Celtics (3-2) at 76ers (2-3) Round 1 Game 6 4/30/26

[Phantom255x]

Tatum's supposed calf injury right now feels ominous like the ankle injury he suffered in the first minute of the 2023 ECF Game 7. Even if they manage to win tomorrow, how good will he be for the future round/games. I worry he could be compromised now to a bigger extent, not that he was 100% from his past Achilles tear yet but this could be another lingering issue.

[celticinorlando]

This team if they don't make 3s just mopes and quits. Zero mental fortitude.

JB has been a pumpkin in this series. White has been a rotten pumpkin. Hauser and Vuc do nothing. Waste of space.

If JB and JT aren't on they do not have anyone else to contribute. No Kp or Al or Jrue to save the day.

Brown's game 6 was one of the worst I have seen.

Cs look slow and unathletic. Unfortunately, they look now how we expected them to look this season. Team totally has been exposed.

Why not go to small ball with JT at the 5?

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Game 7 is officially Saturday, 7:30 PM on NBC

https://x.com/SeanGrandePBP/status/2050066158313742709

Celtics-Sixers will be the stand alone Game 7 on Saturday.

7:30 start on NBC.

i better get loaded on mexican food and margaritas pre-game. well ya know. just in case! 

[Vermont Green]

Tatum's supposed calf injury right now feels ominous like the ankle injury he suffered in the first minute of the 2023 ECF Game 7. Even if they manage to win tomorrow, how good will he be for the future round/games. I worry he could be compromised now to a bigger extent, not that he was 100% from his past Achilles tear yet but this could be another lingering issue.

This of course is the concern with him.  They kind of managed his minutes in the regular season, but in the playoffs, you play more minutes and the minutes are more stressful.  I don't doubt that he will be fine and I am not that worried about anything lingering.  I am more worried about just general wearing down, Tatum and Brown.

BOS gave up on game 6 pretty early.  Maybe Tatum goes back in if BOS closes the gap some at the start of the 4th.  But they didn't and it wasn't long before all the starters were out.

A lot now riding on Game 7.

[Larry for 3]

This team if they don't make 3s just mopes and quits. Zero mental fortitude.

JB has been a pumpkin in this series. White has been a rotten pumpkin. Hauser and Vuc do nothing. Waste of space.

If JB and JT aren't on they do not have anyone else to contribute. No Kp or Al or Jrue to save the day.

Brown's game 6 was one of the worst I have seen.

Cs look slow and unathletic. Unfortunately, they look now how we expected them to look this season. Team totally has been exposed.

Why not go to small ball with JT at the 5?

Spot on. Expect you missed one thing. When stuff starts to go bad it?s the coach?s job to make adjustments and try at least try to stem the tide. Joe does none of that. There is no reason for him to be here then. Just horrible coaching.

[Who]

This team if they don't make 3s just mopes and quits. Zero mental fortitude.

JB has been a pumpkin in this series. White has been a rotten pumpkin. Hauser and Vuc do nothing. Waste of space.

If JB and JT aren't on they do not have anyone else to contribute. No Kp or Al or Jrue to save the day.

Brown's game 6 was one of the worst I have seen.

Cs look slow and unathletic. Unfortunately, they look now how we expected them to look this season. Team totally has been exposed.

Why not go to small ball with JT at the 5?

Jrue had a lot of big moments when we won the title.

With Horford's defense on Embiid, the Celtics would have already won the series. None of the bigs are doing a good job defending Embiid including Queta (who is our only quality defensive big man).

[Who]

Even if they survive a game 7...Boston is going to get smoked by the Knicks.

This team has too many passengers and not enough drivers. JB continues to make the same dumb offensive fouls pushing off. They are on to you JB...stop doing it.
....

White has absoultely gone mental with his game. He has become a headcase and cannot get out of his way. His downfalll has really hurt the Cs.

The loss of D White as a 15-17ppg 3rd scorer has been huge.

It is made worse by the refusal to use Vucevic on the offensive end. He could be the 3rd scorer they need but they refuse to pass him the ball. It was the same with Garza early in the season.

Wow, D White's averages are even worse than I realized. 8.7ppg on 31% FG 26% 3PT. Only 3.0apg against 1.8 turnovers (5.4apg to 1.7tpg on the season). Only 2.8rpg (consistently 4-5rpg usually). 34mpg.

[celticinorlando]

This team if they don't make 3s just mopes and quits. Zero mental fortitude.

JB has been a pumpkin in this series. White has been a rotten pumpkin. Hauser and Vuc do nothing. Waste of space.

If JB and JT aren't on they do not have anyone else to contribute. No Kp or Al or Jrue to save the day.

Brown's game 6 was one of the worst I have seen.

Cs look slow and unathletic. Unfortunately, they look now how we expected them to look this season. Team totally has been exposed.

Why not go to small ball with JT at the 5?

Jrue had a lot of big moments when we won the title.

With Horford's defense on Embiid, the Celtics would have already won the series. None of the bigs are doing a good job defending Embiid including Queta (who is our only quality defensive big man).

Said it a few times but no Al has really hurt them this series. He defended him well and pulled him out because of the 3s he can make.

[Who]

I am worried. 

On the one hand, the 2008 title team went 7 games vs. ATL in the first round and still won a title, it happens.  Tatum and Brown are still good, top players.

On the other hand, I am worried that this team is not as good as they led us to believe based on the regular season success.  That the playoffs is exposing weaknesses.  Players like Queta, Hauser, Scheierman, and others seemed to overachieve in the regular season but are not doing it in the playoffs.  Even Pritchard to some degree is not doing it consistently.

Teams can focus more on Tatum and Brown in the playoffs.  Brown has not been as good the last  few games as he was in the regular season.  I still think they can win this game 7, but it is no given.  And what happens from there, I am even more concerned.

I have downgraded my expectations. I am no longer expecting a title push from this group of players this season. This series makes me believe we are still in that transition year. That things aren't right yet for a genuine title push.

(1) That Tatum isn't 100% yet and the team hasn't integrated him back in properly yet. The chemistry has been poor offensively most of the series.

(2) Vucevic has never gotten aclimated. Midseason acquisition. Unlucky to get injured. Not enough games. Not enough reps. He isn't comfortable in the system. His teammates aren't comfortable with him. We are only getting around 30% out of what he is capable of giving us.

(3) Inexperience. Inexperience with Queta has hurt us badly so far in this series. He doesn't look ready. Not to be the main big on a title contender. He needs another year. He took a huge step forward this year. This season feels like a learning lesson for him. Also for the young perimeter guys. None of them have played well in the playoffs (Baylor, J Walsh, no Hugo).

I am now viewing this more as a stepping stone season. A transition year. Rather than a genuine title push. They are not ready. Not yet. Next year they will be better.

[slamtheking]

Even if they survive a game 7...Boston is going to get smoked by the Knicks.

This team has too many passengers and not enough drivers. JB continues to make the same dumb offensive fouls pushing off. They are on to you JB...stop doing it.
....

White has absoultely gone mental with his game. He has become a headcase and cannot get out of his way. His downfalll has really hurt the Cs.

The loss of D White as a 15-17ppg 3rd scorer has been huge.

It is made worse by the refusal to use Vucevic on the offensive end. He could be the 3rd scorer they need but they refuse to pass him the ball. It was the same with Garza early in the season.

Wow, D White's averages are even worse than I realized. 8.7ppg on 31% FG 26% 3PT. Only 3.0apg against 1.8 turnovers (5.4apg to 1.7tpg on the season). Only 2.8rpg (consistently 4-5rpg usually). 34mpg.

White's collapse this season and especially the playoffs has been huge.  C's do not have the depth on offense this year to make up for him laying bricks, inability to bring the ball up under pressure and start the offensive set without a TO or almost causing one.  PP's lack of consistency isn't helping either but White has been a total loss on offense.

in order to win game 7, the C's are going to need both J's to be in top form and at least 2 of PP, White and Hauser to have good shooting games.  Those 3 will need to make 10 or more 3's combined to take some of the offensive burden off the J's.

[Who]

Cs overachieved in the regular season. Created probably a lot of overhype for the playoffs. But in reality, they are an average team that has a lot of holes on the roster.

Sixers with Embiid are better. Is what it is. Cs have no legit center and no 3rd option anymore to pair with JT and JB. If those two are hitting, the Cs have no chance.

Getting the 2 seed spoiled us  but in reality, this team was more of a 7 sor 8 seed.

It is true that PHI with Embiid, George, and Maxey all healthy (or reasonably healthy), is a good team.  Better than a play in team.  George only played 37 regular season games and Embiid only 38.  They only had all 3 together for 21 games.  George looks better than he has in years and Embiid looks good enough.  I was not expecting Embiid to be a factor in this series at all and I was not expecting Paul George to be this good.

From the way the series is going, I would say the Celtics players were not expecting PHI to be this good either.

Philly had 24 wins and 14 losses with Embiid for a win rate of about 52 wins. Boston won 56 games. Not much difference between Philly with Embiid and Boston on the year.

[Who]

The J?s are just not good enough together. They need a very strong supporting cast like they had with Holiday and Porzingis.
White completely disappearing hasn?t helped he?s been useless.
Vuc is useless as well. Too many players getting minutes who are not impacting the game at all in a positive way.

I?m all for trading Brown and White for Giannis if that gets it done.
The J?s have too many failures together.
Giannis can come be the real alpha and Tatum with his weak mentality would be a perfect 2. Brown isn?t good enough to be a 1. He has the mentality to be but not the skills, more turnovers than assists in yet another playoff series.

Makes me curious. How many playoff series does Jaylen have more turnovers than assists?

* I am going to skip his 2017 playoffs because he didn't play that much. For the record, he had more turnovers than assists in 2 of the 3 playoff series and a 1:1 AST:TOV overall.

* In 2018, Jaylen had 1 of 3 series with more turnovers than assists but was basically even for all 3 series. 10 vs 8. 5 vs 6. 11 vs 9. 26ast to 23tov.

* In 2019, Jaylen had more turnovers than assists in both series. Overall he had 10ast to 16tov.

* In 2020, he a split down the three series. One with more turnovers (12ast to 17tov). One with less turnovers (17ast to 14tov). One with equal turnovers (10 to 10). Overall, 39ast to 41tov.

* In 2021, he did no play.

* In 2022, he had more assists than turnovers in 3 of 4 series as BOS made the Finals. 17ast to 10tov in the first round. 25ast to 21tov in the 2nd round. 21ast to 23tov in the ECF. 22ast to 20tov in the Finals. So he had a good first round and was basically 1:1 AST:TOV from then on (68ast to 64tov).

* In 2023, he had 2 out of 3 series with more turnovers than assists. 18ast to 21tov in 1st round. 26ast to 20tov in 2nd round. 24ast to 25tov in ECF. Again, basically 1:1 overall. 68ast to 66tov.

* 2024 when BOS won the title and Jaylen was MVP. He had more turnovers than assists in the 1st round (11ast to 16tov) but a positive assists to turnovers in the next 3 rounds. 14ast to 12tov 2nd round. 12ast to 9tov in ECF. 25ast to 14tov in the Finals. One of his best playoff series ast:tov in that Finals series.

* In 2025, it was split. 12ast to 16tov in 1st round. 31ast to 23tov in round 2.

* In 2026, this year, Jaylen has 19ast to 22tov.

So a total of 22 series not including his rookie year (25 if including it). Jaylen has a positive ast:tov ratio in 11 series. He had more turnovers than assists in 10 series. And was tied in 1 series. So it is basically 50:50 in terms of series with more assists vs more turnovers.

For his playoff career, he has 365 assists against 345 turnovers in 141 playoff games. 1.06:1.00 AST:TOV ratio.

Also interesting to note the 2 times we made the Finals where the 2 times Jaylen had 3 out of 4 series with a positive ast:tov ratio.

---------------

In contrast with Tatum, if we remove his first 2 playoff runs when he had a 1:1 AST:TOV ratio, he is averaging 5.7apg to 3.1tpg. Almost a 2:1 AST:TOV which is the ideal ratio for a secondary ball-handler on the wing. To be exact, it is a 1.84:1.00 AST:TOV ratio.

[Who]

I wonder if the team should go back to a 2 guard backcourt next season like they had with Jrue & D White. I thought that helped the Jays a lot. Stabilized ball movement. Gave 4 points of attack.

They haven't looked as good in this 1 guard 3 wings 1 big system with J Walsh, Baylor, Hauser alongside them instead of an extra ball-handler & passer.

[Phantom255x]

Would people on here be down to do TP Wagering again for Game 7?