Fire Joe! ... or critique Joe ... or defend Joe... or worry about Joe's coaching

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

How dare Joe let the team shoot 35% from the field. I mean, what was he thinking! 

and there is the great defender. LOLOL..   diod joe tell them to adjust and drive like they did on their own lastg year? why not? why do u keep defending garbage coaching smh

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

One of the worst offensive performances I have seen. Not even 40 points in the second half.

another garbage TEENS 4th quarter

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

How dare Joe let the team shoot 35% from the field. I mean, what was he thinking! 

Seriously? Even you - the crown prince of Joe apologism - have to be disgusted with what you saw tonight, right? It's not that they missed shots; it's that they took terrible three point shots over and over and over again - which is clearly and indubitably a result of Joe's extreme three point philosophy.

Last time I checked the players were the ones on the court, not the coach. They were the ones settling for bad shots. JT and JB went 14-43 from the field. If your two best players are going to shoot that poorly, you?re not going to win the game.

Joe can just call a timeout and reinforcing them to attack the rim and drive to the paint. Take shots inside the arc. Get boards.

a AAU coach could do that

but NOT JOE!

TOO CHALLENGING! dude is a moron coach.

[Goldstar88]

This thread didn?t get bumped once last series! That must mean that Joe did a great job against Orlando, even though the C?s dropped a game.   

[0003323344]

the thing is with the never stopping jacking 3s, is when the other team is on a run and you can't hit a jump shot, you need to do something to score, and just slow down their momentum.   even a couple more 2s from mid range shots would have won us the game.   we have to be able to play in different ways (just like Orlando series) to win another title.  Tonight isn't going to cut it.

Exactly. This team should know better by now after years of not adjusting. When you're up 20 and the 3's are not falling, you adjust. Penetrate, take some short range 2's. This was an easily winnable game but bonehead Joe just kept telling them to chuck 3's.

[0003323344]

This thread didn?t get bumped once last series! That must mean that Joe did a great job against Orlando, even though the C?s dropped a game.   

Joe didn't do jack in the last series, his players just played smarter. Tonight they decided to play like  they used to before they won a championship.

[ozgod]

Gary Washburn of the Globe isn't pulling his punches...some snippets:

There are times when the Celtics are guilty of obscene arrogance, truly believing they are unbeatable. That it?s impossible to lose with their relentless long-range style because Brad Stevens has loaded the roster with so many shooters.

They are a stubborn team because their coach insists that threes are better than twos, and the players gladly accept his guidance. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, they took this 3-point fascination just too far.

Twice Al Horford had open paths to the basket but decided to, without hesitation or even turning his head, pass it out to an open 3-point shooter.

He got stuck into Tatum:

The 108-105 OT loss at TD Garden was a bitter defeat ? not only because the Knicks rallied, but because the Celtics showed a national audience how callous they can be when they fall in love with hero ball. They were 15 for 60 from the 3-point line, including 4 for 15 from superstar Jayson Tatum, who decided this was going to be the night he was going to prove to the world he can consistently knock down the three.

It?s been a season-long quest for Tatum, who needs that one facet of his game to improve to become a flawless player.

Three-pointers for Tatum are like golf or bowling for most of us. He really likes doing it, but he isn?t very good at it. He shot a career-worst 34.3 percent from beyond the arc this season, but decided to attempt two-thirds of his shots from there when the Knicks were mired in foul trouble.

And into White:

Derrick White attempted 18 shots, and 16 were threes.

And into Jaylen, who in fairness looked like he was either injured or a cripple tonight:

Jaylen Brown began his night with a three in the game?s first six seconds.

How do you think that turned out? He missed his first eight as the Knicks were more than content to let him fire away.

Plus they showed the photo of Bridges taking the ball away from Jaylen at the end, like a senior taking the ball from a fifth grader:



Then Gary turned his fire hose on Joe for being in charge of the rolling circus of ineptitude:

The only way the Celtics were going to lose Game 1 is if they became completely preoccupied with the 3-point shot. That?s what happened.

Nineteen of the Celtics? 20 shot attempts in the third quarter were 3-pointers. That?s just bad, predictable offense.

?I have to have better play-calling, [we] have to make shots,? coach Joe Mazzulla said. ?We have to make some better reads. It?s a combination of all those things.

Then he had a quote from Jaylen with his usual "yep we took too many threes and we shouldn't have" mea culpa after the fact, after they had taken 60 and missed 45 of them. Would have been nice if he had figured it out while it was happening.

?In those moments when the other team?s got momentum, we can?t just fire up threes,? Brown said. ?We?ve got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, and then maybe the next 3-pointer feels a little bit better.

?We settled in the second half, a lot. It felt like they were daring us to shoot, they wanted us to shoot those shots. That?s an abnormal game in terms of us shooting the basketball.?

When asked about the challenge of changing the offensive approach midgame, when it?s obvious threes aren?t falling, Brown said the Celtics are more than capable.

?I don?t think it?s hard at all,? he said. ?Just being poised enough to recognize when to take it or when not to take it. I don?t think we did a good job of that tonight, seeing the game, understanding the game.

?It was like we was just firing up threes for whatever reason. We [have to] find a better rhythm. We?ve got to play with more poise than we did tonight.?

More than capable...actions speak louder than words. Do or do not - there is no say.

Gary finishes by calling them stubborn and conceited:

Hopefully Game 1 serves as a wakeup call that the Celtics aren?t unbeatable when the offense is complacent and simple. They offered no alternative than a made 3-pointer, and lost because of their stubbornness and conceit.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/06/sports/washburn-celtics-bad-approach-threes/?p1=Article_Feed_ContentQuery

[ozgod]

The one silver lining is that we shot as bad as we possibly could, took as many terrible shots as we could, defended poorly, let them run in transition, and lost by 3 points in overtime. In a way if we had won that it would have just validated their hero ball three approach so in a way it's good they lost. Nothing focuses the mind like being humiliated on national television 

[SparzWizard]

The one silver lining is that we shot as bad as we possibly could, took as many terrible shots as we could, defended poorly, let them run in transition, and lost by 3 points in overtime. In a way if we had won that it would have just validated their hero ball three approach so in a way it's good they lost. Nothing focuses the mind like being humiliated on national television 

Yeah but they could still shoot a lot worse than tonight, and by that logic, they can only afford 3 more losses with this hero-3-ball approach.

[ozgod]

The one silver lining is that we shot as bad as we possibly could, took as many terrible shots as we could, defended poorly, let them run in transition, and lost by 3 points in overtime. In a way if we had won that it would have just validated their hero ball three approach so in a way it's good they lost. Nothing focuses the mind like being humiliated on national television 

Yeah but they could still shoot a lot worse than tonight, and by that logic, they can only afford 3 more losses with this hero-3-ball approach.

Well it's pretty hard to shoot 15-60...it takes real effort to shoot that bad 

We shot 25% or worse in 5 games out of 82 this season, and our worst was 17% vs Orlando so yes it is possible...but it's unlikely.



It's also possible that they stay stubborn and feel like it was just a bad shooting night, instead of bad shot selection, because when you lay it out the way that Gary laid it out, and of course we saw it with our own eyes, they were just chucking 3s in the 2nd half instead of working the ball around, driving into the paint and then kicking it out to move the ball to the open shooter once the Knicks were in rotation. We hardly put them in rotation in the 2nd half because most of the 3s were static, either stepbacks or pullups.

What we also have to worry about is that KAT didn't have a great game tonight and they still won, mainly because of Anunoby's career night. He's a good player but we can't let people like him or Hart beat us.

But if I had to put money on us not shooting that bad again I would feel pretty confident of getting my money back. It's the mental approach I'm more concerned about. Will they write it off to a bad shooting night or accept that their approach was flawed?

[SparzWizard]

I don't think there's any wake-up call. They've played similar to this throughout the season and in the Marcus Smart era. Yes, last night was the worst Celtics game of the KP/Jrue era but definitely not Tatum's and Brown's first rodeo. ESPN and sports shows about to roast the hell out of this squad for Game 1's performance.

[jpotter33]

How dare Joe let the team shoot 35% from the field. I mean, what was he thinking! 

Seriously? Even you - the crown prince of Joe apologism - have to be disgusted with what you saw tonight, right? It's not that they missed shots; it's that they took terrible three point shots over and over and over again - which is clearly and indubitably a result of Joe's extreme three point philosophy.

Last time I checked the players were the ones on the court deciding the game, not the coach. They were settling for bad shots. JT and JB went 14-43 from the field. If your two best players are going to shoot that poorly, you?re not going to win the game.

I?m sorry, but that?s just an insanely shallow and naive view completely aimed at protecting the coach.

It must just be a coincidence that we?ve led the league in three point shooting attempts and have broken many all-time records for three point shots, makes, and misses since Joe was gifted the coaching spot. Clearly that has no impact on the gameplan, offensive philosophy, and how these guys play out there. Crazy coincidence here!

[celticinorlando]

I am convinced Joe allows them to shoot so many 3s because he doesn't know how to draw up good sets to get them easy shots and baskets.

Last night was right out of 2022 and 2023.

[Silas]

Like everyone, I want the Cs to win every game.  But come on, this 1st game against NY was an aberration...45 missed 3s isn't going to happen again anytime soon.  As far as blaming Joe for the loss, what about Cleveland, with 64 wins losing their 1st game...guess there are fans clamoring to fire Kenny.  Also, what about OKC, how could a team that won 68 games lose their 1st game...Mark Daigneault's job must be on the line.  Let's see how this series ends before we tear Joe a new one.

[celticinorlando]

AS bad as the offense was...the defense was horrendous last night esp in OT. JT and JB were lost on several key possessions.