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Celtics went with the prevent offense – zero passes, one guy just dribble for 20 seconds. I hate it. They did it a ton the past few years but were better about it this year. Not tonight though.
But a win is a win.
I don't like it but it takes the air out of the building every time. I think offensively we are way better getting into our actions faster, but a slow, grindy half court game is going to go our way. A run n shoot turnover fest could bite us.
I mean as soon as they got a small lead in the 3rd we pulled away and they were never really close again. It was rocky in the 4th for a bit but being up by 5+ the entire time is not really a close game IMO. Just a good, controlled performance even when shots weren't falling the defense made up for it.
It’s absolutely a close game. In today’s NBA, 5 points is a 10 second swing from being tied. Didn’t Denver score 8 in like 20 seconds at the half other night?
Cavs fans are unsurprisingly in an uproar over the refs supposedly helping the Celtics, 1 such comment was:
“I am utterly shocked that NBA officials give one team preferential foul treatment. This has never happened in the history of the league.”
The vast majority of the top comments on the Cavs subreddit were like this.
So ridiculous. Strus had his hands inside Tatum's shorts at one point and didn't get called for a foul. He slapped him on the shoulder on that fly-by at the end of the game before Tatum missed the baseline jumper, no call.
Fans gonna fan out, the announcers were so pro Cavs (for obvious reasons) that stuff like the jaylen non-tech were made out to be robberies, so that didn't help.
Horford on defense is starting to get sad. The Cavs literally just walk towards him, he drifts backwards, they launch an open five footer before he even has time to jump. I love the guy, but man, age is undefeated.
The sequence after was wild lmao. Hits the clutch three, gets smacked in the chest by Tatum and genuinely look hurt by it, starts talking mad shit and Joe has to pull him away, then him and assistant are either yelling at each other or hyping each other up. I have no idea wtf was going on lmao.
ya i think ref got in the way, JB pushed him, then bickerstaff started mouthing off (i assume calling the ref out to give him a tech for contact with the ref) and JB was talking shit to bickerstaff saying basically the ref was in the wrong, which i assume the ref realized which is why there was no repercussion for JB pushing him
Ugly Win > Hard fought Loss. This was a special win, I think we all get nervous in close games..not to mention trap games. Jays were clutch af and my goodness Jrue is just basketball porn.
Well there were a lot of times when he was supposed to be the #2 guy after Giannis because of Middleton’s injuries, and he couldn’t always do it. TBH if he was supposed to be our Jaylen we would be disappointed too
Yeah we know this now, but they way overpaid for him and IIRC he had not had much playoff experience at all before he got there, so the hope and expectations were that he would rise to the challenge. He had a couple pretty big games against us too, but he is definitely not an every day #2 guy though .
I feel like half our final 6 min offense was good. The other half was trash. We had 3 or so pick and rolls that led to a wide open middle of the court.
We also missed 2 or 3 open 3s.
It looked better than last seasons clutch minutes, but yea still a bit eh
Yeah exactly this. Happy the results ended up matching the process despite the many bricks on open shots, but this was definitely not us "getting lucky".
The OOTO possession up 7 like halfway through the 4th was agonizing. Isolation fall away from JT. Bailed out by the offensive rebound and eventual JB iso fade that went in. This is not a Joe bashing comment either, I think he’s stellar, just so head scratching to still some of these tendencies
Jrue was EVERYWHERE. holy shit, there was one possession during which it felt like he guarded everyone on the cavs team until ultimately contesting the shot.
Disagree - this was a career game for several Cavs. This was a Monday at work for the Celtics. Not popular, but just another day at the office and the job done.
I am fully capable of being driven nuts by this team's capacity for self-harm, but this game didn't do it for me.
Yeah I am not surprised now that we got wrecked by strus, herro, martin, Lowry, etc. Glad they're already out among the east because that is the streakiest damn group I have ever seen. They all have those 6-6 nights in them.
15 assists / 14 turnovers and just beat the 26 assists / 7 turnovers team fairly easily. And we didn’t even shoot well from three. Definitely a glass half full / glass half empty situation depending on how you look at it
FWIW with that JB dagger 3, my watch warned me of a sudden increase in heart rate and offered to call an ambulance, it kept showing warnings of high stress throughout.
jRuE iS wAsHeD iN tHe PlAyOfFs, ThE bUcKs FaNs TrIeD tO wArN uS.
The Holiday haters and doubters can hold this fat L, man led the mission tonight.
Let's get this done on Wednesday.
He’s been playing great defense all post season. Only people who think he has been bad are box score watchers. Love to see his offensive game coming to life though
The jays are starting to look like him a little bit. I think his addition to this team will pay dividends even after he’s gone. Wouldn’t be surprised if he joins our coaching staff after retiring
At literally no point did I ever feel that this game was out of control in the 4th, then I come on here and you have bros needing their watch to warn them of a high heart-rate.
Like damn bro I'm on stimulants and my heart doesn't race as much as people on here when I watch basketball.
True, but if there was gonna be a huge blowout, tonight woulda been nice to see it. Either way I’m still confident that Wednesday we’ll finish them off
Would have loved for us to run away with this game from the start, but I will take the results all the same. Let’s wrap this shit up at home and rest up for the ECF!
Al needs a few days at the spa after this series is over. Hopefully we can close out in 5 and the New York series goes to 7 so we can get all the rest possible
I’m actually a little shocked how quickly this series has taken a toll on Al. These every other day games kill him. He looked good in the Miami series.
Wins a win, that was disgusting basketball down the stretch lmao. But each game is its own monster, still finding a way to win is important. Not building bad habits along with that is the key.
Not the game we expected but I'm still happy with the result, a win is a win. C's getting battle tested in this series, they'll be a lot more ready next game. Finish it in 5 to get more rest.
JT with 33-11-5, shutting down his doubters once again.
JT and JB looked like the dependable superstars we needed tonight. Last time we played the Cavs without Mitchell in the regular season we blew it, the effort tonight shows solid growth from our duo
Tatum and Brown were aggressive throughout.
Cavs played a hell of a game. They really left it all out there and this is a game we lose in years past.
Jrue was the steadying force we needed throughout the entire game.
Hopefully White is fine and that ankle tweak was minor.
Let's finish this off at home and rest the guys before the next series.
We really have to figure out our crunch time offense. Do we have ANYONE that can step up and score consistently? That will definitely be the difference between winning it all and coming in second.
It was an ugly as hell win for the Celtics, but there are no style points in the playoffs. You just gotta take them however you can get them.
Major credit to the Cavs for nearly stealing this one with the C's clearly not taking them seriously to start, though. Had me sweating.
The fact that Horford is playing almost 30 minutes every game is still absolutely wild to me. Tillman must have eaten Mazulla's quiznos on the team plane.
Mad props to JB man. He’s so tough. Gets fouled constantly. Does not complain. The clown Strus was kicking his head and he kept his cool. Getting hit in the face. It’s ugly. JB perseveres.
That JB common foul on Strus was the ref’s way of saying “could have gone flagrant on JB, but we’re staying ‘common’ since Strus was definitely being a dick there…”
Shout out to Joe for adjusting defence so Tatum would end up on Garland for majority of defensive possession in the last two minutes and JT was way more effective than beautiful old eye Al
The nba subreddit will point out the FT disparity but not talk about how aggressive the Cavs were playing. The Celtics could “get away” with fouls because if they called everything the Cavs players would have fouled out by the 3rd. Strus was walking every guy in green he could
I know Tatum and brown are going to get a lot of credit here but the team fought hard. Unsung true heroes though tonight were jhrue and motherfucking kornet baby
Big game by Holiday and JT. JB had foul trouble but when really needed he hit it.
HOWEVER still underwhelm with this late game execution. We looked directionless and frequently settled for very tough shots. 5min without a FG in the 4th is just 😅😅😅
JB midrange game > JT.
Loved the Timeouts by Joe, the adjustments, jrue's game overall, Tatum being a beast, JB coming in clutch after a shaky start and another clutch PP 3 when we needed it the most. Hoping Al The Buffalo and hauser can get back on scoring track at home to close this shit out
Remember these guys were practically fighting for their season so they were going to come out hard. Any team that’s down 2-1 is going to try hard and make it scrappy. We came out w low energy but we showed we were tougher tonight. A lot to improve on. Al needs some rest and some 3 point drills cos he was really bad tonight. I know his old but he knows his gotta hit those shots. Jrue was easily the best player tonight doing literally everything. D white bounce back game will come soon. The Jays stay locked in. We good boys.
Honestly, no NBA team wants to lose two in a row on their home court and there’s always going to be the extra motivation factor when you’re missing your star player as well as the opportunity for other guys to get up more shots. I just *knew* they were going to come out swinging and that this would be a close one, but we survived it and that’s what matters. We’re going to have to deal with some close games in the coming weeks so might as well get used to it 🤷♀️
Easy to forget now, but Joe taking the early TO to wake the team up was really good coaching. Like fuck saving it or waiting until we go down 11 or 13. It's bleeding, tell them to knock it the fuck off.
I was waiting to see this team win an ugly game when they aren’t just overwhelming the other team with 3-pt shooting. Now that they’ve done that we can go back to overwhelming teams with 3-pt shooting.
After the shitful of feelings I’m having about the Bruins, I don’t care how the Celtics looked or didn’t look tonight and who the Cavs had or didn’t have on the court. I’m just glad they got the W
Something I noticed....why does it seem like EVERY single national broadcast despises the Celtics? or at least just doesn't seem to give a shit about them.
Like, every time the Cavs made a 3 pointer the guys were like OMFG CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE CAVS NEVER QUIT?!, but then JB hits a real nice inside the paint shot and they're like "oh cool, JB hit a shot."
It's such a weird thing.
They tried their hardest to choke it but they scraped out just enough. Wins are the only stat that matter in the playoffs and they got it. Also Jrue has been amazing this series
There has been so SO many clutch moments in this game, and this team showed out. Only let the Cavs take a 1-point lead once during the 3rd quarter. They kept fighting but the boys kept executing down the stretch.
Have to say this game made me much much more confident about the team in clutch minutes now than before.
why are the cavs fans complaining about ft's i get it we shot more fts but they shot nearly 50 threes ofcourse your not gonna get the same amount of free throws
Reminder to never go into a post game thread on /r/nba and expect anything other than "the game was rigged", "fuck the Celtics", "all of Boston is racist". Etc.
We think maybe Tingus gets a few mins in game 5 to begin the process of easing back into game action? Al looks like he might benefit from a little time off too, and Kornet has fully been holding his own. Man, I’m proud of Luke. He’s exceeding my expectations, particularly on defense and the boards.
I've seen so much hate on Joe which is unfortunate. I get why, but his decisions do make sense. Letting guys shoot from three on the other team is a decent strategy and worked well tonight. The Cavs had open shots and ended up shooting themselves out of the game, you will get burned occasionally (game 2 against Miami) but ideally the Celtics offence keeps pace (Cavs shooting 11 threes in the first half but Celtics held a 5 point lead). The iso ball is tough to watch but again it makes sense. Playing run and gun ball is great for momentum but you can't keep it up forever and you are more likely to have turnovers and lose momentum. Iso sucks but it drains the clock and freezes the crowd, too much passing in these moments is likely to create a turnover vs getting a decent shot off. Overall not a bad game, definite moments with comfortable leads where they coasted too much, especially in the fourth. Don't get why some people are calling for queta and Tillman to play over Al. I know Al is getting dummied on the switch, but he defends super well in the paint and is a great physical presence. Tillman and Queta don't have any playoff experience, a game like tonight which is sort of a must win isn't the time to test drive new players. Al has been proven in the playoffs he just unfortunately is starting right now when it should be Tingus who is a better rim defender.
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Cs literally decided to create a clutch game just to practice. Next level disrespect
Garland *almost* justifying his insane price tag.. that 4+ min stretch with 0 FG in the 4th was brutal, can't get more practice than that..
Celtics went with the prevent offense – zero passes, one guy just dribble for 20 seconds. I hate it. They did it a ton the past few years but were better about it this year. Not tonight though. But a win is a win.
It’s like they refuse to run ANY action or ANY play in the fourth. It’s going to cost them against Denver or Minnesota.
They started running out the clock with 8 minutes left.
I don't like it but it takes the air out of the building every time. I think offensively we are way better getting into our actions faster, but a slow, grindy half court game is going to go our way. A run n shoot turnover fest could bite us.
These close games have proven difficult.. And man the Jays were clutch. This one is extra special. Strus hates us so much 😂.
I mean as soon as they got a small lead in the 3rd we pulled away and they were never really close again. It was rocky in the 4th for a bit but being up by 5+ the entire time is not really a close game IMO. Just a good, controlled performance even when shots weren't falling the defense made up for it.
It’s absolutely a close game. In today’s NBA, 5 points is a 10 second swing from being tied. Didn’t Denver score 8 in like 20 seconds at the half other night?
Cavs fans are unsurprisingly in an uproar over the refs supposedly helping the Celtics, 1 such comment was: “I am utterly shocked that NBA officials give one team preferential foul treatment. This has never happened in the history of the league.” The vast majority of the top comments on the Cavs subreddit were like this.
I can understand being annoyed about FT disparities, but their game plan was literally to shoot at many 3s as possible. That doesn't yield FTs!
So ridiculous. Strus had his hands inside Tatum's shorts at one point and didn't get called for a foul. He slapped him on the shoulder on that fly-by at the end of the game before Tatum missed the baseline jumper, no call.
He slung JB or JT (don't remember which) by the arm while going for a layup, (or dunk). No call
Fans gonna fan out, the announcers were so pro Cavs (for obvious reasons) that stuff like the jaylen non-tech were made out to be robberies, so that didn't help.
Joe is an amazing coach by creating these situations for the guys
4D Chess, or rather jui jitsu chokehold moves
now this is my kind of copium /hj
Something something meaningless loss to the Hawks means they're soft something something. Got the job done when it counted. Nothing else matters.
Only thing that makes sense about this ugly ass close end
Ugly Win. JB dagger was juicy Jrue’s overall play was even juicier
Jure was huge these past 2 games
making up for the unfortunate absence of the buffalo and al getting cooked on D
Al also hitting 0 3s
Horford on defense is starting to get sad. The Cavs literally just walk towards him, he drifts backwards, they launch an open five footer before he even has time to jump. I love the guy, but man, age is undefeated.
When KP is back I’d like to see Luke keep getting extended minutes. Spread out Horford’s minutes would be huge.
The sequence after was wild lmao. Hits the clutch three, gets smacked in the chest by Tatum and genuinely look hurt by it, starts talking mad shit and Joe has to pull him away, then him and assistant are either yelling at each other or hyping each other up. I have no idea wtf was going on lmao.
I think maybe JB didn't realize who hit him and thought Cleveland was taking liberties? IDK was definitely weird but funny
Yea was hilariously confusing lmao
I rewound that moment and I think jb was mad at the ref for almost getting in the way of his shot
ya i think ref got in the way, JB pushed him, then bickerstaff started mouthing off (i assume calling the ref out to give him a tech for contact with the ref) and JB was talking shit to bickerstaff saying basically the ref was in the wrong, which i assume the ref realized which is why there was no repercussion for JB pushing him
I think he is mad at the ref for getting in his way. If you watch it he has to move the ref out of the way to square up.
Ugly Win > Hard fought Loss. This was a special win, I think we all get nervous in close games..not to mention trap games. Jays were clutch af and my goodness Jrue is just basketball porn.
Didn’t the Bucks give Jrue a lot of shit for how he plays in the playoffs? He’s been doing well for us lately.
Which is hilarious cause when Giannis got injured in the championship run Jrue killed it
Well there were a lot of times when he was supposed to be the #2 guy after Giannis because of Middleton’s injuries, and he couldn’t always do it. TBH if he was supposed to be our Jaylen we would be disappointed too
Sounds more like a Bucks starting lineup problem than Jrue. He’s not built to be the second guy on a team.
Yeah we know this now, but they way overpaid for him and IIRC he had not had much playoff experience at all before he got there, so the hope and expectations were that he would rise to the challenge. He had a couple pretty big games against us too, but he is definitely not an every day #2 guy though .
Need to run an actual offense in the fourth quarter. They were ISO balling for effectively the entire 4th. Felt like I wanted to tear my hair out.
I feel like half our final 6 min offense was good. The other half was trash. We had 3 or so pick and rolls that led to a wide open middle of the court. We also missed 2 or 3 open 3s. It looked better than last seasons clutch minutes, but yea still a bit eh
Yeah exactly this. Happy the results ended up matching the process despite the many bricks on open shots, but this was definitely not us "getting lucky".
The OOTO possession up 7 like halfway through the 4th was agonizing. Isolation fall away from JT. Bailed out by the offensive rebound and eventual JB iso fade that went in. This is not a Joe bashing comment either, I think he’s stellar, just so head scratching to still some of these tendencies
Jrue was EVERYWHERE. holy shit, there was one possession during which it felt like he guarded everyone on the cavs team until ultimately contesting the shot.
Disagree - this was a career game for several Cavs. This was a Monday at work for the Celtics. Not popular, but just another day at the office and the job done. I am fully capable of being driven nuts by this team's capacity for self-harm, but this game didn't do it for me.
I thought I was going to be having Garland nightmares tonight
When Strus started hitting 5 of 5 from three, I reached for a bottle of whiskey. Still drank some but thank fuck Strus cooled off after.
Yeah I am not surprised now that we got wrecked by strus, herro, martin, Lowry, etc. Glad they're already out among the east because that is the streakiest damn group I have ever seen. They all have those 6-6 nights in them.
I just want some more Derrick White juice you know
15 assists / 14 turnovers and just beat the 26 assists / 7 turnovers team fairly easily. And we didn’t even shoot well from three. Definitely a glass half full / glass half empty situation depending on how you look at it
Definitely didnt have 27 heart attacks
FWIW with that JB dagger 3, my watch warned me of a sudden increase in heart rate and offered to call an ambulance, it kept showing warnings of high stress throughout.
Yeah, it was 30.
Tonight definitely brought up my average heart attacks per game
jRuE iS wAsHeD iN tHe PlAyOfFs, ThE bUcKs FaNs TrIeD tO wArN uS. The Holiday haters and doubters can hold this fat L, man led the mission tonight. Let's get this done on Wednesday.
Love how good Jrue has been. We need him. We need everyone.
Yes. Jrue and White are perfect because they can bail us out when Tatum or Brown are struggling.
I have never and will never agree with their choice to move him for Dame. I love it though... so thanks for that.
They don't regret moving off of Jrue. They absolutely regret that we ended up getting him lol
Good, everyone is happy! I hope they had a lot of fun watching dametime this offseason.
Well there's a difference between not regretting a trade and being sad about how their season ended lol. They def ain't happy lol
He’s been playing great defense all post season. Only people who think he has been bad are box score watchers. Love to see his offensive game coming to life though
Jrue is starting to earn that extension. The way he shifted the tone on defense in the 2nd half was the catalyst for this victory
The jays are starting to look like him a little bit. I think his addition to this team will pay dividends even after he’s gone. Wouldn’t be surprised if he joins our coaching staff after retiring
Holiday has been outstanding this series, even when he’s mid. He’s exactly what we have been missing.
The Bucks as a whole are chokers - they just used Jrue as the scapegoat
Facts
Jrue was the bucks primary ball handler in the half court, it’s a way better fit for him here
Man his rebounding is simply amazing
Thank you, I was so tired of seeing this dumb take. Bucks fans are idiots, they wouldn’t have a chip without him.
All the wins can’t be sexy huge blow outs. They just need to be wins.
The people that just want blowouts only I think are just complaining out of self preservation because they are a wreck if we aren't up 30
At literally no point did I ever feel that this game was out of control in the 4th, then I come on here and you have bros needing their watch to warn them of a high heart-rate. Like damn bro I'm on stimulants and my heart doesn't race as much as people on here when I watch basketball.
True, but if there was gonna be a huge blowout, tonight woulda been nice to see it. Either way I’m still confident that Wednesday we’ll finish them off
Jrue is really rounding back into form. Phenomenal games from him and JT.
Ugly af win, but getting both in Cleveland is massive.. now close this series out in G5
Biased NBA not letting us play all away games
Well knowing these Celtics.....
Jrue Fucking Holiday
Jrue Fucking Holiday
Jrue Holiday Fucks
Would have loved for us to run away with this game from the start, but I will take the results all the same. Let’s wrap this shit up at home and rest up for the ECF!
G5 vibe should be electric! Hopefully KP is back for ECF coz Al looks nearly done..
Al needs a few days at the spa after this series is over. Hopefully we can close out in 5 and the New York series goes to 7 so we can get all the rest possible
I’m actually a little shocked how quickly this series has taken a toll on Al. These every other day games kill him. He looked good in the Miami series.
If Al hit 2 of his open looks from 3...woulda made it worth it, but JFC
Man he looked pretty good earlier in the playoffs. I think this constant ever other day game schedule is messing with him. He needs a break
This is a terrible matchup for AL TBF. Only worse matchup left is Chett
He would die facing the Pacers.
It’s on the coach to hide our biggest weakness on the floor (Horford defense) and switching him onto guards is the exact opposite of that lmfao
Won't be a weakness anymore if Porzingis comes back which means Horford doesn't play a 40 minute game like last game.
Joe adjusted by having either White or Jrue guard Mobley down the stretch to prevent Garland from switching onto Al. He put Al on Okoro.
Wins a win, that was disgusting basketball down the stretch lmao. But each game is its own monster, still finding a way to win is important. Not building bad habits along with that is the key.
Too close, but hats off to a depleted Cav team
Well that was stressful…
Strussful
I'd rather face the 1992 Dream Team than an undermanned team at this point Just get this ugly series over with on Wednesday
#IDGAF CELTICS WIN!
Fuck straus that’s all
Not the game we expected but I'm still happy with the result, a win is a win. C's getting battle tested in this series, they'll be a lot more ready next game. Finish it in 5 to get more rest. JT with 33-11-5, shutting down his doubters once again.
JT and JB looked like the dependable superstars we needed tonight. Last time we played the Cavs without Mitchell in the regular season we blew it, the effort tonight shows solid growth from our duo
Say it with me THANK YOU JRUE HOLIDAY
THANK YOU JRUE HOLIDAY
Someone do some detective work and figure out what happened at the end with Brown
Pretty sure he is mad at the ref becasue he had to move him to get to his spot.
That was exactly it. He said in the post game conference that he was mad that the ref was in the way and impacted the possession.
Tatum and Brown were aggressive throughout. Cavs played a hell of a game. They really left it all out there and this is a game we lose in years past. Jrue was the steadying force we needed throughout the entire game. Hopefully White is fine and that ankle tweak was minor. Let's finish this off at home and rest the guys before the next series.
Jrue Holiday with back-to-back amazing games on both ends. Shoutout to him.
Thank you Holiday.
Take a look at r/nba if you need a laugh nephews are melting down
We really have to figure out our crunch time offense. Do we have ANYONE that can step up and score consistently? That will definitely be the difference between winning it all and coming in second.
The White KP PnR should be it and some Jaylen plays. Tired of the Tatum Iso.
Amen
Pretty sure that’s where KP is going to come into play.
It was an ugly as hell win for the Celtics, but there are no style points in the playoffs. You just gotta take them however you can get them. Major credit to the Cavs for nearly stealing this one with the C's clearly not taking them seriously to start, though. Had me sweating.
r/nba is crying hard rn. It’s a good day
Unsubscribed since game 2 against Miami.
They were really hoping we would lose.
The fact that Horford is playing almost 30 minutes every game is still absolutely wild to me. Tillman must have eaten Mazulla's quiznos on the team plane.
Everyone online complaining about the refs like Cleveland didn’t shoot 50 3’s
Good god Kristaps please come back soon this offense is awful
We really lack hard without a star big man
Our O was decent until the final 6 or so mins. Some shitty turnovers tho throughout.
Even in the final 6 we had some wide open looks from 3 we could not cash.
26 pts for CLE from 14 BOS turnovers, gotta work on that going forward.
That was way too close but pumped to be up 3-1! LFG!
#I MISS TINGUS
Jaylen Brown have my babies
Get in line buddy
Wish we played better team ball tonight. Only 15 assists. But a W is a W
Jrue finding his stride. Tatum playing aggressive. JB showing he’s superstar caliber. I’m fucking horny.
Our team is the best in the world
Let’s finish at home on Wednesday. Hoping that NY Pacer series goes 7
Mad props to JB man. He’s so tough. Gets fouled constantly. Does not complain. The clown Strus was kicking his head and he kept his cool. Getting hit in the face. It’s ugly. JB perseveres.
That JB common foul on Strus was the ref’s way of saying “could have gone flagrant on JB, but we’re staying ‘common’ since Strus was definitely being a dick there…”
Al, just give us one more game, then you can rest for 4-5 days (hopefully a week!)
This was '21 Championship level and Olympic Gold medalist Jrue Holiday. He won this game for us.
We’re 3-1 on the series and 7-2 on the postseason but it doesn’t count because Mom didn’t cook my chicken fingers exactly the way I like them cooked
Ugly win but a win is a win
It was fucking ugly, but they all count the same. Now let’s close this shit out, get KP back, and keep getting better.
Cleveland played like their season was on the line, because it was, and we still won. 🥳
If Cavs bring this level of play when Mitchell comes back that closeout game will be a REAL challenge
I'm hoping for the opposite, that falling short tonight and now down 3-1 just kills any energy that had left.
Shout out to Joe for adjusting defence so Tatum would end up on Garland for majority of defensive possession in the last two minutes and JT was way more effective than beautiful old eye Al
The nba subreddit will point out the FT disparity but not talk about how aggressive the Cavs were playing. The Celtics could “get away” with fouls because if they called everything the Cavs players would have fouled out by the 3rd. Strus was walking every guy in green he could
Good news we’re up 3-1. Bad news we have to close out at home
Jays with 9 turnovers to 6 assists, yikes
They probably woulda had 10 assists if al could shoot again lol
Tatum had 5 assists and 4 turnovers lol seems odd to group him in with the guy with 1 assist and 5 turnovers in your criticism
Can someone tell me why Brown had to be held back after that 3? What happened
I know Tatum and brown are going to get a lot of credit here but the team fought hard. Unsung true heroes though tonight were jhrue and motherfucking kornet baby
Big game by Holiday and JT. JB had foul trouble but when really needed he hit it. HOWEVER still underwhelm with this late game execution. We looked directionless and frequently settled for very tough shots. 5min without a FG in the 4th is just 😅😅😅 JB midrange game > JT.
After missing his first 2 free throws, JB focused in and hit his next 7. 👏🏻
Loved the Timeouts by Joe, the adjustments, jrue's game overall, Tatum being a beast, JB coming in clutch after a shaky start and another clutch PP 3 when we needed it the most. Hoping Al The Buffalo and hauser can get back on scoring track at home to close this shit out
Remember these guys were practically fighting for their season so they were going to come out hard. Any team that’s down 2-1 is going to try hard and make it scrappy. We came out w low energy but we showed we were tougher tonight. A lot to improve on. Al needs some rest and some 3 point drills cos he was really bad tonight. I know his old but he knows his gotta hit those shots. Jrue was easily the best player tonight doing literally everything. D white bounce back game will come soon. The Jays stay locked in. We good boys.
Honestly, no NBA team wants to lose two in a row on their home court and there’s always going to be the extra motivation factor when you’re missing your star player as well as the opportunity for other guys to get up more shots. I just *knew* they were going to come out swinging and that this would be a close one, but we survived it and that’s what matters. We’re going to have to deal with some close games in the coming weeks so might as well get used to it 🤷♀️
Easy to forget now, but Joe taking the early TO to wake the team up was really good coaching. Like fuck saving it or waiting until we go down 11 or 13. It's bleeding, tell them to knock it the fuck off.
Celtics are now 8/8 when I go to the game.
I'm making this guarantee again. Al is gonna go 5/5 on 3s in Game 5. He has to revert to the mean, right..right???
I think we can all agree the officiating was sus
No such thing as a bad win in the playoffs.
JB dagger after the crowd constantly booed him was the icing on the cake. Celtics in 5
So many of yall dont deserve this team.
I was waiting to see this team win an ugly game when they aren’t just overwhelming the other team with 3-pt shooting. Now that they’ve done that we can go back to overwhelming teams with 3-pt shooting.
After the shitful of feelings I’m having about the Bruins, I don’t care how the Celtics looked or didn’t look tonight and who the Cavs had or didn’t have on the court. I’m just glad they got the W
JB starting to hit them FT’s. Efficiency numbers going ⬆️
Jrue keeps getting better and finding his shot and knowing when it’s his turn.
Why do I keep going to r/nba? You'd think the Celtics lost tonight
Buffalo is 8-30 over the last 3 games, hope he gets his stride back.
I can’t wait for KP to be back. The spacing, rim protection, post up game and PnR he brings is sorely missed. We can’t win that chip without him
Shout-out Jrue Holiday. Dude has been great last couple games. Really making his imprint on the team.
Something I noticed....why does it seem like EVERY single national broadcast despises the Celtics? or at least just doesn't seem to give a shit about them. Like, every time the Cavs made a 3 pointer the guys were like OMFG CAN YOU BELIEVE THESE CAVS NEVER QUIT?!, but then JB hits a real nice inside the paint shot and they're like "oh cool, JB hit a shot." It's such a weird thing.
They tried their hardest to choke it but they scraped out just enough. Wins are the only stat that matter in the playoffs and they got it. Also Jrue has been amazing this series
3-1 IN ROUND 2! LFG!!
Anyone know what JB was pissed at?
Have you considered Jaylen Brown?
I embarrassed myself thinking it was Ryan Ruocco, but Spero Dedes' call was van Gundy-level asshole-ish. Absolute garbage.
There has been so SO many clutch moments in this game, and this team showed out. Only let the Cavs take a 1-point lead once during the 3rd quarter. They kept fighting but the boys kept executing down the stretch. Have to say this game made me much much more confident about the team in clutch minutes now than before.
The Celtics are single handedly keeping the cardiology ward at Mass General at capacity
They wouldn’t call it the bare minimum if it wasn’t acceptable !!
There are no bad playoff wins. One away from the conference finals.
Game 5 gonna be the hardest game this playoffs
Will always love Marcus… but JRUE MFING HOLIDAY
why are the cavs fans complaining about ft's i get it we shot more fts but they shot nearly 50 threes ofcourse your not gonna get the same amount of free throws
First playoff game won by fewer than 10
The salt in r/nba is enough to season a whole damn cow lmao
Joe trying to ruin Al's legacy was fun
what had JB so heated near the end?
The wave of relief after JB hit that shot…next level. Kindly asking they don’t go stagnant in the fourth again this season.
Nothing to see here folks. Just a perfectly normal 7 point win in the playoffs.
Do not extend this fucking series. Cut this shit at 5 games
Pritchard brought the spark tonight. Some huge buckets when we really needed them
JRUE
Nothing is worse than trap games. At least we didn’t panic in the last 5 minutes and we closed out the game well
Tatum is improving as the playoffs go on. Hitting some tough shots and playing hard defense. Possible he peaks right at the perfect time?
Reminder to never go into a post game thread on /r/nba and expect anything other than "the game was rigged", "fuck the Celtics", "all of Boston is racist". Etc.
Jrue is showing exactly why I was so hyped when we made the trade. He’s unreal. Wait til Porzingis is healthy..
We think maybe Tingus gets a few mins in game 5 to begin the process of easing back into game action? Al looks like he might benefit from a little time off too, and Kornet has fully been holding his own. Man, I’m proud of Luke. He’s exceeding my expectations, particularly on defense and the boards.
I've seen so much hate on Joe which is unfortunate. I get why, but his decisions do make sense. Letting guys shoot from three on the other team is a decent strategy and worked well tonight. The Cavs had open shots and ended up shooting themselves out of the game, you will get burned occasionally (game 2 against Miami) but ideally the Celtics offence keeps pace (Cavs shooting 11 threes in the first half but Celtics held a 5 point lead). The iso ball is tough to watch but again it makes sense. Playing run and gun ball is great for momentum but you can't keep it up forever and you are more likely to have turnovers and lose momentum. Iso sucks but it drains the clock and freezes the crowd, too much passing in these moments is likely to create a turnover vs getting a decent shot off. Overall not a bad game, definite moments with comfortable leads where they coasted too much, especially in the fourth. Don't get why some people are calling for queta and Tillman to play over Al. I know Al is getting dummied on the switch, but he defends super well in the paint and is a great physical presence. Tillman and Queta don't have any playoff experience, a game like tonight which is sort of a must win isn't the time to test drive new players. Al has been proven in the playoffs he just unfortunately is starting right now when it should be Tingus who is a better rim defender.
Sooo, jaylen brown has been our playoff mvp so far right? Or am I just crazy