Celtics vs Da Culture - Round 1 (FIGHT!)
- Thread starter Ed Hillel
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For all that they still had an offensive rating for the game of 111pts/100, which isn't bad at all for the playoffs. DW sure helped with that.
Probably right. Also, how much does it take to break down games in 2024? It gets tedious to say 70 times: “Ok, this guy is going to bring the ball up. They will screen, and there will be a switch, and then they will have three options. Let’s see if they pick the right one.“
Chris Vernon mentioned in the Mismatch Podcast today, so it did not go unnoticed by the national Media...
One of the great things about NBA.com is that they have video for some of their statistics, like made shots.
4th one here: Video and Shotcharts | Stats | NBA.com .
Re-watch 5th one too!
I was flipping back and forth between the TNT broadcast and the local broadcast with Scal/Gorman. The thing that immediately stood out to me was how fucking much the national guys talk, about anything, constantly and for no fucking reason. There is almost no silence at all. I had never thought Scal shut up that much either, but when you watch them both during the same game, it was like going from an infomercial to just dead air, and it was fucking glorious. I wish there was a way to track numbers of words spoken by an announcer during a game. I'd bet the national guys had Scal/Gorman beat by like a 6:1 ratio.
Last night Gorman was the master of letting the game speak for itself. I was amused however that he flatly contradicted Scal on the question of whether the Celtics would get possession of the ball after the technical called on Bam after play had stopped. Scal said the Celts would get the ball, Gorman said no they wouldn't and Scal was right. It may have been a lucky guess, since Scal said more than once that he had never seen something like that before.
Back to the main point - we have been blessed to have Mike.
Back to the main point - we have been blessed to have Mike.
The game on Saturday, was there something going on with where Mike and Scal were located? Because they were exceptionally quiet during that game.
Verno spends a couple minutes ripping SVG on today's Ringer Mismatch pod, "Was SVG getting paid by the negative word about the celtics??"
Thanks! That layup feels like it's a tough shot to make. He's behind the backboard, falling forward, reaching back to lay it in. good grief.
The dunk less difficult lol.
I started game 3 watching TNT, then remembered that the local guys were doing the game. I switched over and it felt like the sun shining through the clouds after a gray, rainy day. I literally breathed a sigh of relief. Brain Anderson simply would not shut up. Listening to him is like being beaten with a hammer. He just talks and talks and talks until my brain can't take it anymore. Say what you want about Gorman. I know he's older than he used to be. But his approach has always been to simply call the game. That's all I ever want from an announcer.
I really wish a "less is more" play by play man could take center stage on a national broadcast. Would be so refreshing. Different sport, but I always thought Summerall nailed the balance.
It was just an insane performance by SVG. Literally a dozen times talking about how much he hated the Celtics' defensive effort (as they were on the road against a smart, desperate team and were up 10 after 1, 17 after 2 and 22 after 3), but him spending the entire 5 minute review break blaming Tatum for Bam sliding his feet into Tatum's landing zone was beyond the pale. His TV partners seemed stunned, and the way he tried to come back after it by throwing in a plug for Tatum's shoe was disgusting.
View: https://twitter.com/alpacinogrunt/status/1785161523976892508
Wow. That is savage. I do wonder if the production crew is made aware of stuff like this and whispers to SVG to tone his hate down a little?
My buddy AHP, he’s a fun account in that he completely leans into being a doomer.
SVG has been like this with the Celtics for years. In the Raptors/Celtics bubble series, he went on a two minute rant about how tired he was of watching Marcus Smart flop all over the court, while saying nothing about Kyle Lowry.
SVG has been like this with the Celtics for years. In the Raptors/Celtics bubble series, he went on a two minute rant about how tired he was of watching Marcus Smart flop all over the court, while saying nothing about Kyle Lowry.
I haven't loved SVG but have never found him to be ludicrously unbalanced before. Last night was embarrassing - his Tatum take was preposterous, so his double-triple-quadrupling down on it was just nuts. It was so bad he may visibly walk it back a bit the next game...
Looking bigger picture than this series, I cannot explain how well it bodes for the rest of the playoffs that he has a 3.43 assist to TO against this level of defensive attention, and Bam/Spo. It tells you what level he’s now reading the game at, as he either gets this look, or Bam+help. His scoring numbers are just being dragged down by shooting 18% on C&S threes so far.
View: https://twitter.com/StoolGreenie/status/1785348460545544367
View: https://twitter.com/StoolGreenie/status/1785348460545544367
I like this one better. Tatum dunking on Martin was sweet enough, but then JB calmly signaling to Martin that it was on his head was the best part.
View: https://twitter.com/TheAthletic/status/1785122849826783680
NBA league pass, to listen to max and sean, are always my go to choice. And sean now realizes this, and every so often announces the game clock to simplify sycning up the broadcast to the NBA audio.
Both Jays gave it to Martin after that one with JBs being the best because Martin was just sitting on his ass wearing it. It was delicious.
Yeah, this is has been a masterclass from Tatum and Joe. They understand exactly what Miami wants to do, and are picking it apart while keeping extreme economy of effort/dribbling from Jayson.
It's sad to me that the overall level of basketball appreciation in the commentariat is such that this performance this series won't get the love it deserves.
Yes, this one is brilliant in every way.
But the pure nonchalance on the Tatum screen with everyone - refs, Heat, crowd, SVG --just accepting it, was beautiful. This said to me the C's are done with the Heat culture bullshit, and I love it.
Not only is Miami playing without Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez is out tomorrow night as well. He's been really good this series.
View: https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1785383071241392592
View: https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1785383071241392592
Yes it was definitely worse during that 1H stretch bc they were still playing in the natural flow of the game and Miami’s defense had us shut down. In the 4Q we were purposely reducing the overall possessions in the game to protect the lead. As has been said it would have been much more aesthetically pleasing had layups been converted with the floor spread.
Put Herro in the torture chamber and let's just end this. Good test for how well the Celtics can focus--I think they've already been a lot better about that this series than during last year's games.
Not that it should change the outcome, but this makes the simple plan all that more important - crowd the three point line, make them create their own shots. Let Bam work hard for his 25 points on 20 shots, because no one else can reliably score off the dribble.
I had KP > Bam for these playoffs
Mea culpa time, that didn't age well at all. My bad guys
credit to @Euclis20 @the moops
KP is just too damn fragile and Bam is a bull
Mea culpa time, that didn't age well at all. My bad guys
credit to @Euclis20 @the moops
KP is just too damn fragile and Bam is a bull
I think "we" thought Miami would be borderline dirty to level the gutter in which they prefer to engage. And in that regard they have not disappointed.
The level of physicality is not in the same zip code as this Philly-NYK series.
I think all these series are physical as hell. As everyone and Shams' mom has been pointing out, the officiating down the stretch of the regular season shifted. The results are 2020s hoops style with a 90s twist but its not a Heat culture thing as you point out. Its going on across the first round.
That said, the Phil-NYK series is the top of the card. Every possession is a battle and I dig that style of play.
The dirtiness in the Philly series is also way higher. Embiid sees your Bam undercut and raises you 10x.
The fact that he’s making extremely quick decisions while facing what Spo throws at him is kind of wild, the coaching staff deserve a ton of credit too. No matter how much fans on Twitter and even Celtics fans may say whatever about Tatum, I keep thinking back to this clip, because it shows how other players and coaches look at him.
View: https://twitter.com/therechigoes/status/1785398148308885799?
It was brutal, but, much like the first quarter of game 3, what took the sting out of it was holding the Heat to 12 points in the quarter.
There was a play late in yesterday's game where Tatum was dribbling at the 3 point line, maybe took a step in, and there were 3 Heat players and no Celtics around him. I was thinking, "OK, Tatum, there are multiple open guys on the floor, you have to get it to one of them" and he did.
Are you guys listening to the LeBron and Redick pod? If you aren’t you are missing out. It’s like a college course on NBA basketball. They both speak a lot about Spo and the attention to detail that comes down from “The Riles Tree” I think in Pod 5 or 6 that relates to what Iggy is referring to for every single team regardless of who they are.
I mean, it depends on how long the Celtics remain alive in the playoffs, right, for this to be “season ending” or not.
Just to unfairly pick on WBCD here, I wanted to put a nail in the coffin of +/- small sample size analysis:
1) Everyone here who was watching on Monday agreed that Jaylen Brown had a bad game, some were even calling it borderline nightmarish. I personally thought it was merely bad, as perhaps did Mazzulla who to my eyes kept him out of a good chunk of his usual 2Q playtime, though he ended up playing most of the second half and finished 2nd in minutes with 39.
2) Jaylen Brown led the team in +/- at +17 in Monday's Game 4. Second was Horford at +15. Holiday was a +4 in a game we won by 14.
For every cherry picked example that can show that SSS +/- is silly to use as evidence for anything, there is an equally cherry picked data point available (surely!) that can say whatever happens to align with one's agenda. Which is exactly the point: data, sufficiently tortured, will confess to anything. For samples smaller than 10 games, but even really lower than 20-30, we might as well be arguing using astrology and the positions of celestial objects as an evidentiary basis. Please, for the love of God, stop being an otherwise intelligent poster here who resorts to using small sample +/- to bolster or quantify an argument. That's addressed to everyone, not just WBCD, and even to myself at times - I've been guilty too. But it's a nonsense way to argue anything, and we really need to bear that in mind before pulling that tool off (the very back of) the shelf.
So when Jaylen was on the court the team was highly successful, but that was in spite of him? I don't think you get to put the nail in the coffin.
Edit, as I've thought about this more than I should.
WBCD's post is done in the spirit of humility and curiosity. He points out that the team has actually done quite well with Jrue on the court, and thus maybe we should reconsider his contributions in spite of him shooting poorly. Great posting imo. No one is arguing that single game +/- tells you if a player was good or not. It is perfectly reasonable on the other hand to use it as a tool to say you may have missed something watching the game that led you to jump to conclusions.
Your post insists that there is only one point of view and shuts down further discussion. I'm personally a fan of humility and curiosity so WBCD keep on posting and don't let the arrogant shut you down.
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