Celtics (5-1) at 76ers (5-1) Game #7 11/8/23

[scaryjerry]

Lots of whining in this thread. The Cs have lost two road games to teams with a combined 11-3 record in OT and after missing the potential game tying shot. They’ve also played 5 road games and only 2 at home. They’ll be ok.

Yeah they’ll be fine but they aren’t some world beater because of their first 5 games against average/bad competition. They’re closer to the team from the last 2 games

[scaryjerry]

Let Horford retire and clear off his salary

Trade Brown, Kornet, Pritchard and Pritchard - try to get back a solid starting big plus one or two strong bench contributors

Fire Mazulla, let Cassell take over as head coach

As if cassell would be an upgrade?

Lol

A ham sandwich might be at this point

Cassell isn’t head coach material, sorry

Says who? He's probably the second most highly valued assistant/in line for a head coaching job, likely only behind Charles Lee if even that. Cassell is nothing but highly praised everywhere he's been an assistant.

He bonds with players and people like him so they speak fondly of him. There’s a reason he will likely never be a head coach. Not qualified.

[Neurotic Guy]

Let Horford retire and clear off his salary

Trade Brown, Kornet, Pritchard and Pritchard - try to get back a solid starting big plus one or two strong bench contributors

Fire Mazulla, let Cassell take over as head coach

As if cassell would be an upgrade?

Lol

A ham sandwich might be at this point

Cassell isn’t head coach material, sorry

Says who? He's probably the second most highly valued assistant/in line for a head coaching job, likely only behind Charles Lee if even that. Cassell is nothing but highly praised everywhere he's been an assistant.

He bonds with players and people like him so they speak fondly of him. There’s a reason he will likely never be a head coach. Not qualified.

How could you possibly know this?  I haven’t the foggiest notion whether he’s qualified to be a head coach. How could you know? Is it just because he’s never been hired as a head coach or do you have other ‘evidence’?

[celticinorlando]

3's are great if they are falling...but when they don't Boston has zero on offense to go to. They just keep chucking them.

It will be why they lose games like they did last night.

[Surferdad]

I shut it off after 3 quarters, just not entertaining watch 3 after 3 launched and clanged. You have to blame Joe for either (1) directing players to shoot ONLY 3's or (2) not being in control of the players.  Which is it? Doesn't matter.

Sorry to say I see this team regressing to the mean. If things don't change I doubt they win 50 games.  Really such a shame.

[Who]

I shut it off after 3 quarters, just not entertaining watch 3 after 3 launched and clanged. You have to blame Joe for either (1) directing players to shoot ONLY 3's or (2) not being in control of the players.  Which is it? Doesn't matter.

Sorry to say I see this team regressing to the mean. If things don't change I doubt they win 50 games.  Really such a shame.

I see them more in the high 50s to low 60s win wise.

Say 57-62 win range.

[Phantom255x]

I'm not worried. The C's clearly didn't play well and despite all that, they still nearly took it to OT

They absolutely have stuff to work on and improve over the season, but it's only Game #7 now. I do think PHI is probably the 2nd best team in the East now, not Milwaukee or Miami. Wouldn't surprise me if this is the ECF this Spring. Maxey might be taking that next step too.

[tazzmaniac]

I shut it off after 3 quarters, just not entertaining watch 3 after 3 launched and clanged. You have to blame Joe for either (1) directing players to shoot ONLY 3's or (2) not being in control of the players.  Which is it? Doesn't matter.

Sorry to say I see this team regressing to the mean. If things don't change I doubt they win 50 games.  Really such a shame.

I see them more in the high 50s to low 60s win wise.

Say 57-62 win range.

That's a good range.  My guess is 62, 5 games better than last season, but I might be underestimating the time to gel.   

[tazzmaniac]

I'm not worried. The C's clearly didn't play well and despite all that, they still nearly took it to OT

They absolutely have stuff to work on and improve over the season, but it's only Game #7 now. I do think PHI is probably the 2nd best team in the East now, not Milwaukee or Miami. Wouldn't surprise me if this is the ECF this Spring. Maxey might be taking that next step too.

Me neither.  Let's see where things stand at game #20.  The starting lineup is significantly better.  Moves can be made before the trade deadline to improve the bench if necessary. 

[SparzWizard]

I'm not worried. The C's clearly didn't play well and despite all that, they still nearly took it to OT

They absolutely have stuff to work on and improve over the season, but it's only Game #7 now. I do think PHI is probably the 2nd best team in the East now, not Milwaukee or Miami. Wouldn't surprise me if this is the ECF this Spring. Maxey might be taking that next step too.

If 76ers didn't collapse and JB didn't start playing until 1 minute left in the 4th, the 76ers blow them out. A bit concerning. Don't count on Nick Nurse's team to collapse over and over.

Sounds to me right now 76ers are the best team in the East. The Bucks, standing-wise, are the second best.

[Celtics2021]

I blame this loss on whoever noted Al’s plus/minus numbers the other day (positive every game).  He was a -23 in 26 minutes last night.  The jinx was a given.

[hardlyyardley]

A couple os stinkers by JB
Hope PP can get his shot back

[Goldstar88]

I blame this loss on whoever noted Al’s plus/minus numbers the other day (positive every game).  He was a -23 in 26 minutes last night.  The jinx was a given.

That must have been Joe!

[Vermont Green]

I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding the rotation, go small or go tall, but we had Holiday on Embiid for over a third of the possessions, at least according to Forsberg.  I am not sure that is a good strategy.  Kudos to Holiday for doing what he is asked to do but that is asking a lot.

Chris Forsberg: Jrue Holiday defended Joel Embiid on nearly 1/3 of his offensive possessions on Wednesday. NBA’s tracking data: 22.3 possessions, 2 PTS, 1-3 FG, 3 TO (Al Horford logged similar time and gave up 15 PTS on 6-11 FG) Holiday’s career stats vs Embiid: 17 PTS, 7-22 FG, 9 TO pic.twitter.com/pDzo3wcCaa 2 hours ago – via Twitter ChrisForsberg_

[theswitch]

I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding the rotation, go small or go tall, but we had Holiday on Embiid for over a third of the possessions, at least according to Forsberg.  I am not sure that is a good strategy.  Kudos to Holiday for doing what he is asked to do but that is asking a lot.

Chris Forsberg: Jrue Holiday defended Joel Embiid on nearly 1/3 of his offensive possessions on Wednesday. NBA’s tracking data: 22.3 possessions, 2 PTS, 1-3 FG, 3 TO (Al Horford logged similar time and gave up 15 PTS on 6-11 FG) Holiday’s career stats vs Embiid: 17 PTS, 7-22 FG, 9 TO pic.twitter.com/pDzo3wcCaa 2 hours ago – via Twitter ChrisForsberg_

He's going to keep getting these calls to do it, I think. He got the KAT matchup and it was successful:

Holiday defended Towns on 22.5 possessions Monday night, holding the 6-foot-11 big man to just seven points and forcing five turnovers.

He guarded Randle with similar results:

Randle when Holiday was the primary defender, per NBA tracking data:

2 PTS
1-10 FG
2 BLK

Embiid is in a different category of physicality but it's clear they're going to at least try to keep messing around with Jrue guarding these guys until something breaks (hopefully not Jrue himself). It is pretty impressive what he is doing, albeit probably unsustainable.