2011 playoffs Post Game Celtics Game 5

Almost.

gah it was painful to watch a game the C's were up in for most of the game slip away like that. THe mind was willing, the bodies were a step too slow and unable.

Hi,
I am so very sorry.
I think game 5 was similar to game 4: 42-45 minutes of control and no execution at the end.
Now we'll play the waiting game: who wins the title, what happens with the next season, what happens with the team, etc.

AK

I agree with Sinus.....poor execution down the stretch. If they dont throw the ball away 3 times in a row - if KG asserts himself down low like he did in the first quarter - different outcome.

In the end, the Heat are young, strong, and get EVERY CALL. Tough when you have to fight uphill both ways.

Doc is coming back...the Big 3 will be back....Rondo will be even better....Jeff Green should get resigned.....same with JON and West. Baby needs to get his act together.

All the rest is up in the air to me. Time to grab the Sox cap and move on to a great summer.

GO Mavs!!!

Great Celtic basketball for 44 minutes. Don't know what happened the last 4 although I sat there in total disbelief watching it. MIA was the better team and hit the shots when it counted. They earned it.

The only thing I see with MIA is they placed a ridiculous amount of (crossover) emphasis on beating Boston. MIA had nothing to do with Boston except last season's 4-1 deal. I know this was all LeBron, and I have to give him some credit, he is starting to come around in his demeanor and attitude. Post game comments were very good. Clearly, he's fired his old entourage and has someone with some brains running his organization.

But we aren't their problem. CHI is their problem in the East. Now and going forward. And of course, I still want them to blow it. CHI is the last hope in the East barring a collapse. If they can't stop them even with home court, then you probably would have the very intriguing DAL v. MIA potentially in the finals. In that case either DAL gets over the hump of all their playoff demons against the team that took away their only chance to win a title or MIA starts their 6 year title run at DAL's expense again, forever earning DAL the title of the Minnesota Vikings of the NBA.

As for the Celtics, this Big 3 will probably/unfortunately be compared to the Atlanta Braves of the 90's with Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux. They did win 1 World Championship and made the playoffs every year, but there will always some small amount of disappointment in the back of one's mind that maybe this team could have done more before the window closed, since we set the bar so high in Boston, i.e. championship or bust. The main difference is Atlanta didn't have the history and expectation Boston did or does. Also, Atlanta's dominance at least during the regular season went on for 15 years with that core in place getting those guys in the beginning of their respective careers. Hence our disappointment may be bigger.

I have to say this Celtic team and this forum in particular brought me back in. I was the classic fair weather fan after the Len Bias tragedy and end of the Bird era. I followed very little if any with Reggie Lewis and the dark ages. I am forever grateful for all of your great analysis and thoughtfulness each of you put into your posts that made Celtic basketball a love of mine again. Barely had the internet back in 86. I look forward to what lies ahead with the Celtics and the glimmer of hope Doc gave us last night that he is a Celtic for life and will probably be back next season. That says alot. He easily earned his way in being an "outsider". Truly a Celtic in every sense of the word.

To Everyone:

All of these very thoughtful posts are very much appreciated. There's no question that rabid fans of the Celtics have gone through a lot of stress while hoping in vain this season. To see the way in which a disappointing loss is being handled by so many is extremely rewarding.

Although I understand and respect fans' need/desire to rehash what happened, I'm always happiest when such considerations are applied to thinking about the future rather than simply grinding the past into the ground. It has happened. It's over. Nothing we can do about it except to congratulate the winners and decide whether to continue following the playoffs and, if so, whom to root for.

The board has indeed been a consistent source of information, support, and interesting perspectives. Sharing the ups and downs of our team with Celtics fans and non-Celtics fans alike has been a leveling balm for the soul on loads of occasions. The summer should be a treasure trove of basketball conjecture, theories, news snippets, and non-basketball topics on the board.

Continued prayers and support go out to members who have hit bumps in the road. You are constantly on our minds, and we look forward to sharing the good times in your futures.

My personal thanks to all who continue to make this such a great place to post about the Boston Celtics and other topics of importance. And there was never a more appropriate time to say once more, "Go Celtics!"

Sam

This series ended fittingly, since it ended the way it had been played all the way through. Once again, with only a few minutes left in the game, the better team executed and the other one didn't. Once again, the superstars of the better team rose up and carried their team and the superstars of the other team didn't. The biggest difference in this game is that the better team didn't get a stellar, and unexpected, performance from a bench player. This game, it was all about the Big 3. Unfortunately, the better team was the Miami Heat.

A couple of blown layups by Pierce and Green, a bad pass by Pierce to Allen in the quarter, poor defensive rebounding and some ice-water in the veins 3s by LeBron finished us. They stayed focused, we didn't. In fact, poor focus by the Celtics was something we saw throughout the series. Lazy passes, soft layups instead of taking the extra dribble and finishing with force, not putting your body on somebody on the rebound. Those were worth several Miami points in every game.

1. I think Rondo's body just said "enough". He wasn't aggressive, wasn't active, wasn't putting pressure on anybody. If I hadn't seen him come back and play a few games after that injury, I'd question his heart. I don't think anybody can do that now, so I'm going to say it was just his body imposing its will on him. None of our players had a good offensive game and that is, in part, due to Rondo not running the offense well.

2. Delonte had another good game. A definite glimmer there. He arrived this year as a question mark, but he went out as "a keeper".

3. Yet another sub-par game by Davis. A VERY questionable traveling call on him negated what should have been an outstanding shot plus the foul.

4. Krstic had his best game in a while. No stalwart on defense, but he came in and gave JON some rest and hit all 3 of his shots. He's never going to be our starting center, assuming he's here next year, but he's good to have on the roster. With Shaq pretty much done and JON on his last legs, having a 20-something 7-footer on the bench can't hurt, even if we get a new one to replace the old ones.

5. Miami's Big 3 scored 81 of their 97 points. I don't think I've ever seen a team so heavily weighted towards so few players. This is why they struggled mightily when LBJ or Wade were out with injuries. They're a mile wide, but very few players deep. Unfortunately, we were the ones getting injured. If any of those 3 had twisted an ankle, they would have imploded. Ifs and buts and candy and nuts...

6. Miami took 18 fta more than us. Against a team with no inside game, that's due to poor perimeter defense. A DOA Shaq and an aging KG don't have much to do about that, nor would having Perk have been. Perimeter defense is executed on the perimeter, where the wings are.

7. How do LBJ and Wade score so many points? Some of it is just great athleticism and some of it is unselfish play by their teammates setting solid picks for them and holding them. If I don't see another "brush pick" for a while that'd be fine with me. We need a player who will set his feet and hold them there. Heat players did that for LBJ and Wade and Celtics were not doing that for Rondo and Pierce. KG can't do this all by himself. We don't need a finesse scorer, we need a slugging club fighter who won't demand or expect the ball. We need an enforcer that makes players want to go way around the pick and not even think of trying to go through it.

8. Against an opportunistic team like Miami you can't have 17 turnovers (again!). A couple of those turnovers were questionable, specifically the traveling calls (how does LBJ NEVER get a traveling call? He switches pivot feet constantly) but that still would have left us with 14 or 15. The better team only had 9 TOs. That's why they were the better team. They had 12 fast break points, we had 2.

9. They scored 36 points in the paint while we only scored 30. How does a team that scored 1 point from its center position (Z didn't play and Joel Anthony was 0-3 and hit a ft) outscore us in the paint? Poor perimeter defense, that's how. You don't need to be big to score in the paint if your teammates are breaking you free with picks on top. I'm a broken record here.

Ok, so how do we rebuild without completely blowing everything up? Or do we blow it all up? Can we bring in a replacement for KG if KG is still playing? Would any of our Big 3 accept a reduced role in order to sign a big time replacement and promise them enough minutes to make them want to come here? That, to me, is the problem we face now. Other than D12, who would fill a gaping hole at center, what championship caliber player would want to come here and play second fiddle to KG, Pierce and Allen for a year or two until they retire? I hate to say this, but a locked out season might be our best friend, since it shortens that wait time and creates opportunities for big game players to "be the man" here.

LeBron James dropped to one knee, on court, after the game was over and appeared to be overcome with emotion and was offering a thanks to God. He felt like demons had finally (FINALLY!) been exorcised from him. Well, let me go on record as saying I'm proud to be counted among those demons. Yeah, you finally beat the greatest franchise in NBA history, ya shmuck. You haven't even made to the Finals yet, much less won a championship, and yet you act like you've just climbed Mt. Ararat and spoke to God. Your atypically unrehearsed, emotional oncourt reaction just proves the obvious: this Boston Celtic team was great and beating them is something that has obsessed and owned you for years, so much so that you felt you had to run away from your team (YOUR team) and join Wade's just so you could do it. Maybe age did finally catch up with us, maybe it was just poor execution, but you couldn't beat us in our prime.

bob
P.S. Go Bulls! If that doesn't work, Go Mavs/OKC/Memphis!

.


1.

Bob, you deserve a huge round of applause for your dedicated, insightful, objective game-by-game analyses throughout the regular season and the playoffs. Extremely well-written and always interesting, your contributions have been major difference-makers for this forum.

You obviously have many other interests in life. Given your lively mind, it couldn't possible be otherwise. And we're grateful that you have been willing to invest so much of your time and energy in your post-game remarks.

There's a good reason why you won this year's MVP (Most Valuable Poster) Award.

Thanks so much.

Sam

bobheckler wrote:LeBron James dropped to one knee, on court, after the game was over and appeared to be overcome with emotion and was offering a thanks to God. He felt like demons had finally (FINALLY!) been exorcised from him. Well, let me go on record as saying I'm proud to be counted among those demons. Yeah, you finally beat the greatest franchise in NBA history, ya shmuck. You haven't even made to the Finals yet, much less won a championship, and yet you act like you've just climbed Mt. Ararat and spoke to God. Your atypically unrehearsed, emotional oncourt reaction just proves the obvious: this Boston Celtic team was great and beating them is something that has obsessed and owned you for years, so much so that you felt you had to run away from your team (YOUR team) and join Wade's just so you could do it. Maybe age did finally catch up with us, maybe it was just poor execution, but you couldn't beat us in our prime.

bob
P.S. Go Bulls! If that doesn't work, Go Mavs/OKC/Memphis!

1.

Hey Bob

Mt Ararat?

Thats where Noah's Ark supposedly is.................Do you happen to mean Mt. Siani instead? Where God spoke to Moses.

As for your closing sumation I agree totally. James has no shame. He quit on HIS team last season, and damn well knew it when he ripped off the Cavs uni, that he wasn't going back them milked that circus for all it's worth. THE DECISION! Just like PT Barnum said "There IS a sucker born every minute." And ESPN brought into that hook line and stinker (the T is intended).

So he made a couple of threes to take out a team that was a shell of itself that battled right to the end these past two games only to fall ever so short. Series could easily be 3-2 us right now, but instead it is over. If this is James's Everest, then he is still at base camp at the 18,000 ft level. Still anothe 10,000 feet to go. He has no ring and hopefully will NEVER get one. Body by Adonis............brains by Mattel. I could never grow comfortable with him, and could never root for him, perhaps he is making some efforts to change his image but in dealing with people for so many years............they don't change, core values are what they are.

Oh well it was a good run by the C's, enjoyed it all, the ups and the downs, the good and the bad, excited for the wins and sorrow for the losses. Team battled hard and really that is all any fan can ask for.

Agree with you on this too ANYBODY but the Heat now ANYBODY...........PLEASE.

Wouldn't it be great to see Perk get another?

beat

Something I wrote on the Game On thread last night. I thought it fit here as well...

I let my Little Leaguer stay up to watch it with me after we got back from his game (Michael and his team did great and we won beat; thanks for asking).

It was an opportunity to show that sometimes champions do lose and make way for the future. I was glad to see both teams give credit where it was due and put on an excellent display of sportsmanship afterwards.

You never know who's watching. I'll thank both teams for setting an example of how to win and how to lose. I know one 7-year old who saw a good lesson in dignity and grace.

It certainly does fit here very nicely, NYCelt. I know what devoted parents Michael has, and it's no surprise that you would appreciate the sportsmanship examples to which he has been exposed.

All the best to the three of you.

Sam