NBA PLAYOFFS 2016 POST GAME ATLANTA - HOME GAME #4

Amazing game.  Had to record it and watch it hours later.  Every other second I wanted to smash the tv or jump out of my skin.  They went on a run, we went on a run, and back and forth again and again.  So many heroic shots from Jerebko, Smart, Turner and IT.  We have a bunch of players who shine in the clutch and that's what you need.  There were some bone-headed turnovers and wide open missed shots that drove me nuts too.  And lately I get a sense of dread every time Sully puts up a shot. Really thought he'd be more of an offensive contributor.  He seems to be just a rebounder.  But a gutsy, gutsy win.  Milsap made more shots (19) than the entire rest of his team (18).  Maybe Michael Jordan did that once or twice but I don't think I've seen that any other time.  He shot 61.3%, the other Hawks shot 26.1% (18 for 61).  

And I can't remember the Celtics ever winning playoff games (two of them now) with three second round picks in the starting front line.  Maybe there was one sometime that they won but in my memory we've always had at least one big time player (sometimes three!) in the starting front court for the playoffs.  But to win post-season games starting Jae, Jerebko and Amir?  That's pretty remarkable.  And the horse we rode in on is a munchkin.  A tiny, often-discarded-by-other-teams 60th pick in the draft. Quite a story.  Now we gotta steal one in the land of the peaches.  And break their hearts.  Gotta keep the streak going of Atlanta having never won a playoff series against the C's.

2-2.  That's all that matters.  Our crappy game in Atlanta only counts as a single loss.  The pressure is now on Atlanta.  They have to win the next game in Atlanta because they have seen what it is like in the Gahden when it's ROCKIN'!!!  They do NOT want to walk back into the Boston Buzzsaw in a win-or-enjoy-your-summer game 6.

We were down 16 with 7:28 left in the 3rd.  I thought it was slipping away at that point.  I forgot we're grinders.

Despite Millsap's career game we still outscored them in the paint.  They had 11 fast break points to our 7, and we still outscored them in the paint.

The Hawks are 0-6 in OT this year.  They scored 3 points in OT last night.

Kent Bazemore was 2-10, 1-6 from 3, and had the 2nd best +/- on the Hawks after Teague's +9.  Bazemore was a +7.  Numero uno, Jeff Teague, was 4-18 and 3-10 from 3.  Oh yeah, I love that +/- stat...

We were down and almost out, we came back and went up, we went down again and scored to make it to OT and then we blow torched them.  That's clutch.  That's ganas.  That's winning playoff basketball.  That's what will take us to the next level.  Sure, adding a key player will make a difference but it's a team game and you need to surround that player with players and this game, this series, is building those players.  Adding Kevin Durant or Al Horford to this team will produce a much bigger impact than adding them to LAL or Philly or any of the other teams that are young, just like we are too,  and don't know how to win because they've never earned the opportunity to learn how.  Every game in this series, win or lose, are gold nuggets and this one was a big one.

Aside from the fact that you have no chance, zero, of winning a championship if you don't make the playoffs the other plus from playing in a playoff series is you get to see who bubbles to the surface and who sinks like a rock.  You can watch film and see the increase in physicality but until you actually take a hit and not hear a whistle you can't really know the difference between the playoffs and the regular season.  Until you feel the pressure of knowing that the next few possessions are the difference between living to fight another day or the end of 6 months of effort, you cannot know.  Smart and Rozier, especially Smart, are growing before our very eyes.

The refs had an awful OT.  A couple of really bad calls.  One of them was incomprehensible.  A pass to Bazemore on the sideline was deflected by Turner.  It bounced off Bazemore's face out of bounds and they called it Atlanta ball.  Bazemore's head jerked back when he got hit and then he reached up and rubbed his nose where it hit him and they couldn't figure out that it hit him.  If we had lost the game I would be jumping out of my skin right now but instead I'm seeing a team that, not long time ago, would have had a mental meltdown because of those calls.  Last night they just kept ballin' and overcame it all.  That is a big deal too, a maturity moment.  That's playoff ball.

Bigger picture, we are playing better when we are playing small-ball.  When our ostensible centers (Sully, Kelly, Zeller) are out we do better than when they are in.  The new NBA, where speed and versatility is more valuable than mere size.  Granted those 3 aren't exactly all-stars, but still, we are better playing with speed and uptempo and that leaves them out...


Absolute Keepers (Game 3 ONLY)

Marcus Smart - THE game changer.  Offensively he scored 20 points on 7-15 and was an acceptable 3-8 from 3.  Two of those 3s were clutch, clutch, clutch with the 2nd one being absolutely icy.  A Hawk tried to run him off the arc.  He just waited for him to fly by and then calmly took the shot.  Defensively, what can you say?  Brad put player after player on Paul Millsap to try and just slow him down and he tore them all new assholes until Brad picked up and threw the Marcus Smart dart.  That was just unbelievable man-to-man defense on a player who was having the game of his life and who is at least 4" and 20# bigger than him.  I don't know exactly when Smart was assigned to defend Millsap, but I do know that Millsap's offense almost dried up.  Smart defended Millsap for the entire OT and Millsap was 0-2 in OT.  The Hawks took 8 fgas and their go-to guy who took 31% of their total fgas, took only 2.  That is great deny defense there.  There is no way, in my opinion, we would have won if Brad hadn't switched the defensive assignment on Millsap and put Smart on him.  

Isaiah Thomas - 28 points on 11-23.  He has figured it out.

Jonas Jerebko - Another above-the-norm by the Swede.  His 2nd double-double in a row.  He has responded outstandingly to being given the starting nod.  You can see how pumped up he is.  He is everywhere.


Good, but not locks

Evan Turner - I was considering putting him into the higher category but his 7-19 shooting and 4 TOs put me off.  He was, nevertheless very instrumental in our win.  He's a glue guy.

Amir Johnson - Another glue guy.  9 rebounds and 3 blocks in only 28 minutes.  He couldn't stay in front of Millsap, but nobody could or did until Smart.  He had a chase down block to stop a fast break that we needed badly.

 
NOT BIG game players

Jared Sullinger - His father Satch was in the stands and you could see him doing palm slaps to his head.  Unbelievable.  Another 1-7 stinker.  He worked his fat ass off to get an offensive rebound and then blew the bunny.  He has just fallen off the table.



Absolute Keepers (Series-to-date)

Marcus Smart - I'm moving him up into this category because he has had 3 solid games out of 4.  The only game where he stunk the joint up was the same game where everybody else stunk the joint up, game 2.  So, he was in bad company.  Last night's game was a real eye-popper.  I'm looking for players who step up, players whose games are as good or better in the playoffs than in the regular season and Smart is showing me that.  He is 16-42 (38%) in the playoffs and 9-24 (37.5%) from 3 in the playoffs.  His eFG% in the playoffs is 48.8%.  His eFG% for the regular season was 40.5%.  THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!  However shitty his shooting was in the regular season, and he was the worst shooter in the NBA, he has significantly upped that part of his game in the playoffs.  Defensively, well, when he isn't launching himself into space like Sputnik, thinking that the refs are stupid enough not to know the rep he has earned himself, he's playing pretty good defense.  Last night's effort, in particular, was flat off-the-hook.  Marcus Smart is showing himself to be a big game player, and that's what we need if we are to compete for a championship again.

Jonas Jerebko - I'm moving him up into this category because of solid performances coming off the bench in games 1 and 2 and significantly elevated performances in games 3 and 4.  He heard the fire alarm go off and he has responded.  His eFG% in the playoffs is 53%, it was 48.8% during the season.  His /minute rebounding is way up, 11.0 rebounds/36mpg playoffs vs 8.8 rebounds/36mpg regular season.  And those numbers include his 1-6, 2 point game 1.  Defensively he is really showing off his versatility and motor.  He is an energizer bunny.  Throw his very affordable $5M salary, and he's a keeper.

Isaiah Thomas - The #1 scorer in the playoffs to-date.  After 2 sub-par games he has responded well.  The key to whether he stays up here is how well he does in Atlanta on Tuesday.  Leaders deliver on the road, in front of hostile crowds and unsympathetic refs.


Good, but not locks

Amir Johnson - Very solid performances by Amir.  He is our defensive anchor.  The reason why he is here and not higher is because he costs $12M.  Otherwise, he has upped his game too.  His 59.6% regular season eFG% has increased to 67.9%.  His 1.7 blocks/36mpg regular season has gone up to 2.8/36mpg in the playoffs.  His 10.1 rebounds/36mpg regular season has gone up to 11.3/36mpg.  Even his abysmal 59.6% regular season frito percentage has gone up to 66.7%.  He has upped his game, and that's what you want.

Jae Crowder - It's hard to figure out where to put this key member of our team.  His game has obviously been off, especially on the offense where he has become a liability, but he has that ankle sprain and it has taken a toll on him.  It wouldn't be fair to dump on him, but I can't give him credit for things he isn't doing anymore.

Evan Turner - Solid performances.  I'm not even going to look at his stats because he's providing needed glue and is playing a HUGE role by taking the ball handling and floor general duties away from IT, allowing IT to run wild and shoot.  IT's game has gotten much better after Brad simplified it and Brad was able to do it because Turner took the load off him.  No Turner, stats or no, no wins.  Could we get the job done with another player next year?  Probably, he isn't so good at anything he is indispensable and irreplaceable, but he's doing it this year.

Terry Rozier - Not a good game by him last night but he has shown enough so far to remain in this category.


NOT BIG game players

Jared freaking Sullinger - Another stinker, but I repeat myself.  Unbelievable.  I never would have expected this.  I would have thought he'd be feasting on the more finesse-type Al Horford.  I have said that Smart and Rozier are growing before our very eyes.  So is Sully.  He now has his own zip code.  When you say that "Sully made the player pay for coming into the paint" now what we mean is that they had to hail a cab to get around him.  He is slow, he is immobile and he is completely ineffective on both ends of the court.  He is shooting 28.6% playoffs-to-date.


We are seeing real progress here.  We still don't have the roster we need to take us much further, even with Bradley and Kelly healthy, but the experience we are gaining here is worth its weight in gold.  Our young team is not only learning about the difference between regular season games and playoff games they are learning what it takes to win playoff games. It would have been very easy for them to fold in game 3, when the Hawks came back from 20 down, and to fold last night when they went down by 16 in the 3rd and were down 2 with seconds left in regulation.

At the beginning of the season we all agreed that making it to the 2nd round would be the milestone that defined a "successful season" for this team.  The loss of Bradley and injuries limiting our best 3pt shooter, Kelly, and key defensive player Jae Crowder have impacted our ability to achieve that goal.  We are now guaranteed to go at least 6 in this series, and we're doing it while limping along with a damaged roster.  We won two games in Boston, holding our home court, and we won the 2nd one despite a career best game from Millsap (probably the highest scoring game in the playoffs-to-date).  We figured out how to win.  I still want to make the 2nd round but I'm realistic about our chances, barring a miraculous faith-healing by Bradley but if we don't make it out of this round we should still feel pretty good of how we are handling the playoffs this year everything considering.  


bob


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Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer

Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart's final defensive line: Hawks were 1-of-10 shooting when he was primary defender with 2 points, 2 turnovers. (Bazemore 0-3, Korver 0-1, Sefalosha 0-1, Millsap 1-5).



bob


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