Celtics

[How Sway?!]

One thing that stands out so far is how much more athletic the Celtics are than Warriors and how much more the East in general was. The Nets, Bucks and Heat all had been a lot more to offer in terms of matching up from an athleticism stand point that the warriors do not. The Warriors probably need to go bananas offensively to win this series. It's kind of wild people thought the Celtics would be completely over matched when the series started and too me its been the complete opposite. The Celtics have a lot of stuff that the Warriors have no answer for and maybe the East in general was a lot better than the West this year.

Klay moves like a shell of himself. I really have no idea why the Celtics wouldn't over play everything he's doing at this point. He's going by no one. Draymond has been terrible and I absolutely believe is the most overrated player in the NBA. His career will be so directly tied to absurd teams led by Steph, Klay and KD. Put him anywhere else and he's a a mediocre NBA player. If the Celtics win tonight this series is over. The Warriors don't have the fire power to win 3 in a row vs a much more athletic and better defensive team than them.

 

[polycom]

@BGesus4 dont hide now… what happened? 20+ turnovers is a lot I’m sure the warriors defense had no impact on that

 

[jayteeman]

Very difficult game to watch. The drives to nowhere, the passes to nowhere, the flops to nowhere, the strips to no call. Even fouls called just running down the court........both ways....I hate having to watch a replay just to turn up my blood pressure.....and the replay they dont replay......uhg.....it's over, thank you.

 

[Edward Sargent]

@BGesus4 dont hide now… what happened? 20+ turnovers is a lot I’m sure the warriors defense had no impact on that

Tatum happened

 

[Edward Sargent]

I will be shocked if the Celtics don't get every single whistle on Thursday.

Shocked?

 

[jibsey]

Sox lost, Celts bounced. Tough day in Boston.

 

[Lefty2one]

Boston's offense really is as ugly as a college team's some nights. There's plenty of stuff to analyze but you're not going to win a championship if you're so careless with the basketball.

The Wiggins redemption arc was awesome to watch in this series. What a performance.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Warriors are a battle tested championship team. You can see it. They don't get rattled. They keep their poise. When they need a shot, Curry or Klay hits it. The big key is Wiggins. His emergence replaces a lot of what they were missing without KD. He's not Durant, but he's become a damned good player.

Celtics are young, got too emotional, let the Warriors take them out of their game. Al remained resilient, because he's a vet. Brown is stoic as hell and it didn't surprise me he was able to play though it and perform well. Same with Rob Williams. Tatum, Smart and Grant need to grow up a bit and learn what it takes to win. Celtic's bench was a no-show. White was really good in the playoffs and vanished in the Finals. Same for Grant. PP, a great shooter all year, looked like a UConn 3 point shooter, just missing everything. If they can't get Nesmith to find his shot, they need a scoring wing off the bench.

 

[husky429]

I'm reminding myself that Tatum is just 24 years old. At 24, Curry had only cracked 20 PPG once, and hadn't made it to a western conference finals yet. Got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

The fact that Jaylen Brown (25) and Robert Williams (24) showed up this big in a finals series is really impressive. Even Smart (28) has another 5 years in his prime... though he didn't show up this time around.

Still sorely disappointed.

Really excited about Ime as a coach though.

 

[Palatine]

I used the like the Celtics. Then they got rid of Kemba. So screw 'em.

 

[tykurez]

I'm reminding myself that Tatum is just 24 years old. At 24, Curry had only cracked 20 PPG once, and hadn't made it to a western conference finals yet. Got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

The fact that Jaylen Brown (25) and Robert Williams (24) showed up this big in a finals series is really impressive. Even Smart (28) has another 5 years in his prime... though he didn't show up this time around.

Still sorely disappointed.

Really excited about Ime as a coach though.

This. Don’t forget that Tatum has been to 3 conference finals and 1 nba finals in his first 5 years in the league (made the playoffs all 5) and he’s only 24. He absolutely no showed in these finals, but so did a few other guys each game. This team just got burned out - so many long, hard series. After sweeping the Nets they went to 7 with Milwaukee and the Heat, and that Heat series was a bruiser. They came into the finals 2 days later after GS had rested for a week.

All the greats have had their stinkers in the playoffs but one thing that is consistent is when asked about Tatum, all the big names in the NBA thing he’s a sure fire stud.

 

[alphasigko]

I found it interesting that the Celts' total breakdown last nite looked very similar to the Suns' breakdown in their last game against Dallas.

 

[polycom]

I'm reminding myself that Tatum is just 24 years old. At 24, Curry had only cracked 20 PPG once, and hadn't made it to a western conference finals yet. Got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

The fact that Jaylen Brown (25) and Robert Williams (24) showed up this big in a finals series is really impressive. Even Smart (28) has another 5 years in his prime... though he didn't show up this time around.

Still sorely disappointed.

Really excited about Ime as a coach though.

Don't this, you're a great basketball mind. Tatum was all nba first team. He showed up horribly in this playoffs.

 

[Matrim55]

Don't this, you're a great basketball mind. Tatum was all nba first team. He showed up horribly in this playoffs.

Tatum was two assists shy of becoming the third player in league history to score 600 points with 150 rebounds and 150 assists in one postseason. Only ones to do it are LeBron (x2) and Larry. He's the youngest player ever to go 600/100/100.

He outplayed KD head-to-head all series long in Brooklyn.

He scored 47 points in an elimination game in Milwaukee and had the best on/off splits on the team.

He outplayed Butler head to head in Game 7 on the road in Miami and had the best on/off splits on the team.

Definitely struggled in the finals, but you have an insane definition of what constitutes a "horrible" playoff run.

 

[husky429]

Tatum was two assists shy of becoming the third player in league history to score 600 points with 150 rebounds and 150 assists in one postseason. Only ones to do it are LeBron (x2) and Larry. He's the youngest player ever to go 600/100/100.

He outplayed KD head-to-head all series long in Brooklyn.

He scored 47 points in an elimination game in Milwaukee and had the best on/off splits on the team.

He outplayed Butler head to head in Game 7 on the road in Miami and had the best on/off splits on the team.

Definitely struggled in the finals, but you have an insane definition of what constitutes a "horrible" playoff run.

People are catastrophizing his performance. He had a bad series--not a bad playoffs.

 

[Waquoit]

Both things can be true, Tatum was gassed and played lousy. He's still a notch below the top NBAers.

 

[Lefty2one]

Who knows about Boston's future. Better cores never made it back/never won championships (90s Magic, 10s OKC). They wouldn't have gotten past MIL this year if Middleton was healthy. Miami wasn't close to healthy either. Boston may suffer key injuries in the future. Their core is still young but you can never shoo-in future success.

 

[polycom]

Tatum was two assists shy of becoming the third player in league history to score 600 points with 150 rebounds and 150 assists in one postseason. Only ones to do it are LeBron (x2) and Larry. He's the youngest player ever to go 600/100/100.

He outplayed KD head-to-head all series long in Brooklyn.

He scored 47 points in an elimination game in Milwaukee and had the best on/off splits on the team.

He outplayed Butler head to head in Game 7 on the road in Miami and had the best on/off splits on the team.

Definitely struggled in the finals, but you have an insane definition of what constitutes a "horrible" playoff run.

He also had 100 turnovers. I shouldn't have said horrible for the entire playoffs but for a first team all nba player I expected more when it matters.

 

[husky429]

Who knows about Boston's future. Better cores never made it back/never won championships (90s Magic, 10s OKC). They wouldn't have gotten past MIL this year if Middleton was healthy. Miami wasn't close to healthy either. Boston may suffer key injuries in the future. Their core is still young but you can never shoo-in future success.

People have been saying this and it continues to be silly. Boston suffered key injuries too.

 

[Lefty2one]

He also had 100 turnovers. I shouldn't have said horrible for the entire playoffs but for a first team all nba player I expected more when it matters.

He's just not there as a playmaker. He's a scorer by nature and I'm not sure he'll ever have the playmaking instincts to be the primary playmaker on a title team. Now, you get a good playmaker alongside him, ask him to be more of a scorer, stay off-ball more, and be a secondary playmaker then I think he'll really shine.

He had an atrocious 24% turnover rate and only .78 PPP as a pick-and-roll ballhandler this postseason. Not just the Finals, the entire postseason. Both of those numbers are very bad. That's not even getting into the eye test and just how bad many of his turnovers were.

It's great that Boston is expanding his game and pushing his limits but there comes a point where you're square-peg, round-holing it. Not that this flawed Boston roster had any other playmakers to turn to.

 

[Matrim55]

Who knows about Boston's future. Better cores never made it back/never won championships (90s Magic, 10s OKC). They wouldn't have gotten past MIL this year if Middleton was healthy. Miami wasn't close to healthy either. Boston may suffer key injuries in the future. Their core is still young but you can never shoo-in future success.

I mean, neither were the Celtics. Horford, Williams & Smart all missed time/played through major injuries in those series, and Tatum was obviously injured early in the Miami series, so I'm not buying the Bucks & Heat excuses. Boston were just better.

And then when it got to the finals, the Dubs were just better.

Tatum & Brown need to keep improving -- tightening those handles -- while Smart & Grant need to keep working on their jumpers. Brad needs to use the TPE on a floor spacer with gravity who you've got to chase around screens.

 

[BGesus4]

@BGesus4 dont hide now… what happened? 20+ turnovers is a lot I’m sure the warriors defense had no impact on that

Yeah they played horribly. They also had a ton of bad turnovers against the heat. I’m assuming the warriors defense impacted that too.

 

[superjohn]

People are catastrophizing his performance. He had a bad series--not a bad playoffs.

Obviously it's ridiculous if they're doing that for the entire playoffs but it needs to be said for the finals. When you're 1st team all-NBA and show up like that in the finals you're going to get dragged.

Tatum was 6 for 25 in the 4th quarter for the series with a bunch of turnovers and airballs. He scored 2 points in the last 26 minutes and change of game 6 last night at home. I can't imagine a 1st team nba player has ever performed that badly in the history of the finals. It's a team game but he needs to shoulder a lot of the burden/blame as the star on the team. You just can't disappear like that.

 

[polycom]

He's just not there as a playmaker. He's a scorer by nature and I'm not sure he'll ever have the playmaking instincts to be the primary playmaker on a title team. Now, you get a good playmaker alongside him, ask him to be more of a scorer, stay off-ball more, and be a secondary playmaker then I think he'll really shine.

He had an atrocious 24% turnover rate and only .78 PPP as a pick-and-roll ballhandler this postseason. Not just the Finals, the entire postseason. Both of those numbers are very bad. That's not even getting into the eye test and just how bad many of his turnovers were.

It's great that Boston is expanding his game and pushing his limits but there comes a point where you're square-peg, round-holing it. Not that this flawed Boston roster had any other playmakers to turn to.

I don't think you should go this far he very well could change his game and become a big time playmaker.

 

[polycom]

Yeah they played horribly. They also had a ton of bad turnovers against the heat. I’m assuming the warriors defense impacted that too.

The fact that you can't say that the warriors are an elite defensive team but also bring up the Heat is comedy. At least be somewhat objective.