PLAYOFF 2023 - POST GAME PHILLY 76'ERS GAME #5 - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Boston No Shows In Pivotal Game 5 Loss To 76ers
The Celtics didn't show much urgency

NESN by Greg Dudek

BOSTON — There was no home cooking for the Boston Celtics as they were booed off the parquet floor of the TD Garden on Tuesday night after losing to the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-103, in a critical Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The 76ers take control of the best-of-seven series with a 3-2 lead.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Coming off an agonizing Game 4 defeat in overtime, which allowed the 76ers to even the series, the Celtics knew they needed to come into Game 5 with a “desperation mindset.”

But the Celtics didn’t back up their talk, falling incredibly flat as they played with a complete lack of urgency for the majority of the contest and they ultimately paid the price.

While Philadelphia’s stars started on time, Jayson Tatum did not. Tatum missed all of his first-quarter shots for the second straight game while Al Horford also experienced some frigid shooting by missing all seven of his 3-point attempts for the game. That’s a lot of slack left to pick up.

With the Celtics struggling with their shooting, they also didn’t make any of the requisite hustle plays to win a playoff basketball game. Their play lacked energy and spirit, forcing Joe Mazzulla to insert Payton Pritchard into the game late in the third quarter to try to inject some life into his team.

It’s extremely puzzling in a game that the Celtics should have gone all out in that they didn’t, and now they are on the brink of their season crashing to an end.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Joel Embiid was once again a monster for the 76ers. The NBA MVP poured in 33 points on 10-for-23 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds and recording four blocks. Embiid made plenty of trips to the charity stripe as well, making 10-of-11 free throws to aid his effort.

— Tyrese Maxey found his groove from beyond the arc and took over in the fourth quarter to make a stellar contribution to the winning effort. The shifty guard knocked down six 3-pointers en route to 30 points.

— Tatum got off to another slow start but did make up for it. He tallied a game-high 36 points to go along with 10 rebounds and five assists.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set Marcus Smart’s over/under for 3-pointers made at 1.5 with -166 odds on the Over. He took care of that early, splashing home two triples in the first quarter. A $100 wager on this prop bet would have resulted in a total of $160.24.

UP NEXT
The Celtics look to stave off elimination as they return to Philadelphia for Game 6 against the 76ers on Thursday. Tipoff from Wells Fargo Center is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

A JOKE!

112288

Do we have any playoff experienced coach on our staff?

A disgrace

Publicly they will all give Lameass Joe support, but he simply can’t coach at this level. This was a crucial home court game 5 and how could we collapse at this level? Game 1 had no preparation for the zone, had a 1 point lead with the ball on last possession and threw the ball away. We already went over the late game collapse of game 4, this coach has no end of game strategy/plays at all; unless Smart jacking up 3’s is what you want when you have 2 all NBA players on the roster that you can’t put in position to succeed in crunch time.

Doc really had a great game plan, from what I saw we had no game plan. Tatum playing half a game and Jaylen taking himself out of the 2nd half of games is killing us, look where we are now?

I can only imagine what we would look like if we had a coach like Spolstra, that plays the right way and has his team peaking at the right time despite key injuries. Look how well coached Miami is compared to us, we regressed to your turn, my turn, your turn, my turn. I couldn’t believe what I was watching, I am clueless how we regressed so fast. No idea how we got here, when we really were so close and actually positioned for a sweep…??? This is the basketball equivalent of the Twilight Zone, in perfect position for a sweep and this now actually happened?

Well, this team loves the drama.  This is about as dramatic as you are going to get.  But we all know what happens when you play with matches or fire.  Eventually something or someone gets burned.  

We're still playing until further notice.  Speaking of burning things up, we have now burned up our allotted 3 brain farts earlier than expected.  One more and the party's over.  And if so, some major personnel decisions will probably come to the table, ones we didn't want to address or don't want to think about but would be there nonetheless.  Let's see what happens tomorrow first.  BTW, order was restored out West as DEN crushed PHX into a fine powder.  The dynamic duo turned into dynamic doodoo.  They were getting carved up like a Thanksgiving Turkey.  Finally, team play over individual players raises its head and emerges from its slumber.  DEN looks like and is playing like a champion.  

As stated numerous times before, PHI is a desperate team.  They have everything to lose.  And I mean ALL of it.  They are playing like it.  There are many ways to be motivated. Being two games from the peak and JT righting last year's Finals wrongs are typically good motivation but not enough against a rabid dog scavenging for food. Clearly, we are not in the right mindset or at least it appears that way currently teetering on the edge all the time.  We still believe we have time on our side or something.  I have no clue.  At least that's the way we are acting.  We still have yet to make the all important transition from regular season to post-season and adjust our play accordingly.  This is evident.

I stated I thought we had turned a corner a few days ago.  We did but it was right into an oncoming train going about 100 mph.  My mistake.  Let's hope there is something left in the tank.          

db

Most have not noticed that Horford scored 0 points last night and his shooting especially from the arc is MIA.  Why?  They burnt Al out! Too many minutes for his age and because of that, it has caused him to have tired legs which has a direct affect on a players shot.

First, they never worked with Rob Williams into developing an outside shot over the last 3 + years, so his play is very predictable. Embiid showed us what happens when a big has an outside shot.

Second, Danilo Gallinari getting hurt killed us! We was an elite player who has height, skill and a 3 point shot.  That would have saved Horford for the playoffs.

Third, Brad should have cut bait on a few players and located another decent Big with skills that also had an outside shot.

Check this article out about fatigue and a jump shoot.

https://spartascience.com/blog/fatigue-and-the-jump-shot

Dr  Hess of Sparta Science defined the physical foundation of a jump shot as “a player’s ability to obtain optimal height in the air as quickly as possible to outmaneuver the opponent.” As a result, a study out of the University of Kansas examined this foundation and the effects from fatigue.

Statistically, the authors found the major differences between the fatigued group and non-fatigued group was vertical displacement. Basically, the tired players could not maintain the height of their jump while shooting the ball, forcing the shot angle to be altered.

More recent research has confirmed these findings, adding that fatigued players compensate for this loss of height by pushing the ball forward from the elbow. Such adjustments decrease the optimum angle of shot release, increasing the chances of deflection and inaccuracy.


112288

112288 wrote:Most have not noticed that Horford scored 0 points last night and his shooting especially from the arc is MIA.  Why?  They burnt Al out! Too many minutes for his age and because of that, it has caused him to have tired legs which has a direct affect on a players shot.

First, they never worked with Rob Williams into developing an outside shot over the last 3 + years, so his play is very predictable. Embiid showed us what happens when a big has an outside shot.

Second, Danilo Gallinari getting hurt killed us! We was an elite player who has height, skill and a 3 point shot.  that would have saved Horford for the playoffs.

Third, Brad should have cut bait on a few players and located another decent Big with skills that also had an outside shot.

Check this article out about fatigue and a jump shoot.

https://spartascience.com/blog/fatigue-and-the-jump-shot

Dr  Hess of Sparta Science defined the physical foundation of a jump shot as “a player’s ability to obtain optimal height in the air as quickly as possible to outmaneuver the opponent.” As a result, a study out of the University of Kansas examined this foundation and the effects from fatigue.

Statistically, the authors found the major differences between the fatigued group and non-fatigued group was vertical displacement. Basically, the tired players could not maintain the height of their jump while shooting the ball, forcing the shot angle to be altered.

More recent research has confirmed these findings, adding that fatigued players compensate for this loss of height by pushing the ball forward from the elbow. Such adjustments decrease the optimum angle of shot release, increasing the chances of deflection and inaccuracy.


112288

Ofcourse I noticed Al, but Al has so overachieved and must have been playing exhausted that I didn’t want to rip his 0-7. GWill gave us nothing, but got barely any minutes. Spolstra has been going 10 deep by the way and amazing job without Hero and Olidipo, they play like a unified team blending alot of different pieces; Kevin Love was a brilliant acquisition, alot of players sharing the ball and you don’t know which player is going to step up next. You want to beat us, double either J and leave Marcus Smart open and mix in a zone defense.

Another point I didn’t bring up, what happened to Rob Williams, we abandoned the lobs, why? Why has he been so no impact? Sorry NY Celt this has also got to fall further into bad coaching. Philly is using Harden and Embid in pnr and the 2 man game and we abandoned using Rob who played great vs Hawks. I think Rob going 6-6 with 10-12 boards like he used to recently would have helped us, but what do I know?

Cowns,

Rob cannot match up well with Embiid, he has too slim of a body frame for a big like Embiid.

Besides, Rob has no outside shot which makes him predictable.

112288

Ugly in most all ways you can name if you’re a Celtics fan.

I’ve said from the start this would be a tough series against an opponent that was our equal. 6ers were just the better team last night and handed out a lesson in playing team ball. That Philly starting 5 has shown the positional balance we need… healthy young big, where are you? I’ll hand this one to the 6ers, they couldn’t play much better.

Embiid reinforced why you need a big. We really don’t have a fully functioning one. That is a huge difference maker. Tucker did a great job for them, taking Jaylen out of his game.

Interesting post by 112288 above. A study on fatigue and the jumper. Makes sense.

Win or go home Thursday.

112288 wrote:Cowns,

Rob cannot match up well with Embiid, he has too slim of a body frame for a big like Embiid.

Besides, Rob has no outside shot which makes him predictable.

112288

So where was Grant pushing on Embid giving Al a breather? I understand Rob has no jumper, probably because he’s always injured and can’t practice enough, he was still catching lobs, playing effectively vs Hawks. A good coach has to know how to maximize roster as a cohesive unit. Joe might have burnt out Al with too many 36 minute games. Now Al has to just take 3’s? This offense is way too predictable, Doc has figured out our offense and reduced it to hero ball or Smart jacking up 3’s at crunch time.

Jay Williams pointing out coach’s inexperience multiple times using multiple examples on First Take. Legler saying no ball movement no easy baskets all 3’s

I am as disappointed as all of you.

Al Horford was 0-7, all from 3.  Al can't do anything else anymore offensively, and apparently he can't do it two games in a row even with a day off between them.  He just signed a two year extension.

NONE of our bigs went out any further than the frito line, if that.  Embiid was getting wide-open shots from mid-range all game.  Defense anyone?  

RWill with 4 points 2 rebounds and no blocks in 19 minutes.  He never showed up for the game.

Tatum's 11-27 shooting wasn't helpful.  He's shooting 33% from 3 in the playoffs, but taking the same number of shots.  He shot 35% from 3 during the season, so you can argue that 33% isn't that much of a drop, but that only serves to highlight his lack of shooting discipline that he's had his entire career.

Jaylen with another efficient scoring night, but 3 turnovers.  He has said he wants to have the ball in his hands more and run the offense because he feels he's being wasted waiting in the corner for the pass.  You have to develop your handle better for that, Jaylen.  He also had zero assists, just to emphasize this (non) point (guard).

Derrick, another no show.  Congrats on your naming to NBA All-Defense Second Team, though.   Embiid won the MVP and Philly lost.  Derrick follows suit.  

They shot almost 51%.  We shot 39%.  41% from 3 for them vs 32% for us.  They've been averaging <104ppg in the playoffs, they scored 115 on the road.  We've forgotten how to play defense.  We were the top defense during the season, so we know how to and we have the players to do it, but (see the next paragraph).

I saved this for the last because I know I've been tough on Joe and I'm sure many of you are tired of the steady, seemingly unrelenting criticism of him.  Please accept this as fair warning that, if you don't want to hear about that, this is the time for you to move on, because I'm about to go full screaming banshee DEFCON1 nuclear on him.

There are regular season coaches and there are playoff coaches.  Championship coaches are both.  The difference is that regular season coaches implement a system, a playbook that they ask/insist the players buy into.  When the players don't execute his playbook during a game, or when they do but the other team is better, the response is "we believe what we have works, we just need to not hang our heads on individual losses and stay the course".  We've heard Celtic players and coaches say this all season, how win-or-lose "it's just one game".  Playoff coaches make adjustments, sometimes even mid-play with a time out, because possessions are precious.  Certainly they adjust game-to-game because you can't just shrug off a loss with "it's a long season and this game is no different than any other".  

Joe doesn't make many in-game changes, does he?  He changes personnel, although he plays his core heavy minutes even in blow outs, but he doesn't change strategy.  He absolutely doesn't make any game-to-game changes.  Philly's been pick-and-rolling us to death all series, not just last night.  High pnrs, top-of-the-key pnrs and every time the ball just rolls free around the pick and has an open lane to at least the middle of the paint, or a pullup shot.  Our bigs have not been coming out to challenge the roll.  Game, after game, after game.  Joe didn't change a thing in our defensive coverages.  Our players are just looking at each other every time Maxey or Harris or some other player dribbles right to the front of the rim.  We've stopped communicating on defense.  That's baseline defenders Al and RWill's fault, but it's also Joe's.  When you don't hear your baseline defenders calling out what's in front of them you need to remind them that's their job.  You know, like during a timeout.  Oh, wait a second, never mind.

Can any of you remember one ATO by Joe?  Playoff coaches, like Brad and Ime just to name ours, have a supply of ATOs they could draw on when they absolutely, positively needed a bucket.  It takes years of experience to build out that portfolio, and Joe doesn't have those.

Our players keep coming out for the tip off flat.  They have no fire in them.  That's a failure of playoff coaching.  You need to figure out how to get your players to come out of the locker room and right from tip off want to rip opponents' heads off every game because the playoffs aren't a long season.  Jaylen has been good at that, he usually starts hot, but nobody else has consistently and that's on the coaches.  Regular season mentality is "steady as she goes".  Playoff mentality is "kill, kill, kill".  Joe hasn't flipped the switch on them.

We all know Joe doesn't know how to use time outs effectively.  He wants the players to "figure it out themselves".  Yeah, that's fine when you're an assistant coach and your focus is on player development, not so fine when you're a head coach and your focus is on in-game execution.  Doc went up 14-16 last night.  We cut it to 12 and Doc called time out.  It went back up a bit and then we cut it to 9 and Doc called another time out.  That's playoff coaching.

Joe sat Grant a lot in these playoffs, and now he expects him to just step onto the court and hit his shots like he was playing consistent rotation minutes.

Last year Ime challenged the Js to stop playing so much one-on-one, and it worked.  Our game in this series has devolved to where almost every play is one of our players trying to take their man off the dribble.  That was mostly true in the Atlanta series but they didn't have the roster to stop us with defense.  Philly does.  Not a lot of picks being set by us, certainly nothing as complex as a staggered screen or weakside pindowns for players moving without the ball.  One-on-one doesn't work against a good defense, and Philly has a very good defense.  Watching our players play now is like watching a two year regression and it's driving me nuts.

I blame some of this on Brad Stevens.  He was an NBA rookie head coach, coming right out of college, and it worked well for him.  He had a lot of experience as a college head coach before he came to Boston, though.  He replaced himself with another rookie head coach, Ime Udoka, who had extensive and broad assistant coaching experience with Pop, Philly and Brooklyn.  But Brad went to that well one time too many and Joe's OJT is costing us.  In my opinion he is rookie raw; "green", and not in a good way.  The team with the same core that went to the Championship Finals last year is now a long shot to even make the Conference Finals despite having a better bench.

I don't know if the "Joe Mazzulla Experiment" is over or not but he is, and has been all season, our weakest link.  We didn't see it as such because regular season coaching is different from playoff coaching and Joe's not a bad regular season coach.  But we're not in "building mode", we're built.  Wyc told Brad to spend whatever he needs to win this year, not in future years.  Unfortunately the decision that is probably going to make that not happen was made before this season even started.


Bob


.

Post Game Pouting:

Here we are. We’re exactly where we thought we couldn’t be. We are exactly where we thought we wouldn’t be. And certainly, we are exactly where we thought we shouldn’t be.  

The city and state of Coulda woulda shoulda, Mass. Here we are. Now what?

Disappointing? Hell yes. Optimistic? Hell no! Cautiously optimistic? Let’s just say the pool is now half full.
I cannot perform water aerobics in a half filled pool. It’s too hard and I may hurt myself.
Ummmm not a bad idea after last night. Wait! Don’t call 911-yet.

Can we overcome? Yes, we definitely can. Will we? What a dumb question to be asking myself because like many of you I don’t have a clue what our beloveds are going to do or not do.

This is the ongoing theme. “This is too easy let’s find a way to make it hard”.
It’s almost to the day this time last year when we orchestrated the same theme against Milwaukee.
I venture to say that the majority of us thought last year that we could lose to Milwaukee and that getting to the finals was something that we hoped for but really wasn’t expecting.

Somehow this feels different.

This time we not only expect to get there, we expect to win it all. So Philly can’t beat us, They’re just an inconvenient detour to the finals?

Hey, maybe the team has taken on our personality and thought likewise.
“We can beat these chumps so let’s put our focus on June”.

So, here we are.

I’m not going to point fingers and blame any one player or the head coach. This was a collective lack of focus.
But..

Notable but canceled:

Oh ho ho. My visiting Fake a$$ comedian wannabe Brother in law (who won’t be visiting anymore after last night) read my last Post game pout and cracked
“Hey looks like Jayson is still in half dollar mode. Maybe he thought you meant you want 4 quarters of his best over the span of 2 games. Hahah. Isn’t there a line in the 50 cent song 21 questions where he asks ’If I fell off tomorrow would you still love me’ Hahaha”.

Not today Satan.


I’m also not going to get into stats either. It doesn’t matter. Bottom line. We have our work cut out for us.
It can be done. We still can win in 7.

But…somehow this feels different.

Post Game Pettiness:

Jayson Tatum is the most even Keeled player in the universe.
Win, lose. Same post game demeanor. Maybe thats a good thing..or not.

Coach Joe said “We had really good intentions on wanting to win and sometimes that just leads to bad things happening”

Can someone please tell me what that means?

“Our intentions were good”

Intentions? We ain't got no intentions. We don't need no intentions. I don't have to show you any stinkin' intentions!

bobc33 wrote:“Our intentions were good”

Intentions? We ain't got no intentions.  We don't need no intentions. I don't have to show you any stinkin' intentions!

.

From the opening tip you could just feel the lack of energy from the Celtics.  I am not talking about physical energy.  I'm talking about mental energy.  They were tentative and uncertain.

This game looked like a carry over from their 1 point OT loss in game 4.  

The Celtics want to play with pace and space but the Sixers have managed to muck that up by intermittently switching into zone defenses.  If you cannot make outside shots then you will not be able to have an offensive attack that is flowing.

I was not surprised that Al went 0-7 from deep on wide open looks.  I agree 100% with the observation that Horford has been overused.  There is a cumulative negative impact at work.

Brogdon also had a crappy offensive game as he struggled to score off the bounce and from the outside.  

If you take away 2 of your top 6 scorers and the rest of the guys including our make believe deep rotation are not able to supplement your offense, you will lose .

Tatum led the team in scoring with 36 points but his 3-11 showing from deep (27%)  and 11-27 overall (40%) falls outside of the efficiency category.

Jaylen Brown took 16 shots last night while going 9-16 and 3-6 from deep.  He continues to be our best offensive weapon game in and game out but he simply is not getting enough scoring opportunities.

I am going to put on my fake coaches hat.

Sometimes you have to run plays for certain guys.  The random nature of the Celtics offense prevents that from happening.  Too often the open guy who takes the shot is not the guy that you want to take the shot.  

Their zone defenses are killing us especially when we are in our 5 out sets.  We need to get someone in the foul line area who can score or pas the ball.  We need to continue to set screens against them and keep the ball moving.

In our win or go home game 6 we are going to change a few things up.

First we are going back to our two big lineup with Rob and Al.  We figured out that a small ball lineup with Al as our single big is not really necessary.  PJ Tucker's impact can be neutralized and we can put more pressure on the rim by playing Rob in the dunker spot on offense and a free safety on defense.

They are shutting us down with their zones so what is good for the goose is good for the gander.  We are going to play more zone coverage and avoid switching everything that has put us in numerous mismatch situations.

We are going to play with a tenacious presence for 48 minutes and leave nothing on the court.

Let's Go Celtics

It is premature to roll out the post mortem (an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death)

The Celtics have at least one more game to play.

I really have nothing to say, so I will just say, as I did last night, that I am totally disappointed. I tossed and turned all night long thinking about this, and could come up with nothing. So it is best left unsaid. On to tomorrow and................let's win there??????

Hard to say how disappointed I am after the no show last night. I have tried to give Coach Joe the benefit of the doubt, but he has been totally outcoached in this series. We had no energy last night. It is not surprising because we basically could have swept this series with better play and coaching. Philly was due for a good game. We just have no answer to the two man game with Harden and Embiid. The coaches have to find a way to better defend this, or we are toast. How many open threes did we brick? Al couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. There really isn’t much to be said that hasn’t been said already. The bottom line is we have to go to Philly and play an incredible 48 minutes. We have to have high level intensity for every possession or it’s going to be a long summer.

bobheckler wrote:I am as disappointed as all of you.

Al Horford was 0-7, all from 3.  Al can't do anything else anymore offensively, and apparently he can't do it two games in a row even with a day off between them.  He just signed a two year extension.

NONE of our bigs went out any further than the frito line, if that.  Embiid was getting wide-open shots from mid-range all game.  Defense anyone?  

RWill with 4 points 2 rebounds and no blocks in 19 minutes.  He never showed up for the game.

Tatum's 11-27 shooting wasn't helpful.  He's shooting 33% from 3 in the playoffs, but taking the same number of shots.  He shot 35% from 3 during the season, so you can argue that 33% isn't that much of a drop, but that only serves to highlight his lack of shooting discipline that he's had his entire career.

Jaylen with another efficient scoring night, but 3 turnovers.  He has said he wants to have the ball in his hands more and run the offense because he feels he's being wasted waiting in the corner for the pass.  You have to develop your handle better for that, Jaylen.  He also had zero assists, just to emphasize this (non) point (guard).

Derrick, another no show.  Congrats on your naming to NBA All-Defense Second Team, though.   Embiid won the MVP and Philly lost.  Derrick follows suit.  

They shot almost 51%.  We shot 39%.  41% from 3 for them vs 32% for us.  They've been averaging <104ppg in the playoffs, they scored 115 on the road.  We've forgotten how to play defense.  We were the top defense during the season, so we know how to and we have the players to do it, but (see the next paragraph).

I saved this for the last because I know I've been tough on Joe and I'm sure many of you are tired of the steady, seemingly unrelenting criticism of him.  Please accept this as fair warning that, if you don't want to hear about that, this is the time for you to move on, because I'm about to go full screaming banshee DEFCON1 nuclear on him.

There are regular season coaches and there are playoff coaches.  Championship coaches are both.  The difference is that regular season coaches implement a system, a playbook that they ask/insist the players buy into.  When the players don't execute his playbook during a game, or when they do but the other team is better, the response is "we believe what we have works, we just need to not hang our heads on individual losses and stay the course".  We've heard Celtic players and coaches say this all season, how win-or-lose "it's just one game".  Playoff coaches make adjustments, sometimes even mid-play with a time out, because possessions are precious.  Certainly they adjust game-to-game because you can't just shrug off a loss with "it's a long season and this game is no different than any other".  

Joe doesn't make many in-game changes, does he?  He changes personnel, although he plays his core heavy minutes even in blow outs, but he doesn't change strategy.  He absolutely doesn't make any game-to-game changes.  Philly's been pick-and-rolling us to death all series, not just last night.  High pnrs, top-of-the-key pnrs and every time the ball just rolls free around the pick and has an open lane to at least the middle of the paint, or a pullup shot.  Our bigs have not been coming out to challenge the roll.  Game, after game, after game.  Joe didn't change a thing in our defensive coverages.  Our players are just looking at each other every time Maxey or Harris or some other player dribbles right to the front of the rim.  We've stopped communicating on defense.  That's baseline defenders Al and RWill's fault, but it's also Joe's.  When you don't hear your baseline defenders calling out what's in front of them you need to remind them that's their job.  You know, like during a timeout.  Oh, wait a second, never mind.

Can any of you remember one ATO by Joe?  Playoff coaches, like Brad and Ime just to name ours, have a supply of ATOs they could draw on when they absolutely, positively needed a bucket.  It takes years of experience to build out that portfolio, and Joe doesn't have those.

Our players keep coming out for the tip off flat.  They have no fire in them.  That's a failure of playoff coaching.  You need to figure out how to get your players to come out of the locker room and right from tip off want to rip opponents' heads off every game because the playoffs aren't a long season.  Jaylen has been good at that, he usually starts hot, but nobody else has consistently and that's on the coaches.  Regular season mentality is "steady as she goes".  Playoff mentality is "kill, kill, kill".  Joe hasn't flipped the switch on them.

We all know Joe doesn't know how to use time outs effectively.  He wants the players to "figure it out themselves".  Yeah, that's fine when you're an assistant coach and your focus is on player development, not so fine when you're a head coach and your focus is on in-game execution.  Doc went up 14-16 last night.  We cut it to 12 and Doc called time out.  It went back up a bit and then we cut it to 9 and Doc called another time out.  That's playoff coaching.

Joe sat Grant a lot in these playoffs, and now he expects him to just step onto the court and hit his shots like he was playing consistent rotation minutes.

Last year Ime challenged the Js to stop playing so much one-on-one, and it worked.  Our game in this series has devolved to where almost every play is one of our players trying to take their man off the dribble.  That was mostly true in the Atlanta series but they didn't have the roster to stop us with defense.  Philly does.  Not a lot of picks being set by us, certainly nothing as complex as a staggered screen or weakside pindowns for players moving without the ball.  One-on-one doesn't work against a good defense, and Philly has a very good defense.  Watching our players play now is like watching a two year regression and it's driving me nuts.

I blame some of this on Brad Stevens.  He was an NBA rookie head coach, coming right out of college, and it worked well for him.  He had a lot of experience as a college head coach before he came to Boston, though.  He replaced himself with another rookie head coach, Ime Udoka, who had extensive and broad assistant coaching experience with Pop, Philly and Brooklyn.  But Brad went to that well one time too many and Joe's OJT is costing us.  In my opinion he is rookie raw; "green", and not in a good way.  The team with the same core that went to the Championship Finals last year is now a long shot to even make the Conference Finals despite having a better bench.

I don't know if the "Joe Mazzulla Experiment" is over or not but he is, and has been all season, our weakest link.  We didn't see it as such because regular season coaching is different from playoff coaching and Joe's not a bad regular season coach.  But we're not in "building mode", we're built.  Wyc told Brad to spend whatever he needs to win this year, not in future years.  Unfortunately the decision that is probably going to make that not happen was made before this season even started.


Bob


.

This from a Steve Buckley:

Were the Celtics still weighted down by sad memories of Game 4 when they stepped out to the parquet for Game 5?

“I can’t speak for them,” Mazzulla said of his players. “I’m not sure. Maybe. A little bit. Obviously, the emotional up and down of a playoff series can kind of have that effect on it. So it could have.”

”I think but I’m not sure what my players are thinking? Cue Biggie Smalls: “Well if don't know now ya know”

Ktron

This team has been Jekyll and Hyde all year, 4-8 in OT games and 0-3 in 1 point games. We were dealt a tough blow, having decided to suspend Udoka and scramble for a coach. It’s not like there were alot of good options at that time either and ofcourse if I’m Joe I have to jump at that opportunity. Seeing this new career assistant being thrown into this level of competition, he really didn’t even have alot of experience as an assistant coach. Jay Williams on First Take this morning reeled off like 5-6 simple things that coaches do on defense to throw off the offense and could have named alot more; then pointed out he didn’t see Boston attempt any of these things/schemes, no adjustments whatsoever. Thus his conclusion was Joe was totally inexperienced to be coaching at this level, so ofcourse our defense suffered this year compared to last years. Joe had never been a head coach at the high school or college level, then sure him being a hard worker and having good relationships with the players was given the coaching opportunity of a lifetime!! Now in hindsight seeing all the team’s lack of coaching deficiencies in so many areas, too many to name; it’s amazing the team won as many games as they did, which is a credit to the talent on the roster. We still have a great roster, which Joe did not know how to maximize in rotation and schemes. Just their talent and willingness to work carried us to 57-25, but while that record may be great for alot of franchises; there were so many bad losses to inferior teams and total collapses that showed the team still had alot of issues and alot of those issues were a head coach in over his head getting by on sheer talent, which doesn’t work in playoff basketball.

I don’t even know if Joe has enough insight and smarts to be a top offensive or defensive assistant and here he is trying to lead this historic franchise, some jump for a guy who’s 34 and never been a HC before.

Cowens

I really can’t disagree with any of your comments. I think we all were worried about the coach, 57-25 had us denying what we were seeing. It’s such a shame because this really should be our year. I watched the Knicks game and even though Miami lost tonite, they are so well coached. Always do the right things. Also if we are honest with ourselves Synder severely out coached Joe in round one. As you said, there weren’t a lot of choices after the Ime debacle. The losses in games 1 and 4 of this series were just crippling. You can’t give a team 2 games in a seven game series and still expect to win. You have to give the sixers some credit for making some big shots, but we are the better team. I had such high hopes for this team that I still felt good coming home at 2-2. However, it was evident early first quarter we didn’t have it last night. I don’t think Doc is that great a coach, but he has experienced assistants. He’s a great motivator and leader, but his actual tactical skills are average at best. I think in time Joe will probably become a very good NBA coach, but he’s just woefully inexperienced at this point, and so are his assistants. Losing Stoudimire also didn’t help. Someone mentioned that the Celtics need to hire an experienced ex coach to help guide Joe. I think that’s something that has to be done. Unfortunately, that’s not going to our current predicament. I will never give up on this team. I bleed green. I’m hoping we have a great 48 minutes in us in Game 6; but frankly I’m worried.

So everyone is blaming Joe. Why, he was thrust into this situation by being offered the coaching job by management and he took it. Cannot blame him, I would have taken the job if offered also, because how many opportunities are you given to coach an NBA team and not a collage team?

If you are going to blame anyone, BLAME MANAGEMENT, THEY CHOSE TO GO WITH A ROOKIE AND NOT A VETERAN COACH!

112288

Maybe that's why Joe doesn't call TO's at the appropriate times. He really may not know what to call and relies on the players that are the better team to figure it out and make that call themselves live. It was said above by Celtic17 and myself...we are the better team. Period. Not even close. On the coaching side, Doc is the better coach. But coaches don't win championships, players do, especially at this professional level. Don't give up on Coach Joe. This team is the most talented team left and some can argue the best team in the playoffs from the start. Tonight our backs are against the wall going into the most horrific environment in the league down 3-2. We also know how we do in these situations. Those odds are significantly in our favor. We've won in PHI before this year and most recently have done this. Nothing has changed. Yes, the coach plays important roles in winning and/or losing, but he doesn't take or make the shots. If this team has to win on talent alone, then those are the cards we've been dealt. They need to step up. On top of that, we still have a pretty good coach. Joe's still learning and has come forward and accepted responsibility for his actions which is a MAJOR sign of a Celtic champion IMHBAO.

What are we going to say about Joe tonight when we win? Still his fault? Still should have been over in 4? The players won this game? Joe made it worse? It could have been better had he done this or that? Even if he finally calls a TO in the last few seconds to set up the play that wins the game? The players will still have to execute. I just don't think Joe is on as shaky a ground here as we want to think. Here's why.

For some reason, this team loves the attention and the drama. Now they've really backed themselves into yet another unimaginable hole. But we've gotten ourselves out of those time and again this whole season to wind up with, now get this, the 2nd best record in the league by ONE GAME. Hmmm. You can't achieve that and screw up royally too many times. At least not as much as those around us. This team brings all the drama on itself. They get themselves in it, they will get themselves out of it.

Let's see what happens tonight.

db