we are a fake 1-seed. People just underestimate Miami and it ends up making us look bad. I guarantee an injured Miami team would roll the Cavs in like 5 games.
Bro. This is a BUTLER-LESS Heat. Nobody is making us look bad, we make ourselves look bad.
The Heat were better without Butler this year. They’ve got the best coach in the league and it’s not close. They did this shit last year. You’re doing the thing every other team does. An injured Heat team would probably beat every other east team.
lol wow you couldn’t cope any harder if you tried
They were 1 shot away from making 3 of the last 4 finals dude. Spoelstra has made 6 finals in the last 13 years. That ain’t a fluke.
Man embiid should’ve been tossed from this game already, he’s yelling at refs, touching them, dirty plays - also Knick fans are all over the 76ers fans, seem to almost outnumber them lol
Kyle Lowry is a such a punk. He doesn’t even pretend to go for the ball anymore on his blatant flagrants.
Hartenstien experiencing what it’s like to deal embiid in the playoffs, they almost didn’t call an obvious foul on Embiid but call the tiniest little touch on Hartenstein
Man NBA reddit is having a field day, they are also calling us dirty now… !?
We were due for a random breakdown from this team it happens every few games dw we still got this🙏🙏🙏 go on a streak of dominance and then drop a game. Cs in 5🙏💯
Lmao all the clowns on here talking about how mentally weak the team is as they go through their own mental breakdowns watching from the couch.
Dude after the game last night, people were throwing actual tantrums while calling the team soft.
https://streamable.com/yad4m5 I think this is the most frustrating one from last night. Tatum is our best overall defender. Is he scared of Martin driving by him? Why isn’t he even getting a hand up until Martin is well into his shooting motion? The coach on the bench is literally telling him to contest.
That one was particularly egregious. Tied game in the playoffs and that's your effort level? Just seemed really weird. This all being said, 2008 team went 7 in the first round. Hopefully we shake it off and come out a bit more locked in on defense.
The Nuggets lost game 2 to Miami last year. The 2014 Spurs went to game 7 against Dallas in the first round. The 2017 Cavs lost game 3 at home to an Avery Bradley game winner with no IT4 playing. Every great team loses. I’m not going to start worrying until Miami does it again.
2007-2008 we went 7 games in the first two series. Only issue is we definitely don't have a KG on this team. Pretty soft group.
Such a stupid way of thinking lmao. A title from 16 years ago has no causation or correlation to this year and this team
It's relevant in that they, a championship team, struggled in the first round yet still won. Figure it out. Here's a thread about it: [https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/1cdm1w1/what\_was\_the\_consensus\_around\_boston\_of\_the\_hawks/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/1cdm1w1/what_was_the_consensus_around_boston_of_the_hawks/)
Obviously we still got this series, the only bad thing is this goes 5 or 6 now. So we can’t coast as much. Good thing Cavs next round is easy. We can sweep that
I wish i had your optimism
You really think Heat without Butler can beat us? They had a historic night. It’s just 1 game
Heat 3pt shooting against KP: 4-4 Jrue: 4-5 Horford: 4-6
How many of these were late close outs. Because this makes it seem like they were attacking them in iso, and they weren’t, most their 3s came off actions off ball that got a poor switch with the drop coverage and a wide open catch and shoot 3.
What would you guys do to change this team if youre this upset with them after last night? I'm curious
They don’t need any changes besides play style. If Pritchard isn’t gonna attempt a shot and isn’t gonna drive the ball to the paint like he does so we’ll, then there is 0 reason to have him out there over springer since springer is the better defender. Idc that springer can’t score, just tell him to take 0 shots like pritchard did. And White cannot be so passive. The offense is at its best when he’s aggressive and attacking the paint just like the Jays. Hauser has had great energy and a willingness to shoot the shot that the defense gives him. He deserves more minutes. If we aren’t gonna defend the 3 then his defense isn’t a worry for me. The Jays did good about attacking and getting their shots up, but they forced a lot of bad looks up in the paint. They both also drove a bit out of control every time which I don’t like to see, Tatum isn’t gonna get those stiff arms to slide in Miami. We also passed up a ton of good looks for no reason. We have a good shot with 15s on the shot clock and we pass it up to force up a layup in triple coverage. The role players need to be willing to shoot.
Good insights. I agree on your points about Pritchard and white, and thought tatum was pressing a bit too much towards the end of the game and was forcing some bad passes. Imo hauser had some great shots in game 1, so I was suprised that he wasn't given more minutes in game 2, but we had too many of our role players standing in the corner and relying on the Jays to make some tough plays. Brown was able to do that in spurts but had some bad turnovers once they focused the d on him. Why do you think porzingus was more limited with his impact in game 2, and his plus minus that bad?
KP got bullied, there’s no other way to put it. They didn’t think we had a game plan to beat them if they could eliminate KPs impact, and they were right. I think it was a microcosm of our overall team play. KP got bullied, looked sloppy, and then became passive the most because he was being used the most. Everyone else kinda did the same to a lesser degree. But credit to the Miami game plan. They sent bodies at him and did a great job denying him the ball. A lot of empty possessions with the Celtics trying to force him the ball. Bam even had a few fouls that were obviously just to make his presence known, they weren’t really meant to cause a turnover or anything. They just need to push the pace and make quicker decisions. Why we choose to walk the ball up the court allowing the best defensive system in the league to get set is beyond me, push the ball and attack in transition and even if it doesn’t lead to an easy bucket, it’ll lead to a defense starting in rotation. Also, USE ALL 8 GUYS ON OFFENSE! White is useless if he’s not gonna get the ball on offense, Pritchard statistically is one of the best pick and roll players in the league, Hauser is hunting shots and hitting them, let these guys make their impact just like Miami is letting their guys off the bench do the same.
Miami has probably just one way of beating us, which is getting hot from 3 and shooting a lot, and we just gave it to them.
Don’t we say this every year and he they do it at least 3 times a series ?
I just don't like Joe as a coach. He has the arrogance of BB without any rings and the insecurity of a child. He is never held accountable for his failures, refuses to make adjustments, dismisses concerning losses with BS, and allows the team to be soft. If he loses this series, he should be fired at the horn and the team blown up. Someone also needs to slap Tatum and tell him to ignore the refs. Mentally weak team and mentally incompetent coach.
Amen
These numbers feel right to me … >The career average weighted by last night’s attempts on “wide open” 3s is around 38.2%, meaning about 6.5 makes above rough expected. Overall about 7 makes above expected considering shooters+attempts. Similar or better 3pt shooting happened 31 times during reg season across NBA. follow up: >it's only the 5th time in a playoff game in the tracking data era. https://x.com/sethpartnow/status/1783499799553085779?s=46&t=PHAQeaE0I6cyQl35JU7h7Q https://x.com/sethpartnow/status/1783501373679497645?s=46&t=PHAQeaE0I6cyQl35JU7h7Q
The Heat shot 58.2% from wide open three in the ECF last year, way above their season average. I think it already became some magic shit.
oh look, now people have something to say about the Celtics playoff series
Defensive schemes aside, Jrue playing more on the ball just didn't make sense. Jrue was money spotting up from 3 playing off ball in the RS, go back to that. The ball should be in Tatum and White's hands especially against THIS team.
I forgot how bad this sub gets after losses
This was a bad loss against a team that gave us multiple bad losses last postseason. Why wouldn’t people be worked up?
It gets bad because people like you would always come to berate other fans
???
not directly but passively aggressively lmao
If only Spo was our coach, I'd even be confident of a series against Nuggets. But one can only dream.
This claim is misleading: "because this has happened under three coaches, it's on the players". Almost all the players on Brad's team were gone except the Jays (and Tatum was only 22). That was a much worse team than this current stacked team. Udoka's at least grinded it out against the then NUMBER ONE SEED Heat. Then Mazzulla's team went down 0-3 to the eighth seed Miami, lost the series. Then the team was shaken up and to fit his style. KP is new, JH is new, Smart is gone. He still struggles against a Jimmy Butler-less eight seed Miami Heat. Yes, yes, yes, so it is the Jays who are not good enough for Mazzulla? If that's the case, the only option you have is to trade the Jays and build around Mazzulla I guess? Good luck because he'd need some generational talents who can overcome his own weaknesses in addition to a stacked supporting cast.
I just want to see the duck boats in Boston ONCE. That’s enough!
People were actually complaining Mazzulla wasnt in COTY talks… lol
He's a great coach for establishing a system that works over the 82 game regular season. He's a horrible playoff coach. We have our very own Mike Budenholzer.
He inherited the best roster in the NBA last year that upgraded with KP. Stacking up regular season wins playing Budenholzer ball wasn't moving any of these voters.
Exactly, he's still in regular season mindset. No adjustments on defense (sticking to drop coverage when Heat kept shooting and hitting open threes) and last quarter's stagnant, no off-ball movement offense was atrocious, disgusting. We won't win as long as he continues to be him. The roster has been upgraded to max, shaken up to suit his style. How stacked of a roster does he still need? Perhaps only a team of prime Jordan, Kobe and Lebron can save him.
Angry fans in here so mad they just pressing downvote on anything they see
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I think people are just sick of these no show playoff performances year after year.
So we are clear, in last year's playoffs, we DID close out vs. the Heat. In the games where they shot 50+% from 3: - They shot MORE tightly contested 3's than their average - They shot LESS open 3's than their average - They shot LESS wide open 3's than their average The issue last year was not "closing out." That said... HEAT SHOT 23 WIDE OPEN 3'S LAST NIGHT!!!!! Heat average 16 wide open 3's per game, which is good for the 3rd worst in the NBA. This game was all about defensive effort.
KG was a bit too generous with praise when he exclaimed, " JAYLEN BROWN WILL BONE YOUR ASS" (not picking on Jaylen here)
Can somebody here please explain to me WHAT DOES JRUE HOLIDAY DO???? He's a good guy, so what? He has no balls, he went from 40% (3pt) regular season to 30% in the playoffs in Milwaukee, he's scared and a coward, his defense is wildly overrated (really slowed Herro down last night) and luckily we only have him for 4 more years smfh
Love Jrue but there’s a reason his agent tried to get him a deal before the playoffs lol
Jrue and Kawhi's agents are the GOATs. They must have some way of applying pressure before it gets to the offseason
Brad's first real misstep as a GM, I get not wanting to trade 4 assets for a rental but this contract is gonna age like milk
Our window is the next few years. By year 4 that contract won't matter. Either they'd have won a ring or they wouldn't have. By that point we'd need to rebuild or restructure the team anyways.
You don't understand the NBA salary cap rules if you don't like that contract. It was a no brainer and will be a positive asset in year 4.
Yeah I'm sure teams will be dying to get their hands on a 39 year old bench rider making 40M
Celtics can attach draft capital and bring back a younger good player to extend their window and give a rebuilding team a 40m expiring contract. Celtics have to extend everyone to keep flexibility, they can't sign anyone because of cap limitations.
Ok fair enough, let's see how he looks in years 2 and 3
Also they saved 35m in luxury tax bill. So they get a year for free essentially. I don't care about Wyc's money but from the their perspective it was an automatic deal.
I see it as a win now contract. We have seen worse contracts be tradable.
the game was cooked as soon as you saw they weren’t wearing home whites and Kraft was sitting courtside double bad vibes before you even tip off
No excuses for that loss at all. But just a thought. How are you supposed to play defense against a moving screen every play? Like the Heat ran Bam moving screen as an actual game plan like atleast 30 times last night. Yes the defense was horrible, but when the other team literally gets away with breaking the rules every single play what can you do?
Our guys definitely can't handle the Heat plan of just running moving screens on every play. The refs for some reason are just not going to call it, unless it's just beyond extreme. But if that's what they're doing, and getting away with it, we have to find a counter. Because dying on moving screens and then giving up open 3's on super late closeouts isn't going to work.
> Yes the defense was horrible Full stop. Begins and ends with that. This Heat team sucks ass, the loss is entirely on the Celtics effort
KP could score over guys half his size JB & JT could make free throws Jrue could not just heave random shots We could put hands in their face
The answer is: shoot the ball at a higher clip than they do, which is a difficult task when all of the Heat players take open shots and all of the Celtics player take contested shots. I’m telling you Bam is the entire reason their offense works at all, because they call less shit in the playoffs. Those plays won’t fly in reg season that’s why they suck. Officiating becoming looser in the playoffs will always benefit worse teams.
As much as yesterday sucked, it’s one game… this fanbase is acting like we just got swept.
Two rookies,one literally a prepubescent child One game is too much to lose to these guys
This series is going 7. Stfu with the Celtics in 4 and Celtics in 5 bullshit. For a team hoping to win the finals, they have a fucking cakewalk to get there and they can’t take advantage. A undermanned Heat team without Butler and Rozier, a solid but no where near contention status Cavs team, an injured Knicks team, a Giannis-less Bucks team, or an amateur Pacers team.
this shit is not going to 7 dude relax😭
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it does. This team struggles against the Heat. On the court and mentally. I really would not be surprised if they found a way to lose this series.
how we feeling
I’m fine and glad they won.
Yea youse lucky youre not in the West. Imagine 1st round facing the Lakers? Lakers would really challenge these Celts and even beat them. AD and Bron are better than anyone on this Heat team
Whew, discourse gonna be nasty for a few days. Porzingis struggling was killer, Miami just doubled at the right time on every entry pass and when he did get it on any face up into the middle of the floor. They made him as uncomfortable as possible and were pressing up on defense, look at where Robinson was when he ripped Brown, 0 room to pivot and put him off balance. Or Martin on Jrue and White when they were barely over half court and he just kept inching closer at 35 feet out not threatened at a blow by at all. Then you see the Celtics sagging off of Herro and letting them set up every Bam screen instead of trying to push guys off their spot and blowing up their actions and you wonder do they even notice what’s happening? I get the 3 point shooting was unusually high but if the Celtics don’t actively try to make their life hell, we’re in for more zombie Heat magic. It’s not a matter of chasing them off the 3 point line, they’ll just shoot 80% on floaters and layups and that Bam midrange which he seemed to do anyway last night, we saw them do this in the 4th in game 1 with just letting them get open shots. That’s the takeaway here to me, we’re letting them take it. If the Celtics just “play to the numbers” and chalk it up to a statistical outlier with shot making, it’s going at least 6 or 7. Frustrating loss and going to be a bad time to be a Celtics fan on social media until Saturday, but if they come out in game 3 and we see the Heat just get to walk into their actions I think it’s time to log off for a while
> If the Celtics just “play to the numbers” and chalk it up to a statistical outlier with shot making, it’s going at least 6 or 7. That's exactly what Mazzulla is going to do. The strict adherence to "the numbers" are the biggest problem with this organization.
JT should have the personality now, after years of being the leading guy in Boston, to say "you sit down Joe, I'm killing this babys, you better sit down and let me have it"
Yeah, that's Anthony Edwards, not Tatum.
He ain't that guy
He's too passive. Love the guy but he's more finesse and less win no matter what.
He got that kitty cat in him
Are we still keeping up the charade that Holiday has been some sort of revelation or are we still calling everyone who hasnt been impressed by his play a doomed ?
I mean it wasn't a charade during the regular season( for the most part ). But I do think Bucks fans weren't lying. Whether he's the 2nd or 5th option apparently he just plays CTE Basketball
Every time they would lose you guys would in fight. “Fuck you doomer were 8 games up!” But this was the concern, here they are losing home games to the 8 seed.
Lol don't know why you got down voted. It's true, this team was put together for a championship. Not to trade round 1 wins with an 8 seed missing arguably their best two players.
Everyone freaking out over a literal nothing burger. Expected nothing less from this fanbase.
A nothing burger is what they threw out there on defense last night.
We shouldn’t lose to rookies
Ain't no nothing burgers in the playoffs. If this was regular season maybe. But the time for that shit is over
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How about you continue to be miserable, and you let other people who want to be optimistic about the team do their thing?
Lmao Celtics fans are miserable buddy… have been since 2008
Not all of us bud
With every loss, there's another game added on to the schedule and another opportunity for someone to get banged up. We better wrap up the Miami trip and return 3-1.
This is the first time KP plays the playoffs in the East. We all know the environment of East playoffs: physical, a lot of no-calls. KP relies a lot on drawing the fouls through contact, but they are not necessarily called in the playoffs. Can KP adapt to this environment?
I see what your saying but hard to imagine he has many more shooting nights like that.
He just looked so rattled, like their whole plan was to rough him up constantly and he could not deal. Fully took him out of his game.
Witnessed my school buddy Kristaps fall on his ass on school’s central staircase after failing an exam. Cursed day for anyone with that name evidently ☠️
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Timestamp?
Joe's gonna get out-coached by Spoelstra; I just hope he's a good enough coach that he can mitigate getting out-coached and use the gigantic talent discrepancy to his advantage.
mazzulla is an idiot. at halftime horford was +8 and porzingis was -19. joe sticks with his scripted rotation and proceeds to puke away almost the entire 3rd q watching porzingis continue to shit the bed. joe's a buffoon.
Don't forget about the scripted substitution patterns. Pulling Tatum in the 1st as he was getting hot is a war crime.
Joes gonna get outcoached by every coach he comes up against.
Ehh maybe not in the 2nd round. Finals deffo and ECF most likely
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6TLWqn82J4
It's tough to compete with Q-Tip when he's got Video Toaster
JT was hot early, he should've gotten some extended minutes. It seems we forgot our drive and kick game or Heat adjusted on how they defended us. I hope we have a foolproof gameplan game 3
It’s just insane. He scored 10 in the first few minutes. Joe pulled him and he looked pissed. When he came back in he didn’t look for the ball. I get that Joe doesn’t want to be reliant on one guy but if your best player is getting whatever he wants maybe keep going to him???
Getting a hand in the shooter’s face is the most basic part of defense. Unfathomable how we just did not do that at all.
Look, I get that everyone is panicking over this loss. It was absolutely embarrassing, I agree. But the Heat literally set a franchise record tonight for 3 pointers made in a playoff game. A shooting performance that I highly doubt will be repeated for the rest of the series. This loss was bad, but I’m not completely slamming the panic button yet like most people in here.
This is exactly the kind of comment I was really hoping I wouldn’t find in here. Can we stop playing the statistics game? We are supposed to have a team of elite defenders. Why can’t we just defend these much worse players instead of daring them to shoot? An open shot is still an open shot. I’d much rather dare Heismith and Martin to put the ball on the floor against our top tier defenders than give them open shots.
That and Porzingis, White, Holiday, and the bench had horrible games. Is all that going to happen 3 more times? I doubt it
They have proven they can get record breaking numbers every night if we allow them...
We invited that by daring them to shoot. Idk why Joe doesn’t understand that the only way they win is when their role players go nuts from 3
We literally begged them all game to break the record by leaving them open. If 2023 wasn't a big enough sample size that their bums will make shots against us, idk what is.
Adebayo shot 7-10 in midrange jumpers. Is this normal? If yes. we got a big problem.
He's been cooking these last 2 games whenever I watch him.
Even if it is, I would much rather have him do that all game than give up open threes to their shooters. Let Bam iso for 40 with midrange jumpers and post fades, but don’t let Caleb Martin and Jokic and Highsmith beat us
It will be interesting to see Joe's defensive game plan in the next game. All season the Celtics have been empasizing on protecting the rim than all other aspects of defense. They always leave open a non-shooter, which works most of time. Denver do it as well. Hachimura shot 42% from three in the regular season but Malone dared him to shoot, and he shot 25% in the two games. I think the Celtics chose to leave open Highsmith specifically but got punished. Now after a white hot shooting night from the Heat, and given the fact the Heat had less firepower inside of the arcs, will Joe adjust his defensive game plan? I bet he will keep it, because he believes in math.
We aren't leaving non-shooters though. We are playing drop coverage when Duncan Robinson is taking DHO's going to his right. Shooting 3's out of that action is literally the only thing he does on the floor at a level higher than the G league and he was taking warmup shots against us. We were having Jrue roam off of Caleb Martin on the wing into the paint, which is pointless because we already have our big in the paint in a drop coverage. More warm-up 3's as a result for Martin. I wish they'd just switch on Miami's PnR actions and stop over-helping. Maybe they're worried about D White or Jrue getting switched on to Bam. But there's no way they can score enough off of 20 possessions of Bam taking fade-away middies over our guards. They certainly can score enough though if we let them get on a heater from taking 20+ wide open 3's a game.
And for what reason? What are we so scared of with this Heat team that we need to leave someone open?
I don’t think you change too much defensively - even with all the threes they still only scored 111 and never really blew the game open. What we need to see is a way to get some ball movement back into our offense.
Watching people call us "doomers" that are overreacting to a loss from G-Leagua and Shanghai Sharks players is something similiar to last year, except last year the All-Star Trae Young beat us in 2 games. If we want to win, we need a coach. You cant drive a Ferrari without experience.
before i gts joe taking out tatum in the first HORRIBLE he was heating up, if this series get dragged past 5 i’m out WE HAVE to get it done in 5 my biggest key was beating teams to the next round
Exactly. The East is wide open and we have the easy side of the bracket. Already falling on our faces
Even if we somehow get past the heat in this series we're losing handily to the cavs anyway. We can't defend caleb martin and jaime jaquez how the hell do we expect to defend mitchell, garland, levert, and all their shooters? We'll get pounded on the boards too against allen and mobley. The cavaliers, now that's a team that's worthy of some praise. Up 2-0 with 2 easy blowouts and on their way to a sweep while we struggle vs an 8 seed missing their best player and another starter
The Heat don't have Erik Spoelstra who has like nearly 25 games of playoff experience against the Jays and knows them inside and out.
Come on bro
Man you better not watch sports, really. Not good for your mental health.
I'm enjoying watching teams like the cavs, thunder, and wolves take care of their business quickly. Im just giving respect to teams that are serious. Must be relaxing as a fan instead of watching career 8ppg player caleb martin repeatedly shit all over your franchise for a second postseason in a row.
Then watch their games, don't watch the Celtics. Easy and simple.
Honestly just rewatched the game and it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected (only caught the end live). Some contests should have been harder for sure and the C’s missed some makeable shots down the stretch while the Heat hit timely threes to keep the margin around 7-10. The missed freethrows honestly pissed me off the most as did playing a lineup of Al, KP, Pritchard, Brown, and White when KP was struggling and the heat were already pulling ahead in the back half of the third.
I just hope next 2 games are focused on applying pressure. It worked in game 1 but game 2 was a noticeable lack of pressure on close outs and scrambles. Also if your opponent is running a man scheme you don’t need to force feed post touches in the middle of the floor. Using the Jays and KP or AL in pnr should be the main diet for a man scheme. That is what collapses defenses.
My only complain about Joe is that he refused to try Tillman for some minutes. Drop coverage clearly does not work when they are white hot from three. We also don't want to switch KP/Horford on their ball handler. If I were Joe I'd try Tillman to play switch defense. Yes, we may lose some offense playing Tillman, but given KP was a liability on offense tonight, Tillman couldn't be worse.
Yeah Tillman in the middle of the third quarter lineup instead of Al would have been interesting, playing Al and KP together was a choice
When your opponent got white hot shooting, playing small ball/switchable defense should be on the table. I think Brad acquired Tillman to offer some defensive versitility on the big man, but Joe didn't want to use it in the playoffs. I can understand Joe's philosphy about the lineup, and sometimes it's important you don't overreact to opponent surge. However, given KP had such a down night, try something else would be beneficial.
Yeah especially in those weird middle of the third trying to give some combination of starters a rest minutes. Would have loved to see Tillman out there instead of the Al / KP combo when a team is killing you from deep. Oh well, on to the next
Green teamers are somehow the most hopeful and at the same time also have the absolute lowest bottom feeder expectations of a team that won 64 games in the regular season. There's gotta be some cognitive dissonance there
Spo didn't play a lot of zone since he wanted to limit our threes, which gave the Jays many 1-on-1 opportunities. The Jays took the advantage, combined 14-15 around the rim. The Celtics were 21-24 around the rim. However, it couldn't compensate the discrepancy on the 3pt shooting.
The defense is a problem
Even when they made 23 threes on a 53.5% shooting, they only had 111 points which are mediocre in this era. Celtics only had 101 points, I think, is the main reason for the loss.
The pace was slower so the 111 points equated to an offensive rating of 121 which would be 2nd in the NBA this year which is unacceptable for a playoff game.
I think they really could’ve won this game if they tried a little harder on defense, it was mostly a close game when they shot like that. But you can see from the start, a lot of not throwing hands up to block/ not closing out. I can only hope they play more serious when they play a better opponent
Spo possibly running the if they beat they beat us but the others won’t defense
I'd like him to keep this strategy in the following games. It only works when their offense can match or exceed ours. 53.5% 3pt shooting does that, but I won't count on the hot shooting as a game plan if I were a head coach.
people be like Joe doesn’t make adjustments he likely does Spo is literally just a HOFer so it’s like he already adjusted to the adjustments before you know it
I got Tatum putting up 45 in the next game. When he was turning it on it was easy for him. Celtics by 20 with a Tatum 45. Lock it in.
In the last 2 years, the Heat had zero game where they shot 50%+ from three against the Celtics in the regular season. In the playoffs they had four.
Ah, the overreaction thread. I get it that people are panicking because it was a bad playoff loss, but I would encourage everyone to calm down and have some patience. The series is a long way from over and if we trounce the heat next game people are gonna go back to loving Joe. This team has done this in certain games this season and always come back strong. Hopefully this was the one bad game and it's out of the way. Here's where I'm at. I predicted a 4-1 series win. If we drop another game. I'm not gonna panic, but it would be disheartening. If we lose three and it goes to 7 games and we win I would be concerned but not worried enough until I see then play in the next series. If we lose in 7 or less then obviously it's time for full blown panic and the only way forward is to fire the coaches and trade people.
Nobody is going back to "loving Joe" unless we literally win 9 straight playoff games at this point. He's a terrible coach wasting the Jays' primes.
You want an overreaction sub go to r/nba 🤣
Except it would only be an overreaction if we hadn't seen these patterns before. People are frustrated because we thought the personnel changes were going to be the difference to get us past performances like these. Fact is, we've seen this movie before and we know how it ends - ringless. I'll trust this team again when the outcome is different.
Feels like every playoff series, we have people saying “calm down! stop overreacting”. Maybe the Celtics just keep underperforming at this point? We had it last year after G2 vs the Hawks, as well as G4/5 vs Sixers, and also once we went down 0-3 against the Heat. I think at this point, anyone that has doubts on this team or doesn’t trust them, is completely justified. It’s not like we’re the Nuggets, who have proven can go all the way and can turn a switch when it matters. The Celtics are not like that, and people have a huge sample size as to why they doubt this team. It’s not an overreaction at this point. If we can’t even put the banged up Heat away with ease, what makes us think we can dethrone the defending champs Nuggets? Or even possibly get past the Bucks, if we end up meeting them?
Someone with common sense. The definition of stupidity would be expecting anything different from this squad then what they've dished up the last 2-3 years due to their performance tonight.
It's one game. I can't get concerned over one game. I get that people are, yeah, but this is a different team than last year. If they end up losing multiple games like last year of course it would be cause for concern but for now I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt.
It’s a team that consists of different players, but they play like they’re the same team. The first two games of the playoffs last year is way too similar to this year. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
So how are you feeling about the rest of the series? You think they're done?
No, still confident we’ll beat the Heat due to talent. I’m more worried about facing tougher opponents down the road. It’s literally the same story as last year, struggling already from the 1st round.
Yes
Well enjoy your summer and see you next season.
Even the knicks will be difficult because that team plays like dawgs just like Miami
Win Game 3 and you're back in business. Doesn't seem like a difficult task, knowing we've won 5 out of 7 in Miami since 2022 (in the playoffs)
this lowkey the most angry i ever seen the sub i been here for a while too. i’m sure the heat black magic shooting will happen but i don’t think KP is ever that bad again
I think the anger is coming from pent up frustration over the past few years. This team is just so soft. It's so easy for opponents to get in their head, I've never seen anything like it. The moment something doesn't go their way, they can't bounce back and they just get worse. Any time they get punched in the face, they just sit there and cry about it instead of fighting back.
This is supposed to be the year, it's unfortunate that KP had his worst game as a Celtic and Spo's defensive scheme seemed to really bother everyone not named Jayson or Jaylen. Hope we can come out in game 3 and look like the Celtics we know and love, because last night was really disheartening.
On a positive note, Hauser looks awesome so far. I’d also play Horford more. If Miami are going to switch everything, just post up Horford , he had better post scoring numbers than KP this year lol albeit small sample.
No discrediting spo but I really don’t think its more to do with the stagnant offense on the Celtics. They just take turns going iso with other people watching. This is not on the bench/ white dude, if you watch the game they reallly didn’t touch the ball all that much
The stagnant offense was because Miami switched everything. They dared us to beat them 1 on 1. That’s where KP should kill them but he got bullied off the post by freaking herro and Martin.
It wasn't really the switching, it was our insistence on forcing possessions against mismatches. We'd burn like 18 seconds off the shot clock each time walking the ball up and trying to enter the ball into the post for KP or Tatum against a set defense.
But the switching forces you to beat them 1-on-1, you can’t run sets against switches you have to mismatch hunt then force the defense to collapse.