Hawks (1-3) at Celtics (3-1) Round 1 Game #5 4/25/23

[celticinorlando]

Dejounte Murray is not that big of a loss. He does not move the needle much for Atlanta. He gets in the way of others (Trae, J Collins). They will be able to replace his scoring comfortably enough and Murray has been struggling on defense.

The main issue for Atlanta will be when Trae rests. Do they have a ball-handler on that bench that can give them 5-10 minutes?

He has gone for 24, 29, 25 and 23 in the first four games with 8, 6, 6, and 9 rebounds. They absolutely will miss him tonight.

[Who]

Dejounte Murray is not that big of a loss. He does not move the needle much for Atlanta. He gets in the way of others (Trae, J Collins). They will be able to replace his scoring comfortably enough and Murray has been struggling on defense.

The main issue for Atlanta will be when Trae rests. Do they have a ball-handler on that bench that can give them 5-10 minutes?

He has gone for 24, 29, 25 and 23 in the first four games with 8, 6, 6, and 9 rebounds. They absolutely will miss him tonight.

Murray has scored a lot in this series but he has not scored efficiently. He has shot okay from the field, uncharacteristically well from 3 and characteristically has been terrible at getting to the FT line. This has led him to having a below average TS% of 54.5%.

Murray is averaging 1.5 FTAs versus 22.5 FGAs. That is about as bad a ratio as you are going to find. This is worse than his regular season but even his regular season numbers are about as bad as you will find in the league at 17.8 FGAs vs 2.6 FTAs. He just never gets to the foul line. The way he plays does not generate FT attempts. He avoids contact. He pulls up for floaters and midrange shots instead of taking it all the way to the rim. This stops him from getting efficiency boosting FT attempts.

So yes, Murray has scored a lot but he has not done so efficiently. The Hawks will be able to replace those points by spreading them around the team. More from John Collins, D Hunter, Bogdanovic, Trae Young.

The bigger loss for ATL's offense will be loss of Murray's passing. He is only playmaker on the team outside of Trae Young. I firmly believe it is his passing more than his scoring that has positive contributions for his team.

[celticinorlando]

Dejounte Murray is not that big of a loss. He does not move the needle much for Atlanta. He gets in the way of others (Trae, J Collins). They will be able to replace his scoring comfortably enough and Murray has been struggling on defense.

The main issue for Atlanta will be when Trae rests. Do they have a ball-handler on that bench that can give them 5-10 minutes?

He has gone for 24, 29, 25 and 23 in the first four games with 8, 6, 6, and 9 rebounds. They absolutely will miss him tonight.

Murray has scored a lot in this series but he has not scored efficiently. He has shot okay from the field, uncharacteristically well from 3 and characteristically has been terrible at getting to the FT line. This has led him to having a below average TS% of 54.5%.

Murray is averaging 1.5 FTAs versus 22.5 FGAs. That is about as bad a ratio as you are going to find. This is worse than his regular season but even his regular season numbers are about as bad as you will find in the league at 17.8 FGAs vs 2.6 FTAs. He just never gets to the foul line. The way he plays does not generate FT attempts. He avoids contact. He pulls up for floaters and midrange shots instead of taking it all the way to the rim. This stops him from getting efficiency boosting FT attempts.

So yes, Murray has scored a lot but he has not done so efficiently. The Hawks will be able to replace those points by spreading them around the team. More from John Collins, D Hunter, Bogdanovic, Trae Young.

The bigger loss for ATL's offense will be loss of Murray's passing. He is only playmaker on the team outside of Trae Young. I firmly believe it is his passing more than his scoring that has positive contributions for his team.

How much more can Hunter give you? He is already scoring at clip much higher than he averages. Collins is not 100 percent. Bogdanovic is streaky and doesn't have much more of a ceiling than he's already at.

I expect Young to shoot...a lot. Boston needs to control the boards again.

[Who]

I mentioned Dejounte Murray's TS% of 54.5%.

That is in line with the rest of what Atlanta's team is doing as their overall team average in the series is 54.4%. So the same.

Boston on the other hand is at a blistering 62.5% TS% as a TEAM. Wow.

[liam]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

[Who]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

Nobody who can do much better.

I am just saying Murray is not providing much defense for them. Reputation vs on-court impact.

I don't think the loss of Murray's defense to whoever takes his minutes will prove all that important.

[Phantom255x]

The only chance ATL has to win this is through second chance points from the rebounds. The C's NEED to rebound well tonight. Don't give ATL life off of their misses consistently. I'm sure Young is going to be chucking it up all night, but if he misses the deep 3, the C's need to be aware and grab the rebounds wherever they are.

[tonydelk]

Murray is a huge loss.  Anyone that says otherwise is kidding themselves.  He's a very good player and playmaker.  He will be missed.  It's difficult to replace a player of that caliber. 

Now Atlanta has good depth so they will still be competitive.  The C's can't sleep on this game or they will lose.  The need to rebound and focus on Tre.  If they can do those two things they will will by double digits.

[Who]

Last season, Atlanta had 43 wins and 39 losses without Dejounte Murrray but with Kevin Huerter.

This season, with Dejounte Murray but without Kevin Huerter they went 41 and 41.

Dejounte Murray does not move the needle that much for this Hawks team. He has been played out of position on that team and in a role that he is not best suited for namely sharing the ball with a ball-dominant PG in Trae Young. This has reduced his impact and thus his importance.

[liam]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

Nobody who can do much better.

I am just saying Murray is not providing much defense for them. Reputation vs on-court impact.

I don't think the loss of Murray's defense to whoever takes his minutes will prove all that important.

Who is near Murray defensively that the Hawks have? Even close?

[Who]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

Nobody who can do much better.

I am just saying Murray is not providing much defense for them. Reputation vs on-court impact.

I don't think the loss of Murray's defense to whoever takes his minutes will prove all that important.

Who is near Murray defensively that the Hawks have? Even close?

Thing is that Murray is not that good of a wing defender. He is an impressive defender at PG but that is not the position he is asked to defend because Trae can only defend the point due to his small size.

As a wing defender, Murray is no more impressive (or not much more impressive) than Seddiq Bey.

It is not his fault he is being played out of position in Atlanta and has seen his impact greatly diminished (on both ends of the floor).

[liam]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

Nobody who can do much better.

I am just saying Murray is not providing much defense for them. Reputation vs on-court impact.

I don't think the loss of Murray's defense to whoever takes his minutes will prove all that important.

Who is near Murray defensively that the Hawks have? Even close?

Thing is that Murray is not that good of a wing defender. He is an impressive defender at PG but that is not the position he is asked to defend because Trae can only defend the point due to his small size.

As a wing defender, Murray is no more impressive (or not much more impressive) than Seddiq Bey.

It is not his fault he is being played out of position in Atlanta and has seen his impact greatly diminished (on both ends of the floor).

LOL. That's funny. Why do think the Js are having a field day? The Hawks have subpar wing defenders. Tatum is just stepping past any of those stiffs and so is Brown.

[Who]

Dejounte Murray was getting killed on defense whenever he was matched up with Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Murray is just too skinny and light. The moment either one of these physically powerful wings got their shoulder ahead of Murray, Murray was then unable to get back into the play. He was done. And he was beat a lot.

Murray is a very strong defender against PGs and a strong team defender with his capacity to create turnovers. However, despite his height at 6-5, his ability to switch onto other positions (SG, SF, PF, C) is severely hampered by his lack of physicality.

Jaylen and Tatum exploited this well in Game 4.

In other words, Murray's defense will be not be a big miss for Atlanta tonight.

But who else do the Hawks have to defend? Can Bogdanovic stay on the floor for more than 20 minutes?

Nobody who can do much better.

I am just saying Murray is not providing much defense for them. Reputation vs on-court impact.

I don't think the loss of Murray's defense to whoever takes his minutes will prove all that important.

Who is near Murray defensively that the Hawks have? Even close?

Thing is that Murray is not that good of a wing defender. He is an impressive defender at PG but that is not the position he is asked to defend because Trae can only defend the point due to his small size.

As a wing defender, Murray is no more impressive (or not much more impressive) than Seddiq Bey.

It is not his fault he is being played out of position in Atlanta and has seen his impact greatly diminished (on both ends of the floor).

LOL. That's funny. Why do think the Js are having a field day? The Hawks have subpar wing defenders. Tatum is just stepping past any of those stiffs and so is Brown.

And they are doing the exact same thing to Murray. Murray is dying on coverages against Jaylen and Tatum. They get one step on him and he is completely out of the play because he is so weak physically that can not get back into the play against their much bigger stronger frames. He dies on switches against Jaylen and Tatum.

[Phantom255x]

I think the biggest thing with Murray being out is that it puts so much more pressure on others like Bogdan and Young to score. Murray's averaged 25 PPG this series, and he had some big buckets in Game 3, and he's also the only reason ATL even sort of made it close in the 2nd half of Game 2 (believe me, I was there, he went nuclear on his own and got ATL to within 8-10 points in a game they should have been blown out by 25+ easily)

Maybe someone else like Hunter steps up?

To me though, the C's need to just put them away. They play no defense, just come out on fire, attack and have them thinking about their vacation plans by halftime. Rebound as well. Don't give them a bunch of 2nd chance points.

[SparzWizard]

Basically, if the C's lose this game AT HOME without D. Murray then this team is in trouble in the sense that it's all mental.

There is zero excuses losing this game. I want a 35-point blowout win.