POST GAME - PLAYOFF ROUND 2 - GAME 7 - MILWAUKEE BUCKS - HOME

I believed we were going to win but I did not expect a 28 point blow out.  They won the first quarter by 6.  We won every quarter after that by 10, minimum.  A complete domination of the defending Champions in a close out game.  Would this storyline be different if Khris Middleton played?  He'd certainly have some impact, for sure, but we've been without our starting center for most of the series and we even were without him and the DPOY for a game and we still won.  Still you must give credit to the Bucks and Giannis.  Giannis gave absolutely everything you could ask of a human being, which begs the question "is he human?"  I've never seen someone his size being that coordinated, that fast and that skilled.

I've said this once or twice before and I feel it's worth repeating now:  the players I look for are players who up their games in the playoffs.  We all want, and expect, players to come in and do their jobs despite the increasing pressure that comes with going deeper into the playoffs.  What I look for are players who up their games in the playoffs.  A Reggie Jackson, a Mr. October.  A career .262 hitter with a .490 slugging percentage who hits .278 and slugs .527 in the post season.  A player whose slugging percentage in the 1981 World Series was .600.  I look for players like that in green.  It might be too soon to start looking at Grant Williams like that but last night was a good start.  At the minimum he's the new Game 7 Kelly Olynyk (Yeah, that's right Cowens, I SAID IT!!).  If Grant shot his average, 10ppg or so, this would have been a much different game but he did what he does and did it a lot more.  7-18 from 3.  Wow.  Both the shooting percentage as well as the total number are amazing.  He's eligible for a rookie extension after this season.  It will be interesting to see what Brad does.  Grant has now proven he can come off the bench or start.  He has proven that he is immune to pressure.  Of course Grant could lay a bunch of eggs against Miami and make Brad's decision easier but I doubt it.  Confidence and success breeds more confidence and success and Grant is riding about as high as he's going to get.  I predict that if Brad's decision gets easier it'll be because Grant will make NOT getting an extension look ridiculous.  I'm willing to bet real money nobody expected Grant Williams to be the Game 7 GAME HIGH scorer, not with Giannis, Tatum and Brown all playing heavy minutes.  The NBA, where Amazing Happens.

And let's give some credit here to Ime Udoka too.  Right from the beginning he decided that Brad's use of Grant as a small-ball 5 was not what he wanted and he told Grant (who, being the high BBIQ, eminently coachable player he is, reached out to Ime when he got hired and asked him what he wanted from him) to lose 15# and to work on being a knock-down 3pt shooter.  Grant did those things and became a significantly more valuable offensive player and a significantly more versatile defensive player with his new-found mobility.




Payton's feeling it too.  "It's what I do!" is a pretty clear statement of what he's about, isn't it?  I cannot mention Payton Pritchard without doing a shout out for the offensive rebound he got at about the 1:30 mark of his highlight video that lead to a Smart 3.  He took it right out of Connaughton's hands.  We were up something like 20 at that time but I don't care. It's an offensive rebound, so I'm going to talk it up. We are going to need Pritchard, and Grant, to help offset the shooting of Robinson, Herro and Strus.  Miami has A LOT of shooters.




They shot 12% from 3.  I don't doubt the Comments From The Other Side thread will show Bucks fans bemoaning the reffing, they always do, but the refs didn't take and miss those shots.  I'm sure they'll claim that Giannis was getting mugged and should have gotten more than the 6 ftas he was awarded but even if he got 16 ftas this game was not in doubt because of their shooting, not because they got "cheated" on fritos.

Horford didn't score much, 6 points, but he had 10 boards and 6 assists with zero turnovers.  If Coach Bud changed his game plan to stop Horford that may have worked but it didn't change the game. Now our OG is going to have to rev himself up in just 2 days to defend Bam. No rest for the weary, but this is Al's dream coming true. He came to Boston for this chance to compete for a Championship and is openly overjoyed at getting a second chance. Well, here ya go, big guy. Make the most of it.

Theis only played 6 minutes but had 2 blocks in those minutes.  Short, but very sweet.

If Grant is the new Game 7 GOAT then Derrick White is the new Game 7 goat.  1-10, 1-6 from 3 is just plain awful.  What I said about players upping their games in the playoffs works the same in reverse.  Players who disappear or fail to do their jobs are of very limited value for me.  Scal was a great locker room guy, his teammates loved him, but you didn't want to see him playing 18 important minutes in a Game 7 in 2008 did you?  I know Ime has confidence in him from his San Antonio days, I know his teammates have confidence in him, now he just needs to play like he deserves it.  So far he hasn't, but opportunities will spring anew for him starting on Tuesday.

And, oh yeah, the Js had good games too. Could you have imagined this? They played good games. They both shot 50% from the field, they both shot 50% from 3 and they weren't even close to being the most notable players on the floor yesterday. That's how we win, when it's not all about them. That doesn't mean they can/should stink it up, but other players are making big plays, hitting big shots and making the opposing coach rethink taking his starters out for breathers because our "other guys" like Grant and Payton are killing them. Giannis played 43 minutes yesterday. That wasn't because he was matching up with the Js, it was because if he was off the court his teammates would get bulldozed (it happened anyway, but it would have been even worse).

From the Bucks perspective starters Wes Matthews and Grayson Allen combined for 1-11, 0-7 from 3 for 4 points in 22 minutes each (44 combined).  That makes White's 1-10, 1-6, 3 points in 18 minutes a little easier pill to swallow.  If I was Giannis I would pissed off as Hell at them today.  They're starters and they didn't help him one single bit.

It seems like this has been going on for a long time but we're only halfway there.  8 down, 8 more to go.  This is going to be exhausting for our guys.  We play tomorrow, 2 days after Game 7, then again 2 days later on Thursday, then 2 days later again on Saturday, then 2 days after that on Monday.

Is this team fun to watch, or what?! Listen, if the flawed Dallas Mavericks with Luka can finish off the best team in the NBA ("you are your record") Phoenix Suns with Booker in a Game 7, in Phoenix, by 33 points then we certainly can knock off #1 seed Miami.


Bob


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dbrown4 wrote:Wow!  Where to begin.  First off, credit to the Bucks, in particular Coach Bud for resurrecting our ghosts of 1st half of the season past and reminding us of where we came from and never to go back, Giannis for putting everyone else on his shoulders and climbing Mt. Everest only to run out of oxygen in the end, Jrue Holliday for showing up and being the 2nd fiddle 2-way player for the Bucks...and that's about it.  Can't win a series with maybe 2 people showing up and the rest of the team floundering.  All the respect for the defending champs.  They just ran into the proverbial buzz saw at the wrong time.

First off, a gripe.  If I heard one more time a reference to Chris Middleton being out without juxtaposing it with RWIII being out, I'm going to drive my car through the flat panel.  Chris may have been good for 2 points difference.  That's about it.  And that's giving him some.  If Williams had been playing, Giannis' production would have suffered immeasurably.    

OK, Grant Williams took on the status of those few in Celtic lore of in essence of being a no-name and having the coming out game/series of his life.  P.J. Brown and Leon Powe immediately come to mind.  Also, there was a Celtic from the 70's I believe that this site will know where he came off the bench of one of the finals and put on a spectacular 4th quarter and led to us hanging a banner.

Anyway, somebody's stock price, confidence and value to the team just went through the roof.  Whatever Grant Williams took during the last off-season, he needs to share with the rest of the team as far as 3-point shooting goes.  BRILLIANT game plan for Ime to tell GW to let it fly even though there was a stretch where we were all cringing and yelling at the TV for us to stop 3-balling because it wasn't working for a pretty good stretch there.  Clearly GW was not on the Bucks G7 game-plan radar/agenda.  From the looks of it, he wasn't even brought up.    

And then out of nowhere, all we wanted to see was GW firing from 3-ville.  It was nothing but wide open practice shots from there.  You and I can make threes when you're that wind open.  And make them he did.  So did Pritchard.  Once Pritchard learns how to take his game on the road, he will be in the same boat with Grant.  Grant will be available this summer for lessons for all takers.    

Marcus Smart was quietly scaring a poor man's 3-D, in addition to all his regular and intangible contributions.  Get ready Jimmy Butler to look like a bumbling, G-Leaguing fool just like Giannis did by G7 and KD/KI for the whole series.  Even though Giannis put on a Herculean performance of 25/20/9, he looked like a G-Leaguer given his lack of help from his teammates.  That was the most pedestrian, Herculean performance I could have imagined or seen.  Wheels really came off in the 4th.     

This team may be entering that rarified air that there isn't anyone out there that can stop this train.  They CLEARLY fear no one.  I'd like to see an ECF similar to the 1st round for us.  It's time for a complete dismantling of the Heat for the West to see who's steamrolling through.  Hopefully the sleeping giant/Fully Operational Death Star (which I now believe there are two, one each with and without RWIII, either of which are extremely lethal) has been fully awakened and/or is fully operational for good now.  If the Heat have this to look forward to, this ECF could be over much sooner than later.  It doesn't appear to matter.  MIA inconsistency will spell the end for them.

Not much time to enjoy this, Tuesday is tomorrow.  It's amazing what Ime has done.  I'm just glad we all convinced Ktron to not show Ime the back door halfway through this season.  You gotta give the new coach a chance!!..OK, Ktron, I can't type that without LMAO!  Good eye and good work!!

I believe we just saw the Finals, OMHBAO. Still full steam ahead.  No time to read the headlines or bask in the glory.  Work to be done.    

db

dbrown,

Sorry, I wrote my post before reading yours.  Hope you've got good insurance.  


Bob


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This is becoming a great Celtics team, of which there have been many. Eight wins to go to enter the pantheon of full Celtics greatness. However, there are still formidable challenges ahead, and I don't mean Miami and GSW. My biggest future concern would be Dallas and especially Luka, although we now have our own Luke to counter balance the Mavs' superstar.

We played Dallas 11-6-21 and lost 104-107. I'm disregarding that game. More recently we played them 3-13-22 and lost 92-95. Jayson scored 21, Jaylen 14, Rob 10, Marcus 15, Al 17, Grant 2, PP 8, and Derrick 5.

Luka scored 26, DFS 19, Dinwiddie 18, Brunson 14, Powell 4, Burke 2, Bertrans 3, and Josh Green 9.

How will Ime strategize to defeat the Mavs? Given my immense experience and knowledge as a basketball coach, I'd say the obvious choice is to give many more minutes to Luke Kornet and get at least 4 points out of him rather than wasting floor time on 0-25 from three Grant Williams, but Ime might instead plan for the Celts to play consistent lock down D and try to coax a few more points out of Jaylen, Jayson, and Grant. I wonder if Stephen A. Smith would concur with me.

Joking aside, since the Celts handled the Bucks with the greatest player in the world, I do think we'll handle the Mavs with Luka. Now I'm wondering if Luka and cast are enough to handle Golden State, a team I know we can beat.

BTW, Bob and I watched the Celts beat the Warriors 11-15-2019 105-100 in the new GSW arena. Here are the highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WfB6pE5Yo8

No problem, BobH. It's all good. Great minds think alike!

worcester, you know better than to start counting those chickens!! My wife just got on me this morning about that same thinking!!! I had to back pedal but I was thinking the same thing. I know we lost both times to them but they were both last shot desperation-type shots. Ime's come an even longer way since then. Looks like a MIL repeat. We spread it around. Ime will just continue to cut the head off of the snake. Henry VIII. MIA first. Ime will study their film and and make them remember where they came from and still are...up and down/on and off. And make Butler, Strus, YabbaDabbaBeyo & "No Show" Herro look like G-Leaguers.

db

Bob you may not want to mention Giannis, Grant Williams and Kelly Olynyk in the same paragraph.

I do want want to remember Danny's worse trade ever. Trading up and bypassing Giannis to snag KO.

Grant had a great offensive game yesterday. Do the Celtics give him a rookie extension? I think not. He is under contract next year for $4.3 million and the following year the Celtics have a $6.2 million QO to put on the table. I see no need to lock him up this summer.

dboss wrote:Bob you may not want to mention Giannis, Grant Williams and Kelly Olynyk in the same paragraph.

I do want want to remember Danny's worse trade ever.  Trading up and bypassing Giannis to snag KO.  

Grant had a great offensive game yesterday.  Do the Celtics give him a rookie extension?  I think not.  He is under contract next year for $4.3 million and the following year the Celtics have a $6.2 million QO to put on the table.  I see no need to lock him up this summer.  

The extension doesn't affect his contract next year for $4.3 million. That remains the same, but you may already know that. Any extension money starts the following season.

Recent history (early extensions to Brown, Tatum and Smart) indicate the Celtics' willingness to do this. They avoided larger and longer contracts in doing so. No brainah!

I expect Brad to try to extend Grant for the same reason. Besides, the team is shooting for roster continuity. I expect Brad to extend Pritchard as well, when his time comes around. I'm not sure yet about Nesmith.

It comes down to realistic options to add (or replace) talent for a luxury tax paying team. Assuming that we will be a tax payer, we do not have many options that include both roster continuity and quality of talent.

I will tell you, I went to that game that Olynk went crazy. It was a sight to behold. I could not believe it while I was watching it, but I can only imagine that is the way alot of people felt yesterday watching Grant!!!!

Dbrown4 said:
OK, Grant Williams took on the status of those few in Celtic lore of in essence of being a no-name and having the coming out game/series of his life.  P.J. Brown and Leon Powe immediately come to mind.  Also, there was a Celtic from the 70's I believe that this site will know where he came off the bench of one of the finals and put on a spectacular 4th quarter and led to us hanging a banner.

The unsung hero of the greatest game ever played, the 3OT game 5 thriller in the 1976 finals against the Suns was Glenn McDonald. After multiple Celtics fouled out Glenn came off the bench to score 8 big points in OT, 6 in the last minute and a half of the 3rd OT period.

gyso wrote:All in 17 minutes . . .

“This is what I do” !!!

-Payton Pritchard (Swaggy P Jr.)

Bob
MY NOTE:  I'm VERY happy to see no champagne or balloons or anything like that in the locker room.  We're only at the halfway point.  8 down, 8 to go.


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I'm not sure the rest of the NBA World knows what's (about to come) coming out of Boston.

I like this change in set up for us now only having 3 home games in a 7-game series. I like us not having home court. We saw what the pressure did to us and almost did us in the previous series. It took us the whole series to recover after G1. Now, we knocked it out of the park, but still there are easier ways to win a series than having to go the full 7 games. This is our new paradigm because regardless of who wins out West, this series and what will be the Finals, we've only got potentially 6 home games left. We've earned this for farting around the first half of the season. Next season, I'm expecting us to have home court all the way through. But I digress.

I believe this team has now gotten back on track with the mindset that they had for the last half of the season where it was Steamroll City. No matter the opponent. I know the playoffs are completely different. Teams make adjustments, etc. I'm predicting a complete collapse by the Heat, similar to the First Round by BKN. Head of the snake. Jimmy Butler will be crying in his spilt milk after he gets locked up like KD and is totally taken out of his game.

You think Ime has unleashed this defense to it's highest level? We've seen all we're going to see here? Think again. Now we are going up against Butler plus some shooter/scorers. This will be the best display of our defense yet. It's been an exponential rise on defense over the last half of the season and now into the playoffs.

Most importantly, the pressure on us is off for these first two games. It will only be self induced. MIA is supposed to win these first two games. That's why I like us with the short stick from here on out. We dictate the pressure better when we are more desperate.

Anyway, G1 is up tonight. I expect it to be close for about two quarters, then MIA's wheels will start to come off.

db