Celtics (48-12) at Cavaliers (39-21) Game #61 3/5/24

[celticinorlando]

You know it’s bad when Celtics fans call the Tatum iso step back fade away at the end of every quarter or game they might be trailing.

Why can’t he put his head down and barrel to the rim? Post him up? Let white take the lane? Throw it in to KP?

That end play was about as bad as Grant missing two free throws to beat the cavs last year

[ozgod]

This will henceforth be known as the Dean Wade game.

Truthfully I didn't think we played well all night.  Offense couldn't get much going unless Tatum or Brown or KP hit something difficult.  We built a lead out anyway because Cleveland had no firepower without Mitchell, but a random explosion by a random roleplayer bit us.  It is what it is. 

If you take fan allegiance out of the equation, this is one of the upsides of modern basketball.  A large lead is never safe because some nobody can hit six threes and flip the game on its head.  That unpredictability is exciting.  Sucked that it happened to us tonight but we move on.

The only thing I am ticked about is our refusal to call a timeout with 15 seconds left.   The poor execution to not get a shot up on the rim with a few seconds to give us a chance to rebound. 

But with the bolded, if we are happy about us going nuts on GS, we have to expect someone will do it to us too.

Really?  You weren't bothered by Joe not calling a timeout during the Cavs run?

We were up by 22 with nine minutes left.  Joe finally called a timeout at the 4:18 mark, after the Cavs had shaved off 19 points.

I don't know how a championship caliber team gets outscored by 19 points in four minutes 42 seconds, but Joe just sat there and watched it happen.

I have a feeling that Joe was prepared for them to lose… He wanted to teach them a lesson, they dug themselves into this hole…if they thought they were so good thst they felt they could stop playing with 10 min to go and coast to victory because they had a 22 pt leafs against a team missing its top 2 scorers, then they could dig themselves out. That’s the vibe I was getting during the game. He wanted to see how they responded under pressure in a game, which they hadn’t been in since Feb 11 (according to Abby).

So I feel he sacrificed this game because how they got into a losing position was self inflicted and they needed a dose of humble pie. At least  I would hope that is what happened, it’s just a guess…I feel like if this was a game that actually mattered (obviously us fans want to win every game but in the overall scheme of things losing this probebly won’t affect us much in terms of playoff position) he would have acted different but he chose to use this game as a teaching moment to see if they could dig themselves out of their hole they dug for themselves.

Of course the alternative could also be true, thst he sucks ans needs to be fired tomorrow 

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

I am not concerned about the Celtics players as a team, even after this loss.

I'm more concerned about Joe as our HC handling the end game. He may cost us banner 18.

Handling the end of the game, the middle of the game, the 1st quarter, take your pick.
The guy is incompetent and Brad's decision to bring him back was insane, especially with a top-tier title contender roster.

agreed

[celticinorlando]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.

It was mostly the missed box out that allows the cavs to take the lead. Just irks me.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.

It was mostly the missed box out that allows the cavs to take the lead. Just irks me.

yup. guy missed shot. i was saying same thing. no box out so he gets  a easy clean up put back

[ozgod]

Honestly though I, not thst upset we lost… I don’t think it has any bearing on what we will end up doing. I actually think it’s a positive because it’ll teach them some humility. Teach them that they can’t always be blowing teams out.

They talked about respecting the game after that win against Golden State, well tonight, they didn’t respect the game because they stopped playing after 40 minutes and let Cleveland come back. They let a couple of role-players beat them.

So this result is what they deserved they deserve to lose, and I hope it hurts and they deserve to be embarrassed And I hope they use it to galvanize themselves against the nuggets.

Problem is this loss can snowball into a three game losing streak really fast with what’s coming up.

Plus the blazers might give them issues because of they won’t respect them

And they hardly ever play well in Utah.

Could be a much different team coming home than the one that left

 It will be a test though to see if they can rebound. Taking away the desire as a fan to win every game, i’m trying to use this regular season to see if they built habits to show they can go one better than 2022 and two better than last year.

Because most of the games have been blowouts, it’s hard to see how they would react when real pressure is applied to them because it hasn’t happened all that often so there’s a masochistic side to my brain is interested in seeing how they respond.

So far this year they responded well after loss and that’s what you need in a series because anyone could lose a game how you respond, but ultimately determines who wins the series.

Now, if this game leads them to a three game spiral and they continue to lose against top teams… I’d much rather find out now than during the playoffs so they can try and do something about it

[libermaniac]

You know it’s bad when Celtics fans call the Tatum iso step back fade away at the end of every quarter or game they might be trailing.

Why can’t he put his head down and barrel to the rim? Post him up? Let white take the lane? Throw it in to KP?

That end play was about as bad as Grant missing two free throws to beat the cavs last year

What’s infuriating is that even if they call an offensive foul if he drives, if he does it early enough there is still time to make a 3 to tie after Cleveland FTs. No downside to driving. He’ll get the superstar calls. They tried to give him one as it is.

[tenn_smoothie]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.

Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was supposed to be guarding most of the time down the stretch ?
Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was responsible for blocking out on Cleveland's winning put-back basket at the end ?
Maybe I was not watching closely enough and am incorrect on that - Anyone see it differently ?

[libermaniac]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.

Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was supposed to be guarding most of the time down the stretch ?
Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was responsible for blocking out on Cleveland's winning put-back basket at the end ?
Maybe I was not watching closely enough and am incorrect on that - Anyone see it differently ?

No. Most of the time Jaylen was out and it was Kornet who got switched on to Wade and Gabe him too much space. Joe should’ve subbed him out after the second make. I think there were 3-4 on Kornet.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

You know it’s bad when Celtics fans call the Tatum iso step back fade away at the end of every quarter or game they might be trailing.

Why can’t he put his head down and barrel to the rim? Post him up? Let white take the lane? Throw it in to KP?

That end play was about as bad as Grant missing two free throws to beat the cavs last year

What’s infuriating is that even if they call an offensive foul if he drives, if he does it early enough there is still time to make a 3 to tie after Cleveland FTs. No downside to driving. He’ll get the superstar calls. They tried to give him one as it is.

exactly why i wanted him to drive

[ozgod]

KP being interviewed, he said this was a good loss for them, he said they were starting to get too overconfident like it didn’t matter what happened they were like “we got this” and this type of loss was good for them to learn some humility, to try and refocus and recalibrate.

I don’t think he meant to say that it was a good loss, because it was obviously a terrible, avoidable loss, but more so, that it was good for them to experience a loss when they deserve it, because if they had won it would have papered over what was a terrible last quarter.

[Billz401]

I know the celts collapsed in the 4th but the refs were downright cheating us that last quarter. All the fouls they refused to call for us, the overturned foul at the end, the stealing of time at the end. That clown Zarba and his garbage crew mustve had some bets in for this one

[Billz401]

Tonight reminds us all what a frustrating player Jaylen brown is. He was dismal in the 4th quarter in almost every aspect of the game.

Eh.  Jaylen is pretty far down the whipping boy list for me.  He wasn't the guy missing shots, turning the ball over, or getting burned on defense.  Hell, he didn't even play the first seven minutes of the fourth-quarter, when most of the damage was done.

Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was supposed to be guarding most of the time down the stretch ?
Wasn't Dean Wade the guy Jaylen was responsible for blocking out on Cleveland's winning put-back basket at the end ?
Maybe I was not watching closely enough and am incorrect on that - Anyone see it differently ?

No. Most of the time Jaylen was out and it was Kornet who got switched on to Wade and Gabe him too much space. Joe should’ve subbed him out after the second make. I think there were 3-4 on Kornet.

Kornet and Al mostly at fault with a little KP peppered in at the end lol. Was a dumb lineup to put out against a 5 out offense that was shooting lights out. Joe Schmo waited way too long to get the 2nd unit outta there

[Roy H.]

“I thought it was really good for us to be in that situation,” Mazzulla said. “Composed is one thing, executing is another. So I thought we were composed. I just don’t think we had great execution on some of the possessions. So I think the possessions where we didn’t score on, there’s a couple really good possessions there. But execution isn’t about the result."

They were so composed they were almost asleep.  Same thing with Joe.  Composure on the sideline?  A+.  Execution, that was a problem.

[moiso]

You know it’s bad when Celtics fans call the Tatum iso step back fade away at the end of every quarter or game they might be trailing.

Why can’t he put his head down and barrel to the rim? Post him up? Let white take the lane? Throw it in to KP?

That end play was about as bad as Grant missing two free throws to beat the cavs last year

Tatum fallaways seem to be the only play Mazzulla comes up with in clutch situations.  It works like 15% of the time in clutch situations, and it's the play we keep going to.  It's pretty upsetting because a lot of these attempts have no chance to go in.  The more Tatum gets crowded, the more he falls away.  Sometimes he falls away so much the actual shot doesn't even reach the rim.  It hasn't been working and it's always the shot we look for.