Hopefully only Bruins game 4.Games 2, 3, 4 will conflict with Bruins games 4, 5, 6
Hopefully only Bruins game 4.Games 2, 3, 4 will conflict with Bruins games 4, 5, 6
Thank godHell, next Thursday, even the Sox are off.
This is where I'm at. I think this is an extremely comfortable series, much like when the Cavs played the Celtics a few years ago in the IT years.Bojan Bogdanovic is their "star" scorer. Celtics in 4.
This is actually infuriating. It's bad enough that the NBA stretches out their first few rounds for no reason, but to lose audience when it is so easy to plan for this is so short sighted. It's not like they didn't know when the Bruins were playing.Games 2, 3, 4 will conflict with Bruins games 4, 5, 6
While many may prefer to watch both, I doubt that many will agonize over which game to watch live on a given night. You're right about that.What percentage of fans in Boston actively watch both the Celtics and Bruins?
I doubt this impacts the ratings in Boston to the degree that it in turn impacts the overall ratings to the point that the NBA cares.
The media companies purchase the NBA’s broadcast rights and set the schedule based on their data to best maximize eyeballs. Silver and the league don’t set the broadcast schedule.This is actually infuriating. It's bad enough that the NBA stretches out their first few rounds for no reason, but to lose audience when it is so easy to plan for this is so short sighted. It's not like they didn't know when the Bruins were playing.
We need rest days too.It certainly does. But the dream is to have one game every day. Hell, next Thursday, even the Sox are off.
Life is tough.
My hope for Celtic playoff mpg (in a competitive game):I’d we take a leap and assume that Brad was going to be aggressive with shortening the rotation (eg Rozier was playing 0 mins in a close game) and that Tatum wasn’t playing more than ~15 mins a game at the 4, then this isn’t that huge of a deal. It’s something like Rozier picks up 10 mins, brown picks up 10 mins, Hayward 5, Tatum 5, Kyrie 5. Unless you think there’s a big drop in performance in those marginal minutes they’ll cover it okay save for the Rozier 10 minutes. I think the loss is more his leadership.
If you assume Brad was going back to October and Tatum was playing 30 mins at the 4 then this is a loss in that Morris is picking up 15 mins that could’ve gone to Smart. So 25 or Smarts 30-35 mins are being filled by Rozier and Morris. That’s tough.
BOS has been vulnerable to two things: (1) scoring guards switched onto mismatches (Kemba, Russell, Booker, etc.) and (2) big men rolling to the rim off the high PnR.In thinking of how you would play the Celtics with the Pacers personnel, the key is getting good shooting out of their deep rotation of veteran NBA players and exploiting the C's tendency to be lazy in helping, especially with Smart out. .
Bogdonavich is the key but they have been getting scoring from Sabonis, Evans, McDermott, Collison and even notorious chucker Wes Matthews. The problem is that Indiana is a plodding team and their pace has fallen from fifth in the league before the AS break (i.e. right around Oladipo's injury) to 18th since then so they are going to have to pick things up to keep Boston from getting their defense set.
If the C's poor defensive tendencies reemerge - and I bet the Pacers attack Morris, Irving, Rozier and even Hayward when they are on the floor - this series could go all the way.
On the other hand, if the C's do a good job chasing Indiana off the three point line (Indiana went from fourth in 3p% to third after Oladipo went down), this series should be easy for them.
In short, this series will turn on how well Boston defends. /Master of the obvious.
Agreed - and this is where the C's will miss Smart in this series imho. He cleans up a lot of (4) and was the primary defender on Bogdonavich a lot of the time. His versatility will also be felt when the Pacers get a big in the paint on a mismatch.BOS has been vulnerable to two things: (1) scoring guards switched onto mismatches (Kemba, Russell, Booker, etc.) and (2) big men rolling to the rim off the high PnR.
Game plan for IND is pretty simple.
(1) Limit Cs in transition. Means take care of ball and take good shots.
(2) Keep the ball moving on offense. Cs have tendency not to play full 24 seconds.
(3) Run high PnR with Turner and Sabomis.
(4) If all else fails, get into mismatch (wing being defended by guard; guard being defended by bug) and attack.
I agree. Where they will miss Smart is that he wouldn't get in foul trouble. He makes competitive attempts at basically guarding anyone on switches without fouling.Agreed - and this is where the C's will miss Smart in this series imho. He cleans up a lot of (4) and was the primary defender on Bogdonavich a lot of the time. His versatility will also be felt when the Pacers get a big in the paint on a mismatch.
What I’d like to see:My hope for Celtic playoff mpg (in a competitive game):
starters:
Kyrie 35mpg
Horford 35mpg
Tatum 35mpg
Hayward 35mpg
Baynes 28mpg
bench:
Brown 32mpg
MaMo 15mpg
Rozier 13mpg
Theis 12mpg
prediction: CBS will play MaMo and Rozier more than I like, at the expense of Brown, Theis, and Baynes.
It will be Bucks or Pistons. But, the Bucks.Love Marcus but he's averaging 27 minutes per game and they can easily give the majority of those minutes to JB and GH without losing much if anything on the defensive end vs. IND.
Marcus will be missed more when they have to play ORL in the next round . . . .
Senior moment. Oh well.It will be Bucks or Pistons. But, the Bucks.
I disagree. Hayward's defense isn't back to what it was pre-injury and opposing teams have exploited it all season. He knows where he needs to be but is still having difficulty getting to the spot. I bet McMillan has his guys target him in one on one situations and tries to get mismatches or actions where Hayward is the helper.Love Marcus but he's averaging 27 minutes per game and they can easily give the majority of those minutes to JB and GH without losing much if anything on the defensive end vs. IND.
Marcus will be missed more when they have to play ORL in the next round . . . .
I'd goMy hope for Celtic playoff mpg (in a competitive game):
starters:
Kyrie 35mpg
Horford 35mpg
Tatum 35mpg
Hayward 35mpg
Baynes 28mpg
bench:
Brown 32mpg
MaMo 15mpg
Rozier 13mpg
Theis 12mpg
prediction: CBS will play MaMo and Rozier more than I like, at the expense of Brown, Theis, and Baynes.
I think Brown responded better to being a top scoring option with the 2nd unit. and figured Hayward could guard Bog... I do like the concept of having one of either Kyrie or Hayward on the floor at all times.I'd go
starters:
Kyrie 36mpg
Horford 34mpg
Tatum 32mpg
Brown 32mpg
Baynes 26mpg
bench:
Hayward 30mpg
MaMo 25mpg
Rozier 12mpg
Theis 8mpg
Semi 5mpg
I think Jaylen is an easy call to start. Need the quicker, more athletic defender in the game to start next to Kyrie. Also, want to have at least one of Hayward and Kyrie on the floor at all times. Would be tough to have them both start and pull that off.
I know Brad is going to play Kyrie and Rozier together, giving Rozier more than 12 minutes. I wouldn't do it. Unless Indiana plays Collison and Joseph together, a Kyrie/Rozier backcourt is too small and defensively challenged for me. They'll be posted up relentlessly against anyone but the Indiana PGs.
IMO, the problem for IND is that they can hunt mismatches but I don't think they have anyone who can win mismatches consistently against playoff basketball defense. As HRB noted elsewhere, they are like the Cs from last year - the lack a guy that can break down a defense in the half-court consistently. GH should be fine in this series.I disagree. Hayward's defense isn't back to what it was pre-injury and opposing teams have exploited it all season. He knows where he needs to be but is still having difficulty getting to the spot. I bet McMillan has his guys target him in one on one situations and tries to get mismatches or actions where Hayward is the helper.
Comparing them to the C's from last year doesn't make me feel very good. That team was pretty successful.IMO, the problem for IND is that they can hunt mismatches but I don't think they have anyone who can win mismatches consistently against playoff basketball defense. As HRB noted elsewhere, they are like the Cs from last year - the lack a guy that can break down a defense in the half-court consistently. GH should be fine in this series.
Marcus will be missed in the next series.
The East was a lot worse then, and the Bucks would have beaten them in the first round with a competent coach.Comparing them to the C's from last year doesn't make me feel very good. That team was pretty successful.
Hope they were paying attention too - 3 home teams lost game one. Don’t give the Pacers hope. Take games 1 and 2 and roll.I just hope the Celtics watched yesterday's EC games and that they understand what can happen when a team plays indifferent and/or sloppy defense against a less talented opponent.
Last year's Cs got a really good draw - MIL, who was giving significant minutes to Jabari Parker, Dellanova, Thon Maker, and during the series John Henson, and then PHI. BOS didn't beat CLE in a series, probably wouldn't have beaten TOR in a seven-game series, and could have lost to IND as well.Comparing them to the C's from last year doesn't make me feel very good. That team was pretty successful.
It's not just you--it's a trope to make fun of the East, but it has 4 very good teams, 1 pretty good team, 2 solid up-and-comers, and a few bad teams with promising futures (Atlanta, Chicago).Man, looking back at last year's playoffs - is it just me or has the Eastern Conference has really improved from last year? ORL as a 7 seed and BRK as the 6 seed seem way better than MIL and MIA last year.
You pretty much nailed it. Mook deserved those extra minutes since he was one of the few offensive bright spots in the 1st half.I'd go
starters:
Kyrie 36mpg
Horford 34mpg
Tatum 32mpg
Brown 32mpg
Baynes 26mpg
bench:
Hayward 30mpg
MaMo 25mpg
Rozier 12mpg
Theis 8mpg
Semi 5mpg
I think Jaylen is an easy call to start. Need the quicker, more athletic defender in the game to start next to Kyrie. Also, want to have at least one of Hayward and Kyrie on the floor at all times. Would be tough to have them both start and pull that off.
I know Brad is going to play Kyrie and Rozier together, giving Rozier more than 12 minutes. I wouldn't do it. Unless Indiana plays Collison and Joseph together, a Kyrie/Rozier backcourt is too small and defensively challenged for me. They'll be posted up relentlessly against anyone but the Indiana PGs.
No argument that the Pacers are atrocious offensively without Oladipo: I was on record over a month ago wanting this matchup for specifically that reason. The Celtics held them to 17 points in the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half, before they pulled the starters. You can’t do that to an even halfway reasonable offense.IND scored 11 points off 10 BOS TOs in the first half and 2 points in the 2nd half. If the Cs can either limit IND in transition or cut down their TOs (I think they had 20 total, but a few were in garbage time), I don't see how IND scores enough to win.
The clip above is great but it shows IND's biggest problem: none of their players have enough gravity to break down the Cs defense. KI gets over the screen okay but Joseph is not good enough to force Morris to step out more, which means that the roll guy doesn't can only pop out to the 3P line, and that can be covered since Joseph isn't going to beat MaMo on the baseline.
Now if that was DiAngelo Russell or Kemba or even Oladipo with the ball, the spacing would have been different.
Yup. Those two teams without their best players had no shot in hell and really don’t even look like playoff teams. Oladipo makes our series much more competitive. Not sure Griffin does much more than make the margins closer against the Bucks though.As much of an improvement as the East has made this year it is a little sad to watch the Oladipo-less Pacers and the Griffin-less Pistons attempt to score against playoff schemed defenses. It isn’t like they have much room for adjustment either as the personnel simply isn’t in place.
Yeah, this Pacers team without Oladipo isn't a playoff team. Anything can happen I guess but this is probably the least interesting Celtics playoff series since the R1 series against Cleveland a few years ago. Indiana has no good villains either. The Bucks series will be 10 times more exciting.Yup. Those two teams without their best players had no shot in hell and really don’t even look like playoff teams. Oladipo makes our series much more competitive. Not sure Griffin does much more than make the margins closer against the Bucks though.
I know, apples-oranges BUT, Farrell pinch running Wright comes to mind as equally stupidYeah that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen. No idea what Brad was thinking there or in that game overall
It was either going to be Wright or Pomeranz running for Ortiz once he got to 2nd in a tie game and with Wright scheduled to start the next day the only remaining pitcher in the bullpen was Pomeranz so you can't really burn him to run. It is fairly common for pitchers to pinch run in national league parks...…..most of them don't go on the DL with a shoulder injury from it.I know, apples-oranges BUT, Farrell pinch running Wright comes to mind as equally stupid
Between him and Claydro we don't have much luck with them on the bases hahaIt was either going to be Wright or Pomeranz running for Ortiz once he got to 2nd in a tie game and with Wright scheduled to start the next day the only remaining pitcher in the bullpen was Pomeranz so you can't really burn him to run. It is fairly common for pitchers to pinch run in national league parks...…..most of them don't go on the DL with a shoulder injury from it.
Isn’t he the third of his name?Robert, Lord of Swat, Keeper of Time, first of his name, shall lead forth.
Maybe on this timeline....Isn’t he the third of his name?
I wonder if Brad would have had the same five guys out there if Smart was healthy, or if Marcus would have been in instead of Jaylen or Hayward.Finally, the original starting 5 looked really, really good closing out the game. I expect to see them closing games from here on out.