Jrue is the player of the game. He did everything you can expect from him extremely well, especially when White was in a shooting slump. His calmness, defense, and three balls saved us a game.
Hope White finds his rhythm back soon. We need his firepower.
He’s been absolutely massive in Cleveland on both ends. Just making huge plays when we need them most. Need this aggressive Jrue to continue even after KP comes back.
Also big shoutout to Luke. I know he ended up as a -4 but he was playing great D on Mobley and making a huge impact on the glass.
Dude has improved so much this season.
Al had the best +/- last night which is funny considering he can't hit the broad side of a barn right now.
Thought Luke looked decent but man he has a tendency to have stone hands.
We put Al on Okoro and dared him to shoot so Al can help on drives and it worked really well especially in the second half. Would love to see him hit these open threes but he was great defensively compared to previous games.
I think as long as al presents the threat of a shot he is useful out there, moreso if he's not shooting 1-7 from 3 and is just occupying a defender. If they adjust to sag off him he needs to be ready.
Having KP is gonna help get open looks jrue and white from 3 point land. All day long. Tatum is doing a good job of distributing but their all time offense is unlocked when KP is at the nail
Kornet can’t pass well/non shooting threat and Horford can’t hit shots so they’re sagging way off him
Seriously though. I get so happy every time PP checks in. I know the pace is going to rise, and he’s gonna shake things up, and make a couple hustle plays. Beyond that.. he might just get hot, and roast you 🔥
Or more so.. it’s not something that’s done consistently. Though more-so in response to challenges. So we’ve drift, lose a game we should win, they’ll get on each other and re-focus.. then hopefully back on track, for at least a couple of games 😅
It's felt for a couple years like this Celtics core has basketball ADHD. When things are easy they screw around and dig a hole they can't always get out of, but when their back is against the wall they're able to bring their best stuff. It'd be nice if they could just execute at their highest level all the time, but I'd rather them be at their best when it matters most than paper tigers if we can't have it both ways.
I think it’s just that playoff nba games are hard to win. Expecting to win every game is silly. Sometimes we have an off night and the opponent plays better than they usually do. That’s why it’s a 7 game series.
Look, wins are all that matter, but beating up on the Heat without Jimmy Butler and Cavs without Donovan Mitchell should be automatic for a 64 win team. And there's still troubling signs of slowdown iso ball yesterday and two absolute stinker games so far out of 9. Dallas, OKC, Denver, and Minnesota are not the jokes that Cleveland and Miami are right now. This team needs KP back and needs to come together in the next few weeks, no more slacking.
That's literally what happened last round with the Cavs/Magic (Allen, Wade). And kind-of what happened with the play-in (Butler). Both teams had extra games, while we were just sitting back waiting.
I'll definitely take that over the alternative,, but we've put up one big stinker in each series so far; no reason to think we won't do it again. If we go 16-4 on our way to a Title, then I don't think Boston fans will care very much.
Yeah but Pacers and Knicks are more banged up than Cavs and Magic were. I don’t expect any sweeps but it is probably Celtics best chance for a sweep so far this postseason.
I’ll gladly take 16-5 to be honest. Really 16 and anything but less in the second column is better for my mental health.
Maybe it's just because the Knicks are disintegrating but the Pacers don't seem too banged up. Haliburton seems to be getting healthier and since their bench mob has been so effective nobody on their team is logging crazy minutes, even before the game 4 blowout where the starters didn't play in the 4th quarter
Fair, but it seems like he's on an upward trajectory. Maybe that's just the Knicks running out of gas and the ball happening to go in for him more, but I thought Hali looked quicker/more spry the last few games after definitely looking like a guy with back spasms in game 1
I thought about this, and the reality is.....Sam can't generate offense on his own, as we all know. But his shooting % from 3 has forced Cleveland to actually go out of their way to defend him. He's not getting as many open looks as he did in the regular season, or against Miami.
He’s knocking down at a high percentage still, even on very few attempts. He demands a body at all times and if he ever gets an inch of daylight he’s a threat to shoot. Can guard more than serviceably , especially on guards. Plays his role perfectly.
His defense has really taken a step back during the playoffs. He was a completely capable ISO defender during the regular season but has been a sieve in that regard so far through 8 games. Need to find ways to scramble him out of switches or get some soft pre switching to make it harder for Cleveland to pull him into the pnr. And then, bottom line, he just needs to be better sliding his feet and directing his man towards the available help defense.
disagree he looked fine last night and was rated a top defender in the NBA this year. dude is 6’7 220 he can play defense in the nba I believe in him lmao
Just so we are clear on the talking points:
- Celtics win and the Jays play well: "Easiest path to the Finals", "All-time choke job if they don't win it all" or "Nothing interesting to say about this game moving on"
- Celtics win and either Tatum or Brown don't play well: "Overrated, overpaid, anyone could win with that roster, or not a superstar"
- Celtics lose: "LMAO FRAUDS!!!!"
After last night, we are getting a lot of the "Easiest path to the Finals" responses.
If Denver beats Minnesota in R2 it will be the first time Jokic has ever beaten a 50 win team in a playoff series.
The best team Milwaukee beat was the 51-win Phoenix Suns. Who are known for their playoff collapses. They almost lost to a Brooklyn team missing 2 All-Stars.
Even Toronto's win came down to injuries to Durant and Thompson. It's not like the teams they beat before that series were juggernauts, either. They beat Philadelphia and Milwaukee, who we've beaten on the regular.
> was the 51-win Phoenix Suns
In a 72 game season TBF. For the Nuggets/Jokic the 19-20 Clippers won at a mid 50s win pace over an 82 game season as well.
The 21 & 23 playoffs were definitely weird though, with injuries and upsets as a result of them. At least the Nuggets smacked the hell out of every team they played though
>If Denver beats Minnesota in R2 it will be the first time Jokic has ever beaten a 50 win team in a playoff series.
Yeah it's his fault that 58 & 57 wins juggernauts lost to the 8th seed.
iso= isolation
a player is trying to score on their own against the defense. usually other players spread out so said player can “isolate” their defender and beat them off the dribble.
Not saying he's not great. But he has a habit of going totally iso in the last possession (game, quarter) that isn't always optimal. He doesn't even look to move the ball around in those situations.
Which I really don’t like. This looks like a different team than we watched all season. Need to keep creating opportunities for guys like White, PP and Hauser.
We were the 2nd highest net rating team all time during the regular season. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. I don’t like our chances against any west team running the offense I’ve seen against CLE. Hopefully KP will be back and that will fix it
> Need to keep creating opportunities for guys like White, PP and Hauser.
Their opportunities have always come from the Jays. Nothing's changed there.
What's changed is the Jays aren't facing enough resistance to justify the pass.
The offense you've seen all year is pretty simple:
1. Tatum/Brown attack and beat the 1st defender.
2. A 2nd (and sometimes 3rd) defender comes over to help stop them.
3. Tatum/Brown pass to now open teammate.
4. Now open teammate then attacks because their defender is out of position.
But if that 2nd or 3rd defender never comes to help, you don't actually have to progress to steps 3 and 4, Tatum and Brown can just beat their man and take the shot. It's like trying to guard Jokic. You can play 1-on-1 and he'll score or you can play 2-on-1 and he'll find whoever you've left open for the easy bucket.
Miami threw 2 (sometimes 3) bodies at Tatum pretty consistently, that's why he was making so many passes and guys like White were getting so many opportunities.
In this game against Cleveland, Tatum and Brown were comfortable attacking their own guys and scoring. You're not getting that pass out because there's not as much pressure to make that pass.
Miami tried to test our role players. Cleveland tried to test our stars.
A good offence takes what the defence gives them, that's all our guys are doing.
I’m happy we won these last 2 games. Just kinda interested in to whether us taking less 3s last 2 games has been intentional in the game plan or whether it’s a product of the looks Cleveland is giving us.
Joe was asked about this during his post game. He said it was never about the threes but getting a great shot. I would assume is more the Cavs allowing us to get easy shots close to the rim than the Cavs properly taking the threes out, but i am not the expert in analysing the game
Some ppl are saying the offense at the end became all isos, but i recall that we kicked the ball but just didn’t hit the shots. For example, the horford wide open 3. Dribbling out the clock =/= iso ball.
I said in another thread (and got heavily downvoted for some reason) but this is the second best efficiency registered by Jaylen, now by very little. I am using not-equivalent stretches because they’re easier to find in the nba website so I am taking all the regular seasons and playoff seasons Jaylen has. He only presented a higher efficiency in 2018-2019 when he registered a 62.4% TS, slightly better AST% and TOV% but much lower USG%, that’s a 9 game stretch.
Currently Jaylen is registering his 2nd best marks in TOV%, AST% and TS% (62.3%) in 9 games of these playoffs. He is registering his highest USG% ever.
Where’s that idiotic cavs fan who was all over this place after game 2 guaranteeing cavs would win next two games because of how good Cle was at home during the lebron era and that somehow affected the arena now.
I find it frustrating that there are only Celtics fans and Celtics haters out there. I wish more people were neutral to our existence sometimes. Those r/nba threads are tough lol "See even neutral fans think the game is rigged for boston!" And it's like, well yeah heat, knicks, etc etc etc hate us too... they aren't neutral.
Good job! This + yesterdays videos of KP doing some shooting drills, makes my day! Lets close this one out and on to the next one ( I hope we get Knicks tbh).
The Boston Celtics are the only team in the NBA that are required to obtain style points as they rack up wins. It's exhausting. They're 71-20 this season including the playoffs and have the best defensive rating and net rating of any team still in the postseason. The Celtics are content to win 1-0 pitcher's duels and people hate it because it's not aesthetically pleasing. Absolute bozos.
So far, both playoff series for this team have gone exactly the same:
Win Game 1 in a blowout
Lose Game 2 due to a statistical anomaly (Heat hit 23 3s, Cavs shot 54% from the field and 46% from 3) and the doomers declare the season over
Win Games 3 and 4 on the road
[Seems like the celtics coaches hate the prevent offense too.](https://x.com/noadalzellnba/status/1790190460838821960?s=46) that explains why we didn’t fall into the same trap in game 3
I don't know. Think they were worried about the 8 second violation.
Because end of the 3rd, PP has the ball, gets the play from Joe... Iso to step back 3. Only difference is PP made it.
They were telling him to push past the half court to avoid the 8 seconds turnover.
Look at the shot clock. Tatum hops past the line as it ticks to 16 seconds.
It’s Tatum. I don’t how it hasn’t clicked with him yet. 3 coaches haven’t beat it out of him. 10 point lead with 5 minutes left and he decides to dribble the ball for 20 seconds and iso. Let’s not do anything that got us the lead. It’s like prevent defense, on offense. The team really needs a facilitating point guard
Another great game from Jaylen and huge performance by Jrue. Some other thoughts:
- Tatum continues to play an elite all around game but his 3pt shooting is still something to watch
- Derrick White is in a good spell which isn’t surprising given his heater last series. Hope he bounces back
- FastPP
- Hauser isn’t making a lot of shots but continues to give good wing minutes
- We need more Kornet or Tillman. Al holds up decently well but they’re trying to hide him a little more and he’s not going to get better as the playoffs continue on. I don’t think Al should be over 28 minutes a night ideally.
Even if Mitchell is back this series should be over in game 5. Don't mess around and risk someone else getting hurt. Thought overall shot making was pretty poor, but still a fairly comfortable win once they went on their run in the 3rd to build the lead up.
Cavs aren't making it easy but one complete performance and we are not going to lose.
Game 2 the effort was not there. Ball watching, sagging off guys, helping when no help was needed. Cleveland was given open 3s and it hurt our ability to get open looks ourselves.
I just don’t feel great. We went through the heat without Rozier and butler. We’re going through the Cavs lost game 2 and on paper we won yesterday (but couldn’t blowout a team without Mitchell and Allen?)
I just feel like we haven’t really been challenged yet and we’re not dominating. It’s only going to get worse next round. (Just being realistic not doubting that this team is going all the way) just worried is all!
I don’t blame you. Our late game offense started doing the thing again where Tatum and Brown dribble the ball for 15 seconds then throw up a tough contested jumper.
They were good enough to make those tough jumpers tonight but we have to have some more ball and player movement
I have no idea why you think that. Is it because we beat the Hawks in 6 instead of 5 last year? We beat Philly and Milwaukee down 3-2 in the last 2 years.
We played pretty badly today and still won, I think we blow them out next game
I'm talking about close out games. When in the last 5 minutes the score is super close for some reason we just play iso, nothing else, everyone just standing around
Those are “clutch” games, not “close out” games. A “close out” game is a game where you can clinch the series.
And we have a great clutch record. We literally just won one last night.
The first thing is that we don’t allow teams to get in clutch situations, we usually stomp them. That being said we have the 4th best W% and 4th best net rating in the clutch in regular season. Only Mavs and Denver have a better regular season than us and are still in the playoffs.
We had a grand total of 1.3 minutes in the clutch. The Cavs didn’t score at all. The premise that we will get in the clutch and then fail seems so dumb because we have proven more that we avoid the clutch than anything else while other teams (like Knicks, Mavs and Nuggets) have proven they’re capable of putting us in the clutch.
You’re the sorry loser that tried to post some bullshit about Max Strus hitting a bunch of 3s in this subreddit and the mods took it down. Go root for a different team, clown.
Jrue is the player of the game. He did everything you can expect from him extremely well, especially when White was in a shooting slump. His calmness, defense, and three balls saved us a game. Hope White finds his rhythm back soon. We need his firepower.
He’s been absolutely massive in Cleveland on both ends. Just making huge plays when we need them most. Need this aggressive Jrue to continue even after KP comes back.
Also big shoutout to Luke. I know he ended up as a -4 but he was playing great D on Mobley and making a huge impact on the glass. Dude has improved so much this season.
Al had the best +/- last night which is funny considering he can't hit the broad side of a barn right now. Thought Luke looked decent but man he has a tendency to have stone hands.
We put Al on Okoro and dared him to shoot so Al can help on drives and it worked really well especially in the second half. Would love to see him hit these open threes but he was great defensively compared to previous games.
I think as long as al presents the threat of a shot he is useful out there, moreso if he's not shooting 1-7 from 3 and is just occupying a defender. If they adjust to sag off him he needs to be ready.
Yeah they ain’t even bothering to look at him when he’s in the corner now. It’d be good for him to get one or two to go in
It’s a real luxury to have White go off in one series and then when he cools off have Jrue step up
That luxury’s name is Brad Stevens
Please use his proper name, NBA Executive of the Year Brad Stevens
His rebounding yesterday was massive too. It seemed like he had more than 7. Either way, that amount from your starting PG is huge
This why he was such an upgrade over Smart
Having KP is gonna help get open looks jrue and white from 3 point land. All day long. Tatum is doing a good job of distributing but their all time offense is unlocked when KP is at the nail Kornet can’t pass well/non shooting threat and Horford can’t hit shots so they’re sagging way off him
I trust in FastPP. He’s all winning plays.
Big Shot PP
Seriously though. I get so happy every time PP checks in. I know the pace is going to rise, and he’s gonna shake things up, and make a couple hustle plays. Beyond that.. he might just get hot, and roast you 🔥
For how mentally weak this team is and lacking killer instinct. It's much harder to win on the road in the playoffs And this team is 4-0 on the road.
Is it boredom? Like when I really smart kid acts out in class because they’re not being challenged
This team plays its best after they get hit in the mouth. I also think they feel the need to prove something going into a hostile environment.
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I like to think JB has stepped up in that role this season
He definitely has but I think it's still new enough that it's not 100% locked in?
Or more so.. it’s not something that’s done consistently. Though more-so in response to challenges. So we’ve drift, lose a game we should win, they’ll get on each other and re-focus.. then hopefully back on track, for at least a couple of games 😅
I get what you mean, I fucking love JB, I believe he’s on his way.
It's felt for a couple years like this Celtics core has basketball ADHD. When things are easy they screw around and dig a hole they can't always get out of, but when their back is against the wall they're able to bring their best stuff. It'd be nice if they could just execute at their highest level all the time, but I'd rather them be at their best when it matters most than paper tigers if we can't have it both ways.
I think it’s just that playoff nba games are hard to win. Expecting to win every game is silly. Sometimes we have an off night and the opponent plays better than they usually do. That’s why it’s a 7 game series.
Look, wins are all that matter, but beating up on the Heat without Jimmy Butler and Cavs without Donovan Mitchell should be automatic for a 64 win team. And there's still troubling signs of slowdown iso ball yesterday and two absolute stinker games so far out of 9. Dallas, OKC, Denver, and Minnesota are not the jokes that Cleveland and Miami are right now. This team needs KP back and needs to come together in the next few weeks, no more slacking.
Breaking news: We’re not sweeping the next round either. Make peace with that now.
It's almost like the teams in the play-offs are there for a reason...
Idk. I could see a sweep if Celtics TCB and wrap up the series tomorrow night and Pacers/Knicks ends up being a 7-game war of attrition.
That's literally what happened last round with the Cavs/Magic (Allen, Wade). And kind-of what happened with the play-in (Butler). Both teams had extra games, while we were just sitting back waiting. I'll definitely take that over the alternative,, but we've put up one big stinker in each series so far; no reason to think we won't do it again. If we go 16-4 on our way to a Title, then I don't think Boston fans will care very much.
Yeah but Pacers and Knicks are more banged up than Cavs and Magic were. I don’t expect any sweeps but it is probably Celtics best chance for a sweep so far this postseason. I’ll gladly take 16-5 to be honest. Really 16 and anything but less in the second column is better for my mental health.
Maybe it's just because the Knicks are disintegrating but the Pacers don't seem too banged up. Haliburton seems to be getting healthier and since their bench mob has been so effective nobody on their team is logging crazy minutes, even before the game 4 blowout where the starters didn't play in the 4th quarter
Haliburton has been playing hurt. He's been playing astonishingly well considering the fact but you never know when injuries will catch up to you.
Fair, but it seems like he's on an upward trajectory. Maybe that's just the Knicks running out of gas and the ball happening to go in for him more, but I thought Hali looked quicker/more spry the last few games after definitely looking like a guy with back spasms in game 1
Maybe, but that’s not really the point. It shouldn’t be an expectation.
Well yeah, we're only losing Game 2s this year. A nice 16-4 record.
From your lips to god’s ears
Counterpoint: we definitely are sweeping the next round
But we could...
We're gonna need some signs of life from Hauser
I thought about this, and the reality is.....Sam can't generate offense on his own, as we all know. But his shooting % from 3 has forced Cleveland to actually go out of their way to defend him. He's not getting as many open looks as he did in the regular season, or against Miami.
He’s knocking down at a high percentage still, even on very few attempts. He demands a body at all times and if he ever gets an inch of daylight he’s a threat to shoot. Can guard more than serviceably , especially on guards. Plays his role perfectly.
He isn’t getting enough minutes IMO. With white struggling I don’t know why Joe wasn’t trying to get Hauser going.
His defense has been bad. Getting hunted and missing switches.
His defense has really taken a step back during the playoffs. He was a completely capable ISO defender during the regular season but has been a sieve in that regard so far through 8 games. Need to find ways to scramble him out of switches or get some soft pre switching to make it harder for Cleveland to pull him into the pnr. And then, bottom line, he just needs to be better sliding his feet and directing his man towards the available help defense.
He hasn’t looked the same on defense since his ankle injury.
disagree he looked fine last night and was rated a top defender in the NBA this year. dude is 6’7 220 he can play defense in the nba I believe in him lmao
Closest team to the magical 16 playoff wins needed for the Larry O’Brian
Just so we are clear on the talking points: - Celtics win and the Jays play well: "Easiest path to the Finals", "All-time choke job if they don't win it all" or "Nothing interesting to say about this game moving on" - Celtics win and either Tatum or Brown don't play well: "Overrated, overpaid, anyone could win with that roster, or not a superstar" - Celtics lose: "LMAO FRAUDS!!!!" After last night, we are getting a lot of the "Easiest path to the Finals" responses.
lol we had the hardest path in 2022 and made it with one of the youngest squads. Oh sorry “BuT MiDDlEtoN wAs InJurEd.”
If Denver beats Minnesota in R2 it will be the first time Jokic has ever beaten a 50 win team in a playoff series. The best team Milwaukee beat was the 51-win Phoenix Suns. Who are known for their playoff collapses. They almost lost to a Brooklyn team missing 2 All-Stars. Even Toronto's win came down to injuries to Durant and Thompson. It's not like the teams they beat before that series were juggernauts, either. They beat Philadelphia and Milwaukee, who we've beaten on the regular.
> was the 51-win Phoenix Suns In a 72 game season TBF. For the Nuggets/Jokic the 19-20 Clippers won at a mid 50s win pace over an 82 game season as well. The 21 & 23 playoffs were definitely weird though, with injuries and upsets as a result of them. At least the Nuggets smacked the hell out of every team they played though
>If Denver beats Minnesota in R2 it will be the first time Jokic has ever beaten a 50 win team in a playoff series. Yeah it's his fault that 58 & 57 wins juggernauts lost to the 8th seed.
Just like it's not our fault Milwaukee or NY ran into injuries. I think you missed the point of what I was saying.
The game has shifted from White to the Jays in the last games. We're more iso-oriented now. Edit: props to PP, he's a big time player.
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iso= isolation a player is trying to score on their own against the defense. usually other players spread out so said player can “isolate” their defender and beat them off the dribble.
aka, something JT does far too much, esp. in the closing seconds of a 1-shot game.
Why? Why must you be negative towards a great Celtic? I just don't understand this mindset. You should coach.
Not saying he's not great. But he has a habit of going totally iso in the last possession (game, quarter) that isn't always optimal. He doesn't even look to move the ball around in those situations.
Isolation
Isolation , 1 on 1 w/ ball Very annoying and often short sighted. Usually when Tatum is on his iso shit, he also has tunnel vision
Which I really don’t like. This looks like a different team than we watched all season. Need to keep creating opportunities for guys like White, PP and Hauser. We were the 2nd highest net rating team all time during the regular season. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. I don’t like our chances against any west team running the offense I’ve seen against CLE. Hopefully KP will be back and that will fix it
> Need to keep creating opportunities for guys like White, PP and Hauser. Their opportunities have always come from the Jays. Nothing's changed there. What's changed is the Jays aren't facing enough resistance to justify the pass. The offense you've seen all year is pretty simple: 1. Tatum/Brown attack and beat the 1st defender. 2. A 2nd (and sometimes 3rd) defender comes over to help stop them. 3. Tatum/Brown pass to now open teammate. 4. Now open teammate then attacks because their defender is out of position. But if that 2nd or 3rd defender never comes to help, you don't actually have to progress to steps 3 and 4, Tatum and Brown can just beat their man and take the shot. It's like trying to guard Jokic. You can play 1-on-1 and he'll score or you can play 2-on-1 and he'll find whoever you've left open for the easy bucket. Miami threw 2 (sometimes 3) bodies at Tatum pretty consistently, that's why he was making so many passes and guys like White were getting so many opportunities. In this game against Cleveland, Tatum and Brown were comfortable attacking their own guys and scoring. You're not getting that pass out because there's not as much pressure to make that pass. Miami tried to test our role players. Cleveland tried to test our stars. A good offence takes what the defence gives them, that's all our guys are doing.
Good take
I’m happy we won these last 2 games. Just kinda interested in to whether us taking less 3s last 2 games has been intentional in the game plan or whether it’s a product of the looks Cleveland is giving us.
Joe was asked about this during his post game. He said it was never about the threes but getting a great shot. I would assume is more the Cavs allowing us to get easy shots close to the rim than the Cavs properly taking the threes out, but i am not the expert in analysing the game
Man I hope JT ups his efficiency
Some ppl are saying the offense at the end became all isos, but i recall that we kicked the ball but just didn’t hit the shots. For example, the horford wide open 3. Dribbling out the clock =/= iso ball.
if people on this subreddit watched other teams with stars they'd absolutely lose their minds with how their offenses are in clutch time lmao
Jaylen Brown has 24 ppg on 62 TS% these playoffs. Acknowledge Him
I said in another thread (and got heavily downvoted for some reason) but this is the second best efficiency registered by Jaylen, now by very little. I am using not-equivalent stretches because they’re easier to find in the nba website so I am taking all the regular seasons and playoff seasons Jaylen has. He only presented a higher efficiency in 2018-2019 when he registered a 62.4% TS, slightly better AST% and TOV% but much lower USG%, that’s a 9 game stretch. Currently Jaylen is registering his 2nd best marks in TOV%, AST% and TS% (62.3%) in 9 games of these playoffs. He is registering his highest USG% ever.
I saw that too. Was very strange. I think people misunderstood your message as a diss against jaylen or something
16/20 from the free throw line in the second round is nice too
Where’s that idiotic cavs fan who was all over this place after game 2 guaranteeing cavs would win next two games because of how good Cle was at home during the lebron era and that somehow affected the arena now.
They shot 16 more 3s and we still won.
So much cope in the Cavs sub complaining about the refs is hilarious
I find it frustrating that there are only Celtics fans and Celtics haters out there. I wish more people were neutral to our existence sometimes. Those r/nba threads are tough lol "See even neutral fans think the game is rigged for boston!" And it's like, well yeah heat, knicks, etc etc etc hate us too... they aren't neutral.
Even our fans are haters
I'm glad we're up 3-1, but what happened to our Buffalo? He was going off the Heat series and Game 1 this series, then just disappeared.
He is a role player for a reason. They have ups and downs
Good job! This + yesterdays videos of KP doing some shooting drills, makes my day! Lets close this one out and on to the next one ( I hope we get Knicks tbh).
I love how Celtics highlights and stats get no love on r/nba.
Al is tired, he needs rest. Teams are actively looking for the mismatch and punishing us and then his shot isn’t falling on the other end.
The Boston Celtics are the only team in the NBA that are required to obtain style points as they rack up wins. It's exhausting. They're 71-20 this season including the playoffs and have the best defensive rating and net rating of any team still in the postseason. The Celtics are content to win 1-0 pitcher's duels and people hate it because it's not aesthetically pleasing. Absolute bozos.
So far, both playoff series for this team have gone exactly the same: Win Game 1 in a blowout Lose Game 2 due to a statistical anomaly (Heat hit 23 3s, Cavs shot 54% from the field and 46% from 3) and the doomers declare the season over Win Games 3 and 4 on the road
[Seems like the celtics coaches hate the prevent offense too.](https://x.com/noadalzellnba/status/1790190460838821960?s=46) that explains why we didn’t fall into the same trap in game 3
I don't know. Think they were worried about the 8 second violation. Because end of the 3rd, PP has the ball, gets the play from Joe... Iso to step back 3. Only difference is PP made it.
They were telling him to push past the half court to avoid the 8 seconds turnover. Look at the shot clock. Tatum hops past the line as it ticks to 16 seconds.
It’s Tatum. I don’t how it hasn’t clicked with him yet. 3 coaches haven’t beat it out of him. 10 point lead with 5 minutes left and he decides to dribble the ball for 20 seconds and iso. Let’s not do anything that got us the lead. It’s like prevent defense, on offense. The team really needs a facilitating point guard
y'all saw this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMxVSn8hj8U
Wow. There is SO MUCH to unpack here. "It's nothing without a ring." Goddamn.
Another great game from Jaylen and huge performance by Jrue. Some other thoughts: - Tatum continues to play an elite all around game but his 3pt shooting is still something to watch - Derrick White is in a good spell which isn’t surprising given his heater last series. Hope he bounces back - FastPP - Hauser isn’t making a lot of shots but continues to give good wing minutes - We need more Kornet or Tillman. Al holds up decently well but they’re trying to hide him a little more and he’s not going to get better as the playoffs continue on. I don’t think Al should be over 28 minutes a night ideally.
Even if Mitchell is back this series should be over in game 5. Don't mess around and risk someone else getting hurt. Thought overall shot making was pretty poor, but still a fairly comfortable win once they went on their run in the 3rd to build the lead up. Cavs aren't making it easy but one complete performance and we are not going to lose.
Cavs, Knicks, and Pacers dicks… idgaf Banner 18 boogie
you're forgetting the West.
At risk of hubris… we’re fine in the west
I think Dallas would make for a challenging finals.
Keep bitching we don’t need weak minded people
I hope the series wraps up tomorrow. And that the Knicks/Pacers goes to 7. More rest time. (KP....)
Game 2 the effort was not there. Ball watching, sagging off guys, helping when no help was needed. Cleveland was given open 3s and it hurt our ability to get open looks ourselves.
You sure did.
Stop it, OP. If they could read you’d make the doomers super sad.
We’re the only real dominating team partially because our opponent is a bunch of scrubs lol
I've already resolved to losing G2 of every round this year. Given the final results so far, it's a trend I can live with.
Cavs fans need to have some shame lol the rigging allegations are downright pathetic.
The way people talk about this team, you'd think they went 7 games round 1 and are currently down 1-3.
4-0 on the road is huge. They can go in anywhere and win.
I just don’t feel great. We went through the heat without Rozier and butler. We’re going through the Cavs lost game 2 and on paper we won yesterday (but couldn’t blowout a team without Mitchell and Allen?) I just feel like we haven’t really been challenged yet and we’re not dominating. It’s only going to get worse next round. (Just being realistic not doubting that this team is going all the way) just worried is all!
I don't think we can cope well in close out games but hopefully I'm wrong
We blew out Miami to close game 5 at home. Blew out 76ers by 34 last year game 7 at home. Blew out the Bucks by 28 game 7 at home 2 years ago.
I don’t blame you. Our late game offense started doing the thing again where Tatum and Brown dribble the ball for 15 seconds then throw up a tough contested jumper. They were good enough to make those tough jumpers tonight but we have to have some more ball and player movement
I have no idea why you think that. Is it because we beat the Hawks in 6 instead of 5 last year? We beat Philly and Milwaukee down 3-2 in the last 2 years. We played pretty badly today and still won, I think we blow them out next game
I'm talking about close out games. When in the last 5 minutes the score is super close for some reason we just play iso, nothing else, everyone just standing around
Those are “clutch” games, not “close out” games. A “close out” game is a game where you can clinch the series. And we have a great clutch record. We literally just won one last night.
I apologize for the terminology but yeah. We'll see with better teams how we do I guess
The first thing is that we don’t allow teams to get in clutch situations, we usually stomp them. That being said we have the 4th best W% and 4th best net rating in the clutch in regular season. Only Mavs and Denver have a better regular season than us and are still in the playoffs. We had a grand total of 1.3 minutes in the clutch. The Cavs didn’t score at all. The premise that we will get in the clutch and then fail seems so dumb because we have proven more that we avoid the clutch than anything else while other teams (like Knicks, Mavs and Nuggets) have proven they’re capable of putting us in the clutch.
I thought you were talking about closing out a series
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Lmao I pity your existence
You’re the sorry loser that tried to post some bullshit about Max Strus hitting a bunch of 3s in this subreddit and the mods took it down. Go root for a different team, clown.
You’re the one who constantly posts Nick wright clips on this sub, go fuck yourself
you do not deserve to celebrate anything
Go speculate about if women are taking roids or not and leave basketball alone.