Cavaliers (0-1) at Celtics (1-0) Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 2 5/9/24

[mr. dee]

I don’t get people calling them soft and gutless. Shots weren’t falling. They decided to drive and get to the line. That’s not what soft players do. When shots aren’t falling it’s easier for opponents to get transition points and build confidence. Cleveland made lots of highly contested 3 point shots. It’s basketball. Sometimes shots don’t fall. That’s why they play 7.

The problem wasnt the shots are not falling. The problem is they are just watching Cavs shooting wide open 3s and just getting outworked. Since we lost Smart, we also lost that "grind" mentality and winning ugly. This team have yet to win a close game in the playoffs and its concerning though I still believe they will win this series.

[jpotter33]

relying on only 3's is beyond idiocy from joe. find a dang inside game. inside out game.

it is not rocket science. he is wasting talent with that philosophy

45 2 point attempts to 35 3s. Compare that to game one 46/46. Seems to me like they tried to drive more.

Well, it's even worse than that, because at some point midway through the third we were still only at 17 attempts. Our attempts clearly picked up after that, though they weren't necessarily quality looks.

But I think that's problem. We've become so accustomed to playing the three point game that when teams force us out of that mold, our entire gameplan suffers and the offense stutters - despite having such versatile offensive players that can score at all levels and beat their man.

This was always the main critique about being so one-dimensional in our offense - both the variability and the ease of gameplanning against us to throw us out of rhythm. It's exactly what Miami did to us in Game 2. Hopefully we adjust again like we did against Miami.

[Goldstar88]

C’s were 41% from the field and 23% from 3pt. Not sure you’re going to win any games shooting that poorly.

[jambr380]

relying on only 3's is beyond idiocy from joe. find a dang inside game. inside out game.

it is not rocket science. he is wasting talent with that philosophy

45 2 point attempts to 35 3s. Compare that to game one 46/46. Seems to me like they tried to drive more.

They drove a whole bunch - especially in the 1st half - and they blew so many easy shots in the paint. On the other end, we were giving up much easier shots in the paint. Apparently we made an adjustment at half-time to just allow the Cavs to shoot wide open 3s all half and they seemingly made them all. While all of our 3s that we started jacking up were barely hitting the rim. That was painful.

[SparzWizard]

Cavs fans "told you we wanted Boston" and "DON'T LET US GET ONE"

 

[celticinorlando]

Offense was putrid but the defense wasn't much better.

Mitchell and garland can get in the lane and kick it out to Strus and company for 3. Boston cannot guard Mitchell 1 v 1. They never have been able to.

Tonight is disappointing because it is more of the same. This team does not learn their lesson year after year. They make things more difficult on themselves because they just feel like they can show up and win.

You can see how quickly you can lose momentum in a series to an underdog team. It has happened a lot with this group. Now you go to Cleveland where they NEVER win playoff games and haven't won a regular season game there in several years having to get at least one game...just seems like the Cavs believe now.

[Phantom255x]

Figured Game 3 was an auto loss regardless but I was so confident we’d be up 2-0 especially after Game 1.

Now I’m already mentally prepared to be down 2-1 

[celticinorlando]

I love Jrue...but I have never seen a guy miss so many lay ups and shots on the rim. He was also really bad defensively tonight. I think the team runs better with PP in there. Start him.

White came back down to earth and the J's did not do nearly enough. Getting very little off the bench now that Al is starting. Hauser is useless this series. Can't even get his shot off and got cooked on defense.

I also expect we see Dean Wade back Saturday. So there is another guy that sucks until he plays the Celtics.

[j804]

Tatum has been putrid these playoffs. This team isn’t going anywhere with this version of Tatum might not even see the next round. This loss doesn’t even have me shook like you would think this is who Tatum is.

[jpotter33]

https://twitter.com/dangercart/status/1788732374655611384

Celtics now -25 percentage points from 3. Teams are 185-5 this decade when +25 percentage points from 3.

It’s an automatic loss

The teams in the west are good enough to beat Boston without a big 3PT variance.

The East teams all need to be at least +10 percentage points to beat the C’s with any regularity. This level of gap makes for a blowout. To win a series they need at least three games with a gap.

C’s took 8 more FTAs than the Cavs, turned it over three fewer times, and took more shots within 3 ft and more shots from 3PT. The didn’t give up a ton of open 3s or get killed on the offensive glass. They didn’t miss a bunch of FTs. Both teams shot similar 2PT%.

3PT shooting.

Pretty good perspective of why we lost. While I think we are too reliant on the three - and this will lead to games like this - it is simply hard to win with that kind of shooting disparity in today's NBA.

But I don't think it's just as simple as the shooting variance, as we were just as bad if not worse defensively. We've got to figure out a way to continue to play our brand of intense defense even when not hitting shots.

And I think that has to come from the top and the gameplan, just like we saw in Game 3 last series. We have to prioritize the intense, focused defense from the get-go, which clearly wasn't the case tonight.

[jpotter33]

Figured Game 3 was an auto loss regardless but I was so confident we’d be up 2-0 especially after Game 1.

Now I’m already mentally prepared to be down 2-1 

You're going to give yourself an aneurysm with this strange preoccupation that we're absolutely losing game three. There's no rational reason to make yourself think this is a foregone conclusion. I guarantee you that we are still going to be favored in the odds to win this game.

[libermaniac]

I don’t get people calling them soft and gutless. Shots weren’t falling. They decided to drive and get to the line. That’s not what soft players do. When shots aren’t falling it’s easier for opponents to get transition points and build confidence. Cleveland made lots of highly contested 3 point shots. It’s basketball. Sometimes shots don’t fall. That’s why they play 7.

It was the effort. They got up 9 early and just quit. The energy was that of a game in January.

I went back and watched the key stretches where Cleveland took and then extended the lead and I didn’t see a lack of effort. Just lack of good results. The only bad D I saw was JB getting back-doored by Strus and getting blown by by Mitchell. They were a bit out of sync on a few other possessions but that happens - it’s just Cleveland made them pay with hot shooting. The Cs had lots of open 3s that didn’t fall - they were probably better than the 3s the Cavs made during that period. The offense wasn’t flowing smoothly but it was not for lack of effort. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I’ve never once seen a team get blown out and their fans be satisfied with their effort. Isn’t it ever remotely possible that a team loses a game spectacularly despite bringing effort?

[celticinorlando]

Bad offense led to a zero effort on defense. They just don’t play hard if the shots aren’t falling from 3.

This team at times is so hard to watch. Million dollar talent with 10 cent effort and mentality

[celticinorlando]

I don’t get people calling them soft and gutless. Shots weren’t falling. They decided to drive and get to the line. That’s not what soft players do. When shots aren’t falling it’s easier for opponents to get transition points and build confidence. Cleveland made lots of highly contested 3 point shots. It’s basketball. Sometimes shots don’t fall. That’s why they play 7.

It was the effort. They got up 9 early and just quit. The energy was that of a game in January.

I went back and watched the key stretches where Cleveland took and then extended the lead and I didn’t see a lack of effort. Just lack of good results. The only bad D I saw was JB getting back-doored by Strus and getting blown by by Mitchell. They were a bit out of sync on a few other possessions but that happens - it’s just Cleveland made them pay with hot shooting. The Cs had lots of open 3s that didn’t fall - they were probably better than the 3s the Cavs made during that period. The offense wasn’t flowing smoothly but it was not for lack of effort. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I’ve never once seen a team get blown out and their fans be satisfied with their effort. Isn’t it ever remotely possible that a team loses a game spectacularly despite bringing effort?

Brown himself said performance on defense tonight was unacceptable.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Bad offense led to a zero effort on defense. They just don’t play hard if the shots aren’t falling from 3.

This team at times is so hard to watch. Million dollar talent with 10 cent effort and mentality

sums it up