Banner 19 Interrupted! R2G6 Loss vs NYK 5/16 (NYK wins 4-2)

[GrandTheftRondo]

Since Danny Ainge resigned it seems like organizationally we've become a little much too dependent on some analytics that work great on paper, work very good in the regular season and just don't hold up that well in the playoffs. For us to lose two of the three Mazzulla years to teams that were huge underdogs is proof of that.

Honestly, I think we need to play some younger guys next year and let Tatum take his time to make sure he gets right so that we can have another 5 years of contention starting 2026-27. But I really think we're going to have these problems unless we can get a coach who isn't so beholden to some of the basketball concepts that have taken over in the analytics era.

For all the times we see teams have horrific shooting in the most clutch moments and the 25-35 year old statistians who report to Brad/Joe say "that's just shooting variance at the worst possible time" when really it's just heightened stress, pressure and fatigue making misses way more likely. And whether it's us shooting 30% in 2023 Miami, whether it's Harden Rockets missing 26 3pta in a row, whether its going 25-100 to lose game 1 and 2 at home in this series. To the analysts the bad shooting is always just interpreted as unforeseeable bad luck always seeming to happen randomly at the moment of the most pressure and exhaustion....

And so I'd hope we can revise our strategy internally this season, give Joe a chance to grow as a coach, and then next offseason bring in Jeff Van Gundy or somebody like that who is less prisoner of the moment about the 3pt shooting and a bunch of the other stuff

I would like to see some changes offensively but the reality is unless you have an all time great scorer the 3s these days are so integral to scoring.

Look at OKC. All time great regular season and on the void of elimination because they’re to hit many open 3s

[NYCelticsfan136]

Softzingis scored a total of 25 points in 6 games. Never there when you need him. I seen enough of this guy.

[GrandTheftRondo]

Softzingis scored a total of 25 points in 6 games. Never there when you need him. I seen enough of this guy.

Not his fault he can’t stay healthy.

There’s a reason he came cheap.

[Tyakack]

Part of the reason I want Indy to come out is to prove that they were really good last season. They were our toughest opponent and they didn’t change their players. If they win the East, it will prove that we didn’t have it as easy as people believe. Beating Cavs 4-1 told me all I needed to know, but other people and fans need more proof.

So many close games. Last season could have easily went like this one if we lost a couple of those close games early. If we win just ONE of the close two home games against the Knicks we probably win the series. Let alone if we won both. Crazy when you think about it.

[165bows]

In my opinion, the Tatum injury has nothing to do with this. This team just completely choked. They were losing even before he went down.

I think they knew they were worn out and didn’t have it this year

[NYCelticsfan136]

Softzingis scored a total of 25 points in 6 games. Never there when you need him. I seen enough of this guy.

Not his fault he can’t stay healthy.

There’s a reason he came cheap.

Needs a better 3rd consistent scorer who’s available and not always injured when you need him.

[tfmiii]

I quit if they extend Joe

Tough to fire a guy after a title and a 61-win season.

I am with you. Not that I don’t think Joe can coach, but the style of play and the offense is ridiculous


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2 put of the past 3 years Joe's team blew series against two consensus underdogs - BIG underdogs!

His 'coaching' was a major factor both years

If Joe and his system hits any turbulence - watch out below!

The more turbulence he faces the more rigid, deer-in-the-headlights, 'I liked our shots, but we didn't execute' excuses for DOING NOTHING

You just can't rely on a high variance offense in a 7 game (max!) series where you're game planned against like you can over 82 game regular season

Joe needs to go

Brad has shown he has stones trading Smart but does he have the stones to fire his own protege??

Sadly I think not

[NYCelticsfan136]

In my opinion, the Tatum injury has nothing to do with this. This team just completely choked. They were losing even before he went down.

I think they knew they were worn out and didn’t have it this year

This team felt in love with the 3 point shot this season. All time record. Some of it was costly. 60 3 point attempts in the first game. They set the tone for the series.

[GrandTheftRondo]

In my opinion, the Tatum injury has nothing to do with this. This team just completely choked. They were losing even before he went down.

I think they knew they were worn out and didn’t have it this year

The niggling injuries kept accumulating.

Everyone points to the 20 point leads but the reality is 20 points mean nothing in today’s game.

The 20 point leads were a mirage considering Porzingis was completely useless, Tatum couldn’t hit anything and Brown couldnt either.

[NYCelticsfan136]

In my opinion, the Tatum injury has nothing to do with this. This team just completely choked. They were losing even before he went down.

I think they knew they were worn out and didn’t have it this year

The niggling injuries kept accumulating.

Everyone points to the 20 point leads but the reality is 20 points mean nothing in today’s game.

The 20 point leads were a mirage considering Porzingis was completely useless, Tatum couldn’t hit anything and Brown couldnt either.

This team needs an inside player that can score and a combo guard that can slash to the bucket. So much different that championship year. They were very balanced.

[PierceFan4ever]

I quit if they extend Joe

Tough to fire a guy after a title and a 61-win season.

I am with you. Not that I don’t think Joe can coach, but the style of play and the offense is ridiculous


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

2 put of the past 3 years Joe's team blew series against two consensus underdogs - BIG underdogs!

His 'coaching' was a major factor both years

If Joe and his system hits any turbulence - watch out below!

The more turbulence he faces the more rigid, deer-in-the-headlights, 'I liked our shots, but we didn't execute' excuses for DOING NOTHING

You just can't rely on a high variance offense in a 7 game (max!) series where you're game planned against like you can over 82 game regular season

Joe needs to go

Brad has shown he has stones trading Smart but does he have the stones to fire his own protege??

Sadly I think not

There needs to be set action plays. It can’t be just 1
Pick and roll play while everyone camps behind the three. Yes our guys are talented enough to shoot and make threes but you can’t be overly dependent on it like the Celtics were this season. There needs to be more back screen, more cutting, getting the ball in the post to anyone other than KP, off ball action think golden state. And the thing about our high volume 3 point offense, it wasn’t even great last season in the playoffs either, we won a lot of those games through defense primarily. So a lot of this 3 point offensive attack works in the regular season but when teams make adjustments during the playoffs and focus on slowing your 3 point shooting, Joe looks like he has no other option to change to and what we see is some frustrating ugly basketball. Guys getting the ball and immediately firing a semi contested 3 with 15 on the shot clock or for instance, a giant play in game 4 where instead of Al going for what looked like a wide open layup with 4 minutes to go to only be down 1, his first read was to pass the ball to a semi open white in the corner who missed a three and the Knicks never looked back and took a 3-1 series lead.

I’m not saying the Celtics shouldn’t be taking a lot of threes next season, they still should be there definitely needs to be a lot more being run on offense

[GrandTheftRondo]

I think they knew they were worn out and didn’t have it this year

The niggling injuries kept accumulating.

Everyone points to the 20 point leads but the reality is 20 points mean nothing in today’s game.

The 20 point leads were a mirage considering Porzingis was completely useless, Tatum couldn’t hit anything and Brown couldnt either.

This team needs an inside player that can score and a combo guard that can slash to the bucket. So much different that championship year. They were very balanced.

Holiday was far better last year.

He was shocking for months ever since that finger injury.

Brown was also much better last year. The only chance of him scoring this playoffs was via contested jumpers or open 3s. He had zero lift.

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

Disappointing end to the season, seems like they gave their last real shot in game 5.

Makes you wonder how much toll Kristaps’ illness, Jrue, Hauser being out and JB being impacted had for the rest of the team carrying extra load. Al has been wonderful but he wasn’t able to raise a gear for the most part this post season.

They looked spent.

I think Joe is a good coach, but he needs to learn when to stick with the macro scheme and when to take control and insist on plays and ball movement. Each year he has tried to learn and grow and hope he adds this to his coaching.

PP was far improved compared to previous postseasons which is something.

JT’s injury gives Brad an opportunity to be more aggressive about roster changes by trying to setup for 26-27 rather than next season, allowing multipart changes over two off seasons and one deadline. That is also something that may be a silver lining.

Thanks to everyone here, bisme and Parl for the game threads, mods for putting up with us and everyone else for adding the colour and content.

As for this season, I’d like to see a Pacers v Timberwolves finals.

[return2glory]

Read on Twitter

Why would Gary say that? KP was playing great the entire series. There wasn't minutes to go around for Queta.

I felt coach Joe did a great job the entire series. His rotations were awesome. He only gave up 2 20 plus point second half leads, at home in games 1 and 2, that cost the team the series. Then he coached another game where we have up a 15 point 2nd have lead and lost that game too.
And tonight, well he coached the team to a near 40 point loss in a must win game. The game was decided in the 2nd quarter.

[return2glory]

Jrue was the down fall of this team this year (prior to the Tatum injury). His game dropped off significantly this season. He was great last season and was a huge part of the team winning a championship. Brown never fully recovering from the knee injury going into the playoffs also was huge and basically ended out chance for a repeat.

Grateful for last season.

[return2glory]

Why even travel to NY if they weren't going to give it their all? What happened here? I knew things weren't going to go well on the opening miss by Holiday.

Celtics played off emotion and their role players shot better at home.

I’m hardly shocked at all that they got blown out in this one.

I think even with Tatum tonight they would have had their work cut out against a fired up NY team at home looking to make the ECF for the first time since 1999.

People are severely underrating the loss of Tatum. Both in terms of the hit to the teams mental state and the obvious loss of his scoring.

As good as Tatum is, this series was decided in games 1 and 2. Tatum was part of the reason we lost not 1 but 2 20 plus second half leads. He played soft and low BBIQ games by setting for 3s and not driving to the basket enough and not getting to the line or creating open looks for his teammates. He wasn't the only Celtic doing that either. No Joe gets some of that blame. You cut down on your 3s with big 2nd half leads like that and you attack the rim and get easier looks and apply pressure on the other team.

[London2Boston]

Series of as lost after the first two games. Almost fitting that Knicks got a 20 point lead at home in the close out game and proceeded to stomp a mud hole. Wasn’t so difficult huh?


Anyway. Grateful for this team regardless. Got us our title that we needed. We all hoped for more this year but just wasn’t to be. It was one thing after another health wise, just as the season started to matter. Have a good off season all, we will probably have much lower expectations next season and might be less stressed watching the games as a result…. Maybe

[FlatearthZorro]

Read on Twitter

Why would Gary say that? KP was playing great the entire series. There wasn't minutes to go around for Queta.

I felt coach Joe did a great job the entire series. His rotations were awesome. He only gave up 2 20 plus point second half leads, at home in games 1 and 2, that cost the team the series. Then he coached another game where we have up a 15 point 2nd have lead and lost that game too.
And tonight, well he coached the team to a near 40 point loss in a must win game. The game was decided in the 2nd quarter.

Mazulla absolutely needs to go.
Outside of Queta, I was wondering when the offense isn't going well, why not play Baylor and/or Tory Craig... What's the worst that could happen?

[FlatearthZorro]

Series of as lost after the first two games. Almost fitting that Knicks got a 20 point lead at home in the close out game and proceeded to stomp a mud hole. Wasn’t so difficult huh?


Anyway. Grateful for this team regardless. Got us our title that we needed. We all hoped for more this year but just wasn’t to be. It was one thing after another health wise, just as the season started to matter. Have a good off season all, we will probably have much lower expectations next season and might be less stressed watching the games as a result…. Maybe

Yea, way too many injuries:

Brown's knee
Tatum
Porzingis- always something with him and I expected so much, especially against the Knicks where he has great matchups
Holiday's finger, which he missed ~1 month and is still injured
Hauser's ankle

[FlatearthZorro]

I quit if they extend Joe

I'd lose it, too, we've literally blown 2 postseasons and I feel as if he has a huge role in it.
Heck, where's Mike D'Antoni at? I know he's old, but would he like a chill assistant coaching job?