I think the Celts, who I can only say for the gazillionth time, are probably the best/deepest team in the NBA, but all too often get bored or complacent, or distracted and if they do against good, healthy well coached teams, they'll lose.
Good teams get bored and complacent all the time. The ‘86 Celtics did. The ‘08 Celtics did. It’s a function of being an order of magnitude better than the other team on the floor. The current edition shows the very positive sign of playing its best ball in hostile conditions.
The 2008 Celtics started the playoffs 10-8, and looked as bad in those 8 losses as the Celtics have looked in their 2 losses.
This gets waaaaaay oversold. And it’s simply untrue. Atlanta got blown out four times at the Garden, with Boston never putting out anything like a real effort. Under the same conditions in Atnalta the Hawks barely squeaked wins because Josh Smith played out of his mind. In round 2 they got the GOAT in his prime. And even at that it was a defensive slugfest. Offensively both teams looked bad because defensively both teams were killers. Lost in the miasma is that the ECF went the same fashion, it was a defensive slugfest that Boston won in 6 because the Pistons lacked an LBJ. Or even a Carmelo Anthony.
He didn't even show up for the game at all.
Don’t be giving ESPN any ideas.
Last week, Danny Green said Tatum is the "wing version of Tim Duncan." Love the Spurs comparisons.
It’s a great comparison, Tatum has turned himself into a jack of all trades type player that supplies you whatever you need to win. Including offense. Having two of those guys (because Jrue is that same type of player) is a major advantage.
99% of the media doesn't really think about defense whatsoever. I've said this so many times that people would be sick of hearing it if they notice--to pretty much everyone pushing basketball content, you're either peak Kawhi defense, Trae Young defense, or you've everyone else in the middle. They simply don't care. Forcing opponents to take bad shots with 2 seconds on the shot clock impacts winning in a huge way. But it's boring content.
Yeah, they stare at the screen waiting for the highlight part of the play ignoring everything that produced it.
I'd go further: 99% of the media doesn't think about offense whatsoever. I think discourse around NBA offense is much, much worse than that around defense. People are extremely primitive in their understandings of what makes up offensive ecosystems or what NBA coaches are trying to do/avoid on that end.
See above. They love the dunks and stepback treys. But they don't even listen to Mazzulla when he tries to explain his ideas and approach much less understand the video of it.
