The idea is to shoot early so there's a chance to follow-up.
Malcolm Butler because of the stakes at the time--Super Bowl win or loss.
I'm not sure it was terrible, because I doubt Smart was the first option. They appeared to have something for Tatum, but had a secondary play for Smart where Tatum crashed the boards if Tatum couldn't break free.
They are absolutely bipolar. High ceiling/low floor to the highest possible extreme.
Oh! I didn't know that. Looks like I was the only one talking about Henderson's steals then
Yes--my bad. I knew that obviously...just meant that it didn't lead to a title.
It was terrible because it was designed to get Tatum the ball moving away from the basket with only 3 seconds to shoot. Unless you want to buy that he was a decoy but I have no idea why you’d use him that way with the season on the line
Fair enough, but it's playoffs, we won, and I'm results oriented at this point.
Brown was the second option and White was probably the third option. Smart didn't set a good screen so Bam was able to easily stay on Jaylen.. and Smart wants to take the shot every time so he didn't pass to White who was wide open.. because a ton of teams don't guard the inbound-er once he steps in. I doubt there's any universe where a turnaround three by Smart was the intended play.. especially since they were down one. If Smart sets a good back screen on Bam.. then Jaylen either has a wide open two or an open lane to the basket.
I think it's because everyone knew that they'd double Tatum so that he couldn't get the ball. He took two defenders 30' away from the rim.. and then beat them both to the rim for the rebound.
Pretty sure once the ball is released by the offensive player.. that's all that matters
Rigging the game for the C's by ignoring the first foul and the double dribble on review to make sure Butler gets three shots on an out-of-control crash into the defender proves that Adam Silver is indeed the tricksiest of all commissioners.
My sense is that it is a holdover from Stern’s reign in which referees were used by the League office to steer games toward marketable players and teams (Lakers-Celtics in every Finals of the 80s, Jordan in the 90s, stars ever since). I strongly suspect Silver understands the issue but is struggling how to dial it back without opening a Pandora’s box.
Are you interested in a touch of schadenfreude this morning?
View: https://twitter.com/RealSkipBayless/status/1662661272020869120
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Ernestine??
One ringy dingy....
I wasn't around for Havlicek's steal, but one major difference between Bird's play and this one (and something this one has in common with Tatum's shot at the end of game 1 in last year's Brooklyn series, in addition to having the same 5 Celtics on the court) was that the announcers botched it, whereas Johnny Most, and I think also the national TV announcers, nailed Bird's play. Of course Most had the iconic call on Havlicek's play, too.
Much like the Dave Roberts steal, I will be assuming that shot doesn't count every time I see it for the rest of my life
I am still feeling residual trauma from the horrible loss today. It’s very weird.
Well, the Celtics had the ball for a throw-in to the right of the Philadelphia basket with very little time left. Russell was throwing it in but hit the guy wire (WTF was a wire doing right there?), and the ball was considered OOB. Later he said he was pleading to the other Celtics to make a play and bail him out. Sure enough, on the Pha throw-in John Havlicek did just that. "Havlicek stole the ball "Havlicek stole the ball Johnny Havlicek stole the ball" yelled Johnny Most. That's also the most iconic basketball call, followed by "and now a steal by Bird, over to DJ, who lays it in." Maybe some call by Chick Hearn, i don't know.
The game was so rigged that the NBA admits the refs missed two calls in the final minutes...that should have gone against Miami.
Not trying to defend the officiating, but unless the game is stopped after every call for a video reviews, the refs are going to miss some calls. We should be thankful in this case that these missed calls didn't cost the C's the game.
Fair, a very small downside compared to the potential upside. But there was no downside in that he in some way caused Butler to get an extra free throw like a ton of people seemed to think in the game thread.
