You sure? Feels like I can find a dozen posts or so (in this and other threads) over the last 8ish hours where people specifically mention Celtics fans planning their victory parades too early.
It's true that they did make amazing shots, some akin to Tatum game 6 in Milwaukee. Miami making those shots is not what I found so frustrating about the Celtics performance yesterday.
I think they need more from Tatum than one shot from the field taken in the final 20 minutes. If that is not on Tatum it has to be on Ime or others on the team. Clearly, Spoelstra is winning the coaching battle in this series, though I suppose that is to be expected with a promising rookie going against one of the best in the league.
Not to take away from your larger point regarding Tatum and Brown because on whole I agree they were too passive in 2nd half. But besides Miami having something to do with that (as you mentioned), the refs did as well. Two of those Tatum turnovers you mentioned were offensive fouls, one of which took away a made bucket and probable made free throw. There was another play where Tucker was physical with him and stole it - and I didn’t mind the no call there to be honest until the Celts got called for a touch foul on the other end.
The officiating was terrible, I agree. That was an outstanding driving layup Tatum hit that the zebras took off the board with a bullshit call.
Yup...I also wonder how a call like that affects someone the rest of the way. My gut tells me if affected Tatum more than we’d want it to, but that’s another growth step I have little doubt he will take (just hope it’s in the next couple weeks and not next year)
Inability to stay focused despite bad officiating is an Achilles heel of this team, no doubt.
My gut feeling on Herro is that he's done, maybe even if the Heat advance. Coming back too soon after a groin injury is a big risk.
He was up and at the scorer's table with 5 or 6 minutes left. Then came a sequence where the Celtics D forced a shot clock violation, Horford hit a three assited by White, and then White hit a 3 assisted by Horford. Great plays by Horford on both. Slightly earlier in the quarter, Smart drove and dished to Horford in the corner, Horford drove the closeout and hit Smart under the basket for a layup. These were the only signs of offensive life Horford showed all game, but they must have convinced Ime to leave him out there, as Rob went back to the bench. During the rest of the game, Horford managed only a cvouple of rebounds, a couple of missed threes, and a shooting foul. No Rob at all in the 4th feels like a huge Ime error.
Part of it has to be Ime not trusting Pritchard defensively with Butler going. Pritchard competes defensively, and can handle himself in 1-on-1 matchups better than one might think. But Butler could hunt him.
I mentioned it that I thought at times TL was wincing a bit so it may be health-related.
I actually was leaning towards health in the moment fwiw, in that Ime may not have wanted to put limping Rob back in the game if Al was showing signs of life. Either way it struck me as odd in the moment. Ime may simply have seen a move from Spo that went under my notice, or could be nothing at all of course.
They were 3-1 in those jerseys. They wore them for luck.
I'm sorry, but Butler had 47 points last night -- seems like he was hunting everyone
Yes.Yes he was. I don’t think putting Pritchard in is a neutral defensive move though. I think when Pritchard is in, the Celtics focus on trying to control his matchups and it takes away from other things they could do. Although when Butler was struggling, Pritchard was good against him.
That seems about how I felt about the game. Miami made tough shots at key moments, tip your had, go get em tomorrow.
Mentioned in here too, one of the best free throw games you'll ever see from both sides.
Also, you had Horford, Smart and Williams all with pretty subpar games. If they got better games out of some combination there, they probably win a close one. In other games we point to turnovers or poor shooting but in this case we can point to the vessels of the stats. From there it's a cascading effect on the other players, too.
Pretty subpar is generous. For Smart and Horford I think this was their worst game in the entire playoffs. (Grants a different story, he’s not at their level so I look at his contributions as a cherry on top)
I heard this too, but does anyone really think the Heat were just gonna roll over until they heard Draymond Green's comments? Draymond Green doesn't respect us, so I guess we'd better show up tonight instead of giving up. It's just one of those narratives that makes zero sense.
Of course they weren't going to roll over. But everyone in the league knows about fodder for the bulletin board. That's exactly what the Nets gave the Celtics when Bruce Brown said before the series that, with Rob out, they could attack Theis and Horford in the paint. And Kevin Durant told Brown basically to shut up. Nobody wants to give an opponent that little bit of "I'll show you" edge.
Well, Jimmy Butler really did us all of a solid by guaranteeing a win tomorrow
I mean, if you want to analyze these series in a bloodless manner, this is how you do it. They didn't execute well in game six. We know they are not only capable of doing so but that its also rare for this team to have two poor games in a row.
There wouldn’t have been a game 6 if they didn’t hand them Game 3, so it evens out.
It would be hilarious if he pulled a Lowry on Lowry when he’s crowding the sidelines.
Tatum was forced to play PG nearly the entire night and was swallowed up in the lane nearly every time he beat his man off the dribble. Smart has done a good job all year running the team but he simply isn’t good at initiating an offense against pressure.
Yeah, when Butler is on I’d have to think Pritchard is close to unplayable aside from buying a handful of 1H minutes when he’s out of the game. All rotations shorten the longer a series go as Miami went small rather than playing Dedmon at all.
