Post Game Thread - 2nd Round Playoffs, Game 3 vs Raptors

[bobheckler]

It wasn't even a last second buzzer beater, it was a last HALF second buzzer beater.

Smart and Tatum were a combined 9-33, 27%. They were 2-13 from 3.

34 1/2 year old Kyle Lowry played 46 minutes.

We are still in the catbird seat.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401240078


bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Another big lapse was putting GWill on Siakim briefly when JB was still on floor. Siakim scored right over the rook, after a few quick baskets we put the right defender back on him. Tatum and Smart way off and their backcourt finally had a big game and we STILL should have won. I expect Tatum to come back with a vengence. We also had a lot of lapses, sloppy play>turnovers that kept them in the game while our defense was shutting them down. Our lead should have been much bigger. They are playing as hard as they can, just another play here or there and we should have finished this. We are still playing with one of our best initiators in GH out and had won 6 in a row, should have been 7 if not for a miracle play. Jaylen is really showing me something on defense shutting down an all star 4 like Siakim, NOT bothering him, but shutting him down, everyone says Smart is our best defender, it might be JB.

[sinus007]

Hi,
Alas, shit happens. Let me rephrase. All stars got in straight line for Raps: perfect timing and trajectory of the pass, rookie mistake by Taco of not moving a half-step closer to the inbounder, miscommunication between Theis, JB and JT and perfect shot by OG.
The only thing I couldn't understand was why Raps' zone defense brought so much confusion - they played it in the previous game and Celtics seemed to adjust. Now, 2 days later they didn't know what to do.
I don't know if a game-ball is awarded on the loosing team, but I'd give it to JB for his tremendous defense.
Thankfully, KW got his offensive mojo back. Unfortunately, JT was kind of sleepwalking. Hopefully tomorrow both of them and the rest of the crew are at full speed for all of 2,880 seconds of the game.

AK

[dboss]

G3 ended in the most improbable manner.  Defend for 1/2 of a second and bury the Raptors deep in a 3 zip hole.  But it was not meant to be.

The Celtics played well enough to win this game despite the fact that they took many ill advised shots (JT had one of the worst ones' down the stretch where he dribbled around the perimeter, while eating up the shot clock, before launching a really bad attempt from deep)  

They played well defensively but there were too many defensive breakdowns where the Raptors were able to beat our guys to the punch in transition  (14-2 fast break points)

The Last Shot

I do not comprehend why Brad decided to put Fall in the game.  I guess he was looking for length,  Fall may be long but he cannot jump worth a damn.  If he was looking for length he could have used RW instead.  So that to me was a coaching error.

The actual play shows a high screen set by Gasol for VanVleet who goes under the screen and is being covered by DT.  For whatever reason JT comes over from the left side to help but even before he makes his move,  you can see OG running uncovered along baseline heading out to the 3 point line.  Jaylen was first engaged with Siakum who headed up top off of another Gasol screen and JB engaged Gasol who started to roll.  Throughout this last play JT is a useless player on the court.  They basically double teamed Vanvleet and paid no attention to OG who by the way has been one of the best 3 point shooters in this series for Toronto.

Our Offense

The Celtics were slow to move the ball while trying to attack Toronto's zone defense. Too much trying to do it alone was the theme.  JT was getting doubled teamed quite a bit as was Kemba.    There was too much standing around, too much fiddling with the ball.  The pace was too slow as we did not attack them in transition.
 
Other observations

GW struggled defending the post when he was isolated one on one.  The Celtics need to bring help defense when Kemba is stranded on the island in the post.  
Brad Stevens needs to play RWIII more than 14 minutes (3 points, 7 rebounds, a block and 3 assists) Brad needs to run a few more plays specifically to get RW going to the rim.
 
Jaylen Brown played one of the best defensive games ever.

Wanny was called for at least two traveling infractions.  You can have one but not the same mistake again.

Kanter got 4 minutes, I guess to knock off some rust.  He scored 4 points and gave up 4 points.

Daniel Theis is not shooting the deep ball very well and neither is Jaylen Brown.

Marcus lit it up in game 2 and I just knew he was going to put up a lot of shots in the game.  Perhaps a few too many

Kemba walker carried our offense (29 points) throughout most of the game.

[gyso]

Here is the Game Flow graph:

[Sponsored content]