Poll: Who gets your venom?

[jambr380]

I think we need more Tatum at Center if the plan is to just run drop with Queta and Vuc (obviously necessary with Vuc).

I doubt Joe plans to play Hugo, but we do need more defense on their guards. If that means more Walsh or Baylor, then I am totally okay with that.

PP usually breaks out of his ruts, but White has been bad shooting the ball all year. I think we all expected him to flip the switch when Tatum returned to lead ballhandling duties leaving White with more catch and shoot opportunities, but nope, still bad. If we are going to have any chance in these playoffs, then White needs to shoot better

[slamtheking]

not ready for venom yet but will have some if they have another one of these games this series.  I mentioned in other threads that the C's won't sweep Philly simply because the C's will have an ice-cold game when Philly has a hot one.  Last night was that game.  It had better be the only game this series though.

Issues that I expect to be addressed for the next game:
- Joe to figure out how to get White, PP and Hauser off to better shooting starts.  This is optimistic but not realistic because Joe only has the 1 offensive scheme.  Still, it needs to be done.
- Joe to figure out a better defensive scheme to shutdown or at least slow down Maxey and Edgecomb.  What he came up with in game 2 was ineffective to the point of being embarrassing particularly when he refused to change to a scheme that might actually work.
- Joe to seriously consider using Garza instead of Vuc as Q's backup.  Vuc has been awful on both ends of the floor.  At least with Garza, he'll provide offensive rebounding and is pretty good at scoring around the basket.  Without Embiid, Garza should be able to provide some offense. 
- Joe to seriously consider using someone other than Hauser if he's having another off night.  Baylor has shown he can provide offense.  Joe doesn't really allow Sam to take anything other than 3's (which is dumb because he's excellent shooting from inside the line) but Baylor seems to have more license to freelance and can get those buckets.  He has excellent defenders in Walsh and Hugo to put on Maxey, Edgecomb and George to slow them down.  If Philly's making shots, play the defenders.  it wasn't like pulling Hauser, White or PP off the floor would have hurt the offense.  also, Harper can add a good spark off the bench and he doesn't coast when he's on the floor.  make Philly play some D for a change.

[Who]

I think we need more Tatum at Center if the plan is to just run drop with Queta and Vuc (obviously necessary with Vuc).

Philly is not a bad team to do that against. Particularly when Adem Bona is in the game.

[Donoghus]

Unfortunate off night with some mindboggling decisions on the offensive end.  Didn't expect the Celtics to sweep. Not terribly concerned.

[Who]

not ready for venom yet but will have some if they have another one of these games this series. 

I mentioned in other threads that the C's won't sweep Philly simply because the C's will have an ice-cold game when Philly has a hot one.  Last night was that game.  It had better be the only game this series though.

I expect them to win in 5 but not bothered if they lose another and it goes 6 games. I would be upset if goes 7 games. That would make me angry.

Like you, I expected 1 game like this. To get 2 would be unlucky but possible so I wouldn't be too upset by it. But 3 losses would hurt.

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I am mostly looking for 2 things in this series:

(1) Tatum's shooting = he has been inconsistent with his shooting / scoring efficiency. I want to see if he can level out at a good rate. That is the difference maker for this team making a title run.

(2) Keep playing Vucevic. I see several wanting to go back to Garza. I like playing Vucevic in this series because we have a large margin of error against this middling Philly team that is missing Joel Embiid. This is the time to play Vucevic. Even if he is struggling, keep playing him and see if he can settled. If he can get more acclimated, he will be a big asset in future series against higher quality opponents. If he can't, then I go back to Garza for those future series. This is the only series BOS will have where they have this large of an avantage over an opponent. The only series they can experiment with Vucevic to try and get him going. So keep playing him. See if it can click / if it can come together.

Those are the two things I am looking for in this series.

[slamtheking]

not ready for venom yet but will have some if they have another one of these games this series. 

I mentioned in other threads that the C's won't sweep Philly simply because the C's will have an ice-cold game when Philly has a hot one.  Last night was that game.  It had better be the only game this series though.

I expect them to win in 5 but not bothered if they lose another and it goes 6 games. I would be upset if goes 7 games. That would make me angry.

Like you, I expected 1 game like this. To get 2 would be unlucky but possible so I wouldn't be too upset by it.But 3 losses would hurt.

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I am mostly looking for 2 things in this series:

(1) Tatum's shooting = he has been inconsistent with his shooting / scoring efficiency. I want to see if he can level out at a good rate. That is the difference maker for this team making a title run.

(2) Keep playing Vucevic. I see several wanting to go back to Garza. I like playing Vucevic in this series because we have a large margin of error against this middling Philly team that is missing Joel Embiid. This is the time to play Vucevic. Even if he is struggling, keep playing him and see if he can settled. If he can get more acclimated, he will be a big asset in future series against higher quality opponents. If he can't, then I go back to Garza for those future series. This is the only series BOS will have where they have this large of an avantage over an opponent. The only series they can experiment with Vucevic to try and get him going. So keep playing him. See if it can click / if it can come together.

Those are the two things I am looking for in this series.

I'd be upset because it would mean Joe learned nothing and stuck with his 3-centric offense as well as his ineffective defensive scheme for stopping Philly from going off.

I get what you're saying about using this series as the final opportunity to get Vuc going or seeing whether he can get going but for me that time has passed.  he's an experienced pro that should have a shorter learning curve.  Also, he's been absolutely awful with his shot/offense where it doesn't matter if he's fitting with the team or not.  When he's in the paint with the ball and looking to score, I expect him to hit a high percentage of shots that look like he knows how to shoot rather than what he's been doing which is just flinging the ball in the direction of the hoop.  He's been unplayably bad.  I'd rather use Garza who's familiar with the schemes and is much more of a sure thing on offense. 

[Goldstar88]

Don't know who to blame but the effort on defense was game 55 in the regular season level. Did not fight through screens, let shooters walk into wide open 3s.

I am really concerned about PP and White. They have done nothing this series.

This team likes to do things the hard way. They simply do not remember previous series where they have done the same things. I can't remember the amount of game 2s at home this team has just slept walked through to lose.

D-White needs to step up the most, IMO. He is the 3rd highest paid player on the team at nearly $30M this year and he?s not performing well. Seems like the Celtics got overconfident after game 1 and were a bit lazy last night. The energy was not there for the most part. With that said, I expect a bounce back game tomorrow.

[aefgogreen]

They lost Game 2 of the first round in 2024 and it turned into a descent run.

[Atzar]

Nobody gets venom yet.  Losses happen. 

Losing the three-point accuracy battle 49% to 26% is a good way to lose a basketball game.  Philly was not a good team behind the arc this season, so this might just be an aberrant game, but we'll see how the rest of the series goes.

My hope is that some combination of White, Pritchard, Vucevic, Queta, and Hauser can provide enough ancillary scoring to let us make a run.  But none of them are reliable at it.  That piece isn't on the roster. 

If things go sideways on us I wonder if Joe might lengthen the rotation back out and let Scheierman, Garza, Gonzalez try to out-effort guys like they were doing in the regular season.  I feel like that style doesn't translate so well to the playoffs when everybody is playing hard, but hey, maybe.  But in the meantime there's no desperation yet.

[ozgod]

Joe not for the anemic offense (at least that?s not the main reason I?m blaming him) but for not adjusting...

I think this is one of Joe's biggest remaining weaknesses.My guess is that he'll have adjustments in place for Game 3, but he's always been poor at making in-game adjustments in the moment.

That said, I'm not worried about this loss.  Philly has a lot of talent, and Game 1 created some false expectations.

Yes I think that he's very much a "I have Plan A and I need an entire game's worth of data points to know if it's a schematic issue or an execution issue and if it's schematic then we will see on film and then I will make adjustments for the next game". I can understand the need to not overreact if the issue is execution and not the plan, and it's probably ok if it's Game 1 or 2, but it's when it's a Game 6 or 7 where sometimes the coach needs to go with the feel for the game.

I imagine it's because Joe is a very smart, very cerebral kind of coach but he only really has 3-4 years of experience to call on when making gut-check type decisions, so he wants to make a data-driven decision rather than overreacting. The consequence is that he can end up staying the course longer than he might have to, had he had more experience and a better feel for what was happening, because he has seen it before.

[dannyboy35]

  The refs for allowing all the linebacker play which will negate all our good cutters. But that?s the ugly looking pitiful nba playoffs.

[nickagneta]

Blame? They lost a game where the Sixers were red hot from three and Boston wasn't. It happens.

In 2024, the C's lost two game 2s at home and went on to win both series 4-1.

My guess people were freaking out looking to blame someone after those losses too. And look how silly that looks in retrospect.

It's a 7 game series. It's the playoffs. You aren't going 16-0 and you are not getting the team playing amazing ball every game. You're going to lose games, especially ones where the opponents shoot 49% for the game and from three while you shoot 39% for the game, 26% from three.

People need to chill and keep the big picture in focus.

[SparzWizard]

Joe not for the anemic offense (at least that?s not the main reason I?m blaming him) but for not adjusting...

I think this is one of Joe's biggest remaining weaknesses.My guess is that he'll have adjustments in place for Game 3, but he's always been poor at making in-game adjustments in the moment.

That said, I'm not worried about this loss.  Philly has a lot of talent, and Game 1 created some false expectations.

Yes I think that he's very much a "I have Plan A and I need an entire game's worth of data points to know if it's a schematic issue or an execution issue and if it's schematic then we will see on film and then I will make adjustments for the next game". I can understand the need to not overreact if the issue is execution and not the plan, and it's probably ok if it's Game 1 or 2, but it's when it's a Game 6 or 7 where sometimes the coach needs to go with the feel for the game.

I imagine it's because Joe is a very smart, very cerebral kind of coach but he only really has 3-4 years of experience to call on when making gut-check type decisions, so he wants to make a data-driven decision rather than overreacting. The consequence is that he can end up staying the course longer than he might have to, had he had more experience and a better feel for what was happening, because he has seen it before.

Well, his first year here he didn't have assistant coaches (still should be no excuse). Now he has a few assistant coaches around him, they can help draw up some plan B, C, D etc. What's going on in there Joe?

[ozgod]

Joe not for the anemic offense (at least that?s not the main reason I?m blaming him) but for not adjusting...

I think this is one of Joe's biggest remaining weaknesses.My guess is that he'll have adjustments in place for Game 3, but he's always been poor at making in-game adjustments in the moment.

That said, I'm not worried about this loss.  Philly has a lot of talent, and Game 1 created some false expectations.

Yes I think that he's very much a "I have Plan A and I need an entire game's worth of data points to know if it's a schematic issue or an execution issue and if it's schematic then we will see on film and then I will make adjustments for the next game". I can understand the need to not overreact if the issue is execution and not the plan, and it's probably ok if it's Game 1 or 2, but it's when it's a Game 6 or 7 where sometimes the coach needs to go with the feel for the game.

I imagine it's because Joe is a very smart, very cerebral kind of coach but he only really has 3-4 years of experience to call on when making gut-check type decisions, so he wants to make a data-driven decision rather than overreacting. The consequence is that he can end up staying the course longer than he might have to, had he had more experience and a better feel for what was happening, because he has seen it before.

Well, his first year here he didn't have assistant coaches (still should be no excuse). Now he has a few assistant coaches around him, they can help draw up some plan B, C, D etc. What's going on in there Joe?

The point I'm making is that he waits till he has enough data to decide if an alternative plan is needed, and if so which plan. He doesn't want to overreact if it's an execution issue vs a schematic issue. Whereas fans only care about this:

[tenn_smoothie]

Your team is shooting in the 20% range from 3 and your strategy is to just keep jacking them up to the tune of 50 attempts.
A high school coach would know enough to make some adjustment to the offense. Same old story with Mazzulla.