Celtics (57-15) at Hawks (33-39) Game #73 3/28/24

[Surferdad]

Turned it off after the 1st quarter. If the team and coach don't care about winning, then there's no point in watching.

[Phantom255x]

The Hawks this year are kind of what the Magic were to us last season.

Personally, I don't really care about the actual wins/losses at this stage of the season, but more so how they look.

Unfortunately, there's two things that really stuck out to me which could be a major concern:

1. The last-second shots particularly iso-ball by Tatum. People have spent numerous pages discussing it already so I won't delve into it. But yeah, there needs to be other guys involved and potentially taking the shot or running plays instead of just constantly dribbling it down and then Tatum hoisting an iso-shot. Maybe the Jaylen shot attempt could have been drawn up better but hey, he took the shot and made it late to give us that brief 121-120 lead. Wasn't JT, they drew something up for Brown.

2. Porzingis really needs to be more physical AND we need to rebound better. There'll be times in the playoffs where you need to dive for loose balls, outmuscle guys and body them up. Porzingis is very talented and easily the best big we've had since KG, but I do wonder how he'll hold up against the more physical bigs in the playoffs (Embiid, Bam, Giannis, potentially even Jokic/KAT/Gobert). In close games that kind of stuff matters. Certainly did last night.

There are some other things like poor FT shooting in the clutch, Joe Mazzulla, the defense at times, etc. But if those two things don't get addressed it might not even matter. There will be close games in the playoffs and sometimes pivotal. Can't be giving up too many second chance points either, that'll kill us.

[hpantazo]

Turned it off after the 1st quarter. If the team and coach don't care about winning, then there's no point in watching.

Yeah, they are using these games to get out various defensive schemes and plays and get some reps in before the playoffs. That's all.

[Phantom255x]

While it wasn't a perfect night, I think it was encouraging to see Jrue out there going 37 minutes and still playing pretty well given the recent arm/shoulder issues. A week ago it was beginning to look way more ominous.

[SparzWizard]

I bet Tatum and the C's want to try and start a series down 0-3 in the first-round, just to beat that record by coming back to win 4-3. Gotta practice new things after all!!

 

[hpantazo]

While it wasn't a perfect night, I think it was encouraging to see Jrue out there going 37 minutes and still playing pretty well given the recent arm/shoulder issues. A week ago it was beginning to look way more ominous.

Yes. Last night was a win for this reason alone.

[Roy H.]

Lost in the shuffle...  What was up with the refs last night?  They seemed inconsistent and overly sensitive, and there were some calls that are hard to explain.

[jpotter33]

Lost in the shuffle...  What was up with the refs last night?  They seemed inconsistent and overly sensitive, and there were some calls that are hard to explain.

Unsurprisingly, they already admitted the JT “travel” call was an error.

https://x.com/officialnbarefs/status/1773726181126180871?s=46&t=lGU0TGXtwjkuVuoin6WTNw

I imagine the last two minute report will have several errors, too, most notably the Murray flop foul on White. Hopefully he gets fined, too.

[celticinorlando]

Lost in the shuffle...  What was up with the refs last night?  They seemed inconsistent and overly sensitive, and there were some calls that are hard to explain.

Just awful. The charge call on JB was ridiculous. That was three big points taken off the board.

One time JT got hit in the face and asked the female ref why didn’t she call it.

You could read her lips she said “I couldn’t see”. No offense, that’s your job to see.

I thought they said on the broadcast that that crew or some of that crew had worked the magic Warriors game, where Draymond Green lost his mind and got ejected. Maybe they were super touchy after that.

[Mahk E Mahk]

Mazzulla said the #Celtics purposely went to switching where Porzingis guarded Murray in OT. He yielded three consecutive Murray jumpers.

"It was good reps for us. We went to that on purpose.  It was an opportunity to practice stuff that we're gonna need to get to. I thought it was a good opportunity to get reps on that and get it on film. " #Hawks

That's what I suspected...they don't care if they win or lose these. They're treating it as live ball practice being put under pressure under real game conditions. Let's hope they can switch out of that mode come playoff time.

if the expectation this year is to win a chip, HCA hasn’t been locked up for the finals, yet. not caring if they win or lose at this point in the season is shortsighted and indicative of this team’s entitlement attitude.