Boston still has glaring late-game issues

[Bum Adebayo]

We have to watch Embiid in the clutch frequently, no worse experience than that, trust me, Celtics are fine.

[Charlesareed]

Both of those teams, Boston and GSW, are 3 point chuckers. Somebody had to win.

While this is true for the Celtics & most nba teams nowadays gsw have the top 2 3 pt shooters of all time in Steph & klay

[HoopsterJones]

Celtics will be fine. They have the best top 7 player rotation (when healthy) in the NBA. They do need to upgrade their bench because it gets spotty after Hauser and Pritchard.

[itrsteve]

Addicted to the 3.

Wait, so what you’re saying is that inviting The Golden State Warriors to a three point shootout is a bad idea? Lol

108 attempts between the two of them. Yuck.

[tamaraw08]

Death, taxes and a Celtics thread after every loss.

They have the 2nd fewest losses in the entire league, beating up teams like Philly, Bucks, Magic etc. They hardly choke on games... esp in the regular season.

[AussieCeltic]

What's Boston's single best offensive action against a tough defense? What's their safest way to generate a reasonable shot?

If that's a tough question, that's troublesome news for the Celtics. Compared to the other contenders (Jokic/Murray pick & roll! Pin down for Durant or Booker! Giannis screening for Dame! Shai iso, Kawhi post up), Boston is lacking that one juicy point of attack piece. Tatum or Brown can get a shot whenever they want, but not a great one.

The Boston Celtics are more about their versatility and lack of holes than they are about their high-end singular force on offense. Everyone on the team can shoot, and they'll be able to rely on generating an open look or a mismatch. But there's nothing they can spam when the offense isn't working. For all Tatum's brilliance he's short of being elite on drives or pull ups (he's solid at both, just not elite).

Ok. Where was the Nuggets offense when they needed a bucket vs OKC 2 nights ago? All they came up with was a contested Jokic 3 and they lost the game.

Where was the Suns offense when they needed a bucket vs the Blazers last night down the stretch? All they had was a contested KD 3 and they lost the game.

Why didn’t the Bucks use the Dame/Giannis pick and roll down the stretch vs the Pacers in the IST? They were tied with a few mins left and lost by 9.

My point is, all teams go through these moments. As you saw the stats I posted earlier, Tatum is the 4th most efficient player in go ahead buckets late in games.

He took a bad shot last night which I’m blaming some on him, some on Joe for not calling a timeout and some on his sprained ankle. Stats show he’s more likely to get a bucket there than everyone in the league aside from 3 guys. I’ll take that any day of the week.

[bfchs123]

Curry just owns us - we had them dead in the water and Curry sitting late in the 3rd with 5 fouls. He comes back in and we completely change the offense flow to attempt to get him his 6th foul. Was ugly basketball, no clue why we continued to let Horford and others brick threes when we have 4-5 guys that can all get to the rim. Big part of it is coaching, why Joe didn't call a timeout in the last possession of regulation makes no sense.

[LuckyLeprechaun]

Only 1 loss when all 5 starters play. This team's biggest issue is they can't rely on their bench at all.

[Dominator83]

chucking 3s without great shooter....

Honestly that sums it up. I was watching the game as I was like WTF they are going to shoot 60 3s. Turns out I was close they shot 58 of them and missed a team record of 41 of them. Although normally Hauser is a pretty solid shooter but he missed 7 threes. Regardless your original point still stands.

Both teams way over did it. Tie game 29 seconds left. Both teams on their last possession decided to spam a 3 instead of driving to the bucket to go for either a layup or free throws

[socal74]

This was last year but still shows how efficient Tatum and Brown have been in the clutch

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?s=46

Garbage stat when they choked hard when it mattered the most

[AussieCeltic]

This was last year but still shows how efficient Tatum and Brown have been in the clutch

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Garbage stat when they choked hard when it mattered the most

Worked quite well when Tatum drained the game winner in Lebrons face last season.

[cupcakesnake]

What's Boston's single best offensive action against a tough defense? What's their safest way to generate a reasonable shot?

If that's a tough question, that's troublesome news for the Celtics. Compared to the other contenders (Jokic/Murray pick & roll! Pin down for Durant or Booker! Giannis screening for Dame! Shai iso, Kawhi post up), Boston is lacking that one juicy point of attack piece. Tatum or Brown can get a shot whenever they want, but not a great one.

The Boston Celtics are more about their versatility and lack of holes than they are about their high-end singular force on offense. Everyone on the team can shoot, and they'll be able to rely on generating an open look or a mismatch. But there's nothing they can spam when the offense isn't working. For all Tatum's brilliance he's short of being elite on drives or pull ups (he's solid at both, just not elite).

Ok. Where was the Nuggets offense when they needed a bucket vs OKC 2 nights ago? All they came up with was a contested Jokic 3 and they lost the game.

Where was the Suns offense when they needed a bucket vs the Blazers last night down the stretch? All they had was a contested KD 3 and they lost the game.

Why didn’t the Bucks use the Dame/Giannis pick and roll down the stretch vs the Pacers in the IST? They were tied with a few mins left and lost by 9.

My point is, all teams go through these moments. As you saw the stats I posted earlier, Tatum is the 4th most efficient player in go ahead buckets late in games.

He took a bad shot last night which I’m blaming some on him, some on Joe for not calling a timeout and some on his sprained ankle. Stats show he’s more likely to get a bucket there than everyone in the league aside from 3 guys. I’ll take that any day of the week.

You're giving me single games/possessions as examples, when this issue has plagued the entirety of the Tatum era? I don't care if Denver fumbled a crunch time possesion, I just watched them lord over crunch time against the NBA's best defenses for an entire post season. This isn't about "moments".

Listen, I think Tatum is amazing. Maybe the most versatile player on the planet with his package of size, athleticism, and skill. Most consistent 2-way wing. Boston is also an incredible team and probably the favorites to win the title. I'm not hating or trying to be negative, I'm assessing the roster construction and strategy as best as I can, based on what I've been watching.

Tatum is not an elite source of scoring pressure. He's very very very good, but doesn't have that one skill that makes him non-negotiable for defenses. He's a very good driver of the basketball, but he's yet to have his driving game hold up against an elite defense in the playoffs. He's a very good shooter that can get his shot off from anywhere, but ultimately the percentages don't lie: Tatum isn't an elite knock down efficiency guy from anywhere. He's more solid at everything than great in one area. He doesn't break down the defense and cause panic quite like some other guys do (those other guys have weaknesses of their own, and I'm not saying they're better than Tatum overall).

I don't think this dooms Boston at all. They can win a title as presentently constructed. I'm just saying this is one of their weaknesses. Denver lacks rim protection, Milwaukee lacks POA defense, OKC lacks size. Boston lacks someone who can punch through the defense and consistently cause it to collapse.

Tatum can almost do this! He might still get there. Last season he looked like he was levelling up as he got to the line at will all season long, only to see that not sustain in the playoffs (though it looked good against Phili). The way I see it, Tatum can either improve as a knock down shooter or as physical driver, and either one would make him a strong MVP-level guy. Right now, his MVP candidacy comes more from his all-around greatness rather than from one transcendant ability.

I'm also not saying Tatum (or Brown), aren't clutch. Both of them have the shotmaking ability to be one of the best bets in the NBA to knock down a tough shot whenever they have to. I'm talking more about their ability to create easy offense against good defense.

[CoP]

Only 1 loss when all 5 starters play. This team's biggest issue is they can't rely on their bench at all.

Not sure about that. Horford/Pritchard/Hauser is +17.9 this season. Celtics bench is +3.5 this season, third behind PHI and OKC.

Limited sample sizes, but Horford/Pritchard/Hauser/Queta is +1.2, while Horford/Pritchard/Hauser/Kornet is +50. Queta and Brissett are turning into decent bench players.

I think injuries and age (Horford) is the greatest concern, followed by the equally bad strategies of 3-ball spamming and Jays iso'ing.

[Jamaaliver]

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[bisme37]

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I know you didn't just dig up this thread to bash our late game offensive issues in a game that our 2 point guards didn't play.

[Jamaaliver]

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[WolfAddict]

I don't have anything to add on the Celtics late game issues, I'll admit I don't watch them enough to really comment accurately, but I will say that possession was just... absolute arse.

[Patsfan1081]

chucking 3s without great shooter....

? Tatum isn’t a great shooter? They’re the most efficient three point shooting team in the league with a bunch of guys shooting over 40%.

This team is 20-2 in the last 22 with a 9 game streak before losing tonight. They’re in the top five in clutch. They were up 30 then stopped playing. Ugly loss yes, weird time to complain though.

[Patsfan1081]

This was last year but still shows how efficient Tatum and Brown have been in the clutch

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?s=46

Garbage stat when they choked hard when it mattered the most

Isn’t this stat the definition of when it mattered most? On the flip side doesn’t it feel like Doncic makes every game winner? Surprised to se he’s shooting 36%

[AussieCeltic]

They’ve clinched the 1 seed. This team is just counting down the days until the playoffs. I’m not worried in the slightest about this kind of loss at this point in the season