Hot Sweaty Roller Coaster Ride From Hell! ECF Game 3 Loss 5/21 (MIA 2-1)

[Garbanzo]

Couldn't watch the first half, started watching from the middle of the third quarter.
Now I don't have it in me to watch the first half. Knowing how it went.

Can someone please explain how did the heat outscored us 39-18?
Was it turnovers, how shooting?
What happened?
Expect from us being a cat playing with its food.

Also, is Butler's injury serious?

[Triple7]

He even air-balled a mid-ranger after he posted up Strus. He was just that bad this game, simply inexcusable.

An air ball jumpshot with in 10ft of the basket, that could have gotten the lead back to 7 early in the quarter. They made a run after that as well. If we didn’t turned the ball over and made a run in the 3rd, we could have settled down, and probably won comfortably in the 4th. Instead we never made ground in the 3rd, Still down 15 to start. I don’t know what to think of JT. We lost to the heat basically without their best player.

The fact that the Heat still managed to maintain their 15-point lead at the end of the 3rd quarter, even after we made a run and the crowd's going wild after Smart came back, is what really lost us this game. They failed to build on the momentum that Smart's courageous return brought them. Tatum was simply **** horrible in that quarter. Jaylen coughed up the ball a lot too, but he made up for it with his play in the 4th.

Sucks, but they gotta move on faster than we do.

That’s most frustrating. We have done this last series. Tatum had a 10pt game on that series as well. I thought he already learned something. We knew the heat has fast hands, and that if we turn the ball over, they would run hard. Smart played fine, but he did a lot of threading the needle bounce passes to Jayson. He should know better than to give them passes like that. Especially the heat with their quick hands, and the Jays erratic handles. That’s a turnover waiting to happen. I knew Bam would bounce back the moment Rob ain’t playing. It didn’t help with Theis starting.

[OFWGKTA]

so your entire argument is based off extremely tiny sample sizes? weak

if we look at a 3 year sample, their shooting % from 3 are basically identical.

it wasn't a financial move. this is why we traded for white:

https://www.si.com/nba/2022/03/16/derrick-white-boston-celtics-missing-piece

dude, you're pointing the finger at the wrong person here. why are we talking about white in this thread? we lost this game because brown and tatum played like garbage. they combined for 13 turnovers. white had 0 turnovers.

We're paying 17 mil a year for 7/4/2.5 on 35/24/83 in the playoffs, are you kidding?

your argument is based on tiny sample sizes and box score stats - are you kidding me?

Fine let's throw his regular season into the mix, 11/3.5/3.5 on 41/31, 17 mil a year. And eye test wise he's been garbage as a Celtic. Throw whatever **** advanced stats you want at me bud, that won't change that.

[NYCelticsfan136]

They overachieved big time. This was a .500 or below team about 40 seasons in. They started beating bad teams and good teams with a top player out.

They beat a Nets team that was self destructing and needed 7 games to beat a Bucks team without Middleton.

We can still beat the Heat, but this team isn't close to a championship caliber team. They need that 3rd star.

The thing is though this is one of the most wide open years to win a title I can recall.


We obviously know about the Heat and that Boston can beat them.

The Warriors are good but they are not the 2015 or 2018 Warriors. They have flaws everywhere. Klay can’t guard a chair anymore, their only useful big outside of Draymond is Looney who is only playing well because the Mavs bigs stink.

The Mavs are completely reliant on Luka going off and a bunch of role players getting hot from 3.

There is not some behemoth team waiting in the wings for whoever gets through in this series.

So if Boston bows out this round it will be a shocking blown opportunity.

I agree it's wide open this year because there isn't a dominant team this season. GS is still going to be tough to beat.
I mentioned in one of my previous posts that since we've come this far, might as well go for it all. We need guys to be healthy, the rest of the way, mainly Rob. And it would be nice to see White play like he is capable of playing.

This is not the same golden state from years past. Also golden stage basically has played nobody worth a lick. You should know this.

[BRUNiNHO91]

Couldn't watch the first half, started watching from the middle of the third quarter.
Now I don't have it in me to watch the first half. Knowing how it went.

Can someone please explain how did the heat outscored us 39-18?
Was it turnovers, how shooting?
What happened?
Expect from us being a cat playing with its food.

Also, is Butler's injury serious?

Rumor is the injury should not make him miss any games.

More worried about Smart and Rob. We need the entire squad available to beat this Heat team.

[3pt %]

Was thinking the same thing.

On another note, maaan this team should stop with with the bounce passes after the pick and roll. It appears that the ball is getting stolen every damn time!!!!

This! It’s like they want to copy the Heat pocket pass but it’s a straight turn over. Drove me nuts!

[Infinite Llamas]

Trade Tatum for Jokic. Those Heat players are terrified of
Jokic after what he did to Morris earlier in the year.

Sadly, Denver probably wouldn’t even take our call.

[Infinite Llamas]

This game was a wake up call for all who were thinking: Do we reallllly need Rob this series? Time Lord was giving Bam fits.

[NYCelticsfan136]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

[Afam]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This. This is the game that will lead to them being burnt finally . This is the game that will cost them the series. With a win on Monday , Miami still has Hope court advantage. Good luck beating them in game 5 and game 7. That’s not happening. Celtics lost the series tonight . They did that to themselves . In the playoffs you can’t throw away any game because they could be the difference between losing or winning .

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

[Afam]

It is what it is

[keevsnick1]

Did some quick math.

Jaylen scored 40 points on 20 shots, 7 TO's and 5 possessions at the line. Thats 40 points on 32 possessions or 1.25 PPP.

The Celtics had 103 points on 70 shots, 23 TO's and 12 possessions at the line (Techs, and-1's don't count as a possession). Thats 103 points on 105 possessions or .98 PPP.

That means non-Jaylen Celtics had 63 points on 73 possessions or .86 PPP.

By comparison the C's whole season average was right around 1.13 PPP.

All the c's needed to win this game was be really bad rather than historically bad turning the ball over. Because the Heat only scored 109 points on 104 possessions, and that was despite scoring like 25 points off live ball turnovers.

[keevsnick1]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This. This is the game that will lead to them being burnt finally . This is the game that will cost them the series. With a win on Monday , Miami still has Hope court advantage. Good luck beating them in game 5 and game 7. That’s not happening. Celtics lost the series tonight . They did that to themselves . In the playoffs you can’t throw away any game because they could be the difference between losing or winning .

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

The c's won 2/3 on the road last series, they've already won once on the road this series. It's not ideal, but if the c's win Monday they can absolutely win one on the road and take this series. But they do have to win Monday.

[NYCelticsfan136]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This. This is the game that will lead to them being burnt finally . This is the game that will cost them the series. With a win on Monday , Miami still has Hope court advantage. Good luck beating them in game 5 and game 7. That’s not happening. Celtics lost the series tonight . They did that to themselves . In the playoffs you can’t throw away any game because they could be the difference between losing or winning .

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

I think the Celtics win game 4. I think game 5 will tell me the winner of this series . Anyway these long series don’t help to have. Warriors will be well rested.

[Ill News]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This. This is the game that will lead to them being burnt finally . This is the game that will cost them the series. With a win on Monday , Miami still has Hope court advantage. Good luck beating them in game 5 and game 7. That’s not happening. Celtics lost the series tonight . They did that to themselves . In the playoffs you can’t throw away any game because they could be the difference between losing or winning .

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

I think the Celtics win game 4. I think game 5 will tell me the winner of this series . Anyway these long series don’t help to have. Warriors will be well rested.

I think the Mavs will even up that series in Dallas. All the Mavs need to do is hit their threes (which they did for most of Game 2), because no one on that Warriors team is stopping Luka no matter what defense they throw at him. Luke still scored 40+ in Game 2 lol.

[BostonCouchGM]

I'm sure my thoughts will be real popular per usual but here goes:


That was as blatant an attempt at fixing a game (for us) as I've seen in quite awhile. Absolutely disgusting. I felt dirty watching this game. Before the end of game FT dance we had a 30-5 advantage at the FT line. Tatum and Brown got away with pushing off on almost every drive. Them plus Grant, Horford and Smart were hacking everyone. Despite the refs best efforts we still couldn't get it done. Crazy.

Jaylen Brown continues to have horrible BBIQ and handle. 7 TOs is pathetic. He is a very limited player but what he does do well he does at an elite level. Get him C&S threes, curl him off screens and ISO on defensive liabilities. That's all he should ever do. Any play with him dribbling the ball should be taken out of the playbook unless he has a major advantage like against Strus and Herro. You can get him 15 shots a game under those circumstances and it would almost completely eliminate the turnovers and maybe he'd also have energy to be the good defender he was a couple of years ago. It's a shame too because it ruined what could have been (and maybe still is tbh) a career night.

Tatum wilted under the increased intensity. He forced it too much and had wide open guys open all night due to his penetration. I know this is part of his maturity but he's seasoned enough to not still making those types of mistakes. Him, Smart and Brown have to take care of the ball. I don't care what the lead is at half-time. Without their best player, we should have been able to pull that game out but those three were just terrible with the ball.

Another example of how overrated Spoelstra is. Your team is hot from three, we are throwing the ball away at will and you build a 26 point lead and his lineups and refusal to call timeouts made the game way too close. Ime has impressed me more these playoffs than anything I've ever seen from Spoelstra.

This Heat team with Lowry matches our talent and depth like no other team in the Eastern Conference. That first half was the first healthy great team we've faced in 2022. No hyperbole. And look at the result But out luck continues with Butler going out. If he doesn't play and we win we seriously need to accept the asterisk that would come with a Finals appearance. Tonight is what Bam is capable of and only Spoelstra prevents it from happening more often. And if Lowry was healthy enough to play tonight he should have been playing the first two games.

Marcus Smart is an absolute warrior. I can't stand him but there's no denying that he plays as hard as anyone ever and is tough as nails. I thought for sure when he came back we were going to win after he hit that three but in typical Smart fashion he bricked others and committed some fouls and had turnovers that prevented us from closing the deal. It was a nice moment that could have been legendary had we won.

With how blatant they tried to get us to win I still think we win this series because future games there won't be such a huge lead for them to have to make up for. On to Game 4. LFG!

[ScottieJ]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

And it's about the twentieth time we've seen you post this crap. Just go already.

At least when you're back next game make this latest juvenile tirade of yours your sig or something, save you from telling us again next time (next loss).

[Garbanzo]

Once again this team has their backs against the wall. How long can they keep doing this without getting burned? So disappointing. I think this one will hurt a lot worse then 2019.

This game was the game that turned me off the Celtics and sports in general. I wouldn’t be watching the Celtics or sports in general. It is draining for one. I am all set with that . Just going to focus on life.

And it's about the twentieth time we've seen you post this crap. Just go already.

At least when you're back next game make this latest juvenile tirade of yours your sig or something, save you from telling us again next time (next loss).

C'mon man
We should love and support every Celtics fan

Afam is taking it bad. That's OK, he is a fan and not a player.

[TheMartian]

He knew! Awareness is half the battle!

Read on Twitter

Ok, please dominate PJ for once.

Your in the ECF at home with a chance to take a lead in the series. Where was that mentality before we started the game?

Exactly. I don't wanna hear it. Can't keep saying "I need to be better" after every stinker. Bring it EVERY. GAME.

[BillessuR6]

Wanted to watch the game without knowing the score now but pretty much fast forwarded it to the end after that atrocious first few minutes...Starting Theis was a brutal mistake, he is pretty much unplayable in the playoffs unless its against bench players.

This team has always bounced back this season but sorry I just do not see how a team with such horrible games this late in the season can win a title... It seems they are not ready, not at all.