The better team lost…..

[celts55]

Please! The better team won and it wasn’t even close.

I truly have no idea how the Celtics made it as far as they did. Beyond Tatum and Brown who do they have that you can count on to score? Horford? Smart? Anyone off the bench?

I truly appreciate the defensive effort they gave the second half of the season, but not so much in the finals.

At this time I don’t see them back in the finals next year. Sixers, Bucks, and Nets have better rosters. This was a magical year, and unfortunately they couldn’t bring it home.

[celticinorlando]

Warriors were smarter, had the killer instinct to finish out games.
Had guys step up.

They were better.

[Phantom255x]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

[nyceltsfan]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

I agree - if both teams played to their peak level, the Celtics would have won.  However, the Celtics are mentally miles away from their peak.

[Phantom255x]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

I agree - if both teams played to their peak level, the Celtics would have won.  However, the Celtics are mentally miles away from their peak.

Yeah pretty much. It's not entirely a knock on Boston, they are a young team and their stars are still just 24-25 y/o, but you could tell Golden State just had a higher BBIQ this series and looked like the team that's "been there, done that" in a Finals series before. Ime said it too postgame.

[nyceltsfan]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

I agree - if both teams played to their peak level, the Celtics would have won.  However, the Celtics are mentally miles away from their peak.

Yeah pretty much. It's not entirely a knock on Boston, they are a young team and their stars are still just 24-25 y/o, but you could tell Golden State just had a higher BBIQ this series and looked like the team that's "been there, done that" in a Finals series before. Ime said it too postgame.

Some of that is actually on Ime.  He seemed to be able to get the C's to have short memories after losses in the previous rounds, but this round GS was in their head.  It was almost as if the moment was too big.  Ime needed to come up with some schemes to open up Tatum to get him going.  It seemed that as each of these games progressed, Tatum got worse.  The Celtics' success in the regular season was with Brown starting quickly and Tatum taking over later in the game.  That formula was not available this round (or against Miami, for that matter).

[Kuberski33]

Warriors was better team..we had no bench

Correct. They also had the two best players in this series and Draymond showed up the last two.
The Celtics were fortunate to win 2 games.

[Kuberski33]

The key to the series was GS quickness and quick hands on defense plus their scheme. The Celtics flat out couldn't handle it - hence the TO's.  You can call it 'mistakes' or low basketball IQ. It was neither. The Warriors brought something to the table defensively that the Celtics hadn't really seen all year and they just couldn't deal with it.

They played small and quick and attacked the Celtics defensively every time Brown or Tatum put the ball on the floor attempting to drive. And Draymond played like vintage KG in his ability to seal off the lane and be the backbone of their defense.

And credit Kerr for figuring all this out. He's one of the best coaches in the league.

The key to combatting it for the Celtics was their role guys making open shots. And for the most part they all laid eggs. So absolutely, the better team won.  And Brad will have some hard decisions ahead on what to do about the likes of White, Grant, Pritchard and Theis. That bench wasn't good enough in this series - yet they were right up until the Finals.

[Goldstar88]

These two teams were very closely matched in terms of talent. Going in, I thought the Celtics starters had an edge, but the warriors had a better/deeper bench. These playoffs series are a game of Chess. It’s not like the regular season when you typically play a different team each game. You have to make adjustments and counter when the other team changes their strategy throughout the series. Celtics didn’t do that. Kerr was the chess master.

[Phantom255x]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

I agree - if both teams played to their peak level, the Celtics would have won.  However, the Celtics are mentally miles away from their peak.

Yeah pretty much. It's not entirely a knock on Boston, they are a young team and their stars are still just 24-25 y/o, but you could tell Golden State just had a higher BBIQ this series and looked like the team that's "been there, done that" in a Finals series before. Ime said it too postgame.

Some of that is actually on Ime.  He seemed to be able to get the C's to have short memories after losses in the previous rounds, but this round GS was in their head.  It was almost as if the moment was too big.  Ime needed to come up with some schemes to open up Tatum to get him going.  It seemed that as each of these games progressed, Tatum got worse.  The Celtics' success in the regular season was with Brown starting quickly and Tatum taking over later in the game.  That formula was not available this round (or against Miami, for that matter).

True. Ime didn't have a great series either.

But if we're being fair, guys like Tatum did have open looks for good portions of games and just bricked most of them. Sometimes it's also up to the players to make their shots and they really didn't. The bench practically disappeared after Game 3 this series.

[celts55]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

Serious question. Why do you think the Celtics have more talent?

Curry, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole can all score the ball constantly. Who do the Celtics have beyond Tatum and Brown?

[Who]

BOS did not give a good account of themselves and had a bad series. They deserved to lose.

[Phantom255x]

The way I see it, Boston had the more talented team.

But Golden State clearly had more experience and were battle-tested in these situations, and it clearly showed after Game 3. They also knew how to deliver the kill shots when the opposing team was reeling, which the C's honestly could never do after the Nets series this postseason

Not to take anything away from Golden State at all, but I still believe Boston choked this series away on their own. Sure, GSW played a part in that with their adjustments and improved play, but the turnovers, missed FTs, long scoring droughts, Tatum disappearing. That's more on Boston.

Serious question. Why do you think the Celtics have more talent?

Curry, Wiggins, Thompson, Poole can all score the ball constantly. Who do the Celtics have beyond Tatum and Brown?

It's easy to say now, but going into the series the C's had arguably the best player in Tatum due to his 2-way abilities, and after both Tatum and Curry I think the next few guys were probably Celtics players. I didn't think Klay was great on the defensive end and Poole isn't a good defender either, though Klay stepped up as the series progressed.

I also thought Boston's frontcourt had the big advantage on Golden State's, but Looney balled out to his credit and Horford really only showed up in like 2 games it seemed. Golden State's bench though is definitely deeper than ours and it seemed to make the difference in crucial stretches over the last two games.

[droopdog7]

After what we saw, its pretty obvious who the better team was.  people need to stop embarrassing themselves.

[Dchuck]

Completely disagree.  The better team won.

You can't continue to make the same FUNDAMENTAL mistakes game after game - turnovers, free throws, out-rebounded by a smaller team, out-hustled by an older team - and star player not show up and think the C's are the better team.