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Atlanta did win. However, they had what, 1 1/2 quarters to gain a 16 point lead with no shot clock.

People may say that both not having the shot clock is fair. -- That's false. The NBA should make a rule after this season to where if the shot-clock is not working, the game cannot start until it does, or better yet, require backup shot-clocks with swappable interfaces for instant fixing.

Atlanta is a quick team, they like to score fast so the shot clock doesn't matter as much to them besides(coincidentally when the clock came back up) in the late 4th quarter. Boston takes a slower pace and is more dependent on the shot clock.

When Boston had possession the crowd was very loud and prevented the Celtics from hearing too well where the shot-clock was. If whenever Atlanta had held the ball a decent bit, it was much quieter and they got to hear.

Those two things above, totally destroyed any rhythm or momentum the Celtics had built up for the 2nd half, yet the opposite happened for the Hawks, it fueled them and their fans more and allowed them to build up that big lead until the middle of the 4th when the Celtics were starting to cut back into that lead, alas with not enough time left though.

I'm just going to go out and say it, Celtics would have won if the shot-clock had never malfunctioned. Their disparity between their performance WITH and WITHOUT the shot-clock was very evident. The Celtics had built up a momentum and come out strong in the 3rd quarter like they always do.

And it stinks too, because it might have still been a close game, and there was still a chance Atlanta would have won, but their win would have meant a lot more for them and the fans if the shot clock was working.

Well at least everyone gets more ratings and a game 5 now! Woot.

You have to be kidding me. The Celtics are the better team, but they got outplayed. These guys have been playing long enough to deal with a shot clock issue like that. Get over it.

It is SHOCKING to me that fans of a 66-win team would make this many excuses after a loss. Don't they realize they have 16 championships? Start acting like you've been here before!

Good lord.

JoshB914 wrote:It is SHOCKING to me that fans of a 66-win team would make this many excuses after a loss. Don't they realize they have 16 championships? Start acting like you've been here before!

It's probably hard to for them to do that considering half their fans weren't even born the last time they won and their players were all 10 y/o or younger...

^^^ That doesn't matter. If you're going to brag about 16 titles (whether you saw them or not), and act like you are entitled to #17, then you better be able to take some heat!

To be fair, this is only a few of the Celtics fans. But I'm a little surprised how some of them have changed their tune and started making excuses after one loss.

The Celtics only had to hurry once and that was the possession where the Hawks played great defense and Rondo had no where to go. If no shot clock means the Celtics can't make a shot then they don't have a prayer at winning the championship. Go cry on your own board, Boston got outplayed severely and the shot clock had nothing to do with it.

JoshB914 wrote:^^^ That doesn't matter. If you're going to brag about 16 titles (whether you saw them or not), and act like you are entitled to #17, then you better be able to take some heat!

To be fair, this is only a few of the Celtics fans. But I'm a little surprised how some of them have changed their tune and started making excuses after one loss.

Yeah I know, I actually agree with you but I think it's a little funny the majority of their fans weren't even born when they won most of their titles.

To be honest, the lack of a visible clock was of greater risk to the Hawks. My reasoning is that the Celtics are experienced and solid in the half court while the Hawks often struggle when forced to operate from the half court set. I'm sure we had more 24 second violations during the season.

In actuality the effect of the clock problem was negligible. Each team had a couple close calls, but that was it.

Hawks wanted it more and shots were falling. No pathetic excuses needed.

Personally, I think there needs to be a rule change every time the Celtics lose a game.

Only veterans who are skinny, who stand 7'1" and who have won only one playoff series in their career can talk trash and flash their nipples at the opposing team.

Only veterans with the initials PP can make $20 thousand bets on the games and make gang signs at the opposition's bench.

Only young players who admit the advantages veterans should have (by being called Big Baby) can hit the opposing player in the back of the head after made baskets.

I agree with the original poster dclock. Its 2007, there should be backup clocks.

At least our shot clock problems are accidental (or ineptitude, perhaps).

We aren't famous for turning up the heat in the opposing team's locker room or keeping ice under the floor (hockey rink, remember?) to slow down the Laker fast break (worked, didn't it?) or using loose planks in the parquet to mess up the opposition when they were dribbling...

... and we never hooked up the visitors' water fountains to the sewage system.

Of course, y'all just call those aberrations "leprechauns," right?

And how about when the Hawks slipped in the same area about 10 different times in game 1? That messed up a few possessions at least.

You had such stunning support but never gave your prescriptive "shot clock rule".

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the Atl brass figured that the Cs would be playing poorly in this one so they had to come up with some way to pull it out. They figured that paying off the refs would be too hard so they devised a scheme to... fire up(?)... the Hawks by not making the shot-clock work.