Celtics 2023 - 2024 Discussion

[borg]

Just ignore the *****ing members
who do not utilize the ignore thread feature.

But who do utilize the Celtics Forum

 

[Triumph]

That was also the Auerbach strategy against Wilt.

Red was a smart cookie.

I was waiting for a sandwich in San Antonio and a person walked in the shop looking for the owner. This place had a picture of Red smoking a big cigar on the wall. The guy pointed to the picture and asked me if that was the owner.

 

[Kdo5]

A little OT, but when did everyone start saying this? I feel like I hear "give someone their flowers" three times a day lately

Not sure? It’s certainly a phrase used more the past several years.

 

[Kdo5]

It feels like the old days when I was confident that the Celtics would win. That hasn't been the case recently.

Tatum is playing with a Bird-like all around game.
Brown and White are playing better than ever.
KP and Holiday have added some punch on offense and defense.
Al, Kornet, Hauser and Pritchard are no slouches either.
And Joe Mazzulla may actually be a good HC. Who knew?

Mazzula will never get credit, only the blame. My opinion of him has changed quite a bit during these playoffs.

 

[ausbacker]

Mazzula will never get credit, only the blame. My opinion of him has changed quite a bit during these playoffs.

I've been a vocal opponent of Mazzulla, but it's hard to argue against his obvious recent growth. He coached well last night.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I've been a vocal opponent of Mazzulla, but it's hard to argue against his obvious recent growth. He coached well last night.

Mazzula will never get credit, only the blame. My opinion of him has changed quite a bit during these playoffs.

Maz has definitely improved as a coach. As Jackie Mac brought up, he has an outstanding veteran coaching staff to leverage.

I think that this game was eye opening from the stand point of the opponents offense. Indiana's offense was crazy good and everyone was moving around. Defending the Mavs seems to be significantly less daunting. Luka and Kyrie can go off but their offense is way more simple.

Side note: listening to the radio and they addressed something I was thinking. Luka was playing up his knee injury, grimacing when he missed shots. The excuses are being lined up if they go down 0-2.

Luka Flopcic is the Ben Roethlisberger of the NBA

 

[javajunky]

Tatum tightened up and sucked offensively, but the team didn't need him. Hopefully, this frees him of the I must do it syndrome, and he and the offense can bust out the next few games.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

That was also the Auerbach strategy against Wilt.

And, more recently, UCONN against Zack Edey. [As someone put it, "Hurley wants to fill a sock with quarters and beat you to death."]

 

[Headcase]

Red was a smart cookie.

I was waiting for a sandwich in San Antonio and a person walked in the shop looking for the owner. This place had a picture of Red smoking a big cigar on the wall. The guy pointed to the picture and asked me if that was the owner.

What place in SA, sounds like a place I need to swing by.

 

[Vindicate]

Tatum led both teams will 11 boards.
Tied with 5 assists.
39% total fg average is damn good. 6/16 and 3/7.

In total a mature leader who each play knows where he fits in...he will still get bashed ... he is just not jaylen brown ... or any one of the top 15 in the league who are alphas. Jaylen Brown plays great ... but he does not play like Tatum wish the media would see this.

JB gets to be JB because he has JT.

 

[jdlboot14]

I knew the ESPUN heads were full of crap. Everyone fawns over offense, but they forgot that Luka and Kyrie don't play defense. And the Celtics D was on fire. Sure, it helped that those 2 were missing shots all night, but so was Tatum.
I don't think it'll be as easy Game 2, but I don't see the Celtics struggling with Mav's D. I love seeing the respect suddenly return to this team, they've been undervalued all playoffs after being so dominant.

 

[rochrist]

Maz is still sticking with the Mavs to win it.

 

[VrabelJr]

Tatum did some great things defensively but offensively he was his usual self chucking up bad 3s and afraid to finish at the rim. You can put a lot of the blame for the Mavs run in the 3rd on Tatum as well as White shooting a 3 with 18 seconds left on the shot clock.

KP, JB, and Jrue were all better than Tatum last night. There’s a reason JB was the ECF MVP.

 

[aluminum seats]

Echo the positive Mazzulla comments. The thing that strikes me is he seems much more in control of what he wants to do. The issue with timeouts for example was never that he had to call them at any particular time, it was the feeling that he didn’t really know whether or not he should. I don’t get that impression anymore.

 

[Kdo5]

I think that tactically the Mavs can do better defensively as witnessed during their run in the third quarter. However the flaw that can’t be fixed is that Luka and Kyrie are subpar defenders and the Celtics can continue to target them.

 

[Kdo5]

Tatum did some great things defensively but offensively he was his usual self chucking up bad 3s and afraid to finish at the rim. You can put a lot of the blame for the Mavs run in the 3rd on Tatum as well as White shooting a 3 with 18 seconds left on the shot clock.

KP, JB, and Jrue were all better than Tatum last night. There’s a reason JB was the ECF MVP.

He put up a rough three point shot or two at the end of the half but otherwise he was good except for the turnovers. I don’t think he was playing selfish or stupid on offense at all.

He was drawing three defenders at times and making the right plays. Much as I love JB, KP, Jrue and DWhite they wouldn’t be able to do much if they were double teamed, let alone dealing with three defenders on their drives.

 

[Kdo5]

Why are we still sending extra threads over here? We already have the Celtics thread in this sub. It’s stupid.

Either merge the threads or leave it in the main forum.

I understand that threads about N’Keal Harry, and the Eagles are so much more relevant and interesting to people but still…

 

[neuronet]

First half was a thing of beauty.

 

[Triumph]

What place in SA, sounds like a place I need to swing by.

It was near the Air Force base where pilots trained. Randolf? Lots of T 38s flying around.

Definetly not Kelly.

 

[maust]

I'm seeing an impressive level of maturity from the players and Mazulla that just wasn't there last year. Some of that may be Holliday and Porzingas but I'd hazard a guess more of it is simply coming of age and experience.