Magic (10-20) vs Celtics (22-8) Game #31 12/18/22

[angryguy77]

Tatum and Celtics should be fine for missing a game because of a party??? I miss lot of my daughter birthdays but I did it on my day off

Think if you were an avg Joe that took your kid to that game for their birthday.

[radiohead]

I didn’t catch the game live. I see the three ball has deserted the Celtics yet again. Losing two straight games vs Orlando is more than just a wake up call. Joe needs to rethink his strategies as he seems to be in denial. On to the next.

[terra haute]

Tatum and Celtics should be fine for missing a game because of a party??? I miss lot of my daughter birthdays but I did it on my day off

Think if you were an avg Joe that took your kid to that game for their birthday.

Exactly, and the home game coming off a loss and 2 days off  and another home game. No excuse for it.

[hpantazo]

So what happened to this team after the Suns game? 

The Celtics were hands down the best team in the league and were 3-0 on the road trip, playing some of the best offense we've ever seen. Then they turned into the .500 team with chemistry and effort issues that we had in the first half of last season. That's not your normal mid-season couple of games slump. What's going on with these guys?

[radiohead]

So what happened to this team after the Suns game? 

The Celtics were hands down the best team in the league and were 3-0 on the road trip, playing some of the best offense we've ever seen. Then they turned into the .500 team with chemistry and effort issues that we had in the first half of last season. That's not your normal mid-season couple of games slump. What's going on with these guys?

I think they simply stopped moving the ball once the three point shot deserted them. Gone are the cuts which led to easy lay ups. The guys reverted to one on one plays, driving and opting for the difficult shot instead of making the extra pass. And when nothing is working, panic starts to creep in. They need to get back to how they were playing earlier in the season.

[slamtheking]

watched on tape delay.  tonight's hot takes.
- the team continues the horrid offensive philosophy of "live by the 3, die by the 3".  absolutely inexcusable to continue chucking 3's when the team is ice cold.  same thing they've been doing the whole slump.  92 shots, 47 of them of for 3 (over 50%!!!) and they hit a measly 12.  absolutely cannot stand this team's inability to manufacture points when they can't hit 3's.  Al chucking 3's at the end was killing us.  Al 2-9, Grant 1-6, Jaylen 2-10, Hauser 1-4, PP 0-2, White 0-3.  just pathetic
- TOs were ridiculous, again.  end of game was just a disaster on that last play but Smart, GWill and JB with at least 4 each.  Jaylen's handle still looks as bad as it did last year during this slump.
- White back to being useless on offense.  had a 20 game span where I thought I may have been wrong in my assessment of the deal being an overpayment.  now it's back to looking like an overpayment again.
- Shooting off the bench has been horrible over this stretch.  Brogdon posting another significant '-' in the '+/-' column during this slump. 
- I know Timelord is on a minutes restriction but against taller teams like the Magic, we can't be running a 1-big line-up.  offensive rebounds for second chance points killed us yet again.  we only gave up 6 offensive boards but some really key boards by Orlando never should have happened

team better right this ship quickly or they're going to fall back to the middle of the pack in the conference and waste this great start they've gotten off to.

[tenn_smoothie]

Did I read that right? Tatum missed a game due to his son's birthday?

So are we going to give the rest of the team off for whatever family party they feel is important?

Woahhh, back up here. That cannot be true - his kid's birthday

[ozgod]

This is now officially a slump and this is the first time they are facing adversity, this is Joe Mazz’s first challenge. It’s all good to have teaching moments but at some point you have to put your foot down when the team isn’t doing the right things.

Yep. TP. This is what I've been saying all along. His philosophy is taken to an extreme, and it's actively hurting the team.

What's more problematic is that I truly think he believes this is just a shooting slump issue for us. Everything he says is that he likes the way we've been hunting these threes, even when they clearly look forced or not within the flow of the game. This is what he's saying today:

Joe Mazzulla said “outside of the result” he thought the Celtics played “a pretty good game.”

https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/1604604662010765317

Does anyone really feel like these guys played a good game outside of a few runs and spurts? I sure don't. I thought their offense was abysmal throughout, and only when they stopped slowing down the game and chucking awful threes did we start having success offensively.

Part of the next step of their "learning" is Joe Mazz learning how to execute in game adjustments better. That's also something that is learned, you can't just switch it on during the playoffs. I get that he doesn't want to be like some kind of dictator and pulling the players' strings like puppets because he may not have the street cred for it yet, I'm sure there are politics around the team like there are in any organization...but I think that the players learning from adversity but Joe also learning from adversity and the two sides growing in tandem is what will make us a stronger team overall.

I'd like to see Joe change his approach when we are in a slump and be more proactive with in game management. Empower your team as much as you can but lead when they get to the point where they need leadership. There's more rope for experiential learning when you are winning.

[ozgod]

So what happened to this team after the Suns game? 

The Celtics were hands down the best team in the league and were 3-0 on the road trip, playing some of the best offense we've ever seen. Then they turned into the .500 team with chemistry and effort issues that we had in the first half of last season. That's not your normal mid-season couple of games slump. What's going on with these guys?

It's just one of those slumps where poor performance tends to be contagious I think.

[Roy H.]

So what happened to this team after the Suns game? 

The Celtics were hands down the best team in the league and were 3-0 on the road trip, playing some of the best offense we've ever seen. Then they turned into the .500 team with chemistry and effort issues that we had in the first half of last season. That's not your normal mid-season couple of games slump. What's going on with these guys?

It's just one of those slumps where poor performance tends to be contagious I think.

Does Mazz have the ability to hold guys accountable, and can he right the ship like Ime did?