Celts Enjoy Playoff Hors D'oeuvres, They're Magically Delicious! R1/G1 Victory Cigar vs ORL 4/20 (BOS leads 1-0)

[Triple7]

White and PP no question. Holiday and Horford with some vet winning plays in the 2nd half. Everyone else has to be better.

Tatum's shot selection against a mismatch leaves a lot to be desired. He's never had an efficient midranger and keeps going back to it. As expected, ORL took away his facilitating game by putting one on him, just switching, and sending help at the rim. When the other team dares you to be a scorer, we kinda hope you can be that scorer as a top man in the league (see Jokic and SGA). His defense in the 2nd half was topnotch after seeming disinterested in the 1st half. More than half his rebounds are uncontested so I'll give him credit for the contested ones.

Don't expect much out of Brown apart from him not forcing the issue as someone who's nursing an injury. He was okay and was actually good defensively today. KP was a disappointment on offense. Kornet is as advertised in postseason scenario. But he needs to eat those minutes so KP/Horf can rest. Or maybe just try some Craig instead?

Craig could be a better option, as both banchero and wagner shoots a lot in the perimeter. They are just abusing Kornet with easy jump shots.

[King Of The 4th]

Meh, team looked rusty after a long break and still won comfortably. The Jays and KP will be better in future games, good w in the meantime

[ConstableGeneva]

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Pritchard with playoff career high 19 pts. White is the only NBA player in playoff history with multiple games of 30+ pts, 2+ blks, and 7+ threes made.

[PierceFan4ever]

Win by 17+ with strong games from Banchero and Wagner while Tatum and KP were awful? Sign me up cause I know Tatum and KP will play better game 2 and we’ll do a better job unless it’s part of the game plan to let the 2 magic stars play one on one. My concern is with Tatum and his wrist and that was the last thing I wanted to see late in the game

[Marvel]

Last thing we need is an excuse for JT to shoot even worse with that wrist ugh. Hope it heals up and he shoots better in game 2. Happy for Pritch shooting lights out in a playoff game. Popped his cherry against the best 3 point defensive team in the league is poetic. Poetic P!

[Floody100]

The Derrick White trade is still a disaster. BostonCouchGM’s burner accounts silent for one night.

BostonCouchGM, Captain Caveman & BK_2020 all were renowned for their dislike for Jaylen too & then all went completely ghost after he won finals MVP.

It’s almost like they enjoyed wanting to be right over winning a championship.

[redslastlaugh]

On the negative side, Luke was -7 in 11 min with 2pt/1reb
I wonder if Joe would give Queta a 4 minute stint in the first half of one of these ORL games
Luke, for all of his usual connectivity, sometimes doesn't present an offensive forcefulness in the playoffs, imo
And trust me, nothing would please me more than Luke being awesome in the playoffs, but I'm concerned about Luke's carry-over as a high impact reg season player

[Fierce1]

2 days off should help JT's wrist.

[Shak_Celts]

LOL mama Tatum asked him if he wanted her to go to the magic lockers and regulate!! Love ha!!

[Riverwalk2021]

He will play better but Porzingis is too soft, and will never be fan of his play style

[Setshot33]

He will play better but Porzingis is too soft, and will never be fan of his play style

Never seen two bigs (KP and Al) more clueless in the paint on O.

Both seem to have no plan and just throw something up there.

For a 7'3" center,he spent alot of time stumbling around and falling on the floor. Dude should be scoring at will in the paint on just length alone.

[phincsfan]

Last thing we need is an excuse for JT to shoot even worse with that wrist ugh. Hope it heals up and he shoots better in game 2. Happy for Pritch shooting lights out in a playoff game. Popped his cherry against the best 3 point defensive team in the league is poetic. Poetic P!

More reason for him to play bully ball and beat them at the rim.

[Fencer reregistered]

If stats weren’t as widely viewed and used by the average fans as they are now, I think people would get more respect, because they weren’t as talked about with past greats. Even casual fans check stats and I’m not just talking box. I look back at some numbers on some of the greats and feel like people would be killing them, unfairly, like they do guys today. There is no question statistic being widely used and praised makes people look at players differently today. I promise you, if you look back at other players with the same lenses, you would probably think some guys were overrated. You loved them so much, but didn’t care about statistics, now guys are bums when they play better than some of your favorites of old.

Folks in the Player Comparison and General forums argue that Bird is overrated because he was so bad in the postseason.

[Shak_Celts]

If stats weren’t as widely viewed and used by the average fans as they are now, I think people would get more respect, because they weren’t as talked about with past greats. Even casual fans check stats and I’m not just talking box. I look back at some numbers on some of the greats and feel like people would be killing them, unfairly, like they do guys today. There is no question statistic being widely used and praised makes people look at players differently today. I promise you, if you look back at other players with the same lenses, you would probably think some guys were overrated. You loved them so much, but didn’t care about statistics, now guys are bums when they play better than some of your favorites of old.

Folks in the Player Comparison and General forums argue that Bird is overrated because he was so bad in the postseason.

Really? This is not why I don’t visit but it helps.

[31to6]

He will play better but Porzingis is too soft, and will never be fan of his play style

Never seen two bigs (KP and Al) more clueless in the paint on O.

Both seem to have no plan and just throw something up there.

For a 7'3" center,he spent alot of time stumbling around and falling on the floor. Dude should be scoring at will in the paint on just length alone.

Haven't KP postups been just about the highest points-per-touch of anything in the league the last couple of seasons? If so, pretty sure it includes his line drive jumpers from 15ft out, which I don't love stylistically, but they go in at a high %.

He had a bad game offensively today. It happens. I think it's realistic to expect he'll calibrate how to specifically score against these Magic, and be better offensively for most/all of the rest of this series.

[31to6]

On the negative side, Luke was -7 in 11 min with 2pt/1reb
I wonder if Joe would give Queta a 4 minute stint in the first half of one of these ORL games
Luke, for all of his usual connectivity, sometimes doesn't present an offensive forcefulness in the playoffs, imo
And trust me, nothing would please me more than Luke being awesome in the playoffs, but I'm concerned about Luke's carry-over as a high impact reg season player

Not against seeing Queta at some point, but IMO gotta give Luke more than 11 minutes to see if his RS effectiveness can carry over to the playoffs. If the Cs advance, having your best net rating player this season playing rotation minutes is presumably going to be valuable -- especially to facilitate double big time against NYK, CLE and/or OKC.

[Jammer]

Derrick White played like a 2nd Team All NBA player.

Tatum was well below average for him, but 15 Rebounds were crucial (heck, he was 0-4 from the charity stripe).

Pritch played like he wants a starting job, heck, he averages over 28 mpg but was devastating in 25.

Lucky to cruise to a win. Orlando is very tough defensively, but outside of Banchero and Wagner they don't have a lot of offense.

[Setshot33]

He will play better but Porzingis is too soft, and will never be fan of his play style

Never seen two bigs (KP and Al) more clueless in the paint on O.

Both seem to have no plan and just throw something up there.

For a 7'3" center,he spent alot of time stumbling around and falling on the floor. Dude should be scoring at will in the paint on just length alone.

Haven't KP postups been just about the highest points-per-touch of anything in the league the last couple of seasons? If so, pretty sure it includes his line drive jumpers from 15ft out, which I don't love stylistically, but they go in at a high %.

He had a bad game offensively today. It happens. I think it's realistic to expect he'll calibrate how to specifically score against these Magic, and be better offensively for most/all of the rest of this series.

Maybe they were caught off guard by the physical play?

[Gant]

Tatum said the xray was clean and his wrist is fine.

Brown was obviously limited, but did his best and contributed.

With the two stars heavily covered and underperforming, White, Pritchard and Holiday took that game over.

Horford, Holiday and Hauser didn't shoot much but gave the game what it needed.

The Celtics did end up running a lot of double bigs, but no center played more than 26 minutes. Other than Tatum, minutes were modest across the board.

On the other end, the Celtics played the Magic stars straight up, and the other Orlando guys did not do enough on offense against their Celtic defenders.

The Celtics won the rebounding (barely) and the turnovers. Orlando can't win if that happens.

Boston's 3pa's totaled "just" 37, down from an average of 48 in the regular season, but they still outscored the Magic from long distance by 18 points in a 17 point win.

JD Davison played one minute and got a rebound, surpassing the total statistical production of Kyle Kuzma in these playoffs.

[Fierce1]

Tatum said the xray was clean and his wrist is fine.

Brown was obviously limited, but did his best and contributed.

With the two stars heavily covered and underperforming, White, Pritchard and Holiday took that game over.

Horford, Holiday and Hauser didn't shoot much but gave the game what it needed.

The Celtics did end up running a lot of double bigs, but no center player more than 26 minutes. Other than Tatum, minutes were modest across the board.

On the other end, the Celtics played the Magic stars straight up, and the other Orlando guys did not do enough on offense against their Celtic defenders.

The Celtics won the rebounding (barely) and the turnovers. Orlando can't win if that happens.

Boston's 3pa's totaled "just" 37, down from an average of 48 in the regular season, but they still outscored the Magic from long distance by 18 points in a 17 point win.

JD Davison payed one minute and got a rebound, surpassing the total statistical production of Kyle Kuzma in these playoffs.

Ouch!