PLAYOFFS: Rnd 2, Gm 5 – Sixers (2) @ Celtics (2) – 7:30PM, Tues, May 9, 2023

[Feed Your Head]

I’m all for Tatum playing within the offense, I like that his first instinct is to play the right way.

But sometimes in the playoffs, you need to just aggressively look for your shot first. I wouldn’t hate if we see some of that from him these next two games.

[zoyathedestroya]

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[Feed Your Head]

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I’ve posted this a few times the last day or two, and it just leads to “well he shouldn’t be leading the team in clutch shots!!”.

Him and Tatum have 38 points on 20 shots in the clutch this postseason.

[Darthlukey]

After a few beers, it dawned on me JB has helped off a game ending 3 before. Anyone remember OG nailing a 3 to beat us in the bubble in game 3 to then make it a 7 game series? JB really can play man D very well, but his help sucks. Or the coaching sucks. Or both, at times. Both times allowed a 3 when a 2 would have been a much lesser evil

[chrisab123]

Just win. If they're up late then rest Rob and give Blake some time. Need Rob to have a shot vs Miami

[UNCBlue012]

I'll be shocked if they don't win tonight but man, there's a good chance this series should be over already.

[Tyakack]

Random thought, even when the celtics swept the nets it was like the closest non dominating sweep I've ever seen xD. If we get by the sixers I'm tempted to pick the heat for the upset but I probably won't. Talent gap is too large. Large enough that even spo can't make up for it and joe can't f*** it up.......hopefully.

[Green89]

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This stat is the perfect evidence to show he needs to stick to 2 point shots to be effective for us down the stretch.

In his 11 crunch time shots:

5/5 from two point range
2/6 from three point range

[Green89]

Smart shot better in the clutch this season than everyone EXCEPT Brogdon and White (of the players that played significant clutch minutes). The starting lineup should close the game, Malcolm is a good shooter but he was getting cooked defensively last night.

Not from deep where he was 4/17 at 23.5%. Good for 9th best on the team.

23.5% from deep in the regular season in crunch time
33.3% from deep in the playoffs in crunch time.

Definitely not who we want shooting threes in crunch time. I guarantee you the opposing defense does.

[Fierce1]

I'm still pissed at Brown for leaving Harden open for the game winning shot.

Why go double and leave Harden when the Cs were leading by 2?

Even if Embiid scored then the score would be tied and Cs have the ball for the last shot.

This is the kind of stupidity that will result in a Celtic loss.

All the 2 losses by the Cs in this series is because of mistakes in the last 30 seconds of the game.

[Green89]

I'm still pissed at Brown for leaving Harden open for the game winning shot.

Why go double and leave Harden when the Cs were leading by 2?

Even if Embiid scored then the score would be tied and Cs have the ball for the last shot.

This is the kind of stupidity that will result in a Celtic loss.

All the 2 losses by the Cs in this series is because of mistakes in the last 30 seconds of the game.

Only relevant if Brown does the same thing in this game, which I don't believe he will.

[Fierce1]

I'm still pissed at Brown for leaving Harden open for the game winning shot.

Why go double and leave Harden when the Cs were leading by 2?

Even if Embiid scored then the score would be tied and Cs have the ball for the last shot.

This is the kind of stupidity that will result in a Celtic loss.

All the 2 losses by the Cs in this series is because of mistakes in the last 30 seconds of the game.

Only relevant if Brown does the same thing in this game, which I don't believe he will.

It's relevant because Cs could have returned to Boston leading 3-1 and series could be over in this Game 5.

All season long the Cs have been losing games because of stupid mistakes.

So it's really possible the Cs will do the same in this game.

[Shamrock23]

I said it before, we have talented players with very low I.Q.and that includes the coach. I’ve been watching the Celtics since the 80’s and this is the team that I get nervous or don’t have confidence on every game. It’s funny people talk about us dominating Miami in the next round, the team that has 3x the I.Q even if they’re less talented players.

[Triple7]

If you think I'm saying Smart = CP3 then you've missed the point but still, glad I could provide you a few laughs.

Of course you didn’t said smart = cp3, but you made it sound like he’s in that group of good point guards. You said Smart, and other good point guards. Well, that’s your opinion, so i can respect that. Me, personally, smart is just average. Not a good point guard for a contender. He’s a poor shooter, handles are average (he gets pick pocketed several times dribbling through half court), court vision may be fine, but his passing ain’t accurate. Too many bone headed plays, risky passes, and poor decision making at crunch time. He’s good defensively though, and you can’t question his heart and effort. Overall bbiq is average at best. Not really the qualities i’d want in a starting point guard. He got that position by default, when kemba didn’t pan out. Terry Rozier would have been better. At least that guy can shoot, score and backs up his cockiness on the floor.

I see it that a lot of the bone headed plays or passes are from backing himself to make the difficult play. In the case of passing, some of the best passers in the game have high turnovers rates as they're given license to go for it. I'm not saying Smart is one of the best in the game but I think he is very good. Sometimes he sees something, goes for it and the other player didn't see the same opportunity and move to the same read.....turnover. There are times he shouldn't go for it but overall I'm happy for him to keep backing himself because I think the good far outweighs the bad.

Regarding Smart Vs Rozier, it may surprise you:

Sorry bro but all that goes out the window. I don’t care about those, coz they are misleading. Smart can go 4/4 from 3 in the first half, and go 0/3 in the 4th when it matters, and still get a total 4/7 57% shooting. The fact is, you can’t rely on him to score in big moments. I tried very hard to give smart the benefit of the doubt when he became our starter, but the truth is, he is just not a starting point guard for a contender, all because he can’t shoot. Especially now in he league where shooting dominates most offense. He is better off the bench, or start and finish depending on the matchup. Lets just agree to disagree then.

[Froob]

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[rd26]

I'm still pissed at Brown for leaving Harden open for the game winning shot.

Why go double and leave Harden when the Cs were leading by 2?

Even if Embiid scored then the score would be tied and Cs have the ball for the last shot.

This is the kind of stupidity that will result in a Celtic loss.

All the 2 losses by the Cs in this series is because of mistakes in the last 30 seconds of the game.

It was absolutely the wrong play, but somebody else should have been there already, to double, and second, with the whistle Embid gets, the odds of an And1 weren't terribly lower than the odds Harden made the 3.

As bad as that was, not getting off a shot in 19 seconds is 10x worse

[shackles10]

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Perfect gif.

[BK_2020]

I'm still pissed at Brown for leaving Harden open for the game winning shot.

Why go double and leave Harden when the Cs were leading by 2?

Even if Embiid scored then the score would be tied and Cs have the ball for the last shot.

This is the kind of stupidity that will result in a Celtic loss.

All the 2 losses by the Cs in this series is because of mistakes in the last 30 seconds of the game.

It was absolutely the wrong play, but somebody else should have been there already, to double, and second, with the whistle Embid gets, the odds of an And1 weren't terribly lower than the odds Harden made the 3.

As bad as that was, not getting off a shot in 19 seconds is 10x worse

Horford as the designated help defender was there, just a step away. He was hedging against the Tucker corner three, rather than throw a hard double. Embiid would have had to shoot over Tatum and Horford's last second help, and even if he makes it, it's tie game.

[Celts17Pride]

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That is embarrassing. All-star go sit in the corner! More Tatum/Brown two man game. It's the Marcus Smart Show and the Celtics will continue to not reach their goals.

and I'm a huge Smart fan.

[Triple7]

I said it before, we have talented players with very low I.Q.and that includes the coach. I’ve been watching the Celtics since the 80’s and this is the team that I get nervous or don’t have confidence on every game. It’s funny people talk about us dominating Miami in the next round, the team that has 3x the I.Q even if they’re less talented players.

I kind of agree with this. So frustrating. All that talent but seems tobhave problems closing. When we have a lead, i don’t have confidence that we can hold on to it. Its just last game, we had 3pt, 5pt leads that we could have easily extended, had smart, tatum or Horford made that wide open shot. Same thing in game 1 we had a 4pt lead, and Tatum missed a layup because he was busy looking for the foul, instead of just trying to make the basket first. That could have been a 6pt game. Instead he missed, maxey had an and1 the other end cutting the lead to 1. This team doesn’t have that killer instinct to bury teams. They always find a way to screw things up. Hope they get a good slap in the face. Same thing with Joe. He is so **** stubborn.