Celtics (48-13) at Nuggets (42-20) Game #62 3/7/24

[celticinorlando]

Hard to win when Tatum is a no show.

Saturday will again be a tough game. Afraid we are in store for another long night then

[jpotter33]

6 point loss with 11 missed free throws, with JB missing 7 of those. That stings. Not going to beat Denver by giving up free points.

[SparzWizard]

And we're going to have to figure out the Jokic/KP issue. He clearly is too small to guard Jokic, and while Horford/X can't stop him either, they at least make it much more difficult for him due to their size.

Not sure what the answer is, other than we just have to play double big more and stagger more of KP's minutes with Jokic on the bench.

Need to limit Aaron Gordon. He was just swooping in left and right finishing off the assists. He's their wild card.

And Porter Jr had a somewhat quiet game. If he went off for 20+ I don't think this game would be close.

[celticinorlando]

Brown scored 41 but seriously 7 missed free throws? Come on man that just can’t happen

[CelticSooner]

Calling it now, Tatum will drop 40+ against PHX. Do not care, they are not the team to beat in the West.

[Muzzy66]

Tatum sucks, oh well. At least Jrue showed his worth in crunch time.

One would wonder if they win tonight if Marcus Smart was playing though

In place of Tatum, yes.

He would have shot worse and committed even more turnovers.  so no. 

[angryguy77]

Think we have a losing record against top teams in the east and west now.

We seem to be frontrunners.....hope I'm wrong

[SparzWizard]

BOS/PHX another potential NBA Finals preview.

Booker/Beal/Durant vs Tatum/Brown/Porzingis

Suns have home-court, prime-time and another mountain time zone game. I sense a 3-game skid coming unfortunately...

[jpotter33]

And we're going to have to figure out the Jokic/KP issue. He clearly is too small to guard Jokic, and while Horford/X can't stop him either, they at least make it much more difficult for him due to their size.

Not sure what the answer is, other than we just have to play double big more and stagger more of KP's minutes with Jokic on the bench.

Need to limit Aaron Gordon. He was just swooping in left and right finishing off the assists. He's their wild card.

And Porter Jr had a somewhat quiet game. If he went off for 20+ I don't think this game would be close.

Gordon was good, but I think the larger issue is the off-ball movement that we were allowing to happen and not adjusting for. Gordon just works so well off of Jokic.

At least we have a ton of film to utilize now in case we do meet them in the Finals.

[celticinorlando]

Looking at most likely a 2-3 or 1-4 road trip
Here is the valley of the season

Celtics are going to struggle Saturday

[Atzar]

And we're going to have to figure out the Jokic/KP issue. He clearly is too small to guard Jokic, and while Horford/X can't stop him either, they at least make it much more difficult for him due to their size.

Not sure what the answer is, other than we just have to play double big more and stagger more of KP's minutes with Jokic on the bench.

We may need to start Horford over Jrue or White in that matchup, if it comes to that.  Not sure which.  Glad I don't have to make that call. 

[Mahk E Mahk]

we had numbers in transition, needed a two to tie, and the big game invisible man shoots a three?!?

incredibly low bbiq. losing basketball.

If the alley to JB was better placed they would have had the oop. Instead they get a wide open corner three to take the lead. Not a problem. Bad miss, but good take.

we had numbers and should have capitalized but JT choked and blew and easy pass that would have tied the game. this wasn’t an isolated incident tonight, either. JT was MIA in another big game.

how many times will C’s fans defend JT for no-show big games, and how many times will the C’s lose big games because JT has to be the guy to take (and miss) the clutch shot when he’s been completely off all game?

[ozgod]

And we're going to have to figure out the Jokic/KP issue. He clearly is too small to guard Jokic, and while Horford/X can't stop him either, they at least make it much more difficult for him due to their size.

Not sure what the answer is, other than we just have to play double big more and stagger more of KP's minutes with Jokic on the bench.

Need to limit Aaron Gordon. He was just swooping in left and right finishing off the assists. He's their wild card.

And Porter Jr had a somewhat quiet game. If he went off for 20+ I don't think this game would be close.

Gordon was good, but I think the larger issue is the off-ball movement that we were allowing to happen and not adjusting for. Gordon just works so well off of Jokic.

At least we have a ton of film to utilize now in case we do meet them in the Finals.

They were so worried about Jokic that they were prepared to double him when KP was guarding him and Gordon just got behind their defense. Jokic is a handful when he's posting up and has players cutting to the rim, he's so good at finding them. It's not just us that he's done it to obviously but I don't think KP can guard Jokic one on one, it forces help defense which allows Jokic to find those cutters.

And if we're going to say the game wouldn't be close if MPJ had scored 20+...well we could easily say if Tatum had had a 20+ game we would have won. Or if we made our FTs we would have won. There's always a counter to those hypotheticals so I don't think we can really extrapolate from just that.

The flip side to it all is our No1 guy went missing, we shot sub 30% from 3 (to be fair they shot 25% as well) we missed 9 FTs, turned the ball over 12 times and struggled to handle Jokic and still were in with a chance with a minute to go. So there's the silver lining at least.

JT going missing is a big concern...unless he's under the weather or sick or something this should be a game he should be getting up for. I know they had a plan to get him out of the game but he needs to figure out how to impose himself more. If not by scoring by acting as a decoy, not just standing in the corner like he was Gordon Hayward.

[CelticSooner]

I felt like I was watching the 2022 Finals all over again. The offense was simply freelance and had zero flow. Denver has an unguardable player, there has to be a plan.

[ozgod]

And we're going to have to figure out the Jokic/KP issue. He clearly is too small to guard Jokic, and while Horford/X can't stop him either, they at least make it much more difficult for him due to their size.

Not sure what the answer is, other than we just have to play double big more and stagger more of KP's minutes with Jokic on the bench.

We may need to start Horford over Jrue or White in that matchup, if it comes to that.  Not sure which.  Glad I don't have to make that call.

I was thinking we probably have to sit Jrue. It will imbalance our perimeter defense but we can at least not have KP getting sonned by Jokic.

Or we trap him every time he gets the ball and hope our rotation holds up