Celtics (16-3) at Cavaliers (17-3) Game #20 12/1/24

[Silas]

Refs screwed us on PP's foul shot miss.

[ozgod]

Fire Joe? 

[SCeltic34]

Cavs barely scraped by and it took a superhuman 4th quarter by Mitchell to beat us while we were missing two of our best players.

[jpotter33]

Ugh, PP you have to be aware of the rule there. And of course Jrue couldn't even draw iron on the shot there. He's the biggest culprit in tonight's loss. Complete letdown from Jrue when we needed him to step up most. Gross.

Al also missed several wide open baseline threes down the stretch that likely would've been the difference if he could've stuck at least one of them.

[Indocelts]

I think this game really shows that PP should be involved more in critical situations and take critical shots too, and less reliance on Tatum.

PP is clutch. TPs all.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

oh well

[Who]

Fair dues to Cleveland. I thought BOS had it (almost) wrapped up when they were up 11-12pts with 8 minutes to go. BOS looked so comfortable. CLE struggled to find something to work. Then Donovan Mitchell took over. Great Q4 from D Mitchell.

[jpotter33]

I hate to say this, but mentally JT is not as clutch as PP. Need to give PP the ball more in crunch time.

I mean, come on lol That's pretty easy to say when one gets three times the amount of defensive attention as the other lol

[mef730]

4 point loss, on the road, missing two starters. Not the outcome I wanted, but not terrible.

[jambr380]

Tatum failed his last 2 possessions in crunch time.
Should've given the ball to other hot hands, like PP

Yeah, but those were two lay-ups. He definitely choked them, but that's exactly what you want there. Tatum was also awesome this game.

It doesn't help that Mitchell went unconscious from 3 to the end the game and Jrue might have just had his worst game yet as a Celtic on both sides of the ball.

Annoying loss, but I'm not particularly worried. We're missing two [should be] All-Stars and managed to squeak out a loss at the last second.

[Larry for 3]

Game was lost in beginning of 4th Q. We had trouble scoring for some time. Normally that?s Jalen brown time or even White time. We keep pace there, Mitchell?s shots don?t matter.

[Indocelts]

I hate to say this, but mentally JT is not as clutch as PP. Need to give PP the ball more in crunch time.

I mean, come on lol That's pretty easy to say when one gets three times the amount of defensive attention as the other lol

I stand by my comment. You're ok to disagree.

[Atzar]

I know we were missing some pretty important guys, but I feel like JT/KP/Jrue is still enough talent to cobble some offense together in the fourth quarter.  Instead they all did squat and it was PP trying to save us. 

Jrue, especially, is disappointing.  His ability to create offense has evaporated this season.  He's strictly a roleplayer right now, eating what is fed to him because he can't hunt it himself.  And with his three-point slump, he's having trouble even doing that nowadays.  I'm calling for him to step up.  He's not THAT old yet. 

[tenn_smoothie]

I could understand losing tonite with 2 starters out, but this was inexcusable.

We blow a 10-pont 4th quarter lead because we have no offense.
Infuriating to watch us do the same iso-Tatum again and again down the stretch.
Just nothing else, no movement, no passing, no off-ball screens, no cuts to free a shooter.
Just four guys standing around watching Tatum dribble.

This loss is on Joe's awful non-offense, plain and simple.

[jpotter33]

Looking back at the PP free throw, both Mobley and Niang look to also have went into the lane before it hit the rim, though it looked like PP went into the lane first.