Celtics 2023 - 2024 Discussion

aluminum seats said:

Is that basketball related Jim, or were you just feeling philosophical this morning

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No free throws. No free lunch.
Both.

Awesome getting Jrue extended/locked up.
It used to be DWhite, now it's Jrue who's ridiculously underrated.
And he's still a flat-out stud despite being long in the tooth.
How many guards in the nba can effectively guard Giannis and Zion?
One. Jrue Holliday.
Love our backcourt

Zuma said:

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I hate the way the Celtics are playing to close out the season. Sleep walking into the playoffs after a year of domination and they can't finish off strong?

There is a real chance we end up in a first round match up with the Heat who always play us tough. The way we are playing is giving me a bad feeling going into it.

Kdo5 said:

I hate the way the Celtics are playing to close out the season. Sleep walking into the playoffs after a year of domination and they can't finish off strong?

There is a real chance we end up in a first round match up with the Heat who always play us tough. The way we are playing is giving me a bad feeling going into it.

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100%

All the counters to that are true: these games are absolutely meaningless, health is the most important thing, etc. But the reality is we've all seen teams in all sports, when they turn it off sometimes it's hard to turn it on again

Kdo5 said:

I hate the way the Celtics are playing to close out the season. Sleep walking into the playoffs after a year of domination and they can't finish off strong?

There is a real chance we end up in a first round match up with the Heat who always play us tough. The way we are playing is giving me a bad feeling going into it.

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While I agree with the sentiment, they may be taking a page from the last NBA Champ's playbook. They finished off the season at a lazy 2-5, getting blown out by a bad team, and lost only 4 the entire playoffs.

Jim Beankie said:

While I agree with the sentiment, they may be taking a page from the last NBA Champ's playbook. They finished off the season at a lazy 2-5, getting blown out by a bad team, and lost only 4 the entire playoffs.

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I understand that logic, I think the thing is that I’ve watched how this team operates throughout the “Jay era”.

There is some arrogance and a maintained belief that they are so good that they can simply flip the switch. Take some nights or quarters off and then blow doors when they feel like it.

I don’t know why they have had that mentality because they haven’t won a title. We walked into the Hawks series thinking it would be a piece of cake and it went 6 games. We thought were definitely better than the Sixers and it went 7 and they were badly on the ropes in Game 6.

I just don’t feel that they have proven that they are locked in at all times once the playoffs hit. I could very easily see them strolling into a Heat series and them lose game 1 right off the bat.

And to be honest I don’t think Mazzula is a very good coach. He is constantly blowing off valid critiques and concerns.

Maybe they will simply flip the switch, but I’d like to see it before I believe it…

Charles Barkley rips Celtics for ‘going through the motions’ vs. Knicks

Love this quote: "Shaq asked me earlier if Tatum and Brown should play. If they’re going to play like that, they shouldn’t play". I agree 100%.

bresna said:

Charles Barkley rips Celtics for ‘going through the motions’ vs. Knicks

Love this quote: "Shaq asked me earlier if Tatum and Brown should play. If they’re going to play like that, they shouldn’t play". I agree 100%.

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There isn't a world where it should be possible for Tatum to be a -30 in 32 minutes and Pritchard a +22 in 21 minutes. Trying to even make the math of that add up hurts my head

aluminum seats said:

There isn't a world where it should be possible for Tatum to be a -30 in 32 minutes and Pritchard a +22 in 21 minutes. Trying to even make the math of that add up hurts my head

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The starters don't appear to be interested in playing defense. Pritchard has one gear - overdrive - and he always plays tough D.

Just sit the starters if they want a break. Treating these games like a shootaround can't be good for the team with the playoffs right around the corner, especially tanking against the number 2 AND number 3 seeds... in back to back games no less. Giving playoff teams the confidence that they can beat your starters this late in the season is dumb.

BTW - there is the added benefit of giving your bench significant playing time which can mean the difference if you go deep in the playoffs.

bresna said:

The starters don't appear to be interested in playing defense. Pritchard has one gear - overdrive - and he always plays tough D.

Just sit the starters if they want a break. Treating these games like a shootaround can't be good for the team with the playoffs right around the corner, especially tanking against the number 2 AND number 3 seeds... in back to back games no less. Giving playoff teams the confidence that they can beat your starters this late in the season is dumb.

BTW - there is the added benefit of giving your bench significant playing time which can mean the difference if you go deep in the playoffs.

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Agreed, there's no reason to have your starters playing 30-40 minutes a night if this is their approach

Either way, the regular season ends Sunday afternoon. Let's go!

It really does seem like for the past few weeks (since the clinch for 1st was a foregone conclusion), they've been treating it like practice, experimenting with different concepts to get it on film. Last two champs finished 2-5 and 6-7 to end the season. That being said, teams with 62 or more wins have had about a 50% success rate in winning the whole thing. Key is gonna be health.

aluminum seats said:

Yep. It's definitely been a fun season

Also, if my math is right, if they win their remaining six games by an average of 17 points I believe they'll have the highest point differential in NBA history (don't hold me to this)

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I'll make a bold take. If we don't win the championship this season I think wyc blows up the team.. what do you think?

aluminum seats said:

Agreed, there's no reason to have your starters playing 30-40 minutes a night if this is their approach

Either way, the regular season ends Sunday afternoon. Let's go!

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Yeah.. I don't know what Brunson was talking about celts have nothing to play for in the regular season, there's nothing to gain. Look at giannis he probably won't be right all play offs with those calf injuries..

I had a brief thought that maybe the new 65 game rule for NBA honors may be a "I'm here so I don't get fined" kind of thing, but a really quick look at the data doesn't support that, although I'm not going through to see if players played at least 20min for 63 games.

Jim Beankie said:

It really does seem like for the past few weeks (since the clinch for 1st was a foregone conclusion), they've been treating it like practice, experimenting with different concepts to get it on film.

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Maybe. But do you really need film on leaving Hauser isolated one-on-one in the high post with Giannis?? Do we need to know that isn't going to work? I'm pretty sure they did it twice in the Bucks game.

Real fan 02 said:

I'll make a bold take. If we don't win the championship this season I think wyc blows up the team.. what do you think?

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Nah man. I'm not even sure what that would mean with this team.

They need to rest the starters.
But  not when theyre on the court!
Cut down their minutes and/or let them sit games out.
But when they're on the court they must give 100%! This is basic basketball 101.
That means play defense like it's game 7 of the nba finals. Work on offense, not just stand around. Otherwise sit on the bench. **** pisses me off!

bresna said:

Maybe. But do you really need film on leaving Hauser isolated one-on-one in the high post with Giannis?? Do we need to know that isn't going to work? I'm pretty sure they did it twice in the Bucks game.

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While playing with Haus(er) money, sure why not? Won't know until you try! Dude got injured shortly* after messing with the HAUS. Couldn't handle the D.

Not sure how much to take the Celts seriously when the starting center is 6'7".

Edit: I'm watching Giannis iso on Pritchard with basically no help, and I have to laugh.

Jim Beankie said:

While playing with Haus(er) money, sure why not? Won't know until you try! Channel his inner should-be-DPOY Wembanyama.

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Not this year. Gobert deserves it more.
But Wemby is close.
And to paraphrase the rookie skyscraper," let Rudy win it this year. Cause starting next year I'm locking that award down for a looong time".
I agree