E. CONF. FINALS – Gm 2: Celtics (0) @ Heat (1) – 8:30PM, Thurs, May 19, 2022

[London2Boston]

Celtics fans took over the arena haha.

[tfribs45]

How can you not love Mahcusssssss!!!! Close that fn hate club for good!!!! Boom

Different Marcus. This one is not the same guy we've seen every year. Without Ime, Smart would be probably throwing up multiple 3s game for the sake of throwing them up instead of improving his shot selection.

Sure whatever helps you sleep at night. Every player improves with experience. Maybe the J’s just matured too. Cobra has been legit for a
While, this board just didn’t really respect the man, let alone appreciate him.

[Yinwest]

Oh yea Jimmy Herro, **** you!!!

[Darthlukey]

Oh yea Jimmy Herro, **** you!!!

Succinct and effective, truer words have never been spoken

[sam_I_am]

How can you not love Mahcusssssss!!!! Close that fn hate club for good!!!! Boom

Different Marcus. This one is not the same guy we've seen every year. Without Ime, Smart would be probably throwing up multiple 3s game for the sake of throwing them up instead of improving his shot selection.

Sure whatever helps you sleep at night. Every player improves with experience. Maybe the J’s just matured too. Cobra has been legit for a
While, this board just didn’t really respect the man, let alone appreciate him.

Smart has been in NBA for 8 seasons and has been to playoffs 8 times. He has played in 4 ECF. For comparison, Wiggins who was drafted #1 in his draft has been to playoffs only 2 times. Smart may have more playoff appearances than Wiggins, Randal, Parker, Exum and Embiid combined…..anyway it’s close. The most disappointing playoffs during those 8 years was the year Kyrie flaked out against Bucks. That year Smart missed end of season with oblique tear and only played last 2 playoff games against Bucks.

When Smart doesn’t play, we just aren’t the same quality of team.

[chrisab123]

Different Marcus. This one is not the same guy we've seen every year. Without Ime, Smart would be probably throwing up multiple 3s game for the sake of throwing them up instead of improving his shot selection.

Sure whatever helps you sleep at night. Every player improves with experience. Maybe the J’s just matured too. Cobra has been legit for a
While, this board just didn’t really respect the man, let alone appreciate him.

Smart has been in NBA for 8 seasons and has been to playoffs 8 times. He has played in 4 ECF. For comparison, Wiggins who was drafted #1 in his draft has been to playoffs only 2 times. Smart may have more playoff appearances than Wiggins, Randal, Parker, Exum and Embiid combined…..anyway it’s close. The most disappointing playoffs during those 8 years was the year Kyrie flaked out against Bucks. That year Smart missed end of season with oblique tear and only played last 2 playoff games against Bucks.

When Smart doesn’t play, we just aren’t the same quality of team.

Can you say that about any other year though? Thats my point. Marcus would always do something boneheaded whether it was punching something or taking way too many hero ball shots. The Marcus "hate" which really wasn't hate but valid criticism was warranted. This year he ended up taking direction and actually listening to the coaching staff about how to play the game and he won DPOY. He is now a starting point guard because he ended up cutting out all of those mistakes and stopped taking low BBIQ shots.

[soxfan2003]

Read on Twitter

No way Powell is 6'10". Theis looks taller than he does.

Really misleading since the Warriors and Celtics are not small. Have to look at the size of the backcourt and the ability to play big as well. One has to factor in athleticism/length since 2009 Rondo may have been shorter than Kyrie Irving but Rondo clearly the player that plays bigger in terms of defense/rebounding. Irving at his best may been better but still the player that plays smaller/more finesse style.

Celtics have big tough athletic backcourt(Smart/Brown), a tall athletic SF in Tatum and Horford/Williams. They are a big team overall with only PP being undersized and PP is tougher on defense than the last 3 starting PG's the Celtics have had.

Golden State has Curry who is a ridiculously strong 6"3 PG. His limitations as a defender are more about speed/lateral quickness and not size/strength. Klay who is tall for a SG with decent strength for a SG. Wiggins is wiry strong and super athletic and has nice length for a SF. Then the Warriors are capable of playing Green and Looney together. What really is winning besides the Warriors impressive depth is having size throughout the roster and versatility. Warriors face a team that can beat them up with size/strength if they go relatively small, they can play Looney a lot and have nice overall team size.

An example of a truly small team given the rotation players played and their strengths was Brooklyn and even though they were competitive each game, they still lost with their small role players even shooting lights out. Brooklyn in their rotation had Patty Mills, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving and Dragic which are literally 4 players who play smaller than Steph Curry on defense. And one of their big players in Kevin Durant isn't know for his physicality. Despite having Claxton that was a small team by historical NBA series and they got swept. KD and Kyrie both said the Nets lack of size really hurt Brooklyn.

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

No way Powell is 6'10". Theis looks taller than he does.

Really misleading since the Warriors and Celtics are not small. Have to look at the size of the backcourt and the ability to play big as well. One has to factor in athleticism/length since 2009 Rondo may have been shorter than Kyrie Irving but Rondo clearly the player that plays bigger in terms of defense/rebounding. Irving at his best may been better but still the player that plays smaller/more finesse style.

Celtics have big tough athletic backcourt(Smart/Brown), a tall athletic SF in Tatum and Horford/Williams. They are a big team overall with only PP being undersized and PP is tougher on defense than the last 3 starting PG's the Celtics have had.

Golden State has Curry who is a ridiculously strong 6"3 PG. His limitations as a defender are more about speed/lateral quickness and not size/strength. Klay who is tall for a SG with decent strength for a SG. Wiggins is wiry strong and super athletic and has nice length for a SF. Then the Warriors are capable of playing Green and Looney together. What really is winning besides the Warriors impressive depth is having size throughout the roster and versatility. Warriors face a team that can beat them up with size/strength if they go relatively small, they can play Looney a lot and have nice overall team size.

An example of a truly small team given the rotation players played and their strengths was Brooklyn and even though they were competitive each game, they still lost with their small role players even shooting lights out. Brooklyn in their rotation had Patty Mills, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving and Dragic which are literally 4 players who play smaller than Steph Curry on defense. And one of their big players in Kevin Durant isn't know for his physicality. Despite having Claxton that was a small team by historical NBA series and they got swept. KD and Kyrie both said the Nets lack of size really hurt Brooklyn.

I think tweet was just to counter the idea that you need to have a dominant center to succeed in the league today.

EDIT: Agree with your overall point that "small ball" is a misnomer and highly misleading.

[soxfan2003]

Read on Twitter

No way Powell is 6'10". Theis looks taller than he does.

Really misleading since the Warriors and Celtics are not small. Have to look at the size of the backcourt and the ability to play big as well. One has to factor in athleticism/length since 2009 Rondo may have been shorter than Kyrie Irving but Rondo clearly the player that plays bigger in terms of defense/rebounding. Irving at his best may been better but still the player that plays smaller/more finesse style.

Celtics have big tough athletic backcourt(Smart/Brown), a tall athletic SF in Tatum and Horford/Williams. They are a big team overall with only PP being undersized and PP is tougher on defense than the last 3 starting PG's the Celtics have had.

Golden State has Curry who is a ridiculously strong 6"3 PG. His limitations as a defender are more about speed/lateral quickness and not size/strength. Klay who is tall for a SG with decent strength for a SG. Wiggins is wiry strong and super athletic and has nice length for a SF. Then the Warriors are capable of playing Green and Looney together. What really is winning besides the Warriors impressive depth is having size throughout the roster and versatility. Warriors face a team that can beat them up with size/strength if they go relatively small, they can play Looney a lot and have nice overall team size.

An example of a truly small team given the rotation players played and their strengths was Brooklyn and even though they were competitive each game, they still lost with their small role players even shooting lights out. Brooklyn in their rotation had Patty Mills, Seth Curry, Kyrie Irving and Dragic which are literally 4 players who play smaller than Steph Curry on defense. And one of their big players in Kevin Durant isn't know for his physicality. Despite having Claxton that was a small team by historical NBA series and they got swept. KD and Kyrie both said the Nets lack of size really hurt Brooklyn.

I think tweet was just to counter the idea that you need to have a dominant center to succeed in the league today.

People should have known you didn't need a dominant center since even in the largely big man dominated 80's, you really didn't need one. But in that era, all champions had at least very good centers. But in the 90's, Bulls won with below average bigs that just fit their scheme and high quality PF's plus dominant wings.

The rules of today are artificially hurting both traditional centers which is talked about a lot and probably contrary to what the NBA probably wanted, traditional PG's that are not good at switching on defense.

[sam_I_am]

Sure whatever helps you sleep at night. Every player improves with experience. Maybe the J’s just matured too. Cobra has been legit for a
While, this board just didn’t really respect the man, let alone appreciate him.

Smart has been in NBA for 8 seasons and has been to playoffs 8 times. He has played in 4 ECF. For comparison, Wiggins who was drafted #1 in his draft has been to playoffs only 2 times. Smart may have more playoff appearances than Wiggins, Randal, Parker, Exum and Embiid combined…..anyway it’s close. The most disappointing playoffs during those 8 years was the year Kyrie flaked out against Bucks. That year Smart missed end of season with oblique tear and only played last 2 playoff games against Bucks.

When Smart doesn’t play, we just aren’t the same quality of team.

Can you say that about any other year though? Thats my point. Marcus would always do something boneheaded whether it was punching something or taking way too many hero ball shots. The Marcus "hate" which really wasn't hate but valid criticism was warranted. This year he ended up taking direction and actually listening to the coaching staff about how to play the game and he won DPOY. He is now a starting point guard because he ended up cutting out all of those mistakes and stopped taking low BBIQ shots.

Smart’s talent isn’t always as good as what he knows needs to happen to win a game. When he is trying to win against superior competition he has looked bad on occasion. Other players in this league with reputations as all time greats have looked worse in the playoffs to be honest - Paul, Harden, Jokic, Embiid immediately come to mind. I understand the unsubstantiated narrative you are pushing having heard it 100s of times here, but his coaches, GMs and his competitors have never shared that point of view. That narrative was wrong then and now, frankly, sounds dumb.

At this point, I think it is sloppy to slander Smart without some air tight concrete examples. Let me provide a few contrary to your opinion: In his first ECF run at age 22 he averaged 40% from 3 over 18 playoff games. In his first start at PG against Lebron/Cavs, after IT got hurt, he scored 27 pts on 14 att, shot 70% from 3, and had 7 assists. Last year, when according to you he didn’t listen to his coaches, he averaged 18 ppg and shot 37% from 3 against the Nets and finished series as starting PG.

[moonie_mcgee]

I feel like Mark Jackson and SVG are so deflated that the Celtics are winning

So true. They can't hide it. The Celts hater train is gonna pick up alot of passengers. Here's to embracing a great Celtic tradition. I think our guys like it too

JVG is basically a Celtics fanboy at this point, he thinks they win the title.

Bandwagoneer
Talking to his bro eh