Playfull critic of game 1. Bradley's presence.

[rayallen1934]

Hawks started out the game leading something like 19-4.
Who is to blame?
A. Say If Ray Allen was STARTING it would CLEARLY be his fault.
But Bradley started and the Celtics reverted back to pre all star ways. What changed?

Did Bradley make a shot outside of 1 feet?
A. I dont think he did, he made 4 shots, i know 3 of them were wide open cut layups/alley oop

he was 0-8 on anything resembling a jumper, 0-2 threes. Most of these shots were WIDE OPEN.

Did Bradley play his outstanding defense?
A. Did he? Nobody dare's criticize our defensive specialist. But Kirk drilled 2 threes right in bradley's face, and Pargo shot one in bradley's face also. Hinrich shot one which killed our potential back breaking run in the 3rd. Hinrich's three in the 3rd was insanely difficult and maybe lucky, but it is what it is.

Healthy Ray Allen starting is better vs the Hawks?
A. Against the heat? NO. Against the Hawks, A healthy Ray Allen = better chance of ending this series very early.


Pierce sucked, Garnett sucked in the start. Our defense was good, and i think the celtics canpretty much shut down the hawks for under 20 every single quarter. But Bradley really didnt play well at all. Pietrus didnt either.

Im not trying to down Bradley at all , 21 years old, undersized, first experience in the post season and has only started about 25 games or so. This is not a bash bradley thread. I am the first to admit i was dead wrong about him as you can see in my prior topics.

But as a fair criticism, Bradley did not play well enough to escape major blame. He needs to do more now and tonight is huge.

[anthony83]

Avery Bradley is a great player, and he has had a great season, but the playoffs is something different in the playoffs are not worth the errors.
We need to Ray, the experience is a plus.

[Chris]

Avery Bradley is a great player, and he has had a great season, but the playoffs is something different in the playoffs are not worth the errors.
We need to Ray, the experience is a plus.

I know you are just trying to make it sound like you are not criticizing Bradley, but let's be clear here.  Bradley is NOT a great player.  He has become a very solid player, but great is not a word that should be thrown around.

As for how he played in game 1, he wasn't great, but I didn't have a big problem with it.  I just think his shooting is regressing to the mean, after he was on an insane hot streak from the perimeter.  He has never been much more than an average perimeter shooter, so we needed to expect that at some point, the shooting would level out a bit, and it did in game 1. 

I was actually surprised that he didn't revert to his deer in headlights routine.  He looked comfortable out there.  He has been slow to adapt to new levels of play throughout his career (college and NBA), so I figured he would struggle in the playoffs, but I think he will be fine.  The shots will be dropping again soon.

[chambers]

I would laugh if Ray Allen tried to stay in front of Kirk Hinrich  or Jeff Teague.

It was his first ever playoff game as a starter with significant minutes. I think you'll find he might struggle tonight in game 2, but once we reach home court, he'll calm down and let the game come to him.
He forced too much stuff in game 1, he wanted to score 20 points and was very hyped up. Bass was the same. Meanwhile, Pierce and KG were on the opposite end of the spectrum and to me, Rondo was the only one who was really ready for game 1.

God help us.

[rayallen1934]

I would laugh if Ray Allen tried to stay in front of Kirk Hinrich  or Jeff Teague.

It was his first ever playoff game as a starter with significant minutes. I think you'll find he might struggle tonight in game 2, but once we reach home court, he'll calm down and let the game come to him.
He forced too much stuff in game 1, he wanted to score 20 points and was very hyped up. Bass was the same. Meanwhile, Pierce and KG were on the opposite end of the spectrum and to me, Rondo was the only one who was really ready for game 1.

God help us.

Kirk Hinrich did his damage, and i know Ray cant really keep up with them but dont overexaggerate. you act like ray plays insanely terrible defense.

Bradley needs to his jumpers. He really did not force any like you say, he WAS WIDE OPEN on his jumpers but could not hit any of them. Hopefully he does tonight. We need him.

[anthony83]

Avery Bradley is a great player, and he has had a great season, but the playoffs is something different in the playoffs are not worth the errors.
We need to Ray, the experience is a plus.

I know you are just trying to make it sound like you are not criticizing Bradley, but let's be clear here.  Bradley is NOT a great player.  He has become a very solid player, but great is not a word that should be thrown around.

As for how he played in game 1, he wasn't great, but I didn't have a big problem with it.  I just think his shooting is regressing to the mean, after he was on an insane hot streak from the perimeter.  He has never been much more than an average perimeter shooter, so we needed to expect that at some point, the shooting would level out a bit, and it did in game 1.  

I was actually surprised that he didn't revert to his deer in headlights routine.  He looked comfortable out there.  He has been slow to adapt to new levels of play throughout his career (college and NBA), so I figured he would struggle in the playoffs, but I think he will be fine.  The shots will be dropping again soon.

 Bradley is a solid (this is the correct word) player,he is not a great player.

 +10000000000000000

[Chris]

I would laugh if Ray Allen tried to stay in front of Kirk Hinrich  or Jeff Teague.

It was his first ever playoff game as a starter with significant minutes. I think you'll find he might struggle tonight in game 2, but once we reach home court, he'll calm down and let the game come to him.
He forced too much stuff in game 1, he wanted to score 20 points and was very hyped up. Bass was the same. Meanwhile, Pierce and KG were on the opposite end of the spectrum and to me, Rondo was the only one who was really ready for game 1.

God help us.

Kirk Hinrich did his damage, and i know Ray cant really keep up with them but dont overexaggerate. you act like ray plays insanely terrible defense.

Bradley needs to his jumpers. He really did not force any like you say, he WAS WIDE OPEN on his jumpers but could not hit any of them. Hopefully he does tonight. We need him.

I actually wonder if Ray would have been better than Rondo in that game.  Rondo, and Bradley to a lesser extent, got exposed by cheating off their men too much.  Ray would have been more likely just to stick to Hinrich, rather than constantly going to help when he wasn't really needed, and trying to make steals...and perhaps Hinrich wouldn't have been wide open as much. 

[Marcus13]

Bradley is going to suck this entire playoffs, I've been saying that.

He just isn't very talented at offense.  He was getting easy points off cuts early on because nobody knew who he was - this is the playoffs, you actually have to earn baskets now.

[myteamisbetterthanyours]

Bradley is going to suck this entire playoffs, I've been saying that.

He just isn't very talented at offense.  He was getting easy points off cuts early on because nobody knew who he was - this is the playoffs, you actually have to earn baskets now.

Did u see the Hawks game where he dropped 28 points?  He was driving strong, pulling up in people's faces, hitting open 3's... Against their starters nonetheless

He's a solid offensive player.. I think we can chalk up the first game to playoff jitters.. I mean.. Paul Pierce was 5-19 in game 1, does that mean he sucks at offense?

I expect Bradley to do well tonight..

[clover]

Ray's had bad playoff series, Bradley's had one bad playoff game.  And none of the C's starters put together a whole creditable performance in that game--KG to start, Rondo to end, Bass and Pierce at all.

We know Bradley can't hit his jumpers when he's too nervous, but that he can if he isn't.  Let's hope his play in game one leads to the Hawks leaving him wide open through tonight's game--and he settles down to take advantage of it.

But really the team needs to establish itself inside offensively, and that'll be up to KG, Pierce and Bass as much as Bradley.

[CelticG1]

Bradley has to prove it to some people and he will.

He's 21 and not a consistent player yet. He is obviously didn't have a good

He had a bad game the other night but no one really did besides KG and Rondo.

I think he'll have a bounce back game tonight. You can't expect him to bring it at this stage of his career yet.

He shot like 80% on 3's for a while knew that wouldn't continue.  He had a couple shots go in and out the other night, hopefully those will even out

[nickagneta]

Avery Bradley was not the reason we lost on Sunday and he wasn't even the Celtic player that played the worst.

[pearljammer10]

The Celtics presence on Offense is what lost the game for us. So bradley was partly a culprit but so was everyone else on the team. No movement, terrible shot selection, no offensive rebounding (or i guess i should say worse than usual), hardly anything to the basket. We were stale and dull.

[j804]

The Celtics presence on Offense is what lost the game for us. So bradley was partly a culprit but so was everyone else on the team. No movement, terrible shot selection, no offensive rebounding (or i guess i should say worse than usual), hardly anything to the basket. We were stale and dull.

Basically, we came into this game like it was still the regular season. I figured they knew better than to do that but I was wrong.

[mkogav]

Bradley was mediocre at best. I believe that's the best we can ever expect from him. He's just not that good.

He's a poor man's Ron Mercer crossed with a poor man's Tony Allen.

I would have to believe that if Ray Allen had played then the C's would have beaten the Hawks. Given the fact that both Allen and Rondo are out tonight, let's just hope that the home town team can keep it respectful.

If we are lucky, Danny will be able to flip Bradley for a late second rounder in 2013.

Bradley's just not that good.

Mk

P.S. I know all this b/c I played a lot of NBA 2K12 on the PS3.