Celtics (2-3) at Heat (3-2) ECF Game #6 9/27/20

[scaryjerry]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

[liam]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

The win is the important part.

[PhoSita]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

Hes real good but I came away from that series respecting the heck out of Bam, Herro, and Dragic.

Iguodala was crucial too, but anybody who has watched the NBA in the last 5 years expected that.

[KrazyLegs]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

He's great at undercutting guys from behind and not getting called for it.

[liam]

If the Lakers were watching this game and saw how well Grant Williams defended Bam them I'm sure we'll see a lot of Markieff Morris on Bam in the Lakers series.

[Donoghus]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

He's great at undercutting guys from behind and not getting called for it.

Dirty play.  Same with the head shot on Smart.

I actually like Butler. Have since the Chicago days but he played some dirty pool tonight.

[liam]

Is jimmy butler like super underrated as a culture changer or.....?

Cause even after the heat win this series im still not that impressed with him as a player, he had some clutch baskets in the games but other then that? Just didn’t see anything

He's great at undercutting guys from behind and not getting called for it.

Jaylen has been undercut a half dozen times in these playoffs without even getting a call.

[RJ87]

Nice guy, but nice guys don't win in the NBA. Too soft for this league and doesn't hold his guys accountable.

Spoeltra's a nice guy. Vogel is too.

I have some gripes with Brad, but this idea that he needs to be a raging lunatic at all times isn't one of them.

Sure, both of them are nice enough guys, but they also advocate for their players, demand respect from their guys, and hold them accountable, too. Both of them also work the refs when need be and chew their guys when they're not doing what they're supposed to.

Brad doesn't do those things. He doesn't hold any of his guys accountable, which is why they end up with these bad habits, and he simply doesn't work the refs - which is absolutely an effective and needed strategy of NBA coaches.

Smart is a perfect example. In 6+ years, Smart has essentially walked all over Brad - even chewing out his own coach on the bench on multiple occasions - and Brad has done nothing to address this or address his consistent poor shot selection at times. That's because Brad is just a soft coach and we all know that Smart is an alpha.

Beyond his obvious weaknesses in in-game management, his soft demeanor and character is absolutely another weak area of his that really limits his ability as coach.

Here's the hard truth: even if you swap out Brad for a "better" coach, I'm not sure this team's makeup leads to different results. Again, we're paying max salaries to guys that aren't max caliber (I like Kemba, but for much less money. Hayward has been a disappointment since he got here - I know, "injuries" but a spade is a spade). Our bench is comically thin. We're basically depending on a 22 and 23 year old to play well beyond their experience.

Brad, imo, can improve. But I don't see another coach that can mask the deficiencies of this team well enough to get us a championship.

I mean, he hasn't improved in many things since he came into the league, and he's about as experienced as you can hope for in terms of playoff time for only being here as long as he has (6 playoff appearances with 3 conference finals appearances). I don't think he's changing much at this point, and I think he's a major reason for why this season ended as it did.

And while I do think there are a few things that need improved roster-wise, the other major factor this year for us was injuries. With Hayward's (multiple) injuries this year and Kemba's knee, that really threw us off a lot before the bubble and even in the bubble. Do people really think Hayward looks this bad if he doesn't get injured in game one of the playoffs?

And that's not even mentioning the Timelord injury, which in my opinion is the most substantial of them all. Timelord was supposed to be our starting center this year, and before his injury he was looking very, very good and was slotted in to be the starter moving forward before his hip issue with a Capela-like projection. That forced Theis into the starting lineup, which was one of the major issues we had all season long, even if you can't blame Theis for not being able to fill that role.

If Robert Williams was supposed to be our starting center this season - the guy who still doesn't understand screens and closing out on 3 pt shooters - then getting this far should be seen as a bonus.

As far injuries, Hayward's never given anything to this team. We should know better than to depend on him at this point. Kemba struggling was more of a curveball, but he's a small guard who's 30. History isn't on his side in terms of longevity.

Like I said, people want to blame Brad 100% but this team was fundamentally flawed in it's construction from the outset.

Just completely disagree with this assessment. Other than a few holes and the unfortunate injuries, I overall like the construction of this roster and think it fits pretty well together.

And as biased as I am about Brad, you're just as biased against Hayward lol He was a borderline All-Star this year prior to his injuries, and even with all of his major injuries he still averaged nearly 18, 7, and 4 for us on .500 fg% and .383 3pfg%. If not for his injury in the postseason, I think this year would've been looked at as one of his best overall years, especially given that he was usually a 3rd or 4th option out there.

I'm not biased against Hayward in the same way. I want him to succeed, when he's out there I'm rooting him on. It's like CP3 though. If he's healthy and ready to go, then that's great. But more often than not, he isn't. We're into the 3rd year of a 4 year deal and we've never seen the guy 100% when it matters. We've given him max money and he's never been a max player for us. It is what is.

[ozgod]

I'm over the loss already 

We were last four standing, would have been nice to make it to the Finals but they exceeded my expectations of what this year would be. Unfortunately they played their worst 6 minutes of the series in the last 6 mins of this game but credit to the Heat and Bam, he backed up his words with action. I'll be cheering for them to beat LeBum and the Fakers.

Happy to have spent this weird and unique NBA season, all the good and the bad, with my CelticsStrong family!

Looking forward to our offseason and next year and what upgrades we will make

TP - that's a great attitude. Not over it yet, but it's not exactly game 3 of the TOR series. The team lost in such fantastic fashion that it is almost comical. 6 points up, back and forth, then 5 points up with Kemba getting a wide-open 3 to go up by 8, and then the wheels fell off like I've never seen before.

Kudos to Jaylen for playing so well. He came out in the 4th like a champ - unfortunately nobody else followed along. On to next season - let's hope the Heat continue their magical clutch time play against the Fakers.

Tp back at ya Jamb! 

It's a funny game and season...I feel like we overachieved for the season, got to the ECF after losing Kyrie, Al, Mook and Terry among others, but underachieved in this series which I thought was ours for the taking. I feel we have the better players, but Miami had the better team. We won more overall minutes of the series, but the Heat won the more important minutes and more important moments. These playoff games turn on moments and they won more of them than we did.

[Mahk E Mahk]

I'm over the loss already 

We were last four standing, would have been nice to make it to the Finals but they exceeded my expectations of what this year would be. Unfortunately they played their worst 6 minutes of the series in the last 6 mins of this game but credit to the Heat and Bam, he backed up his words with action. I'll be cheering for them to beat LeBum and the Fakers.

Happy to have spent this weird and unique NBA season, all the good and the bad, with my CelticsStrong family!

Looking forward to our offseason and next year and what upgrades we will make

TP - that's a great attitude. Not over it yet, but it's not exactly game 3 of the TOR series. The team lost in such fantastic fashion that it is almost comical. 6 points up, back and forth, then 5 points up with Kemba getting a wide-open 3 to go up by 8, and then the wheels fell off like I've never seen before.

Kudos to Jaylen for playing so well. He came out in the 4th like a champ - unfortunately nobody else followed along. On to next season - let's hope the Heat continue their magical clutch time play against the Fakers.

Tp back at ya Jamb! 

It's a funny game and season...I feel like we overachieved for the season, got to the ECF after losing Kyrie, Al, Mook and Terry among others, but underachieved in this series which I thought was ours for the taking. I feel we have the better players, but Miami had the better team. We won more overall minutes of the series, but the Heat won the more important minutes and more important moments. These playoff games turn on moments and they won more of them than we did.

so, the c’s won the popular vote? i keed, i keed. 

[ozgod]

On another note, for those of you who watch the NBC Sports Boston telecast, this is Abby Chin's last appearance after being the Celtics sideline reporter for 7 years...another job taken by the pandemic 

[ozgod]

I'm over the loss already 

We were last four standing, would have been nice to make it to the Finals but they exceeded my expectations of what this year would be. Unfortunately they played their worst 6 minutes of the series in the last 6 mins of this game but credit to the Heat and Bam, he backed up his words with action. I'll be cheering for them to beat LeBum and the Fakers.

Happy to have spent this weird and unique NBA season, all the good and the bad, with my CelticsStrong family!

Looking forward to our offseason and next year and what upgrades we will make

TP - that's a great attitude. Not over it yet, but it's not exactly game 3 of the TOR series. The team lost in such fantastic fashion that it is almost comical. 6 points up, back and forth, then 5 points up with Kemba getting a wide-open 3 to go up by 8, and then the wheels fell off like I've never seen before.

Kudos to Jaylen for playing so well. He came out in the 4th like a champ - unfortunately nobody else followed along. On to next season - let's hope the Heat continue their magical clutch time play against the Fakers.

Tp back at ya Jamb! 

It's a funny game and season...I feel like we overachieved for the season, got to the ECF after losing Kyrie, Al, Mook and Terry among others, but underachieved in this series which I thought was ours for the taking. I feel we have the better players, but Miami had the better team. We won more overall minutes of the series, but the Heat won the more important minutes and more important moments. These playoff games turn on moments and they won more of them than we did.

so, the c’s won the popular vote? i keed, i keed. 

LOL that's a good way of looking at it...Heat won the electoral votes that mattered though 

[blink]

I just want to give a shout out to Jaylen Brown.  That guy played hard and just seemed to keep improving all through the playoffs.

Jaylen ECF last 4 games...for a 1A guy behind Tatum he played outstanding basketball on both sides of the ball. If the a few things were different in some of those close games, we might be talking about Jaylen being the ECF MVP instead of Bam.

game 6 - 26 points / 8 boards / 4 assists / 3 steals
game 5 - 28 points / 8 boards / 2 assists / 1 steal
game 4 - 21 points / 9 boards / 1 assist / 1 steal / 1 block
game 3 - 26 points / 7 boards / 5 assists / 3 steals / 1 block

[Phantom255x]

You know, as much as we criticize the Rockets' system...

Are we really that much different? Live by the 3, or die by it. Feels like that’s how the C’s run often and sadly in elimination games over the past few years they die by the 3. And while the C’s do commit to ball movement often, sometimes it feels in crucial stretches they just revert to iso-ball and hero-ball way too often.

I mean the C's took 46 3-pointers today 

[tenn_smoothie]

You know, as much as we criticize the Rockets' system...

Are we really that much different? Live by the 3, or die by it. Feels like that’s how the C’s run often and sadly in elimination games over the past few years they die by the 3. And while the C’s do commit to ball movement often, sometimes it feels in crucial stretches they just revert to iso-ball and hero-ball way too often.

I mean the C's took 46 3-pointers today 

Right on Target - this Celtics group does not play to its strengths enough of the time to be consistent contenders - that's on Stevens.