Game 21: Celtics @ Cavs 12/1/2024

[JujitsuFlip]

Wade and Strus are out.

Celtics have 4 guys questionable, I personally hope they all sit but we know they will all probably play.

White: he left Friday's game with a foot injury and did not return.

Horford: he has a toe sprain, played 25 minutes off the bench Friday but did not accumulate a lot of stats.

Holiday: he has a sore adductor (whatever that is lol).

KP: this is the first night of a back to back so he will either play tonight or tomorrow at the Heat due to injury management.

[JujitsuFlip]

White is out, the other 3 good to go.

Jaylen Brown is a late scratch with an illness.

[afarmenian]

It just seems like it's impossible for us to beat the Celtics if Tatum and Brown are just going to hunt Garland on defense I mean it's the same thing every single game


we make it close or we get ahead and then they just hunt Garland to get right back into the game we panic start rushing shots bricking threes and then we double team and they find wide open shooters it's just academic for them

[afarmenian]

Great win. Ironic what I said about Tatum forcing it against Garland Finally backfires. Mitchell goes nuclear. They where missing Brown and White but not our best game by any means

[ijspeelman]

It was nice to comeback against the Celts.

Defense really stepped up down the stretch. We were struggling to get good looks going throughout (and missed some easy ones at the basket), but we got them to go when it mattered (even if Mitchell had to go ballistic for it to happen).

[JujitsuFlip]

Go Cavs!

[El Hespiritu]

Two currently best NBA teams play each other.
One is bit more short-handed than the other.
Ends up being a tied game.

I feel like it's same script for the game regardless who's the one and who's the other

[jbk1234]

Great win. Ironic what I said about Tatum forcing it against Garland Finally backfires. Mitchell goes nuclear. They where missing Brown and White but not our best game by any means

We stopped overhelping.

[JonFromVA]

Great win. Ironic what I said about Tatum forcing it against Garland Finally backfires. Mitchell goes nuclear. They where missing Brown and White but not our best game by any means

Yep, Tatum isn't always efficient and getting Boston's offense bogged down running 2pt ISO's is a viable strategy if we can run our offense. My biggest concern is with the wear and tear on Garland.

I'd still like to see both teams at full strength, but that's not a likely reality.

[JonFromVA]

Great win. Ironic what I said about Tatum forcing it against Garland Finally backfires. Mitchell goes nuclear. They where missing Brown and White but not our best game by any means

We stopped overhelping.

We need to learn how to not switch so easily and predictably. That was something the Warriors worked on.

[toooskies]

Great win. Ironic what I said about Tatum forcing it against Garland Finally backfires. Mitchell goes nuclear. They where missing Brown and White but not our best game by any means

We stopped overhelping.

We need to learn how to not switch so easily and predictably. That was something the Warriors worked on.

Garland on Tatum was actually a beneficial switch for us. Tatum's best/only offensive move on drives is to extend his elbow into his defender to create space, but he can't do that with Garland because it doesn't generate leverage and he might hit him in the head. Tatum's best strategy against Garland is to shoot over him, and while sometimes that works, I'll take long 2s from any player any day.

Brown's got more explosiveness to the hoop and he will be much better on those targeted switches.

[JonFromVA]

We stopped overhelping.

We need to learn how to not switch so easily and predictably. That was something the Warriors worked on.

Garland on Tatum was actually a beneficial switch for us. Tatum's best/only offensive move on drives is to extend his elbow into his defender to create space, but he can't do that with Garland because it doesn't generate leverage and he might hit him in the head. Tatum's best strategy against Garland is to shoot over him, and while sometimes that works, I'll take long 2s from any player any day.

Brown's got more explosiveness to the hoop and he will be much better on those targeted switches.

I tried counting the Tatum on Garland ISO's in the 2nd half of the game via nba.com live box score and I've got him at 11 pts on 7 shots (5 of 7 with a 3pter).

If he was in Boston and getting a friendly whistle it would be worse.

Meanwhile Mitchell had something like 30 pts on 12 shots in the second half!!!

We can do better than Garland on Tatum - I'd prefer Wade, Okoro, or Mobley). Making sure Mitchell and/or Garland can finish games strong is part of our strategy and wearing down either players by making them defend is beneficial to Boston as would be some "inadvertent" elbows to the face.

[JujitsuFlip]

en fuego

[toooskies]

We need to learn how to not switch so easily and predictably. That was something the Warriors worked on.

Garland on Tatum was actually a beneficial switch for us. Tatum's best/only offensive move on drives is to extend his elbow into his defender to create space, but he can't do that with Garland because it doesn't generate leverage and he might hit him in the head. Tatum's best strategy against Garland is to shoot over him, and while sometimes that works, I'll take long 2s from any player any day.

Brown's got more explosiveness to the hoop and he will be much better on those targeted switches.

I tried counting the Tatum on Garland ISO's in the 2nd half of the game via nba.com live box score and I've got him at 11 pts on 7 shots (5 of 7 with a 3pter).

If he was in Boston and getting a friendly whistle it would be worse.

Meanwhile Mitchell had something like 30 pts on 12 shots in the second half!!!

We can do better than Garland on Tatum - I'd prefer Wade, Okoro, or Mobley). Making sure Mitchell and/or Garland can finish games strong is part of our strategy and wearing down either players by making them defend is beneficial to Boston as would be some "inadvertent" elbows to the face.

Switching keeps Tatum from driving immediately off the screen, which is what starts Boston's offensive play. Making Tatum try to bully Garland takes a bunch more time off the clock. The thing Boston does that kills you is the kick-swing-swing-open-3, and that simply doesn't happen when Tatum tries to be Kobe over Garland.

I'll let Tatum shoot 40-60% on twos all day, with short rebounds we're nearly guaranteed to grab, rather than enable the whole Boston team get open 3s. Sometimes he'll shoot perfectly for a quarter (like the 3rd last night), sometimes he'll struggle (2 for 7 in the 4th).

[JonFromVA]

Garland on Tatum was actually a beneficial switch for us. Tatum's best/only offensive move on drives is to extend his elbow into his defender to create space, but he can't do that with Garland because it doesn't generate leverage and he might hit him in the head. Tatum's best strategy against Garland is to shoot over him, and while sometimes that works, I'll take long 2s from any player any day.

Brown's got more explosiveness to the hoop and he will be much better on those targeted switches.

I tried counting the Tatum on Garland ISO's in the 2nd half of the game via nba.com live box score and I've got him at 11 pts on 7 shots (5 of 7 with a 3pter).

If he was in Boston and getting a friendly whistle it would be worse.

Meanwhile Mitchell had something like 30 pts on 12 shots in the second half!!!

We can do better than Garland on Tatum - I'd prefer Wade, Okoro, or Mobley). Making sure Mitchell and/or Garland can finish games strong is part of our strategy and wearing down either players by making them defend is beneficial to Boston as would be some "inadvertent" elbows to the face.

Switching keeps Tatum from driving immediately off the screen, which is what starts Boston's offensive play. Making Tatum try to bully Garland takes a bunch more time off the clock. The thing Boston does that kills you is the kick-swing-swing-open-3, and that simply doesn't happen when Tatum tries to be Kobe over Garland.

I'll let Tatum shoot 40-60% on twos all day, with short rebounds we're nearly guaranteed to grab, rather than enable the whole Boston team get open 3s. Sometimes he'll shoot perfectly for a quarter (like the 3rd last night), sometimes he'll struggle (2 for 7 in the 4th).

Leaving shooters wide open in the short corner is something else we need to work on ...