Celts Fillet Philly! Big Ass Game 2 Victory Cigar vs PHI 5/3 (Series tied 1-1)

[UNCBlue012]

This game showed me the Celtics can and should be able to run all over them with even decent defense.

[Feed Your Head]

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[Hal14]

BIG win!!

I voted JB and Smart for the VC.

I know Brogdon scored 23 points on good efficiency, but Smart came up with so many big plays at big moments. Like the 3 from the top of the key, the crazy shot at the end of the shot clock he hit over Embiid. And that hustle play where he dove on the floor was probably the turning point in the game where we grabbed momentum and it got our guys really fired up. He also had another play where he dove on the floor later on, when Embiid dover on top of him haha.

A vintage Marcus Smart performance, and he did it with a brace protector pad thing on his chest.

Brogdon and White were very good, too. Grant was solid.

Just shows how deep we are, that we didn't get much from rob, al or Tatum and we still beat the sixers by 34 haha.

[Celts17Pride]

This game showed me the Celtics can and should be able to run all over them with even decent defense.

This game showed us what we already knew, the Celtics are the better team. Now the Celtics have to keep the same focus and follow through.

[Hal14]

I wonder which realgm poster Josh is

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[philing00]

That’s the best D I’ve seen JB play for long long time. Usually it’s just a possession or 2, but this time was the WHOLE game.
JB gave us the healthy lead, Brogdog built on it. Special shout-out to Pritchard who is always ready to play. He should be the in case of emergency break glass guy.
Now if they revert back to the old Celtics I’m gonna spew…

[Bad-Thoma]

That’s the best D I’ve seen JB play for long long time. Usually it’s just a possession or 2, but this time was the WHOLE game.
JB gave us the healthy lead, Brogdog built on it. Special shout-out to Pritchard who is always ready to play. He should be the in case of emergency break glass guy.
Now if they revert back to the old Celtics I’m gonna spew…

What old Celtics? The one with the best record since 08-09, the one that won the first round, or the one with the best net rating in the NBA? The one that's favored to win it all?

I don't mean to get on you personally and I agree with everything up to the last sentence but man, it's the playoffs. I'm not sure what will make some of the board not act like this team is garbage if they don't sweep their way through with an average margin of 20 or so.

[tfribs45]

I wonder which realgm poster Josh is

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probably Jammer LMAO, I'm still waiting for that almighty + and - post. Only time it comes out is when we lose I guess.... oh and when Mahcusssss has a "bad" game

[return2glory]

Nice win.

VC to Brown and Brogdon. Both played really well.

Props to Grant Williams. I was calling for Joe to play him.

White had a good game too.

Smart was good also.

Our "true superstar" had 7 points on 1-7 shooting. So let's just appreciate him for who he is. A top 10 player, not a superstar.

Props to Joe. As bad as he was in game 1, he was great in game 2. The entire coaching staff deserves credit also for their game plan. That was our best defensive game so far in the playoffs. Glad Joe finally went with Grant.

[Feed Your Head]

[MagicBagley18]

By all means anyone should express and react however they want after a loss but also should be ready to be laughed at and have their balls broken over it too when you see some ridiculous statements like we see routinely

[MagicBagley18]

That’s the best D I’ve seen JB play for long long time. Usually it’s just a possession or 2, but this time was the WHOLE game.
JB gave us the healthy lead, Brogdog built on it. Special shout-out to Pritchard who is always ready to play. He should be the in case of emergency break glass guy.
Now if they revert back to the old Celtics I’m gonna spew…

What old Celtics? The one with the best record since 08-09, the one that won the first round, or the one with the best net rating in the NBA? The one that's favored to win it all?

I don't mean to get on you personally and I agree with everything up to the last sentence but man, it's the playoffs. I'm not sure will make some of the board not act this team is garbage if they don't sweep their way through with an average margin of 20 or so.

While completely ignoring the 57 wins, the record against top opponents, the srs ratings, defense ratings and offense ratings

[31to6]

I was impressed -- but not at all surprised -- that Tucker toughed it out and kept playing after Smart rolled up his lower leg early in the game.

[FlightSisters]

Coming on for my once a year post. Jaylin and the rest of the guards pressuring psuedo-full court was HUGE. Not only do we tire Harden and the rest of the 76er guards, but more importantly, we force their offense to start around ~2-4 seconds later EVERY possession, which removes around 1-2 extra options within the offense. Given that the sixers waste a ton of time establishing PnR or just dribbling (sound familiar ? ), the quality of their offensive possessions goes down tremendously.

While this effort obviously can tire our own players out, the change in defensive efficiency, what it means for our offensive fast break quality, and in this case ability to sit the entire 4th usually pays off.

Teams employ this against the celtics. Last year, the bucks and heat guards pressured a ton against smart/white as they brought it up, usually would waste all 8 seconds just getting the ball across. By the time we actually in our offense the shot clock was already below 12. This combined with the celtics offensive desire (as well as refs leniently allowing matthews/allen/other) to overindex to brown/tatum at the end of shot clocks, resulted in an inefficient offense.

We have the defensive guard rotation to do this high pressure full court pick up at quality and scale, look to see this continue.

[shackles10]

This game felt like it went from us having a lead, but not feeling too comfortable to light the cigar, to a blowout in a hurry. Brown gets most of the credit for that. So many others had great games too, and even Tatum's low output was the refs and I'm fine with his reaction. He didn't get T'd up, he didn't force things, he didn't come in the 4th when it was a blowout to pad stats either. I have a feeling he's going to do his damage next game.

I loved the pace of this game though. Tatum gave up it up to pg's to bring it up quicker more often, and when he did bring it up we were past halfcourt before 20 seconds left most times. Philly can't handle our pace if we keep it up!

[threrf23]

Our "true superstar" had 7 points on 1-7 shooting. So let's just appreciate him for who he is. A top 10 player, not a superstar.

Per 40 he posted a 15/15/6/2 +50 line, got to the line more than anyone else and posted a team best +24 in 19 minutes. Not saying it was an MVP performance but you are selling it short nonetheless.

[Celticsfan100]

We were always in control of that game. You could tell they were not losing. And honestly the refs called a fair game. We beat them good and most importantly showed that we can play as good as last year when we want to. Especially on defense. And I think coach should of been using Grant from the start instead of Hauser. Grant plays his usual role for the first time these playoffs and we win by 40.

[Hal14]

Some adjustments I noticed.

1) More ball movement on offense, quicker pace, quicker decision making with the ball, more 3's, less iso ball, less trying to drive through tight spaces to get to the hoop which meant less turnovers. Shooting more 3's helped to open the floor up so they couldn't pack it into the paint as much.

2) Defensively we played with more urgency, as Scal says "they felt us more" defensively. Rather than sitting back and letting the sixers offense get comfortable.

3) More grant minutes. No Hauser, until garbage time.

We did a good job of containing Embiid, but he's hurt. Just seen an article on realgm where embiid says he is supposed to be out 4-6 weeks right now but is playing anyways.

With embiid hobbled that badly, it would be pretty bad if we lose this series. Let's finish it off in 5 or 6.

[Celticsfan100]

Sixers are going to fight and by no means this will be an easy series. We are going to have to earn it. But we got what we needed. A glimpse of what our defense can really do when focused. And yes Grant brings a certain energy to the team and has experience. There was no reason by coach to bench him until now. Grant is not great in any area but he’s good at everything. He doesn’t belong on the bench racking up DNPs

[Tyakack]

Celtics in 5. This board recently as ever when things don’t go our way went full meltdown. there’s a line between expressing frustration, fair critique and borderline hysteria.

Those that need it; take a breath, playoffs are hard and long. Weird **** will happen. That’s why there’s 7 game series; to contain the variance within reasonable margins

I agree, there is a line..... But everything you just named is 100% fine. If someone wants to air out frustration, go for it. If someone was to fairly criticize the team or a player, why not? If someone wants to go borderline hysteria? What's the problem? If someone wants to look on the bright side and be optimistic, that's fine too.

I've never understood people getting so bothered or, trying to "police" *for lack of a better word* the way someone acts after a basketball game. Not saying you're doing that but people do that and news flash, we are not robots.

When Randy's team gets beat he might want the whole damn team fired, every time. When Tommy's team gets beat, he might get over it in a few seconds. When Brandy's team gets beat, she might just feel the need to rant and rave because it makes her feel better. When Larry's team gets beat, he might always choose to be optimistic about what's to come.....

And all of that is okay.

People can absolutely come in and express whatever opinion they have about the Celtics as long as it's done respectfully of other posters. That's the entire point of this forum after all. It's cool that we don't all agree on everything otherwise we would have nothing to discuss.

The issue is when people act like the season is over after losing game 1 of a playoff series, it's such an egregious exaggeration that it makes it hard to take their other points seriously. You'd think that after watching the Warriors, Heat and Bucks series last year (even the Hawks series this year to a degree), people would understand that game 1s are not at all indicative of how the rest of the series will play out.

There's also a subset of posters that only come out after losses to rant about whatever they perceive is wrong about the Celtics that day. They are perfectly allowed to do that of course but at times it reads more like people that are looking for a free therapy session online than people who want to engage in intelligent discussion about what's going right and wrong about the Celtics. That can be a bit frustrating for people that are looking for the latter.

It gets to the point where I almost exclusively hang out in very specific topics after losses (like the Begarin or the draft threads) because I feel like it's the few places where I'm not going to have to sift through a dozen unsubstantiated rants to find a post with an interesting information nugget/stat/point I hadn't consider/joke/etc.

Yeah, see, there is no issue with that. You disagree with the statement. That doesn't make it an issue. I disagree with people all the time. I think certain statements are laughable, but that doesn't make it an issue. It just makes it a statement I strongly disagree with. That's it.

I agree saying a series is over after losing game one is exaggerating almost always. Unless a key player gets hurt in that first game.... But that's their opinion.... Maybe they saw something in game 1 that made them strongly believe that. Right or wrong, there is no issue here. There is simply a difference of opinion. Even if you very strongly disagree with it or think it's silly.

You said people can express whatever opinion they have as long as it's done respectfully to other posters... But then you go on to name a specific opinion that some may have that's an issue. You can say the series is over after 1 game respectfully.

There is also nothing wrong with posters coming here whenever they want to. Some may like to post more after a win. Some may like to post more after a loss. I mean even you yourself said you don't like to come here often after a loss... And that's fine. I just fail to see the problem here I guess.