Celtics 2023 - 2024 Discussion

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

I guess a series doesn't start, or end in this case, until a team loses at home. Dallas will probably get one at home.

But I don't see them winning three out of four after that. This Celtics team might be as good or better than the 08 version.

This could probably be broken into its own thread. We're all subject to some recency bias. I'd have to think about this. That 08 team was awesome, and had some phenomenal role players.

 

[Kdo5]

As most of us expected, this game was tighter than the first. Dallas came to play tonight. I can't stand Donkey, but I have to admit he was the best player on the floor tonight offensively. My thoughts on this one:

The good:
Jrue Holliday just never seems to have a bad game. He meshes so well and always knows exactly what is needed at any given point in time. He never seems to make a bad decision, and always stays within his game. He is very quickly becoming my favorite Celtic.

The defense wasn't quite as good tonight and had to do more double-teaming, but Doncic forced that on them, seemingly being able to hit from everywhere. Still, they clamped down when it mattered and forced turnovers in crunch time.

Brown was again excellent in nearly all facets. He remains front runner for MVP should the Celtics win.

I know people will get on Tatum for all the misses last night, but I love it when guys aren't scoring but still find ways to impact the game. He still had 12 assists and 9 rebounds, and finished with a +6. The missed layups in traffic to me were a bit of an anomaly, and not something I expect to happen again. The 3s are another story. See "the ugly" below.

The bad:
The bench will continue to be a concern of mine if this series goes long. KP says he's fine, I'll believe it when I see it. That leaves Pritchard, who has disappeared offensively, and Hauser, who I just don't trust. The Celtics basically played a 6 man rotation last night. I don't know how long they can get away with that, especially if KP is injured or ineffective.

The ugly:
I'm no NBA coach and would not profess myself to be smarter than one. I'm also old school and I understand how the game has changed. That said, I don't support Joe's notion that Boston should continue to shoot 3's in a close game no matter how many they've missed. They have shown again and again they are all capable of finishing in the paint and drawing fouls, and have been very good from the line (95% last night). I would say so far the officiating has favored Boston in this series. Force Dallas to play defense inside, get them in foul trouble, and get free throws. This is the formula right now. It was only by the grace of God that Dallas was equally horrible from the arc. Boston could have easily lost this game had Dallas even been a bit proficient in this regard.

Thing is taking the three was where the opportunities were last night. They were collapsing on Tatum and Brown’s drives. We saw how difficult it was for Tatum to get a layup up and finish when getting swamped. And this is the NBA finals, I’m not relying on the refs to give a good whistle.

The drive and kick was there. They played great defense and eventually enough threes fell late in the game to give us cushion. Living by the three might give us trouble at times but it’s the teams strength. If they don’t get down on themselves and play weak D I’ll live with it.

They made up for some of the missed shots with good defense and transition points.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Brown was again excellent in nearly all facets. He remains front runner for MVP should the Celtics win.

6 turnovers

His defense and shot selection have been outsranding though

 

[borisman]

Porzingis ....

 

[denverpatsfan]

Nice win when everyone didn't play their A game with the exception of White. Didn't expect KP to make it all 4-7 games but he's got 2-days off to rest that leg. Gotta win 2 out of 5. Game 3 will be tough with Dallas up against it.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Porzingis ....

It is the same leg
I quoted Someone that tweeted last night it was the opposite leg
Seems like his ankle

 

[borisman]

Nice win when everyone didn't play their A game with the exception of White. Didn't expect KP to make it all 4-7 games but he's got 2-days off to rest that leg. Gotta win 2 out of 5. Game 3 will be tough with Dallas up against it.

Jrue had a GREAT game. A+

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Basically his ****ed up calf remains ****ed up.

My apologies
I quoted a tweet from someone last night that said it was his opposite leg that got injured
They were wrong and I should know better than to trust something on line
At least I slept better lol

 

[jimnance]

The one constant all season is the C's defense. I don't care about stats, C's D is the best in the nba.Period.
And they also happen to have the best offense in the league.

 

[raduray]

This victory reminds me of the Patriots 13-3 Super Bowl game against the Rams. Some called it an ugly game, but I saw it as a classic and exciting defensive struggle. It was appropriate to see Bill Belichick attending this one.

 

[aluminum seats]

Porzingis ....

The floor seemed slippery last night, not sure if that played a part here

 

[jimnance]

This victory reminds me of the Patriots 13-3 Super Bowl game against the Rams. Some called it an ugly game, but I saw it as a classic and exciting defensive struggle. It was appropriate to see Bill Belichick attending this one.

Nothing ugly about that game.
One of my favorite SB's. Total domination.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

6 turnovers

His defense and shot selection have been outsranding though

I'll take that tradeoff as he's been so aggressive to the basket.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Jrue had a GREAT game. A+

Reincarnated DJ

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Thing is taking the three was where the opportunities were last night. They were collapsing on Tatum and Brown’s drives. We saw how difficult it was for Tatum to get a layup up and finish when getting swamped. And this is the NBA finals, I’m not relying on the refs to give a good whistle.

The drive and kick was there. They played great defense and eventually enough threes fell late in the game to give us cushion. Living by the three might give us trouble at times but it’s the teams strength. If they don’t get down on themselves and play weak D I’ll live with it.

They made up for some of the missed shots with good defense and transition points.

I hear you and that's a reasonable argument. It just seemed like the entire team was affected other than White, who finished at a respectable 40%. Besides their defense, I feel like the biggest difference compared to the Celtics team that lost to GS 2 years ago is they have the ability to win in other ways offensively when the 3s don't fall. The worst version of the Celtics IMO is the one that just chucks it up no matter what is happening, or just plays iso-ball. This team seems to have matured out of those habits, and I don't want to see them revert.

I feel like Tatum missing layups wasn't really Dallas' doing, even though they did tighten things up compared to G1. I'm chalking it up to just a bad night.

I'm definitely not relying on the refs, just noting so far the calls have gone the C's way so far. I would take advantage until that stops being the case.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Reincarnated DJ

Great comparison. Some of those cuts to the basket were very reminiscent of DJ back in the day.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I'll take that tradeoff as he's been so aggressive to the basket.

Yeah I’m not really complaining about Brown. He’s playing within himself and playing like a champion. I’m surprised at how much **** Tatum is taking because everyone is so obsessed with field goal percentage, which fluctuates for every player each game.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I'm definitely not relying on the refs, just noting so far the calls have gone the C's way so far. I would take advantage until that stops being the case.

Disagree. I’m sure there’s some bias but I think Celtics were absolutely not in the plus column of favored calls in G2. Numerous blatant mistakes against them:

-Tatum shooting foul ruled on the floor
-Doncic several on floor fouls ruled shooting
-Porzingis blown up by illegal screen, no call, while in bonus
-White’s goaltend (I didn’t think so)
-White called for foul on block, was not foul
-Porzingis called for weak over the back foul they let go 95% of the time
-Brown (I think?) called for shooting foul, even broadcasters said bad call
-Several ticky tack calls down the stretch, Celtics called for shooting fouls because refs were caught up in game’s momentum

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Even though Tatum is a top 10 player this is still funny af

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Disagree. I’m sure there’s some bias but I think Celtics were absolutely not in the plus column of favored calls in G2. Numerous blatant mistakes against them:

-Tatum shooting foul ruled on the floor
-Doncic several on floor fouls ruled shooting
-Porzingis blown up by illegal screen, no call, while in bonus
-White’s goaltend (I didn’t think so)
-White called for foul on block, was not foul
-Porzingis called for weak over the back foul they let go 95% of the time
-Brown (I think?) called for shooting foul, even broadcasters said bad call
-Several ticky tack calls down the stretch, Celtics called for shooting fouls because refs were caught up in game’s momentum

We all have bias, and we always believe our team was victimized by the refs. I didn't really agree with the goaltending call either, and I'm sure there were other bad calls, including many from this list. I can't make a list of all the calls the refs missed for Dallas, but I'm sure a Mavs fan could.

This is just my eyes, I don't have hard data. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe the Celtics are getting away with murder, nor do I think the calls or lack thereof are affecting the final outcomes. The number of free throws has been close to even. I just feel like the Celtics are being much more aggressive than Dallas at both ends, which would typically lead to more calls against them. That hasn't happened, at least not yet.