Maybe Marcus could be a little Smarter?

Sure, it was a great win, great defense when we needed it most, great game-winning pass by Marcus Smart, etc, etc.  But the Celtics missed losing that game by what, 3 tenths of a second?  That game clearly could have gone either way, and therein could have been a crushing Celtics loss.

I want to speak more specifically about Marcus Smart.  Sure, we all love Smart for all of the amazing things he does defensively, and also how he has grown nicely into his point guard duties.  But -- I have always felt that he jacks up way too many threes, and yesterday's game did nothing to dispel that opinion.  He put up 9 threes!  NINE!  Only Tatum was close to that number of attempts with seven.  Under no circumstances (much less in the most important game of the season) should Marcus be our most frequent three point shooter!  Yes, he hit a few big ones in the earlier stages of the game, but that may have only served to make him sufficiently confident to continue to chuck.

With 1:35 remaining in the game, and the score TIED, Marcus fired up a long three.  Not the shot we want in that situation!  We want Tatum or Brown to have the ball in their hands, looking for their shot or looking to make a play.  Then at the 1:06 mark, now we are down 111-109, Marcus did not chuck a three, but he did attempt a difficult drive into traffic and missed the shot.  Not the shot we want in that situation!  We want Tatum or Brown to have the ball in their hands, looking for their shot or looking to make a play.  

Thankfully, on the final possession, when it looked like for sure he was going to heave up yet another three, he shot faked, moved in and made Celtics history with the correct (and magnificent) pass to Tatum for the game winner.  So we forgive you Marcus, we still love you.  But Ime -- how about having a big brotherly talk with #36 and getting him to tone down the threes?

Come on, birnam. You saw he went 4-9 from 3-ville, right? Except for Horford who went 2-2, he was next in line percentage-wise with Tatum not far behind at 3-7.

If he shot less and gave back a made shot going 3-X, we're down 0-1.

db

Quiet everyone.  He just won the coveted DPOY Award

Hell no...make some noise!

Marcus doesn't need to be forgiven- for anything. Someone must be in a very bad mood.

That was one of his best playoff games ever both ends and his decision making keeps getting better, as evidenced by the last 2 plays on defense and offense. The team just winged that last play, pure unselfish street ball that worked because everyone trusts the system and stuck to their roles.

We would have lost that game with Old Jayson. He would have ISO'ed the clock down and out and wound up with a shot worse than the one KD took on BKN's previous play. Everybody's growing up!!

db

First, no one ever likes to see any guy miss a shot of any distance.

Second, I will take an entire team of guys who can shoot 44% on three pointers in either any one game or for an entire season or in the playoffs. Call up the ring makers!

Third, who won the game?

Okay, okay, I consider myself properly chastised. But I still think he takes too many threes. Even when he makes them I cringe, because I feel like every make further emboldens him to take more and more, and I am not convinced that he should ever be putting up more threes than Tatum, Brown, Al, Grant or Pritch. And especially in crunch time.

You know what birnam, I agree with you. He used to take a bunch of crazy-ass 3's back before the switch flipped mid-season. He has reined it in just a bit and is playing more like the point guard we imagined and hoped he would be/become at the start of the season.

But as a point guard, if you are going to be left that wide open or make yourself that wide open like you are in practice and you're not shooting it up, then you shouldn't be shooting. BKN is willing to leave his ass wide open behind the arc because "No D" Kryrie ain't gonna pick him up, that takes away his legs and he'll probably get in foul trouble. KD? That's too far out for him. Patty "Melt" Mills? He needs to begin worrying about finding his own shot first, then he can worry about "improving" his lackluster D. That will take about 4 games to recover that. B-Squared? Yeah, he's been blown back to the Stone Age. Good luck recovering from your comment. Ever. Go join BS.

Who this thread needs to be about as far as shooting 3's goes is GW. He's been sporadic at best. Bench needs to show up in G2. They can't play any worse than they did in G1 vs. BKN bench.

BKN is going to try to rewrite the playoff books in this series. It's all setting up for it. But the only thing they are not accounting for is the constrictor tightening around their necks with every move they make, good or bad. That's because of their ill-equipped coach. But that's another story.

Here's what BKN is thinking. So, ok, we put in the same effort in G2 and maybe win it. If not, Boston did what they were supposed to do and won their two at home. Now we have to go home and take care of business. We win G3 and now all bets are off because THEN we bring back the 2nd coming of Christ, BS, for G4!! Actually, I hope we lose G3 and we will be the first team to comeback from down 0-3 and it will be against the Boston Celtics....That's what they are thinking. So we lose two on the road first two games. Then we come storming back and win our two, so worst case the series is tied 2-2 or we're up 3-1 on these chumps. Or better yet, let's say we lose G3 and we're down 0-3? Perfect. We'll be the first team to win being down 0-3!

That's Steve Nash think and it will cost him his job. It's probably even Kryrie think but we've discovered he can't be fired and can still even collect his paycheck when he's not even playing. But that's another story.

It's beyond important for the Celtics to put out any and all fires from this series. Never let BKN gain any momentum. It cannot be stressed enough.

Clearly with the last two plays sequence we are very calm under pressure. I just want to see Kryrie lose it..and he will. The Celtics on the floor will get under his skin. Yes he had a great game. So did Michael Jordan against us scoring 60 in that game. Remember who won that game and that series? It wasn't Chicago. And it wasn't even close. Wasn't it 4-1? So KD, if you want to come out and go for 60 because of what Perk said about you in G1, PLEASE, PLEASE go right ahead. But you will run into a ton of foul trouble, TO's, rushes, etc. far worse than in G1 because Boston is now in your head. If you don't come out and score 60 in G2, I'd be surprised. But then guess what, your boy Kryrie goes cold because your ball-hogging it and your teammates ain't touching the ball.

This series is going to prepare us like nothing else for the next three rounds. And since the others are either playing cupcake teams or ducked playing BKN in the first round just to improve their chances, they will not know what hit them when Boston comes to town.

Amen.

db

Sticking with the subject of Smart winning DPOY, rather than piling it on about the 3-ball.

Not only well deserved, but semi-historic. Something like 23 years since a guard won it? It's almost always a big. So monumental the award committee had Gary Payton, The Glove himself and last guard-winner, contact Smart.

Also, funny in my opinion that Horford, not RWIII, received a vote. But I am off-subject with that, too.

Smart has shown with his decision making, passing, and defense, that point-guard is in good hands for the Celtics. His shooting is OK too, off the dribble or not, and he can get to the rim as well. IMO, Smart is the most important current Celtic not named Tatum. Add Brown to the mix and you've got an excellent young big three to build with.

EDIT; I missed it the fact that RWIII did get a vote.

My bad, NYCelt. Got a little off topic!

db

Wasn't Payton the only guy Michael Jordan didn't like to see opposing him? Something like that.

db

I'll also put out there that we will see Marcus Smart on full display tomorrow and he'll bring the rest of the team to a whole new level defensively.

KD may score 60, but he'll be the only one scoring.  I'd be surprised if BKN breaks 90 tomorrow.  I'd be surprised if we come in less than 120. Time for BKN's worst nightmare to be realized...shut down of both KD and KI.  

db

dbrown4 wrote:My bad, NYCelt.  Got a little off topic!

db

No biggie. We all do. I didn't mean to be critical of anyone. I was just writing without much thinking!

Nevermind. According to the internet, so it has to be true, Joe Dumars was Jordan's best defender not Gary Payton.

db