POST GAME - PLAYOFF ROUND 4 - FINALS - GAME 6 - GOLDEN STATE - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Warriors Withstand Boston’s Rally To Capture NBA Title
The Celtics had chances but couldn't captialize


NESN by Jason Ounpraseuth

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics, 103-90, to win the NBA Finals at TD Garden. The title is the Dubs’ eight title in franchise history.

The Warriors won the series 4-2.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics got off to a fast start in Game 6 — leading 14-4 to start the first quarter. The Warriors did what they did best and went on a run. At one point, they went on a 21-0 run — the longest scoring run in an NBA Finals game in the last 50 years, per ESPN. The Dubs, overall, went on a 52-25 run to end the first half. Steph Curry led the way for the Warriors and even gestured to his ring finger — calling the game and the series in the Warriors’ favor.

The Warriors went up as much as 72-50 at the start of the third quarter. But the Celtics weren’t ready to quit. Boston turned the tables on Golden State, once again, and went on a 12-2 third quarter run. Jaylen Brown and Al Horford led the way for Boston. Horford continue to hit timely buckets, and he contributed well on the defensive end alongside Robert Williams.

The Warriors were hanging on to a 10-point lead through multiple periods of the game. The Celtics had moments where they cut the game to single digits. However, Boston’s long-time problem in the NBA playoffs came at its worst. The Celtics committed a series-high 23 turnovers in Game 6. Those turnovers ultimately doomed the Celtics, and the Warriors withstood Boston’s second-half rally to win their fourth title in eight years.

STARS OF THE GAME
— After going 9-for-9 from beyond the arc in Game 5, Curry found positive regression in Game 6 going 6-for-10 from the 3-point line. The Warriors superstar finished the game with 34 points, seven rebounds and seven assist to go along with two steals. Curry surpassed 150 3-pointers in the NBA Finals becoming the first player ever reach the mark.

— Brown led the way for the Celtics, matching Curry’s 34 points. The Boston guard shot 5-for-11 from beyond the arc to go along with seven rebounds and three assists.

— Draymond Green saved his best game for last. The Warriors forward had double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds. He nearly had a triple-double with eight assists to go along with two steals and blocks.

WAGER WATCH
Curry was +140 to lead the game in 3-pointers, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. He barely edged out Brown to take the prop win, and a $100 bet on the prop would have paid out $240.


UP NEXT
The NBA season comes to a conclusion with the Dubs on top of the basketball. Boston will face numerous questions heading into the offseason.

112288

Congratulations to the Warriors.  Now that the season is over, time to thank the Celts.  Work to do this offseason.  I have had the misfortune to watch two Celts finals loss because our 5 was injured.

Let’s hope that we can replicated this season next year.

MERCIFULLY ITS OVER!

Thank the God. I am just glad Tommy Gun did not witness this pathetic BS effort!

The Celtics play tonight was out and out an embarrassment to the organization as a whole. They played with no passion and their play reminded me of watching a college game!  A real joke.

This is not Celtic basketball.  Out side of a few players like Horford, this team is soft and there was no push back, physical play by anyone! The 2008 Celtic team would have introduced Curry to the parquet floor quite often, and maybe just maybe he would shy away from driving to the rim and taking a hard fall.

There are a number of problems plaguing this team. Brad needs to reconstitute the bench 6-12.

I would like to see Brad do a semi rebuild with a number of our so called star players.  Being a long time Wall Street guy I always believe in buy low, sell high and the age and the hype still out there on the two J's is ripe for Brad to fleece a team with a top player and a young talent in a 2 for 1 deal.

Seeing Tatum and how he reacted during the series final tells me he had a brain freeze.  I mean he sucked plain and simple. He is a soft player that does not attack the rim and draw fouls. He shy's away from contact at the rim and he gets frustrated at no calls which happens quite often.  His stats are a joke - 11 points, 5 TO's, 3 RB's - really!  Brown was no better with 5 TO's but made up for it with 34 points and 7 rebounds.

I do not care if they lost by a few points, but GS did whatever they wanted to do with us on both sides of the ball.

In a way i am glad they got their noses rubbed in the dirt in front of the home crowd, perhaps it may wake-up both management and players alike that this team was not a championship team as first thought back at the beginning  of the playoffs.   

112288

We lost the game as soon as we subbed the bench players. I wish that Ime had changed a thing or two. Start GWill, play Nesmith a few, something. You can’t just ask your players to suck it up and perform.

Oh well, water under the bridge!

Hopi g that Brad Beal demands a trade to Boston. It will cost us Al but it will be worth it.

We just played our 106th game of this season.  It's been a while since we've played that many.  This team is young and our core is, for the most part, under contract for the next 3-4 years.  I believe we have a bright future.

Smart has played on a bum ankle for a while.  RWill hasn't been 100% for this entire playoff run.  Tatum may have been hampered by a shoulder issue.  There may be more injuries that we do not know.  Now that the season is over, we may find out more details on the injury front.

I agree that our bench needs to be improved out to 9-10 good quality players.  We finished out the season with a 8 man rotation, which got us to the finals, but in the end our team didn't have much left in the tank.

After we reached the ECFs for so many years, we finally got over the hump.  Maybe next year we can take it to the next level.

Not bad for a bridge season.

112288 wrote:MERCIFULLY ITS OVER!

Thank the God. I am just glad Tommy Gun did not witness this pathetic BS effort!

The Celtics play tonight was out and out an embarrassment to the organization as a whole. They played with no passion and their play reminded me of watching a college game!  A real joke.

This is not Celtic basketball.  Out side of a few players like Horford, this team is soft and there was no push back, physical play by anyone! The 2008 Celtic team would have introduced Curry to the parquet floor quite often, and maybe just maybe he would shy away from driving to the rim and taking a hard fall.

There are a number of problems plaguing this team. Brad needs to reconstitute the bench 6-12.

I would like to see Brad do a semi rebuild with a number of our so called star players.  Being a long time Wall Street guy I always believe in buy low, sell high and the age and the hype still out there on the two J's is ripe for Brad to fleece a team with a top player and a young talent in a 2 for 1 deal.

Seeing Tatum and how he reacted during the series final tells me he had a brain freeze.  I mean he sucked plain and simple. He is a soft player that does not attack the rim and draw fouls. He shy's away from contact at the rim and he gets frustrated at no calls which happens quite often.  His stats are a joke - 11 points, 5 TO's, 3 RB's - really!  Brown was no better with 5 TO's but made up for it with 34 points and 7 rebounds.

I do not care if they lost by a few points, but GS did whatever they wanted to do with us on both sides of the ball.

In a way i am glad they got their noses rubbed in the dirt in front of the home crowd, perhaps it may wake-up both management and players alike that this team was not a championship team as first thought back at the beginning  of the playoffs.   

112288

That was so not Celtic basketball. Tatum made an asshole out of himself by posing like he’s great on that first 3, instead of just hustling back on defense. What is done is done, never have 2 Celtic stars been exposed like this on such a most watched stage. Tatum has the most turnovers in a Finals ever, you would think before he would get to that, he would make some kind of adjustment to not do that. Right, you would think…??? Think about that, he’s a Celtic and in the record books now, if that’s your leading/best player going forward this franchise might be in trouble. That’s a guy that can’t adjust his game to the defense and his shooting % was just as putrid in this game and the series. Anyone can look like a shooting star beating on the weaklings during the regular season. I can’t think of another franchise all forward type Lebron, Bird, Kobe, Pierce, Havlicek, West that has ever played so bad on this stage. With an idiot (thinking about that mind numbing posing on his first 3 while he’s in the midst of historic putrid play) like that leading your team, how can you play Celtic basketball? He’s posing like he’s a bad man, while he’s constantly the main reason we just lost 3 straight games. This idiot is way too full of himself and needs a huge dose of humility, then maybe he could figure out how not to be the biggest bonehead on the worlds biggest stage.

Two cures to administer in the off season.

1) 5-on-10 Basketball practice until the starters (in particular the 2 J's) figure it out to completely eliminate the TO's.

2) Get us a dang bench that's going to show up on the big stage like an Eddie House.

That's it. Congratulations to Golden State. They can study game film like no one else. Clearly we lost the GS vs. MEM Blowout game tape in the mail.

Not something we want to hear, but this is the first time in Celtic history we've lost B2B Finals going back to 2010. It's a little lame but still packs a punch when you think about it.

db

Interesting comment from Tatum on Coach K where K called out Tatum on scoring only 2 points in the first half of a critical game as a "Soft Ass" , only to turn around and score 28 points in the second half of the game.

Sound familiar?

So I am trying to figure out why is Tatum playing so much Yo Yo BB, up down up down?

I have to start by deferring to what is being said about Mac Jones the QB for the Patriots. Many are saying he will never get the Patriots to a Super Bowl because he does not have the skill set as other QB 's coming into the league. However, he won 7 games in a row after a couple of losses which he almost turned into wins except for poor defense by the Patriots (Dallas & Tampa Bay). He did show shades of brilliance as being really really good. I know it is a small sampling of games, but there are eerie similarities as it relates to Tatum.

Perhaps Tatum has not matured as a player both mentally or physically? He left very young from school to enter the NBA. Could it be that Tatum was not given a chance to grow as a person and as an athlete in college, that would have given him a more rounded game athletically as well as mentally (court vision & court decisions while on the fly)?

There are a number of so called super athletes that left college early, only to never achieve their full potential. Could this be Tatum?

There is a lot to say about staying in college and playing 3-4 years, which would give an athlete the ability to hone in on their skills on similar level of athletic competition. And, if you are acquiring bad habits early, it gives that athlete the ability to further work on their skills to improve without the pressures of being a professional player who has to execute immediately as millions of dollars are at stake in being a winning franchise. Often times their bad habits are never fixed and become more difficult to lose as time goes on.

When looking at Tatums career up to now, yes he has the raw physical skills to be a superstar talent in the NBA. However, all indications indicate that he is deficient in a number of skill sets that he could have improved upon on the college level before jumping to the NBA.

Namely, on court decisions - defensive reads on when to pass or when to commit to a play without leaving oneself vulnerable with no shot and no option to pass to your teammate, how to read and breakdown the defense, finishing aggressively at the rim with hard contact, protecting the ball when your going to the rim, and using the option of using the backboard and angles to help you score rather then a swish shot! With Tatums height and leaping ability, along with using the backboard to score, makes it so much easier and gives him another angle of attack and another shooting option for him to use against coverage rather than the swish shot. No one can stop him if he integrated this into his shooting arsenal.

I hope he can clear his head and work with a neutral - non NBA player - 3 rd party this off season that can begin to reintroduce basketball fundamentals beginning with watching films first and then moving to the court to clear up his bad old habits.

Otherwise, if we still see the same old same old Tatum next year, perhaps its time to sell high and turn the page on him.

112288

Congratulations to the World Champion Golden State Warriors.  They earned it.

Tatum with a stinker.  13 points on 6-18, 7 assists and 5 turnovers and only 3 rebounds.  6'8"+ 230# of pyrite.  More on him later.

Brown came to play.  34 points on 12-23, 5-11 from 3, 7 boards.  Unfortunately there were also 5 turnovers.  I thought his defense left some to be desired.  More on him later too, but Jaylen showed up for sure.

We had no bench.  Zero.  What a joke.  Grant with 3 points and a rebound in 16 minutes.  White 1-6 and the player who probably had the worst series of any player on either team, Payton Pritchard.  He got completely exposed on both ends.  Pritchard, in particular, looked lost out there.  The GSW bench had 21 points, with Poole getting 15 of them.  Our entire bench had 5 on 2-10 shooting.  Either Brad didn't give Ime a bench or he did and Ime didn't use them (e.g. Nesmith, Stauskas, Theis).  Not just in this series, but from mid-January on.  That doesn't excuse the awful play of the bench Ime did use, it just makes you wonder why Ime didn't avail himself of other options.  Did he have any, or did he just decide he was going to ride-or-die with the horses he knew; White from his San Antonio Spurs days and Pritchard from his hometown of Portland?  Brad and Ime need to put their heads together and decide who they want to play from the bench next year.  Not just on the bench, but actually coming off the bench and onto the court.

Another bitch about Ime.  He went with the "put the balls in the J's hands and let them create" offensive scheme.  It didn't work.  Neither of them are good enough ball handlers to pull that off, nor were they making quick enough decisions to get rid of the ball before they got doubled or swarmed.  They both like to dribble into traffic and that created turnovers.  Coaches tell players not to jump unless you're going to shoot.  That's because if you're in the air and looking to pass you have to make the right decision before you come down.  We had 22 turnovers, they had 13 steals, in part because the Js were getting in trouble and made the obvious pass out of it and they were waiting.  Why did you name Smart the starting point guard if you weren't making him run the offense instead of the players he should be feeding?  Do you want Tatum and Brown catching-and-shooting or Smart and White?  If you want the shooters to do the shooting then you need to put the ball in the hands of another player who will feed them.  We went right back to December because Ime let Tatum be a ball-hog.  10 turnovers from those two players means they have the ball in their hands too much and, when the pressure really started to crank up they reverted to form.  They went full iso, and they were able to do it because Ime empowered them as "point forwards".  I know, this sounds very much like a bitch I had after Game 5 but, you know what, nothing changed from Game 5 to Game 6.  If I'm sounding like a broken record maybe that's because our performance was deja vu all over again (thank you, Yogi Berra, wherever you are).

Al with a great game.  19 and 14.  Cannot ask for more.  Basketball isn't about who runs the fastest or who can jump the highest, it's about who is in the right place at the right time and executes under pressure, and Al Horford just proved it.

RWill with 5 blocks.  7 rebounds, 5 offensive.  We needed more of him, they really had no counter.

GSW took 92 fgas.  46, exactly half of them, were 3s and they shot 41.3% from 3.  They also shot 41.3% for the game, so their 2pt shooting was an excremental 41.3%.

Youth is wasted on the young, and we looked young and immature.  I've said before that I'd rather have the grizzled veterans with the thousand yard stare that will cut your heart out just because you're in their way over an athletic puppy.  Over the last few games the OGs surgically dissected our kindergarten.  Will this series loss take some of the new car smell off our babies?  Let's hope so, because we are a mentally weak team now.  

Steve Bulpett @SteveBHoop
about 9 hours ago
Ime Udoka says @Celtics need to improve their IQ. Add toughness. Getting back within 8 vs GS, a championship outfit, was nice, but suffering a 34 point turnaround (up 12 to down 22) on your home floor is hard to fathom. And 23 turnovers. Proverbs 2022: Pride goeth before a fall.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 9 hours ago
Jaylen Brown: "We did it to ourselves. We showed our immaturity at times."


Draymond Green is saying they beat us with defense.  Our inability to score had something to do with their defense, of course, but our offensive schemes were so obvious we made it easy.  To give them their due, however, their rotations were very swift and our read of their rotations could have/should have been quicker.

On a finishing note I think it's important to maintain a broader, longer perspective.  When this season started, after a very disappointing last season, we had a rookie coach and a rookie GM.  I do not remember anybody on this board predicting in October we'd even make it to the Conference Finals, much less the Championship round.  On, I believe, January 6th our record was 18-21 and we were in 11th place in the EC.  Not even in the NBA's equivalent of a Participation Trophy, the tournament play-in.  I'm pleased that I do not remember anybody on this board using the word I hate more than almost any other, tanking, but we were not looking good.  We made it to Game 6 of the Finals against a Dynasty that has won 4 Championships in the last 8 years with the same core players that added a #1 pick, Andrew Wiggins.  And in those 4 years they didn't win the Finals they were missing Klay Thompson for one of those years, lost Steph Curry for another and lost in the Finals twice vs Cleveland and Toronto.  That's 6 Finals appearances in 8 years, 4 wins and 2 losses and 2 seasons with injuries no team could overcome.  We have nothing to hang our heads about.  We are in good company with three other teams in the last 8 years.

Brad needs to give Ime a bench that he'll play.  We need an offseason to burn a more well-rounded offense into their brains, an offense that isn't as easy to anticipate and thwart.  We need more aggressive shooters, Pritchard and Nesmith have no value if they won't shoot or cannot hit the broad side of a barn when they do and a back up point guard that cannot shoot is of dubious value.  White's shooting woes didn't start 6 games ago.

Give us those things, and adding bench players and rounding out your offense are not particularly high mountains to climb, and we'll be back here next year.  A year smarter, a year more mature, a year hungrier, a year more grizzled and less impressed by the lights and big stage.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 9 hours ago
Jaylen Brown: "I always look at adversity as opportunities to shape an individual. ... For me it's always about growth. Continuing to get better. Continuing to find different ways to lead. And that's what it's about. The future's bright. I'm excited to get back next year."


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 8 hours ago
Marcus Smart: "We’re a family and we take and accept every challenge head on, no matter the outcome."

This is true for true green-blooded Celtic fans like us as well.

Bob


.

Damn.

Now that the Celtics have ended the season after a grueling 24 game playoff run we can all speculate on what could have been.  There is one huge takeaway for me.  The Celtics were good enough to take advantage of a weak Nets team, a Bucks team missing the 3rd wheel of their tricycle and a Heat team with only one legit scorer and 1 legit defender.

The Celtics made it to the final round because their defense took them there.  Their defense did not fail them during the championship round.  Let's keep it in perspective.

GSW averaged 104.8 PPG and the Celtics averaged 100.8 PPG.  Basically, this series came down to a 4 point spread.

The volume and frequency of turnovers was a major issue.  Tatum and Brown averaged 3.8 and 3.3 turnovers in this series and Marcus was right behind them at 3.2 per game.  Many were caused by quality defense and many were of the brain fart quality.  All 3 of them made too many poor decisions with the ball in their hands.  Many of their mistakes were replicated from one game to the next which points to bad habits.

The second big issue was the lack of quality championship level bench depth.  The Celtics were able to win the ECF because we did not have to face a team with sheer fire power up and down their roster.  Our bench was woefully inadequate.
 
The Celtics can take solace in the fact that they went further than any team given how they started the season.  It has been a really exciting season.

Now the Celtics will look to address the issues that stymied them from winning the title.  Reliance on our two pillars has its' limitations.  Tatum had a below par championship series and since he has been crowned the face of this franchise he is the one who must carry the burden of losing.  He is still under 25 and has a long way to go but just maybe all of the accolades have been a bit too premature.  Brown who has never acknowledge Tatum as being the ultimate go too guy, has similar issues as Tatum does in knowing when and how to get off the ball.  

Moving forward both guys need to learn the intricacies of running an offense.  Just for the record,  Jaylen led us in scoring during this round and also was 3rd in rebounds behind AH and RW.

Ime has done an extraordinary coaching job in taking this team from a play-in candidate all the way to the finals.  I would like to see him micromanage the offense a bit more to give us a better chance to score the basketball in critical situations.    

Ime showed little to no confidence in playing more than 7-8 guys throughout the playoffs.  Our roster needs an infusion of players that can play within Ime's system.

Brad will definitely have important work to do during the offseason. The roster that he assembled simply did not have enough depth to sustain itself for an extended playoff run.

One final sobering thought. Winning a title is really hard to do. Nothing that happened this year will entitle them to get back next year. Look what happened to the Phoenix Suns.

DBOSS,

Maybe Tatum needs a new dance partner, and do a trade of Brown on a 2 for 1 for some great players might be an option. It would allow Tatum to grow individually rather than always being compared to Brown. Besides the players brought back in a trade may help Tatum in the long run if their style can complement IME's style of play.

112288

112288 wrote:DBOSS,

Maybe Tatum needs a new dance partner, and do a trade of Brown on a 2 for 1 for some great players might be an option.  It would allow Tatum to grow individually rather than always being compared to Brown.  Besides the players brought back in a trade may help Tatum in the long run if their style can complement IME's style of play.

112288

112288

With all due respect I am not and have never been in the camp that is looking to split up the J's.

There is nothing preventing Tatum from becoming a better basketball player. He still needs to mature and work on getting better at doing the things that need improvement. At 24 he is clearly not the finished product and neither is Jaylen.

With all their flaws they carried this team to game 6 of the big dance. Their pairing works.

There should be more optimism because we have a solid and young core except for AH.

One or two moves to add more quality depth to this roster seems like the obvious direction to go in.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

112288 wrote:MERCIFULLY ITS OVER!

Thank the God. I am just glad Tommy Gun did not witness this pathetic BS effort!

The Celtics play tonight was out and out an embarrassment to the organization as a whole. They played with no passion and their play reminded me of watching a college game!  A real joke.

This is not Celtic basketball.  Out side of a few players like Horford, this team is soft and there was no push back, physical play by anyone! The 2008 Celtic team would have introduced Curry to the parquet floor quite often, and maybe just maybe he would shy away from driving to the rim and taking a hard fall.

There are a number of problems plaguing this team. Brad needs to reconstitute the bench 6-12.

I would like to see Brad do a semi rebuild with a number of our so called star players.  Being a long time Wall Street guy I always believe in buy low, sell high and the age and the hype still out there on the two J's is ripe for Brad to fleece a team with a top player and a young talent in a 2 for 1 deal.

Seeing Tatum and how he reacted during the series final tells me he had a brain freeze.  I mean he sucked plain and simple. He is a soft player that does not attack the rim and draw fouls. He shy's away from contact at the rim and he gets frustrated at no calls which happens quite often.  His stats are a joke - 11 points, 5 TO's, 3 RB's - really!  Brown was no better with 5 TO's but made up for it with 34 points and 7 rebounds.

I do not care if they lost by a few points, but GS did whatever they wanted to do with us on both sides of the ball.

In a way i am glad they got their noses rubbed in the dirt in front of the home crowd, perhaps it may wake-up both management and players alike that this team was not a championship team as first thought back at the beginning  of the playoffs.   

112288

That was so not Celtic basketball. Tatum made an asshole out of himself by posing like he’s great on that first 3, instead of just hustling back on defense. What is done is done, never have 2 Celtic stars been exposed like this on such a most watched stage. Tatum has the most turnovers in a Finals ever, you would think before he would get to that, he would make some kind of adjustment to not do that. Right, you would think…??? Think about that, he’s a Celtic and in the record books now, if that’s your leading/best player going forward this franchise might be in trouble. That’s a guy that can’t adjust his game to the defense and his shooting % was just as putrid in this game and the series. Anyone can look like a shooting star beating on the weaklings during the regular season. I can’t think of another franchise all forward type Lebron, Bird, Kobe, Pierce, Havlicek, West that has ever played so bad on this stage. With an idiot (thinking about that mind numbing posing on his first 3 while he’s in the midst of historic putrid play) like that leading your team, how can you play Celtic basketball? He’s posing like he’s a bad man, while he’s constantly the main reason we just lost 3 straight games. This idiot is way too full of himself and needs a huge dose of humility, then maybe he could figure out how not to be the biggest bonehead on the worlds biggest stage.

Tatum may have led in turnovers but he also had the most assists and points in this years entire playoffs.
He’s got additional maturing to do and i think most of his slippage is in his head. With that being said, he was not the only reason why we lost. The main reason was clear-turnovers. I don't know why that pose bothers you so much but I believe he was just trying to get going and also let GS know that we’re here. Obviously it didn’t do much but what bothers me more is when you let your opponent show you up on your home court-or anywhere for that matter. Some opposing players skylark and try rubbing it in with shenanigans some do it for social media and (Steph) claim to do it for the fan base “look at me ain’t I bad” and then there are some who do it because they have NCAA, NO CLASS AT ALL (Draymond).
We came up short. too early to formulate additional thoughts but im still proud of our team.

dbrown4 wrote:Two cures to administer in the off season.

1)  5-on-10 Basketball practice until the starters (in particular the 2 J's) figure it out to completely eliminate the TO's.

2)  Get us a dang bench that's going to show up on the big stage like an Eddie House.  

That's it.  Congratulations to Golden State.  They can study game film like no one else.  Clearly we lost the GS vs. MEM Blowout game tape in the mail.

Not something we want to hear, but this is the first time in Celtic history we've lost B2B Finals going back to 2010.  It's a little lame but still packs a punch when you think about it.  

db

. DB thats 12 years between losses. Give me a break

bobheckler wrote:Congratulations to the World Champion Golden State Warriors.  They earned it.

Tatum with a stinker.  13 points on 6-18, 7 assists and 5 turnovers and only 3 rebounds.  6'8"+ 230# of pyrite.  More on him later.

Brown came to play.  34 points on 12-23, 5-11 from 3, 7 boards.  Unfortunately there were also 5 turnovers.  I thought his defense left some to be desired.  More on him later too, but Jaylen showed up for sure.

We had no bench.  Zero.  What a joke.  Grant with 3 points and a rebound in 16 minutes.  White 1-6 and the player who probably had the worst series of any player on either team, Payton Pritchard.  He got completely exposed on both ends.  Pritchard, in particular, looked lost out there.  The GSW bench had 21 points, with Poole getting 15 of them.  Our entire bench had 5 on 2-10 shooting.  Either Brad didn't give Ime a bench or he did and Ime didn't use them (e.g. Nesmith, Stauskas, Theis).  Not just in this series, but from mid-January on.  That doesn't excuse the awful play of the bench Ime did use, it just makes you wonder why Ime didn't avail himself of other options.  Did he have any, or did he just decide he was going to ride-or-die with the horses he knew; White from his San Antonio Spurs days and Pritchard from his hometown of Portland?  Brad and Ime need to put their heads together and decide who they want to play from the bench next year.  Not just on the bench, but actually coming off the bench and onto the court.

Another bitch about Ime.  He went with the "put the balls in the J's hands and let them create" offensive scheme.  It didn't work.  Neither of them are good enough ball handlers to pull that off, nor were they making quick enough decisions to get rid of the ball before they got doubled or swarmed.  They both like to dribble into traffic and that created turnovers.  Coaches tell players not to jump unless you're going to shoot.  That's because if you're in the air and looking to pass you have to make the right decision before you come down.  We had 22 turnovers, they had 13 steals, in part because the Js were getting in trouble and made the obvious pass out of it and they were waiting.  Why did you name Smart the starting point guard if you weren't making him run the offense instead of the players he should be feeding?  Do you want Tatum and Brown catching-and-shooting or Smart and White?  If you want the shooters to do the shooting then you need to put the ball in the hands of another player who will feed them.  We went right back to December because Ime let Tatum be a ball-hog.  10 turnovers from those two players means they have the ball in their hands too much and, when the pressure really started to crank up they reverted to form.  They went full iso, and they were able to do it because Ime empowered them as "point forwards".  I know, this sounds very much like a bitch I had after Game 5 but, you know what, nothing changed from Game 5 to Game 6.  If I'm sounding like a broken record maybe that's because our performance was deja vu all over again (thank you, Yogi Berra, wherever you are).

Al with a great game.  19 and 14.  Cannot ask for more.  Basketball isn't about who runs the fastest or who can jump the highest, it's about who is in the right place at the right time and executes under pressure, and Al Horford just proved it.

RWill with 5 blocks.  7 rebounds, 5 offensive.  We needed more of him, they really had no counter.

GSW took 92 fgas.  46, exactly half of them, were 3s and they shot 41.3% from 3.  They also shot 41.3% for the game, so their 2pt shooting was an excremental 41.3%.

Youth is wasted on the young, and we looked young and immature.  I've said before that I'd rather have the grizzled veterans with the thousand yard stare that will cut your heart out just because you're in their way over an athletic puppy.  Over the last few games the OGs surgically dissected our kindergarten.  Will this series loss take some of the new car smell off our babies?  Let's hope so, because we are a mentally weak team now.  

Steve Bulpett @SteveBHoop
about 9 hours ago
Ime Udoka says @Celtics need to improve their IQ. Add toughness. Getting back within 8 vs GS, a championship outfit, was nice, but suffering a 34 point turnaround (up 12 to down 22) on your home floor is hard to fathom. And 23 turnovers. Proverbs 2022: Pride goeth before a fall.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 9 hours ago
Jaylen Brown: "We did it to ourselves. We showed our immaturity at times."


Draymond Green is saying they beat us with defense.  Our inability to score had something to do with their defense, of course, but our offensive schemes were so obvious we made it easy.  To give them their due, however, their rotations were very swift and our read of their rotations could have/should have been quicker.

On a finishing note I think it's important to maintain a broader, longer perspective.  When this season started, after a very disappointing last season, we had a rookie coach and a rookie GM.  I do not remember anybody on this board predicting in October we'd even make it to the Conference Finals, much less the Championship round.  On, I believe, January 6th our record was 18-21 and we were in 11th place in the EC.  Not even in the NBA's equivalent of a Participation Trophy, the tournament play-in.  I'm pleased that I do not remember anybody on this board using the word I hate more than almost any other, tanking, but we were not looking good.  We made it to Game 6 of the Finals against a Dynasty that has won 4 Championships in the last 8 years with the same core players that added a #1 pick, Andrew Wiggins.  And in those 4 years they didn't win the Finals they were missing Klay Thompson for one of those years, lost Steph Curry for another and lost in the Finals twice vs Cleveland and Toronto.  That's 6 Finals appearances in 8 years, 4 wins and 2 losses and 2 seasons with injuries no team could overcome.  We have nothing to hang our heads about.  We are in good company with three other teams in the last 8 years.

Brad needs to give Ime a bench that he'll play.  We need an offseason to burn a more well-rounded offense into their brains, an offense that isn't as easy to anticipate and thwart.  We need more aggressive shooters, Pritchard and Nesmith have no value if they won't shoot or cannot hit the broad side of a barn when they do and a back up point guard that cannot shoot is of dubious value.  White's shooting woes didn't start 6 games ago.

Give us those things, and adding bench players and rounding out your offense are not particularly high mountains to climb, and we'll be back here next year.  A year smarter, a year more mature, a year hungrier, a year more grizzled and less impressed by the lights and big stage.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 9 hours ago
Jaylen Brown: "I always look at adversity as opportunities to shape an individual. ... For me it's always about growth. Continuing to get better. Continuing to find different ways to lead. And that's what it's about. The future's bright. I'm excited to get back next year."


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 8 hours ago
Marcus Smart: "We’re a family and we take and accept every challenge head on, no matter the outcome."

This is true for true green-blooded Celtic fans like us as well.

Bob


.

Do you sound like a broken record? (Play Nesmith, Staubach or whatever his name is)? Don't know but it sounds very desperate. Put those guys in and we would've got whipped by 30.Put them in earlier in the series and it over way before now. Tatum and Brown handling the ball got messy even though Tatum got better as a passer. But when your team commits numerous turnovers and fades offensively down the stretch, you have to look at your point Guard first. Yeah Brown and Tatum turned it over but our Point Guard had quite a few. More than a championship point guard should have. Oh and save the assist to turnover stats i saw what I saw and don't need to hit the statometer to know that something smelled. You have a tendency of lumping Brad and Ime together as if Ime cant coach without Brad as his Muse. The bench is what your boy brad gave him. The Glee club. Those 3 you mentioned plus 2 other stiffs that the team spent money on. Cheap bastards spending only on cheap talent gets you NOTHING.
You want to sing Brad’s praises continue to have at it but don't lump your head coach into decisions that The GM made and then turn around and blame the coach for not using them. I notice that you'll praise Ime but very seldom do it without throwing Brad in there somehow.
There were a number of guys we could’ve got on the cheap to help us. Instead, Brad and the FO goes hunting for scavengers.
You live in GS. Lacob used to be with the Celtics. He ain’t afraid to spend money. They get Otto Porter, Igadola (twice) Wiggins and what do we do? Nick, Aaron, Matt, Hauser and Lanky Luke Kornet.
I love our team and we do need to improve but right now everyone is acting as though this is the second coming of the assignation of John F Kennedy.
I’ll stop because i cant defer what you wrote and what sone of these scribes wrote that gets perpetually posted.

dboss wrote:Now that the Celtics have ended the season after a grueling 24 game playoff run we can all speculate on what could have been.  There is one huge takeaway for me.  The Celtics were good enough to take advantage of a weak Nets team, a Bucks team missing the 3rd wheel of their tricycle and a Heat team with only one legit scorer and 1 legit defender.

The Celtics made it to the final round because their defense took them there.  Their defense did not fail them during the championship round.  Let's keep it in perspective.

GSW averaged 104.8 PPG and the Celtics averaged 100.8 PPG.  Basically, this series came down to a 4 point spread.

The volume and frequency of turnovers was a major issue.  Tatum and Brown averaged 3.8 and 3.3 turnovers in this series and Marcus was right behind them at 3.2 per game.  Many were caused by quality defense and many were of the brain fart quality.  All 3 of them made too many poor decisions with the ball in their hands.  Many of their mistakes were replicated from one game to the next which points to bad habits.

The second big issue was the lack of quality championship level bench depth.  The Celtics were able to win the ECF because we did not have to face a team with sheer fire power up and down their roster.  Our bench was woefully inadequate.
 
The Celtics can take solace in the fact that they went further than any team given how they started the season.  It has been a really exciting season.

Now the Celtics will look to address the issues that stymied them from winning the title.  Reliance on our two pillars has its' limitations.  Tatum had a below par championship series and since he has been crowned the face of this franchise he is the one who must carry the burden of losing.  He is still under 25 and has a long way to go but just maybe all of the accolades have been a bit too premature.  Brown who has never acknowledge Tatum as being the ultimate go too guy, has similar issues as Tatum does in knowing when and how to get off the ball.  

Moving forward both guys need to learn the intricacies of running an offense.  Just for the record,  Jaylen led us in scoring during this round and also was 3rd in rebounds behind AH and RW.

Ime has done an extraordinary coaching job in taking this team from a play-in candidate all the way to the finals.  I would like to see him micromanage the offense a bit more to give us a better chance to score the basketball in critical situations.    

Ime showed little to no confidence in playing more than 7-8 guys throughout the playoffs.  Our roster needs an infusion of players that can play within Ime's system.

Brad will definitely have important work to do during the offseason.  The roster that he assembled simply did not have enough depth to sustain itself for an extended playoff run.

One final sobering thought.  Winning a title is really hard to do.  Nothing that happened this year will entitle them to get back next year.  Look what happened to the Phoenix Suns.

I cant disagree with much here but i do take exception to- “The Celtics were good enough to take advantage of a weak Nets team, a Bucks team missing the 3rd wheel of their tricycle and a Heat team with only one legit scorer and 1 legit defender”.
I think you’re minimizing the teams accomplishments here. Every team we beat had issues whether it be injuries or short on the right pieces. We also had injuries and worked with a handicap of a limited bench. Our 2 best players played through pain throughout most of the playoffs and one of our best players was 36 (bless his heart). So we had our limitations too but we played who was in front of us and beat em.

Ktron wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

112288 wrote:MERCIFULLY ITS OVER!

Thank the God. I am just glad Tommy Gun did not witness this pathetic BS effort!

The Celtics play tonight was out and out an embarrassment to the organization as a whole. They played with no passion and their play reminded me of watching a college game!  A real joke.

This is not Celtic basketball.  Out side of a few players like Horford, this team is soft and there was no push back, physical play by anyone! The 2008 Celtic team would have introduced Curry to the parquet floor quite often, and maybe just maybe he would shy away from driving to the rim and taking a hard fall.

There are a number of problems plaguing this team. Brad needs to reconstitute the bench 6-12.

I would like to see Brad do a semi rebuild with a number of our so called star players.  Being a long time Wall Street guy I always believe in buy low, sell high and the age and the hype still out there on the two J's is ripe for Brad to fleece a team with a top player and a young talent in a 2 for 1 deal.

Seeing Tatum and how he reacted during the series final tells me he had a brain freeze.  I mean he sucked plain and simple. He is a soft player that does not attack the rim and draw fouls. He shy's away from contact at the rim and he gets frustrated at no calls which happens quite often.  His stats are a joke - 11 points, 5 TO's, 3 RB's - really!  Brown was no better with 5 TO's but made up for it with 34 points and 7 rebounds.

I do not care if they lost by a few points, but GS did whatever they wanted to do with us on both sides of the ball.

In a way i am glad they got their noses rubbed in the dirt in front of the home crowd, perhaps it may wake-up both management and players alike that this team was not a championship team as first thought back at the beginning  of the playoffs.   

112288

That was so not Celtic basketball. Tatum made an asshole out of himself by posing like he’s great on that first 3, instead of just hustling back on defense. What is done is done, never have 2 Celtic stars been exposed like this on such a most watched stage. Tatum has the most turnovers in a Finals ever, you would think before he would get to that, he would make some kind of adjustment to not do that. Right, you would think…??? Think about that, he’s a Celtic and in the record books now, if that’s your leading/best player going forward this franchise might be in trouble. That’s a guy that can’t adjust his game to the defense and his shooting % was just as putrid in this game and the series. Anyone can look like a shooting star beating on the weaklings during the regular season. I can’t think of another franchise all forward type Lebron, Bird, Kobe, Pierce, Havlicek, West that has ever played so bad on this stage. With an idiot (thinking about that mind numbing posing on his first 3 while he’s in the midst of historic putrid play) like that leading your team, how can you play Celtic basketball? He’s posing like he’s a bad man, while he’s constantly the main reason we just lost 3 straight games. This idiot is way too full of himself and needs a huge dose of humility, then maybe he could figure out how not to be the biggest bonehead on the worlds biggest stage.

Tatum may have led in turnovers but he also had the most assists and points in this years entire playoffs.
He’s got additional maturing to do and i think most of his slippage is in his head. With that being said, he was not the only reason why we lost. The main reason was clear-turnovers. I don't know why that pose bothers you so much but I believe he was just trying to get going and also let GS know that we’re here. Obviously it didn’t do much but what bothers me more is when you let your opponent show you up on your home court-or anywhere for that matter. Some opposing players skylark and try rubbing it in with shenanigans some do it for social media and (Steph) claim to do it for the fan base “look at me ain’t I bad” and then there are some who do it because they have NCAA, NO CLASS AT ALL (Draymond).
We came up short. too early to formulate additional thoughts but im still proud of our team.

Come on Kitron your better than that, that pose is exactly what’s wrong with many young players today IMHO. First how do you do that so early, if he was making a statement so early, you better back it up and keep going hard at them the whole game. His putrid stats and the outcome show he didn’t come near doing that, so his being the leader/franchise player of the team, it kind of pissed me off our leader is such a young punk/idiot that can’t back up his bad man pose, look at me….When the supposed best player shows off and can’t walk the walk, yeah it pisses me off. If he did that pose in the 4th in an near end of game situation, the winning or clinching shot, sure that’s cool, go for it. We’ve seen Pierce do something like that AFTER the dagger. You do it that early, you better back it up throughout the game, not score 2 points in the 2nd half of a desperation game.

dboss wrote:Now that the Celtics have ended the season after a grueling 24 game playoff run we can all speculate on what could have been.  There is one huge takeaway for me.  The Celtics were good enough to take advantage of a weak Nets team, a Bucks team missing the 3rd wheel of their tricycle and a Heat team with only one legit scorer and 1 legit defender.

The Celtics made it to the final round because their defense took them there.  Their defense did not fail them during the championship round.  Let's keep it in perspective.

GSW averaged 104.8 PPG and the Celtics averaged 100.8 PPG.  Basically, this series came down to a 4 point spread.

The volume and frequency of turnovers was a major issue.  Tatum and Brown averaged 3.8 and 3.3 turnovers in this series and Marcus was right behind them at 3.2 per game.  Many were caused by quality defense and many were of the brain fart quality.  All 3 of them made too many poor decisions with the ball in their hands.  Many of their mistakes were replicated from one game to the next which points to bad habits.

The second big issue was the lack of quality championship level bench depth.  The Celtics were able to win the ECF because we did not have to face a team with sheer fire power up and down their roster.  Our bench was woefully inadequate.
 
The Celtics can take solace in the fact that they went further than any team given how they started the season.  It has been a really exciting season.

Now the Celtics will look to address the issues that stymied them from winning the title.  Reliance on our two pillars has its' limitations.  Tatum had a below par championship series and since he has been crowned the face of this franchise he is the one who must carry the burden of losing.  He is still under 25 and has a long way to go but just maybe all of the accolades have been a bit too premature.  Brown who has never acknowledge Tatum as being the ultimate go too guy, has similar issues as Tatum does in knowing when and how to get off the ball.  

Moving forward both guys need to learn the intricacies of running an offense.  Just for the record,  Jaylen led us in scoring during this round and also was 3rd in rebounds behind AH and RW.

Ime has done an extraordinary coaching job in taking this team from a play-in candidate all the way to the finals.  I would like to see him micromanage the offense a bit more to give us a better chance to score the basketball in critical situations.    

Ime showed little to no confidence in playing more than 7-8 guys throughout the playoffs.  Our roster needs an infusion of players that can play within Ime's system.

Brad will definitely have important work to do during the offseason.  The roster that he assembled simply did not have enough depth to sustain itself for an extended playoff run.

One final sobering thought.  Winning a title is really hard to do.  Nothing that happened this year will entitle them to get back next year.  Look what happened to the Phoenix Suns.

Heat only have 1 legit defender is definitely selling them short. Bam, Butler, Tucker, Olidipo all serious pit bull defenders in my book. That team defends, that’s a big reason they took us to 7 games. I don’t know Olidipo’s contract situation, but if he’s a FA, I would welcome him here if a physical further confirms his health is legit. He is a much stronger 2 way force than Derek White as a combo guard.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

Ktron wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

112288 wrote:MERCIFULLY ITS OVER!

Thank the God. I am just glad Tommy Gun did not witness this pathetic BS effort!

The Celtics play tonight was out and out an embarrassment to the organization as a whole. They played with no passion and their play reminded me of watching a college game!  A real joke.

This is not Celtic basketball.  Out side of a few players like Horford, this team is soft and there was no push back, physical play by anyone! The 2008 Celtic team would have introduced Curry to the parquet floor quite often, and maybe just maybe he would shy away from driving to the rim and taking a hard fall.

There are a number of problems plaguing this team. Brad needs to reconstitute the bench 6-12.

I would like to see Brad do a semi rebuild with a number of our so called star players.  Being a long time Wall Street guy I always believe in buy low, sell high and the age and the hype still out there on the two J's is ripe for Brad to fleece a team with a top player and a young talent in a 2 for 1 deal.

Seeing Tatum and how he reacted during the series final tells me he had a brain freeze.  I mean he sucked plain and simple. He is a soft player that does not attack the rim and draw fouls. He shy's away from contact at the rim and he gets frustrated at no calls which happens quite often.  His stats are a joke - 11 points, 5 TO's, 3 RB's - really!  Brown was no better with 5 TO's but made up for it with 34 points and 7 rebounds.

I do not care if they lost by a few points, but GS did whatever they wanted to do with us on both sides of the ball.

In a way i am glad they got their noses rubbed in the dirt in front of the home crowd, perhaps it may wake-up both management and players alike that this team was not a championship team as first thought back at the beginning  of the playoffs.   

112288

That was so not Celtic basketball. Tatum made an asshole out of himself by posing like he’s great on that first 3, instead of just hustling back on defense. What is done is done, never have 2 Celtic stars been exposed like this on such a most watched stage. Tatum has the most turnovers in a Finals ever, you would think before he would get to that, he would make some kind of adjustment to not do that. Right, you would think…??? Think about that, he’s a Celtic and in the record books now, if that’s your leading/best player going forward this franchise might be in trouble. That’s a guy that can’t adjust his game to the defense and his shooting % was just as putrid in this game and the series. Anyone can look like a shooting star beating on the weaklings during the regular season. I can’t think of another franchise all forward type Lebron, Bird, Kobe, Pierce, Havlicek, West that has ever played so bad on this stage. With an idiot (thinking about that mind numbing posing on his first 3 while he’s in the midst of historic putrid play) like that leading your team, how can you play Celtic basketball? He’s posing like he’s a bad man, while he’s constantly the main reason we just lost 3 straight games. This idiot is way too full of himself and needs a huge dose of humility, then maybe he could figure out how not to be the biggest bonehead on the worlds biggest stage.

Tatum may have led in turnovers but he also had the most assists and points in this years entire playoffs.
He’s got additional maturing to do and i think most of his slippage is in his head. With that being said, he was not the only reason why we lost. The main reason was clear-turnovers. I don't know why that pose bothers you so much but I believe he was just trying to get going and also let GS know that we’re here. Obviously it didn’t do much but what bothers me more is when you let your opponent show you up on your home court-or anywhere for that matter. Some opposing players skylark and try rubbing it in with shenanigans some do it for social media and (Steph) claim to do it for the fan base “look at me ain’t I bad” and then there are some who do it because they have NCAA, NO CLASS AT ALL (Draymond).
We came up short. too early to formulate additional thoughts but im still proud of our team.

Come on Kitron your better than that, that pose is exactly what’s wrong with many young players today IMHO. First how do you do that so early, if he was making a statement so early, you better back it up and keep going hard at them the whole game. His putrid stats and the outcome show he didn’t come near doing that, so his being the leader/franchise player of the team, it kind of pissed me off our leader is such a young punk/idiot that can’t back up his bad man pose, look at me….When the supposed best player shows off and can’t walk the walk, yeah it pisses me off. If he did that pose in the 4th in an near end of game situation, the winning or clinching shot, sure that’s cool, go for it. We’ve seen Pierce do something like that AFTER the dagger. You do it that early, you better back it up throughout the game, not score 2 points in the 2nd half of a desperation game.

Cow, I have to agree. You're right. I thought about it and know that I hate when I see other players on other teams pull those type of shenanigans. I guess i was being a tad bit bias.

What I dont agree with is that Tatum is our leader. This team doesn’t have a leader and needs one badly.
I love Smart and he is close but somewhat volatile so I think he may piss his teammates off from time to time.
I’d like our leader to be our best player but as of now thats not happening.
We really need a leader a dog!

Maybe we could make a trade for a leader or sign one using one of our exceptions.

Oh, we already did that. Maybe AH should be the leader given his longevity, maturity and countenance.

dboss wrote:Maybe we could make a trade for a leader or sign one using one of our exceptions.

Oh, we already did that. Maybe AH should be the leader given his longevity, maturity and countenance.

Unfortunately Leaders are not appointed. Leaders have to have certain characteristics that separate them from everyone. Al fits the criteria of being looked up to and respected but his personality wont allow him to be the leader that needs to Lead this team. Respected, nice and a hell of a player but a leader for THIS team? I don't think he’s it.