Celtics (2-1) at 76ers (1-2) Round 2 Game #4 5/7/23

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Still angry about yesterday and still very concerned about game 5. Boston is notoriously bad in game 5's at home.

same. this does not sit well with me. we have empirical evidence now for years at how we handle certain situations. the more i think about it joe has to go if not brad needs to be fired as well. that not calling a timeout is unforgivable. he is in over his head. we need to win the games we should. when we get toa  real good team they will not be so forgiving. we have player stupidity along with joe blow and it is a bad combo. its gonna cost us a series if we do not fix it now.

keep giving these teams you should beat in 4 or 5 life and it will eventually come back to haunt you.

how we are losing is unacceptable.  it is a bad trend

[Donoghus]

I think the C's bounce back fine on Tues night. 

Despite the result, I see plenty of confidence in this team right now.  They're the better team, they now know it,  and I see Celts playing a much better 48 in front of a raucous home crowd and I expect a Sixer letdown.

Prior recent history be [dang]ed.  Call it a gut feeling.

[celticinorlando]

I get the concern, it is a normal reaction to a disappointing missed opportunity.  But if you look at the two games in PHI in aggregate, we won by 12 and then lost by 1 in overtime.  If you consider the two games overall, we outplayed them, not by a lot, it is close, but we outplayed them overall in PHI.  Now we have a 3 game series with home court advantage.

Harden had a great game 1, went quiet for 2 games, and then was great in game 4.  Harden is a great player, one of the best of the recent era.  It is easy to forget that as he has kind of coasted through the last couple of seasons, often nursing injuries.  I am plenty concerned about Harden over these next 3 games but I think PHI has even more to be concerned about.

This is a reasonable take and I tend to agree.  Both games 1 and 4 should/could have been wins.  It's frustrating but the Celtics appear to be the better team and that should show out over the next 2-3 games.

This is the exact situation that always trips them up. Coming home tied for a massive game 5. They were in the same spot vs the Bucks last year and lost.

Coming home this season for game 5 vs Atlanta and choked once again.

I do not trust this team when the last 2 game 5's at home they have given away.

The good news is they won both of the series in your examples.

Sure...but sooner or later you mess with fire you get burned.

[cman88]

Still angry about yesterday and still very concerned about game 5. Boston is notoriously bad in game 5's at home.

same. this does not sit well with me. we have empirical evidence now for years at how we handle certain situations. the more i think about it joe has to go if not brad needs to be fired as well. that not calling a timeout is unforgivable. he is in over his head. we need to win the games we should. when we get toa  real good team they will not be so forgiving. we have player stupidity along with joe blow and it is a bad combo. its gonna cost us a series if we do not fix it now.

keep giving these teams you should beat in 4 or 5 life and it will eventually come back to haunt you.

how we are losing is unacceptable.  it is a bad trend

how many of those game 5 disappointments were after a loss though? I don't remember but I doubt it was many. Usually the letdowns are after a big win. After a loss they come out on fire.

I also expect Harden to return to the mean.

[SparzWizard]

Still angry about yesterday and still very concerned about game 5. Boston is notoriously bad in game 5's at home.

same. this does not sit well with me. we have empirical evidence now for years at how we handle certain situations. the more i think about it joe has to go if not brad needs to be fired as well. that not calling a timeout is unforgivable. he is in over his head. we need to win the games we should. when we get toa  real good team they will not be so forgiving. we have player stupidity along with joe blow and it is a bad combo. its gonna cost us a series if we do not fix it now.

keep giving these teams you should beat in 4 or 5 life and it will eventually come back to haunt you.

how we are losing is unacceptable.  it is a bad trend

how many of those game 5 disappointments were after a loss though? I don't remember but I doubt it was many. Usually the letdowns are after a big win. After a loss they come out on fire.

I also expect Harden to return to the mean.

Celtics lost all three games in the finals last year from Games 4-6, two being at home and they had home-court advantage after stealing one in Game 1.

Didn't see that fire back then and this season has been no different. If there is, they should be routing teams like ATL and PHI like nothing.

[celticinorlando]

Forsberg really hits the mark about this team and says a lot of what we all are worried about:

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/celtics-continue-lack-urgency-focus-despite-opportunity-front-them

[kraidstar]

I think the C's bounce back fine on Tues night. 

Despite the result, I see plenty of confidence in this team right now.  They're the better team, they now know it,  and I see Celts playing a much better 48 in front of a raucous home crowd and I expect a Sixer letdown.

Prior recent history be [dang]ed.  Call it a gut feeling.

I agree

[LilRip]

Just watched the game. The only thing beating the team was a 3. I really hated JB’s help off the strong side which left harden open. If Embiid made a tough jumper over Tatum, at least you had a chance to win the game or OT2. Strong side double is the easiest pass to make too. I don’t know why JB would double that hard that early.

[Phantom255x]

I also don't understand why Smart seems to have to be "that guy" in the final minutes of games. I'll acknowledge that usually he's NAILS with hitting FTs in the final minutes which is nice. But otherwise, why is he the guy often dribbling the clock or taking the shot. Jaylen only shot 3 times in the 4th + OT combined. White and Brogdon also seem to defer, but not Smart.

Teams will pick their poison and let Smart shoot open looks rather than give the Jays or even White/Brogdon a good look. PHI did that and it worked. Also, it happened last year's ECF too in Game 7, Smart practically let them back in the game and if Butler hits that 3, yikes.

[SparzWizard]

How are some of you still confident that the C's will still win this series? Talent-wise, yeah they should be dominating them. It's the mental fortitude/aspect that I'm worried about. I don't know if the C's will come out firing in all cylinders next game or will they start off slow and just mess around and lose another nailbiter (that's been frequent lately).

The media is already clamoring that the Brown leaving Harden to double help on Embiid might have been the turning point of this series and I sure hope that isn't the case

[Donoghus]

How are some of you still confident that the C's will still win this series? Talent-wise, yeah they should be dominating them. It's the mental fortitude/aspect that I'm worried about. I don't know if the C's will come out firing in all cylinders next game or will they start off slow and just mess around and lose another nailbiter (that's been frequent lately).

The media is already clamoring that the Brown leaving Harden to double help on Embiid might have been the turning point of this series and I sure hope that isn't the case

Because I don't get freaked out after every loss or buy into post loss media narratives. 

I saw enough yesterday to instill confidence that they're figuring out Philly and I expect a homecourt bounce back while also expecting Harden to regress and Tatum to have a better game.

Ebbs & flows.  Ebbs & flows.  This series was never destined to be a Celtics sweep.

[RJ87]

How are some of you still confident that the C's will still win this series? Talent-wise, yeah they should be dominating them. It's the mental fortitude/aspect that I'm worried about. I don't know if the C's will come out firing in all cylinders next game or will they start off slow and just mess around and lose another nailbiter (that's been frequent lately).

The media is already clamoring that the Brown leaving Harden to double help on Embiid might have been the turning point of this series and I sure hope that isn't the case

Because I don't get freaked out after every loss or buy into post loss media narratives. 

I saw enough yesterday to instill confidence that they're figuring out Philly and I expect a homecourt bounce back while also expecting Harden to regress and Tatum to have a better game.

Ebbs & flows.  Ebbs & flows.  This series was never destined to be a Celtics sweep.

TP. I personally don't understand how some just completely meltdown every time this team hits a bump. Isn't it exhausting? Philly wasn't going to roll over and die, and yet it was still a 1 point loss in OT that was winnable. We went into Philly and took home court advantage back. Now go to the next game.

After seeing posters claim last year that the season was over midway through game 3 against the Bucks (a game we ended up winning in a series we ended up winning), I've concluded that it's not the players' mental fortitude/aspect that's suspect.

[blink]

How are some of you still confident that the C's will still win this series? Talent-wise, yeah they should be dominating them. It's the mental fortitude/aspect that I'm worried about. I don't know if the C's will come out firing in all cylinders next game or will they start off slow and just mess around and lose another nailbiter (that's been frequent lately).

The media is already clamoring that the Brown leaving Harden to double help on Embiid might have been the turning point of this series and I sure hope that isn't the case

Because I don't get freaked out after every loss or buy into post loss media narratives. 

I saw enough yesterday to instill confidence that they're figuring out Philly and I expect a homecourt bounce back while also expecting Harden to regress and Tatum to have a better game.

Ebbs & flows.  Ebbs & flows.  This series was never destined to be a Celtics sweep.

TP. I personally don't understand how some just completely meltdown every time this team hits a bump. Isn't it exhausting? Philly wasn't going to roll over and die, and yet it was still a 1 point loss in OT that was winnable. We went into Philly and took home court advantage back. Now go to the next game.

After seeing posters claim last year that the season was over midway through game 3 against the Bucks (a game we ended up winning in a series we ended up winning), I've concluded that it's not the players' mental fortitude/aspect that's suspect.

I may be the oddball, but I was super impressed with our comeback in the 4th.  We just didn't finish the last few plays / possessions.  Philly was playing hard all game, they were desperate.  They got after JT and JB on defense the whole game.  I loved the grit from the C's to take back the lead.  I thought with us up by 5 that we had a really good chance to win.

[Who]

I may be the oddball, but I was super impressed with our comeback in the 4th.  We just didn't finish the last few plays / possessions.  Philly was playing hard all game, they were desperate.  They got after JT and JB on defense the whole game.  I loved the grit from the C's to take back the lead.  I thought with us up by 5 that we had a really good chance to win.

Me too. That was a great comeback in the 4th. Horford was awesome on Embiid. Tatum took over the game from 6-8pts down to tie the game. He had a great 4th where he was making plays all over the court. He was conducting the game on offense and ensuring BOS got good shots each time. He was making huge defense plays. Tatum played great. Jaylen was keying in on D, running the floor hard, making plays. The whole team picked it up there with about 7-8mins left in the 4th and played great basketball.

Philly were clinging on by a finger nail. They were getting little easy. They were being bailed out by brilliant individualism by James Harden who was keeping them in the game while their team play failed entirely.

That was a great 4th quarter.

[Who]

Man, I've just given up on this team finishing off teams. Some teams just do not do this well. Some do; they are clinical and destroy their opponents when they have the advantage. Jordan's Bulls in 1990s were perhaps the most brilliant team I have seen for finishing off interior teams. They would sweep the 1st round almost every year

With this Celtics team? Last year was so depressing in terms of how hard they made it on themselves to beat vastly inferior MIL and MIA teams. Neither one of those teams should have been able to hang with BOS but BOS kept letting them stick around.

I thought this year would be different. Some more experience. Some more talent with Brogdon in. That extra 3rd scorer and playmaker. A guy who can give them that extra boost they need to stop allowing inferior teams hang around so much.

Nope. Hasn't worked out that way. They let a thoroughly mediocre Atlanta team hang around and make it a series. Now they are giving life to a Philly team with a banged up Embiid that matches up terribly with BOS due to their inferior quickness & depth.

I am at that point now where I am just accepting of this as the team's reality. They do not put away teams well. They let teams around. Series tend to be longer than they should be. We shouldn't expect short series. We should expect mid length to long series. We should expect more up and downs.

This is not a clinical team. This is not a team that destroys inferior opponents. They let them hang around.

So now I do not get too up or down on individual playoff wins or losses. Take the longer view. I still feel great about this squad. I believe it to be the most talented squad in the East and likely the whole NBA. They should win the East. They should make the Finals. They have a great chance at winning the title. Life is good & enjoy the ride even with all the topsy turvy up and down play ... until the ride ends.