Celts Turn Up The Heat! ECF Game 4 Victory Cigar vs MIA 5/23 (MIA leads 3-1)

[The Corey's]

It's so crazy how we can over-analyze everything when at the end of the day if 3p shooting percentage differential is big in a game, you're gonna lose the game. In 3 out of 4 games, one team is making 3s at the high rate, other team's 3p % is awful. Guess who wins.

Game 1: MIA 51.6% BOS: 34.5%
Game 2: MIA 34.6% BOS: 28.6%
Game 3: MIA 54.3% BOS: 26.2%
Game 4: MIA 25% BOS: 40%

If this continues, Boston might make it a series. When every undrafted role player you have is red hot from deep #HeatCulture becomes a narrative. Where was heat culture in this game?

The bizzaro part is that the Heat are still shooting >.450 from 3 for the series. That's crazy.

They were red hot vs Bucks, cold against the Knicks. Luckily for them Knicks also couldn't buy a 3 in that series so it wasn't a deciding factor.

Listen, I respect them, I respect Spo, but this cinderella story doesn't happen if 3p shooting wasn't drastically in their favor against two best teams in the league. It is what it is.

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

[Celticsfan100]

If I were the Celtics in the Heats place right now I’d be very concerned. The Heat were completely in charge of this series and couldn’t finish it off. Got dominated. Boston as we all know is the better team. Boston plays just one more game in Miami and the rest at home. For all we know they could lay an egg game 5 at home as usual and this series is over. I don’t see it though. Momentum has shifted. A lot of pressure on the Heat to close it out. In no way do I believe this series is over and I believe if we take care of business at home we have a really good shot here. We’ll see.

[BRUNiNHO91]

The bizzaro part is that the Heat are still shooting >.450 from 3 for the series. That's crazy.

They were red hot vs Bucks, cold against the Knicks. Luckily for them Knicks also couldn't buy a 3 in that series so it wasn't a deciding factor.

Listen, I respect them, I respect Spo, but this cinderella story doesn't happen if 3p shooting wasn't drastically in their favor against two best teams in the league. It is what it is.

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

Miami is more disciplined and more consistent than we are. Idk if they are better..I actually think they are nowhere near us if we talk about both teams playing at their best. The problem is they are consistently at their best and we do it when we feel like it.

[chrisab123]

They were red hot vs Bucks, cold against the Knicks. Luckily for them Knicks also couldn't buy a 3 in that series so it wasn't a deciding factor.

Listen, I respect them, I respect Spo, but this cinderella story doesn't happen if 3p shooting wasn't drastically in their favor against two best teams in the league. It is what it is.

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

Miami is more disciplined and more consistent than we are. Idk if they are better..I actually think they are nowhere near us if we talk about both teams playing at their best. The problem is they are consistently at their best and we do it when we feel like it.

If you take coaching out of this the Celtics sweep. I don't think Miami is a better team, they are definitely more prepared. Thats the difference

[tfribs45]

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

Miami is more disciplined and more consistent than we are. Idk if they are better..I actually think they are nowhere near us if we talk about both teams playing at their best. The problem is they are consistently at their best and we do it when we feel like it.

If you take coaching out of this the Celtics sweep. I don't think Miami is a better team, they are definitely more prepared. Thats the difference

C's get caught up in their own heads too. Miami is a mentally tough team and Celts are the opposite..... That being said, we take game 5, then we'll get to see who handles the pressure for game 6!

[BK_2020]

Let's see. The Celtics finally win a game because they outshot their opponent from 2 and 3, made 5 less Turnovers and had 10 more Assists. Sheesh, that formula would probably win every game. Yet, in addition to massive heroics from Jayson Tatum, it took Grant Williams, Al Horford and Derrick White to salvage this game.

What you talking about bro it was a blow out. You take away all of Grant's 14 points they still win.

Grant Williams (14 pts), Horford (12 pts), White (16 pts) = 42 points.

The line you quoted was "it took Grant Williams, Al Horford and Derrick White to salvage this game." Grant does not even start. It's a true statement. Grant and White alone were 30 pts.

I mean, if you remove 3 rotation players contributions from any night sure it's gonna be hard to win. You make it sound like we barely won thanks to Grant, Horford and White getting hot but the fact is the game was comfortably won.

[snowman]

I really think something is wrong with Jaylen's shooting hand, wrist or elbow. Ever since the first game he has had trouble with it. I also believe that, just like in the finals last season with Tatum's wrist, the Celts are keeping it quiet, and we won't find out about it until the off season.

Also, DO NOT trade Brown based on a bad series. DO NOT split up Tatum and Brown. These two combined are the best bet for the Celtics going forward. Keep them together and continue to build around them. Boston needs to get more athletic.

[Celticsfan100]

I really think something is wrong with Jaylen's shooting hand, wrist or elbow. Ever since the first game he has had trouble with it. I also believe that, just like in the finals last season with Tatum's wrist, the Celts are keeping it quiet, and we won't find out about it until the off season.

Also, DO NOT trade Brown based on a bad series. DO NOT split up Tatum and Brown. These two combined are the best bet for the Celtics going forward. Keep them together and continue to build around them. Boston needs to get more athletic.

Duplicate

[Celticsfan100]

I really think something is wrong with Jaylen's shooting hand, wrist or elbow. Ever since the first game he has had trouble with it. I also believe that, just like in the finals last season with Tatum's wrist, the Celts are keeping it quiet, and we won't find out about it until the off season.

Also, DO NOT trade Brown based on a bad series. DO NOT split up Tatum and Brown. These two combined are the best bet for the Celtics going forward. Keep them together and continue to build around them. Boston needs to get more athletic.

Duplicate

[Fencer reregistered]

Tatum and Grant were the 2 best players tonight.

Marcus made a few shots but he wasnt good overall.

I'm stunned there are people saying Brown was bad/horrible. Yeah, he didnt shoot great but he was good defensively and moved the ball well. Should have had 8-9 assists.

Brown was horrible for most of the first half.

Ehh I don't know. Made some really good passes. Thought he was fine, strangely low volume first half for him but that might be because he knows he's struggling with his shot.

I didn't notice such passes until late in Q2.

[Celticsfan100]

I really think something is wrong with Jaylen's shooting hand, wrist or elbow. Ever since the first game he has had trouble with it. I also believe that, just like in the finals last season with Tatum's wrist, the Celts are keeping it quiet, and we won't find out about it until the off season.

Also, DO NOT trade Brown based on a bad series. DO NOT split up Tatum and Brown. These two combined are the best bet for the Celtics going forward. Keep them together and continue to build around them. Boston needs to get more athletic.

Athletic? Lol. It’s the most athletic team we’ve ever had and most likely the most athletic team in the league. You watch games when the play their best and they kill the other teams on how many dunks they get each game. We have a point guard that leads the league in blocks at his position. Jayson, Jaylen, Rob all high flyers and long.

[Fencer reregistered]

One of the things I loved what the Celtics did was not falling for Jimmy Butler’s pump fakes. They stayed down for the most part when he’s looking to draw fouls. Stay down on this dude and make him shoot tough fade aways. He doesn’t have a bag like Kobe smh.

And those drives that they softly didn't contest? At least they didn't foul on them either.

[Fencer reregistered]

All the “reports” about infighting are trash. Didn’t look like a splintered team out there.

I need more of these reports please. Seemed to work.

I think everybody agrees:

-- The Celtics have felt helpless at times against the Heat.
-- Everybody on the Celtics side wishes the coach could have done more to help them out.

And that's about as far as it seems to go.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

After what happened Sunday night I'm just happy this team got a win and didn't fold. Tatum gets the victory cigar but white played well and Horford hit some shots.

It's still a major concern the amount of threes Boston takes. 45 threes with a 40% shoiting just isn't sustainable.

M my rant: this game pisses me off as well and I'll tell you why: Not taking anything away from Miami they play hard and they're well coached but it's so goddamn annoying that a team with this much talent can't bring this almost every night. It's absolutely absurd they're down 3-1 now.

The season average is 42.6 threes per game on 37.7%. 40% on 45 threes is eminently sustainable. It's like 2 more attempts than average and like one more made three than what 37.7% would be.

Efficiency typically goes down the longer you are in the playoffs, as you are only playing good teams that have a chance to gameplan for you over the course of a series.

Especially against Spo and Miami who is clearly good at covering the 3. This teams shooting percentage has been been getting worse and worse games 1-3 until they finally started hitting last night. Expecting this team to keep shooting 40% for 3 more games isn't going to work because chances are this team gets cold one game and if that happens it is season over.

[165bows]

What you talking about bro it was a blow out. You take away all of Grant's 14 points they still win.

Grant Williams (14 pts), Horford (12 pts), White (16 pts) = 42 points.

The line you quoted was "it took Grant Williams, Al Horford and Derrick White to salvage this game." Grant does not even start. It's a true statement. Grant and White alone were 30 pts.

I mean, if you remove 3 rotation players contributions from any night sure it's gonna be hard to win. You make it sound like we barely won thanks to Grant, Horford and White getting hot but the fact is the game was comfortably won.

It's a huge issue on this team that a ton of guys aren't well rounded scorers. When they get this kind of contribution they win if they play any defense. When they get single digit combined points from guys playing close to 100 total minutes it is more of a battle.

[snowman]

I really think something is wrong with Jaylen's shooting hand, wrist or elbow. Ever since the first game he has had trouble with it. I also believe that, just like in the finals last season with Tatum's wrist, the Celts are keeping it quiet, and we won't find out about it until the off season.

Also, DO NOT trade Brown based on a bad series. DO NOT split up Tatum and Brown. These two combined are the best bet for the Celtics going forward. Keep them together and continue to build around them. Boston needs to get more athletic.

Athletic? Lol. It’s the most athletic team we’ve ever had and most likely the most athletic team in the league. You watch games when the play their best and they kill the other teams on how many dunks they get each game. We have a point guard that leads the league in blocks at his position. Jayson, Jaylen, Rob all high flyers and long.

Who is getting those dunks? Tatum, Brown, Rob and White. Smart, Grant, Horford and Brogden are still able to move well enough. I'm talking about the players not in the top 8 on the team.

[Fencer reregistered]

Let's see. The Celtics finally win a game because they outshot their opponent from 2 and 3, made 5 less Turnovers and had 10 more Assists. Sheesh, that formula would probably win every game. Yet, in addition to massive heroics from Jayson Tatum, it took Grant Williams, Al Horford and Derrick White to salvage this game.

What you talking about bro it was a blow out. You take away all of Grant's 14 points they still win.

Grant Williams (14 pts), Horford (12 pts), White (16 pts) = 42 points.

The line you quoted was "it took Grant Williams, Al Horford and Derrick White to salvage this game." Grant does not even start. It's a true statement. Grant and White alone were 30 pts.

Good point. When one Jay plays well and one doesn't, half the other guys need to play well too.

Why did nobody ever realize that before?

[165bows]

The season average is 42.6 threes per game on 37.7%. 40% on 45 threes is eminently sustainable. It's like 2 more attempts than average and like one more made three than what 37.7% would be.

Efficiency typically goes down the longer you are in the playoffs, as you are only playing good teams that have a chance to gameplan for you over the course of a series.

Especially against Spo and Miami who is clearly good at covering the 3. This teams shooting percentage has been been getting worse and worse games 1-3 until they finally started hitting last night. Expecting this team to keep shooting 40% for 3 more games isn't going to work because chances are this team gets cold one game and if that happens it is season over.

Bigger obstacle is just winning three in a row is hard. But so far it's Miami that is waaay outside their season average for shooting, not Boston. Boston's eFG% (smooths out 2 vs 3) is 2% worse than season avg. Miami's 4% better, even bigger variance looking at their 3PT shooting.

Ie Miami is the team that is way more due for regression in shooting than Boston by far. Prob is the Celtcs have dug themselves a huge hole that gives them no margin for error assuming said regression happens.

[The Corey's]

They were red hot vs Bucks, cold against the Knicks. Luckily for them Knicks also couldn't buy a 3 in that series so it wasn't a deciding factor.

Listen, I respect them, I respect Spo, but this cinderella story doesn't happen if 3p shooting wasn't drastically in their favor against two best teams in the league. It is what it is.

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

Miami is more disciplined and more consistent than we are. Idk if they are better..I actually think they are nowhere near us if we talk about both teams playing at their best. The problem is they are consistently at their best and we do it when we feel like it.

I mean. They're likely to win this series 4 to 1 with 3 wins coming in Boston.

I know that instinctually we want to believe we are better but if we can't beat them then I don't know how we could legitimately claim otherwise.

[The Corey's]

It's not a good take to say they aren't winning if they aren't scoring

Miami is better than us. It's pretty simple.

Basketball is still a team game. It's not about the best players. It's about who has the best teams.

Miami is more disciplined and more consistent than we are. Idk if they are better..I actually think they are nowhere near us if we talk about both teams playing at their best. The problem is they are consistently at their best and we do it when we feel like it.

If you take coaching out of this the Celtics sweep. I don't think Miami is a better team, they are definitely more prepared. Thats the difference

But you can't take coaching out of the equation. It's the sum of the whole.

If you can't beat them, how can we claim were better?