It might look like a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I was VERY encouraged tonight. Last year's Game 5 vs. Atlanta without Murray was alarming when we lost, and we have played with our food a ton in playoff series in the past 2 seasons. It's made us doubt the C's ability to win the Finals, or doubt our ability to even reach it in 2023 (both things were true). But tonight, they were just on a mission and overwhelmed the Heat.
Sure, Game 2 wasn't great, but to come out and win the next three + blow them out in the elimination game is a very good sign. A sign this team might be locked in and truly on a mission. Maybe this isn't the same Celtics as previous years, which is a great sign going forward for a Finals run. 
How many times have we seen them blow pivotal Game 5s at home in recent years? Not only did they win today, but they absolutely blew them out as early as the 2nd quarter. Dominant.
Agreed. As disheartening as Game 2 was, winning back to back ugly games with an absolutely dominant blow-out in Game 5 is the first time in years I've thought "It looks like the C's learned their lesson."
All the moaning about game 2 was silly. Losing a game because a team shoots out of their minds from 3 isn't disheartening. No sane person thought Miami would win the series after their game 2 win. Disheartening is losing a game when you play your best and still lose.
no, no it was not. it was pathetic. miami was NOT hitting contested threes. we gave them wide open looks. how many times does it need to be posted here??
do you understand performance versus results? nope. i can live with a loss where we play well and just get beat. DISHEARTENING is not showing up, not contesting and not being ready for each game like we have done the last 7 years!
we finally started contesting and running them off the 3 line and we destroyed them 3 straight
I think that's right. In that game, the game plan was bad. That's forgivable; not every decision works out. The irritating thing was not adjusting to that poor game plan in-game.
My perception is that most fans, even fans of Joe, will concede that that was a poor coaching performance. But, going forward he had the team ready to play.
The level of worry fans have going forward is going to vary. Myself, I look at risks and downsides a lot. So, I take a combination of Game 2, not pulling KP, and last year's playoffs. My conclusion is that Joe is a barrier to winning, that a team cannot give away one game per series due to its coach.
Somebody who suspends disbelief a bit more? They are likely to largely ignore last year's playoffs as a learning experience, and will focus on a great regular season, and an 80% winning percentage in the playoffs. They might tend to think that KP's injury was inevitable and/or that it's understandable that a coach would leave his fragile star to play through an obvious injury.
Topic: Celtics 2024 Playoff Run Thread (Read 32967 times)