Boston's drought in the last quarter of G4

[perempe20]

My take is 3s don't work usually as the best shooters made 40-45% of their uncontested attempts this season.

Watch on YouTube

5:38
Jaylen Brown misses 13-foot pullup jump shot

5:45
Jaylen Brown misses 26-foot three point jumper

Watch on YouTube

Jayson Tatum misses 28-foot three point jumper
0:11

Marcus Smart misses 25-foot three point jumper
1:20

Marcus Smart misses 28-foot three point jumper
1:35

Al Horford misses 27-foot three point jumper
2:20

play-by-play

[MindState]

Boston had like 4-5 guys who were 30% 3 point shooters in the regular season, turn into Curry and Klay throughout the playoffs. It lasted until the finals. Their absolute crazy hot 3 point shooting as a team is what got them past the Bucks and the Heat, they just couldnt sustain it in the finals, because none of those guys are actually elite 3 point shooters, they were just all having hot streaks at the same time.

[dc]

Boston had like 4-5 guys who were 30% 3 point shooters in the regular season, turn into Curry and Klay throughout the playoffs. It lasted until the finals. Their hot 3 point shooting is what got them past the Bucks and the Heat, they just couldnt sustain it in the finals, because none of those guys are actually elite 3 point shooters.

Celts extremely well from 3 in the 2nd and 3rd Qs of Game 5. It kept them in the game and eventually got them the lead.

Poole's buzzer beater at the end of the 3rd had to have been deflating, because it gave the lead back to the Warriors after the Celts had balled out in the 3rd to take the lead.

The Warriors for their part shot horribly from 3, with Curry going 0-9 and not making a 3 for the first time in forever and the team as a whole pulling a half Houston and missing 13 in a row at one point. The Celts just didn't take advantage. The turned it over way too much and missed too many FTs. They played brilliantly in the 3rd but looked pretty gassed in the 4th.

[heezyo2o]

Game 1 when Boston took over in the 4th. They were taking the same shots

[BK_2020]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

[perempe20]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

I focused only on the missed shots.

[dc]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

Celts had a tougher road to the final and it showed in the later half of the Finals series. I thought they should've put away a much less talented Miami team in shorter order though. That's on them.

The Warriors and Curry can tire people out with their constant movement. It takes a lot out of a team to defend physically for an entire series against them. It's kind of what happened to OKC in 2016 when they were up 3-1. They started to wilt in the latter half of that series.

Guys like Wiggins and Curry have pretty insane cardio and fans really don't pay enough attention to that.

[cpower]

Boston had like 4-5 guys who were 30% 3 point shooters in the regular season, turn into Curry and Klay throughout the playoffs. It lasted until the finals. Their absolute crazy hot 3 point shooting as a team is what got them past the Bucks and the Heat, they just couldnt sustain it in the finals, because none of those guys are actually elite 3 point shooters, they were just all having hot streaks at the same time.

they shot 41% on threes in the finals. that is not the issue with Boston.

[BK_2020]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

Celts had a tougher road to the final and it showed in the later half of the Finals series. I thought they should've put away a much less talented Miami team in shorter order though. That's on them.

The Warriors and Curry can tire people out with their constant movement. It takes a lot out of a team to defend physically for an entire series against them. It's kind of what happened to OKC in 2016 when they were up 3-1. They started to wilt in the latter half of that series.

Guys like Wiggins and Curry have pretty insane cardio and fans really don't pay enough attention to that.

Tatum has great stamina but he's also played the most basketball of anyone since the end of 2020-21 season.
Smart, Jaylen and Timelord all get gassed too easy, and Horford is 36. It really is a problem for them.

[dc]

Tatum has great stamina but he's also played the most basketball of anyone since the end of 2020-21 season.
Smart, Jaylen and Timelord all get gassed too easy, and Horford is 36. It really is a problem for them.

Yeah, Tatum was defending KD one on one basically every trip on the floor while himself being the top option for the Celts. It was only a 4 game series, but that still takes a lot of energy.

As a whole, I think the modern game where there is more spacing, more switching and you're making guys have to cover more ground on defense is a lot more taxing than the older game. Back then it was just throw it into the post and have 4 guys stand around while waiting for a double team to happen.

[xfactor99]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

Celts had a tougher road to the final and it showed in the later half of the Finals series. I thought they should've put away a much less talented Miami team in shorter order though. That's on them.

The Warriors and Curry can tire people out with their constant movement. It takes a lot out of a team to defend physically for an entire series against them. It's kind of what happened to OKC in 2016 when they were up 3-1. They started to wilt in the latter half of that series.

Guys like Wiggins and Curry have pretty insane cardio and fans really don't pay enough attention to that.

Ironically I thought that super physical GSW - OKC series wore the Warriors out as the Cavs series went on in 2016 while the Cavs coasted through a really easy Eastern Conference. Same thing happened to BOS here with the super physical MIL and MIA series while the Warriors had it pretty easy in the West.

[dc]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

Celts had a tougher road to the final and it showed in the later half of the Finals series. I thought they should've put away a much less talented Miami team in shorter order though. That's on them.

The Warriors and Curry can tire people out with their constant movement. It takes a lot out of a team to defend physically for an entire series against them. It's kind of what happened to OKC in 2016 when they were up 3-1. They started to wilt in the latter half of that series.

Guys like Wiggins and Curry have pretty insane cardio and fans really don't pay enough attention to that.

Ironically I thought that super physical GSW - OKC series wore the Warriors out as the Cavs series went on in 2016 while the Cavs coasted through a really easy Eastern Conference. Same thing happened to BOS here with the super physical MIL and MIA series while the Warriors had it pretty easy in the West.

Definitely did. The Warriors as a whole wore themselves out going for the wins record, though people should also take into account that the Spurs had kept the pressure on them for almost the entire year for the #1 seed, as they themselves won a franchise record 67 games. People seem to forget that was also the best regular season team Pop ever had.

Curry just wasn't the same after spraining his knee in Round 1 vs. the Rockets. If it was the regular season, he'd have been out 4-5 weeks but he came back after 2 weeks because the team needed him. He also dealt with an ankle injury and an elbow injury when he jumped into the crowd for a loose ball and the home fans stupidly got out of the way and didn't break his fall. Bob Myers even came out after that and pleaded with fans "please catch Steph if he's ever going out of bounds like that."

My gut feeling is that under "normal" circumstances where the Warriors didn't come out of the gate that strong and didn't have the wins record staring down at them, they would've won the title that year, just without the hype of the regular season wins record.

[maradro]

So many defensive lapses in the 4th quarter of G4.
4:30 left, Celtics by 2, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Klay wide open for an open three. Next possession Smart flops and falls, Curry gets a wide open floater.
Then later, with the Celtics down 3, Jaylen misses a switch and leaves Looney wide open under the basket.
7 free points basically.

Celts had a tougher road to the final and it showed in the later half of the Finals series. I thought they should've put away a much less talented Miami team in shorter order though. That's on them.

The Warriors and Curry can tire people out with their constant movement. It takes a lot out of a team to defend physically for an entire series against them. It's kind of what happened to OKC in 2016 when they were up 3-1. They started to wilt in the latter half of that series.

Guys like Wiggins and Curry have pretty insane cardio and fans really don't pay enough attention to that.

I thought Boston's youth would be able to handle it and their size and defense maybe wear the old dubs down, but guys like white, Pritchard, g williams faded and the core sputtered out, it feels like warriors pushed the Celtics to sprint while they were going the distance.. cardio is definitely an underrated part of the warriors game

As for the comment about the 2016 spurs, as a spur fan I think that year is by no means our best team ever despite having won 4 more games than any other spurs team. Competition matters and imo those records depend on so many factors, teammates, injuries, matchups, coaching etc.. spurs had a good team still but regular season or not, the mid 2000 teams were much better but the west was much harder and no one was getting to 65+ the way it happened mid 2010s. This gs team is all time great, even before (and after) Durant. But i think the 73 wins are a little overrated (as are the bulls 72).. someone has to be first I guess

[perempe20]

Nobody mentioned bad shot selection.

[Doranku]

Nobody mentioned bad shot selection.

This is the real issue. Tatum, Jaylen, and Smart all have HORRENDOUS shot selection. I was amazed all playoffs at how they managed to keep winning despite this. It finally caught up with them in the finals. Part of the problem is not having a real ballhandler but the contested step back Js really need to be cut down.

[cam24thomas]

Would have won the ring if they had Rondo, his playmaking and he's recently shooting 40% from downtown.

[76ciology]

Lack of playmaker who can create gravity or open looks for others at will

Its the drawback of the wing heavy offense. Clips suffered the same thing in G7 of the Nuggets series when PG and Kawhi shot horribly.

[BK_2020]

Nobody mentioned bad shot selection.

Because they took good shots.

[BK_2020]

Lack of playmaker who can create gravity or open looks for others at will

Its the drawback of the wing heavy offense. Clips suffered the same thing in G7 of the Nuggets series when PG and Kawhi shot horribly.

I never understand why people form opinions without really knowing anything. There's nothing wrong with saying nothing.

All shot attempts from about 6:20 mark to when the game got out of hand.

Tatum cuts and misses a good layup attempt.


Smart wide open three.


This is Jaylen making a boneheaded play. Drive and shot a runner going to his left, a shot he never makes.


Wiggins goes under the screen, gives Jaylen a wide open three.


No open looks? Tatum is wide open.


Defense collapses on Jaylen. Smart open for a corner three.


Horford wide open for a three.


Horford wide open for a corner three. This one actually gets converted.


*[edit] I actually understand why people form opinions without knowing anything.

[perempe20]

Nobody mentioned bad shot selection.

Because they took good shots.

If Boston had taken their shots in the paint, they would probably have won G4.