PLAYOFFS, Rnd 1, Gm 5 – Heat(1) @ Celtics(3) – 7:30PM, Wed, May 1, 2024

[RickyDizzle]

I bet that means generally 2 to 4 weeks. We should hope that Cleveland and Orlando goes 7 (Sunday May 5th), since its 2-2 it will at least go 6 to Friday May 3rd.

If we take care of business tomorrow, and Cleveland/Orlando goes to 7, we will get our guys some rest and the earliest Round 2 would start would be Tuesday May 7th. That means KP can rest and recover a week and only miss one game. Now if he needs another week or more, which is likely, he probably misses all of Round 2. Sweeping the Magic/Cleveland without him is not super likely, they probably go 5 games, but then the other series which looks like Indy and the Knicks might also be a decently long series, so if one of those series takes 6 games, thats generally 2 weeks.

... so we may have 1 week before round 2 starts, and then 2 weeks for round 2 itself to take place, would put us at 3 weeks total before ECF. I think its decently likely KP would be back for rounds 3 and 4.

[chrisab123]

The thing I don't like about playing Orlando or Cleveland without KP is their size. Boston beats them both but it probably goes 6 instead of 4 or 5

[WeLikeOurGuys]

Miss a minimum of 7 games according to Woj.
Probably back for the ECF.

[lon3lytoaster]

Not anything you can do about it but seeing KP miss round 2 would hurt. He already wasn’t super in sync and re-adding him to the starting lineup deep into the playoffs could cause issues.

[Parliament10]

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[Gant]

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So basically he's out this series and the next at least.

K,X,Q time.

[epics2002]

Miss a minimum of 7 games according to Woj.
Probably back for the ECF.

The fact that Boston was so vague on the grade of the soleus strain leads me to believe it was a grade 2 sprain. If it was a grade 1, it would have been leaked to the media that way.

[Parliament10]

So who comes off the Bench?
Porzingis was playing some pretty good mins.

I'd think that it would have to be a combination?
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Queta seems like he could do it, but gets into foul trouble. No 3-Ball.
Tillman could do it, but hasn't really had enough reps. 3-Ball needs improvement.
Kornet's got the height, but can he be bumped around? He's got a 3-Ball.

[SuperDeluxe]

So who comes off the Bench?
Porzingis was playing some pretty good mins.

I'd think that it would have to be a combination?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Queta seems like he could do it, but gets into foul trouble. No 3-Ball.
Tillman could do it, but hasn't really had enough reps. 3-ball needs improvement.
Kornet's got the height, but can he be bumped around? He's got a 3-Ball.

I think it'll be Kornet and Tillman (in that order simply because Kornet has been here longer and knows the system better). I don't expect Queta to see minutes at all, he's just too inexperienced (plus the reasons you mentioned).

[Parliament10]

We should have planned for this. We knew Porzingis was injury prone; and Horford is getting up there in years.
We needed the Bench Bigs to have more burn. -- Crash Course, now.

[Gant]

So who comes off the Bench?
Porzingis was playing some pretty good mins.

I'd think that it would have to be a combination?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Queta seems like he could do it, but gets into foul trouble. No 3-Ball.
Tillman could do it, but hasn't really had enough reps. 3-ball needs improvement.
Kornet's got the height, but can he be bumped around? He's got a 3-Ball.

Horford's not a 40 minute guy either. Kornet has the inside track to take a lot of these minutes, though the double big lineup might not work well. Tillman probably will get at least a look. Queta's a long shot to see the floor, but remember how well he filled in when two centers were out on that west coast trip and the Celtics walloped the Kings and Clippers? And big Q has gotten better since then.

[Parliament10]

Here's a generic Diagram.

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[bisme37]

Miss a minimum of 7 games according to Woj.
Probably back for the ECF.

Where did Woj say 7 games?

In his tweet he said a minimum of "several games." Meaning he really doesn't have any information but has to tweet something so we think he's an expert. (And giving number of games as a timetable would be kinda weird anyway since no one knows how many games we'll be playing in the next couple weeks. A series can go 4 or 7 or something in between.)

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[Parliament10]

So who comes off the Bench?
Porzingis was playing some pretty good mins.

I'd think that it would have to be a combination?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Queta seems like he could do it, but gets into foul trouble. No 3-Ball.
Tillman could do it, but hasn't really had enough reps. 3-ball needs improvement.
Kornet's got the height, but can he be bumped around? He's got a 3-Ball.

Horford's not a 40 minute guy either. Kornet has the inside track to take a lot of these minutes, though the double big lineup might not work well. Tillman probably will get at least a look. Queta's a long shot to see the floor, but remember how well he filled in when two centers were out on that west coast trip and the Celtics walloped the Kings and Clippers? And big Q has gotten better since then.

Agreed. I actually think that all 3 will get some time. But, Queta is likely last.

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[cl2117]

This is exactly why Brad went out and got Tillman. He can help bridge the gap until KP is back.

Horford steps into KP's role, Tillman can step partially into Al's role. He doesn't have the shooting, but defensively they're very comparable and he's even solid passing from the elbow. We can't play 5 out, but having him out there with 4 scorers is still a very viable game-plan.

Of course Luke deserves part of that role too, but I think we're going to need contributions from both in order to get us to the point KP comes back.

[Ben-N1ce]

It is what it is. Time for Jrue to step up his Offensive output. It hasn't been good enough but they haven't needed it. Size could be an issue with Cavs /magic

[zoyathedestroya]

Tillman will surprise and open the eyes of a lot of people. Kornet will be solid as he's been the entire season. Having said that, I prefer not to play the Magic in the 2nd round and Knicks are gonna be feisty and frisky if both advance to the ECF. Joe got to be open to going deeper in his roster with KP out. Can't afford to tire out Horford at his age.

[return2glory]

Calf strains are tricky man. KP can be out anywhere from a 4-5 days at best up to about 14-21 days. I'm hoping for about 7-12 days.
Tillman and Queta can play, that isn't the question. Kornet has been good all year. The question is can Joe coach? Can he make the proper adjustments, especially with the rotations. I haven't seen it yet from him.

[bisme37]

I was just looking at the DEN-MIN schedule for next round and there's a really long break between games 2 and 3.

Game 1 is this Sat, Game 2 is Mon... and then Game 3 is four days later on next Friday.

It would be cool if the C's and KP get a break like this in the next round is what I'm getting at. (have to beat Miami first of course)

Spoiler:

[Bar Fight]

Yeah, getting out of the East is far from a given with KP out