Truth. I think the chances of them losing this series are the same as me winning the lottery….and I’ve never bought a lottery ticket
Celtics vs Da Culture - Round 1 (FIGHT!)
- Thread starter Ed Hillel
- Start date
I've got Jaylen Brown dribbling into the zone and turning the ball over as the exact moment this place shits itself
but that may be it as far as high drama in this series
give everyone here more credit. I don’t think anyone expects Boston to lose.
If you’re talking about game thread, then obviously youre right but game threads are a place for bitching no matter what game it is
We should win tomorrow in a rout with Miami having won an elimination game only 36 hours prior plus todays travel then a 1pm start….while we have been setting our circadian clocks with hard practices set at or around this start time. The tricky game is a G2 letdown off a big and probably easy win but without Butler the Heat are likely to be more annoying by sticking around. If they don’t steal G2 this should be a sweep.
ha, the game thread is the only place where temperatures will flare for this series
a Celtics Gentlemen Sweep would be a heckuva an outcome for these Heat
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Porzingis really should be the major difference maker against the zone. Outside of a passing savant like Jokic, he's the perfect guy to position at the free throw line; he'll just shoot over whoever is guarding him if he gets that shot.
Just like that another year where our title chances are wiped out by a devastating injury.
If it’s anything like the Embiid game thread yesterday it should be avoided at all costs lol.
This should be a 4-5 game Celts series victory.
But Spo will do his damnedest to slow this down and hold, hack, bump and try to frustrate the Celts into distraction and get them off theme. Because its worked in the past. And refs seem to have forgotten where they put their whistles recently
Get the energizer bunny ready to inject pace as required and attack rather than be attacked.
LGC
But Spo will do his damnedest to slow this down and hold, hack, bump and try to frustrate the Celts into distraction and get them off theme. Because its worked in the past. And refs seem to have forgotten where they put their whistles recently
Get the energizer bunny ready to inject pace as required and attack rather than be attacked.
LGC
The reffing in the playoffs has seemed inconsistent at best.. the knicks and sixers had a ton of FTs in the first half which seemed much more like the earlier part of the season. Then the second half totally changed to be much more like the second half of the season. Other games felt like they were letting less physicality go.
if I were a Heat fan I’d wonder where all the scoring is going to come from. Bam was quiet in the play in games.. Herro shot a ton it seemed. Is Caleb Martin going to go off again?
The 2008 Celtics were a wagon and the first two rounds of their playoffs went seven games. All of their series went to at least six games.
I will not be surprised if this Celtics team does not demolish every team in its path.
However this Heat team does not have the horses and this series will not go to seven games. My guess is the Heat get one fluky win and the Celtics prevail in five games.
I will not be surprised if this Celtics team does not demolish every team in its path.
However this Heat team does not have the horses and this series will not go to seven games. My guess is the Heat get one fluky win and the Celtics prevail in five games.
Alright, I’m ready to dive back into the insanity.
Heat can’t keep up offensively, even if the Celtics struggle a bit from three. The Heat also will prepare the Celtics for the defenses they’ll deal with the rest of the way.
Fuck Miami, fuck the Heat, fuck Pat, fuck Jimmy, and fuck Tua/Tyreek.
Heat can’t keep up offensively, even if the Celtics struggle a bit from three. The Heat also will prepare the Celtics for the defenses they’ll deal with the rest of the way.
Fuck Miami, fuck the Heat, fuck Pat, fuck Jimmy, and fuck Tua/Tyreek.
The Heat are going to try to turn the series into an ugly rock fight and keep the Celtics from getting into a rhythm.
Spo knows he's not likely to win the 120-110 games. He's going to focus on trying to win the 95-94 games.
CJM might be trying to figure how to get away with ripping off Fenway,
Spo is focusing on trying to steal one at the Gahden and then get the fuck out of town.
I have no doubt that they'll do everything at their disposal to muck it up— weird zones, clutching and grabbing, trying to frustrate and distract the C's. But listening to Bam talk about their plans to turn the series into a "dogfight". I do wonder if it isn't partly wish-casting. This year, the Celtics are simply a much bigger and more physical team than the Heat, who are also missing one of their tone-setting tough players in Jimmy. Outside of Bam and (kinda) Jaquez and Jovic, there isn't much physicality on this team, unless you count Duncan Robinson's grabbing-and-clutching act that nearly got him his arm broken against JB.
You’re game thread-ready and the teams aren’t even on the floor for warmups!! LFG!!
agreed. My guess on the three things Spo might have in the whiteboard for game 1?
1. Junk up the defense to confuse
2. Be physical and force them to call us for it —intimidate!
3. Attack on offense
they will be sky high for this one—if I were Miami this is the game I want to set the tone and I’d use all the defensive gimmicks to try and get lucky
Their best strategy is to soften up the Celtics by allowing a 50-pt win then adjust to make G2 a 4Q halfcourt game in the 90’s.
My point was that KP is in a much different role (and is a much different player) than he was on DAL, particularly the 2021 playoffs where he said he was told to "stand in the corner." Teams are going to be ultra-physical with him, particularly when he posts up. He's got to get used to that and still remain highly efficient in that area - it's one of the keys to BOS's offense.
And it starts today.
I'll be looking at Boston turnovers, Miami offensive rebounds, transition point differential, Tatum and Brown bitching about uncalled fouls - especially during live play, Boston's offensive pace, whether too many of Boston's three attempts are of the "first available look" variety and too few from "paint touch and kick out," and whether too many of their offensive sets feature little to no movement and don;t really get started until late in the shot clock. Too many of those things happening is the recipe for rock fight loss. In truth, there is room for the Celtics to be far less than perfect and still take this series, though.
Holy hell, that’s incredible. He must be happier to be here than we can ever know. JB - 105 and JT- 94 fwiw.
They are not prepared for our Dolphin Blow.
That said, was Larry around at all for the '22 run? I know he's been keeping the franchise at arm's length for years and I can't recall if he made an appearance like this before the finals two years ago. If it has been a while then the fact that he's putting the beef aside and coming to support the Celtics is pretty awesome.
I think he is among the happiest players the NBA has ever seen. Coming into this season, he had played in 187 wins and 215 losses in the regular season, and 2 playoff series losses during which he played in 4 wins and 6 losses. This year he was 43-14 in the regular season, quite the turnaround.
Well coached or not, this Heat team has the capacity to be not only beaten but humiliated. Less than 12 months after upsetting the Bucks in the bubble, Milwaukee swept them in round 1 in 2021, by an average of 20.5 points per game. Herro and Bam as lead scorers are not great at creating their own shots (their TS %s would be dead last if combined with Boston's 8 man rotation), and losing Butler/Rozier makes them significantly weaker on both ends.
Their only path to victory (aside from injury to multiple Celtics' starters) is to go red hot from 3, hope Boston goes ice cold, get physical on every drive and hope the refs start letting them go. That's basically what happened last spring, and the series went 7 games in part because Butler went off in the 4th quarter in games 1 and 2 (and almost won it for then in game 6). Taking a step back and looking with from a neutral eye, this series shouldn't be competitive (not earlier in this thread, but the Celtics are nearly even odds to sweep the series). I expect the individual games to be closer than that, but it's really hard to imagine a way that this goes more than 5 games.
Their only path to victory (aside from injury to multiple Celtics' starters) is to go red hot from 3, hope Boston goes ice cold, get physical on every drive and hope the refs start letting them go. That's basically what happened last spring, and the series went 7 games in part because Butler went off in the 4th quarter in games 1 and 2 (and almost won it for then in game 6). Taking a step back and looking with from a neutral eye, this series shouldn't be competitive (not earlier in this thread, but the Celtics are nearly even odds to sweep the series). I expect the individual games to be closer than that, but it's really hard to imagine a way that this goes more than 5 games.
Starting lineups:
View: https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1782087256527827448
Celtics starters for Game 1 vs Heat: Kristaps Porzingis Jayson Tatum Jaylen Brown Derrick White Jrue Holiday
Heat starters: Bam Adebayo Nikola Jovic Jaime Jaquez Jr. Caleb Martin Tyler Herro
What a difference one letter makes! In this case, the 'v' in 'Jovic.'
View: https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1782087256527827448
Celtics starters for Game 1 vs Heat: Kristaps Porzingis Jayson Tatum Jaylen Brown Derrick White Jrue Holiday
Heat starters: Bam Adebayo Nikola Jovic Jaime Jaquez Jr. Caleb Martin Tyler Herro
What a difference one letter makes! In this case, the 'v' in 'Jovic.'
Vegas agrees with your "neutral eye"
14-point spread is gaudy.
If those 2 don't hustle back after turnovers or non-calls to play-act, stare at their left hand, or berate officials, we're screwed down the road (not in this series).
They need to grow out of that crap during live play, and if they want to talk to refs do it during dead ball breaks.
[Edit]…sorry. Thought this was the game thread.
Please pretend this is a thoughtful, analytically-grounded, well written post that supports the proposition “The Heat: Fuck Those Guys.”
Please pretend this is a thoughtful, analytically-grounded, well written post that supports the proposition “The Heat: Fuck Those Guys.”
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i played a heat fan this morning online and i had bill russell at C and all he was doing was useing the C to try and bait me into turnovers then he starting cussing me out saying i am a sucmbag and cheater when he already got the card we play the mode for
i think he was mad because i was letting the CPU play Def and not giveing him open shots
and on off i was draining all 24 secord off once i had a lead
most of the time i dont care if i win or lose online but the guy pissed me off and i only allow 37 pts and made the guy work for everything and he try to made me quit in the 4th q and i refused
i think he was mad because i was letting the CPU play Def and not giveing him open shots
and on off i was draining all 24 secord off once i had a lead
most of the time i dont care if i win or lose online but the guy pissed me off and i only allow 37 pts and made the guy work for everything and he try to made me quit in the 4th q and i refused
Well, they played great for three quarters and then bought themselves an injury to Tatum with a lazy fourth quarter. This team, for all of its talent, has learned nothing from past failures.
I think the outcome confirmed my pre-game take that there's only so much a team like the Heat can do to "turn the series into a rock fight" when they're so outsized. The Heat play hard and Spo can try to junk stuff up, but it's hard to really disrupt a team that's bigger than you. I'm more worried about the Knicks being able to run with this gameplan.
I think pretty much everyone played well. Jaylen hit his threes, took care of the ball and had a bigtime third quarter, KP obviously, White, Jrue, Hauser, etc.
Tatum missed a bunch of open threes, but god damn did he control that game. He’s found the weak spots in that heat zone, and it almost always leads to a wide open shot for somebody.
Tatum missed a bunch of open threes, but god damn did he control that game. He’s found the weak spots in that heat zone, and it almost always leads to a wide open shot for somebody.
I wouldn't go quite so rosy:
- Jaylen was pretty sloppy early, had trouble controlling the ball. This didn't lead to overt turnovers in every case but often to missed opportunities or junked-up offensive possessions.
-Jrue was bad at finishing around the basket.
Porzingis was fantastic, and I agree with your Tatum assessment. Hauser was the unsung hero— his four threes off the bench put us in the driver's seat.
This is an absolutely ridiculous take.
edit: it's like if Shaughnessy posted here.. always driving home that narrative despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
edit2: I wonder if they played any differently because they were up 30?
You know this but since feel compelled to post, I will too. A 30 point win in the playoffs has the exact same impact as a one point win. Furthermore, adult NBA viewers understand that a team rarely dominates from the tip to the final buzzer. NBA teams make runs and the Heat are coached to never quit which is something I admire about that otherwise tire fire of a franchise.
There are no style points for playoff games, like at all. An ugly win is just a win. You can do whatever it is you are doing but to me your expectations are never, ever going to met.
The entire rest of this season depends on how well or badly Tatum fell on his back after a cheap shot he took at a point in the game where he didn't need to even be on the floor, but for the team's lackadasical play inthe fourth quarter. Joe says he's fine, which would be great, but he may not be feeling too great tomorrow.
I agree there are no style points. But there are injuries, and there is a commitment to finishing the damned job that was absent for a lot of the fourth quarter. I hope this was simply a bullet dodged and they learn from it.
So now Mazzulla left the starters in too long. Reddick explained the reasoning - you clearly don't agree with that - it was because they haven't played serious, heavy minutes hoops in a while. I'd rather test the starters endurance in a blowout win than trying to see what a gassed Tatum has left if Miami gets them close and late deeper into the series.
This is sports, these are athletes in their 20s and 30s playing as hard as they can. Injuries are a risk all the time.
The C's handled the Heat in game one. Boston is apparently in huge trouble...