Celtics (48-12) at Cavaliers (39-21) Game #61 3/5/24

[PAOBoston]

Nothing like a game thread after an unlikely loss to get your negativity juices flowing. Needed this after all the rah rah stuff the past 11 games. This forum did not disappoint tonight lol.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Remarkable ending.  Too bad. But - this loss is irrelevant in the grand scheme. The Cavs got scalding hot and the Cs cold for 5 minutes and that was that.  Cs needed a wake up loss - they can’t lapse like that and expect to win.

After 7 years of this they should already know how to handle games like this. Nope.

Thank You for telling the truth.

i will play. i think i know what you are getting at and it is not a popular point people like to talk about here. does it happen to refer to the BBIQ of this team as a whole after 7 years?

[Roy H.]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Yep. Every end of quarter every end of game when it’s close

Just once let white attack the rim in that situation

Or give it to the 7'2" automatic mismatch.  I have no earthly idea why we never give it to KP in those situations.

[ozgod]

Hard to be that upset with this team but just a reminder that they’re human and far from guaranteed anything, putrid loss to essentially dean wade while fully healthy and up 20

Dean Wade outscored us in the 4th 20 to 17

They just switched off, stopped respecting the game, took bad shots that allowed Cleveland to run in transition and our transition defense was abysmal

So they got what they deserved. According to Abby they haven’t been in a crunch time situation since Feb 11 and they failed this one for sure

[footey]

Hated last play. Rerun. That will keep us from winning championship if not careful.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Yep. Every end of quarter every end of game when it’s close

Just once let white attack the rim in that situation

drive or get to an open man no more contested iso. it is maddening

[ozgod]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Joe in his post game interview said the biggest issue with it was that Tatum took too long, tried to use up too much clock when he should have tried to ensure at least a couple of extra possessions and he should have gone before they double teamed him, they liked the matchup he got but he took too long to get into his bag

What it tells me is that Tatum still isn’t clear what the best end of game shot is even though Joe has been tryin to teach him by letting him freestyle these end of game possessions…they should have a number of end of game sets they should know to run so they’re not freestyling

[ozgod]

Honestly though I, not thst upset we lost… I don’t think it has any bearing on what we will end up doing. I actually think it’s a positive because it’ll teach them some humility. Teach them that they can’t always be blowing teams out.

They talked about respecting the game after that win against Golden State, well tonight, they didn’t respect the game because they stopped playing after 40 minutes and let Cleveland come back. They let a couple of role-players beat them.

So this result is what they deserved they deserve to lose, and I hope it hurts and they deserve to be embarrassed And I hope they use it to galvanize themselves against the nuggets.

[celticinorlando]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

[Roy H.]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Joe in his post game interview said the biggest issue with it was that Tatum took too long, tried to use up too much clock when he should have tried to ensure at least a couple of extra possessions and he should have gone before they double teamed him, they liked the matchup he got but he took too long to get into his bag

What it tells me is that Tatum still isn’t clear what the best end of game shot is even though Joe has been tryin to teach him by letting him freestyle these end of game possessions…they should have a number of end of game sets they should know to run so they’re not freestyling

The best end of game shot is the one that Tatum doesn't take.   
He simply seizes up on game winners.  He needs to be a creator for others, or let somebody else create where he can be the finisher on a catch and shoot.

[celticinorlando]

Honestly though I, not thst upset we lost… I don’t think it has any bearing on what we will end up doing. I actually think it’s a positive because it’ll teach them some humility. Teach them that they can’t always be blowing teams out.

They talked about respecting the game after that win against Golden State, well tonight, they didn’t respect the game because they stopped playing after 40 minutes and let Cleveland come back. They let a couple of role-players beat them.

So this result is what they deserved they deserve to lose, and I hope it hurts and they deserve to be embarrassed And I hope they use it to galvanize themselves against the nuggets.

Problem is this loss can snowball into a three game losing streak really fast with what’s coming up.

Plus the blazers might give them issues because of they won’t respect them

And they hardly ever play well in Utah.

Could be a much different team coming home than the one that left

[CelticSooner]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Yep. Every end of quarter every end of game when it’s close

Just once let white attack the rim in that situation

Or give it to the 7'2" automatic mismatch.  I have no earthly idea why we never give it to KP in those situations.

If KP is getting iced out of games in the playoffs I will start up the fire Joe threads myself. The Tatum iso is lazy offense, the other team is more than happy with it as well.

[jpotter33]

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

The funny thing is that up until about last February when he hit the game-winner in Philly, this was not true and he WAS absolutely that guy. If I remember right, at that point he had the best shooting percentage in sub-24 second end-game scenarios in league history. For just turning 26, he has an impressive array of game-winners and game-tying shots in the final seconds.

However, since that Philly shot, he's been God-awful in those scenarios. Yet for whatever reason we keep on allowing him to do it.

If you want something to complain about, the Tatum ISO at the end of games doesn’t work. Tatum is awesome but he just ain’t that guy. Even if he finally hits one it won’t change the fact it’s not reliable. Half the time he doesn’t even get space to get it off well. Can you try something else for once?

Joe in his post game interview said the biggest issue with it was that Tatum took too long, tried to use up too much clock when he should have tried to ensure at least a couple of extra possessions and he should have gone before they double teamed him, they liked the matchup he got but he took too long to get into his bag

What it tells me is that Tatum still isn’t clear what the best end of game shot is even though Joe has been tryin to teach him by letting him freestyle these end of game possessions…they should have a number of end of game sets they should know to run so they’re not freestyling

And that's a failure on Joe to do his job. His entire job is to put his players into positions that they can succeed. Him continuously standing back and expecting Tatum to just create these opportunities for himself - despite all of the evidence over the past year that he consistently fails to do this - is exceedingly frustrating and such a blow to our end-game fitness. He simply can't be trusted to make the right decisions in end-game scenarios at this point, and that goes for both Tatum and Joe.

[tenn_smoothie]

I am not concerned about the Celtics players as a team, even after this loss.

I'm more concerned about Joe as our HC handling the end game. He may cost us banner 18.

Handling the end of the game, the middle of the game, the 1st quarter, take your pick.
The guy is incompetent and Brad's decision to bring him back was insane, especially with a top-tier title contender roster.

I wonder sometimes about private post-game conversations back at the hotel between smarter players on this team, who can see the truth about their coach. You gotta believe a few of these guys know Mazzulla may cost them a title.

[Roy H.]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.