The Heat is on, ECF here we come!

wade boggs chicken dinner

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Mar 26, 2005
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Hope JB is okay. He seemed to be running gingerly after slip.

It will be interesting to see if Robinson and Herro can stay on the floor. Surely they can't play both of them at the same time.
 

bigq

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I’m concerned about Bam hurting us on offense.
If Bam is the primary concern the Celtics should win the series running away. He’s averaged just under 17 ppg in the playoffs. Theis and TL should be able to keep him honest. I’m far more concerned about Dragić and Butler.
 

JakeRae

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If Bam is the primary concern the Celtics should win the series running away. He’s averaged just under 17 ppg in the playoffs. Theis and TL should be able to keep him honest. I’m far more concerned about Dragić and Butler.
I will take the offense defense trade off of Dragic getting his points and Kemba breaking him every possession the other way.
 

Kliq

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Jimmy Butler literally can't shoot anymore. He shot 24% from three in the regular season.That should be exploited in this kind of series.

If you thought Nick Nurse had a punchable face, just wait until Tyler Herro scores 20 off the bench for Miami.
 

nighthob

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Do these fucking Heat D up like the Raps?
What makes that Raptors D dangerous is that they tend to have the same physical draft profile that Boston does, they like long, athletic players and are willing to gamble that those guys can figure out how to play NBA ball.

Miami looks for skilled guys that might not necessarily check off those boxes. So they were willing to gamble on K-Rex, and drafted Herro despite the short arms. Now the Heat kill themselves on D, but the athletic profiles of guys like Dragic, Robinson, and Herro works against them. Bam is a handful, though. If he were Boston's 4/5 they'd be chilling the champagne for #18.
 

BigSoxFan

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What makes that Raptors D dangerous is that they tend to have the same physical draft profile that Boston does, they like long, athletic players and are willing to gamble that those guys can figure out how to play NBA ball.

Miami looks for skilled guys that might not necessarily check off those boxes. So they were willing to gamble on K-Rex, and drafted Herro despite the short arms. Now the Heat kill themselves on D, but the athletic profiles of guys like Dragic, Robinson, and Herro works against them. Bam is a handful, though. If he were Boston's 4/5 they'd be chilling the champagne for #18.
Bam was #14. Get to work, Danny.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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These are statistically the two best defensive teams in the playoffs but the Celtics are better by a wide margin in terms of EFG/Drating.

The thing is, if Lowry was tough to deal with, imagine how difficult a rotation of Butler, Crowder, Iguodala, Dragic and Olynyk are going to be for the Celtics. Spoelstra with an arsenal of those NBA grifters as well as Bam, Herro, Nunn and Robinson is kind of a handful.

Kemba's knee is the question mark here as well as if Hayward can give them anything at all. With both healthy they are a better team than Miami. However with Walker clearly out of sorts and Hayward still a bit away, this feels like a battle.
 

djbayko

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Jimmy Butler literally can't shoot anymore. He shot 24% from three in the regular season.That should be exploited in this kind of series.

If you thought Nick Nurse had a punchable face, just wait until Tyler Herro scores 20 off the bench for Miami.
I don't want to punch players and coaches for being good. I want to punch them for being cheap assholes. I admire Herro from what I saw of him this last series.
 

lovegtm

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Lots of good stuff here. I think this series will be competitive as hell, but the Heat are as much of a dream matchup for the Celtics as you can reasonably expect to get in a conference finals.

Bam is good, but the Celtics are built to have endless bodies to throw at that exact kind of guy.

A lot of the stuff Miami likes to do offensively can be negated by switching heavily.

The Heat definitely have more offensive talent than Toronto, but where Siakam/Lowry/Van Vleet are all plus defenders, the Heat guys outside of Butler give a ton back on the defensive end. One of Stevens' strongest points as a coach is ruthlessly targeting weak link defenders in the playoffs, and the Heat have too many of those guys.

Celtics in 6, but there will be some very hairy moments. They are not going to shut the Heat offense down for 7 straight games like they just did to the Raps.
 

Euclis20

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Jimmy Butler literally can't shoot anymore. He shot 24% from three in the regular season.That should be exploited in this kind of series.

If you thought Nick Nurse had a punchable face, just wait until Tyler Herro scores 20 off the bench for Miami.
Anybody can get hot in a short series. Case in point, Jimmy is 9/18 from 3 so far in 9 playoff games. They'll have to live with that given how the rest of the team is shooting (and how well they can shoot). Heat are hitting just over 38% of their 3s in the playoffs, basically the same as their regular season rate (they were 2nd this year in 3P% and 6th in 3PM).
 

lovegtm

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Anybody can get hot in a short series. Case in point, Jimmy is 9/18 from 3 so far in 9 playoff games. They'll have to live with that given how the rest of the team is shooting (and how well they can shoot). Heat are hitting just over 38% of their 3s in the playoffs, basically the same as their regular season rate (they were 2nd this year in 3P% and 6th in 3PM).
The Raptors were right with them in 3% and attempted the same amount, and it was nearly impossible for them to get consistent quality looks against the locked-in Celtics D.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2020.html#all_team_shooting
The Heat will have their moments, but this is a bad matchup for their brand of offense.
 

HowBoutDemSox

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Fun little recap of decades of Ainge/Riley hatred:
There are few people in the NBA who dislike each other more than Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge and Miami Heat president Pat Riley -- and it has been this way going on four decades.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29847095/nba-playoffs-why-next-chapter-heat-celtics-let-us-downYou have the 80’s Lakers/Celtics rivalry, a brawl in the 90’s both were involved in when Ainge was with Phoenix and Riley with the Knicks, then of course the Celtics/Heat stuff since then. Love this quote by Danny from 2013:
"I don't care about Pat Riley. He can say whatever he wants. I don't want to mess up his Armani suits and all that hair goop. It would be way too expensive for me."
 

bigq

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Fun little recap of decades of Ainge/Riley hatred:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29847095/nba-playoffs-why-next-chapter-heat-celtics-let-us-downYou have the 80’s Lakers/Celtics rivalry, a brawl in the 90’s both were involved in when Ainge was with Phoenix and Riley with the Knicks, then of course the Celtics/Heat stuff since then. Love this quote by Danny from 2013:
I especially liked this one from Riley:
"Danny Ainge needs to shut the f--- up and manage his own team. He was the biggest whiner going when he was playing and I know that because I coached against him."

I nearly forgot how much I dislike Pat Riley. I can’t wait for this series to get started.
 

amarshal2

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Oct 25, 2005
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These are statistically the two best defensive teams in the playoffs but the Celtics are better by a wide margin in terms of EFG/Drating.

The thing is, if Lowry was tough to deal with, imagine how difficult a rotation of Butler, Crowder, Iguodala, Dragic and Olynyk are going to be for the Celtics. Spoelstra with an arsenal of those NBA grifters as well as Bam, Herro, Nunn and Robinson is kind of a handful.

Kemba's knee is the question mark here as well as if Hayward can give them anything at all. With both healthy they are a better team than Miami. However with Walker clearly out of sorts and Hayward still a bit away, this feels like a battle.
It doesn’t look to me like the knee is the problem. Good TOR defense and inconsistent shooting looked like the problem. His change of direction looks just fine.
 

InstaFace

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Bam was #14. Get to work, Danny.
Yeah but that draft we picked #3 (Tatum + trade shenanigans) and didn't pick again until #37 (Ojeleye).


Anyway, remember how the Hayward sweepstakes came down to us vs Pat Riley? I particularly want to see Hayward stick it to them.
 

BigSoxFan

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Yeah but that draft we picked #3 (Tatum + trade shenanigans) and didn't pick again until #37 (Ojeleye).


Anyway, remember how the Hayward sweepstakes came down to us vs Pat Riley? I particularly want to see Hayward stick it to them.
Totally forgot about that. That would be an awesome story. Hayward coming back and playing key role in getting us to finals.
 

bosockboy

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Yeah but that draft we picked #3 (Tatum + trade shenanigans) and didn't pick again until #37 (Ojeleye).


Anyway, remember how the Hayward sweepstakes came down to us vs Pat Riley? I particularly want to see Hayward stick it to them.
Miami was in it but I think it was more Celtics or stay with Utah.