Rockets (37-25) at Celtics (38-25) Game #64 3/3/19

[Fierce1]

Don't count out Brad and the Celtics.

Remember 2012 when the Celts sucked the whole regular season and reached the eastern finals?

They benefited from a short season, and Derrick Rose with a torn ACL against the 76ers in that first-round playoff game.

That's because nobody knows what the future holds.

This year Oladipo already went down.

Even with a shortened season and Rose going down with an ACL injury, the Celts were still able to take the Heat to 7 games.

Celts even led the series 3-2.
It was just unfortunate Celts couldn't close it out in Game 6.

There's always surprises in the playoffs every year.

I think the Celts and the Bucks in the 2nd round would be a great series.

[Fierce1]

It would've been an upgrade if the Celts traded Rozier and Morris for Vucevic.

But I think Ainge was not willing to surrender any of the draft picks the Celts have.

[Billz401]

If Morris remains in the starting lineup on Tuesday, I think we should riot.

Get your torch and pitchfork ready.  Starting Brown for Morris has increasingly looked like the correct adjustment (or at least worth trying) to make during this poor stretch of ours.  If Brad hasn't adjusted by now then I doubt he will by next game.

Yeah, seems to be the case, unfortunately. Brad just doesn’t seem capable of making the tough rotation decisions with this team, as he’s never really had this problem in the past.

http://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1102346380759183361

Morris might be better suited as a bench small forward with Hayward moving to SG. Idk at this point we should really be trying anything different to see if it works.

[Who]

This team is reminding me of the 2003 Indiana Pacers lately.

A hugely talented deep team with several young players.

 C: Brad Miller, Jeff Foster
PF: Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington, Austin Croshere
SF: Ron Artest, Jonathon Bender
SG: Reggie Miller, Ron Mercer, Fred Jones
PG: Jamaal Tinsley, Erick Strickland

They were one of the favourites to win the East. Most talented team in the East in my opinion. Should have won the East that year instead of the New Jersey Nets.

Started the year like gangbusters with 37 wins and 15 losses. Then fell apart and finished the season with 11 wins and 19 losses. Lost in the first round to our Boston Celtics.

Team completely unraveled and their coach (Isiah Thomas) could do nothing to stop it. Bird fired Isiah and replaced him with Carlisle. A strict disciplinarian to restore order after Isiah's soft player-friendly touch failed to get their attention - despite Isiah doing a very good up until that point (developing their youth and building a promising team).

Anyways,

This Celtics team is reminding me of that Pacers team lately. So is the Brad Stevens situation.

[nickagneta]

Jaylen Brown has been amazing for many games now

best player on the team in the last 2 weeks

Maybe last two months. His per36 since the start of the year is like 20/6.5/2 on 48/37/73 shooting and playing great defense.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

This team is just ... horrible? frustrating? maddening? I can't find the perfect word to sum up just how much of a train wreck this team is.
Another fruitless, hope-dashing comeback attempt. Another bad 3pt shooting performance by most of the team. More terrible defense.

I wish the regular season was over. I kinda wish the whole season was over.

And I’ve already seen some comments above about "great second-half effort," and people are certainly entitled to their opinion, but I’m just SO SICK of hearing about Boston’s "inspiring" but ultimately useless "almost comebacks." Really, I am. If they could actually complete a few comebacks, that would be something. If they could avoid playing so poorly so often and getting in so many huge deficits, that would also be something.

But, "Yayyy, they almost came back!!" is just … meaningless at this point.

Oh, and I can’t wait until Rozier and Morris are no longer on this team. And Tatum is wearing on me too.

[nickagneta]

If Morris remains in the starting lineup on Tuesday, I think we should riot.

Get your torch and pitchfork ready.  Starting Brown for Morris has increasingly looked like the correct adjustment (or at least worth trying) to make during this poor stretch of ours.  If Brad hasn't adjusted by now then I doubt he will by next game.

Yeah, seems to be the case, unfortunately. Brad just doesn’t seem capable of making the tough rotation decisions with this team, as he’s never really had this problem in the past.

http://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1102346380759183361

Really can't disagree with Stevens. Morris starting and Brown coming off the bench is not the problem with this team. Switching them will not solve a thing.

This team's problems start and stop on defense. And no it's not the system. The system is fine. It's been a top 2 defense in the league for two years.

The problem is the defensive intensity. The problem is the defensive physicallity. The problem is the defensive effort.

The Celtics had amazing intensity, physicallity and effort for two years. This year, it's just not there. It hasn't been since day 1.

That's on Stevens for not figuring out how to get those things out of this group, but sadly, it's more on the players for not doing it.

[KGs Knee]

This team is reminding me of the 2003 Indiana Pacers lately.

A hugely talented deep team with several young players.

 C: Brad Miller, Jeff Foster
PF: Jermaine O'Neal, Al Harrington, Austin Croshere
SF: Ron Artest, Jonathon Bender
SG: Reggie Miller, Ron Mercer, Fred Jones
PG: Jamaal Tinsley, Erick Strickland

They were one of the favourites to win the East. Most talented team in the East in my opinion. Should have won the East that year instead of the New Jersey Nets.

Started the year like gangbusters with 37 wins and 15 losses. Then fell apart and finished the season with 11 wins and 19 losses. Lost in the first round to our Boston Celtics.

Team completely unraveled and their coach (Isiah Thomas) could do nothing to stop it. Bird fired Isiah and replaced him with Carlisle. A strict disciplinarian to restore order after Isiah's soft player-friendly touch failed to get their attention - despite Isiah doing a very good up until that point (developing their youth and building a promising team).

Anyways,

This Celtics team is reminding me of that Pacers team lately. So is the Brad Stevens situation.

It's obviously not all Brad's fault, but he does deserve a lot of blame for not being able to get through to the team. He should be on the hot seat with coaching performance this year.

But I don't think he's actually in jeopardy of getting fired this summer. Ainge will almost assuredly give him the benefit of the doubt, and I expect roster changes this summer anyways.

I do think he still plans on giving up the farm for Davis and attempting to re-sign Kyrie. I do think with Tatum not quite looking like the surefire star we all thought he was, it may force Ainge to have to pay more for Davis than he anticipated, however.

[SHAQATTACK]

i knew we d loose a whole bunch of this 14 game stretch . 

Uncle DA will fix everything , next year we ll be back with a vengeance .  KD is not leaving , Klay is not leaving , Leonard looks comfortable  . Bron and Rondo are LAs cross to bare.

I still feel good about Kyrie , not his fault ,   DA will trade off All the malcontents.  You don t let them stand in the way of a Kyrie /Davis core . 
CBS is his best as the underdog ,  might surprize in the playoffs.

[footey]

If Morris remains in the starting lineup on Tuesday, I think we should riot.

Get your torch and pitchfork ready.  Starting Brown for Morris has increasingly looked like the correct adjustment (or at least worth trying) to make during this poor stretch of ours.  If Brad hasn't adjusted by now then I doubt he will by next game.

Yeah, seems to be the case, unfortunately. Brad just doesn’t seem capable of making the tough rotation decisions with this team, as he’s never really had this problem in the past.

http://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1102346380759183361

Really can't disagree with Stevens. Morris starting and Brown coming off the bench is not the problem with this team. Switching them will not solve a thing.

This team's problems start and stop on defense. And no it's not the system. The system is fine. It's been a top 2 defense in the league for two years.

The problem is the defensive intensity. The problem is the defensive physicallity. The problem is the defensive effort.

The Celtics had amazing intensity, physicallity and effort for two years. This year, it's just not there. It hasn't been since day 1.

That's on Stevens for not figuring out how to get those things out of this group, but sadly, it's more on the players for not doing it.

Strongly disagree. Morris has been dreadful. Not just missing shots. Dumb turnovers. Start Brown and commit to him. He has outplayed Tatum, another big disappointment, much of this season. I’d bench him too if I didn’t worry about damaging his trade value.

[NKY fan]

The good side of having no chance of being a top 3 seed is that we won’t get the chance to lose and being upset in the first round by some of the up and coming teams below us in the standings 

[ozgod]

Rozier missing all 3 of those FTs ultimately was the kiss of death late. Ugh.

That and Harden making that ridiculous 3 with Kyrie and JT on top of him that killed us

But it should never have come to that, as usual rhey dug themselves a huge hole and waited too late for the comeback

[ozgod]

How many times did the Celts force a miss, in the 4th, and couldn't get the rebound?

That's the main problem of the Celts.

This Celts team is lacking a big man who can score inside and get rebounds.

If you look closely one of the main reasons they are missing rebounds is they don’t box out...it happened at least 6 times today if not more. They are all trying to get the rebound but nobody is boxing out. Tommy has mentioned it on multiple occasions too, they let guys charge in from the corner and get the offensive board. It happened to Rozier at least 3x today and Horford once.

[cltc5]

If Morris remains in the starting lineup on Tuesday, I think we should riot.

Get your torch and pitchfork ready.  Starting Brown for Morris has increasingly looked like the correct adjustment (or at least worth trying) to make during this poor stretch of ours.  If Brad hasn't adjusted by now then I doubt he will by next game.

Yeah, seems to be the case, unfortunately. Brad just doesn’t seem capable of making the tough rotation decisions with this team, as he’s never really had this problem in the past.

http://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1102346380759183361

Really can't disagree with Stevens. Morris starting and Brown coming off the bench is not the problem with this team. Switching them will not solve a thing.

This team's problems start and stop on defense. And no it's not the system. The system is fine. It's been a top 2 defense in the league for two years.

The problem is the defensive intensity. The problem is the defensive physicallity. The problem is the defensive effort.

The Celtics had amazing intensity, physicallity and effort for two years. This year, it's just not there. It hasn't been since day 1.

That's on Stevens for not figuring out how to get those things out of this group, but sadly, it's more on the players for not doing it.

They’re not gonna try until they have to.  Which is why I can’t wait till the season if over.  They’ll turn it on and off in the playoffs all the way till the eastern conference finals.  They are who they are

[gpap]

Tatum has been off the last few games.

Missing wide open lay-ups, losing the ball out of bounds, missing 3s, not being aggressive and poor defense.

VERY disappointing.

As for Brown, I notice it always takes a him a little while to get into the rhythm of things in every game but he's been finishing out strong.

Sadly, we are still getting killed on the boards.

I also give Houston credit.  I didn't expect them to defend the Celts as well as they did although I think the Celts offense has also been exposed as one with no real size and an offense that's turnover prone.