Boston still has glaring late-game issues

[LordCovington33]

Hard to read anything in one game, especially when both teams were not at full strength. I still have the Celtics as favourites.

[jkvonny]

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

[jkvonny]

Ahh yes, Steph Curry giving the Celtics the Night-Night, no greater joy.



(Sorry Bisme)

Curry will have plenty of time to sleep later, on his sofa while watching other teams compete in the playoffs.

True.

[ChaseDown]

Just keep letting Tatum think and feel like he’s Kobe, let him do all his “signature moves”, and you’ll have yourself another playoff disappointment.

[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).

[Karate Diop]

They don't have that dog in them.

[LordCovington33]

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).

Thoughts on trading away Smart?

[itrsteve]

I've always said the measure of a superstar has nothing to do with stats but instead how your presence can get into the head of your opponent and have them play below themselves, play tensive and play with fear.

This is exactly what Curry does. He wasn't even having that special of a game, but was mentally in it just the same and took Boston completely out of sorts in the 4th. They started to play nervous basketball, which turns into sloppy basketball. It's honestly no shocker that Curry is a scratch golfer, he has the mindset to have a short memory and only look to executing the next action with perfection.

As long as they grow from this one then the loss is AOK. Painful that 3 of their 6 losses this season come at OT, but they have to learn to play through this stuff.

Thoughts on trading away Smart?

Still 300% the correct move

[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).

Thoughts on trading away Smart?

I dont think this impacts the equation because Smart was another guy who was more versatile rather than someone who puts pressure on the defense.

As a team, they can space you and mismatch you and manufacture pressure. But they don't have a singular force of offensive pressure at the elite level like Shai, Jokic, Embiid, Durant, Giannis, Luka etc.

[JustBuzzin]

I know they’re pencilled in as championship favorites by everyone but they have yet to solve the late game calculus. No one can truly create an advantage off the dribble, they don’t have a truly great ball handler, and it just devolves into 3s and rushed shots. They were clearly terrified to drive and go inside tonight, especially Tatum and Brown. And it’s not just tonight, I watched the exact same issues show up in Charlotte of all places earlier this month.

What can they do to solve this?

Respectfully they are not penciled in by championship favorites by everyone.

I had the Bucks winning the Championship before the season and still feel that way. I'm now leaning Bucks/Sixers for ECF at this point.

[meekrab]

Porzingis didn’t play so I wouldn’t put too much weight into one game to make that kind of proclamation

Why not be prepared for the inevitable? Even if you ignore his ACL season he only plays 50 games a year.

[DonaldSanders]

Ahh yes, Steph Curry giving the Celtics the Night-Night, no greater joy.



(Sorry Bisme)

Curry will have plenty of time to sleep later, on his sofa while watching other teams compete in the playoffs.

It's just one game, can't you let us poor Warrior fans have some fun?

The Celtics are a juggernaut missing a key piece. The "late game issues" may look very different with KP available for interior scoring, which is exactly what people are complaining about. I think people should judge them more on the full squad.

[bisme37]

I've actually been pleased with how the Celtics have played in 4th quarters and late in games this season. Aside from the Dubs game last night of course, and apparently in the other C's game the OP watched this season. (If anything we've had some rough 3rd quarters.)

It's more the Celtics still have glaring issues with turning into mush vs GSW and watching Steph son us. Warriors fans must seriously think we are the worst team in history and wonder how we ever win a game lol.

As a team we had success getting to the rim most of the night but didn't get there enough. Shot selection was wack. C's always take their share of 3's but it's usually off good passing and cutting and last night they were just jacking them. Then there were several late possessions where good ball movement ended in an open Sam Hauser 3 that he usually swishes, but last night he missed. Also we're just plain better when KP plays. Etc.

Tatum was playing on a swollen ankle last night and should have just sat the rest of the game out as it turned out (it's understandable if you didn't notice him getting injured and leaving the game since the TNT broadcast barely noticed or mentioned it). He settled for an abundance of bad 3's and when he went to the rim he didn't have his usual lift and wasn't finishing. So then he settled for more bad 3's. Worst game of the year from him and if he'd played 10% better the result would have been the opposite and this thread wouldn't exist.

Just an annoyingly bad Celtics performance last night. I was disgruntled.

[LordCovington33]

Ahh yes, Steph Curry giving the Celtics the Night-Night, no greater joy.



(Sorry Bisme)

Curry will have plenty of time to sleep later, on his sofa while watching other teams compete in the playoffs.

It's just one game, can't you let us poor Warrior fans have some fun?

The Celtics are a juggernaut missing a key piece. The "late game issues" may look very different with KP available for interior scoring, which is exactly what people are complaining about. I think people should judge them more on the full squad.

Poor warrior fans? Give me a break mate. We haven’t sniffed a final for two decades.

[DonaldSanders]

Poor warrior fans? Give me a break mate. We haven’t sniffed a final for two decades.

I figured the green font on that was implied with the smiley.

[LordCovington33]

Poor warrior fans? Give me a break mate. We haven’t sniffed a final for two decades.

I figured the green font on that was implied with the smiley.

I have had three espresso martinis. Missed the sarcasm. Anyway, enjoy the rest of the season, however it goes.

[CoP]

Addicted to the 3.

[levon]

I think the C's are really good, but I can again envision the circumstances that lead to their downfall. One of their top 6 being a little hampered (inevitable in the playoffs), a timely cold stretch from 3 (inevitable due to variance, but also legs), Tatum and Brown being error-prone, and Jrue Holiday's offense being really bad.

I can also see everything breaking right and them shooting like 40%+ from 3 throughout the whole playoffs and running through it.

[DonaldSanders]

I've actually been pleased with how the Celtics have played in 4th quarters and late in games this season. Aside from the Dubs game last night of course, and apparently in the other C's game the OP watched this season. (If anything we've had some rough 3rd quarters.)

It's more the Celtics still have glaring issues with turning into mush vs GSW and watching Steph son us. Warriors fans must seriously think we are the worst team in history and wonder how we ever win a game lol.

As a team we had success getting to the rim most of the night but didn't get there enough. Shot selection was wack. C's always take their share of 3's but it's usually off good passing and cutting and last night they were just jacking them. Then there were several late possessions where good ball movement ended in an open Sam Hauser 3 that he usually swishes, but last night he missed. Also we're just plain better when KP plays. Etc.

Tatum was playing on a swollen ankle last night and should have just sat the rest of the game out as it turned out (it's understandable if you didn't notice him getting injured and leaving the game since the TNT broadcast barely noticed or mentioned it). He settled for an abundance of bad 3's and when he went to the rim he didn't have his usual lift and wasn't finishing. So then he settled for more bad 3's. Worst game of the year from him and if he'd played 10% better the result would have been the opposite and this thread wouldn't exist.

Just an annoyingly bad Celtics performance last night. I was disgruntled.

This game was the perfect storm for the Warriors and besides KP the Celtics are a good match-up for the Warriors. The way to beat this current era Warriors is to either have a very tall player who can finish inside, or a very fast perimeter player who can collapse the defense. The Celtics lineup allows Klay to guard someone effectively, as he struggles with speed. Although C's don't have that speedy guy like say the Kings do, they do have 7'2 KP who did not play (Chet has killed us multiple times this year). Then add Tatum's ankle, and you're going to see a lot less punishment of the weakness the Warriors have.

Draymond being out is normally a bigger deal, but in this case the Dray-KP swap favors us. It's a great win and TJD's emergence is crucial for our team, but I'd be more impressed with the win if KP played. We'll see if the C's need that MVP-legend component, other teams have made it work with a wealth of talent like the Pistons (and of course Tatum's story isn't finished yet). The C's have a pretty scary lineup when whole, and there's no shame in losing to a Curry Flurry while down a crucial piece.

Judging the C's while incomplete and Tatum with a sprain seems a bit silly.

[phanman]

The team still takes way too many 3's for how much athleticism and advantages they have with that core. How Curry was able to stay in the game with 5 fouls the entire 4th + OT is a testament to how passive the team was at attacking him. Especially given the fact that he was routinely switched onto Tatum.

With all the said, the Dubs were extremely fortunate White went cold at the end of the 4th. The b2b missed 3PA were wide open and I thought he should have pulled the 3rd one when he came back to him on the OREB instead of dishing to Brown. The ATO after the reply for a Tatum iso was just stupid. Why you don't run ANYTHING as a NBA coach is just asinine. I kind of feel like the Celtics just gave up in OT too.