Celtics (0-2) at Heat (2-0) ECF Game #3 9/19/20

[wiley]

It has actually become a strategy to defend with your face.  You just get up in an offensive player's shorts with him and hit the floor when he touches you.  Automatic flagrant.

Yes, Miami has been doing this.  I think the Hayward flagrant probably had to be called, but close.

The first time I noticed was last game when Dragic ran up to a driving Tatum (I think it was Tatum) and Tatum's shoulder made contact with Dragic's face and Dragic fell down and held is face and they reviewed the play.  Luckily it was ruled a foul on Dragic, and rightly so.  But Goran went looking for that one and that should be fined if it keeps up....the Heat are a good tough team, and it seems they are tough enough to purposely take it in the face.  These kinds of plays are as egregious as flopping, even if it takes some guts to take it in the chops.  Robinson stuck his face as close as he could to Jaylen.  He literally pushed his chin forward into Jaylen's space.

Very frustrating. I know players can't actually do this in fear of getting a flagrant 2, but I wish one of our player's mindset would be "you wanna play like a clown and draw fouls like that? I'll make sure you really feel whatever contact you're trying to draw."

I don't know if on purpose, or if true, or not...but seemed like Hayward's foul on Dragic had a little of that message...

[blink]

https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1307518625222459392

[Tr1boy]

Tatum 14 reb and 7 assist was impressive

He missed a few forced jumpers in the 4th and didnt keep forcing it

Excellent game

[KGs Knee]

Tatum 14 reb and 7 assist was impressive

He missed a few forced jumpers in the 4th and didnt keep forcing it

Excellent game

Tatum was fantastic again, as usual. He's such a joy to watch.

[bdm860]

https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1307518625222459392

Ha, not hating on you blink, but what a cheap stat by ESPN.

Think about what the last 30 years was, 17 of those years would be the stellar time frame from 1990-2007.

Altogether, in the last 30 years, there's 10 times they didn't make the playoffs, and other 8 times they were knocked out in the first round. 

Any Celtics stat can look impressive if you eliminate the great teams from the 60s, 70s, and 80s from the equation.

[Tr1boy]

Tatum 14 reb and 7 assist was impressive

He missed a few forced jumpers in the 4th and didnt keep forcing it

Excellent game

Tatum was fantastic again, as usual. He's such a joy to watch.

Yes

I have a feeling Hayward is going to have a good game (points) next game

Cant give an inch to this pesky heats team

[tenn_smoothie]

I'll take the win but all the same problems reared their head once again tonight.

It's so obvious we're the more talented team, but unfortunately our coach is just not good enough.  We win in spite of Brad, not because of him.

Gordy looked okay out there, so that is good.  Hopefully he gets back to where he was before the ankle sprain.

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

Brad's game management is awful ................... I am very bothered that a 20+ point lead was down to 5 points with no timeouts called to re-focus the offense, which was obviously out of sorts late in the 4th.

What about Brad's game management that got us to the 20 point lead? Any thoughts on that?

As a matter of fact I do - Better game prep on the offensive end (credit to Stevens for that) and a much tougher, more aggressive team effort (credit Marcus Smart for that) plus focused team defense (credit the team and coaches both) are what got us such a big lead, but then in-game, Stevens holds on to timeouts like they are sacred, makes confusing decisions regarding player minutes and does not use those timeouts to make adjustments or settle his team when the opponent is on a run. He doesn't have to act like Nick Nurse, but he needs to be more vocal standing up for his players when they are getting the short end of the officiating.

[Somebody]

Grant was fantastic. I am so impressed that he doesn't bite on the upfakes and create fouls that RWIII would definitely bite on and he has been very dependable on the open 3s unlike during the season. Very impressive for the rook.

We need Gordon so bad and he better not even consider going back for birth of another baby. I mean seriously you know you are having 3 or 4 more and that's what facetime is for.

Grant is a star. Plays like a veteran with how the moment never gets to him. Love it

And he's slowly but surely rising up to the top in playoff (playoff-only so don't take it seriously) RAPM. Waiting for a game 3 update!

Btw it really goes to show how valuable underappreciated skillsets in basketball can be (eg. defence, passing, off-ball movement, shooting, etc), a player who doesn't fit the typical shot creator mold can still have star/superstar impact on teams. Not saying that Grant is a star or will be one, but him being so "valuable" in these studies (albeit on a very small sample size) gives credence to supercharged versions of him like Draymond being stars.

[LilRip]

I understand the criticism on CBS but game 3 was a great response. I thought the C’s were underprepared in games 1-2, especially vs the zone.

To the credit of some our posts here in CS, we made a call for some adjustments which reflected in the coaching staff’s decisions (heh, I guess sometimes, some of us know what we‘re actually talking about!). That means putting Kemba on Jae, putting Smart on Dragic, playing Grant more, having Theis/Grant in the corner, etc. Small adjustments that aren’t ground breaking but add up.

The only thing CBS didn’t do this game (imo) was calling timeouts (esp down the stretch) to stymie the Heat’s runs. Maybe he wanted the team to figure it out but that’s what the regular season is for, no?

But overall, terrific gameplan from the coaching staff. The next thing they’ll need to solve is Adebayo’s fake handoffs which were starting to be an automatic 2 points/foul every time down

[SparzWizard]

I'll take the win but all the same problems reared their head once again tonight.

It's so obvious we're the more talented team, but unfortunately our coach is just not good enough.  We win in spite of Brad, not because of him.

Gordy looked okay out there, so that is good.  Hopefully he gets back to where he was before the ankle sprain.

Yep, my thoughts exactly.

Brad's game management is awful ................... I am very bothered that a 20+ point lead was down to 5 points with no timeouts called to re-focus the offense, which was obviously out of sorts late in the 4th.

What about Brad's game management that got us to the 20 point lead? Any thoughts on that?

As a matter of fact I do - Better game prep on the offensive end (credit to Stevens for that) and a much tougher, more aggressive team effort (credit Marcus Smart for that) plus focused team defense (credit the team and coaches both) are what got us such a big lead, but then in-game, Stevens holds on to timeouts like they are sacred, makes confusing decisions regarding player minutes and does not use those timeouts to make adjustments or settle his team when the opponent is on a run. He doesn't have to act like Nick Nurse, but he needs to be more vocal standing up for his players when they are getting the short end of the officiating.

Yeah I vouch that he should start acting more like Nick Nurse. Scream, whine and complain about every call so they give you the call. Make use of those timeouts. Spread out your legs, stick your butt out and lean forward while shouting at your team to give them instructions. Stand by the corner of the baseline to distract opponent- heck it helped the Raptors why not us lol.

[tenn_smoothie]

Pretty sure I said don't act like Nick Nurse.

[gouki88]

https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1307518625222459392

Ha, not hating on you blink, but what a cheap stat by ESPN.

Think about what the last 30 years was, 17 of those years would be the stellar time frame from 1990-2007.

Altogether, in the last 30 years, there's 10 times they didn't make the playoffs, and other 8 times they were knocked out in the first round. 

Any Celtics stat can look impressive if you eliminate the great teams from the 60s, 70s, and 80s from the equation.

I feel like it's intentionally vague. Is it the last 30 Celtic postseasons, or last 30 in general?

[Neurotic Guy]

Sometimes I wonder if my TV is missing the Brad-Cam that many of you must have.  I’m not dismissing the criticism out of hand but truly we know so much less about Brad’s in-game communication than we actually know.  His style is lower key than some would like obviously and I get frustrated too when he let’s the team play through obvious momentum lapses where there should be a stoppage.  Questioning the play calling seems legit but of course this is still a young team and it’s hard to know how much is poor coaching decision v. execution. Granted, if CBS doesn’t prepare them to execute some of that is on him.  The leaders are young and there is mixed basketball acumen among them.  Herro looks like a 10 year vet at 20 - is that coaching, or Herro?? Our youth have improved every step of the way.

Brad has them down 2-1 in the ECF.  Were many of us anticipated much better than that at this point.  What, maybe up 2-1?   

Brad lost GH and teams have gotten to Kemba. And his bench is not particularly deep or gifted.  Brad was able still to get them to the ECF.  And depending on Monday’s game, this may be a series.  Overall he’s doing the job with a young group who he knows individually and collectively better than any of us could possibly know them.  So to me, ultimately it’s results.  And so far I can’t say that the C’s are under-performing expectations. 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

The last two games, as soon as I tuned it, the Cs started to inexplicably struggle and the Heat went on runs. I'm not very superstitious, but my gift to the forum and to the Cs is that I won't watch or follow any part of the game until it is over.

I only take a little credit for the win last night.

Next game I'll do the same.

[Neurotic Guy]

DWC = MVP