Will We Win the Series?

[Birdman]

Tatum got to quit whining on every play that he thought he was foul..one moment he was complaining and Mathews hit an wide open 3

[Who]

Hell yes

[SparzWizard]

It'd be nice if any of the Jays (ideally Tatum) could actually dominate a game from start to finish and actually look like "the best player on the court". We saw it from Jaylen in Game 2.

And no, having 1 good quarter isn't always going to be enough. We've seen Giannis do it a few times this series, yet we haven't seen Tatum do it. Tatum was fantastic late in Game 4 but the 7 quarters before that was terrible. Need more consistency from him.

It's not even just the stats/points, but also the decision-making. Jaylen and Tatum may have had great numbers last night, but they also made a lot of boneheaded decisions and Jaylen's ball-handling is atrocious. Some of those things contributed to the Bucks coming back each time from a double-digit deficit.

Margin for error is now very, very slim for the Jays. And I single them out here because those two guys are our bonafide stars. They need to play like it otherwise it's over Friday night.

They basically need to play a perfect game to win Game 6. Maybe 1 turnover and limit the 3's. If they keep bricking 3's after 3's even with a double-digit lead, refer back to Game 5. No more silly cute passes. BOX OUT, PREVENT OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS. So this is also Ime Udoka's responsibility with the rotations. I saw enough in game 5 where at one point they grabbed like 4 or 5 ORB in one play, utterly disgraceful and unacceptable.

[jbpats]

Despite being down 3-2 we've been the better team for the bulk of the series.

That being said the fact that we turned into the Pre - January iso-ball collapse Celtics team to end the game yesterday makes me truly believe this team is done.

I dont see us winning 2, I think the air was deflated from the room last night.

[0003323344]

No. Last night was their chance to get a stranglehold on the series. If they couldn't win last night at home they're not winning game 6 in Milwaukee. Milwaukee learned how to win these close games that's one reason they're the champs. Until the Celtics stop reverting back to the team that lost 3 ECFs under Stevens they won't get a ring.

[RPGenerate]

Heart says yes, brain say that we blew our opportunity this last game.

[jambr380]

No. Last night was their chance to get a stranglehold on the series. If they couldn't win last night at home they're not winning game 6 in Milwaukee. Milwaukee learned how to win these close games that's one reason they're the champs. Until the Celtics stop reverting back to the team that lost 3 ECFs under Stevens they won't get a ring.

At this point, I think fans would be ecstatic with an ECF loss, as that means we would have won this series. We keep hyping up this team and coach, but they are about to go out in the 2nd round. That’s not to say that we don’t have a bright future, but insulting Stevens’ ability to ONLY get to the ECF 3 times, with seemingly less talent, isn’t the way to do it.

[Who]

It's not even just the stats/points, but also the decision-making. Jaylen and Tatum may have had great numbers last night, but they also made a lot of boneheaded decisions and Jaylen's ball-handling is atrocious. Some of those things contributed to the Bucks coming back each time from a double-digit deficit.

Margin for error is now very, very slim for the Jays. And I single them out here because those two guys are our bonafide stars. They need to play like it otherwise it's over Friday night.

They need to get a few more easy baskets. Too many difficult contested shots off the dribble. It is very valuable to be able to make those high difficulty shots but it is being able to put some easy ones alongside them that makes you special.

Watching Jaylen handle the ball, spin, pump fake, hit a contested midrange jump shot and then watching Milwaukee make a quick inbounds, hard push, Giannis driving layup to the rim before the defense is set. Easy layup vs contested midranger off the dribble.

They need to focus more on generating easy shots and not MJ-shots hero-shots contested shots off the dribble. There needs to be balance between them.

Time and place for those high difficulty shots. There needs to be more emphasis on generating easy shots. That is what gives you offensive consistency. Those easy high percentage reliable hoops.

[0003323344]

No. Last night was their chance to get a stranglehold on the series. If they couldn't win last night at home they're not winning game 6 in Milwaukee. Milwaukee learned how to win these close games that's one reason they're the champs. Until the Celtics stop reverting back to the team that lost 3 ECFs under Stevens they won't get a ring.

At this point, I think fans would be ecstatic with an ECF loss, as that means we would have won this series. We keep hyping up this team and coach, but they are about to go out in the 2nd round. That’s not to say that we don’t have a bright future, but insulting Stevens’ ability to ONLY get to the ECF 3 times, with seemingly less talent, isn’t the way to do it.

First of all I wasn't insulting Stevens I was saying that their play was similar to those 3 EFC losses in that they were playing too much hero ball in the 4th with the same core of Tatum, Brown and Smart. Their future is now. Injuries, player turnover, etc all play a part. These chances don't come up every year.

[SparzWizard]

No. Last night was their chance to get a stranglehold on the series. If they couldn't win last night at home they're not winning game 6 in Milwaukee. Milwaukee learned how to win these close games that's one reason they're the champs. Until the Celtics stop reverting back to the team that lost 3 ECFs under Stevens they won't get a ring.

At this point, I think fans would be ecstatic with an ECF loss, as that means we would have won this series. We keep hyping up this team and coach, but they are about to go out in the 2nd round. That’s not to say that we don’t have a bright future, but insulting Stevens’ ability to ONLY get to the ECF 3 times, with seemingly less talent, isn’t the way to do it.

First of all I wasn't insulting Stevens I was saying that their play was similar to those 3 EFC losses in that they were playing too much hero ball in the 4th with the same core of Tatum, Brown and Smart. Their future is now. Injuries, player turnover, etc all play a part. These chances don't come up every year.

You know the theme. "Oh we'll just run it back next year. We'll be contenders"...think we heard that since 2017 lol. We look like the Hawks of the 2007-2016. Playoffs every year, and an early playoff exit or multiple ECF appearances only to get bounced.

[0003323344]

No. Last night was their chance to get a stranglehold on the series. If they couldn't win last night at home they're not winning game 6 in Milwaukee. Milwaukee learned how to win these close games that's one reason they're the champs. Until the Celtics stop reverting back to the team that lost 3 ECFs under Stevens they won't get a ring.

At this point, I think fans would be ecstatic with an ECF loss, as that means we would have won this series. We keep hyping up this team and coach, but they are about to go out in the 2nd round. That’s not to say that we don’t have a bright future, but insulting Stevens’ ability to ONLY get to the ECF 3 times, with seemingly less talent, isn’t the way to do it.

First of all I wasn't insulting Stevens I was saying that their play was similar to those 3 EFC losses in that they were playing too much hero ball in the 4th with the same core of Tatum, Brown and Smart. Their future is now. Injuries, player turnover, etc all play a part. These chances don't come up every year.

You know the theme. "Oh we'll just run it back next year. We'll be contenders"...think we heard that since 2017 lol. We look like the Hawks of the 2007-2016. Playoffs every year, and an early playoff exit or multiple ECF appearances only to get bounced.

Yep agreed. I'm ok with losing in the ECF once. If you get back 2 more times and lose that tells me you didn't learn anything the other times you were there. Since January it looked liked they had turned the corner. Last night and other games in this series told me they haven't yet and may never. If you're in the NBA getting to and even winning the ECF shouldn't be enough. Participation trophies don't matter. All that matters is championships. 14 years and counting.

[droopdog7]

The odds are stacked against us.  All this stuff about being the better team is a bunch of hog wash.  Giannis goes nuclear one more time and we're toast.

[Atzar]

You know the theme. "Oh we'll just run it back next year. We'll be contenders"...think we heard that since 2017 lol. We look like the Hawks of the 2007-2016. Playoffs every year, and an early playoff exit or multiple ECF appearances only to get bounced.

Context matters.

This time last year, we watched our team get mulched by the Nets in the first round.  We were .500 in the regular season, we limped into the playoffs severely outgunned, and Fournier's audition went so poorly that we let him walk instead of signing him in the offseason.  The only entertaining part of the entire year was watching Tatum drop a few big scoring nights down the stretch.  We looked very much like a team whose shot at contention had passed it by, doomed either to tread water in mediocrity for several years or to simply blow it up and try again from the top. 

This season, we had a hell of a second-half run in which we looked like one of the best teams in basketball.  We crushed the team that crushed us last year.  We're no longer staring a rebuild in the face.  We're no longer desperately bouncing unrealistic trades off of each other, looking for a shred of hope somewhere... or most of us aren't, at least.  We're talking about realistic improvements from our players, or realistic tweaks to give our roster that last push it needs.  We're talking about bad moments of basketball instead of bad months.  We've gotten ourselves in a mess against the defending champs, but regardless of how this series turns out, we've gotten our future back.

That's a huge difference. 

[boscel33]

I'm out.  Horrible loss.  See you in the fall, as we don't even have a 1st due to an over pay for White.

L8r.....

[mef730]

Despite being down 3-2 we've been the better team for the bulk of the series.

That being said the fact that we turned into the Pre - January iso-ball collapse Celtics team to end the game yesterday makes me truly believe this team is done.

I dont see us winning 2, I think the air was deflated from the room last night.

The only thing that the Celtics have going for them is that I think that they lose in 6 and I haven't been right about a [dang]ed thing this year.

Mike