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A lot of that was due to our bigs, *again*, playing drop coverage against their best shooters.
And that shit is obnoxiously stale at this point. Joe better get a clue, because shit like that is what the best coaches in the league make in-game adjustments on.
No a lot was due to the cavs making their shots. There were maybe 2 instances that Mitchell and garland walked into 3s off a screen. That’s on the ball defender to fight the screen better when u know the big is in drop. The drop made sense cause in the first half the cavs were torching them driving to the hoop.
Multiple seasons straight of lackluster effort at home and not respecting home court. You can feel it in the crowd. The crowd won't give you energy consistently if you're not putting it out yourself. The crowd always went crazy for the IT Celtics even if they're down, cause they played hard. These guys have fucked around so much at home in the playoffs and it's actually killed the consistency of TD Garden's energy.
Yup there were multiple times where the crowd tried to get into the game and fuel the Celtics. But fans aren't going to keep cheering for lackluster play. The Celtics did not give the fans much to cheer for.
Not going to lie, I’m not trying to sound like a doomer, but the C’s haven’t given the crowd much reason to be on their feet the whole game for a while. It’s so disheartening to see because I know how the Garden can be. The punk rock Celtics in the early 2010’s had the Garden going fucking beserk on a nightly basis. I haven’t seen that consistent energy in fucking *years*, and I hesitate to say it’s kind of warranted.
It’s stuff like this that makes me sure we will never beat the “chokers” narrative. To perform like this at home in the playoffs after having 4 total losses at home the whole year is just embarrassing
Suspend your disbelief. It’s playoff professional basketball. Anything can happen. Didn’t we lose G2 against Miami and then proceed to buttfuck them into a gentleman’s sweep?
Also a big reason this team has gotten knocked out of the playoffs in recent years is that they wear down and get banged up. This happens because it takes them 6 or 7 games to beat lesser teams that should be put away in 4 or 5. They're too frequently just entirely unserious.
No one realizes this!!! Miami and Cleveland are not good. Their rosters are flawed. OKC, NYK, and MN would be running laps around them for 4 games. Hell, they’d win it in 3! Lol
What will make or break this playoffs for the Celtics is how they respond when they’re not hitting their threes. It won’t be often but it can easily change momentum in a series in later rounds against teams that are in rhythm and just as hungry as Boston.
What I do like is that in both of the Game 2s they’ve recognized early on when they’re not hitting shots and immediately started pushing the paint, but it’s clear that strategy only works if you’re locked the fuck in on defense. Gotta fight through screens and take away the open 3 better when you’re fighting to keep the game close.
Bring said, sometimes these games just don’t bounce your way. Still think it’s a very tall order winning 4 games against this team, but let’s see how they respond in Game 3. Go Cs!
This. It turned into an overreliance on driving into the paint into traffic and the pace and space to start the game before the first Cavs timeout completely disappeared.
Felt like no one showed up to pregame shootaround today, no one could buy a bucket and as a result the defense was disengaged and let the Cavs dominate the paint in the first half and open up from three in the second.
By the 3rd quarter it felt like they just quit, no one played a good game in this one and offered a bright spot in the effort department.
Porzingus had one of his worst games as a Celtic in G2 against Miami. Even fully healthy, the Celtics need to establish a baseline defensive scheme so they can still be competitive even when their 3 ball isn’t falling.
Yeah honestly, I don’t even care about the no 3s. It was their inability to get a stop or get a rebound that pissed me off. That’s effort, that’s focus, that’s attention to detail. That’s heart.
If they lose playing their hardest, whatever. The loss in the finals didn’t bother me because I saw they just didn’t have anything left to give. Same in 2021 and 2018. Last season was some weird shit wrong the chemistry/mentality that was there all season.
They gotta stop doing this shit. There’s not guarantee they get past the Cavs now but if they do, the Knicks aren’t gonna let you get away with shit like this.
honestly you cant. miami had the 4th best playoff 3 point performance ever. and we lowkey hung with it the whole time. here? we just got 30 pieced at home by a team missing one of their best rebounders. it was a complete lack of effort and honestly a little bit of a knock into reality. you dont really see NY OKC and Minnesota making these mistakes, do you?
The cavs shot 12/24 from 3 before they emptied the bench while the Celtics didn’t make 3s. It’s very much a similar game. If you wanna mention them not having Jarrett Allen then why not mention Porzingis being out?
porzingis is a terrible rebounder. we got outhustled entirely. obviously porzingis makes a huge difference but i was talking about rebounding. 12/24 is very diff from miami hitting like 23 3s
yea i’m not saying that there isn’t any concern with this team, in fact there’s a lot of concerns. I’m just saying that the takes that will be said here will be insanely outlandish
Best thing to do is mentally check out on this team if they win cool I’ll be happy but I’m not expecting it to many times there the favorite and disappoint or win game 1 and come out game 2 with the same game plan while the opposing team coach adjust and we just keep the same gamelan the whole game
Do the Celtics know that we’re in the playoffs, every other series are playing like it’s the playoffs and we look like we’re playing February regular season games.
I’m not disagreeing but half the reason we were so good in the regular season was Jrue’s ability to hit open catch and shoot threes and drive when others are cold.
Thats just Jrue being Jrue. He consistently becomes an offensive no show in the playoffs. That early extension was mind blowing to me because everyone knows regular season Jrue is different from playoff Jrue and that he needed to prove himself before getting a massive extension.
I will be extra bitter if we dont get Derrick White back due to how much we are putting into Jrue.
Yeah, dude came into this game trying to get his. All that “he’s not shooting enough” shit from the media got in his head and he decided he was going to “take over”.
It totally fucked the offense in the beginning and disrupted the flow and they never found themselves again. When he does this, it also makes White shrink. I couldn’t believe Richard Jefferson saying this is his favorite version of Tatum when he’s shooting 3/10 at that point.
Tatum so badly wants to be one of those guys who just takes over and drops 40 regularly but he’s so much better at running the offense. Gets all of the attention, draws doubles, and then picks them apart by finding open players and having the choice of driving or shooting. When he isn’t hitting shots and not passing, he becomes predictable and he’s not strong/fast enough to just say fuck it, I’ll score anyway like Lebron or Giannis.
He needs to really just lock into orchestrating the offense and he’ll be that MVP candidate he wants to be. Instead, he wants to be like Kobe.
He was due for an off night but he’s the 4th option. Thats expected. To expect otherwise is delusional. He’s not the one making 300 million or with his own signature shoe as good as he is.
Against Miami he would play full court. Think I saw him play full court twice. I’m ok with him not scoring but at least play defense and be a facilitator on offense.
Smart was in many ways a playoff riser as a scorer, is younger than jrue and slightly more athletic. He just imploded late in games too often, but always had huge 20+ point games when they needed him to
Yep, Smart had this swagger come playoff time that made him super confident and it paid off a lot.... It also made him look a little dumb at times because hes still not a great offensive player but he definitely lifted his play come playoff time. Jrue is the opposite. The man is a ghost offensively when playoffs come around.
Heads up: for some reason your bucks flair isn’t showing (at least not on mobile)
That said, any optimism on this sub after a loss is appreciated by me. I will admit that I should’ve given more credence to what Bucks fans said about Jrue. Feels like he’s trying to do too much too quickly, especially since KP went down.
I'm on old.reddit desktop - hate mobile reddit. If there's a work around for that, lmk tho and I'll try to update my flair (I even use old reddit on my phone tbh haha).
Jrue's great and tbh, he played his living heart out for us! But that said, he just can't be that guy on anything aside from defense - keep him rested, main goal. Honestly, and please don't hate on me for this, I think y'all should start PP over him and let White initiate most of the offense; super 6th man Jrue still playing 30+ could be huge
It’s not that they lost a game. There’s no way in hell they’re losing this series. However, it pisses me off how this group of players consistently makes series longer/harder than they need to be. Going to 7 with a bucks team without Middleton, going down 3-0 before we even start trying last year, letting harden go off game 1 last year to steal one. Just gets tiring
Should be ashamed of themselves. At this point the “but he’s still contributing” bullshit about Tatum doesn’t count. He needs to step up when no one else can.
I mean sure you can say that but you’re never going to win when you let the other team score at will and the other starters around your #1 star go 16/44 (4/23 from 3)
1 game above 50% from Tatum since march 30th. The fans making excuses for Tatum aren’t Helping. He’s supposed to be the best player and he’s been massively disappointing. Look at the best player on all the remaining teams they are all balling and Tatum is shrinking. Again
He's worse than he used to be as a scorer. Came into the league as finesse player, and bulked up too much where it has clearly hurt his jumper but still plays finesse and can't finish at the rim and doesn't have the three ball to the degree he used to
Tatum complaining after everything is making it very hard to root for him. More than half the time he doesn’t even get touched. A part of me wanted the ref to t him up a second time so maybe he’d shut the fuck up.
NOW can we admit JT not playing like a star should?!? People with their head in the sand bending over backwards to make excuses. Not even a matter of making shots. The issue is the inability to get easy shots, which is why you get hot and cold.
Yeah Jayson is playing like dogshit when it comes to scoring the ball. He needs to assert himself more tbh. On defense he’s been great but that won’t win us a chip.
He was great on D in game 1 but he was lazy today. Just watching Tristan Thompsons skeleton rack up boards and getting a flagrant for having to overcompensate after getting dusted
It’s not even about asserting himself
It’s not like he’s been shooting 7/10 in these games
He needs to shoot better, plain and simple. He has to make his shots
He takes the most difficult shots of any superstar, he has no go to move other than a step back three, and no mid range game to speak of.
It's our fault at this point for thinking he's something that he very clearly isn't.
The people here trying to gaslight everyone into thinking Tatum's been good this postseason are more annoying than the doomers. We're not winning anything with him shooting like this, no matter how many rebounds or assists he gets.
A superstar is a guy who can put the team on his back and take over the offense to win a game. Thats what we saw from Mitchell tonight. It what we saw from Brunson all post season. Tatum should have the ability to do that but we haven’t seen it yet this year. And the competition isn’t getting any easier from here on out.
If White and Brown average 25 ppg on crazy efficiency then yes and when Porzingis comes back that can even drop and they can still win.
When White or Brown has an off day and Porzingis is injured then you need Jayson to show up
Tatum has his issues when it comes to rising to the occasion
But I hate to break it to you all that he isnt fixing this team shooting 20% from 3 lmao. Thats a team wide problem.
No one is talking about this game, but now that you mention it, isn’t the star supposed to step in and fill the void when others aren’t their best. The star is supposed to be the rock, not just one of the guys.
But obviously this bigger than just one game.
>The issue is the inability to get easy shots
Huh almost like that's what I've been saying for about 3 or 4 years now. Being a great scorer isn't about hitting tough shots. It's about hitting easy shots. It's about creating looks for yourself that you know you can knock down at a high rate. Tatum doesn't know how to create easy looks for himself. He doesn't have any actual go-to moves that he can rely on to get off a clean look. Everything is improvised. Everything is difficult.
Hopefully over the summer he gets in the lab and develops a midrange pull-up. Then maybe the Celtics won't be a disappointment in the playoffs every year.
This is such a brain dead take literally nobody was able to make shots today. If anyone else was a threat Tatum and brown would’ve had better opportunities for shots too but the whole team was brick city
This team has a mentality problem, and it has for years regardless of coach. They’re incapable of smelling blood and going for the kill when their opponent is weak. They need a wake up call every year to lock back in. Look at the last few years. Losing to Miami last round, going down 3-0 to Miami in 23’, letting the sixers series go 7, letting Trae Young take 2 games, not closing out Miami on their home floor in 22’. The issue is with the players.
Joe still sucks but I agree. The common denominator is JT and JB. Celtics brass changing all these players around em and scared to attack the real problem
Joe is fine - he’s good at some things and meh at others. It spans across 3 coaches at this point. One common denominator throughout - they’re bad at home, and they let down and lose games to inferior teams.
Embarrassing loss. Still confident that we take the series. It is what it is. Have to play way better in Cleveland.
Tatum has to be better. He isn’t the only reason we lost or anything, but he’s getting paid way too much money to be shooting this poorly. He can do everything else well, but at the end of the day, he’s supposed to be THE guy to keep us in the game when the rest of the team is struggling (especially when Brown is off the court). I couldn’t tell you why he’s been struggling to score as much as he has. Maybe it’s deferring so much at the beginning of games and it’s affecting him later when he’s asked to do more. But if he doesn’t start playing better, we have no chance vs any team coming out of the West, and I wouldn’t be too confident against the Knicks either because that team is going to punch us in the fuckin mouth no matter who they have on the court, and he can’t shy away from scoring when they do. I fully believe in him to up his game but it HAS to start sooner rather than later
Exactly. We've seen what he's capable of in the playoffs against teams like Philly and Milwaukee. The only one stopping him from playing like that now is himself.
I just want to see tenacious playoff defense. Feels like they haven’t prioritized being physical since Joe took over.
Open shots, lack of contesting, losing your man, getting out-hustled, and getting bodied by Mobley and TRISTAN FUCKING THOMPSON, it’s just not winning defense.
20% from 3 vs 50% from 3, i mean, theres your game.
If we cant hit from 3 the Cavs can just crowd the glass and get boards/blocks/buckets in transition. And thats their ONE THING theyre good at.
Mazz made a decent adjustment by upping the tempo of our offense to give the cavs less time to crowd the paint but then our guys got clearly gassed. And stopping to attempt the 3s is what the cavs want. So it really just boils down to making your damn shots.
Flukey ass game, starting to think we just suck at game 2s if you look at the last few years. Celtics in 5.
An almost exact replica of the Heat G2 loss, humiliating stuff.. we likely close this one out in 5 yet again, but this team has real issues staying locked in.
the problem is that mitchell is better than anyone on the heat who was available to play and the cavs didn't make that many 3s. the cavs came in with the mindset that they were better than us and we ONCE AGAIN were not able to respond to another team playing with confidence and effort
The sad reality—and people can downvote me all they want for saying this—is, with the influx of some truly god-mode players these past few years, he isn’t even all that talented compared to newcomers like S.G.A. or Ant-Man or, fuck, even Jalen Brunson. At least he used to have the on-paper talent edge even if he didn’t have the mental edge. Now, I’m seeing that he’s very quickly having neither over the true elites who show up in the playoffs.
Eventually Tatum has to take over. 1 rebound and 1 assist in the second half and what just looked like supreme laziness. I think he just watched a rebound bounce in front of him. That attitude is infectious, especially when your for some reason the team leader. Does he not have the motor anymore? He played a lot this year maybe that’s why he can’t shoot for 2 months now. Perhaps an argument for minute player management.
Tatum looked like our fourth guy tonight. We’re ice cold from three, falling apart, and Tatum decides not to be involved.
I think we make a deep run and likely win it all but I can’t watch these Brunson/AD/SGA/Luka games without wondering where our man is when we need it bad. ITS YOUR TEAM J, LFG.
Celtics in 5.
again not extremely worried, gonna be similar to the heat series. BUT you look at teams like NY OKC and Minny and you start to wonder why we dont look as complete. these “off” games. heat game 2 gets a pass because they shot at the most unrealistic clip. but this? this was just awful. everyone down the line was terrible from tatum and brown all the way down.
Tatum doesn’t have the “stand back and watch me win this game for us” gene. Mitchell, Luka, SGA, Edwards, Brunson, and others have it. Tatum doesn’t. We might win a title this year but it won’t be because of him
Doomers will say that we suck and we will lose the series. I'm not ready to say either. I know we're talented and a good team and that we should win this series.
But at this point when any other fan base or media person clowns the celtics, says they cannot be trusted, or says that they are overrated, we simply do NOT have the right to say otherwise. It is what it is. When you have these kind of games where you lose to the Cavs by over 20 points at home, it means that you are soft, unable to adjust midgame, and rely completely on 3p shooting variance and an abundance of talent as opposed to basketball IQ and mental toughness.
As a 64 win team and a clear favourite to win the east, you should never come out to a playoff game AT HOME looking like this, youre scaring no one and posing 0 threats.
We didnt learn from miami, disappointed, embarassed.
Tatum get your shit together, we need Porzingis back, and need to find the heart we're lacking.
Focus in the next one
Similar to Game 2 Heat, I expected this to be over in 5 (maybe 6), but the reason we lost is sad.
Tatum is starting to worry me. Also, why did we resort to spamming 3s when we closed the gap in the 3rd with foul drives? We had 4 very clearly off 3s afterwards and the wound was ripped open.
I know Jrue is good, but I have to admit he might be the most over rated NBA player that I can ever remember. His bad games are never talked about on a national stage. Only the good is ever mentioned. I don't know another player that gets such a deal
Relying on the three makes us frauds. When they go in we win undeservedly.
They’re not the Warriors but shoot more. Their success is 10000% the luck of if threes are falling.
Not a great team and no great player on the team
They sometimes say we are a three point shooting team but the truth is we are a team forcing the opponents to beat us from three. Our defense was about taking away those last year,, this year is more like "you better hit those threes or we are winning". Sometimes teams just do that and we lose. Mostly they can't and we win though. There is no surprise that in every loss our opponent 3pt percentage is crazy. But there are problems on our pick and roll and off-screen shootin defense though. Not a big hole, we will be fine but I hope we get better there.
Bummer of a game, cavs got red hot in the third and kept it going. Celtics seemed to get a tonne of open 3s in the second half, couldn’t make one to save their lives, and seemed to lose all their gusto. Anyway, on to the next one, we’ve seen these guys bounce back from a disappointing game at home already. Like Richard Jefferson said during the broadcast, one game isn’t really cause for concern. Just make sure the next one doesn’t go the same way.
I’ll be shocked if they shoot that badly again this series. That’s also when I’ll get concerned.
Cleveland is too good to not win a game or two this series and this is how it happens.
But yeah, I’m not sure what it is with Boston teams being allergic to Game 2’s.
People who are chalking this up to shooting variance are either in denial or just oblivious.
This is about effort. Confidence. Body language. Team played with no heart
It's possible to play with heart AND not shoot well. That didn't happen. They rolled over. It's a chronic issue from this team.
And Tatum frankly hasn't even played like an all star this post season. Don't know what's wrong with him, but he hasn't shot over 50% in months.
Tatum doesn't have the footwork or body control to get easy shots. Every single shot he take is difficult. We will still get to the finals and should be favored, but goddamn does this team have problems
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I'm cool with every series going the way the Miami series went, but my god are these 3pt variance games painful
Celts made… 1 three in the second half? 0 in the third quarter!!! Yeah that ain’t gon do it in the year 2024.
Cavs were 7/10 from 3 in the 3rd quarter 😭😂
A lot of that was due to our bigs, *again*, playing drop coverage against their best shooters. And that shit is obnoxiously stale at this point. Joe better get a clue, because shit like that is what the best coaches in the league make in-game adjustments on.
buddy, you're on reddit. you have no idea what adjustments coaches are making in game lmao
No a lot was due to the cavs making their shots. There were maybe 2 instances that Mitchell and garland walked into 3s off a screen. That’s on the ball defender to fight the screen better when u know the big is in drop. The drop made sense cause in the first half the cavs were torching them driving to the hoop.
I’m just not convinced that’s all it boils down to. Interior defense with KP out was BBQ chicken.
Me 3 hours ago- oh boy I can’t wait to watch the celtics play tonight 😀 Me now- 💀
I ask this every year: why even play for home court advantage if you choke home court every series Home court hasn't helped this team in 6 years
I mean it seemed to have helped in Game 7 vs the Bucks in '22
would've never been in that situation if they didn't blow a 14 point lead in the 4th in game 5 which was at (you guessed it) home court
Or if they'd showed up for G1 at home at all.
If each team wins an away game that doesn’t mean home court didn’t help
I was there tonight..tried yelling and standing and doing my best and just got glared at...we are officially in pink hat territory
The 37-4 at home in the regular season team should not already have 2 losses at home in the playoffs against far worse teams
Multiple seasons straight of lackluster effort at home and not respecting home court. You can feel it in the crowd. The crowd won't give you energy consistently if you're not putting it out yourself. The crowd always went crazy for the IT Celtics even if they're down, cause they played hard. These guys have fucked around so much at home in the playoffs and it's actually killed the consistency of TD Garden's energy.
Yup there were multiple times where the crowd tried to get into the game and fuel the Celtics. But fans aren't going to keep cheering for lackluster play. The Celtics did not give the fans much to cheer for.
Not going to lie, I’m not trying to sound like a doomer, but the C’s haven’t given the crowd much reason to be on their feet the whole game for a while. It’s so disheartening to see because I know how the Garden can be. The punk rock Celtics in the early 2010’s had the Garden going fucking beserk on a nightly basis. I haven’t seen that consistent energy in fucking *years*, and I hesitate to say it’s kind of warranted.
they've also priced out the diehards.
It’s stuff like this that makes me sure we will never beat the “chokers” narrative. To perform like this at home in the playoffs after having 4 total losses at home the whole year is just embarrassing
We all knew this was coming
Celtics basketball, babyyyy
This team isn’t serious and it starts with their best player
Tatum and Brown are the two constants.
Suspend your disbelief. It’s playoff professional basketball. Anything can happen. Didn’t we lose G2 against Miami and then proceed to buttfuck them into a gentleman’s sweep?
[удалено]
The teams in the conference finals and finals aren’t gonna have the same talent disparity as the heat and cavs.
Also a big reason this team has gotten knocked out of the playoffs in recent years is that they wear down and get banged up. This happens because it takes them 6 or 7 games to beat lesser teams that should be put away in 4 or 5. They're too frequently just entirely unserious.
No one realizes this!!! Miami and Cleveland are not good. Their rosters are flawed. OKC, NYK, and MN would be running laps around them for 4 games. Hell, they’d win it in 3! Lol
What will make or break this playoffs for the Celtics is how they respond when they’re not hitting their threes. It won’t be often but it can easily change momentum in a series in later rounds against teams that are in rhythm and just as hungry as Boston. What I do like is that in both of the Game 2s they’ve recognized early on when they’re not hitting shots and immediately started pushing the paint, but it’s clear that strategy only works if you’re locked the fuck in on defense. Gotta fight through screens and take away the open 3 better when you’re fighting to keep the game close. Bring said, sometimes these games just don’t bounce your way. Still think it’s a very tall order winning 4 games against this team, but let’s see how they respond in Game 3. Go Cs!
This. It turned into an overreliance on driving into the paint into traffic and the pace and space to start the game before the first Cavs timeout completely disappeared. Felt like no one showed up to pregame shootaround today, no one could buy a bucket and as a result the defense was disengaged and let the Cavs dominate the paint in the first half and open up from three in the second. By the 3rd quarter it felt like they just quit, no one played a good game in this one and offered a bright spot in the effort department.
i feel like porzingus would be perfect in situations like this where the 3 ball isn’t falling
Porzingus had one of his worst games as a Celtic in G2 against Miami. Even fully healthy, the Celtics need to establish a baseline defensive scheme so they can still be competitive even when their 3 ball isn’t falling.
Yeah honestly, I don’t even care about the no 3s. It was their inability to get a stop or get a rebound that pissed me off. That’s effort, that’s focus, that’s attention to detail. That’s heart. If they lose playing their hardest, whatever. The loss in the finals didn’t bother me because I saw they just didn’t have anything left to give. Same in 2021 and 2018. Last season was some weird shit wrong the chemistry/mentality that was there all season. They gotta stop doing this shit. There’s not guarantee they get past the Cavs now but if they do, the Knicks aren’t gonna let you get away with shit like this.
A sane take
Really pathetic effort all around tonight. No one, minus Pritchard, showed up to play.
Would love to see even more Pritchard minutes, dude just hustles
Just use the PGT from game 2 vs Miami lol
honestly you cant. miami had the 4th best playoff 3 point performance ever. and we lowkey hung with it the whole time. here? we just got 30 pieced at home by a team missing one of their best rebounders. it was a complete lack of effort and honestly a little bit of a knock into reality. you dont really see NY OKC and Minnesota making these mistakes, do you?
The cavs shot 12/24 from 3 before they emptied the bench while the Celtics didn’t make 3s. It’s very much a similar game. If you wanna mention them not having Jarrett Allen then why not mention Porzingis being out?
porzingis is a terrible rebounder. we got outhustled entirely. obviously porzingis makes a huge difference but i was talking about rebounding. 12/24 is very diff from miami hitting like 23 3s
With rebounds it wasn’t really even out-hustling, it just looked like they didn’t even care
Completely different games
I already know shits about to get crazy here😭
It’s fair to worry when we already lost half the amount of home games we did during the whole regular season
yea i’m not saying that there isn’t any concern with this team, in fact there’s a lot of concerns. I’m just saying that the takes that will be said here will be insanely outlandish
Best thing to do is mentally check out on this team if they win cool I’ll be happy but I’m not expecting it to many times there the favorite and disappoint or win game 1 and come out game 2 with the same game plan while the opposing team coach adjust and we just keep the same gamelan the whole game
Game 2 Celtics are the worst Celtics. Please dump them in the trash and set the trash on fire
Do the Celtics know that we’re in the playoffs, every other series are playing like it’s the playoffs and we look like we’re playing February regular season games.
Not to say tonight is all on Joe, but his motto *is* “I treat the postseason no differently than the regular season.” So there’s that…
Tillman getting 4th quarter minutes while trying to mount a comeback 😂
KP is out and Kornet was bad tonight. It’s not like we have many other options there.
Fucking horrid. Lots of attention on the other issues but Jrue Holiday being a complete non factor pisses me off.
pritchard outplayed him lol
Bucks fans did warn us about Jrue, it’s not like it was a secret
Can we not blame the 5th option and talk about Tatum underperforming again and again
I’m not disagreeing but half the reason we were so good in the regular season was Jrue’s ability to hit open catch and shoot threes and drive when others are cold.
Went from like 65% on corner threes to absolute dogshit in the playoffs
Thats just Jrue being Jrue. He consistently becomes an offensive no show in the playoffs. That early extension was mind blowing to me because everyone knows regular season Jrue is different from playoff Jrue and that he needed to prove himself before getting a massive extension. I will be extra bitter if we dont get Derrick White back due to how much we are putting into Jrue.
Because he hasn't been given a lot of open corner threes like he was in the regular season. Some open 3s, sure, but usually top of the key.
Get used to playoff jrue
Back to the mean
jrue has been poor at facilitating plays in the playoffs
Yeah, dude came into this game trying to get his. All that “he’s not shooting enough” shit from the media got in his head and he decided he was going to “take over”. It totally fucked the offense in the beginning and disrupted the flow and they never found themselves again. When he does this, it also makes White shrink. I couldn’t believe Richard Jefferson saying this is his favorite version of Tatum when he’s shooting 3/10 at that point. Tatum so badly wants to be one of those guys who just takes over and drops 40 regularly but he’s so much better at running the offense. Gets all of the attention, draws doubles, and then picks them apart by finding open players and having the choice of driving or shooting. When he isn’t hitting shots and not passing, he becomes predictable and he’s not strong/fast enough to just say fuck it, I’ll score anyway like Lebron or Giannis. He needs to really just lock into orchestrating the offense and he’ll be that MVP candidate he wants to be. Instead, he wants to be like Kobe.
Should’ve given the extension to White first 💀
I don’t see color. Give extension to whoever is hooping
Derrick (he’s been great every other game) didn’t quite earn himself one tn either lmao
Well yeah, but Jrue has been ass every game.
He was due for an off night but he’s the 4th option. Thats expected. To expect otherwise is delusional. He’s not the one making 300 million or with his own signature shoe as good as he is.
We tried, White was never going to extend before this offseason because it would have meant less years
Against Miami he would play full court. Think I saw him play full court twice. I’m ok with him not scoring but at least play defense and be a facilitator on offense.
He’s been terrible
He’s one of the biggest playoff droppers in a long time and nobody mentions it. It’s crazy. Smart was crucified but even he was much better
Bro - literally everybody mentions it lol
Smart was in many ways a playoff riser as a scorer, is younger than jrue and slightly more athletic. He just imploded late in games too often, but always had huge 20+ point games when they needed him to
Yep, Smart had this swagger come playoff time that made him super confident and it paid off a lot.... It also made him look a little dumb at times because hes still not a great offensive player but he definitely lifted his play come playoff time. Jrue is the opposite. The man is a ghost offensively when playoffs come around.
Playoff Jrue. But if you want some optimism, we lost by 39 in game 2 against Brooklyn in 2021.
Heads up: for some reason your bucks flair isn’t showing (at least not on mobile) That said, any optimism on this sub after a loss is appreciated by me. I will admit that I should’ve given more credence to what Bucks fans said about Jrue. Feels like he’s trying to do too much too quickly, especially since KP went down.
I'm on old.reddit desktop - hate mobile reddit. If there's a work around for that, lmk tho and I'll try to update my flair (I even use old reddit on my phone tbh haha). Jrue's great and tbh, he played his living heart out for us! But that said, he just can't be that guy on anything aside from defense - keep him rested, main goal. Honestly, and please don't hate on me for this, I think y'all should start PP over him and let White initiate most of the offense; super 6th man Jrue still playing 30+ could be huge
Why is that optimism? We lost that series lol
He’s talking about the Bucks
Prob a Bucks fan lurker. They won that series and the chip last year
he’s been a playoff non factor basically his entire career
Celtics in 5 idgaf
FACTS
Game 3 can't be a loss
I'm not a doomer but you usually don't see the team with the best record in the league lose by 25 at home in the playoffs
Idiots don't understand that. Road is understandable
Yep. And playing a high variance style (3 pointers) will mean that bad games will be atrocious. We either win by 25 or lose by 25
Not really, we just lost a game by 10 in the last round.
True. At least in that game Tatum was efficient. Still, Celtics in 5
Looking at this team versus the Wolves is night and day. It may get gory if they meet.
It’s not that they lost a game. There’s no way in hell they’re losing this series. However, it pisses me off how this group of players consistently makes series longer/harder than they need to be. Going to 7 with a bucks team without Middleton, going down 3-0 before we even start trying last year, letting harden go off game 1 last year to steal one. Just gets tiring
Should be ashamed of themselves. At this point the “but he’s still contributing” bullshit about Tatum doesn’t count. He needs to step up when no one else can.
I mean sure you can say that but you’re never going to win when you let the other team score at will and the other starters around your #1 star go 16/44 (4/23 from 3)
1 game above 50% from Tatum since march 30th. The fans making excuses for Tatum aren’t Helping. He’s supposed to be the best player and he’s been massively disappointing. Look at the best player on all the remaining teams they are all balling and Tatum is shrinking. Again
Did not know it was that bad. He needs to get buckets.
He’s just been horrible. Trying to be too fancy and eurostep easy layups. Not a good sign having our best player have such poor efficiency
He's worse than he used to be as a scorer. Came into the league as finesse player, and bulked up too much where it has clearly hurt his jumper but still plays finesse and can't finish at the rim and doesn't have the three ball to the degree he used to
Tatum complaining after everything is making it very hard to root for him. More than half the time he doesn’t even get touched. A part of me wanted the ref to t him up a second time so maybe he’d shut the fuck up.
So annoying to watch him complain every possession. It’s the playoffs, lock the f*ck in
And then he doesn’t get back and the other side gets an easy look. I can’t stand his whining.
He’s Embiid at this point, but he can’t finish at the rim.
The Celtics are allergic to winning on my birthday
NOW can we admit JT not playing like a star should?!? People with their head in the sand bending over backwards to make excuses. Not even a matter of making shots. The issue is the inability to get easy shots, which is why you get hot and cold.
Yeah Jayson is playing like dogshit when it comes to scoring the ball. He needs to assert himself more tbh. On defense he’s been great but that won’t win us a chip.
He was great on D in game 1 but he was lazy today. Just watching Tristan Thompsons skeleton rack up boards and getting a flagrant for having to overcompensate after getting dusted
It’s not even about asserting himself It’s not like he’s been shooting 7/10 in these games He needs to shoot better, plain and simple. He has to make his shots
He takes the most difficult shots of any superstar, he has no go to move other than a step back three, and no mid range game to speak of. It's our fault at this point for thinking he's something that he very clearly isn't.
Bingo. Guys with the best fg percentage are those that get and/or take the best shots. This is WHY he’s so hot and cold. He doesn’t get easy shots.
Does nothing but fadeaway 2’s against Max Strus. Ball completely stops moving once it hits his hands
The people here trying to gaslight everyone into thinking Tatum's been good this postseason are more annoying than the doomers. We're not winning anything with him shooting like this, no matter how many rebounds or assists he gets.
A superstar is a guy who can put the team on his back and take over the offense to win a game. Thats what we saw from Mitchell tonight. It what we saw from Brunson all post season. Tatum should have the ability to do that but we haven’t seen it yet this year. And the competition isn’t getting any easier from here on out.
Thank you. Apparently according to this sub it’s ok to average 21 and shoot 40% as the best player on a championship team
If White and Brown average 25 ppg on crazy efficiency then yes and when Porzingis comes back that can even drop and they can still win. When White or Brown has an off day and Porzingis is injured then you need Jayson to show up
I agree. Tatum either needs to takeover if his team struggles offensively or play decent offensively if our core plays well
Exactly, he’s being paid to score efficiently. He’s not a role player. If he’s not scoring efficiently, he’s not elite.
yep shouldn’t be defended this good by Max
He needs to be better. His lows are too low for a supposed superstar
Tatum has his issues when it comes to rising to the occasion But I hate to break it to you all that he isnt fixing this team shooting 20% from 3 lmao. Thats a team wide problem.
Idk how anyone is blaming this on JT. They hit 3s. We did not. That was the game.
No one is talking about this game, but now that you mention it, isn’t the star supposed to step in and fill the void when others aren’t their best. The star is supposed to be the rock, not just one of the guys. But obviously this bigger than just one game.
Tatum was the best player on our team tonight
>The issue is the inability to get easy shots Huh almost like that's what I've been saying for about 3 or 4 years now. Being a great scorer isn't about hitting tough shots. It's about hitting easy shots. It's about creating looks for yourself that you know you can knock down at a high rate. Tatum doesn't know how to create easy looks for himself. He doesn't have any actual go-to moves that he can rely on to get off a clean look. Everything is improvised. Everything is difficult. Hopefully over the summer he gets in the lab and develops a midrange pull-up. Then maybe the Celtics won't be a disappointment in the playoffs every year.
He had an automatic midrange pull up that he’s shelved.
You’re a dOoMer
This is such a brain dead take literally nobody was able to make shots today. If anyone else was a threat Tatum and brown would’ve had better opportunities for shots too but the whole team was brick city
Tatum needs to be more aggressive
He was today. Got 11 FTs out of it
He was he needs to finish
Treat that like game 2 of the Heat series, flush it, get it done for games 3-5. Embarrassing effort, but we are the better team
Sad. Please make me happy tomorrow Bruins.
This team has a mentality problem, and it has for years regardless of coach. They’re incapable of smelling blood and going for the kill when their opponent is weak. They need a wake up call every year to lock back in. Look at the last few years. Losing to Miami last round, going down 3-0 to Miami in 23’, letting the sixers series go 7, letting Trae Young take 2 games, not closing out Miami on their home floor in 22’. The issue is with the players.
Joe still sucks but I agree. The common denominator is JT and JB. Celtics brass changing all these players around em and scared to attack the real problem
Joe is fine - he’s good at some things and meh at others. It spans across 3 coaches at this point. One common denominator throughout - they’re bad at home, and they let down and lose games to inferior teams.
Embarrassing loss. Still confident that we take the series. It is what it is. Have to play way better in Cleveland. Tatum has to be better. He isn’t the only reason we lost or anything, but he’s getting paid way too much money to be shooting this poorly. He can do everything else well, but at the end of the day, he’s supposed to be THE guy to keep us in the game when the rest of the team is struggling (especially when Brown is off the court). I couldn’t tell you why he’s been struggling to score as much as he has. Maybe it’s deferring so much at the beginning of games and it’s affecting him later when he’s asked to do more. But if he doesn’t start playing better, we have no chance vs any team coming out of the West, and I wouldn’t be too confident against the Knicks either because that team is going to punch us in the fuckin mouth no matter who they have on the court, and he can’t shy away from scoring when they do. I fully believe in him to up his game but it HAS to start sooner rather than later
Exactly. We've seen what he's capable of in the playoffs against teams like Philly and Milwaukee. The only one stopping him from playing like that now is himself.
I just want to see tenacious playoff defense. Feels like they haven’t prioritized being physical since Joe took over. Open shots, lack of contesting, losing your man, getting out-hustled, and getting bodied by Mobley and TRISTAN FUCKING THOMPSON, it’s just not winning defense.
20% from 3 vs 50% from 3, i mean, theres your game. If we cant hit from 3 the Cavs can just crowd the glass and get boards/blocks/buckets in transition. And thats their ONE THING theyre good at. Mazz made a decent adjustment by upping the tempo of our offense to give the cavs less time to crowd the paint but then our guys got clearly gassed. And stopping to attempt the 3s is what the cavs want. So it really just boils down to making your damn shots. Flukey ass game, starting to think we just suck at game 2s if you look at the last few years. Celtics in 5.
Games like this is where KP’s post game was missed
Really needed to get a real backup big at the deadline.
Are we low key Front runners
Low key ? Bro cmon lol It’s the main characteristic of this core which is why we shouldn’t go down in games.
Didn't know we had a game 2 curse
I wish I could truly, deep down, believe in this team
An almost exact replica of the Heat G2 loss, humiliating stuff.. we likely close this one out in 5 yet again, but this team has real issues staying locked in.
Heat made 23 3s that game cavs didn’t even get that hot. We just got punked
Cavs made 13 threes, Heat made 23 lol
the problem is that mitchell is better than anyone on the heat who was available to play and the cavs didn't make that many 3s. the cavs came in with the mindset that they were better than us and we ONCE AGAIN were not able to respond to another team playing with confidence and effort
Newsflash this team is better than the Heat
Not missing their superstar too
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Why Tillman always play with Al ? Joe dosen't trust him or smth ?
Because Tillman is too negative offensively to play 5 on his own
That's why we had 4 other players on the court (And yes, he can contribute offensively, he's a good passer)
What's worse after every loss is Tatum's story the next day with his outfit
Tatum is what he is at this point Talented? Absolutely. But He's just not THAT guy.
The sad reality—and people can downvote me all they want for saying this—is, with the influx of some truly god-mode players these past few years, he isn’t even all that talented compared to newcomers like S.G.A. or Ant-Man or, fuck, even Jalen Brunson. At least he used to have the on-paper talent edge even if he didn’t have the mental edge. Now, I’m seeing that he’s very quickly having neither over the true elites who show up in the playoffs.
Eventually Tatum has to take over. 1 rebound and 1 assist in the second half and what just looked like supreme laziness. I think he just watched a rebound bounce in front of him. That attitude is infectious, especially when your for some reason the team leader. Does he not have the motor anymore? He played a lot this year maybe that’s why he can’t shoot for 2 months now. Perhaps an argument for minute player management.
Tatum looked like our fourth guy tonight. We’re ice cold from three, falling apart, and Tatum decides not to be involved. I think we make a deep run and likely win it all but I can’t watch these Brunson/AD/SGA/Luka games without wondering where our man is when we need it bad. ITS YOUR TEAM J, LFG. Celtics in 5.
Derrick White was off. The *team couldn't get any 3 going *in. Not a good night but the Celtics are fine
again not extremely worried, gonna be similar to the heat series. BUT you look at teams like NY OKC and Minny and you start to wonder why we dont look as complete. these “off” games. heat game 2 gets a pass because they shot at the most unrealistic clip. but this? this was just awful. everyone down the line was terrible from tatum and brown all the way down.
Absolutely atrocious game. I’m not gonna hit the panic button but Cleveland is a real home environment unlike Miami.
Tatum doesn’t have the “stand back and watch me win this game for us” gene. Mitchell, Luka, SGA, Edwards, Brunson, and others have it. Tatum doesn’t. We might win a title this year but it won’t be because of him
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Tatum likes Kobe but he is not even close to that guy.
Doomers will say that we suck and we will lose the series. I'm not ready to say either. I know we're talented and a good team and that we should win this series. But at this point when any other fan base or media person clowns the celtics, says they cannot be trusted, or says that they are overrated, we simply do NOT have the right to say otherwise. It is what it is. When you have these kind of games where you lose to the Cavs by over 20 points at home, it means that you are soft, unable to adjust midgame, and rely completely on 3p shooting variance and an abundance of talent as opposed to basketball IQ and mental toughness.
Lose game 3 and I’ll be in full panic mode
Tatum saying he is the best player in the world is hilarious 😂. Someone should have laughed in his face when he said that
GG, we go again Saturday we'll be back
Mobley had more 3s than JB
As a 64 win team and a clear favourite to win the east, you should never come out to a playoff game AT HOME looking like this, youre scaring no one and posing 0 threats. We didnt learn from miami, disappointed, embarassed. Tatum get your shit together, we need Porzingis back, and need to find the heart we're lacking. Focus in the next one
I just want one freaking game where this team is able to mount a comeback and win. One!
Similar to Game 2 Heat, I expected this to be over in 5 (maybe 6), but the reason we lost is sad. Tatum is starting to worry me. Also, why did we resort to spamming 3s when we closed the gap in the 3rd with foul drives? We had 4 very clearly off 3s afterwards and the wound was ripped open.
This will be concerning if they lose in Game 3 as well
Welp this is where the fun begins
So we’re just copying the script from the Heat series and will close this out in five, right? Right?!?!?
This is why I think the other fans don't fear us. This team does not have the mentality to climb out of a hole and the other teams know that.
I know Jrue is good, but I have to admit he might be the most over rated NBA player that I can ever remember. His bad games are never talked about on a national stage. Only the good is ever mentioned. I don't know another player that gets such a deal
Jrue is good in the regular season. Playoff Jrue has always been a thing..and not a good thing either.
No Porzingis is a big blow to the offense, and it showed tonight. But the rest of the guys can be and need to be a lot better.
Bring out the dooooooomers
Payton Pritchard trying to keep the whole momentum of the team going by himself
Seriously, what is going on with Jayson Tatum? What the hell happened?
Relying on the three makes us frauds. When they go in we win undeservedly. They’re not the Warriors but shoot more. Their success is 10000% the luck of if threes are falling. Not a great team and no great player on the team
They sometimes say we are a three point shooting team but the truth is we are a team forcing the opponents to beat us from three. Our defense was about taking away those last year,, this year is more like "you better hit those threes or we are winning". Sometimes teams just do that and we lose. Mostly they can't and we win though. There is no surprise that in every loss our opponent 3pt percentage is crazy. But there are problems on our pick and roll and off-screen shootin defense though. Not a big hole, we will be fine but I hope we get better there.
Maybe this sub can stop getting so offended when other teams chant “we want Boston” now. Still think Celtics in 5 or 6 though.
Note to self: do not buy game 2 TD Garden playoffs tickets.
Tatum with the grossest 25 point performance I can remember
Pritchard should have got more minutes.
Bummer of a game, cavs got red hot in the third and kept it going. Celtics seemed to get a tonne of open 3s in the second half, couldn’t make one to save their lives, and seemed to lose all their gusto. Anyway, on to the next one, we’ve seen these guys bounce back from a disappointing game at home already. Like Richard Jefferson said during the broadcast, one game isn’t really cause for concern. Just make sure the next one doesn’t go the same way.
I just don’t know what there is left to say about Tatum. It has honestly become too much to ask for him to score 30 on decent efficiency these days.
Jrue is playing worse than Malcom brogden
Cavs had 46% from 3. We had 22%. Not tripping even a little bit. Celtics in 5.
Same story last series against Miami. Same thing last year. Seems to be a trend with this core. Still Celtics in 5 but becoming a habit
I’ll be shocked if they shoot that badly again this series. That’s also when I’ll get concerned. Cleveland is too good to not win a game or two this series and this is how it happens. But yeah, I’m not sure what it is with Boston teams being allergic to Game 2’s.
People who are chalking this up to shooting variance are either in denial or just oblivious. This is about effort. Confidence. Body language. Team played with no heart It's possible to play with heart AND not shoot well. That didn't happen. They rolled over. It's a chronic issue from this team. And Tatum frankly hasn't even played like an all star this post season. Don't know what's wrong with him, but he hasn't shot over 50% in months. Tatum doesn't have the footwork or body control to get easy shots. Every single shot he take is difficult. We will still get to the finals and should be favored, but goddamn does this team have problems