NBA Playoffs 2023 | Page 15 | The Boneyard

NBA Playoffs 2023

why do you like the celtics?

  • sixers

    Votes: 16 20.3%

  • celtics

    Votes: 65 82.3%
  • Total voters
    79
CardiacAndre7 said:
What leads you to believe the Nuggets won’t choke again? They haven’t proven anything.
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I don't think the Nuggets have ever choked? Beat by a better team in the bubble, then lost w/ Jokic & scrubs against a great Phoenix team in '21 and an all-time great Dubs dynasty team in '22.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Both could certainly beat Denver.

The Lakers were bad for the first half or so of the season. They made some great trades and have been very hot since.

The Warriors are the Warriors.

What leads you to believe the Nuggets won’t choke again? They haven’t proven anything.
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They have the better team with better players. Maybe they lose, it happens. I think Golden State will still beat the Lakers, and yes, could go to the finals again.
 
Matrim55 said:
Not really -- they shot the same percentage from 3 in this game as in game 1, and were worse from 2.

The difference was the defense. And that was helped by Embiid's propensity to slow down the pace of play, which gets the Sixers out of their rhythm. Barkley kind of touched on this in the postgame. He couldn't find the right words, but it basically comes down to the fact that Embiid makes them easier to defend as a group.

They were also a mess defensively. Embiid's an amazing rim protector but he struggles on switches and especially on rotations, so... yeah, the Celtics got what they wanted even with Tatum being a complete non-factor and Al struggling badly from 3.

Was awesome to see Grant back in the rotation and playing with cool confidence. Dude's the type of role player who brings the whole team up a level.
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It was honestly the first really good defensive performance since game1 vs the Hawks. Very encouraging to see it. The rebounding has also been much better since the Hawks were embarrassing them on the boards.

Grant was solid. He's a useful piece when he doesn't try to do too much. Defend, rebound, hit a few shots. The offense can't run through him.
 
Seems weird how dismissive of Jokic so many people here are.
 
HuskyHawk said:
It was honestly the first really good defensive performance since game1 vs the Hawks. Very encouraging to see it. The rebounding has also been much better since the Hawks were embarrassing them on the boards.

Grant was solid. He's a useful piece when he doesn't try to do too much. Defend, rebound, hit a few shots. The offense can't run through him.
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It was the second truly excellent all-around game the Celtics have played since December (the destruction of the Bucks in March was the other one). When they play with pace and intensity they are really, really good, but they've been so prone to not ever getting out of 3rd gear that I don't trust them to do it in back-to-back games.

Re: Grant, not saying the offense should run through him. But he guards 3-4-5 really well (and can credibly switch onto guards at times), nails every single defensive rotation, is a good connector as a passer, and is an absolute sniper in the playoffs: 47/45/81 career splits.

The fact that Mazzulla has consistently DNP-CD'd him down the stretch and into the postseason has driven me nuts.
 
Inyatkin said:
Seems weird how dismissive of Jokic so many people here are.
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Just the Philly fans. Everyone else knows he's the best player in the world. And while he's not a good rim protector at all, his overall impact on the Denver defense continues to be underrated:

 
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Inyatkin said:
Seems weird how dismissive of Jokic so many people here are.
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Not dismissive.

They’re a good matchup for the Warriors because he wouldn’t have to worry about guarding Looney or Draymond. KCP can do a solid job on Steph too.

He’s not guarding AD and AD and Vanderbilt have been some of the two best defensive guys in the playoffs. That’s who Murray and Jokic would have to deal with. That’s my logic on it.
 
Matrim55 said:
It was the second truly excellent all-around game the Celtics have played since December (the destruction of the Bucks in March was the other one). When they play with pace and intensity they are really, really good, but they've been so prone to not ever getting out of 3rd gear that I don't trust them to do it in back-to-back games.

Re: Grant, not saying the offense should run through him. But he guards 3-4-5 really well (and can credibly switch onto guards at times), nails every single defensive rotation, is a good connector as a passer, and is an absolute sniper in the playoffs: 47/45/81 career splits.

The fact that Mazzulla has consistently DNP-CD'd him down the stretch and into the postseason has driven me nuts.
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I agree with you on Grant, but he has a tendency to think he's a primary option on offense. On this team, he just can't be. Last night he did exactly what you want him to do. I think Mazzula benched him because he was focused on earning a big payday on his next contract and not on what the team needed from him. It was pretty obvious.
 


Love this thread. I'm super critical of Joey Mazz, but doing the simple stuff right -- like putting JB on Harden -- is a step in the right direction.
 
Matrim55 said:
I don't think the Nuggets have ever choked? Beat by a better team in the bubble, then lost w/ Jokic & scrubs against a great Phoenix team in '21 and an all-time great Dubs dynasty team in '22.
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Fair, not sure why I said choked. But they haven’t won anything to make me believe they should be definitively favored over the Lakers or Warriors.

Jokic is a tough matchup for anyone but AD is about as good as it can get against him. And the Lakers defense has been pretty great overall.

The Warriors are the warriors, they can beat anyone, anytime.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Fair, not sure why I said choked. But they haven’t won anything to make me believe they should be definitively favored over the Lakers or Warriors.

Jokic is a tough matchup for anyone but AD is about as good as it can get against him. And the Lakers defense has been pretty great overall.

The Warriors are the warriors, they can beat anyone, anytime.
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They haven't had Murray and Porter Jr. It's remarkable what they did without them. Jokic playing with backcourts of Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers, and Bones Hyland. When Jokic was off the court last season they were the worst team in the league.

It's not fair to judge them on winning when they didn't have two of their three best players the last two playoffs.
 
superjohn said:
They haven't had Murray and Porter Jr. It's remarkable what they did without them. Jokic playing with backcourts of Facundo Campazzo, Austin Rivers, and Bones Hyland. When Jokic was off the court last season they were the worst team in the league.

It's not fair to judge them on winning when they didn't have two of their three best players the last two playoffs.
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But it’s fair to judge the Warriors and Lakers who have both won recently.

This is definitely the best Nuggets team though. But they did get a huge break with that CP3 injury.
 
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CardiacAndre7 said:
Fair, not sure why I said choked. But they haven’t won anything to make me believe they should be definitively favored over the Lakers or Warriors.

Jokic is a tough matchup for anyone but AD is about as good as it can get against him. And the Lakers defense has been pretty great overall.

The Warriors are the warriors, they can beat anyone, anytime.
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Fully agree. I think the 4 teams with the best shot right now are those three & the Celtics. Sixers & Suns a tier below, with the Knicks & Heat a tier below that.

If the Heat actually win a title this year -- I do not think they can -- then Spo immediately goes onto the coaching Mount Rushmore, and he's not the 4th guy on that mountain. He's like Jefferson or Lincoln, not TR.
 
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CardiacAndre7 said:
But it’s fair to judge the Warriors and Lakers who have both won recently.

This is definitely the best Nuggets team though. But they did get a huge break with that CP3 injury.
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Not the same team either though. The Lakers with LeBron and AD. Missed playoffs. Won title. Lost round 1. Missed playoffs. Beat Memphis in rd 1. Hardly a juggernaut.

The Warriors, what can you say? Epic. But they can't keep it up much longer. The run is ending.
 
HuskyHawk said:
Not the same team either though. The Lakers with LeBron and AD. Missed playoffs. Won title. Lost round 1. Missed playoffs. Beat Memphis in rd 1. Hardly a juggernaut.

The Warriors, what can you say? Epic. But they can't keep it up much longer. The run is ending.
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Lakers are a better team right now than they probably have ever been with AD and LeBron, at least from a personnel perspective.

We thought the Warriors were done then they won the title last yr. How quick people forget.
 
Marcus Smart wins the NBA Hustle Award.

Why is there an NBA hustle award? Couldn't it also he named the NBA flop award?
 
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Seems fair to wonder how much a coach even matters. Budenholzer isn't any smarter or dumber now than when he won an NBA title. The Celtics have a new coach every year with basically the same results.
I know people will tell me I'm dumb here, but it at least seems like too much attention is put on one guy.
 
Inyatkin said:
Seems fair to wonder how much a coach even matters. Budenholzer isn't any smarter or dumber now than when he won an NBA title. The Celtics have a new coach every year with basically the same results.
I know people will tell me I'm dumb here, but it at least seems like too much attention is put on one guy.
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Udoka was gonna be the guy for a while. And Brad Stevens was amazing and was the guy for a while.

Bud just severely disappointed the last 2 years and didn’t make enough adjustments in game to counter the opposition.
 
Inyatkin said:
Seems fair to wonder how much a coach even matters. Budenholzer isn't any smarter or dumber now than when he won an NBA title. The Celtics have a new coach every year with basically the same results.
I know people will tell me I'm dumb here, but it at least seems like too much attention is put on one guy.
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He literally made some very basic coaching mistakes (no TO to advance ball in final seconds, lack of adjustments to stop Butler) that contributed to losses. It was coaching malfeasance, possibly justifiably lost focus - but when you add in his chronic regular season vs playoff body of work it simply was time to go.
 
Dogdeacon said:
He literally made some very basic coaching mistakes (no TO to advance ball in final seconds, lack of adjustments to stop Butler) that contributed to losses. It was coaching malfeasance, possibly justifiably lost focus - but when you add in his chronic regular season vs playoff body of work it simply was time to go.
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Missing the point. He made dumb mistakes, sure, but he wasn't magically smarter two years ago. You have guys who coach for decades, with star players, who never win a title, but this guy did it.
I think there are outliers who get every ounce of winning out of a team, but probably only for the short term. In general, at this level, most coaches are pretty interchangeable.
 
Inyatkin said:
Missing the point. He made dumb mistakes, sure, but he wasn't magically smarter two years ago. You have guys who coach for decades, with star players, who never win a title, but this guy did it.
I think there are outliers who get every ounce of winning out of a team, but probably only for the short term. In general, at this level, most coaches are pretty interchangeable.
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As someone pointed out I think, it takes luck to win championships.

But he had A LOT of luck injuries wise in the East that year. That may have been taken into account when seeing how he did in years outside of that.
 
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HuskyWarrior611 said:
As someone pointed out I think, it takes luck to win championships.

But he had A LOT of luck injuries wise in the East that year. That may have been taken into account when seeing how he did in years outside of that.
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Milwaukee has the best regular season record in the NBA the last 5 years and got knocked out once in the first round and twice in the second round over that period. That dynamic will get any coach in any sport fired.

The Bucks championship window is closing fast, and as a small, northern market, Milwaukee may not have another window for 10 or 20 years. They have to win now. I don’t disagree with this move.
 
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