The real reason Boston lost to Cleveland.

[nickagneta]

Its not Doc's fault for not subbing KG, PP and AB in earlier at the very end of the game.

It's not KGs fault for getting decimated by Anderson Varejao in the last part of the game.

It's not AB's fault for not being able to contain Kyrie Irving in the end of the game.

Its not Ray and PP's fault for being unable to hit a shot at the end of the game.

Simply put it was all of their faults. An entire team breakdown from the head coach's bad decision to the bench's inability to produce anything(they were outplayed by the Cavs bench to the tune of giving up 16 more pts, 5 more rebounds, 3 more steals and 3 more blocks than they had) to Pierce's terrible running of the offense, to AB and ETM not being able to contain Irving at all, to KG getting dominated on the boards late.

Plain and simple this team got outcoached, outhustled, outplayed, and outperformed from the 7 minute mark of the 4th quarter until the end of the game after having yet another lackluster 1st half that showed no urgency to beat this team and put them away.

The C's had a good thing going for a few games but last night was a return to the season's earlier form. Hopefully this was just a hiccup and they come back out and rip off 5-6 games in a row.

[chambers]

I actually think it was Bass being completely helpless on the pick and roll guarding Verajao that gave them momentum.

He had no idea what was going on and unfortunately teams are going to see this and run it against us much more.
Hopefully Rondo's length and JO's experience will help when they return.

Teams will continue to exploit that line up for a while.
Good thing is we have mostly scrub teams for a few more games where that disadvantage will be minimal.

[CelticG1]

To me, Kgs rebound/TO and bass's rebound/TO pretty much lost that game.

Everyone could have done a better job too but those were huge errors and pretty simple plays. All we need was for.them to hold on to one of those and we would have won despite the choke job.

[PosImpos]

I actually think it was Bass being completely helpless on the pick and roll guarding Verajao that gave them momentum.

Yeah, the team as a whole was completely useless in defending the Irving / Varejao pick and roll.  Killed us all game long.

[CelticG1]

Is it bad that half the reason I want them to win is so I dont have see the doom and gloom sky is falling threads in here? If we won there would have been all these positive threads about five game winning streak and being above 500. Now we lose and are a below 500 team that doesn't have a prayer.

[BudweiserCeltic]

To be fair on KG, he got called for travelling a few times which weren't, quite dubious calls, from refs not directly in the play. KG has problems with travelling, but I didn't see any of the sort in a couple of those.

[Celts Fan 92]

Is it bad that half the reason I want them to win is so I dont have see the doom and gloom sky is falling threads in here? If we won there would have been all these positive threads about five game winning streak and being above 500. Now we lose and are a below 500 team that doesn't have a prayer.

lol true im kinda the same way i got blasted on twitter soon as we lost too the over reaction nd non objective fans nd non fans of the Celtics annoys the hell outta me

[slamtheking]

Its not Doc's fault for not subbing KG, PP and AB in earlier at the very end of the game.

It's not KGs fault for getting decimated by Anderson Varejao in the last part of the game.

It's not AB's fault for not being able to contain Kyrie Irving in the end of the game.

Its not Ray and PP's fault for being unable to hit a shot at the end of the game.

Simply put it was all of their faults. An entire team breakdown from the head coach's bad decision to the bench's inability to produce anything(they were outplayed by the Cavs bench to the tune of giving up 16 more pts, 5 more rebounds, 3 more steals and 3 more blocks than they had) to Pierce's terrible running of the offense, to AB and ETM not being able to contain Irving at all, to KG getting dominated on the boards late.

Plain and simple this team got outcoached, outhustled, outplayed, and outperformed from the 7 minute mark of the 4th quarter until the end of the game after having yet another lackluster 1st half that showed no urgency to beat this team and put them away.

The C's had a good thing going for a few games but last night was a return to the season's earlier form. Hopefully this was just a hiccup and they come back out and rip off 5-6 games in a row.

to be honest, the biggest reason they lost is because they played like they've played the last 2 years when a 'should win' game was on tap-->they took the competition for granted and didn't come out of the gate playing hard and trying to win.  That 4 game winning streak seems to have given them too much of a comfort level where they're back to thinking they can just coast through the season and turn it on in the playoffs again.

in terms of individual plays, that blown layup by Ray, that non-call on PP's shot and KG's travel all were bad plays down the stretch. 

[Q_FBE]

We simply don't have the talent to take the lesser known teams for granted. Cleveland has the talent to make the playoffs in the EC and would likely line up against Miami as a 1-8 matchup.

This is one of those games to remind us this is a crossroads year for us. ChAinges are coming and it might not be for the good of Celtics basketball.

The Celtics need to shake this off and win lots of games in February because starting March 10, the schedule gets absolutely brutal (27 games in 45 days with only 9 of those at home).

If the team is not in 1st place by the end of February, I fear a fire sale level trading event from Daniel Ainge. Games like last night are not encouraging if you want to see the Ubuntu Band play together into the Spring of 2012.

[greenpride32]

OP, you are right that the entire team failed to execute in the 4th quarter.  But leaving your best player on the bench, and the guy that has been winning all your games recently, in a game that was far from decided, is completely inexecusable.  Guys are going to miss shots, commit turnovers etc, it happens.  Sitting the guy who has clearly been carrying the team was not a choice that was up to chance.

[green7]

sill doesn't change the fact that having the "BIG 3" makes the team look old & slow,especially the oldest of the big 3 ray allen.

[BudweiserCeltic]

sill doesn't change the fact that having the "BIG 3" makes the team look old & slow,especially the oldest of the big 3 ray allen.

Other than the "big 3" weren't the culprits last night regardless. Our supporting cast failed. Bass, 38 minutes 4 rebounds? Stiesma 5 minutes played from a +/- of -8? Pietrus went 1/5?

Our main guys played a very good games, excepting Pierce's turnovers, some of them quite silly.

Again, 10 point lead in the closing moments of the 4th, and Doc froze our main guys in the bench until the end and a few mind buggling turn of events that worked against us, particularly calling travels from refs who weren't in the play and obvious fouls that would have put Pierce on the line to seal the game didn't happen. And let's not forget, our young Bass who couldn't secure the rebound even though he had the ball in his hands.

[Bankshot]

OP, you are right that the entire team failed to execute in the 4th quarter.  But leaving your best player on the bench, and the guy that has been winning all your games recently, in a game that was far from decided, is completely inexecusable.  Guys are going to miss shots, commit turnovers etc, it happens.  Sitting the guy who has clearly been carrying the team was not a choice that was up to chance.

I agree with this.  But I also think Ray's defense or lack thereof, hurt as well.  Not blaming Ray, he is what he is, but it's up to Doc to make the adjustments.

[Tgro]

It's pretty easy to 2nd guess last night. It pretty much looked like we had the game in the bag until there was like 30 seconds left. Cleveland didn't take the lead until there was less than 3 seconds to go.

I agree with the OP. The WHOLE team failed. The starters, the bench, Doc. It's on ALL of them.

The refs failed us too. I think a key moment was the embarrassing non call on Pierce. I think we were up 5 at the time and should have been going to the line which would have made the game just about out of reach. Instead Cleveland went down the floor and got a quick basket and cut it to 3. That's when it felt like the game was really slipping away. Right then. And you know how those quick turning momentum games turn out.

Just like it did.

By time we knew we were about to lose it, it was too late. They ALL blew it. They choked.

[Interceptor]

This was just a perfect storm of a bunch of little things that wouldn't matter individually, joining forces to sink the ship. One no-call that was called, one bucket, one loose ball gone for, one rebound grabbed, one defensive stop, one less TO... any of those is all that it would have taken.