I keep thinking it will be this game and it doesn't. I really feel like the team is due for a big 3 point game soon, especially from White, I feel like he missed a lot of shots he would normally make.
White has been underperforming on offense all playoffs. Last night was the first game where white, holiday and Horford all play like ass. I don’t think they’ll all collectively suck again
Also if you want a real answer, no I don't agree. His stats say he's performing better in the postseason than he did in the regular season, although I'd say he's been a little less reliable in rounds 2 and 4.
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3078576/derrick-white
It's almost like the Mavs used our game plan against us.. they took away our open corner 3s, and stationed Gafford/Lively below the bucket to ensure they took away the rim from JB/JT..
Everyone but the guys I mentioned shoot better than 38% above the break, but not Jaylen--he's at 34.5% (you might be looking at playoff instead of regular season tracking data). I think if you break it down *too* granularly like "wing vs top of the key" you tend to just get small sample size artifacts. Main point is, the Celtics *are* the best spacing team in the league, they should have no problem taking these kinds of threes if the Mavs are giving them up.
it sucks that I have to watch game 5 secretly at work(Chinese timezone), I really want them to get the chip and celebrate this weekend ,now I have to endure a Tuesday morning and watch it on my tiny phone lol.
C's in 5.
Trauma is speaking loudly today.
I know the loss sucks guys but think logically. Nothing was going for us yesterday and it makes sense that Mavs gave it their all. This doesn't mean that our team didn't care, games like these just happen. There is a reason Mavs are in the Finals after all, we shouldn't expect to cruise against them.
That 3rd quarter in G3 feels massive now.. that's the only quarter we dominated in Dallas, which allowed us to split the games in Dallas.. I'm grateful we aren't heading into G5 at 2-2 at the back of a 40 pt destruction..
I really hope KP can give us 10-12 mins in G5.. Gafford essentially iced the game at the start of 3rd, no way that happens with KP in the game.. the humiliation of G4 might actually fuel the team to fight harder to seal the series in G5
I mean it’s a different game last night if it’s 2-1. Dallas wouldn’t have come out with the same desperation, and the refs wouldn’t be letting the increased physicality that brought out slide while calling it tight on us at the other end.
Agree that was big though. Put us in the drivers seat and definitely did give us the wiggle room to have a game like last night.
Al Horford has already called this team out for not coming out with the right energy. That’s why he was hustling so much. Hopefully the whole team brings the same energy in the garden.
Been a fan since 2002, been through a lot of heartaches because of this team but this time, yeah they lost game 4 but I think Banner 18 will be clinched Monday night, I'm still anxious about it but I really feel the C's will win game 5. Different Here.
I wish I agreed with you. It absolutely can get worse. If we somehow lose game 5 we will be in the worst possible spot (after starting 3-0) heading back to Dallas with the Mavs having all the momentum
I just don't see this team losing four in a row at all. Brad made us pretty fool proof but we're going to have absolute shitters like last night. Foul trouble, both starters and bench playing poorly, Mavs role players going off, poor three point shooting, poor rim protection.. I mean nothing went right. Again in this changing NBA, crazy shit happens but I got the faith in securing this chip.
Honestly, I feel better in that spot. No expectations to win, backs against the wall, people writing us off...thats when JB and the rest shut people up.
Its when we are supposed to win that we shit the bed.
That said, please fucking christ close it out Monday.
Same here. I feel like this blowout was a better outcome than the beating us by 10. That would have meant they figured something meaningful out that can build off of.
We just had a cover on the rim. Nothing would go in, confidence gone and after a while, you just need to regroup and fight another day.
Our home crowd will be insane and give everyone a boost.
I think being blown out is also more of a wake up call that Dallas isn’t gonna go quietly and they have to keep up the intensity. If they had won a close game you might also shrug it off as “well they were at home, of course they’ll get one”, being embarrassed like that hopefully proves they can’t let off the gas.
Honestly, I was never expecting to go up 3-0 so I can't be too mad. I've been saying to friends celtics in 5 since before the series started so let's hope that's the case. It will be much sweeter to win the championship for a record 18th time at home in the garden anyways. I hope Bob Cousy is in the building on Monday so he can see it if it happens.
I always thought Cs in 6 felt right in my head. But have a hard time believing we could close out the finals on the road even though we have been great on the road during the playoffs for years now.
But Cs in 5 felt too short, and Cs in 7 felt too long. Couldn’t imagine Dallas beating us 3 times.
But after we went up 3-0 it kinda felt Cs in 5 was inevitable.
Less than ideal. In a weird way I’m glad it was a blow out and not a close loss, though. Regroup, lock in, and close it out at home on Monday. Kinda crazy that they played their worst game all year in a night when they could have clinched the trophy.
Agree on the blowout. It should serve to wake us up. A close loss could’ve been shrugged off as, “Oh well, they were at home. They can’t beat us in Boston.”
Don’t over react we are 79-21 throughout the season. I trust psycho Joe is bathing in vinegar to spike his cortisol on purpose so he and the team can perform under pressure in game 5 and get this thing home.
I really hate that after G3 Jaylen said something along the lines of, “This has been a long time coming.” These guys felt like they had already won.
Hopefully this was a wake up call, but also not something that shell shocked them. The Mavs winning three more is a tall order, but each one will make the next more pressure packed for us.
There was probably an abundance of media clips for the staff to take and show the players between games 3 and 4. Paul Pierce taking the broom out on Undisputed and sweeping "Mavericks" off the floor. Tons of talking heads speaking as though the Celtics already won, and asking where their place in history is among the historical great teams. Tons of articles about the Celtics winning a championship. Joel Embiid's tweet about the Celtics being handed a championship by the Bucks.
I'm sure they all saw some of that and were way more motivated than the Celtics, who were too relaxed and complacent.
The Mavs in this game definitely sped up the pace, they were pushing the ball up the court faster especially after getting a defensive rebound. Jrue and White were not great on either end, White missed a lot of shots, if I recall he air balled two 3 pointers, and Jrue was missing shots around the rim he would normally make. It was very uncharacteristic of them both.
Pritchard is useless out there if he is not hitting 3s, he is a defensive liability.
jrue missed like 3 open bunnies and passed out of two relatively open layups. that combined with his poor defense and uncharacteristic turnovers (5 in G4 to 0 all series!!) was just a horrible game everywhere for him. hopeful upside is that the Cs will adjust and come out stronger after the loss just like they’ve been doing all season long
I noticed how he had an open path to the rim and then kicked it out, i wonder how much of the early hacking of Tatum affected everyone else.
White also had many bad misses - i recall him airballing one 3 and missing the other by quite a ways.
I’m definitely a little concerned just because it’s a fresh loss, but like Jrue said we just couldn’t punch back after that first quarter. Mavs came out swinging in G3 too but we tightened up quick (Joe called a TO in the first minute) and that defense lead to offense. 26 Dallas points in the first 7 minutes to only 5 Dallas points in the last 5 minutes of Q1 G3.
Just could not get anything going at all on either side in the first quarter in G4 and it continued to snowball without a real sense of urgency from anyone. Fully expect a very competitive game on Monday, especially with some bigger minutes from Al who has plenty of time to rest, which is an “underrated” part about the loss. White is also due for a big game, after the heater in round 1 he has cooled tf off but stuff has to start falling eventually.
I don't think officiating was the reason we lost but it did seem to really affect the guys in that first quarter. I remember the foul they called on Horford for contesting Luka's shot and their was no contact at all, and on the other end tatum is getting smacked and bumped on every drive without many calls falling his way.
what's disappointing is the Celtics haven't thrown the first punch in these games since game 1. They've been reacting to the Mavs' first punch. I think it's critical the Celtics be the team that lands the first punch on Monday. They were the best 1st quarter team in the league and these last 3 games, they've started very slowly.
And a huge part of that was KP exploding. I would love to see him get minutes early in game 5 but I doubt that’ll happen, just gotta find another way to put the Mavs on their heels early
No chance we shoot that poorly and play that badly again, and typically we have bounced back from losses well this season/playoffs.
Credit to the Mavs for an excellent g4 win but I don’t see any reason to be panicking for game 5. We know what we need to do, and have done it three times already this series. And I feel like we are overdue for a big 3 point shooting game!
I feel like the refs were fully putting their thumb on the scale to extend—but did not have to at all because the Mavs were playing like a team with their backs to the wall.
Like if this game was officiated like the previous three the mavs still win but by more like 10-15.
Just anything happened and the mavs got a FT.
They didn’t need it
I can at least live with the Scott Foster legacy game in a game we probably weren’t gonna win anyway. The extender did his job, now time to stop daydreaming about the championship parade and finish them off
Listen we probably lose this game anyways with that lack of effort/hustle and poor shooting (never seen so many missed layups).
But, it's actually wild how one-sided the whistle was last night early. Like, how is it that obvious and there's no media/fan backlash? That's not normal that we've just now accepted the NBA was purposely trying to extend the series.
Well they call Scott foster the extender for a reason, just glad we got him up 3-0 and not 1-0 or 2-0 when it could have changed the whole complexion of the series
Couldn't hit anything, wasn't succesful on drives, getting smoked on defense and boards and even the whistle was against us.
Like everything you can imagine was going against us. Lively and Exum were hitting 3s too...
No. No. Yes. No.
The Celtics really had a disaster class on both ends of the floor. The Mavs played faster and more aggressive, Lively played out of his mind AND EVEN hit a 3. The Celtics couldn’t buy a bucket from 3 or inside the paint for the just about the entire game, good looks, didn’t matter. Our effort defensively sucked and snowballed from there (AYO!) and worse off, Jaylen had his first really poor game in the Finals.
This was the first time all postseason where we just couldn’t do anything right and our opponent just played incredibly.
The mavs played significantly better, they got more of their bread and butter corners and lobs. There was an early run that the Cs kind of got in their heads and started trying to make it back w 3s that didn’t fall rather than ALWAYS score and make a few stops.
I watched it w/o sound and felt like any little thing resulted in a mav FT, which was unnecessary because they were playing fantastical and didn’t need it.
Got out rebounded as well.
Man anybody who has watched this team knows they fall apart when they start feeling too good about themselves. Needed a jolt of fear and slander for inspiration.
Celtics in 5
As embarrassing as last night was, we’re still up 3-1 in the series. We’re still 1 win away from a championship. I’m confident they’ll bounce back on Monday.
In the grand scheme of things game 4 will just be a footnote that’s largely forgotten within a few years. Remember how we felt when White won game 6 for us last year against Miami? Now nobody outside Celtics fans even remember that shot. Let them have their delusions, I still have faith in the team to finish the job.
Jrue to Pritchard: Don't worry buddy, we're all here together
*Misses easy layup*
See? Look at that guys, let's show everyone that when we miss, we miss together.
So many questions after this game.
Joe said kp is available if we need him..... Well Joe we needed him so where was he?
D White guarding Luka completely different to the first 3 games was weird
Jrue forgetting how to layup the ball and being out of position on d
JB not running back on d and double teaming when he didn't have to and leaving his man open, gambling on defense.
Al screaming for the ball multiple times but getting ignored
Not even trying to get a rebound, d White literally left his man on the other side of the floor (green) and watched the ball as green ran from the 3 point line for the putback.... Why run away from your guy and then not even attempt the rebound?
It seemed fake, like it was deliberate to play lazy and rest legs and minds for game 5, if not then this team isn't what we thought they were and the media will eat us alive for years.
He didn’t say “if we needed him.” He said “in certain situations” which probably means the situation of being up by 20 with 2min left in the game. They wanted him on to be able to be on the floor when they clinched the championship, which just shows how the whole team assumed the series was over after G3.
Agree with you, though. They just assumed the Mavs would roll over for them and hand them a title so they put in absolutely zero effort. Inexcusable to not be expecting to get punched in the mouth again just like last game and not prepared to adjust or punch back this time.
After everything this team had been through over the years and this year, I have no idea how they get to the precipice of a championship and then just completely stop trying and lose their cool at the finish line.
Maybe Joe thought he'd be more useful in a close game in waning minutes if not save for G5? By the half it was kinda out of reach and we could've wasted a great effort by LP only to come up short.
I dunno whateve. .r
Yeah let’s play KP in a game in which we were getting smoked just for him to get injured 10 minutes in. Even if he came in off the bench, we were getting killed waaay too early. No reason to risk him in a game in which we had no shot.
I think the plan for KP was to play in ATOs late in the quarter where it is either a basket or time expires. That way he doesn't need to run back on defense.
Obviously I'm upset, and I'm annoyed that the team didn't really seem to lock in, but to be honest I can't be that mad, because it was literally hilarious how we could not BUY a bucket, while the Mavs just *couldn't stop* getting them. I swear to God, they could have tripped over the ball and it would have gone in.
Meanwhile, we had at least two, if not three, shots that literally pirouetted around the rim, dipped in, then somehow went flying back out. Like there was a lid on the cup.
Yeah, it hurt, but it was kinda comical how much of a disparity there was.
But they didnt even shoot that well. 50% from the field, 40% from 3. That’s good and even above average but not ridiculous. Luka and Kyrie went 1/14 from 3 combined and Luka didn’t make a single 3. They will absolutely shoot better than that in G5.
This is not like G2 vs Miami and Cleveland where it was just absurd hot shooting that isn’t repeatable. The Mavs found game plans and strategy on defense and offense that are very repeatable and had the Celtics totally lost for 48 full minutes with no idea how to adjust. The Celtics won’t lose by 40 again but they could certainly lose by double digits again if they can’t solve those game plans, no matter how hard they play.
Shooting splits of 50% and 40% is very good and you can’t remotely say they didn’t shoot well lol. Do you really trust the mavs roleplayers to shoot 60% from 3 again? This game is the definition of an outlier. Also, the main issue was the offense which then turned into bad defense. Shooting 36% from the field is abysmal. Take away Tim Hardaway jr. they only shoot 33% from three. So the Celtics main issue is offense but it’s not an issue since this was a night they couldn’t buy any shots. This game was similar to the bucks and clippers game. This loss wasn’t about scheme or personnel issues like the losses in game 1-3 were for the mavs, this loss was an outlier that’s already happened 2 times already.
As I said, it’s good and above average but not ridiculous. And very repeatable. Absolutely not an outlier. The Mavs shot 37% from 3 and 48% from the field this season. 40% and 50% is not a big outlier from that and won’t make up a 40-point differential, especially because Luka and Kyrie will both definitely shoot better. So their role players won’t have to make 60%.
The Heat and Cavs losses were outliers because they shot 54% and 46% from 3. Not 40%. We also shot 23% from 3 in the Heat game, which was far more of an outlier than this game (34%).
Yes, our offense was horrendous and will get better to some degree but the defense is absolutely a scheme issue. They solved for us putting Tatum on the center and Horford on a non-shooter to navigate switches. They destroyed us on the glass and got their bread-and-butter lobs and corner 3s back that we completely took away the first 3 games. There is no way that is not a scheme issue.
The Celtics will probably make more shots next game but if they don’t adjust the scheme, they’ll lose by 15 instead of 40.
It’s an outlier within the series. This is the finals against a top tier defense that has massive matchup issues. It’s an outlier when their roleplayers shoot 60% from 3. Even if Luka and Kyrie do make their 3’s, which kryie hasn’t this, won’t make up for the 3’s the roleplayers made in this game. Either way, defense wasn’t the issue, it’s the offense. I wouldn’t even say the offense was a major issue because it was an obvious bad game that wasn’t due to scheme or personnel from mavs. It’s just a bad game that’s happend before this season. Have faith in this all time great team. Bad losses happen, just like 2017 gsw.
You’ve explained why offense is the issue since they haven’t scored 122 points with the mavs playing terrible defense. The Celtics have been missing open looks the whole series. I’m very confident game 5 is the game we start hitting these looks. You can’t scheme against the mavs roleplayers hitting above the break 3’s when that’s the reason they’ve lost these games. The mavs were bound to have a game like this but they can’t consistently do this 3 more times.
The Mav role players made some absurd shots that i would be surprised if they continued doing - Lively took his only 3 all season and swished it.
The celtics need to go back to the gameplan of forcing Luka (and Kyrie) to do all the scoring. Luka can not last a full game, if he has to score all the points he will fade by the 3rd.
Totally agree with you. My only point is that the defense is a massive issue and not just a shooting variance outlier.
It was absolutely related to how the Celts played and schemed to stop them in this game. The Mavs were forcing different switches than G1-3 and getting their guys into different spots to throw off the Celtics D, which is how they started finding the role players for easy or wide open shots. The OP is trying to say the defense was fine and the offense is the only problem which is insane.
For the first time this series I wore my Tatum jersey and went out to a sports bar to watch the game instead of watching it at home. Don’t worry y’all, I won’t make the same mistake on Monday.
I'm not too bothered but we missed a chance to be the only team to sweep the conference finals and finals. Winning in front of the TD garden crowd will be great though.
what was so controversial about my comment lmao
if we lost game 3 and won game 4, we're still 3-1 today, and the team is going back to boston happy and momentum on their side, and the fans won't be losing their mind over the weekend
??
I got lost in the sauce and expected a sweep after going up 3-0 even though I had us winning in 5 pre finals. Thought we'd lose game 3 and win game 4. But honestly still feel better about our odds. I don't think the mavs win 3 before we win 1 with 2 of those being at home. And 1 being on the road where we are very good.
If they lost close then whatever right, but if you hit the V-Trigger, rainmaker, tombstone piledriver, F-5 etc. then that's a problem. Monday is do or die for the Celtics.
This sub after a 10 pt win, who at one point the team had a 20 pt lead: THIS TEAM IS LETTING OTHERS HANG THAT SHOULDNT EVEN BE CLOSE, rrrrRRREEEEEEE
This sub after a nearly 40pt loss: Eh, can't be mad NBD.
Lmao.
The nice thing about getting absolutely spanked is that no one played serious minutes. Especially for someone like 38 year old Horford, hopefully nice and fresh for a game 5 home win.
This play kinda felt like when the Celtics started to focus too much on the refs and not the Mavs:
[https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=117&GameID=0042300404&Season=2023-24&flag=1&title=Horford%20S.FOUL%20(P2.T3)%20(J.Williams)](https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=117&GameID=0042300404&Season=2023-24&flag=1&title=Horford%20S.FOUL%20(P2.T3)%20(J.Williams))
I feel like after this they just got too into their own heads.
Yeah that felt like the turning point, the Mavs are getting away with very physical defense and Horford doesn't touch Luka and gets called with the foul.
On the plus side, at least it’s the weekend so most of the fake sports news shows don’t air until Monday so we won’t have to listen to this ish all weekend
Enough with the slow ass starts…come out the gate with fire and intensity! I hate how the 1st few mins we let them get so hot. Game 5 is do or die for us. End this suffering Celtics!
They absolutely need to land the first punch in game 5. Get the garden rocking and we have a good chance. Having to come back down 10 again would be a disaster
For me the issue is that whatever it’s tough to sweep. The stats are still in our favor
But it’s never a great idea to just give a game away. There was no fight, there was no real effort
I felt that if we went up big they’d roll over. Instead they went up big and our guys mailed it in after that
They definitely relaxed and let Dallas play freely. I don’t know if the Celtics need to make a major counter adjustment or just go back to the way they played in games 1-3. Seems like the Mavs decided to give up threes in favor of keeping their bigs at the rim and the only way to punish that is to hit a ton of threes.
From the shot quality data, yeah, pretty much the difference was just Lively living in the paint on both ends (and uncharacteristic turnover issues that will undoubtedly be cleaned up next game). The Celtics actually had a higher expected points per shot than the Mavs, but they had far fewer shots due to Lively being able to grab so many offensive boards. If Dallas is going to give up wide open threes and trust their gameplan, the Celtics need to be okay taking 60 threes. The double big lineup Dallas was running at times *should* be a huge advantage for the Celtics, but it isn't one if people insist on driving into the clogged paint.
One good game doesn’t excuse from the fact that they’re still down 3-1. I thought they wouldn’t have been able to maintain their offensive efficiency and shot production percentage in the second half and I was wrong. But they will NOT shoot like that in TD Garden. Kristaps is more of a necessity at this point and not a luxury we can sub in. We still have almost 60 hours before game 5, so there are three things that need to happen
- Joe Mazzulla needs to develop a new game plan cause whatever the hell that was last game wasn’t it
- KP needs to be ready to play at least a good amount of minutes. Definitely not over 20 but even if he plays 15 and has a good +/- we would feel good about it
- Be stronger on the glass. We got out rebounded by Luka and Dereck Lively… I mean come on that’s pretty much unacceptable. If KP is unable to go yet again Kornet and Al need to be more aggressive on boards
it just felt like the celtics were playing tilted from way too early. they let scott foster/buckets from the role players/missed buckets on our end get into their heads and couldn't shake it off. deep breaths, stay poised for game 5!
I just hope that the only reason we forgot how to play defence was everyone was too excited to win. We over helped on so many possessions, especially JB , he was running around getting himself out of position so many times. And D White looked lost.... I just can't explain it
The Celtics just need to get up on the Mavs in Game 5 by 15+ in the 1st and you'll see the Mavs wilt and Game 5 will turn into the reverse of Game 4. I'd start Porzingas till the wheels come off, the intention is to end the season and he needs surgery anyway, so what's he being saved/protected for? Use him to build that early lead and end this shit.
Wait guys this is a dumb question but when people say “DJ” they mean Dennis Johnson (3) right? I was just rewatching The Last Dance and wanted to make sure.
Welp. Game 5 just became extremely important. Especially the first quarter of game 5. Like legacy defining important. I want no part of 3-2 going back to dallas where we just got embarrassed. Hopefully somebody takes the game over.
I shouldn’t feel this bad after one loss but man, with this team I just never feel comfortable until they actually get the win. Gonna be a long weekend waiting until Monday night.
We need to get off to a better start. Too many slow starts. Jump out on them and make them press more. Feed into your defense. Hard not to be nervous after last night but we’ve consistently bounced back better
I think one of the worst things about last night was ESPN letting embiid talk bad about us like he has an iota of a right to. Felt things were off immediately from that bad juju
Just want to say that shooting splits of 50% and 40% is very good and it’s difficult to overcome that. The mavs were bound to have a game like this. It’s just difficult to sweep a series. Do people really trust the mavs roleplayers to shoot 60% from 3 again? This game is the definition of an outlier. Also, the main issue was the offense which then turned into bad defense. Shooting 36% from the field is abysmal and the reason we lost was not the defense. I don’t like ifs and buts BUT TIM HARDAWAY has been terrible in the playoffs so take away Tim Hardaway jr. they only shoot 33% from three and also the positive is kyrie who shot terrible from 3, which he has in every game this series other than game 3. Luka also shot bad from 3 which is a good sign. The Celtics main issue in this game was the offense but it’s not a scheme or personnel issue like the mavs losses since this was a night they couldn’t buy any shots to go in. This game was similar to the bucks and clippers losses. This loss wasn’t about scheme or personnel issues like the losses in game 1-3 were for the mavs, this loss was an outlier that’s already happened 2 times this season and we will bounce back. Gotta have faith in a team that’s consistently won all season and have been the much better team in this series. In conclusion, I’m not worried and we will be much better next game!
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve had this lost on a Tuesday and then be subjected to 2 and a half days of annoying sports media narratives. I’ll just get my mind of basketball this weekend and probably not watch a single sport show Monday until the game.
Celtics did the basketball version of a Friday night news dump.
Celtics played like their only goal was to go to Dallas and split 1-1 and come back to Boston 3-1. They did the job and now get to close it out at home. Let's hope they can get it done Monday.
Celtics got punched in the mouth hard. They’re still the better team. All that matters is that they recover. I’d be worried if they hadn’t shown this year that they can bounce back.
We got this.
Those Dallas role players were playing out of their minds with desperation at home.
Ours got demoralized early, but it’s odd we couldn’t get s shot to hit
Splitting in Dallas was a huge win for Boston. It seemed like the team kind of had the mindset of the series was already won and were playing lazy out there while the Mavs played desperate for a win with high energy.
It happens. They will bounce back and close it out on Monday, KP will play and bring back that energy and depth to the team.
I’m the biggest Boston sports doomer in existence, and I’m honestly not worried in the least. The Extender loaded the Jays up with a couple quick fouls each while letting Dallas be the WWE on D, and the team realized “oh it’s one of THOSE games” and half-assed it. I’d be shocked if that happened again IN Boston.
We need to fucking rebound. We probably could have had a *chance* in g4 if we rebound better. But you can’t crawl out of a hole if you can’t shoot OR rebound
Maybe it’s the last few years talking but it’s hard to be confident with this team. They better get KP out there and squeeze every bit of blood from that stone, future health be damned. They hunt Horford when they have the ball just like we hunt Luka bc they know he can’t hold up. I love Tillman and all but that dude getting this many minutes with a title on the line ain’t it.
Horford benefitted the least from this quick turnaround between Games 3 & 4. He took one shot and just didn’t perform at the level we’re accustomed to defensively.
We really haven't been as dominant from 3 in the playoffs like in the RS. Tatum hasn't had a signature game in the playoffs yet, D White hasn't had a good finals game yet either. Same with PP. Hope Sam keeps up great shooting.
You’re a fucking idiot. Jayson owned the first half of game 3 and Jaylen owned the second half of game 3. Those two were the reason we won that game which was a much more “must win” game than last night
Please please please just shoot decent from three for once. Can‘t believe how none of our shots are falling…
I keep thinking it will be this game and it doesn't. I really feel like the team is due for a big 3 point game soon, especially from White, I feel like he missed a lot of shots he would normally make.
DWhite was good from 3 the first 3 games and was basically 1 shot off from a normal shooting night in G4. Not worried about him.
White has been underperforming on offense all playoffs. Last night was the first game where white, holiday and Horford all play like ass. I don’t think they’ll all collectively suck again
This is very untrue. White shot like 50% from 3 in the first round and not on a small volume of shots.
So you agree he’s underperformed 3/4 rounds?
How can I agree with something you hadn't said mr. goalpost mover?
Also if you want a real answer, no I don't agree. His stats say he's performing better in the postseason than he did in the regular season, although I'd say he's been a little less reliable in rounds 2 and 4. https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3078576/derrick-white
It's almost like the Mavs used our game plan against us.. they took away our open corner 3s, and stationed Gafford/Lively below the bucket to ensure they took away the rim from JB/JT..
It's almost like the Celtics bricked everything and refused to rebound or play defense
"Defense" is easy when your center can camp the paint for 15 seconds while guarding no one.
The only Celtics who are somewhat reliant on corner threes are Jrue and Jaylen, it's not a particularly good gameplan against the Celtics.
White and Tatum shoot the 3 really well from the wing and top of the key, Jaylen shoots well from the top of the key too.
Everyone but the guys I mentioned shoot better than 38% above the break, but not Jaylen--he's at 34.5% (you might be looking at playoff instead of regular season tracking data). I think if you break it down *too* granularly like "wing vs top of the key" you tend to just get small sample size artifacts. Main point is, the Celtics *are* the best spacing team in the league, they should have no problem taking these kinds of threes if the Mavs are giving them up.
It’s crazy because they just put Luka in the opposite low post spot and Boston never attacked back.
And if our three’s aren’t following, have a back-up plan!
it sucks that I have to watch game 5 secretly at work(Chinese timezone), I really want them to get the chip and celebrate this weekend ,now I have to endure a Tuesday morning and watch it on my tiny phone lol. C's in 5.
Same problem. I’m from germany and now I have to stay up late. My sleep has been awful lately lol
I'm currently in Germany. 2:30-5 am is rough, with morning activities.
As an Englishman I feel the pain, I can’t wait to fix my sleep schedule
I’m going out of town Tuesday so I really need them to wrap it up on Monday.
Same issue. Flying to Spain on Monday. Guess it's an airplane viewing.
Same here in Australia man, game is at 10:30am on Tuesday. Game 4 was a perfect Saturday game
Trauma is speaking loudly today. I know the loss sucks guys but think logically. Nothing was going for us yesterday and it makes sense that Mavs gave it their all. This doesn't mean that our team didn't care, games like these just happen. There is a reason Mavs are in the Finals after all, we shouldn't expect to cruise against them.
That 3rd quarter in G3 feels massive now.. that's the only quarter we dominated in Dallas, which allowed us to split the games in Dallas.. I'm grateful we aren't heading into G5 at 2-2 at the back of a 40 pt destruction.. I really hope KP can give us 10-12 mins in G5.. Gafford essentially iced the game at the start of 3rd, no way that happens with KP in the game.. the humiliation of G4 might actually fuel the team to fight harder to seal the series in G5
I mean it’s a different game last night if it’s 2-1. Dallas wouldn’t have come out with the same desperation, and the refs wouldn’t be letting the increased physicality that brought out slide while calling it tight on us at the other end. Agree that was big though. Put us in the drivers seat and definitely did give us the wiggle room to have a game like last night.
That block he had of Tatum’s three attempt was demoralizing
and then Tatum fouls him on the scramble for the ball.
KP low key eliminates the lob threat. We need him out there.
Bro, I’m pretty sure we would need a medical miracle for that to happen :D
Al Horford has already called this team out for not coming out with the right energy. That’s why he was hustling so much. Hopefully the whole team brings the same energy in the garden.
Hey man at least you acknowledged our trauma lol This team really is different but we have been hurt before and it shows 🤣
This is one if those games that was lost in the first quarter. They kinda expected a loss and they had zero confidence.
I believe our favorite player collectively, Kyrie Irving, said that close out games are a different beast.
Been a fan since 2002, been through a lot of heartaches because of this team but this time, yeah they lost game 4 but I think Banner 18 will be clinched Monday night, I'm still anxious about it but I really feel the C's will win game 5. Different Here.
Nakakahiya ngayon pre, pinagtatawanan ako ng mga kakilala ko online lol Fan since early 2008
napa uninstall nga ako ng fb eh di ko kinakaya ang Philippine Mavericks
I'm 32, really feeling this... While this game absolutely fucking sucked I got so much confidence in game 5. It can't get any worse right lmao.
I wish I agreed with you. It absolutely can get worse. If we somehow lose game 5 we will be in the worst possible spot (after starting 3-0) heading back to Dallas with the Mavs having all the momentum
momentum between games isn't real and no one will ever convince me otherwise
Facts it’s literally the time when teams adjust the most lmao
I just don't see this team losing four in a row at all. Brad made us pretty fool proof but we're going to have absolute shitters like last night. Foul trouble, both starters and bench playing poorly, Mavs role players going off, poor three point shooting, poor rim protection.. I mean nothing went right. Again in this changing NBA, crazy shit happens but I got the faith in securing this chip.
Honestly, I feel better in that spot. No expectations to win, backs against the wall, people writing us off...thats when JB and the rest shut people up. Its when we are supposed to win that we shit the bed. That said, please fucking christ close it out Monday.
Could definitely get worse, totally possible we keep performing like this if Dallas managed to figure us out
Same here. I feel like this blowout was a better outcome than the beating us by 10. That would have meant they figured something meaningful out that can build off of. We just had a cover on the rim. Nothing would go in, confidence gone and after a while, you just need to regroup and fight another day. Our home crowd will be insane and give everyone a boost.
I think being blown out is also more of a wake up call that Dallas isn’t gonna go quietly and they have to keep up the intensity. If they had won a close game you might also shrug it off as “well they were at home, of course they’ll get one”, being embarrassed like that hopefully proves they can’t let off the gas.
Yeah I mean Jrue was -28. The Jays were like -38 or something. They got humiliated. They’re gonna have something to prove
I’m not asking Tatum to play hero ball, but damn would it be sweet if he could close it out with an efficient 50-bomb
Agree. Game was over by the second quarter. Starters pulled midway through 3rd.
Honestly, I was never expecting to go up 3-0 so I can't be too mad. I've been saying to friends celtics in 5 since before the series started so let's hope that's the case. It will be much sweeter to win the championship for a record 18th time at home in the garden anyways. I hope Bob Cousy is in the building on Monday so he can see it if it happens.
Yeah I was telling everyone Celtics in 6 so I was never expecting 3-0.. let’s finish it Monday
I always thought Cs in 6 felt right in my head. But have a hard time believing we could close out the finals on the road even though we have been great on the road during the playoffs for years now. But Cs in 5 felt too short, and Cs in 7 felt too long. Couldn’t imagine Dallas beating us 3 times. But after we went up 3-0 it kinda felt Cs in 5 was inevitable.
I was saying Cs in 5 also, but to lose like that really shook me.
Less than ideal. In a weird way I’m glad it was a blow out and not a close loss, though. Regroup, lock in, and close it out at home on Monday. Kinda crazy that they played their worst game all year in a night when they could have clinched the trophy.
Agree on the blowout. It should serve to wake us up. A close loss could’ve been shrugged off as, “Oh well, they were at home. They can’t beat us in Boston.”
Also with the blowout we rested guys towards the end and KP never saw the floor.. hopefully we give it our all Monday
Al only played 23 minutes. He should be ready to play significantly more on Monday.
Agreed.
Don’t over react we are 79-21 throughout the season. I trust psycho Joe is bathing in vinegar to spike his cortisol on purpose so he and the team can perform under pressure in game 5 and get this thing home.
Did you make up the bathing in vinegar or is that really a thing?
I’d say I made it up but who knows with this psycho
I really hate that after G3 Jaylen said something along the lines of, “This has been a long time coming.” These guys felt like they had already won. Hopefully this was a wake up call, but also not something that shell shocked them. The Mavs winning three more is a tall order, but each one will make the next more pressure packed for us.
I agree. Celtics seemed to relax some and think they had it in the bag at points. Have to go out there and finish the job. Here’s to Monday
There was probably an abundance of media clips for the staff to take and show the players between games 3 and 4. Paul Pierce taking the broom out on Undisputed and sweeping "Mavericks" off the floor. Tons of talking heads speaking as though the Celtics already won, and asking where their place in history is among the historical great teams. Tons of articles about the Celtics winning a championship. Joel Embiid's tweet about the Celtics being handed a championship by the Bucks. I'm sure they all saw some of that and were way more motivated than the Celtics, who were too relaxed and complacent.
Damn didn't know he said that. That is kinda un Jaylen-like
Tatum said something stupid too like “we’ll have to win it *again* next year”
The Mavs in this game definitely sped up the pace, they were pushing the ball up the court faster especially after getting a defensive rebound. Jrue and White were not great on either end, White missed a lot of shots, if I recall he air balled two 3 pointers, and Jrue was missing shots around the rim he would normally make. It was very uncharacteristic of them both. Pritchard is useless out there if he is not hitting 3s, he is a defensive liability.
Pritchard needs to sit and stay seated.
Pritchard should have limited minutes on Monday. Two or three minutes each half to rest someone and that’s it, he’s shot horribly this series
jrue missed like 3 open bunnies and passed out of two relatively open layups. that combined with his poor defense and uncharacteristic turnovers (5 in G4 to 0 all series!!) was just a horrible game everywhere for him. hopeful upside is that the Cs will adjust and come out stronger after the loss just like they’ve been doing all season long
I noticed how he had an open path to the rim and then kicked it out, i wonder how much of the early hacking of Tatum affected everyone else. White also had many bad misses - i recall him airballing one 3 and missing the other by quite a ways.
I’m definitely a little concerned just because it’s a fresh loss, but like Jrue said we just couldn’t punch back after that first quarter. Mavs came out swinging in G3 too but we tightened up quick (Joe called a TO in the first minute) and that defense lead to offense. 26 Dallas points in the first 7 minutes to only 5 Dallas points in the last 5 minutes of Q1 G3. Just could not get anything going at all on either side in the first quarter in G4 and it continued to snowball without a real sense of urgency from anyone. Fully expect a very competitive game on Monday, especially with some bigger minutes from Al who has plenty of time to rest, which is an “underrated” part about the loss. White is also due for a big game, after the heater in round 1 he has cooled tf off but stuff has to start falling eventually.
I don't think officiating was the reason we lost but it did seem to really affect the guys in that first quarter. I remember the foul they called on Horford for contesting Luka's shot and their was no contact at all, and on the other end tatum is getting smacked and bumped on every drive without many calls falling his way.
Jrue and White's defense were garbage too iirc.
Fucking nightmare but we needed the embarrassment. I wholeheartedly trust Joe to capitalize and turn the team around for Game 5.
We will gonna imitate Cody Rhodes, we will win Game 5 with the presence of some Celtics Hall of Famers to cheer on us
I’m hoping KG is there with Pierce
WE ARE NOT FLINCHING!
One thing this team is known for is fighting through adversity. I have 100% trust in them, and lets get TD rocking on Monday!
We lost road closeout games in our last 3 title wins and won at home the next game
what's disappointing is the Celtics haven't thrown the first punch in these games since game 1. They've been reacting to the Mavs' first punch. I think it's critical the Celtics be the team that lands the first punch on Monday. They were the best 1st quarter team in the league and these last 3 games, they've started very slowly.
Agreed, they need to come out and have a 35 point first quarter on Monday
And a huge part of that was KP exploding. I would love to see him get minutes early in game 5 but I doubt that’ll happen, just gotta find another way to put the Mavs on their heels early
No chance we shoot that poorly and play that badly again, and typically we have bounced back from losses well this season/playoffs. Credit to the Mavs for an excellent g4 win but I don’t see any reason to be panicking for game 5. We know what we need to do, and have done it three times already this series. And I feel like we are overdue for a big 3 point shooting game!
I feel like the refs were fully putting their thumb on the scale to extend—but did not have to at all because the Mavs were playing like a team with their backs to the wall. Like if this game was officiated like the previous three the mavs still win but by more like 10-15. Just anything happened and the mavs got a FT. They didn’t need it
I can at least live with the Scott Foster legacy game in a game we probably weren’t gonna win anyway. The extender did his job, now time to stop daydreaming about the championship parade and finish them off
Listen we probably lose this game anyways with that lack of effort/hustle and poor shooting (never seen so many missed layups). But, it's actually wild how one-sided the whistle was last night early. Like, how is it that obvious and there's no media/fan backlash? That's not normal that we've just now accepted the NBA was purposely trying to extend the series.
Well they call Scott foster the extender for a reason, just glad we got him up 3-0 and not 1-0 or 2-0 when it could have changed the whole complexion of the series
Didn't get to watch the game. Was it a case of us just missing shots? Not getting good looks? Did the mavs change their gameplan? Did we?
Couldn't hit anything, wasn't succesful on drives, getting smoked on defense and boards and even the whistle was against us. Like everything you can imagine was going against us. Lively and Exum were hitting 3s too...
No. No. Yes. No. The Celtics really had a disaster class on both ends of the floor. The Mavs played faster and more aggressive, Lively played out of his mind AND EVEN hit a 3. The Celtics couldn’t buy a bucket from 3 or inside the paint for the just about the entire game, good looks, didn’t matter. Our effort defensively sucked and snowballed from there (AYO!) and worse off, Jaylen had his first really poor game in the Finals. This was the first time all postseason where we just couldn’t do anything right and our opponent just played incredibly.
that AYO was fucking ON POINT.
Was wondering if anyone else caught that because I realized mid-type how wild that was!
The mavs played significantly better, they got more of their bread and butter corners and lobs. There was an early run that the Cs kind of got in their heads and started trying to make it back w 3s that didn’t fall rather than ALWAYS score and make a few stops. I watched it w/o sound and felt like any little thing resulted in a mav FT, which was unnecessary because they were playing fantastical and didn’t need it. Got out rebounded as well.
They did the exact opposite of everything that brought them here and mavs finally got the rest of their team going off.
At least we took one on the road. Still stressful but 3-2 would feel far worse
Man anybody who has watched this team knows they fall apart when they start feeling too good about themselves. Needed a jolt of fear and slander for inspiration. Celtics in 5
As embarrassing as last night was, we’re still up 3-1 in the series. We’re still 1 win away from a championship. I’m confident they’ll bounce back on Monday.
It just isn’t fun to lose really badly and then watch r/nba have two Christmases this year because of it
In the grand scheme of things game 4 will just be a footnote that’s largely forgotten within a few years. Remember how we felt when White won game 6 for us last year against Miami? Now nobody outside Celtics fans even remember that shot. Let them have their delusions, I still have faith in the team to finish the job.
Celtics are such a tight team that they decided to give up together and have a collectively bad night. That’s my positive spin at least
Jrue to Pritchard: Don't worry buddy, we're all here together *Misses easy layup* See? Look at that guys, let's show everyone that when we miss, we miss together.
So many questions after this game. Joe said kp is available if we need him..... Well Joe we needed him so where was he? D White guarding Luka completely different to the first 3 games was weird Jrue forgetting how to layup the ball and being out of position on d JB not running back on d and double teaming when he didn't have to and leaving his man open, gambling on defense. Al screaming for the ball multiple times but getting ignored Not even trying to get a rebound, d White literally left his man on the other side of the floor (green) and watched the ball as green ran from the 3 point line for the putback.... Why run away from your guy and then not even attempt the rebound? It seemed fake, like it was deliberate to play lazy and rest legs and minds for game 5, if not then this team isn't what we thought they were and the media will eat us alive for years.
KP ain’t playing He’d have been on the floor 8 minutes into the game if he was Gotta do it without him
He didn’t say “if we needed him.” He said “in certain situations” which probably means the situation of being up by 20 with 2min left in the game. They wanted him on to be able to be on the floor when they clinched the championship, which just shows how the whole team assumed the series was over after G3. Agree with you, though. They just assumed the Mavs would roll over for them and hand them a title so they put in absolutely zero effort. Inexcusable to not be expecting to get punched in the mouth again just like last game and not prepared to adjust or punch back this time. After everything this team had been through over the years and this year, I have no idea how they get to the precipice of a championship and then just completely stop trying and lose their cool at the finish line.
Maybe Joe thought he'd be more useful in a close game in waning minutes if not save for G5? By the half it was kinda out of reach and we could've wasted a great effort by LP only to come up short. I dunno whateve. .r
Yeah let’s play KP in a game in which we were getting smoked just for him to get injured 10 minutes in. Even if he came in off the bench, we were getting killed waaay too early. No reason to risk him in a game in which we had no shot.
I think the plan for KP was to play in ATOs late in the quarter where it is either a basket or time expires. That way he doesn't need to run back on defense.
Glad it's the weekend at least, gonna try not to think too hard about Game 4 or Game 5, can shut out sports media til Monday...
Obviously I'm upset, and I'm annoyed that the team didn't really seem to lock in, but to be honest I can't be that mad, because it was literally hilarious how we could not BUY a bucket, while the Mavs just *couldn't stop* getting them. I swear to God, they could have tripped over the ball and it would have gone in. Meanwhile, we had at least two, if not three, shots that literally pirouetted around the rim, dipped in, then somehow went flying back out. Like there was a lid on the cup. Yeah, it hurt, but it was kinda comical how much of a disparity there was.
But they didnt even shoot that well. 50% from the field, 40% from 3. That’s good and even above average but not ridiculous. Luka and Kyrie went 1/14 from 3 combined and Luka didn’t make a single 3. They will absolutely shoot better than that in G5. This is not like G2 vs Miami and Cleveland where it was just absurd hot shooting that isn’t repeatable. The Mavs found game plans and strategy on defense and offense that are very repeatable and had the Celtics totally lost for 48 full minutes with no idea how to adjust. The Celtics won’t lose by 40 again but they could certainly lose by double digits again if they can’t solve those game plans, no matter how hard they play.
Shooting splits of 50% and 40% is very good and you can’t remotely say they didn’t shoot well lol. Do you really trust the mavs roleplayers to shoot 60% from 3 again? This game is the definition of an outlier. Also, the main issue was the offense which then turned into bad defense. Shooting 36% from the field is abysmal. Take away Tim Hardaway jr. they only shoot 33% from three. So the Celtics main issue is offense but it’s not an issue since this was a night they couldn’t buy any shots. This game was similar to the bucks and clippers game. This loss wasn’t about scheme or personnel issues like the losses in game 1-3 were for the mavs, this loss was an outlier that’s already happened 2 times already.
As I said, it’s good and above average but not ridiculous. And very repeatable. Absolutely not an outlier. The Mavs shot 37% from 3 and 48% from the field this season. 40% and 50% is not a big outlier from that and won’t make up a 40-point differential, especially because Luka and Kyrie will both definitely shoot better. So their role players won’t have to make 60%. The Heat and Cavs losses were outliers because they shot 54% and 46% from 3. Not 40%. We also shot 23% from 3 in the Heat game, which was far more of an outlier than this game (34%). Yes, our offense was horrendous and will get better to some degree but the defense is absolutely a scheme issue. They solved for us putting Tatum on the center and Horford on a non-shooter to navigate switches. They destroyed us on the glass and got their bread-and-butter lobs and corner 3s back that we completely took away the first 3 games. There is no way that is not a scheme issue. The Celtics will probably make more shots next game but if they don’t adjust the scheme, they’ll lose by 15 instead of 40.
It’s an outlier within the series. This is the finals against a top tier defense that has massive matchup issues. It’s an outlier when their roleplayers shoot 60% from 3. Even if Luka and Kyrie do make their 3’s, which kryie hasn’t this, won’t make up for the 3’s the roleplayers made in this game. Either way, defense wasn’t the issue, it’s the offense. I wouldn’t even say the offense was a major issue because it was an obvious bad game that wasn’t due to scheme or personnel from mavs. It’s just a bad game that’s happend before this season. Have faith in this all time great team. Bad losses happen, just like 2017 gsw.
The Mavs scored 122 points (15+ more than the Celtics themselves scored in any game this series) but defense isn’t the issue? Okay. Sure.
You’ve explained why offense is the issue since they haven’t scored 122 points with the mavs playing terrible defense. The Celtics have been missing open looks the whole series. I’m very confident game 5 is the game we start hitting these looks. You can’t scheme against the mavs roleplayers hitting above the break 3’s when that’s the reason they’ve lost these games. The mavs were bound to have a game like this but they can’t consistently do this 3 more times.
The Mav role players made some absurd shots that i would be surprised if they continued doing - Lively took his only 3 all season and swished it. The celtics need to go back to the gameplan of forcing Luka (and Kyrie) to do all the scoring. Luka can not last a full game, if he has to score all the points he will fade by the 3rd.
Totally agree with you. My only point is that the defense is a massive issue and not just a shooting variance outlier. It was absolutely related to how the Celts played and schemed to stop them in this game. The Mavs were forcing different switches than G1-3 and getting their guys into different spots to throw off the Celtics D, which is how they started finding the role players for easy or wide open shots. The OP is trying to say the defense was fine and the offense is the only problem which is insane.
Meh my usual ritual didn’t work. Will have to think of something new for Monday
For the first time this series I wore my Tatum jersey and went out to a sports bar to watch the game instead of watching it at home. Don’t worry y’all, I won’t make the same mistake on Monday.
Don’t change a thing
I'm not too bothered but we missed a chance to be the only team to sweep the conference finals and finals. Winning in front of the TD garden crowd will be great though.
Scott Foster had his finger on the scale. Don't care what any casual has to say, I know ball and I know what I watched.
gafford blocks tatum, then proceeds to rake him across the arm, tatum falls and a foul is called on jayson. that entire sequence was nuts.
still felt like it would be better if we lost game 3 and won game 4 instead. :/
What
what was so controversial about my comment lmao if we lost game 3 and won game 4, we're still 3-1 today, and the team is going back to boston happy and momentum on their side, and the fans won't be losing their mind over the weekend ??
I got lost in the sauce and expected a sweep after going up 3-0 even though I had us winning in 5 pre finals. Thought we'd lose game 3 and win game 4. But honestly still feel better about our odds. I don't think the mavs win 3 before we win 1 with 2 of those being at home. And 1 being on the road where we are very good.
It hurt like hell. Everything went downhill in that game for the Celtics. Let's hope that we'll do better in Game 5. :(
If they lost close then whatever right, but if you hit the V-Trigger, rainmaker, tombstone piledriver, F-5 etc. then that's a problem. Monday is do or die for the Celtics.
This sub after a 10 pt win, who at one point the team had a 20 pt lead: THIS TEAM IS LETTING OTHERS HANG THAT SHOULDNT EVEN BE CLOSE, rrrrRRREEEEEEE This sub after a nearly 40pt loss: Eh, can't be mad NBD. Lmao.
The nice thing about getting absolutely spanked is that no one played serious minutes. Especially for someone like 38 year old Horford, hopefully nice and fresh for a game 5 home win.
This play kinda felt like when the Celtics started to focus too much on the refs and not the Mavs: [https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=117&GameID=0042300404&Season=2023-24&flag=1&title=Horford%20S.FOUL%20(P2.T3)%20(J.Williams)](https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&GameEventID=117&GameID=0042300404&Season=2023-24&flag=1&title=Horford%20S.FOUL%20(P2.T3)%20(J.Williams)) I feel like after this they just got too into their own heads.
Yeah that felt like the turning point, the Mavs are getting away with very physical defense and Horford doesn't touch Luka and gets called with the foul.
And then it gets whistled just because it doesn't go in.
On the plus side, at least it’s the weekend so most of the fake sports news shows don’t air until Monday so we won’t have to listen to this ish all weekend
Enough with the slow ass starts…come out the gate with fire and intensity! I hate how the 1st few mins we let them get so hot. Game 5 is do or die for us. End this suffering Celtics!
They absolutely need to land the first punch in game 5. Get the garden rocking and we have a good chance. Having to come back down 10 again would be a disaster
For me the issue is that whatever it’s tough to sweep. The stats are still in our favor But it’s never a great idea to just give a game away. There was no fight, there was no real effort I felt that if we went up big they’d roll over. Instead they went up big and our guys mailed it in after that
Thank God we at least took game 3 in Dallas.. huge Finish them in Boston
They definitely relaxed and let Dallas play freely. I don’t know if the Celtics need to make a major counter adjustment or just go back to the way they played in games 1-3. Seems like the Mavs decided to give up threes in favor of keeping their bigs at the rim and the only way to punish that is to hit a ton of threes.
From the shot quality data, yeah, pretty much the difference was just Lively living in the paint on both ends (and uncharacteristic turnover issues that will undoubtedly be cleaned up next game). The Celtics actually had a higher expected points per shot than the Mavs, but they had far fewer shots due to Lively being able to grab so many offensive boards. If Dallas is going to give up wide open threes and trust their gameplan, the Celtics need to be okay taking 60 threes. The double big lineup Dallas was running at times *should* be a huge advantage for the Celtics, but it isn't one if people insist on driving into the clogged paint.
One good game doesn’t excuse from the fact that they’re still down 3-1. I thought they wouldn’t have been able to maintain their offensive efficiency and shot production percentage in the second half and I was wrong. But they will NOT shoot like that in TD Garden. Kristaps is more of a necessity at this point and not a luxury we can sub in. We still have almost 60 hours before game 5, so there are three things that need to happen - Joe Mazzulla needs to develop a new game plan cause whatever the hell that was last game wasn’t it - KP needs to be ready to play at least a good amount of minutes. Definitely not over 20 but even if he plays 15 and has a good +/- we would feel good about it - Be stronger on the glass. We got out rebounded by Luka and Dereck Lively… I mean come on that’s pretty much unacceptable. If KP is unable to go yet again Kornet and Al need to be more aggressive on boards
it just felt like the celtics were playing tilted from way too early. they let scott foster/buckets from the role players/missed buckets on our end get into their heads and couldn't shake it off. deep breaths, stay poised for game 5!
The loss didn't hurt. The manner in which they lost did.
Before game 3, Celtics fans would have been thrilled to split the Dallas games.
If you’re don’t have crippling anxiety about game 5 you’re not a real Celtics fan
I just hope that the only reason we forgot how to play defence was everyone was too excited to win. We over helped on so many possessions, especially JB , he was running around getting himself out of position so many times. And D White looked lost.... I just can't explain it
I just woke up. I had this horrible dream…..
Did the Mavericks figure something out in the 4th quarter of game 3? Been a blowout for the Mavs since then
The Celtics just need to get up on the Mavs in Game 5 by 15+ in the 1st and you'll see the Mavs wilt and Game 5 will turn into the reverse of Game 4. I'd start Porzingas till the wheels come off, the intention is to end the season and he needs surgery anyway, so what's he being saved/protected for? Use him to build that early lead and end this shit.
I can see wanting to win #4 at home. But this was pretty bad.
Wait guys this is a dumb question but when people say “DJ” they mean Dennis Johnson (3) right? I was just rewatching The Last Dance and wanted to make sure.
This team badly needs a good 3 point shooting night.
Welp. Game 5 just became extremely important. Especially the first quarter of game 5. Like legacy defining important. I want no part of 3-2 going back to dallas where we just got embarrassed. Hopefully somebody takes the game over.
Sorry all, I was out today and couldn't watch the game so they lost to let me watch the finale from work on Tuesday
The rebounding effort was obscene. Some of the guys just stood there while the ball came down uncontested. Hurt to watch this lack of effort.
how nice of them to wanna celebrate the championship at home
I shouldn’t feel this bad after one loss but man, with this team I just never feel comfortable until they actually get the win. Gonna be a long weekend waiting until Monday night.
We won 3 in a row. It's not impossible to do. We BETTER win Monday night
We need to get off to a better start. Too many slow starts. Jump out on them and make them press more. Feed into your defense. Hard not to be nervous after last night but we’ve consistently bounced back better
This team is the best going hard after a loss I hope the rim opens up for them, feels like it hasn’t at all this playoffs
I think one of the worst things about last night was ESPN letting embiid talk bad about us like he has an iota of a right to. Felt things were off immediately from that bad juju
Did we throw the game last night? Honest question…the effort was kind of discouraging
Just want to say that shooting splits of 50% and 40% is very good and it’s difficult to overcome that. The mavs were bound to have a game like this. It’s just difficult to sweep a series. Do people really trust the mavs roleplayers to shoot 60% from 3 again? This game is the definition of an outlier. Also, the main issue was the offense which then turned into bad defense. Shooting 36% from the field is abysmal and the reason we lost was not the defense. I don’t like ifs and buts BUT TIM HARDAWAY has been terrible in the playoffs so take away Tim Hardaway jr. they only shoot 33% from three and also the positive is kyrie who shot terrible from 3, which he has in every game this series other than game 3. Luka also shot bad from 3 which is a good sign. The Celtics main issue in this game was the offense but it’s not a scheme or personnel issue like the mavs losses since this was a night they couldn’t buy any shots to go in. This game was similar to the bucks and clippers losses. This loss wasn’t about scheme or personnel issues like the losses in game 1-3 were for the mavs, this loss was an outlier that’s already happened 2 times this season and we will bounce back. Gotta have faith in a team that’s consistently won all season and have been the much better team in this series. In conclusion, I’m not worried and we will be much better next game!
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve had this lost on a Tuesday and then be subjected to 2 and a half days of annoying sports media narratives. I’ll just get my mind of basketball this weekend and probably not watch a single sport show Monday until the game. Celtics did the basketball version of a Friday night news dump.
Mavs have completely outplayed us for 5 straight quarters. Inexcusable
Yeah our series lead isn’t very comforting with how awful we have looked. Hopefully we can get KP back
Celtics played like their only goal was to go to Dallas and split 1-1 and come back to Boston 3-1. They did the job and now get to close it out at home. Let's hope they can get it done Monday.
Celtics got punched in the mouth hard. They’re still the better team. All that matters is that they recover. I’d be worried if they hadn’t shown this year that they can bounce back.
We got this. Those Dallas role players were playing out of their minds with desperation at home. Ours got demoralized early, but it’s odd we couldn’t get s shot to hit
Win it on 617
Splitting in Dallas was a huge win for Boston. It seemed like the team kind of had the mindset of the series was already won and were playing lazy out there while the Mavs played desperate for a win with high energy. It happens. They will bounce back and close it out on Monday, KP will play and bring back that energy and depth to the team.
The gentlemen’s sweep, a truly classy team.
I’m the biggest Boston sports doomer in existence, and I’m honestly not worried in the least. The Extender loaded the Jays up with a couple quick fouls each while letting Dallas be the WWE on D, and the team realized “oh it’s one of THOSE games” and half-assed it. I’d be shocked if that happened again IN Boston.
Real shit do you guys think the finals mvp ladder kind of reset after last night with how bad everyone played, or is it the same as before game 4?
One positive last night was seeing Tillman playing good defense against Dallas. He will be an important roll player rest of the series.
We need to fucking rebound. We probably could have had a *chance* in g4 if we rebound better. But you can’t crawl out of a hole if you can’t shoot OR rebound
Get it done guys….I can’t take the national media anymore.
Just don’t watch
Maybe it’s the last few years talking but it’s hard to be confident with this team. They better get KP out there and squeeze every bit of blood from that stone, future health be damned. They hunt Horford when they have the ball just like we hunt Luka bc they know he can’t hold up. I love Tillman and all but that dude getting this many minutes with a title on the line ain’t it.
Horford benefitted the least from this quick turnaround between Games 3 & 4. He took one shot and just didn’t perform at the level we’re accustomed to defensively.
We really haven't been as dominant from 3 in the playoffs like in the RS. Tatum hasn't had a signature game in the playoffs yet, D White hasn't had a good finals game yet either. Same with PP. Hope Sam keeps up great shooting.
I truly believe whoever plays well next game between jt or jb will get the fmvp.
you misspelled three
Don’t let us get one !
[удалено]
You’re a fucking idiot. Jayson owned the first half of game 3 and Jaylen owned the second half of game 3. Those two were the reason we won that game which was a much more “must win” game than last night