Well I think we all agree that they weren’t going to sweep so the Heat had to win a game or two at some point. If they shit their pants again and lose on Friday I’ll be surprised. I’m going to guess they win Friday and split in Miami, then win games 5 and 6. I wouldn’t be shocked if they win the next three and come home up 3-1. I’ll be shocked if they come back down 3-1.
Excellent post.
Yeah...whatever you say. Coaching matters in these games and one is genius and the other looks completely over his head.
If the Celtics decide not to play defense, I don't think that Zombie Red can do anything coaching wise. That's not a defense of Joe. They win when they try and focus on defense. If not, everything else has to go perfectly. Miami shot 54% from the field and 52% from 3 with 12 turnovers. It's a miracle that it was still a game at the end.
he took 1 timeout and everyone went nuts. It's amazing to me that 3 years and 3 coaches into this people really think the coach is why the team does the same thing over and over again. It's amazing that the Celtics apparently only hire morons for coaches, and that Brad Stevens went from one of the consensus best coaches in the league to a moron in a season.
Guilty. I went to bed at halftime and figured the series was going 5 games max. Ugh.
Agreed. Spo-vs.-Joe is an easy storyline, but this was still a winnable game for the C's.
He instructed his players not to many any shots, and they complied.
I agree. Joe's biggest sin thus far is apparently usage of time outs. Even if this were a mortal coaching sin, it would also be extremely defensible given he's a rookie coach. It's not like he's a baseball coach out there batting Darren Lewis leadoff. He's a rookie head coach, a dude who performed excellently in his first abrupt hiring. I think it's ok to criticize how he's using the timeouts, but I'm not sure that we can use it as the sole qualifier for his coaching ability... yet.
How in the world can you interpret this as trying to make the coach look bad? He's saying the players played like shit, and calling timeouts doesn't help when they are.
I wonder how much of this is TL's execution vs. what the scheme is. He has been executing really poorly defensively a lot of the playoffs. Mostly it's been jumping out of his pants on anything, but you can find any number of bad closeouts and big cushions in the Philly series.
I only watched the 2Q and 3Q and I can point to 3 plays off the top of my head that were just mental errors: Brogdan falling asleep and letting Butler cut to the basket and then giving up the And-1. TL throwing the ball back to Kevin Love as he was trying to chase down a rebound for a layup; and someone (Brogdan?) leaving Strus alone for a wide-open corner 3 at the end of the 3Q.
This I agree with.
Yes, and it’s worth mentioning the Celtics often got roasted with him on the floor. I actually thought going back to the small lineup would be better, even if Butler gets more points.
Agreed. I was expecting to hear some pretty damning stuff. Nothing controversial there at all.
I’m talking about Williams specifically. Al was the guy holding Embiid down as the game wore on, and with Williams in they were still struggling to close out on shooters as they did last night.
Huh? Did we watch different games? TimeLord was +18 in Game 6 and +19 in Game 7. You think he was a... liability?
They ran the lob 3-4 times in the 3rd, I think all of them got tipped, 2 turnovers and one got scooped off the floor for a putback
He wasn't a liability against Philly, because they don't have the personnel or scheme to cause him (much) trouble.
Ha, I was on the opposite side of the fence there. I love 2BIGZ and think going larger was the better solution, especially after G6 and 7 with Philly.
BUT I probably have to rethink it.What I said is he doesn’t look at all like the same guy from the second half last year and I stand by that. He can’t close shooters like he used to.
Right down to the lack of titles. This team has all the ingredients to win a title. It's up to them to determine whether or not they'll do what's necessary to attain immortality. The early results are not good. The Heat won't fall apart like a Harden/Doc/Embiid combo. You get down 3-1 against this team, a real possibility now, you're toast.
Yea, I'm really scratching my head about the Celtics' defense last night. Part of me thinks the Heat won't continue to shoot over 50% from 3, but they did get great looks.
Brogdon will never get the press for it, because it's easier to find other scapegoats who are more enticing, but Jesus Fucking Christ, he is SO BAD on the defensive end. It's getting hard to watch, and when they get Butler on him, on ball, off ball, doesn't matter, he gets chewed up and spit out, leaving the rest of our defense scrambling around to rotate.
Yes, Butler was methodically finding the switch he wanted - Brogdon or Pritch (??!!) - and roasting it. I’d find some minutes for Grant.
I thought the usage of Tatum was really weird too. He had been having a solid offensive game, particularly getting to the line, and then was on the bench for the first 4 minutes of the 4th and then when he came out he wasn't touching the ball. Feels like he should be leading the team in FGA every game unless they are running away with things or Brown is going supernova (which he wasn't). Especially with how he had been playing the last 5 quarters.
