Celtics (52-22) at Hawks (43-32) 4/1

[Kuberski33]

The bench killed them tonight forcing Doc to play his starters longer minutes and they faded at the end.  

[celticinorlando]

I don't feel at all confident going into the playoffs as a three seed. Botromline is the team either starts slow or finishes ..only consistent games was last night. Miami game becomes huge

[Cman]

Bench horrendous. Jeff green is a huge disappointment. Dominated by a journeyman backup center. Discouraging.

The way we use Jeff Green is a huge disappointment. You need the ball to score, and we know he gets stuck defending 4's.

Agreed 100%.

[birdwatcher]

2nd Round Exit as the 3rd Seed here we come!  Hooray!

Come on, you know teams don't play back to backs in the playoffs.

They came out with a lot of energy but just couldn't hold on to it for the rest of the game. Plus played to much hero ball (Pierce).

I'm not confident in this team's ability to close out tough games against opponents with players who are good at closing and getting to the line. 

I won't be at all surprised to see them run out of gas somewhere in the second round.  They'll be on the road, too, which won't help.

Best case scenario is getting out-hustled and out-defended in the ECF against the Bulls.

The Bulls are having a great season, but much like Cleveland the past few years, they have a lot to prove in the playoffs. Not one player on that team other than Scalabrine has made it to an NBA finals, and the Bulls haven't been in a conference final in how long? We still have to play the games.

[hpantazo]

2nd Round Exit as the 3rd Seed here we come!  Hooray!

total overreaction. We had Davis starting at center a JO with serious minute limitations and we had plenty of chances to win this game down the stretch on the 2nd night of a tough back to back. Good game imo, great effort.

Yes, but the reason I said what I did is because we're going to be the 3rd seed.  We can't win these games down the stretch because the team has no depth and they are running out of gas.  We're not going to have home court advantage, and our primary rivals are all rounding into form right as we're losing it.

fair enough, but I think we can beat the heat or the bulls on the road

[Rondo No Look]

31 pts in the 2nd quarter

31 pts combined in the 2nd half

[RMO]

Can I ask a question?  Why can't this team rebound?  Seriously.  Plenty of teams don't have the front line that the lakers do and manage to pound the glass.  I don't even care about their lack of offensive rebounds.  It's the defensive rebounds that concern me.  How has this team been considered a great defensive unit when they can't get rebounds?

One more question.  I don't remember.  Were they this bad at rebounding in 2008?

[celticinorlando]

Effort is the second half was unacceptable. Just poor.

[throwedoff]

I'm not really mad at this game it was a lot of quality shots missed after yesterdays game I'm confident in what this team can do

[GreenFaith1819]

Tough loss, but we'll be fine.

At least Glen hit a three .

ATL will shrivel up and lose to ORL in the playoffs. They'll be home fishing in April - once again.

[ejk3489]

2nd Round Exit as the 3rd Seed here we come!  Hooray!

Come on, you know teams don't play back to backs in the playoffs.

They came out with a lot of energy but just couldn't hold on to it for the rest of the game. Plus played to much hero ball (Pierce).

I'm not confident in this team's ability to close out tough games against opponents with players who are good at closing and getting to the line. 

I won't be at all surprised to see them run out of gas somewhere in the second round.  They'll be on the road, too, which won't help.

Best case scenario is getting out-hustled and out-defended in the ECF against the Bulls.

I hate to bring up last year, but you could've said the exact same thing about their playoff fate in 2010.

I don't know we'll see though...

[birdwatcher]

Can I ask a question?  Why can't this team rebound?  Seriously.  Plenty of teams don't have the front line that the lakers do and manage to pound the glass.  I don't even care about their lack of offensive rebounds.  It's the defensive rebounds that concern me.  How has this team been considered a great defensive unit when they can't get rebounds?

One more question.  I don't remember.  Were they this bad at rebounding in 2008?

Have you ever noticed how we try to rebound? We go for the ball instead of finding a man and boxing out--we get out jumped/hustled to balls instead of being fundamentally sound.

[radiohead]

PP was smiling even when we were down in the 4th. Even Doc was pretty cool on the bench. Something tells me that this team has zoned out on the regular season and is just waiting for the playoffs to start.

[Cman]

2nd Round Exit as the 3rd Seed here we come!  Hooray!

total overreaction. We had Davis starting at center a JO with serious minute limitations and we had plenty of chances to win this game down the stretch on the 2nd night of a tough back to back. Good game imo, great effort.

Yes, but the reason I said what I did is because we're going to be the 3rd seed.  We can't win these games down the stretch because the team has no depth and they are running out of gas.  We're not going to have home court advantage, and our primary rivals are all rounding into form right as we're losing it.

I feel that the Cs are actually starting to round into form.  Rondo in particular the last couple games.

[LB3533]

This game was lost in the 3rd when we built a 12 point lead and let it slip to 6 points by the start of the 4th.

When you move Baby to the starting unit and don't use Jeff Green fully...the Bench is going to have a tough time to score, especially if you play Ray Allen, who's shot is off, with the 2nd unit.