Raptors Outlast Celtics In Double OT 125-122

This one had your heart pounding and your blood pressure on the rise.

This was a magnificent game but it came with a bad result.  The numbers make your mind tingle.    The Celtics left a great game on the table.

Marcus Smart was the player of the game for us.  He recorded his 2nd triple double on route to scoring 23 points including 6-11 from deep, 10 assists, 11 rebounds and only 2 turnovers.  His leadership throughout this game was impressive.

Jaylen Brown had a career game scoring 31 points and he led the team with 16 rebounds.

Daniel Theis cannot get a damn whistle but that did not stop him from going 18 and 7 with zero turnovers.

Tatum once again could not seem to get going but he did end up with 29 points, 9 assists and 14 rebounds.  He also had 2 steals and 2 blocks.  The big negative that impacted the final score was his 6 turnovers...several were mind numbing out-of-control mistakes and they killed us.

The biggest head scratcher was Kemba Walker.  Simply put he was dreadful while going 2-11 from the field in scoring only 5 points and he could not cover his position.  We did not need a lot from him but his contribution may have been better if he was a cheer leader on the bench.  In the first half he was 0-3 and did not show any of his quickness off the bounce or an inclination to score some points.  He was terrible and I am very disappointed that he could not Get Up for this all important closeout game.

With respect to Brad Stevens, I felt like he should have gone with Brad Wanamaker who was playing excellent.  If Kemba was not going to get it done on the offensive end he becomes a liability because you always have to cover for him.  He did not get any help on that late game back down and turnaround jumper by Lowery but he should not have been in there,   A lot of coaches will go back and forth between offense and defense.  We saw none of that.

Regarding the jump balls, how about putting RW in the game so that we get those possessions.

I also thought we should have taken a TO with 1:00 left in regulation.  That was the possession where Tatum brought it up and proceeded to throw the damn ball out-of-bounds.  The score was knotted at 98-98.  What the hell were we running?  You need set plays down the stretch.  Too much ISO basketball along with a lot of hit and miss possessions.

Game 7 is right around the corner so there is no time to dwell on what happened.  I thought the Celtics played very hard.  Both teams left all of it on the court.  There were a lot of tough physical plays.  The team with the best bench may very well win this war because all starters on both teams gave everything they had.  Which team will be able to bounce back?
 
I think game 7 favors Toronto.  I hate to feel that way but I do.  

The 3 point spread in this game may have been partly due to FT.  They shot 18-25 and we shot 15-18.  The refs did us no favors.  They blew multiple calls including the drive by Kemba late in the game where he was clearly fouled and the bullshit Theis play where they fouled him under the basket at least twice and the play ended with a jump ball that we lost.

Goodnight!

Why the flip did Brad not challenge the Kemba call and why was Kemba allowed to keep running the offense, when we can run the offense thru Smart or Tatum...??? Kemba did not have it, he can also play off the ball, he shouldn’t have gotten so many minutes and at the point. As bad as Kemba was, we still could have pulled this out, Stevens gets no respect, you never see him work the refs like Red or Tommy back in the day. How does he not challenge that Kemba call???

I agree with dboss about JT. He filled the stat sheet, but his decision making was atrocious. I am tired of watchiing him dribble into traffic and get stripped , and making careless passes. Kemba couldn't figure out a way to attack Nick Nurse's defenses, but , bad as he was, he should have been at the lline at the end of regulation, with one of two free throws being sufficient to win the game. I also agree that Stevens was way too passive. There were several obvious challenges that he refrained from making. I think he has been thoroughly outcoached by Nurse. Why didn''t he complain about Nurse's frequent forays onto the court when the ball is live? Brown, Smart, Theis and Wanamaker were terrific. Brown may not put up Tatum's numbers , but I feel that he is a much more consistent, efficient, and heady player. We need more from Tatum and Walker for sure.What a difference Gordon Hayward would have made . We just have to outgut them next game and somebody besides Jaylen and Marcus need too hit shots. Oh, for a Lou Williams or Danny Green coming off the bench smoking.

G7's don't favor anybody.  Too many moving pieces.  TOR has 2 close victories under there belt plus the inexplicable G3.  Celtics have 2 blowouts and a 3 point win.  Crushing blows for both sides.  So we really are even.  The key for us in G7?  Blow them out.  Harder than it sounds but if we get in another close game, we'll probably be watching the next series from Boston.  

Now if all this is for us pulling off a G7 win and then sweeping MIA, then we need to endure the next 48 hours.  If we come up short, which is a possibility now that we let the cat back in, then we will probably come to the conclusion that this season was a mild at best improvement over last. Yeah we cured cancer but we are seeing some mild cracks that will need some addressing in the off season.  

N-Squared has earned his COY win or lose G7, no mistakes there.  Brad has earned more than one vote win or lose G7, huge mistake there by whoever voted.

Who has more to prove?  We do.  And we're going to have to do it against all the odds including the refs.  

The real question is how quick can Brad and the boys put this game behind them and rise up?  Game 7's we are 32-9 or something.  TOR is 3-2.  Tough loss.  But no more tough than TOR having their asses handed to them twice as well.  We've crushed them 3 time already in the bubble.  I don't know how they will do it but we will be fine and ready to go Friday.  

db

P.S.  So far all the games have been won on the opposites "home court".  G7 is "in" TOR.  I know, a little weak, but that's all I've got looking at this series and trying to find an edge!  

Go Celtics!!

This is the 2nd loss I lay squarely on Brad's shoulders. He called the 100% wrong defense at the end of game 3, and he made several key mistakes in Game 6, not the least of which was keeping Wanny on the bench when Kemba was stinking up the place. Face it, Kemba and Brad both share one fault. They are simply not mentally tough. Marcus is, Jaylen is, Daniel and Wanny are, but not Brad and Kemba. What a shame. Jayson - he's talented but too prone to mental errors to be called a superstar, and a really good coach would chew him out in a way so he never again has six turnovers in a crucial game. If I haven't said this enough, one more time. Brad lost this otherwise magnificent game for us, and he owes us all, and especially Kemba an apology. No way would a really good coach let a PG embarrass himself like that for 51 minutes with a steady eddie replacement on the bench. I'm pissed.

You are not born with mental toughness.  Just like everything else you learn it and earn it.  One of the great cliches from the playoffs is ALL weaknesses are exposed.  We're nowhere near perfect. Neither is TOR. We've come a long way from last year, no argument there.  

Our youth and inexperience are weaknesses for us although we've hung with the reigning champs all the way to G7 with a crafty COY.  Remember on of the sidebars to this series was the COY snub.  Brad as certainly shown he has earned and deserves more than one 2nd place vote.  

JT inconsistent play is another weakness.  At times he's the next Kobe Bryant and let's face it, will be.  Others, not so much.  In his third year.  I feel pretty good about that.  A G7 loss would go either way for him.  A loss would make him Mamba, Jr because he would be laser focused on his strengths and shore up his weaknesses in the off-season and literally destroy any and everything in his path to start hanging banners.  A G7 win would validate his meteoric rise in the world's most elite league.

Brad's been around a while now but still remember his humble beginnings.  DA took a big chance on him coming out of Butler of all places.  Centenary comes to mind.  Never heard of that place since then.  Brad still looks like a choirboy.  But if he pulls off a G7 vs. TOR and its COY, his image will change along with it.

Kemba had an off game.  Smart did not.  Call it even.  Just like the series.  

G7's are what we live for.  We've been to them far more than any other team but the Lakers.  Continue to play tough without fouling.  We are the better team and IOHBAO we have the best coach in the league.  We will show both Friday.

db

Re our coach, I consider his failings in judgment inexcusable. Yes he is a good coach, but MOST who watch the NBA did not give him COY votes for reasons which have been made apparent in games 3 and 6. I hope he learns from his obvious failings and coaches us to victory Friday and beyond, but if he does not receive constructive criticism, he may never become a championship coach.

After scoring an efficient 32 then 34 points in the opening 2 games, Tatum has been terrible 4 games in a row, especially at crucial times. He’s dancing too much with little guys on him. When Tatum has either little guy on him, Brad has to get Tatum down low with or without the ball with a simple give and go or quick post up, just basic basketball that a superstar should be able to execute. Big guys should be able to punish little guys and Toronto went small for huge stretches in 4th and OT.

Great game, I just would have liked the W.

Nurse showing why he deserved COY in several ways.

NYCelt wrote:Great game, I just would have liked the W.

Nurse showing why he deserved COY in several ways.

and I would add Toronto is showing why they were better than us in the regular season as well.

on to game seven now, no excuses, no blaming officials, just out play and out coach the other team or go home.

I pretty much agree with everything that has been said here so far.

I have been wondering for a while if Kemba is a "big game" player. 2-11 is hard to wrap my mind around. He is shooting 47% in the playoffs, which is excellent, but only 39% in this series. Sure, he can blow past Shake Milton but Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet? Nope. He is 12-40, 30% from 3 in this series. If he has another game like this, we're done. Without Gordon we are not going to beat the reigning Champs if our #1 or #2 scoring option only scores 5 points. Last night he was dribbling around, wasting too much time, and then passed the ball to someone else. He didn't want to take the shot, he didn't want to be "the man". He asked if we had any heart after our Game 4 loss. Maybe someone should crack his chest open and take a peek.

Tatum with incredibly poor decision-making. 6 turnovers, including some really untimely ones. His pass to Nick Nurse was, in part, because Nurse was in bounds in the corner. That should have been a technical but the refs were ridiculous last night.

Jaylen looked good in the beginning but faded. He was 4-8 with 11 points after 1 and 8-18 for 21 points at halftime (so a 4-10 2nd). We wouldn't have been in this game at the half if it wasn't for him because Tatum couldn't do anything at that point. But in the 3rd quarter he was 0-2 and still had 21 points, and after regulation he was up to 27 points but was 10-26 (a 2-6 4th). He only scored 4 more points in 2 OTs. I can't blame this on his fading, he can't be expected to do it all, and he did have 16 rebounds, but he had no help.

Winning Championships is about players not only filling their roles but also playing above their regular season production in those roles. So, who stepped up last night, aside from Jaylen? The two Celtics who have sorta been here and done this before, German League Champions Daniel Theis and Brad Wannamaker. While Tatum was out of control with his shots and throwing passes to Nick Nurse Theis was getting dunk after dunk after dunk. He had 10 points on 5-6 after regulation and ended up with 18 points on 9-11. That's 8 points on 4-5 shooting in 10 minutes of OT from a guy who is our 6th scoring option. Not bad for a guy who averages < 10 fgas/36mpg in the regular season. And when DBoss is saying Brad should have put Wanny in for Kemba, well, that pretty much sums up not only Kemba's ineffectiveness but also Wanny production. Kemba was getting tortured by Lowry with backdowns and stepbacks. Good luck doing backing down Wanny, he's way too strong for that.

Grant Williams was getting posted up by Siakam, but that's what he does. He's very long and he does those little flips shots from the low blocks and Grant just isn't tall enough once Siakam has that position on him. He is, however, 8-12 from 3 in the playoffs, 4-8 in this series.

A lot of people love to drool over young talent, but young'uns don't usually win Championships. It's the grizzled veterans with the thousand yard stare that will cut you down. We don't have the same amount, nor quality, of playoff experience Toronto does. We can still win this, the visiting team has won every "road" game in this series and Game 7 will be Toronto's, but we need to grow up fast.


bob


.

Yes, Brad needs to grow up too and rely more on Wanny when the Raptors start devouring Kemba.

I still cannot figure out why Brad Stevens did not call any timeouts in the 4th QTR.  The possession in the last 60 seconds of regulation where Tatum tried to hit Nurse with a perfect pass should never have happened,  This isn't golf so there is no good reason to 'play through"  You call a timeout and set up a play with scoring options and you set your defense.  

Daniel Theis offensive rebound at 2:30 in regulation and Raptors up 4 (98-94).

Daniel Theis makes two point shot at 2:29 making it a 2 point game (98-96).

Daniel Theis makes dunk (Marcus Smart assists) at 2:00 tying the damn game. (98-98)

Fred VanVleet misses 20-foot pullup jump shot
Jaylen Brown defensive rebound
Kyle Lowry personal foul
Kemba Walker misses 8-foot pullup jump shot
Fred VanVleet misses 31-foot three point jumper

Daniel Theis defensive rebound with 1:03 remaining and score tied at 98-98.

A good coach calls a timeout right there but instead:

Jayson Tatum out of bounds bad pass turnover  at :0.48

This is not rocket science.  

Bad coaching leads to bad losses.  That means 2 losses this series can be directly related to Brad Stevens poor end of game decision making.

Dboss, you see this situation clearly. I wonder what Danny thinks. Brad may wind up as an excellent NBA assistant coach or Duke's successor to Coach K, but these performances are not enhancing his head NBA coach resume, and that is becoming obvious around the league. He's a great coach for developing talent. Now he and the Celts need to take the next step to a championship, or else they will soon be taking a dramatic step backwards. Continued success in the NBA is very ephemeral and fragile. We are at an important turning point, and Danny more than anyone appreciates that.

I would say that both JT and JB had some out of control moments that really cost us momentum shifts. Part of that problem though lies on Brad's shoulders. During the end of regulation and during the 2 overtimes, when JT/JB and others weren't making costly turn-overs, the Celtics were scoring easily in the flow of the offense. Toronto on the other hand seemed to be either working very hard or getting lucky. Instead of just letting it go back-and-forth with neither team getting a stop, I wish Brad would have called a time out, settled the team, reminding them they were the better team, and getting them to focus on getting a stop. One single stop would have done it.

Brad also has stop being such a gentleman and stick up for his team when the opposing team is bullying the refs into bad calls.

Just watched Brad Steven's post game interview.

What a bunch of horseshit. I made a big stink about him not getting at least one COY vote. My expectations for a game 7 victory have been greatly diminished. How about stepping up and taking some responsibility instead of glossing over another huge loss as if you had nothing to do with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw8eOeB32I8

bobheckler wrote:I pretty much agree with everything that has been said here so far.

I have been wondering for a while if Kemba is a "big game" player.  2-11 is hard to wrap my mind around.  He is shooting 47% in the playoffs, which is excellent, but only 39% in this series.  Sure, he can blow past Shake Milton but Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet?  Nope.  He is 12-40, 30% from 3 in this series.  If he has another game like this, we're done.  Without Gordon we are not going to beat the reigning Champs if our #1 or #2 scoring option only scores 5 points.  Last night he was dribbling around, wasting too much time, and then passed the ball to someone else.  He didn't want to take the shot, he didn't want to be "the man".  He asked if we had any heart after our Game 4 loss.  Maybe someone should crack his chest open and take a peek.

Tatum with incredibly poor decision-making.  6 turnovers, including some really untimely ones.  His pass to Nick Nurse was, in part, because Nurse was in bounds in the corner.  That should have been a technical but the refs were ridiculous last night.

Jaylen looked good in the beginning but faded.  He was 4-8 with 11 points after 1 and 8-18 for 21 points at halftime (so a 4-10 2nd).  We wouldn't have been in this game at the half if it wasn't for him because Tatum couldn't do anything at that point.  But in the 3rd quarter he was 0-2 and still had 21 points, and after regulation he was up to 27 points but was 10-26 (a 2-6 4th).  He only scored 4 more points in 2 OTs.  I can't blame this on his fading, he can't be expected to do it all, and he did have 16 rebounds, but he had no help.

Winning Championships is about players not only filling their roles but also playing above their regular season production in those roles.  So, who stepped up last night, aside from Jaylen?  The two Celtics who have sorta been here and done this before, German League Champions Daniel Theis and Brad Wannamaker.  While Tatum was out of control with his shots and throwing passes to Nick Nurse Theis was getting dunk after dunk after dunk.  He had 10 points on 5-6 after regulation and ended up with 18 points on 9-11.  That's 8 points on 4-5 shooting in 10 minutes of OT from a guy who is our 6th scoring option.  Not bad for a guy who averages < 10 fgas/36mpg in the regular season.  And when DBoss is saying Brad should have put Wanny in for Kemba, well, that pretty much sums up not only Kemba's ineffectiveness but also Wanny production.  Kemba was getting tortured by Lowry with backdowns and stepbacks.  Good luck doing backing down Wanny, he's way too strong for that.

Grant Williams was getting posted up by Siakam, but that's what he does.  He's very long and he does those little flips shots from the low blocks and Grant just isn't tall enough once Siakam has that position on him.  He is, however, 8-12 from 3 in the playoffs, 4-8 in this series.  

A lot of people love to drool over young talent, but young'uns don't usually win Championships.  It's the grizzled veterans with the thousand yard stare that will cut you down.  We don't have the same amount, nor quality, of playoff experience Toronto does.  We can still win this, the visiting team has won every "road" game in this series and Game 7 will be Toronto's, but we need to grow up fast.


bob


.

Bob don’t sugarcoat it, Kemba just sucked and Brad was idiotic using the same strategy over and over, was getting me nauseous. Nurse has totally outcoached Stevens at this point, game 3 Brad gave it away, you give another team life at this level, like Lakers did to us in 84, and it comes back to bite you in the ass.

This G7 is a critical game for everyone involved. If we look at it from this point last year, we've only won two more games and to date have not advanced. Not exacting much of an improvement.

We would all agree this team is light years ahead of the KI version last year. It has made leaps and bounds in its progress. But a potential disappointing G7 and we have a problem or as worcester put it, a turning point. Maybe more like an inflection point.

This G7 couldn't have any brighter lights on it as Brad is up against the COY and at some point, he will have to get by/through him if he's going to hoist a banner.

dboss, I'm sure behind closed doors Brad fessed up and will go back to the game plans where the routs were and hammer that home. Again, this is all uncharted territory for this team. If we want to wind up on the other side, we're going to have to finally break through. 3rd time is the charm.

But one of us said these teams are even on paper before the series started. And they were/are right. What TOR lacks in height they make up for in guts. What we lack in experience we make up for in pure talent/fun to watch basketball.

Neither team has an advantage that isn't canceled out their own disadvantage or by the other team. We will get the last laugh.

What would be great would be us making the last second shot to win with 0.2 seconds left. Then we can walk around with the "payback's a bitch, ain't it?" look on our faces. But I'd prefer the rout so it's not in doubt! All part of the learning how to win process.

db

Don't worry, folks. Kemba's comin'! I'd be my wife's paycheck on it without permission.

db

Espn lists Jayson as the Celts' top performer for the game, even though Jaylen had more points, more rebounds and fewer turnovers. Jaylen gets too little respect. And Daniel gets none. Still, they work as true pros.

worcester wrote:Dboss, you see this situation clearly. I wonder what Danny thinks. Brad may wind up as an excellent NBA assistant coach or Duke's successor to Coach K, but these performances are not enhancing his head NBA coach resume, and that is becoming obvious around the league. He's a great coach for developing talent. Now he and the Celts need to take the next step to a championship, or else they will soon be taking a dramatic step backwards. Continued success in the NBA is very ephemeral and fragile. We are at an important turning point, and Danny more than anyone appreciates that.

worcester

Brad will be the coach of this team for the foreseeable future since he signed an extension.  This is 6 years in the playoffs so the experience as a coach is there.  I think what is missing from this team is some veteran depth off the bench.  GH leaves a fairly large hole.  Even without him, Games 3 and 6 were winnable.  

From a coaching perspective, Brad seems to lacks a natural feel for the game because he is an analytics driven coach.   Nick Nurse on the other hand understands analytics but he also has a certain feel for the flow of the game and leaves nothing to chance.  That is why he was all over the refs throughout this series and why he continually changes things up including how he manages his rotation.  Maybe we could use a little Karen from our coach.  He just doesn't fight enough for this team.  The kemba foul went unchallenged. He seems more like an enabler.  He relies on the numbers too much.
 
The more I watch this series the more I understand what Tatum was talking about when comparing coach K to Brad.  He would run though a brick Wall for coach K while coach Stevens is an X's and O's coach.  

The big difference between Nurse and Stevens is that Nurse is an Alpha dog and Stevens is not.

The reason why Pop  is a championship coach is because he will pull his best player out of a game if he does not like what he sees.  Brad has a history of doing nothing

Case in point Trow going 0- 10 in the ECF G7
Kyrie Irving refusing to run the offense in round 2 last year while going 25-83 final 4 games vs Bucks or Jaylen Brown allowed to go 2-11 on 3's in a critical game 4 this series.

How about just telling a guy to try getting to the rim or just passing the ball instead. or sit him down for a few possessions?  Instead we got  :I want our guys to keep shooting 3...they are good looks.

That is analytics and reflects a deficiency in coaching.

True dat. I hope he's learning very quickly from the experiences of the past two weeks.

I may have stated or asked this before but i have got to ask again. Maybe somewhere can help explain.
Brad on 2-3 occasions mentioned the Box and 1 and that it was keeping Kemba from getting shots up.
Again, wouldn’t you or couldn’t You make an adjustment so that they would not be able to take out one of your top scorers? I mean if its that easy to shut down a player like Kemba then why hasn’t other teams done it. I’m confused. I don’t get it. So if Nurse decides to implement the box and 1 again tomorrow night, the results will be same?

Box shmox. Kemba was having a bad night and Lowry is too big for him to defend. Spell him with Wanny at times. Not that difficult to figure out.

Certainly something(s) could have been done to fix it.