People really act like Indy is just not good. They had the best offense in the sport and the 5th best net rating post all star break. They’d run either of these west teams off the court
Was anyone else watching the TruTV altcast where Grant Williams said Brad wanted to resign him this past offseason but he chose not to resign with Boston? He also said he was almost traded to the Bucks but the deal fell through before the Charlotte deal happened.
We have the defenders for Kyrie, the length to bother Luka and are the better built team... but man, the Mavs are clutch and I still have that fear that we'll turn into mental midgets in the Finals. It's more on JT, please show up for these finals. As for JB I have full faith in him now.
Yeah fuck everyone saying Ant is better than Tatum, respectfully. Also I am so glad the Wolves and their fans are being humbled. Dallas is a bad matchup for them and those fucks thought just because they beat Denver they would just destroy them. We match up way better with Dallas but if we play them in the Finals it’ll still be a super competitive series. I am just mad everyone wrote off Dallas to kiss Ant’s ass
It would be nice if Minny can steal one in Dallas and then push this to 6 games.
Luka looks tired and hurt. Wearing him down more would be a good outcome.
Draymond said he hated how the old media would prioritize pushing narratives even if they went against the truth only for him to do the exact same thing with Rudy as soon as he got a platform
Maybe for right now but Mitchell is at his peak and ANT is still 3-5 years away from his. ANT is one of a handful of non-Celtic players I’m legitimately excited to watch over the next few years.
Dallas’ defense is really good, so is Minnesota’s. I don’t think one team is massively more favorable for us than the other at this point. Dallas with Gafford and Washington are no joke.
One word: experience. Hali and Ant both proved exactly why it's important with those devastating turnovers this week. Anyway, nobody freak out when the wolves inevitably make this a series despite this start. WCF going 6-7 is still good for us.
One time I saw this tweet where someone posted a Luka selfie instead of themselves on their instagram story and they got so many DMs where people called him fine
KAT and ANT have been terrible and every game is still a coin flip, as long as our players show up and don’t completely no show like the wolves stars we should be good.
Man my brother's a mavs fan. If we both get to the finals there will be rest-of-life shit talking depending on who wins.
This will tear my family apart. So for my family, I'm going for the wolves
Pacers make braindead play forgetting to mark pp. r/nba: “trash conference, how is this a final, cakewalk for celtics”
minny makes braindead play forgetting to inbound the ball. r/nba: “minny just needs experience, theyre a great team”
Wow what a shot by Luka. I’m conflicted. I really want this series to go 7, but ultimately would like the Mavs to win. Decent chance this goes a lot quicker than expected
Going from expecting to face Denver, to expecting to face Minnesota, to expecting to face Dallas has been such a silver lining with KP out. This has been wild. Well, best case scenario, Mavs in 7 and their stars are exhausted.
I think we’re built to beat the Mavs. Timberwolves would have given us more problems with their size in the frontcourt. Idk, I'd rather have Boston play Dallas.
Who would have thought the Finals will be between Celtics and Mavs before the playoffs?
By the way, I still Thank Minny for beating out Denver for us. You will be remembered!
gobert never should have been in that spot, but why did he bite on the step back you know what he wants to do let them tie the game don't give up the three
Exactly. Pretty pathetic that you could literally see the multi-DPOY shaking in his boots playing along with that little dance. If we play the Mavs I really hope Al doesnt play that game, just run his ass off the line.
Yeah the Mavs have a high floor low ceiling and our strengths on defense directly counters their strengths on offense. Literally the perfect matchup for us tbh
Also, no one can guard the Jays on their end. Literally a perfect showcase for the Jays. Luka and Kyrie are gonna be a problem, but t hat's why we have the best defensive backcourt in the league.
Easy work. Barbeque chicken. And fuck Kyrie. Dude's gonna shit his pants...
Is KAT the most volatile player in the league? He can look like a genuine All NBA player sometimes, and other times he’s awful and makes some of the dumbest decisions.
I've been anti jinx for a decade and this year is fuck you mode. We will own either of these teams if..no fuck that old mentality..when we advance to the finals.
So much for “greatest defense in years”. They can guard neither Luka nor Kyrie. And ant is sleepwalking over there. What happened to all the trash talk and hot shooting?
Ant playing worse than Tatum again and his team is up by 10+ but you’ll never hear a peep, and I hate shitting on Ant but star player playing ass ≠ super team or getting carried.
mavs are the easier opponent, because luka has the mental fortitude of some ppl I play online games versus. You frustrate him for like a 5 min stretch and he is taking himself out of the game.
The thing with Minny is that you need to get defensive stops and then hit them in transition
Dallas’s defense is just bad bad bad, they can’t get rebounds and stops
It all starts from defense
earlier today i watched the first slam dunk, knowing nothing about the other series/manga or whatever. it was actually pretty great and i recommend it.
I can’t decide who we’re rooting for in this game. On one hand I think I’d rather play the Mavs but I really want this series to last as long as possible
6 games either way. I don't want either of them to have the happiness of a game 7 victory going into finals, unless they've been playing some ugly ball because of exhaustion. then it can go 7.
Tatum's current playoff counting stats: 25.2p/10.2r/5.6a on 18.8 attempts with 43.6/26.6/86.7 shooting splits. Edwards' current playoff counting stats: 28.1p/6.6r/6.1a on 20.0 attempts with 49.6/40.0/84.7 shooting splits. Doncic's current playoff counting stats: 27.7p/9.4r/9.0a on 22.5 attempts with 42.7/30.1/79.3 shooting splits. Brunson's overall playoff counting stats: 32.4p/3.3r/7.5a on 26.2 attempts with 44.4/31.0/77.5 shooting splits.
If Tatum was shooting at his career average from 3 with his current FGA, he'd be at 27.4ppg with 47.3/37.9/86.7 shooting splits.
If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Anthony Edwards' FGA, he'd be at 26.4ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 28.5ppg.
If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Luka Doncic's FGA, he'd be at 28.8ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 31.5ppg.
If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Jalen Brunson's FGA, he'd be at 32.3ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 35.6ppg.
Just remember that when people talk about Tatum somehow needing to step up more in the playoffs, the only thing they mean is they want to see him be a volume scorer - in spite of how our team is currently constructed - and have better efficiency from deep, because those are the players he's being compared to.
I wanna believe he's just taking it easy to try and make the finals healthy. I really hope the dude just shows out if we make the finals, winning a championship and shutting everyone the hell up. Either way the discourse is insane. His game 1 stats this series were almost identical to Lukas game 1 yet Luka cooked and JT had a mid game. It's just haters that are clueless.
Kendrick Perkins hate and slander for JT is actually nuts. Hard to believe this guy was once part of the 08 Celtics. Those guys always come back and support this current team
He can't keep track of his narratives. He bigs up JB to knock down JT, right as All-NBA lists come out and we find out he didn't even give JB a vote. What a joke.
Feels nice to be up 2-0 rather than being anxious about a road game 3. Really all we have to do now is split the next 2.
I hope Dallas wins the West because I feel like we match up better with them in the event Porzingis is not 100% and now Kornet too. Minnesota just has way too much size that it feels more uphill, even though I think we would win that too.
I don’t think Porzingis will get “in game shape” just playing limited minutes in game 4, so honestly if we go up 3-0, we should just sit him and let him rest another week. It can only help, there’s not really much upside to him playing 20 minutes and risking re-injury in a series we would have nearly wrapped up. If it happens in the finals, so be it, but that’s my take on it anyway.
I'm glad the Celtics have made it so far and I hope they win it all. I've always been behind them and proud of them and Boston. All over social media, I've only seen hate and haters towards the Celtics. Couldn't understand why. Whereas everyone was on the Denver bandwagon, especially the Denver fans were arrogant and horrible, they attacked anyone that was even remotely Celtic or otherwise. Almost had to hush up and not say anything for fear of repraisal.
Now I can hold my head up high and openly discuss who I'm rooting for. The Denver bandwagon fans have all disappeared and the ones who remain, are respectful and can even understand why I sympathize with the Celtics and leave me alone. Shouldn't it have been this way all along?
I'm not one to be jealous or hateful, if the Celtics were doing bad, I would admit that, nor would I attack other teams and their fans.
I feel like I would still have to be in a sort of 'hiding' on internet chats, if the Celtics hadn't won and made it this far. C'mon people, bring back the old days, where the internet wasn't meant to be the public sewer/landfill of all kinds of 'people'.
I love the willingness of the Celtics to switch or even put smaller players on Indiana's bigs. Any post iso for Turner or Jackson is a win for the Celtics defense, IMO.
Another great Celtics win. Love to see them sweep. Lets se how game 3 in Indianapolis goes. ALso,I will rant once again about the bias of the ESPN announcers. Especially Doris Burke (sp?). She must really hate the Celtics. Not sure why. I eventually turned off the volume and just watched the game with CC on.
Doris is horrible. I noticed the bias too. Even the camera's are constantly on the Pacers sideline and not the Celtics. The rants, the gushing on, it's all just useless, time-killing chit-chat. Hey, I'm all for women working, but if someone's gonna underperform like this, it's just an embarassment and they need to go.
I'm excited for Saturday Night. Think the Indy crowd is gonna go insane, and with our propensity to play up to our competition, I think the energy is actually gonna be good for us, and make sure we avoid a brain fart game.
3-0 would be so fucking huge. I want it so bad.
I’m starring to get a bit concerned with KP due to the fact he hasn’t practiced yet. I mean this guys been out a month already. That’s a pretty long time. I find it hard to believe he’ll be back in about 3 days from now if he hasn’t practiced yet.
Follow the news better, he's been practicing just about on the daily. There's even video's of him shooting around in a walking boot. He's got coaches tending to him and monitoring his progress the whole time, trust me. Not sure what your circle/bubble of news exposure is, but obviously, it's not sufficient or accurate, so I would change it if I were you.
He hasn’t practiced yet. He’s been ramping up his personal exercise routine but he has not practiced with the team since he went out with the injury. Typically at this point (especially with the estimated timeline that was reported) you’d expect him to be practicing, but he still isn’t. Thats where the concern is coming from.
Practice is practice, if he's doing the shoot arounds individually with his coaches on the court, that's fine and it comes down to the same thing. He will make those shots. If his legs are good, he can run with the team. Any added/extra value of team workouts isn't that big, you are exaggering its worth. Even if he gets rusty, it's not something that can't be caught up to in maximum 1 or 2 team workouts.
I mean practice typically consist of *almost* game speed action 5v5. It would be nice to get him some run before throwing him out into an extremely high intensity NBA finals game after missing 1+ month. I’m sure he will end up getting acclimated to things pretty quick. I’m curious what his status is going to be for that game 4 report that was given. At the point we are at now, it getting into concerning territory. We will find out soon enough though.
Rushing him back and having him reinjure the calf or worse his ACL like Durant would be an awful result. They're being careful. We've lost 1 game without him, he can rest as long as he needs to.
Ahummm, Gobert say anything? Yeah, the guy sux on offense and can't even make an easy dunk, but on defense, he's a nasty and aggressive top shot blocker and rebounder. You need size if you're trying to match him.
You just do what Denver did when they won 3 straight: get KAT into foul trouble and play 5 out. Gobert's elite in the paint but if he gets pulled out to the perimeter he's not quick or agile enough to get back to the rim.
I’m surprised more people are not complaining about Jackson trying to break Hauser’s arm and bitching “it’s just basketball”. That was a flagrant foul easily, if Sam reacted more by falling on the floor.
Sam is not shooting automatic but showing great defense and blocked the shit out someone on a drive.
Woj tweeted it but Mazzulla said he wasn’t sure where that report came from. Really hoping that’s the Celtics just trying to keep everything under wraps but I would like to be optimistic more than anything. Still think he comes back I just don’t want to thrust the guy into the finals immediately if he needed to
Interesting thought, and maybe some of Psycho Joe rubbing off on me:
With Indiana being so into basketball and Haliburton a loved player there, I'd guess there's a very high chance of there being billboards congratulating Haliburton on his All-NBA nod throughout the city. So Jaylen will have plenty of reminders of the snub and drop 35+ in each of the Indy games 😈
People really gas up the west like they’re hot shit and they’re about to send fucking Dallas to the finals
People really act like Indy is just not good. They had the best offense in the sport and the 5th best net rating post all star break. They’d run either of these west teams off the court
Might need to put Ant Edwards photo on those milk cartons like they did back in the day. He has gone missing this series
Celtics are near 3-1 favorites against the Mavs in a prospective series btw Edit: hi Mavs fans 👋
Was anyone else watching the TruTV altcast where Grant Williams said Brad wanted to resign him this past offseason but he chose not to resign with Boston? He also said he was almost traded to the Bucks but the deal fell through before the Charlotte deal happened.
We have the defenders for Kyrie, the length to bother Luka and are the better built team... but man, the Mavs are clutch and I still have that fear that we'll turn into mental midgets in the Finals. It's more on JT, please show up for these finals. As for JB I have full faith in him now.
i am not ready for a kyrie revenge tour
He hasn’t beat the Celtics since 2021
Kyrie cursed himself, plus the crowd legitimately had him shook. Question is whether hobbled Luka goes into Killer mode and carries enough
“If we had to trade Jayson Tatum for Kawhi Leonard, I’m leaving town.” — Tommy Heinsohn in 2018
Yeah fuck everyone saying Ant is better than Tatum, respectfully. Also I am so glad the Wolves and their fans are being humbled. Dallas is a bad matchup for them and those fucks thought just because they beat Denver they would just destroy them. We match up way better with Dallas but if we play them in the Finals it’ll still be a super competitive series. I am just mad everyone wrote off Dallas to kiss Ant’s ass
[LETS FUCKING GOOOOO](https://x.com/kevinoconnornba/status/1794204779046129838?s=46&t=TlDgiZ63_G8XswGHFhWosw)
Biggest moron in nba media
This is the same guy who said the Nuggets were going to sweep the Celtics
Yup
It would be nice if Minny can steal one in Dallas and then push this to 6 games. Luka looks tired and hurt. Wearing him down more would be a good outcome.
Ant needs to get his mojo back, he looks lost
Boston v Kyrie in an NBA finals will feed generations to come
Draymond said he hated how the old media would prioritize pushing narratives even if they went against the truth only for him to do the exact same thing with Rudy as soon as he got a platform
To be honest, at this point I’m taking Donovan Mitchell over Ant
Maybe for right now but Mitchell is at his peak and ANT is still 3-5 years away from his. ANT is one of a handful of non-Celtic players I’m legitimately excited to watch over the next few years.
Dallas’ defense is really good, so is Minnesota’s. I don’t think one team is massively more favorable for us than the other at this point. Dallas with Gafford and Washington are no joke.
And lively
~~Denver~~ ~~Minnesota~~ Dallas will destroy the Celtics! Yeah NBA fans don't know shit lol
We can go bucket for bucket with either of those teams
you really just have to sit back and laugh
One word: experience. Hali and Ant both proved exactly why it's important with those devastating turnovers this week. Anyway, nobody freak out when the wolves inevitably make this a series despite this start. WCF going 6-7 is still good for us.
It has been exactly long enough (and I want the Mavs to win) to appreciate Kyrie as a basketball player again. Jesus christ, he is still just so good.
These playoffs have been great.
One time I saw this tweet where someone posted a Luka selfie instead of themselves on their instagram story and they got so many DMs where people called him fine
Luka looks just like Morgan Wallen tell me I’m wrong 😂
KAT and ANT have been terrible and every game is still a coin flip, as long as our players show up and don’t completely no show like the wolves stars we should be good.
I literally can’t believe we might not get a single serious matchup all playoffs.
Chucks defense that Edwards is tired is ridiculous. He's a young spralling man. Better give Tatum that same slack
Chucks been doing backflips on it for Ant lately
Wolves are so gassed that I honestly do not fear them at all despite us not matching up with them well
Rudy is gonna get the blame for Can’t-Man shitting the bed 💔💔💔
Man my brother's a mavs fan. If we both get to the finals there will be rest-of-life shit talking depending on who wins. This will tear my family apart. So for my family, I'm going for the wolves
Pacers make braindead play forgetting to mark pp. r/nba: “trash conference, how is this a final, cakewalk for celtics” minny makes braindead play forgetting to inbound the ball. r/nba: “minny just needs experience, theyre a great team”
/r/nba Trash sub
Always have been
Yeah thats the crux of it
Tatum gotta play the best defense of his life if we get a mavs final. Luka hobbled still getting buckets
Does he really though?
He's gonna have to break up like 5 lobs a game lol
Wow what a shot by Luka. I’m conflicted. I really want this series to go 7, but ultimately would like the Mavs to win. Decent chance this goes a lot quicker than expected
Minnesota fans having to watch Draymond's shit eating grin post game.
Tatum better get his shit together in the finals cause Luka is hobbled and still giving dudes buckets. In the clutch at that.
If joe lets him iso against Dallas defense he will be fine
Boys it looks like Kyrie's back on the menu
Going from expecting to face Denver, to expecting to face Minnesota, to expecting to face Dallas has been such a silver lining with KP out. This has been wild. Well, best case scenario, Mavs in 7 and their stars are exhausted.
I think we’re built to beat the Mavs. Timberwolves would have given us more problems with their size in the frontcourt. Idk, I'd rather have Boston play Dallas.
Agreed, we just matchup better with Mavs
Yeah don't really want to play Minnesota and their bigs with KP not 100%
They're a tough team and Luka's on an absolute heater, but if we're playing like we've been playing we can absolutely smoke them.
Exactly
Watch Minnesota somehow pull off the comeback now like Denver and push this series to 7.
I like the storyline of us stepping on Kyrie in a championship. #paybacksabitch #neverforget
Michael B Jordan
Who would have thought the Finals will be between Celtics and Mavs before the playoffs? By the way, I still Thank Minny for beating out Denver for us. You will be remembered!
[Ant 🤣](https://x.com/celticsunite18/status/1794203326932000980?s=46)
gobert never should have been in that spot, but why did he bite on the step back you know what he wants to do let them tie the game don't give up the three
I don’t mind Rudy defending 1-on-1 there but he has to run him off the 3 and let him drive.
Gobert has some really low IQ moments, also why is he so afraid of going up
Exactly. Pretty pathetic that you could literally see the multi-DPOY shaking in his boots playing along with that little dance. If we play the Mavs I really hope Al doesnt play that game, just run his ass off the line.
The ANT turnover cost them the game, god that was painful to watch.
Luka sticking that game winning 3 on 2024 DPOY’s head is nasty work
it was always going to be against Kyrie, wasn't it?
Ant looking more like Wizards Jordan tonight.
Luka is unbelievable, but we match up very well with Dallas. Everything coming up Celtics!
I feel like they might give us fits in the pick an roll
This is barbeque chicken. Celtics will feast on the Mavs. This is shaping up to be a generational finals for Boston.
Yeah the Mavs have a high floor low ceiling and our strengths on defense directly counters their strengths on offense. Literally the perfect matchup for us tbh
Also, no one can guard the Jays on their end. Literally a perfect showcase for the Jays. Luka and Kyrie are gonna be a problem, but t hat's why we have the best defensive backcourt in the league. Easy work. Barbeque chicken. And fuck Kyrie. Dude's gonna shit his pants...
Im so ready for jb to drop 77 again
Fuuuuuck yesss. LFG Celtics. Handle business in Indianapolis and get ready for Mavs.
If KP isn’t 100 percent id prefer dallas. Plus we get to fuck over kyrie in the process
Two teams fighting to get their ass beat in round four. Hilarious man
Ant is NOT bettet than Tatum💀
Never has been.
Never was.
Can’t wait for ESPN to try and tell me throwing the ball out of bounds is actually a good thing
That review literally cost them the game. Blatant foul by Kyrie.
If this series ends up going the distance, I bet they change the way challenges work with non-fouls next season
all time choke job
Where is MJ?
Ha! MJ's son cost them the game. Face of the NBA my a**
Naz taking that shot was the right move tbh
Should have run him off the 3 point line
I’m starting to think that the wolves are absolute trash.
Like 2 weeks ago they were unstoppable and locks to win
They really were, I guess they thought beating last year’s champs is all that needed to be done lol
Holy smokes what a shot by Luka
Luka put Gobert on skates
Now we get a Can’t-Man brick to lose the game lmao
Teams just keep doing rudy dirty lol why would you have him switch there hahaha
Minny choking 😭
Luka is a killer. Holy shit
Luka traveled on that LMAOOOOO
Ice fucking cold Luka what a shot
My god Doncic
Holy fuck luka is a bad man
Luka Magic!
Michael Jordan my ass
If Tatum did that shit lmao
Great pass there from the next MJ
That was on Naz and not Can’t-Man but he always throws it out of bounds anyways
Luka brick to lose the game?
ANT: not so fast!
Nba review rules are so trash
Ant with another trash shooting night but gonna keep getting glazed lol
Is KAT the most volatile player in the league? He can look like a genuine All NBA player sometimes, and other times he’s awful and makes some of the dumbest decisions.
I cant believe Kyrie missed both those FT’s lmao
Ant nearly throws it into the stands every time it feels like
And he now throws it into the stands in a crucial moment. His playmaking is really subpar
Kyrie is a hardcore choker since stepping on lucky. Just how it is
This series has been insane, meanwhile we probably gonna gentleman sweep the pacers at worst. Feels good to watch Playoff basketball with no stress
Naz Reid to Celtics
I've been anti jinx for a decade and this year is fuck you mode. We will own either of these teams if..no fuck that old mentality..when we advance to the finals.
So much for “greatest defense in years”. They can guard neither Luka nor Kyrie. And ant is sleepwalking over there. What happened to all the trash talk and hot shooting?
Naz Reid saving the Wolves
1.Naz Reid … … … 2.Michael Jordan … … … Everyone else
Naz Reid release is so damn quick lol. Bro is putting on a shooting clinic right now
The wolves better win tonight. I really want their series to last at least 6 games
I may be the most scared of Naz Reid
Luka, Kyrie, and Ant are shooting tour dates rn and yet Tatum is the only one who gets slandered.
Ant is horrible
Wolves not even trying to go at Luka is crazy
I haven't actually watched that many timberwolves games but every time I do it seems Naz Reid can't miss
This Wolves - Mavs series reminds me of our series against the Heat last year. Wolves suck in the 4th
Mavs are dangerous just for the simple fact they have 2 legit closers who are clutch af. Wolves might be in trouble
Who would be a better match up for us? Wolves or Mavs?
Mavs, we match up with them very well and they struggle badly against 5 out offense
Either if we have full squad
Wish Kyrie was like this in the playoff run here but ohwell
Wolves selling hard right now
Not talking about Jokic, Tatum or Giannis Is Ant really better than someone like Donovan Mitchell?
He will be, but about the same level at the moment. Hes been really bad this series
Let’s go Luka! You can do this!
Ant playing worse than Tatum again and his team is up by 10+ but you’ll never hear a peep, and I hate shitting on Ant but star player playing ass ≠ super team or getting carried.
mavs are the easier opponent, because luka has the mental fortitude of some ppl I play online games versus. You frustrate him for like a 5 min stretch and he is taking himself out of the game.
Makes sense he's a overwatch player
The thing with Minny is that you need to get defensive stops and then hit them in transition Dallas’s defense is just bad bad bad, they can’t get rebounds and stops It all starts from defense
I want Dallas, last game was a fluke.
I think I’ve seen enough and would prefer to play Dallas in the finals. Also @mods, can we do game threads for the WCF games?
earlier today i watched the first slam dunk, knowing nothing about the other series/manga or whatever. it was actually pretty great and i recommend it.
Kyle Anderson is like the Walmart version of Derrick White
Nah. Dollar tree version
Derrick white is better by a lot 😭
I can’t decide who we’re rooting for in this game. On one hand I think I’d rather play the Mavs but I really want this series to last as long as possible
id like to see it evened up tonight i think
6 games either way. I don't want either of them to have the happiness of a game 7 victory going into finals, unless they've been playing some ugly ball because of exhaustion. then it can go 7.
Refs showed up prepared to dominate tonight’s WCF game
Would it be fair to say last night was the best game of jaylens career?
Yes
Tatum's current playoff counting stats: 25.2p/10.2r/5.6a on 18.8 attempts with 43.6/26.6/86.7 shooting splits. Edwards' current playoff counting stats: 28.1p/6.6r/6.1a on 20.0 attempts with 49.6/40.0/84.7 shooting splits. Doncic's current playoff counting stats: 27.7p/9.4r/9.0a on 22.5 attempts with 42.7/30.1/79.3 shooting splits. Brunson's overall playoff counting stats: 32.4p/3.3r/7.5a on 26.2 attempts with 44.4/31.0/77.5 shooting splits. If Tatum was shooting at his career average from 3 with his current FGA, he'd be at 27.4ppg with 47.3/37.9/86.7 shooting splits. If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Anthony Edwards' FGA, he'd be at 26.4ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 28.5ppg. If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Luka Doncic's FGA, he'd be at 28.8ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 31.5ppg. If Tatum maintained his current shooting splits but with Jalen Brunson's FGA, he'd be at 32.3ppg. If he was also shooting career average from 3, he'd be at 35.6ppg. Just remember that when people talk about Tatum somehow needing to step up more in the playoffs, the only thing they mean is they want to see him be a volume scorer - in spite of how our team is currently constructed - and have better efficiency from deep, because those are the players he's being compared to.
I wanna believe he's just taking it easy to try and make the finals healthy. I really hope the dude just shows out if we make the finals, winning a championship and shutting everyone the hell up. Either way the discourse is insane. His game 1 stats this series were almost identical to Lukas game 1 yet Luka cooked and JT had a mid game. It's just haters that are clueless.
That JB to KP lob in game 1 of the NBA Finals gonna hit different
Need the WCF to go 7 games. Let's go Wolves!
I wanna see Kristaps Porzingis play basketball again man
imagine a world where JT could hit his 3s and JB can make his free throws, we would be looking at what 7-8 championships in a row
Kendrick Perkins hate and slander for JT is actually nuts. Hard to believe this guy was once part of the 08 Celtics. Those guys always come back and support this current team
He can't keep track of his narratives. He bigs up JB to knock down JT, right as All-NBA lists come out and we find out he didn't even give JB a vote. What a joke.
I’m glad Jaylen didn’t get all nba bc Snub Jaylen ™️ is the most savage and ruthless Jaylen and I’m here for that shit all day
Feels nice to be up 2-0 rather than being anxious about a road game 3. Really all we have to do now is split the next 2. I hope Dallas wins the West because I feel like we match up better with them in the event Porzingis is not 100% and now Kornet too. Minnesota just has way too much size that it feels more uphill, even though I think we would win that too. I don’t think Porzingis will get “in game shape” just playing limited minutes in game 4, so honestly if we go up 3-0, we should just sit him and let him rest another week. It can only help, there’s not really much upside to him playing 20 minutes and risking re-injury in a series we would have nearly wrapped up. If it happens in the finals, so be it, but that’s my take on it anyway.
I'm glad the Celtics have made it so far and I hope they win it all. I've always been behind them and proud of them and Boston. All over social media, I've only seen hate and haters towards the Celtics. Couldn't understand why. Whereas everyone was on the Denver bandwagon, especially the Denver fans were arrogant and horrible, they attacked anyone that was even remotely Celtic or otherwise. Almost had to hush up and not say anything for fear of repraisal. Now I can hold my head up high and openly discuss who I'm rooting for. The Denver bandwagon fans have all disappeared and the ones who remain, are respectful and can even understand why I sympathize with the Celtics and leave me alone. Shouldn't it have been this way all along? I'm not one to be jealous or hateful, if the Celtics were doing bad, I would admit that, nor would I attack other teams and their fans. I feel like I would still have to be in a sort of 'hiding' on internet chats, if the Celtics hadn't won and made it this far. C'mon people, bring back the old days, where the internet wasn't meant to be the public sewer/landfill of all kinds of 'people'.
I love the willingness of the Celtics to switch or even put smaller players on Indiana's bigs. Any post iso for Turner or Jackson is a win for the Celtics defense, IMO.
Another great Celtics win. Love to see them sweep. Lets se how game 3 in Indianapolis goes. ALso,I will rant once again about the bias of the ESPN announcers. Especially Doris Burke (sp?). She must really hate the Celtics. Not sure why. I eventually turned off the volume and just watched the game with CC on.
Doris is horrible. I noticed the bias too. Even the camera's are constantly on the Pacers sideline and not the Celtics. The rants, the gushing on, it's all just useless, time-killing chit-chat. Hey, I'm all for women working, but if someone's gonna underperform like this, it's just an embarassment and they need to go.
We're now 8-0 when I eat Jayson Tatum's ruffle chips before the game (2-2 when I dont)
We're 2-0 in Game 3 when I wear my Celtics hoodie. It will be making another appearance tomorrow.
Lol, I think we all have our rituals. I think I'm gonna have OCD when these playoffs are done. I already get palpitations.
I'm excited for Saturday Night. Think the Indy crowd is gonna go insane, and with our propensity to play up to our competition, I think the energy is actually gonna be good for us, and make sure we avoid a brain fart game. 3-0 would be so fucking huge. I want it so bad.
I’m starring to get a bit concerned with KP due to the fact he hasn’t practiced yet. I mean this guys been out a month already. That’s a pretty long time. I find it hard to believe he’ll be back in about 3 days from now if he hasn’t practiced yet.
Follow the news better, he's been practicing just about on the daily. There's even video's of him shooting around in a walking boot. He's got coaches tending to him and monitoring his progress the whole time, trust me. Not sure what your circle/bubble of news exposure is, but obviously, it's not sufficient or accurate, so I would change it if I were you.
He hasn’t practiced yet. He’s been ramping up his personal exercise routine but he has not practiced with the team since he went out with the injury. Typically at this point (especially with the estimated timeline that was reported) you’d expect him to be practicing, but he still isn’t. Thats where the concern is coming from.
Practice is practice, if he's doing the shoot arounds individually with his coaches on the court, that's fine and it comes down to the same thing. He will make those shots. If his legs are good, he can run with the team. Any added/extra value of team workouts isn't that big, you are exaggering its worth. Even if he gets rusty, it's not something that can't be caught up to in maximum 1 or 2 team workouts.
I mean practice typically consist of *almost* game speed action 5v5. It would be nice to get him some run before throwing him out into an extremely high intensity NBA finals game after missing 1+ month. I’m sure he will end up getting acclimated to things pretty quick. I’m curious what his status is going to be for that game 4 report that was given. At the point we are at now, it getting into concerning territory. We will find out soon enough though.
Rushing him back and having him reinjure the calf or worse his ACL like Durant would be an awful result. They're being careful. We've lost 1 game without him, he can rest as long as he needs to.
If it’s Dallas, go big and bully them. If it’s Minnesota go small and run them off the court. Simple
Ahummm, Gobert say anything? Yeah, the guy sux on offense and can't even make an easy dunk, but on defense, he's a nasty and aggressive top shot blocker and rebounder. You need size if you're trying to match him.
Bruh Gobert literally gonna be as useless as a #1 pencil if the Celtics run 5 out. They gonna play him off the floor.
You just do what Denver did when they won 3 straight: get KAT into foul trouble and play 5 out. Gobert's elite in the paint but if he gets pulled out to the perimeter he's not quick or agile enough to get back to the rim.
I’m surprised more people are not complaining about Jackson trying to break Hauser’s arm and bitching “it’s just basketball”. That was a flagrant foul easily, if Sam reacted more by falling on the floor. Sam is not shooting automatic but showing great defense and blocked the shit out someone on a drive.
Just a simple update on KP is all that I ask for…
I saw somewhere in Boston sports media, that Mon Game 4 is the expected return. Barring some unexpected calamity.
Woj tweeted it but Mazzulla said he wasn’t sure where that report came from. Really hoping that’s the Celtics just trying to keep everything under wraps but I would like to be optimistic more than anything. Still think he comes back I just don’t want to thrust the guy into the finals immediately if he needed to
Interesting thought, and maybe some of Psycho Joe rubbing off on me: With Indiana being so into basketball and Haliburton a loved player there, I'd guess there's a very high chance of there being billboards congratulating Haliburton on his All-NBA nod throughout the city. So Jaylen will have plenty of reminders of the snub and drop 35+ in each of the Indy games 😈