Post Game - Celtics vs. Indiana Pacers - Monday, May 27, 2024 - Game 4 Eastern Finals (W 4-0)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401672001

Wow Wow Wow

This was all about composure in crunch time, which has to be the theme for the whole series. Jaylen again with some huge defensive plays, a great steal, then a huge block on breakout star and major problem for us the whole series Nembhard. And 2 huge clutch 3’s by Jaylen during the comeback, plus a great driving dunk by Jayson and a spectacular crossover up and under finger roll by Jaylen. He totally took over the game, also assisting on DWhite’s corner 3, drawing 2 defenders to cut off his drive. So happy he received the Larry Bird ECF MVP award, he didn’t do it by himself, but his plays both ends in the clutch this series were phenomenal and amazing. He made all the winning plays both ends in clutch time in this series. Actually if he didn’t make them Holiday did, as did Tatum and ofcourse DWhite, was a total team effort!! Thank you Jaylen!!!

Who says we can’t win with an offense of your turn, my turn with the 2 J’s? Mavs are basically doing same thing with Luka and Kyrie. This series was great for us. Pacers pushed us relentlessly all series. Might have been the closest sweep in playoff history as we were behind all game and pulled it out again in the clutch with winning plays both ends. Great job by coach Joe having us so poised at winning/clutch time. Again some incredible plays by Jaylen on defense and offense, just making so many big plays one after another.

For anybody who missed the trophy ceremony after the game:

Series winning sequence:



(um, no Bang, bang? Only one bang? should have been three.)

Well, at least I picked the winner of G4!  Wasn't counting on the 3-ball deserting us.  We make 8 of those missed 3's like we should have and we win by 25.  That's ok.  We found other ways to beat IND.  The 15-4 closeout was spectacular.  DW, right up there in value with KP and JH, is just so clutch, there really isn't anything left to say except I'm glad he's on our team!!

1.  Killing IND softly.  Well, we always wondered whether this team had any guts.  This display was about as heart stomping that I could dream up.  But we did it with a smile.  Yes, some hardcore determination not to repeat the sins of the past, but still smiling.  

2.  Step 3.  Check.  Got the broom out.  No one will ever remember how close the scores were or how the press had to finally resign themselves to the Celtics winning the series.  They know the Celtics in the Finals is catastrophic historically for the other team they will latch themselves to.  Welcome to Hell, media.  History will look back and see Boston 4-0.  That's it for those steps.  Now working on the Finals order of business.  

3.  What more can be said about Derrick?!  OMG!  He's the leader of the non-assuming competitive heart stabbers stompers and life suckers for the competition.  Does DAL really want to get into this?  It might be best that provided they win tonight, they forfeit the Finals.  They will not like what's coming.  Not at all.    

4.  At least Doogie saw one go in and got the vote of confidence from JT to keep shooting.  He will become very important next round.  Bench will be called upon.  Joe knows what he's doing and on whom to call when.  

5.  10-5 in steals is all I see that sticks out statistically.  Close game otherwise on the card.  IND finally shot below 50%.  Some order restored there. I was looking for something a little more drastic.  3-ball for us and mid-range for IND must have canceled each other out.  

6.  The Law of Averages will come through again as it always does like clockwork.  I don't believe DAL, like IND, can play any better and they are barely winning against a pretty good young team.  We have played pretty good but I would not call it great by any stretch.  Some flashy, calculated endings were won only by experience.  But I would never posit we are even close to our Fully Operational Death Star being fully operational.  Unfortunately, DAL, provided they wrap things up tonight or in this series, is going to catch the full brunt of it.  Squarely 2 x 4'ed in the face.  LOA.  Works EVERY SINGLE TIME.  Book it.  

7.  JB got what he deserved.  MVP of ECF.  Hands down.  JT can get his Finals MVP and the O'Brien Trophy if he continues to play like he has the last couple of games.  Now let the team go get the Big One.  

What the going gaga over DAL world doesn't realize and it will come clearly into vision after it is way to late is, all DAL has is Luka and Kryrie.  Yeah, they've thrown together some pieces at the trade deadline that look like it might work, but it won't.  Experience.  We have it, they don't.  Their wheels are very wobbly.  

Just as part of DAL's ensuing fall, provided they don't make history as my son so eloquently put it, and provided Lively hasn't concussed himself out of the Finals, his youthful legs and mind will wobble on the Finals stage as will everyone else but probably Kryrie stumble.  Only a matter of time.  

Please remember this, the "D" is always silent in "D"allas.  What you are left with is all-ass.  OK, I added an "s" but you get the point!  Always has been.  Always will.  Some things never change.  This is one of them.  

db

P.S. In hindsight, I'm actually glad we didn't smoke the crapola out of Indy last night. It would have become the Anniversary of the Memorial Day Massacre and we all remember the bittersweetness of that day and game. No telling where that would have landed us next round. Nice catch, Boston! I'll take the 4-0.

Hi,
It seemed that G4 was similar to G3. Just in more subdued version: 8-point comeback instead of 18-point and it happened at the very end. And IND couldn't muster a single point the last couple of minutes.
Also, in the 4th quarter our defense figured out how to deal with Siakam, and the Law of Averages brought Nembhard back to Earth.
Obviously, some were talking about non-call of Flagrant 1 on JB which could make a difference at the end. I think it was F1 but the refs made the right call keeping in mind their non-F1 call when PP was hit in the face.
All in all, we won, used the broom. Finals, here we come.
12 down, 4 to go.

AK

Good job by the Celtics.  The date for Game 1 of the Finals is already set, June 6th (D-Day!  With tip off coming at H-Hour) and that's 9 days from now, so we have LOTS of time to rest and look at film.  Maybe too much time?  The most important thing here, for me, is that unless Joe goes absolutely crazy in practice nobody's going to get hurt.  If we had to play a Game 5, or even a Game 6, the chances of a sprain here, a jammed something there, increases.  A downside to this is that Porzingis is not going to get any game reps in before the Finals.  He will have been idle for 7 weeks by tip off and there will be rust.

Just between us chickens I think Jayson pushed off Myles Turner on his final shot.  He missed, and Jrue got a HUGE game-saving offensive rebound, but if that offensive foul had been called there would have been no shot and no offensive rebound.  It's easy for me to complain today, we won, but that was a dumb play by Jayson, and  I'm not talking about the push-off.  We were up 1 and the shot clock would have expired with 6-7 seconds left in the game.  Chucking up a contested 28-foot 3 was not smart.  As far as I'm concerned Jrue bailed Jayson's dumb ass out.

The Celtics had the lead only twice in the 2nd half for a total of :58, the first :13 of the 3rd and the last :45 (stats courtesy of Steve3344).    

Sam was 1-6.  He scored a grand total of 7 points in 58 minutes in this series.  The best thing about ending this series quickly might be that Sam gets to relax himself.  We are going to need his offense vs (presumably) Dallas.  He is shooting 33% from 3 post-season (including the Miami and Cleveland series).

Joe went with only 8 players last night.  Luke was available, but had a wrap on his wrist so Tillman got 9 minutes.  Sam got 14 minutes and Payton got only 9.  Payton is shooting 45.5% from 3 post-season.  I guess Joe wanted to close this out so much he decided to just ride his starters for 208 out of the total 240 player minutes.  With 9 days off before the next game it turned out to be a good gamble.

Congratulations to Jaylen Brown, ECF MVP.  A well-deserved award.  Jayson gets the coverage in our 3-happy league, but Jaylen just quietly overpowers every player in front of him on offense and defense.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
Only Larry Bird has scored more Celtics points in the Conference Finals now than Jayson and Jaylen.



Uh, doesn't Dennis Johnson count?  Regardless, being #2 (or 3) behind Larry Legend is still impressive, and both of the Js are on the right side of 28.


A final shout-out to TJ McConnell, The Little Pacer Who Could.  These last two games without Haliburton would not have been even remotely competitive if he hadn't elevated his game.  If Payton becomes TJ McConnell with a shot I would be extremely pleased.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
Entering the 2018-19 playoffs, the Celtics only had five 4-game sweeps in franchise history. They've now done it four times in the last six seasons.




Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
The Celtics are now 20-7 in their last 27 road games in the playoffs. They can match the second longest road win streak in NBA playoff history in Game 3 of the Finals June 12th in Dallas or Minnesota.








Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
about 17 minutes ago
New: As the Celtics cracked open beers and music blared, assistant GM Mike Zarren pointed to the trophy sitting on a chair in the corner of the locker room: “I feel great, but that doesn’t do it for me.”

Me neither.  12 down, 4 more to go.


Bob


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Bob,

Some of DJ's Conference Finals points (300 or so, from 1978, 79, 80) came from before he became a Celtics player.  

That dropped his CF point total below that of the two Js.

Biggest take from this 4 game sweep has to be the Celtics mental toughness. 3 of the 4 wins were nail biters.

They went 6-0 on the road and in the process sweep all 3 teams on the road.  

Their record, without starting 20 PPG center, was 9-1.

Our bench played below their regular season scoring production.

There has been an awful lot of white noise buzzing about but they Celtics did not let that noise take away their focus.

The Pacers were an excellent sparing partner because of their high speed offense.  The pace that they played with was the biggest challenge that the Celtics had to overcome.

The Celtics remained healthy except for Kornet with his sore wrist and our round 1 KP sore calf issue.

CJ kept his team on track and he made adjustments throughout games.  He clearly won the coaching battle against veteran coach Rick Carlisle.  Interestingly the one thing that captured Carlisle's deficiency was not calling timeouts.  It was the same issue that I have found fault with CJ in the past.

Next up...in absence of a miracle...the Dallas Cowboys horses.