I think he's somewhat correct, in that if we go cold from outside, we're screwed. However, the Celtics were generating a lot of open looks by going to the basket. You can't ask for much better than that. I suppose maybe Milwaukee doesn't help as aggressively and then those shots aren't as open. But it won't take long for Tatum, Brown and White to figure that out and go hard for layups/free throws.
It's a make or miss league. This is going to be a make or miss series. As long as the defense holds up, we won't be without opportunities to win most games.
I don’t know. Milwaukee’s interior defense softened up in the 3rd quarter and our guys were still trying to drive and dish. It looked like our offense stagnated worse than it probably did because 1) yeah our guys got impatient and started taking the first shot available and 2) Milwaukee placed emphasis on defending the perimeter better which opened up driving lanes our guys didn’t take advantage of
I do hope the C’s can attack the mid range more. Like Horford mixing in more mid range J’s with his threes would be a welcome sight. Same for JB and Tatum
Yeah, I attribute that to a bit of complacency with the lead, though. We'll see.
Or they were just getting mentally and physically tired. We played the whole game with a lead but it never felt comfortable. Kind of like pitchers in baseball, one high stress inning is as draining 3 low stress innings. To me, we looked tired and a little gun-shy at the end. Smart will help with that and I feel we should play Theis some.
I agree generally, we played 7 guys. I don't know where Theis' minutes could have come from. Certainly not White or Pritchard. And with Smart out we needed Al's passing.
Horford played 37 minutes and GWill played 35, these are both well above their season averages. You expect some uptick in the playoffs but I think this much uptick impacted how they played at the end. And for Theis' role, it is as much about fouls as it is about minutes. RWill only played 25 min but he was limited due to fouls. Both RWill and Horford had 5 fouls. Where would be be if one or both of them fouled out? So give Theis 5 of Horford's minutes and hopefully a couple of his fouls, plus maybe 5 min or more of GWill's minutes and I think we will be better for it in the 4th quarter. We need RWill for 25 minutes, not suggesting he play less than that, he will just need to play without getting in foul trouble.
I understand this was an all in game with Smart out. But I think for the next two games at least (I am not looking past that), we should be mixing Theis in to save a few minutes and a few fouls. Theis was +6 overall against BKN in 19.5 minutes (3.5 fouls per game average). Now granted, we didn't have RWill so he was going to get more minutes but I don't see why it should hurt us that much to put him out there for some spot minutes. I am saying that even 10-12 min. would make a difference.
Smart will take minutes from White and Pritchard and that is a win but he can also allow Tatum and Brown to play a little less which would hopefully give them a little more juice at the end of the game. Even if Tatum and Brown play the same minutes, I think having Smart on the court with them cuts down on their stress, reduces the pressure on them to push the action. Smart takes on some of that in a way that White and Pritchard just can't.
