Fire Joe! ... or critique Joe ... or defend Joe... or worry about Joe's coaching

[SHAQATTACK]

Little Joe came though !

Joe can stay

For now 

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Little Joe came though !

Joe can stay

For now 

[Who]

I don't think Joe needed to take Tatum out after his injury. There was a long break before play resumed and Tatum had clearly walked off the injury and was able to play.

[jpotter33]

Good job Joe, good response by our players after a terrible game 2.  Seems like our entire team took that loss personally.  The Heat never stood a chance after that.

Yep, credit where it is due. While his Game 2 performance is still worrisome, he made the necessary adjustments to counteract Spo's adjustments, and they worked out well. Now let's see him do it against a team with more talent that isn't missing several of their main guys.

[ozgod]

Good job Joe, good response by our players after a terrible game 2.  Seems like our entire team took that loss personally.  The Heat never stood a chance after that.

Yep, credit where it is due. While his Game 2 performance is still worrisome, he made the necessary adjustments to counteract Spo's adjustments, and they worked out well. Now let's see him do it against a team with more talent that isn't missing several of their main guys.

What's so funny though is most fans think their own coach doesn't make adjustments...here are the Heat fans on Spo at halftime tonight:

(click to enlarge)

[Vermont Green]

There was a clear game plan to use Tatum as a decoy. This was the perfect counter move to MIA’s plan to hound Tatum when he had the ball. Good coaching. And we destroyed their zone. 

Clearly, Mazzulla had way more talent to work with but his coaching was at least equal to Spoelstra in this series. The team did not let up. Stayed focused.

[Phantom255x]

The Celtics were hot in Game 1 and had that stretch late 1st/early 2nd last night where they were shooting lights out behind the arc, but otherwise we didn't really "dominate" from 3 this series. And we still won in 5, with the lone loss being a game where Miami happened to shoot 53%. Nice.

[green_bballers13]

The Celtics were hot in Game 1 and had that stretch late 1st/early 2nd last night where they were shooting lights out behind the arc, but otherwise we didn't really "dominate" from 3 this series. And we still won in 5, with the lone loss being a game where Miami happened to shoot 53%. Nice.

The Celtics aren’t living and dying by the 3. Definitely a positive step.

Joe’s critics- is it painful to say something positive about a series win?

[Who]

The Celtics were hot in Game 1 and had that stretch late 1st/early 2nd last night where they were shooting lights out behind the arc, but otherwise we didn't really "dominate" from 3 this series. And we still won in 5, with the lone loss being a game where Miami happened to shoot 53%. Nice.

The Celtics aren’t living and dying by the 3. Definitely a positive step.

Joe’s critics- is it painful to say something positive about a series win?

The last numbers I saw had Boston taking the highest number of 3s of any playoff team.

I was going to say they do not include last night's win but they do. BOS has taken 47.9% of its shot attempts from 3 point range. The highest of any playoff team in the playoffs.

The next highest is Indiana at 44.7%. Then Dallas at 42.2% in 3rd place. The teams 3rd-6th all around 42% so that is a common number. A pretty big drop from Boston in 1st place. The playoff league average is 40%.

Denver are at 37.7%. They are 12th in frequency (out of 16 teams) and the highest of the teams to advance thus far. Milwaukee and New  York are below them if either manages to advance.


The difference between BOS in 1st place and DAL in 3rd place is greater than the difference between DAL in 3rd and DEN in 12th place.

Boston are 3rd in accuracy at 38.5%. Basically dead even with OKC in 2nd 38.7%. LAC only one ahead at 39.8%. 

We are still living and dying by the three. We are just making them now.

[Silas]

First I don't like Van Gundy one bit, however he was spot on with the Cs destroying the Heat's zone defense.  So maybe Joe finally gets some credit for destroying Spo's coaching! 

[Roy H.]

First I don't like Van Gundy one bit, however he was spot on with the Cs destroying the Heat's zone defense.  So maybe Joe finally gets some credit for destroying Spo's coaching!

The Celtics played hard this series, and other than Game 2 they seemed well-prepared.  Being ready and prepared is a big part of coaching, so for that Mazzulla deserves plenty of credit. 

In terms of "destroying Spo's coaching", though...  We're the best team in the NBA.  Miami was in a 3-way tie for 16th.  They were playing without Butler, Rozier, Richardson and at times Jacquez / Wright.  What do you think Spoelstra -- or Popovich, or Red -- could have done to bridge that talent disparity?

That said, I do think the Celtics did a good job taking what Miami gave them.  Particularly with Jacquez down, the Heat's defense didn't really have any good defenders outside of Bam.  Not needing to cover KP any more, Spoelstra used Bam on Tatum.  That impacted Tatum a bit early, but it also allowed the Celtics to draw Bam away from the paint.  That made it a lot easier to get inside, even without our best inside presence.  So, smart basketball. 

[Vermont Green]

Yes, the Celtics had way more talent. We were expected to win.  But the team was still very well prepared, bought in, and focused on the task at hand.  All aspects attributable to good coaching.

Mazzulla couldn't win in this series.  If we win as expected, it is Joe didn't screw it up.  Lose 1 game, and Spoelstra is coaching circles around Mazzulla.  This series does not prove how good or how bad a coach Mazzulla is.  But the team played like a well coached team, especially in game 5.

Whether the fans believe in Mazzulla or not, it appears that the players do.

[ScoobyDoo]

I think Mazulla probably has some pretty good qualities as a coach and is learning and growing on the job so to speak. Player/employee buy in is huge for any coach/manager/business owner. Do the players/employees actually want to work hard for the coach/manager. It appears Joe has that but in.

I would also point out though that Brad very smartly brought in some serious veteran voices this year to go around Mazulla in both Sam Cassell and Jeff Van Gundy, both of whom I personally have always liked. I think this move by Steven’s has probably been super impactful for Joe by having some very experienced voices he can use as day to day sounding boards.

[Vermont Green]

I think Mazulla probably has some pretty good qualities as a coach and is learning and growing on the job so to speak. Player/employee buy in is huge for any coach/manager/business owner. Do the players/employees actually want to work hard for the coach/manager. It appears Joe has that but in.

I would also point out though that Brad very smartly brought in some serious veteran voices this year to go around Mazulla in both Sam Cassell and Jeff Van Gundy, both of whom I personally have always liked. I think this move by Steven’s has probably been super impactful for Joe by having some very experienced voices he can use as day to day sounding boards.

Not sure what you are getting at in the second part.  Many of "Udoka's" assistants left and they had to hire more assistants to fill out the staff.  Aren't you going to hire the best available assistants no matter who the head coach is?  Would they have hired lesser assistants if they had a more experienced head coach?  Do you not hire Cassell in that case, for example?  Those new assistant came here to work for Mazzulla and appear to have fully bought in.

I guess you could theorize that Cassell came here because he expected Mazzulla to fail, get fired, and then Cassell could move up to head coach.  But I don't think that is very likely.

[angryguy77]

They came out ready to play. I haven't seen this team take care of business early on in a series since the nets in 2022. Hopefully this isn't a one off and they have matured.

Joe does get some credit for that, I won't deny him respect for that.

However, there's still 2 big mistakes he made this series that I can't just give pass to because they won in 5.

Hopefully they continue to roll.