Celtics vs 76ers, Round 2 Discussion
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Yup. It's too bad because we've seen what he is when he's 100% (2nd team all-defense and adds a dimension to the offense that no one else does), but I think that right now, he's as effective and healthy as he'll ever be. Unfortunately that's not much more than a really good rotation big.
Not surprising at all, we obliterated ATL's D, and have scored well in this series outside of the last game... problem has been turnovers and defense.
Agreed, and to add I feel like people sometimes forget the fact that his inexperience is even greater than pretty much every first year coach in that he didn't even have an offseason to prepare to be a HC. The fact that he seems to have a really sharp basketball mind in the moment but came into the season with zero preparation to be a HC makes me think he has the makings to be a good to great HC, not one you bail on after one season
Let’s hope it works. I have pretty strong doubts that either of the levers Joe is pulling are smart (the other being playing Pritchard more)
The confidence that I have is solely based in that the adjustment was made between games (where joe seems pretty good) and not in game (where Joe is a disaster)
The confidence that I have is solely based in that the adjustment was made between games (where joe seems pretty good) and not in game (where Joe is a disaster)
Healthy Rob deserves the start and 25-30 minutes. This team is at its best when he is out there a lot, regardless of the specifics about matchups, 2 bigs, etc.
But he has only shown brief glimpses of health honestly, so hard to know what to expect. Just hoping for the best.
But he has only shown brief glimpses of health honestly, so hard to know what to expect. Just hoping for the best.
I would guess Keith Smith is right on both fronts:
View: https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1656777166162370560
One that they are going to dare PJ Tucker to take a bunch of 3s, but also that this doesn't really solve their struggles with PnR.
Of course the problem is nothing Joe does is likely to have much impact on the latter, it's mostly about guys playing better and smarter.
One possible good thing I guess, maybe you let White really run with the bench unit, particularly the few minutes per half Tatum sits.
View: https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1656777166162370560
One that they are going to dare PJ Tucker to take a bunch of 3s, but also that this doesn't really solve their struggles with PnR.
Of course the problem is nothing Joe does is likely to have much impact on the latter, it's mostly about guys playing better and smarter.
One possible good thing I guess, maybe you let White really run with the bench unit, particularly the few minutes per half Tatum sits.
Interesting. If Philly is going to retreat 3 back and not give up any transition number you may as well go big since pace will be slower anyway. It's a bold move Cotton.
I love this adjustment.
Embiid isn't respecting Al on the perimeter defensively anyway since he's been cold.
Give Rob a shot and have him just try to run Embiid up and down the court. Philly has been loading up on shooters when Rob has been coming off the bench, he should be much more useful defensively when Embiid and Tucker are on the floor.
Should help them avoid the beating they took on the glass to open game 5 as well.
It's going to be tougher to score in the halfcourt though. They'll need some transition buckets and/or offensive rebounds.
Hopefully this opens the door for some offensive rebounding. Rob remains one of the best in the league at this, and with Embiid helping off him frequently to guard the paint, he should really have some nice opportunities on the glass.
Philly points by quarter: 22-21-30-13
Third quarter slipup aside, that is how you beat this team.
1-1: 31
1-2: 32
1-3: 24
1-4: 32
2-1: 22
2-2: 27
2-3: 16
2-4: 22
3-1: 29
3-2: 22
3-3: 27
3-4: 25
4-1: 27
4-2: 32
4-3: 33
4-4: 15
4-OT: 9
5-1: 33
5-2: 25
5-3: 30
5-4: 27
6-1: 22
6-2: 21
6-3: 30
6-4: 13
Three of their 8 best defensive quarters of the night.
Mazzulla even adjusted properly in the 4th when Philly started beating Rob with Maxey in the corner.
And Philly looked to show their age at the end.
Third quarter slipup aside, that is how you beat this team.
1-1: 31
1-2: 32
1-3: 24
1-4: 32
2-1: 22
2-2: 27
2-3: 16
2-4: 22
3-1: 29
3-2: 22
3-3: 27
3-4: 25
4-1: 27
4-2: 32
4-3: 33
4-4: 15
4-OT: 9
5-1: 33
5-2: 25
5-3: 30
5-4: 27
6-1: 22
6-2: 21
6-3: 30
6-4: 13
Three of their 8 best defensive quarters of the night.
Mazzulla even adjusted properly in the 4th when Philly started beating Rob with Maxey in the corner.
And Philly looked to show their age at the end.
This guy apparently knows ball.
The 2 bigs absolutely crushed tonight. TL's plus-minus was no fluke.
I'm interested to see how game 7 goes in terms of 2 bigs... earlier in the series it didn't work that well, (TL was great in non-Embiid minutes too early series, but that's like 5-9 minutes a game tops) but that was often not against a pure starting unit. Late in this game it struggled some when Doc adjusted and made them put Rob on someone other than Tucker, and when they attacked Rob directly they got him up in the air a lot.
Will Joe go 2 bigs to start again, and does Doc have it in him to start Niang over Tucker to match?
Will Joe go 2 bigs to start again, and does Doc have it in him to start Niang over Tucker to match?
As a Celtics fan, I'm envious of how easy both Embiid and Harden seem to be able to get into their signature offense compared to how difficult it seems to be for Brown and especially Tatum to get into comfortable spaces for them to score. A big thing has been Horford shooting so poorly this series, he hasn't made enough threes to draw Embiid out of the paint and that has really stifled the Celtics ability to get to the basket.
The defense tonight from everyone was tremendous, even with a million rip-through soft-ass calls against Harden and Embiid. They fronted Embiid with a smaller defender and relied on Al to come over to help. They dared guys like Tucker and Melton to make big shots, and hustled after every loose ball. It would have been REALLY annoying if they lost because Tatum laid such an egg, but can't doubt the hustle from the team tonight.
The defense tonight from everyone was tremendous, even with a million rip-through soft-ass calls against Harden and Embiid. They fronted Embiid with a smaller defender and relied on Al to come over to help. They dared guys like Tucker and Melton to make big shots, and hustled after every loose ball. It would have been REALLY annoying if they lost because Tatum laid such an egg, but can't doubt the hustle from the team tonight.
First possession Sunday: Tatum drives, gets swallowed up, and finds a wide-open Al who finally cans an open trey. The rout is on.
TL made a huge difference defensively. Offensively I think they'd be better off if he was a little more aggressive. There were a couple of possession where he had the ball deep and could have posted up but he just kicked back out again. Gotta make them pay when you've got the advantage.
Some really spicy quotes from JB and Smart tonight!
@RorschachsMask posted the Smart ones…
JB gives props to the refs for not rewarding “the known floppers” on the Sixers *cough Embiid and Harden cough*; then calls out the Garden for having “ok energy at best” in the playoffs thus far.
Game 7 is going to get fucking nuts.
View: https://twitter.com/jaredweissnba/status/1656859916491948032?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
View: https://twitter.com/byjayking/status/1656860516726308865?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
@RorschachsMask posted the Smart ones…
JB gives props to the refs for not rewarding “the known floppers” on the Sixers *cough Embiid and Harden cough*; then calls out the Garden for having “ok energy at best” in the playoffs thus far.
Game 7 is going to get fucking nuts.
View: https://twitter.com/jaredweissnba/status/1656859916491948032?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
View: https://twitter.com/byjayking/status/1656860516726308865?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
View: https://twitter.com/byjayking/status/1656859241649524737?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
View: https://twitter.com/jaredweissnba/status/1656852799286661121?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
@CoffeeNerdness got kind of dunked on for saying that Brad made the decision to go 2 bigs (I didn’t dunk on him but I didn’t think he was right)….but shit, all of these quotes from the players are kind of making me think it might have been a Brad call
View: https://twitter.com/jaredweissnba/status/1656852799286661121?s=46&t=Yv-0viabFQl7Lk7DrSRbBA
@CoffeeNerdness got kind of dunked on for saying that Brad made the decision to go 2 bigs (I didn’t dunk on him but I didn’t think he was right)….but shit, all of these quotes from the players are kind of making me think it might have been a Brad call
He's right too. Although the Celtics play in those games didn't help matters - the crowds were still pretty lame
Was it a Brad call, or was it all the players going to him and being like “hey, coach, you really should think about starting Rob.”
It might have been Brad. It might have been the players. It might have been both. Only thing I'm pretty sure of is that it wasn't Joe.
Not sure I would have necessarily gone with 2 bigs, but the end result was Tatum not being stuck in a corner guarding PJ Tucker.
He's too good a defender to waste, and by starting TL/AL, you now have him out there on a wing, involved in PnR actions that Philly loves, and well, the results speak for themselves.
He's too good a defender to waste, and by starting TL/AL, you now have him out there on a wing, involved in PnR actions that Philly loves, and well, the results speak for themselves.
I think TL/Horford played a total of 7 minutes together over the first 5 games
CJM would be nutz if he didn't start TL/Horford in G7, the defense was night/day
It's such a chore to get them the ball an absurd amount of the time. I'm a fan of the J's alternating taking the ball up after rebounds. Offense was so bad tonight. Defense was great. Admittedly a big part of thattonight was the 6ers going 8-34 from 3 (breaking that down a bit: Harden 0-6 on mostly tough attempts, Melton 0-4 on wide open ones after making everything in G1, Tucker 2-6 is about what you'd expect given the quality of his looks, Maxey 3-9 it felt like he underperformed his shot quality a bit). But they defended the rim well, 7 steals is very solid compared to their usual output, and their defense got sabotaged by the FOURTEEN STEALS the 6ers got that helped juice their transition attack. Looking at that number makes me want to vomit. I almost can't believe they won.
Need Rob to defend the paint like he did in the first half tonight, the insane turnovers to stop (Marcus is going to kill me before all of this is said and done), and just run the offense on Sunday and see what you can conjur up.
edit: god how insanely big did that Derrick White 3 feel after the 6ers finally took their first lead w/ ~4 minutes left in the 3rd. Things felt like they were spiraling. And then Jaylen forced a lot tonight but he has some absolutely incredible finishes around the rim in the 2h to help them keep contact when Philly was taking over.
Maybe Mazzulla came to the realization that White had been bad in the previous two losses, and decided to go out with Rob playing more minutes
Feels like the players are more excited he tried something different than dissing him?
Feel like they do need a couple solid assistants if they do decide to keep Joe. It makes sense.. he is very young and still obviously learning on the job.
Great adjustment by CJM starting Rob. Something had to change.
That said, the defensive effort across the board was off the hook. We handed them the ball all night, and to be fair Philly upped their defense somewhat too. But Tatum was able to step on their necks at the end because they just couldn't get easy shots against us most of the night.
Smart blindside doubles, great fighting through screens and fighting to get back in front. Eliminating Harden's advantage plays through fierce effort. Making the bad guys work hard on defense by pushing pace and good ball movement.
Great performance. Would have been a blowout without such a ridiculous number of turnovers. On to game 7.
That said, the defensive effort across the board was off the hook. We handed them the ball all night, and to be fair Philly upped their defense somewhat too. But Tatum was able to step on their necks at the end because they just couldn't get easy shots against us most of the night.
Smart blindside doubles, great fighting through screens and fighting to get back in front. Eliminating Harden's advantage plays through fierce effort. Making the bad guys work hard on defense by pushing pace and good ball movement.
Great performance. Would have been a blowout without such a ridiculous number of turnovers. On to game 7.
Sam Mitchell called this out too on NBA TV studios’ show. Said that was disrespectful to the coach and CJM should take Smart aside about those comments.
I mean i see that from an old school guy like Mitchell who did his time as coach.
On the other hand, I think this is really refreshing.
Smart made the point that “Joe was put in a tough position and he’s learning and so is the rest of the team”
What I see here is taking accountability and taking the heat off the coach for the players’ performance.
If that’s the team mentality that’s progressive. They all have a part to play, all these players have tons of playoff experience now as many posters have said. And they are all obligated to give their best - player or coach, no real hierarchy.
Should you speak that openly to the media? YMMV but for me I respect and appreciate Smart. Watching him tonight helped me pivot from simply expecting this team to steamroll everyone as if that were their birthright to genuinely caring about seeing them through this challenging and somewhat humbling trial.
Half of sports media seems like waiting around for someone to say anything outside the very dull lines and then making a huge deal of it. Oooh someone said something honest. How disrespectful. It’s not the military.
They also stopped ignoring Rob on O. the early lobs made Embid less aggressive.
Philly counter moves...play Niang more? Make Rob guard a shooter? Get Rob in ballscreen action?
Philly counter moves...play Niang more? Make Rob guard a shooter? Get Rob in ballscreen action?
They've gotta give Tucker a chance to make some shots in game 7, if they replace him with Niang then all of their perimeter defenders range from below average to awful. That's just too much pressure on Embiid, and all they need on offense is for Tucker to hit that corner 3 (and he's 8-19 from 3 in the series, not exactly bad).
On defense, they're probably comfortable with how things turned out. Tatum can't be counted on to be that bad (for the first 44 minutes) again, but it's not super likely that Smart/Brogdon/White are 10-19 from 3 again either.
