Heat Burn Celtics in OT 117-114

What will be recorded in the records is a 117-114 overtime loss in Game 1 of the 2020 ECF to the underdog Miami Heat.
 
But what will be remembered by this fan is an excruciating 53 minutes of a game that seemed destined to find its' way into the loss column.  Just watch the film if you can stomach it.

How do you go into a game knowing that they will zone you up and send double team traps up top at the ball handlers and you are still ill prepared to counter what they are doing.  How and why do you crap away a 24 second shot clock pounding the ball as if each additional bounce adds a measure of success.  How does a team on the cusp of the big dance manage to stand around like they are attending some early evening social gathering?    And just like groundhog day it happens again and again turning into an endless string of repeated basketball atrocities that boggles the mind of any rational basketball fan.

If there was an award for NOT coach of the year, Brad Stevens would get my vote.  Everybody loves Brad  He's so young and so smart he could be a coach with clairvoyant abilities.  He knows all the  X's and O's and is particularly gifted in the art of tying himself up in a stitch of analysis.  He knows the numbers up and down and backwards and forward.  But he apparently cannot get his team to run a basketball play that does not involve taking an extended coffee break while the clock just keeps on ticking.

Will the real Kemba Walker please stand up.  This cannot possibly be the Kemba Walker that we signed to a massive 4 year deal.

Can we find a way to get Wanamaker more minutes since he is the one that is earning Kemba's paycheck.

Can we get Jayson Tatum to take off the Kobe Bryant underwear and just roll with a pair of fruit of the looms.

Basketball is a team sport and that is why good teams win games.
 
Fans have no right to take issue with a loss if the team plays hard.  If they play the right way but come up short you really cannot be upset.

Unfortunately it smells like that foul stench from the Raptors series has not dissipated.

dboss wrote:What will be recorded in the records is a 117-114 overtime loss in Game 1 of the 2020 ECF to the underdog Miami Heat.
 
But what will be remembered by this fan is an excruciating 53 minutes of a game that seemed destined to find its' way into the loss column.  Just watch the film if you can stomach it.

How do you go into a game knowing that they will zone you up and send double team traps up top at the ball handlers and you are still ill prepared to counter what they are doing.  How and why do you crap away a 24 second shot clock pounding the ball as if each additional bounce adds a measure of success.  How does a team on the cusp of the big dance manage to stand around like they are attending some early evening social gathering?    And just like groundhog day it happens again and again turning into an endless string of repeated basketball atrocities that boggles the mind of any rational basketball fan.

If there was an award for NOT coach of the year, Brad Stevens would get my vote.  Everybody loves Brad  He's so young and so smart he could be a coach with clairvoyant abilities.  He knows all the  X's and O's and is particularly gifted in the art of tying himself up in a stitch of analysis.  He knows the numbers up and down and backwards and forward.  But he apparently cannot get his team to run a basketball play that does not involve taking an extended coffee break while the clock just keeps on ticking.

Will the real Kemba Walker please stand up.  This cannot possibly be the Kemba Walker that we signed to a massive 4 year deal.

Can we find a way to get Wanamaker more minutes since he is the one that is earning Kemba's paycheck.

Can we get Jayson Tatum to take off the Kobe Bryant underwear and just roll with a pair of fruit of the looms.

Basketball is a team sport and that is why good teams win games.
 
Fans have no right to take issue with a loss if the team plays hard.  If they play the right way but come up short you really cannot be upset.

Unfortunately it smells like that foul stench from the Raptors series has not dissipated.

Just watched the recording of the game and I couldn't agree more with your assessment.
No ball movement, everyone standing around while Kemba runs down the clock dribbling. It reminds me of Rondo's last days on our team. Brad and Kemba lost us this game.

Berlin-T

We blew a 14 point 4th quarter lead by doing the dumbest things, Kemba throwing up bricks all game and over dribbling into traffic way too many times at the rim. The team that was getting better looks was Heat, they knew where to go with the ball way better than we did. Jaylen wasted just standing in the corner while Kemba just dribbles and dribbles....

We have more talent, but in game one it wasn’t used properly, they played better, more cohesive as a team. Brad definitely got outcoached, he let Kemba do way too much iso and dribbling and froze out Jaylen, barely even used him. Were alot of times Miami was in man to man, but we didn’t move the ball and attack the weak match ups, like teams do to us.

Guys and Gal,

We've seen this all before.  TOR prepared us very well for this stage.  We will owe them a huge debt of gratitude when all is said and done.  The only thing we really haven't experienced is how to get ourselves out of an 0-1 or 0-2 hole.  Since we've won the 1st game in each of the preceding series, it gave us a sense of mild relieve if we believe the historic 1-0 numbers which will be quoted ad nauseum until Thursday's game.  

The Lakers have comeback from down 0-1 twice.  They seen to be doing ok.

Boston is going to get the full playoff experience, like it or not, good and bad.  We're turning coal from last year into diamonds this year.  We were even after 4 quarters against a very good team.  This is the ECF.  Nobody's going to get off easy here, especially our team.  So far, MIA has experienced no adversity.  When they do, they will fold up like a cheap suit.  Just keep your seat.  Keep watching.  They are too perfect right now.  The question is whether we will be the ones that administer the Grim Reaper Day of Reckoning like we did to TOR or will it be LAL or DEN.  Worst case scenario, we only have to win 4 games by one point.  We've done the going to OT and losing.  Been there done that.  Have the T-Shirt.  Brad, note to self, stay out of OT.    

There were really 5 different games played right down the the quarters plus OT.  We won, they won, we won, they won, they won.  Couldn't ask for a better contested game.  With the 3-ball going nuts at times, "blowing" a 14-point lead is common.  That's 4-5 possessions.  Was it untimely?  Heck yeah!  But blowing it, nah.  Fairly common now with good teams.    

We let some guys get off that were surprising like Drajic and Herro down the stretch.  Tatum is still climbing the superstar hill.  Great block.  If he had gotten a little higher and just dropped it, it would have been goal tending and a foul.  Lesson learned.  He was going for the monster jam.

We were in a position to tie or win up to the end.  Can't ask for more than that in an ECF.  Nobody's going to blow anybody out at this stage.  

Adversity builds character and grows hair on your chest.  Bad gift from TOR we picked up was winning the 3rd quarter.  No games are won in the 3rd quarter.  Don't know why announcers/ESPN/TNT have been making such a big deal about that. (In TOR series they did)  That was the first 3rd quarter we had won, discounting the PHI series.  Throw that one back.  Useless stat.  Predictable outcome.  Games are won in the 4th quarter.  No further questions, your honor.    

No panic.  Even if we go down 0-2 as it is now a possibility.  Brad is going to have to figure out the zone switches, though.  A little surprised by that.  But no panic.  Our new door to get through is the ECF Door.  Somebody had to win G1.  Wasn't us this time.  Kemba and Brad will figure it out.  Bring on G2.  No rest for the weary.        

db

Dragic has been playing some his best basketball in the playoffs this year, sleep on him at your detriment.

Herro has also been playing like a savvy vet ALL playoffs, even though he is a rookie.

waiting for either of them to become piss poor NBA players just may be fools gold.

Smart did keep Butler pretty quiet the first game though, which was good.

Kemba playing a whole game well, some better bounces here and there and dunk instead of a damn good block late and we get a win last night.

Brad needs to have them prepared better for that trap they played in game one, but to be honest they will kill it and move to something else if/when we figure the trap out. Spoelstra is that good a HC, IMO.

Kemba's got to shake whatever it is on him off. Maybe OG coming back will snap him out of it.

dboss, what's the latest report for him arriving on the bench for G2?

db

Simple to break down what went wrong. Anyone could spot it easily.

Especially in the 4th Q and OT...

1.) Not using enough of the shot clock; poor shot selection & rushed shots.

2.) Going small at the wrong time; Theis fouls out and Wannamaker subs in. Should have been a big, RWIII, to defend the rim and provide a low post scoring option.

Fix those two missteps and win the game.

I look for adjustments in game two. Miami's roster and coaching is a good match-up with the Celtics. I expect a competitive back-and-forth series.

I'm trying hard not to sour on Kemba, I really and truly am, but it's starting to feel more and more like work. The 6-19, 1-9 from 3 is hard enough to swallow, but his overdribbling and waiting for the double team to back him out to the logo was just too much to bear. He'd single-handedly chew up all but the last few seconds of the shot clock before finally realizing they weren't going to let him get within 24'. He's shooting 43.6% in the postseason, 26.5% from 3. Those are rookie Marcus Smart numbers. Gordon cannot come back fast enough so that Kemba can be moved to a catch-and-shoot role instead of a playmaking one.

Speaking of Marcus Smart he put up Kemba numbers. This would have been a blowout if it wasn't for him playing way-the-hell above his average.

Tatum kept chucking up 24 and 25 footers. I have no problem with the final play, he was driving and going for a dunk, it took a remarkable defensive play by Bam Adubayo to stop him, it was his lazy shot selection before that fga that pisses me off.

I also blame a lot of this loss on Brad (Stevens, that is). His team went almost totally one-on-one. No ball movement, no rotation. Get the ball over half court and give it to Tatum, who went one-on-one. Give the ball to Kemba, and let him dribble out the clock. You cannot beat teams in this league anymore without ball movement.

The other Brad, Wanamaker, should have played more than Kemba. That Brad did quite well.

Defensively, they let Butler go to his right and Dragic to his left WAY too often for my liking. Why one of the assistant coaches didn't pull Jaylen and Jayson and Kemba aside and remind them which hand is the dominant one on those players is another mystery.

Yuck.


bob


.

Glad to see I am not alone in wondering if Brad Steven's is being exposed as a mediocre coach in this year's plyoffs. Like the previous series, the Celtics clearly have the better team. For much of the game, they pass, and players score in the flow of the offense. They build a lead. Then players start feeling over-confident, and start jacking long 3's early in the shot clock. Those 3's miss. The other team starts clawing back. All of a sudden it is close, and time is winding down. The Celtics start to get tight, and start playing that god awful iso game where one player (Kemba or JT) dribbles and dribbles 35 feet from the basket, and as the clock winds down, either jacks a contested 3 or drives into traffic to take a tough shot or dish to a teammate forcing them to take a tough shot. It doesn't work, the other team catches us. This goes on for minutes. Instead of calling a time out to get them back to playing the way that got them the lead, Brad lets it keep going. And now, even if he does call a timeout, the play he calls is the same type if iso-nonsense. I'm sorry, Nurse totally outcoached Stevens last series, and so far it looks like our boy wonder is no match for Spo either. Both those teams execute in the crunch - that's coaching. If the C's manage to win, its talent. Brad, you're not a "new" coach anymore - it's time to prove you are as good as everyone says you are.

Shamrock1000 wrote:Glad to see I am not alone in wondering if Brad Steven's is being exposed as a mediocre coach in this year's plyoffs. Like the previous series, the Celtics clearly have the better team. For much of the game, they pass, and players score in the flow of the offense. They build a lead. Then players start feeling over-confident, and start jacking long 3's early in the shot clock. Those 3's miss. The other team starts clawing back. All of a sudden it is close, and time is winding down. The Celtics start to get tight, and start playing that god awful iso game where one player (Kemba or JT) dribbles and dribbles 35 feet from the basket, and as the clock winds down, either jacks a contested 3 or drives into traffic to take a tough shot or dish to a teammate forcing them to take a tough shot. It doesn't work, the other team catches us. This goes on for minutes. Instead of calling a time out to get them back to playing the way that got them the lead, Brad lets it keep going. And now, even if he does call a timeout, the play he calls is the same type if iso-nonsense. I'm sorry, Nurse totally outcoached Stevens last series, and so far it looks like our boy wonder is no match for Spo either. Both those teams execute in the crunch - that's coaching. If the C's manage to win, its talent. Brad, you're not a "new" coach anymore - it's time to prove you are as good as everyone says you are.

Rock,

Let me be clear here:  I do NOT believe the Celtics had the better team in the last series and I do NOT believe Brad Stevens was vastly outcoached by N-Squared.  As Doc Rivers famously used to say "you are your record" and Toronto had the better record over the course of the season despite us having Gordon for most of it.  With Gordon out with his injured ankle our team was definitely impaired, while Toronto was 100% healthy.  Brad was outcoached yesterday.  We'll see what happens on Thursday.


bob


.

Hi,
Dboss pretty much nailed it.
Also, they have to play defense as they play in the first and third quarters all 48 minutes. I understand that there'll be oops here and oops there, but at times it looked like somebody turned a switch off...
I really, really hope they, players and coach, take this loss as a wake up call and do wake up. Also, learn from those mistakes (pretty please!).

AK

bobheckler wrote:

Shamrock1000 wrote:Glad to see I am not alone in wondering if Brad Steven's is being exposed as a mediocre coach in this year's plyoffs. Like the previous series, the Celtics clearly have the better team. For much of the game, they pass, and players score in the flow of the offense. They build a lead. Then players start feeling over-confident, and start jacking long 3's early in the shot clock. Those 3's miss. The other team starts clawing back. All of a sudden it is close, and time is winding down. The Celtics start to get tight, and start playing that god awful iso game where one player (Kemba or JT) dribbles and dribbles 35 feet from the basket, and as the clock winds down, either jacks a contested 3 or drives into traffic to take a tough shot or dish to a teammate forcing them to take a tough shot. It doesn't work, the other team catches us. This goes on for minutes. Instead of calling a time out to get them back to playing the way that got them the lead, Brad lets it keep going. And now, even if he does call a timeout, the play he calls is the same type if iso-nonsense. I'm sorry, Nurse totally outcoached Stevens last series, and so far it looks like our boy wonder is no match for Spo either. Both those teams execute in the crunch - that's coaching. If the C's manage to win, its talent. Brad, you're not a "new" coach anymore - it's time to prove you are as good as everyone says you are.

Rock,

Let me be clear here:  I do NOT believe the Celtics had the better team in the last series and I do NOT believe Brad Stevens was vastly outcoached by N-Squared.  As Doc Rivers famously used to say "you are your record" and Toronto had the better record over the course of the season despite us having Gordon for most of it.  With Gordon out with his injured ankle our team was definitely impaired, while Toronto was 100% healthy.  Brad was outcoached yesterday.  We'll see what happens on Thursday.


bob


.

Fair enough Bob. But when I watch the teams play, my eyes tell me the Celtics players are on average better than the Raptors players. Also, when the Celtics play the right way, it is a thing of beauty. I never saw the Raptors produce a thing of beauty. I saw a bunch of tough-as-nails players constantly clawing, refusing to give up, keeping their cool and making wily plays down the stretch. I give Nurse some credit for keeping his players in it no matter what. Maybe I am forgetting, but never once did I see Toronto dominating the Celtics. They were always clawing to come back, or exchanging buckets with the Celtics. On the other hand, there were many stretches where, at least to me, it was clear the Celtics were the superior team (at this point in the season  at least). I stick to my guns saying that the Celtics won this series because they have a more talented team,  but it was close because when things get tight, they played like they played last night against the Heat. That is at least partly on Brad.

worcester wrote:NYCelt, You can see it, we all here can see it, but can Brad see it?

Great question.

At 38.9 left in 4th Kemba drove down right side of lane, 3 defenders converged and one of them easily blocked his shot, meanwhile Jaylen was wide open for a corner 3 the whole time....???

Basketball 101, just do the godamn basics, the game is simple. How can he be shooting so bad and make so many boneheaded plays? If Dragic keeps going for 29 points and he keeps going 1-9 from 3, I don’t care if GH comes back, we won’t win....

Now that the Heat have proven to themselves that they can win with zone defenses and by moving themselves and the ball on offense, this series will be even more difficult.

The bread and butter of the Celtics and just about every NBA team relies on a heavy dose of running high screen and rolls/pops.  

They have dismantled that action by taking Kemba out of the game.  He is struggling to get around defenders off the bounce, he is struggling to pass the ball to open guys and he is pressing in an attempt to score because our screens up top are not effective.  He is getting some clean looks but not knocking them down because he is clearly befuddled.  

They have taken away our 1-5 pick and roll so Theis has also been made ineffective.  We are pretty much running  1-4 action up top with Kemba and Tatum.   The other 3 guys become replicas of the Statue Of Liberty.  They do little to screen for each other to free up guys to receive passes and open shot opportunities.

The shot clock is being ignored as both Kemba and Jayson had too many possession where nothing was happening.  The Heat can easily defend non-activity.  Any team can defend against guys standing still.

You will notice that when Smart and Wanamaker are running the point the Heat switch back to man to man.  Why?

The answer is right in your face.  They are exploiting Kemba's size and his difficulty to pass over or around defenders and his right hand dominant dribbling.  Kemba's cross overs from right to left only gets him a jab step and then a step back jumper.  He never gets to the rim on the left side.  He is getting met at the rim going right.  And his jumper is being challenged more because his jump is not as high as it was during the regular season.  On defense he is a liability particularly when he is switched off on a bigger stronger player.

How is it possible that a coach is not able to run counter measures to make teams pay for defending 2 on 1?  I hate to say this but the lack of discipline shown by this team and their inability to play the right way falls on the coach.  That is his job.  

Our defense and offense was solid starting the game but in the 4th we could not hold onto a 12 point lead because our guys lack the discipline to play the right way.  Dribbling around for most of the shot clock and then passing the ball with a few seconds left will not create a good shot attempt.

We will need GH to return asap.  We need another guy who will make the right plays.  We need one less hero ball player.  Jayson, Jaylen, Kemba and Smart take too many bad shots.   GH does not.  

Coach Stevens has yet to address the nuances associated with attacking zone defenses.  They better figure this out by tomorrow or we will be sporting an 0-2 deficit

Is there any truth to the rumor that second guessing in a sporting event would always be infallible ?

swish

swish wrote:Is there any truth to the rumor that second guessing in a sporting event would always be infallible ?

  swish

... so, Wednesday afternoon quarterbacking?

worcester wrote:Excellent analysis Dboss. Brad, send him part of your paycheck.

I could use the money   It could be considered a pre XMAS gift.

At the end of the day you either win or lose. If you win that means you overcame all deficiencies. I think we have more talent than the other guys but I do not know if we are the better TEAM including the coach. I am still picking the Celtics and not because I am a fan. I am picking them because I think their talent is better, provided that talent shows up. Their collective talent may overcome deficiencies including those that appear to be inherent with our coach.