Post Game Thread – Why did the Celtics Lose to the Lakers (1/23)

[playa-hater]

At least part of my frustration is that - even when these guys are playing well - I hate the way they play on offense.

You mean you don't like ball movement? Iso dribbling, hero ball that often has everyone standing around??

All of that and I haven't even mentioned defense.

Amazing that people still won't hold the coach responsible for a big part of that.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

This thing with this team is if you see poor shooting and no defense for the first 6 minutes of the game we know exactly how the rest of the game will go. It was pretty obvious after the first quarter this team was on pace for a 20 point loss.

5th game in 7 days, on the road too.

I would consider this a successful road trip if we beat Dallas (3-1)

I do agree we aren’t playing to our best but I prefer to be healthy and peaking at the right time… still not panicking

In a vacuum you're correct but this team has been playing around 500 ball since the start of December. 5 games in 7 days is tough but it isn't like they were not struggling long before this.

[C-West]

I was there. They played like they didn’t care - at all. No fire, no focus, and just let the Lakers do whatever they wanted. The good news is that on the way out, we ran into the TRUTH and, while he usually isn’t great about taking pics (he is polite, but he typically declines), he saw my daughter wearing a No. 34 and agreed. So that was cool.

[fallguy]

At least part of my frustration is that - even when these guys are playing well - I hate the way they play on offense.

You mean you don't like ball movement? Iso dribbling, hero ball that often has everyone standing around??

All of that and I haven't even mentioned defense.

Amazing that people still won't hold the coach responsible for a big part of that.

Aesthetically I hate our offense. But it's really about how easy this team is to game plan for now and our general inability to be tactically agile in-game. Smarter coaches than ours (Atkinson, in particular) could do a number on us in a 7-game series.

[Celts17Pride]

People always talk about three point shooting, shot selection, iso dribbling, no ball movement etc. Offense, offense, offense. The Celtics suck because when they don't want to defend, they don't defend at all. Example 1: the Lakers game.

Play defense and all those other offensive issues get a lot better.

[31to6]

This thing with this team is if you see poor shooting and no defense for the first 6 minutes of the game we know exactly how the rest of the game will go. It was pretty obvious after the first quarter this team was on pace for a 20 point loss.

5th game in 7 days, on the road too.

I would consider this a successful road trip if we beat Dallas (3-1)

I do agree we aren’t playing to our best but I prefer to be healthy and peaking at the right time… still not panicking

In a vacuum you're correct but this team has been playing around 500 ball since the start of December. 5 games in 7 days is tough but it isn't like they were not struggling long before this.

highlighted the red because it rings true for me -- has this team 'flipped the switch' in a positive way in-game this season?
They were up like 10 against TOR at the half and then beat them by 50.
But I can't remember this team being like "enough!" at half time and turning it on against a good team.
Am I wrong? (probably) What example(s) am I forgetting?
I didn't feel like they'd make a run last night. Because they don't do that. I feel as though (previous seasons) they used to?

[playa-hater]

People always talk about three point shooting, shot selection, iso dribbling, no ball movement etc. Offense, offense, offense. The Celtics suck because when they don't want to defend, they don't defend at all. Example 1: the Lakers game.

Play defense and all those other offensive issues get a lot better.

Our defense has been bad. One part is lack of sustained effort for sure. But tactically speaking, how good can our defensive potential even be if we continue to use slow footed Big men and actually almost always use two of them at the same time.

I do not need to see any analytics to see how old Al is and how way off and slow Kornet is. Even KP, who is a good rim protector doesn't get out at all. Playing slow players lead to easy baskets whether it be straight up or because of over help.

It is all on Video.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

At least part of my frustration is that - even when these guys are playing well - I hate the way they play on offense.

You mean you don't like ball movement? Iso dribbling, hero ball that often has everyone standing around??

All of that and I haven't even mentioned defense.

Amazing that people still won't hold the coach responsible for a big part of that.

Aesthetically I hate our offense. But it's really about how easy this team is to game plan for now and our general inability to be tactically agile in-game. Smarter coaches than ours (Atkinson, in particular) could do a number on us in a 7-game series.

Yes there's no way Mazzulla can keep up tactically with a Spoelstra or a Carlisle in a playoff setting. No way

[fallguy]

People always talk about three point shooting, shot selection, iso dribbling, no ball movement etc. Offense, offense, offense. The Celtics suck because when they don't want to defend, they don't defend at all. Example 1: the Lakers game.

Play defense and all those other offensive issues get a lot better.

You're not wrong about the defense but we're more predictable and thusly defendable on offense than ever before.

[Bar Fight]

We really got blown out by a 40 year old Bron and a mediocre Lakers team lmao. That man will own our franchise until the day he finally hangs it up

[phincsfan]

This will probably be unpopular but I didn't think the issue was effort.

Energy, sure. But I saw tired legs and sloppy play and short shots more so than guys not trying. 5th game in 7 nights and coming off OT the night before. Other team all fired up to beat us, like usual but it's the Lakers so even more than usual.

Bad night and I'm mad about it and everything but not trying to not lose my mind over here haha. Joe probably should have gone more to the bench in this one.

Nothing to do with effort. Effort comes into play with tanking/terrible teams and certain players on those teams IMO.

They just have to work through this and stay healthy for the playoff push. Top 4 seed is fine and there will be a good break between the last week of the season and the first round of the playoffs. Last season was fun but remember how the 07/08 team almost went to game 7 in every series? I have a feeling that's how it's gonna be this year. This team will earn a good 4 months off

[playa-hater]

You mean you don't like ball movement? Iso dribbling, hero ball that often has everyone standing around??

All of that and I haven't even mentioned defense.

Amazing that people still won't hold the coach responsible for a big part of that.

Aesthetically I hate our offense. But it's really about how easy this team is to game plan for now and our general inability to be tactically agile in-game. Smarter coaches than ours (Atkinson, in particular) could do a number on us in a 7-game series.

Yes there's no way Mazzulla can keep up tactically with a Spoelstra or a Carlisle in a playoff setting. No way

Spo already proved that head to head with seven undrafted players beating our full roster of all stars and lottery picks

[Red2]

Trying to reincorporate porzingis has thrown the rest of the starters off. I think it might help to bring KP off the nencg

[playa-hater]

Trying to reincorporate porzingis has thrown the rest of the starters off. I think it might help to bring KP off the nencg

I have already suggested this and the reply was it worked last year

[Marvel]

For the first time in a long time i don't even look forward to Cs games this season. Something is wrong internally. This point of the season they should be or at least starting to peak. Derrick has been abysmal, forget about the all star selection and Jrue i can't even. I would rather develop Jaden right now.

[Marvel]

Trying to reincorporate porzingis has thrown the rest of the starters off. I think it might help to bring KP off the nencg

I think this has affected Derrick more than anyone.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Aesthetically I hate our offense. But it's really about how easy this team is to game plan for now and our general inability to be tactically agile in-game. Smarter coaches than ours (Atkinson, in particular) could do a number on us in a 7-game series.

Yes there's no way Mazzulla can keep up tactically with a Spoelstra or a Carlisle in a playoff setting. No way

Spo already proved that head to head with seven undrafted players beating our full roster of all stars and lottery picks

2022-2023 Heat wide open three pointers attempts / percentage
Regular season 13.7 / 37.1
First round 10.4 / 42.3
Second round 14.2 / 37.6
Conference finals 9.6 / 58.2
Finals 10.0 / 38.0
Embarassing they lost 3 games to the Celtics despite riding the hottest shooting streak of all time.

[redslastlaugh]

Part of sports is rising to the occasion and playing great in the moment.
In the 79 Final Four, Larry Bird was 16/19 from the field to beat DePaul and go to the Final
16/19 is 84% from the field

Nobody said Bird rode his unbelievably hot shooting, or that variance determined the outcome. People just said that Bird played a great game.

Yes there's no way Mazzulla can keep up tactically with a Spoelstra or a Carlisle in a playoff setting. No way

Spo already proved that head to head with seven undrafted players beating our full roster of all stars and lottery picks

2022-2023 Heat wide open three pointers attempts / percentage
Regular season 13.7 / 37.1
First round 10.4 / 42.3
Second round 14.2 / 37.6
Conference finals 9.6 / 58.2
Finals 10.0 / 38.0
Embarassing they lost 3 games to the Celtics despite riding the hottest shooting streak of all time.

[GrandTheftRondo]

I’ve had a gut full of watching this team jack contested threes and pretending that’s good basketball.

Last season it was not a problem because the Cs had 4 players shooting 40% from 3.

This season, only PP is shooting 40% from 3.

JB and JT are having career lows in 3pt shooting % this season.

We have no choice but to endure the next 3 months.

Hopefully the playoffs will be better.

It’s about the shot quality.

They have been shooting some awful contested 3s. No ball movement last night

[fallguy]

Don't think White's problems are tied to KP in the starting lineup at all.

What's more KP in the starting lineup is a critical layer to our offense – that's not something we should change.