Post-Game Notes: BOS 114, MIA 117 (0-1)

[K For Three]

Kembas knee is definitely an issue, he is still quick, but there is zero explosion when driving to the hoop.

I’m predicting a 30 point game from Jaylen on Thursday.

If Kemba's knee has an issue just do a quick silent knee drain and don't let anyone know about it. I think Kobe did it a few times in between finals games.

Outside of Kemba though, he isn't the only issue....Miami can score in a hurry lol.

[ConstableGeneva]

WTF are the Clippers doing??

[TheMartian]

Defense definitely has to be better. 106 pts by the opposing team in regulation is below the Celtics' standard in these playoffs.

Also, 44.5% from the opposing team on threes is definitely below Celtics' standards.

[TheMartian]

Clips are blowing another big lead and choking the game away. Typical characteristic of a Doc-coached team.

[Triple7]

Kembas knee is definitely an issue, he is still quick, but there is zero explosion when driving to the hoop.

I’m predicting a 30 point game from Jaylen on Thursday.

Maybe, but i think it’s purely mental right now. He didn’t have a problem attacking inside, when he carried the team on the game 3 loss against the raps. He was even attacking Ibaka and Gasol that game. Maybe he got frustrated when the defense focused on him, and he can’t get the shot he usually gets.

[threrf23]

Where to start...

The Heat are a smart team, and Butler/Adebayo/maybe Iggy are on another level defensively, compared to anybody else we have faced this postseason. We have to be patient and smart and unselfish on the offensive end if we want to win this series. As much as it almost worked, we can't count on Tatum to drive on Butler and then overpower Bam (who was camped by the basket the whole play). Based on the flow of the game, I have no qualms about iso'ing Tatum, he carried us and we were lost whenever he exited the game, but you have to be more creative than that. I don't know if it was Tatum and/or Brad who thought we didn't need to be inventive at all on that play, but it was a lazy *** decision that showed naivety on someone's part. Watching this play reminded me of FVV's blocked three in game 7.

Anyways, we were smart and unselfish and willing to make the extra pass in the first quarter...until Tatum sat for just a few minutes, Smart started playing hero ball, and our momentum began to slip away a bit. Smart also gave up an open 3 to Nunn during that stretch. Not cool. This was maybe the most Antoine Walker like game I have ever seen from Smart, he scored 26 on .500 shooting and played solid D....and somehow I felt like he hurt the team at least as much as he helped it. That stretch where Tatum sat in the third...he took those two threes while Jaylen was WIDE open under the basket each time. This would have been hard to excuse if had a hot hand at the time, but he didn't even have a hot hand at the time. First three was the first three he made since the first half, second three was a heat check. And if I remember right, in between those two threes, he turned the ball over trying to force himself into the paint. Not saying it should have happened, but he deserved to be benched for the rest of the game.

I didn't think Kemba was nearly as bad as he got credit for. Not that he was good, but he wasn't that bad IMO. He made at least one or two unnoticed defensive plays, attracted defensive attention, hit a big shot or two towards the end of both the 3rd and fourth if I remember right. He missed shot but didn't take many bad shots.

Theis was solid and finished a +12, but we ideally really need more than 4 rebounds in 35 minutes from him. Raps' front court was soft and didn't rebound well, this series we need to rebound.

On that note, Tatum did rebound, 14 rebounds, more than doubled Adebayo's six. He was ****ing everything for us. Third quarter in particular, he sat for just a minute or two I think, and the Heat went on a 5-0 or 6-0 run I think. Then he came in, willed us offensively, dominated defensively, and we could have come close to putting the game away if it weren't a couple of bs fouls he got whistled for.

Wana chipped in 6 assists and 5 steals off the bench - awesome. Jaylen maintained his composure after Smart dissed him. Cool. Grant hit a three, cool.

In the end I think we lost on the defensive end. They outscored us in the paint, 48-26, while also shooting 44% from three. We did a good job perhaps of guarding their midrange game. I thought our guys' gave a good effort on defense, so I have to blame Brad for implementing an ineffective defensive scheme.

And despite all this, we would have won if the refs weren't trying to keep the game close late. That's encouraging...

[Jammer]

I hate to bring this up a second time, but on the last play in regulation, when Kemba Walker hesitated like 1.2 seconds before giving Tatum the ball, that essentially allowed Tatum's path and time for a drive to evaporate, and he had to take a deep 3. Kemba's ego kept him from just giving 22 year old Tatum the ball, and it affected the last play of the game. On that one play, if I were giving out grades, Kemba Walker deserves a "zero." Not an F. A friggin zero. Because his hesitation, and lousy pass, put Tatum in a situation he should not have been in.

[Saint Lazarus]

Lets try to mimic Lebron and just brush off the game 1 loss and get ready for 4 straight wins or something. I am almost convinced Lebron often half asses game 1's over the years.

And if not then I will just kinda read the forum without speaking if we lose game 2 lol.

You can keep posting cat gifs it’ll raise the boards mood after every loss

[Matt5]

“I mean it's a million issues. Awful play calling at the end of games, Brown & Kemba invisible, Tatum forcing shots when he doesn't need to. I truly just don't think this team can close. If they have a sizable lead they can hang on but I never feel confident that in games where the game is close in the 4th that we a shot.”

Kemba made Brown invisible by dribbling way outside the 3 point line and not passing on several occasions. Maybe this was Brad’s plan. Hope not.

[djFan71]

Kembas knee is definitely an issue, he is still quick, but there is zero explosion when driving to the hoop.

I’m predicting a 30 point game from Jaylen on Thursday.

is that in dog points?

You want 210 from him? That seems a touch unrealistic.

[djFan71]

I hate to bring this up a second time, but on the last play in regulation, when Kemba Walker hesitated like 1.2 seconds before giving Tatum the ball, that essentially allowed Tatum's path and time for a drive to evaporate, and he had to take a deep 3. Kemba's ego kept him from just giving 22 year old Tatum the ball, and it affected the last play of the game. On that one play, if I were giving out grades, Kemba Walker deserves a "zero." Not an F. A friggin zero. Because his hesitation, and lousy pass, put Tatum in a situation he should not have been in.

Blame anything on Kemba but ego.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

I hate to bring this up a second time, but on the last play in regulation, when Kemba Walker hesitated like 1.2 seconds before giving Tatum the ball, that essentially allowed Tatum's path and time for a drive to evaporate, and he had to take a deep 3. Kemba's ego kept him from just giving 22 year old Tatum the ball, and it affected the last play of the game. On that one play, if I were giving out grades, Kemba Walker deserves a "zero." Not an F. A friggin zero. Because his hesitation, and lousy pass, put Tatum in a situation he should not have been in.

Blame anything on Kemba but ego.

Yeah it's a little weird mentioning ego with walker. You want ego look at Irving and his comments last year.

Tatum had his chances twice to end the game and came up short. He missed seven shots in a row and I don't think that's on Walker.

[Triple7]

I hate to bring this up a second time, but on the last play in regulation, when Kemba Walker hesitated like 1.2 seconds before giving Tatum the ball, that essentially allowed Tatum's path and time for a drive to evaporate, and he had to take a deep 3. Kemba's ego kept him from just giving 22 year old Tatum the ball, and it affected the last play of the game. On that one play, if I were giving out grades, Kemba Walker deserves a "zero." Not an F. A friggin zero. Because his hesitation, and lousy pass, put Tatum in a situation he should not have been in.

Blame anything on Kemba but ego.

Yeah it's a little weird mentioning ego with walker. You want ego look at Irving and his comments last year.

Tatum had his chances twice to end the game and came up short. He missed seven shots in a row and I don't think that's on Walker.

It’s on Stevens for not actually running a play, and letting Kemba and Tatum taking turns running isos!

[BRUNiNHO91]

Looking at the stats.

Dragic and Crowder played WAY above their average. Herro if you count the absurd assist and rebound number, also way above average.

Adebayo right around his average, as was Butler.

We LITERALLY didn't stop anybody except Robinson and that was mostly due to fouls. Just a really poor performance defensively.

Crowded has been shooting the ball really well....if u leave him open for multiple shots he will kill us all series

The one shot we contested the dude clanked it off the backboard. Just no excuse to let this man shoot all these wide open three's. Just none at all.

[ConstableGeneva]

Doc did us a favor by leaving the rebuild. Most underachieving coach since he left the Cs? Though can't fault him for some of their injury woes during the Blake/CP era.

[Dangit]

Just not a fan of Kemba in the game, A Smart, Brown, Hayward,Tatum, Thies lineup to end games sounds much better going Forward if Gordon can play .

I Love Kemba's passion.... but i wish we had a Rondo like point guard instead... He gets absolutely dismantled on Defensive...

[The Corey's]

Its pretty pathetic we lost cause we couldn't contain a scrub like crowder.

But see. Thats the difference between someone like him and kemba.

Crowder been here before. And it shows.

[The Corey's]

Doc did us a favor by leaving the rebuild. Most underachieving coach since he left the Cs? Though can't fault him for some of their injury woes during the Blake/CP era.

I've never liked doc and was all too happy to bid him farewell.

I loved the stevens hire at the time and and have never been a stevens hater but I have absolutely loathed his coaching this playoffs.

[soxfan2003]

Many people got on K Walker in the game threads.. I don't think that is really fair.. Recently, he hasn't shot as well and he normally does but he is facing tougher defense and he is willing to take shots at end of quarters that usually hurt your FG%. And Walker is making mostly good decisions and playing reasonably hard on both ends. As a fan I feel that is all one can ask for.

Ainge's biggest weakness as gm is being too infatuated with weak defenders at PGs that are undersized like Iverson (reported tried to trade for him), IT, Kyrie Irving and now K Walker. On defense Walker is one to two levels up from IT since he is bigger but he still compromises the defense against elite competition for him to be worthy of a max/near max deal. Kyrie Irving isn't even that short but he plays more like a small PG.

These guards all work reasonably well during regular season. But usually they are bad investments at max money if you want to win a championship.

Some will counter and say Steph Curry is clearly a bargain at max money. Not only is he 6"3 and arguably greatest shooter in NBA history but Steph Curry is super strong so even Lebron James in the NBA Finals was reluctant to try to back him down.

Honestly, if fans are ever frustrated with K Walker in this series, blame Danny Ainge/maybe Stevens and not K Walker. If you are going to succeed with a small PG, against truly elite competition you usually need other players to make up for it. SAS won with Avery Johnson and even Tony Parker but they were usually a huge team elsewhere to make up for it and neither of those PGs made the max. Duncan after all often played PF. They even had lineups with Duncan at PF and Leonard at SF. Duncan/Robinson.

Toronto won with Lowry but he makes up for his relative lack of height with a lot of strength and savvy. And Toronto with Gasol/Siakam/Leonard had a big front court.

Rajon Rondo may have been skinny but he is super long and athletic so he hardly fit the mold of undersized PG. Rondo also taller.

This is all dead on. Kemba's offensive woes are problematic but the Heat were attacking, abusing and switching onto him on defense all night and that is probably a bigger issue. Was just going to say that for an organization that values defensivel versatility so much it's odd that we have run a never ending string of defensively weak and/or under-sized pg's under Brad. It's almost like thats the one position we sacrifice the D for O so if the O isn't there...kinda gotta have the balls to keep the guy on a short leash, which Brad doesn't.

Also, I don't think it was perfectly apparent that Smart was the full-time answer at PG at the time we extended him, but he has made it apparent since then.

I never thought of Smart as the "ideal PG" if there is such a thing and he won't ever be that on the offensive end but I have advocated since his rookie year that he can be a very good starting combo guard that fills the PG position like Dennis Johnson once did. Just surround him with at least two other ball handlers and the Celtics have done that. As long as Smart developed a good NBA 3 point shot, I saw no reason why the Celtics shouldn't have considered him the long term answer at PG. Celtics just had to compensate for Smart not having the best ability to penetrate by having other players that could do that.

Hayward is a very good ball handler. Brown is really just average as a ballhandler but a couple of players who are superior to Brown at SG have a lot less ball-handling/driving ability. While it is mostly straight lines Brown can still on occasion attack with his dribble and pass if you overplay him so while Brown may not be a very good ball handler he is much better than Danny Green who the Spurs played a lot for years. (Parker is 1-2 levels above Smart as a ball handler but not 3 or 4 levels above him like Rondo) Tatum is now above average as a ball handler. It may not be pretty but that is more than enough if the other rotation player in place of Kemba can handle the ball decently. Yes, you lose something without having anyone with the ball handling ability of Walker or Tony Parker but I think you end up gaining more. It really is you just need enough ball handling as a team.

And you said it very well here. Miami is often targeting Walker and I think Walker's inability to even offensive rebound, allows a player like Dragic at times to leak out early.

[Triple7]

Just not a fan of Kemba in the game, A Smart, Brown, Hayward,Tatum, Thies lineup to end games sounds much better going Forward if Gordon can play .

I Love Kemba's passion.... but i wish we had a Rondo like point guard instead... He gets absolutely dismantled on Defensive...

Imagine if we had Lowry!