Correct but that is not the issue people had. One ref had it each way live. Ref announced they were checking to see if MS was in the restricted area. He was not. Therefore charge.
They were very frustrating to me at times, but what matters is winning and they won 14 playoff games.
I understand that. My point was your analysis last year was they were mentally not tough and would lose to the Bucks, then the Heat, then the Warriors. Ultimately they lost to the Warriors. Each thread is riddled with these thoughts. Now a year later, with less emotional attachment, you say last years team was very mentally tough and despite haven’t less talent than the current squad you’d take last years version over this year. Somehow the same players have lost “mental toughness” in your analysis. Do you think, perhaps, when looking retrospectively at your last year analysis that would lead you to have less conviction in it this year? Maybe even digest some of these games and listen to what others are saying before expressing certitude about outcomes that are very far away? Right now we have two playoff series and you’re picking up where you left off. The Celtics are 66% odds to win the series.
I wouldn't call it embarrassing. The Celtics played well, and the Sixers just played better. It was kind of a weird game because I felt like the Celtics executed a lot of beautiful basketball leading to easy layups (from passing) while Philly countered by making incredibly difficult shots. Obviously, a huge game from Harden and takeaway a brain fart from Brogdon and the Celtics win the game. The only thing I was a bit annoyed by is that I felt like they were "switching" off of Harden too easily - basically letting him get open whenever he wanted to.
They absolutely do have that gear.
The problem with a team that switches all screens is it allows the offense to dictate the matchup. It reminds me of how Kemba buried Pitt in the Big East tournament on that last second shot. Calhoun knew Pitt would switch, so he chose which matchup he wanted. Pitt didn't do anything different, and Kemba took advantage. The Sixers know the Celtics will switch and so they can have whomever they want set the screen to set up whatever matchup they think is most favorable, and Boston will just let them have it.
Up 12 in first half and just quit playing defense.
I think the Celtics played well (with some turnover issues) on offense, I don't think at any point they played well (or all that hard until the 4th) on defense
I think Philadelphia went to a zone defense in the 2nd half. I don’t know whether the Celtics could have continued to play with the pace they had in the first half for all four quarters. Actively trying to slow the game down late in the 4th certainly came back to bite them.
Yeah lions share goes to the players but man. Mazzula is not covering himself in glory. How many times do you have to watch Al and Rob get cooked off a switch by Trae and Harden before making some kind of adjustment?
Good call on the zone. That flummoxed them for a few possessions…seems like this group should be incredible ar beating zones with the amount of practice they have with it
Agreed refs were fine tonight. Dare I say good. Only call I really had an issue with was a late Tatum drive where he was clearly tripped.
There were two really bad calls in the last two minutes. Tatum got absolutely hacked by Harden driving to the basket and got no call…and there should have been a shot clock violation after Jakobi Brogdon led Maxey in stride to the basket
Agree with this. Harden is my least favorite player ever but tip of the cap to the fucker tonight, he made the shots. And also flopped all fucking night long though the refs weren’t biting thank Christ.
Copied this from the game thread. Each series game is information and I agree with the other posters that the Celtics have to figure out a counter to Horford getting targeted.
I think they overreacted to Harden’s hot start from midrange and started throwing some bad doubles at him that always seemed to lead to a wide open 3.
They really should have hired a strong veteran assistant like Vogel. I’m sure losing Stoudamire hasn’t helped either.
the first is definitely not on him, as in basically every game you see him waiving guys up the court, he generally wants them to run, and they don't (sometimes late in games he slows it down to prevent turnovers, but mostly the lack of pace is the players not the coach), as to the second, not clear he doesn't have offense against the zone, guys just take easy shots, they were a bit flummoxed for a possession or two, then they got good looks with Tatum at the rim. Then a turnover by Jaylen and a quick 3 by White, Mazzula immediately took a timeout after that and other than Smart making a dumb pass off the inbounds, they settled in and got mostly pretty decent shots.
Oh I agree it's ultimately on the players, but IMO Joe is 8 of 8 of the remaining coaches, unless you like him better than Thibs. Maybe Ham too. I shudder thinking of him matching wits with Spoelstra
I really don't know if Joe is a good coach or not, but aren't all of those issues ones we had last year as well? That's the most frustrating thing about this team, that they don't seem to have learned from those problems.
The Sixers offense all season in non-Embiid games has been lethal. Everyone is overreacting to one playoff game loss as if we are entitled to run through a real good team in 4-5 games. I don’t expect Harden and Melton to shoot like this every game and in the (many) games that they don’t the Sixers are very likely going to lose. It’s a 7-game series. This team will be fine.
I'd take him over Ham for sure. But yeah vs. Spo would be mismatch city.
I think people are reacting to the last 5 games honestly, if they hadn't had most of the same issues in games 3-6 against the Hawks (and honestly a bunch of times in the post-all star period of the regular season) people would be less concerned. And most don't think they're dead against the Sixers or anything, but more that if you fuck around enough times, you're gonna find out 4 out of 7 times at some point.
Yeah, I think Ham is 8 and there’s a massive chasm until you get to 7….which is probably CJM
I don’t think we really fucked around. I felt that the Sixers played fuckin awesome…..knocked down their shots, didn’t turn the ball over, and made defensive adjustments at the half. If they play this good every game we are finished……I don’t expect them to be able to recreate tonight’s performance 3 more times though.
The "its just one game" mantra may be true, but damn they happen too often. And after watching Denver maintain composure in the 4th: the comparison is kind of depressing.
This. I watched the first half. Philly couldn't be bothered to play any defense at all, which is great. But the Celtics repeated their complete lack of focus and attention on defense, which is fucking embarrassing. A letdown after a hard series win is understandable, but they just didn't put in any real effort on one end of the floor. They played like the Doug Moe Nuggets, which even Doug Moe would tell you is a bad formula for playoff basketball. Turned off the shitshow at halftime and did something else.
Yes. Also: Harden coming off a week of rest looked phenomenal. Let's see what every-other-day-Harden looks like on Weds.
I do think the Maxey play was a charge as Smart had established position before Maxey took off. What makes it tricky is Smart's upper body was still moving (not relevant to the rule technically, but looks bad) and his back foot slides a bit while his lead foot never does. The rule requires being set and 'beating player to the spot" and given the angle there Smart did so. But you often won't get the call when there's a little movement like that. It is probably a 55/45 call (as the refs seemed to suggest by having different views) and tough break for Celts. But overall, officiating was fine by NBA standards.
If this had been a healthy Sixers team, rather than one missing Embiid. I would think differently about this loss.
Parity is high this year, we should expect knockdown drag out playoff games.
I didnt really think about this but it’s a great point. Sadly, this was another byproduct of not being able to close out Game 5 against the Hawks
That's fair. I was pretty frustrated with how they were playing against the switches. Smart came up big on a number of plays in the second half, but I was pretty frustrated with him in the first half as I thought he was really half-assing it on defense. Seems like when they ran into a pick most of the team just said to themselves 'Okay, good, I guess my job is done'.
I don't think there's any doubt it was on purpose. The idea he'd be swinging his arm backward in that way out of frustration or to signal a teammate is crazy. I get why commentators threw that out there---they want to minimize blown calls---but it was as clear a flagrant 2 as the other ones recently and should have been called as such.
I feel like they said the call on the floor was a block before they went to review? Am I misremembering?
If all the calls go against you.. then at some point it’s not just the Celtics blowing it.
