Celtics (2-3) at Heat (3-2) ECF Game #6 9/27/20

[footey]

Spo is a better coach on the fact he doesnt have to play the starting 5 to end the game

Crowder wasnt doing well. Benched for most of the 4th. Dragic wasnt good on D end. Sat the 4th

Brad =  Theis should get his 30 mins.  Yank Grant who held Bam scoreless.  Theis can do better ...   

Grant played great. Time Lord was great in first half so of course he doesn’t get to play 2nd half. SMH.

[kraidstar]

Honestly it is weird how Miami seems to never make any mistakes. Surely they can't keep this up forever.

I hope they do because I sure as heck don't want the Lakers to tie us in championships.

Such a trivial thing. Can’t stand this heat team and the Lakers better steamroll them

Your no Celtic fan then...
I will be rooting as hell for the cHeat to end Lewhine's legacy

Agreed - I will NOT watch the Finals, but will be praying the Lakers do not tie us at 17.

(I've always thought it funny how the Lakers barely acknowledged those 1950's Minny titles until they had closed the title gap on us a little)

The Lakers owner left their Minneapolis trophies in Minneapolis when the Lakers moved to LA. I have no idea what happened to them.

Honestly, that should play a part. It's not like Lebron and AD would have demanded to sign with the Minneapolis Lakers. Not really fair they get to claim both cities when a team like the Hornets/Pelicans aren't doing the same. They had no business keeping the name 'Lakers' when they moved to LA - and keeping the name is like the only reason a team can claim a former city's titles. The lack of consistency with things like this is strange.

 A Minneapolis team also wouldn't be getting 40 free throws a game and jumping up 6 spots in the draft lottery to trade for Anthony Davis. There is a certain irony that the favored lakers had such origins.

[Phantom255x]

Once we fell behind 3-1 after Game 4, I thought we'd win Game 5 but Game 6 would be the toughest game. And it was winnable, but Miami just outplayed us late. Tbh I don't mind this loss over say, losing a close Game 7 or if we had a series lead but then lost it.

Writing was on the wall after Game 2 when they had choked another big 2nd half lead in the 4th. Championship teams don't blow leads often. Simply can't do that. There's a reason the Clippers have been eliminated for a while now.

[SparzWizard]

Once we fell behind 3-1 after Game 4, I thought we'd win Game 5 but Game 6 would be the toughest game. And it was winnable, but Miami just outplayed us late. Tbh I don't mind this loss over say, losing a close Game 7 or if we had a series lead but then lost it.

Writing was on the wall after Game 2 when they had choked another big 2nd half lead in the 4th. Championship teams don't blow leads often. Simply can't do that. There's a reason the Clippers have been eliminated for a while now.

Yup losing Game 2 pretty much ended their season. That was considered their "home" game too. You never blow big leads if you're a championship team, ever.

And Game 1...that was just a bad shot at the end of regulation with Tatum. Just terrible. May have been a deciding factor between winning and losing the series down the week.

[RJ87]

Nice guy, but nice guys don't win in the NBA. Too soft for this league and doesn't hold his guys accountable.

Spoeltra's a nice guy. Vogel is too.

I have some gripes with Brad, but this idea that he needs to be a raging lunatic at all times isn't one of them.

Sure, both of them are nice enough guys, but they also advocate for their players, demand respect from their guys, and hold them accountable, too. Both of them also work the refs when need be and chew their guys when they're not doing what they're supposed to.

Brad doesn't do those things. He doesn't hold any of his guys accountable, which is why they end up with these bad habits, and he simply doesn't work the refs - which is absolutely an effective and needed strategy of NBA coaches.

Smart is a perfect example. In 6+ years, Smart has essentially walked all over Brad - even chewing out his own coach on the bench on multiple occasions - and Brad has done nothing to address this or address his consistent poor shot selection at times. That's because Brad is just a soft coach and we all know that Smart is an alpha.

Beyond his obvious weaknesses in in-game management, his soft demeanor and character is absolutely another weak area of his that really limits his ability as coach.

Here's the hard truth: even if you swap out Brad for a "better" coach, I'm not sure this team's makeup leads to different results. Again, we're paying max salaries to guys that aren't max caliber (I like Kemba, but for much less money. Hayward has been a disappointment since he got here - I know, "injuries" but a spade is a spade). Our bench is comically thin. We're basically depending on a 22 and 23 year old to play well beyond their experience.

Brad, imo, can improve. But I don't see another coach that can mask the deficiencies of this team well enough to get us a championship.

I mean, he hasn't improved in many things since he came into the league, and he's about as experienced as you can hope for in terms of playoff time for only being here as long as he has (6 playoff appearances with 3 conference finals appearances). I don't think he's changing much at this point, and I think he's a major reason for why this season ended as it did.

And while I do think there are a few things that need improved roster-wise, the other major factor this year for us was injuries. With Hayward's (multiple) injuries this year and Kemba's knee, that really threw us off a lot before the bubble and even in the bubble. Do people really think Hayward looks this bad if he doesn't get injured in game one of the playoffs?

And that's not even mentioning the Timelord injury, which in my opinion is the most substantial of them all. Timelord was supposed to be our starting center this year, and before his injury he was looking very, very good and was slotted in to be the starter moving forward before his hip issue with a Capela-like projection. That forced Theis into the starting lineup, which was one of the major issues we had all season long, even if you can't blame Theis for not being able to fill that role.

If Robert Williams was supposed to be our starting center this season - the guy who still doesn't understand screens and closing out on 3 pt shooters - then getting this far should be seen as a bonus.

As far injuries, Hayward's never given anything to this team. We should know better than to depend on him at this point. Kemba struggling was more of a curveball, but he's a small guard who's 30. History isn't on his side in terms of longevity.

Like I said, people want to blame Brad 100% but this team was fundamentally flawed in it's construction from the outset.

[86MaxwellSmart]

We probably lost this series, last series in Game 3....if we had gone up 3-0 on Toronto, we wouldn't have had to wear ourselves out in 7 games.

[Greenality]

Oh yeah, and I totally support Brad. There is only a handful of coaches in this league, who you can tie your future with and Stevens is one of them. He was not perfect, but he did a great work. When season started, people (myself included) had no idea how C's can make up for Al departure. It would have been considered as a great result for this team to get to the conf finals. I agree, it sucks to lose like this to a team you had every chance to beat, buy, I mean, it was close, C's fought hard - there is only one winner eventually. A lot of positive things to build for the future.

[scaryjerry]

We probably lost this series, last series in Game 3....if we had gone up 3-0 on Toronto, we wouldn't have had to wear ourselves out in 7 games.

Probably very true, raptors series turned in to an all out war for us while the heat were pretty rested and got lucky with giannis injury

[liam]

Did I mention that Grant Williams was shooting 58 % for 3 in the playoffs?

When you have the player you need but don't play him.


If you want to put 5 shooters on the floor maybe the guy who is shooting 58% from 3 should be there.

[jpotter33]

Nice guy, but nice guys don't win in the NBA. Too soft for this league and doesn't hold his guys accountable.

Spoeltra's a nice guy. Vogel is too.

I have some gripes with Brad, but this idea that he needs to be a raging lunatic at all times isn't one of them.

Sure, both of them are nice enough guys, but they also advocate for their players, demand respect from their guys, and hold them accountable, too. Both of them also work the refs when need be and chew their guys when they're not doing what they're supposed to.

Brad doesn't do those things. He doesn't hold any of his guys accountable, which is why they end up with these bad habits, and he simply doesn't work the refs - which is absolutely an effective and needed strategy of NBA coaches.

Smart is a perfect example. In 6+ years, Smart has essentially walked all over Brad - even chewing out his own coach on the bench on multiple occasions - and Brad has done nothing to address this or address his consistent poor shot selection at times. That's because Brad is just a soft coach and we all know that Smart is an alpha.

Beyond his obvious weaknesses in in-game management, his soft demeanor and character is absolutely another weak area of his that really limits his ability as coach.

Here's the hard truth: even if you swap out Brad for a "better" coach, I'm not sure this team's makeup leads to different results. Again, we're paying max salaries to guys that aren't max caliber (I like Kemba, but for much less money. Hayward has been a disappointment since he got here - I know, "injuries" but a spade is a spade). Our bench is comically thin. We're basically depending on a 22 and 23 year old to play well beyond their experience.

Brad, imo, can improve. But I don't see another coach that can mask the deficiencies of this team well enough to get us a championship.

I mean, he hasn't improved in many things since he came into the league, and he's about as experienced as you can hope for in terms of playoff time for only being here as long as he has (6 playoff appearances with 3 conference finals appearances). I don't think he's changing much at this point, and I think he's a major reason for why this season ended as it did.

And while I do think there are a few things that need improved roster-wise, the other major factor this year for us was injuries. With Hayward's (multiple) injuries this year and Kemba's knee, that really threw us off a lot before the bubble and even in the bubble. Do people really think Hayward looks this bad if he doesn't get injured in game one of the playoffs?

And that's not even mentioning the Timelord injury, which in my opinion is the most substantial of them all. Timelord was supposed to be our starting center this year, and before his injury he was looking very, very good and was slotted in to be the starter moving forward before his hip issue with a Capela-like projection. That forced Theis into the starting lineup, which was one of the major issues we had all season long, even if you can't blame Theis for not being able to fill that role.

If Robert Williams was supposed to be our starting center this season - the guy who still doesn't understand screens and closing out on 3 pt shooters - then getting this far should be seen as a bonus.

As far injuries, Hayward's never given anything to this team. We should know better than to depend on him at this point. Kemba struggling was more of a curveball, but he's a small guard who's 30. History isn't on his side in terms of longevity.

Like I said, people want to blame Brad 100% but this team was fundamentally flawed in it's construction from the outset.

Just completely disagree with this assessment. Other than a few holes and the unfortunate injuries, I overall like the construction of this roster and think it fits pretty well together.

And as biased as I am about Brad, you're just as biased against Hayward lol He was a borderline All-Star this year prior to his injuries, and even with all of his major injuries he still averaged nearly 18, 7, and 4 for us on .500 fg% and .383 3pfg%. If not for his injury in the postseason, I think this year would've been looked at as one of his best overall years, especially given that he was usually a 3rd or 4th option out there.

[scaryjerry]

Did I mention that Grant Williams was shooting 58 % for 3 in the playoffs?

When you have the player you need but don't play him.

Normally disagree with complaining about not playing players like Williams but can not disagree in this instance...he specifically should’ve played the entire 4th quarter tonight...sad but I can understand a coach going with “his guy” over a rookie.

[tenn_smoothie]

As much as I hate to admit it, we are not the dominant franchise in the NBA anymore. May sound funny to say because it is obvious, but you have to remember, I fell in love with the Celtics as an 11 year-old kid in 1969 when the "old champions" won yet another title against all odds against the supposed "new dynasty" of Wilt, West and Baylor. The 70's Celtics will always be the love of my life and the juggernaut Bird teams of the 80's played with the same Celtic values but with twice as much talent. Then Bias and Lewis happen and we spend a 22-year winter waiting for Kevin Garnett.

So now ? We have become the Green Bay Packers of the NBA - still the most championships (at least for a couple of more weeks), but no longer producing the dominant decades we are used to. Hopefully, Danny gets his head out of his ass long enough to add the right players and Brad grows a pair and decides to be in charge of the players and not the other way around. Hopefully, this group can win a couple of banners and prevent us from turning into the Montreal Canadiens.

It is an awful feeling to be so in love with something that you have zero control over.

[footey]

Oh yeah, and I totally support Brad. There is only a handful of coaches in this league, who you can tie your future with and Stevens is one of them. He was not perfect, but he did a great work. When season started, people (myself included) had no idea how C's can make up for Al departure. It would have been considered as a great result for this team to get to the conf finals. I agree, it sucks to lose like this to a team you had every chance to beat, buy, I mean, it was close, C's fought hard - there is only one winner eventually. A lot of positive things to build for the future.

Sorry but this take is delusional. He was badly out coached this series.

[liam]

Did I mention that Grant Williams was shooting 58 % for 3 in the playoffs?

When you have the player you need but don't play him.

Normally disagree with complaining about not playing players like Williams but can not disagree in this instance...he specifically should’ve played the entire 4th quarter tonight...sad but I can understand a coach going with “his guy” over a rookie.

I understand it but Herro played over Jay Crowder. You ride the hot hand and go with what's working.

[footey]

As much as I hate to admit it, we are not the dominant franchise in the NBA anymore. May sound funny to say because it is obvious, but you have to remember, I fell in love with the Celtics as an 11 year-old kid in 1969 when the "old champions" won yet another title against all odds against the supposed "new dynasty" of Wilt, West and Baylor. The 70's Celtics will always be the love of my life and the juggernaut Bird teams of the 80's played with the same Celtic values but with twice as much talent. Then Bias and Lewis happen and we spend a 22-year winter waiting for Kevin Garnett.

So now ? We have become the Green Bay Packers of the NBA - still the most championships (at least for a couple of more weeks), but no longer producing the dominant decades we are used to. Hopefully, Danny gets his head out of his ass long enough to add the right players and Brad grows a pair and decides to be in charge of the players and not the other way around. Hopefully, this group can win a couple of banners and prevent us from turning into the Montreal Canadiens.

It is an awful feeling to be so in love with something that you have zero control over.

TP TS. I started following the Celtics in 1966. Reality is that we are not as good as we had hoped. And our coach has limitations.

Good time to take a break from all of this. Have a great rest of the year everyone. See you back when the draft comes I guess. No summer league this year!!