tough loss, but some positives to take away

[Clench123]

To blame Doc in any of this is moronic in my opinion. 

If anything Doc showed tonight why he's the second best coach in the league.  The guy could have only four guys to play a game of basketball and he'd still make it work somehow.  Kudos, Doc.  Respect.

Celtics fans should get the award for the most ungrateful set of fans there is.

[ejk3489]

I honestly can't believe there's Doc hate on here tonight.  I thought he worked that short handed lineup to near perfection against the Heat in this game.

My only issue with Doc tonight was not subbing in AB for Crawford until there was just 5 minutes left in the 4th (and the Heat had cut the lead to 4), but other than that I thought he did the best he could considering the circumstances.

[PierceMVP08]

My gripe with Doc is that he refuses to call timeouts at critical times when the opposing team is on a run. A team should NEVER go on an 11-0 run on you without calling a timeout.  Nonsense

[gpap]

There's no doubt the Celts are always going to be a thorn on Miami's side. HOWEVER, Miami will continue to beat us UNTIL we start getting more physical.

Another fan made mention of the Lebron dunk on Terry and that actually really bothered me too because it shows Lebron is just a little too comfortable vs the Celtics (remember last year, laughing in KG's face.)

Later in the game, someone like DJ White or Wilcox should've sent Lebron a serious message.

What that does is it gets in the head of the opposing team and makes them think twice before messing with us again.

Not to mention we still owe them from the Wade/Rondo incident two years ago.

Until we start "fighting" back, I don't see us overtaking Miami.

[Clench123]

Doc has limited timeouts to work with and those timeouts are very valuable down the stretch.  Why burn 'em every time an opposing team make a run?  He has reasons to believe his veteran guys in the game could turn it around.

[Clench123]

There's no doubt the Celts are always going to be a thorn on Miami's side. HOWEVER, Miami will continue to beat us UNTIL we start getting more physical.

Another fan made mention of the Lebron dunk on Terry and that actually really bothered me too because it shows Lebron is just a little too comfortable vs the Celtics (remember last year, laughing in KG's face.)

Later in the game, someone like DJ White or Wilcox should've sent Lebron a serious message.

What that does is it gets in the head of the opposing team and makes them think twice before messing with us again.

Not to mention we still owe them from the Wade/Rondo incident two years ago.

Until we start "fighting" back, I don't see us overtaking Miami.

I agree.  Boy do I miss Darko

[Spicoli]

A few points:

1. Jeff Green must start from now on. If Jeff Green doesn't start from here on out Doc Rivers will forever lose my respect.

2. As long as Bradley plays, Wade will not be a factor which is good for us if we face them in the playoffs.

3. Garnett will cover up the 5 or 6 absolutely horrific defensive lapses in the paint. There were so many blown assignments. I think Garnett seals that up if he plays.

[Clench123]

A few points:

1. Jeff Green must start from now on. If Jeff Green doesn't start from here on out Doc Rivers will forever lose my respect.

2. As long as Bradley plays, Wade will not be a factor which is good for us if we face them in the playoffs.

3. Garnett will cover up the 5 or 6 absolutely horrific defensive lapses in the paint. There were so many blown assignments. I think Garnett seals that up if he plays.

Jeff Green starting will hurt our bench...alot

[syfy9]

A few points:

1. Jeff Green must start from now on. If Jeff Green doesn't start from here on out Doc Rivers will forever lose my respect.

He doesn't need to start, just get a higher (and also consistent) amount of minutes.

[Lightskinsmurf]

These are the games that if you don't win you're in trouble. You just have to win games like this vs miami. Now this was a regular season game so its out the window doesn't mean much in the long run.

Still, once the playoffs start we simply cannot let games like this where we're playing great and clicking on all cylinders slip away from us. Yeah we didn't have KG but we still played about as good as you can realistically hope for against the heat AT HOME and still came up short.

I have no doubt the celtics will play the heat really tough. Probably even scare them a bit like last year. When its all set and done tho I just don't think we can beat miami 4 times before they beat us 4 times.

[LooseCannon]

the downgrade from KG to Bass/Wilcox is a significant one.

The downgrade from Bass to Wilcox is significant.  I'm wondering if White or Randolph are good enough that I should be hoping there is enough time left in the season for one of them to win Doc's favor and move ahead of Wilcox on the depth chart.

[Spicoli]

To those saying that Jeff doesn't need to start, i just think he is a better player when he has the ball in his hands more often. If he comes off the bench, his minutes will always be sporadic at best. Doc Rivers is horrible at managing minutes for bench players, but he loves running the starters into the ground. Running Jeff into the ground is a good thing at this point (as long as his heart holds up).

[kgainez]

I can't stand doc. My hate for him is growing more and more by the day.

man, listen...
lol

[kgainez]

All this game stated to me was that once KG comes back, MIA-BOS is a series.

With KG back there protecting the rim, we can do this.

MIA wins tonight...they have a good shot at going ahead and breaking LA's record.

But tonight's game will give them something to think about.

We can beat MIA in a series.

We'll see, I say there's two ways to look at this. One, we played them tough and very easily could have won the game without KG. Another way is, green had the best game of his career and avery bradley was the only player on our team having a off shooting night at home and we still lost.

i mean but, make 3 more free throws, make one less turnover and a bucket, the game is won
i try not to be a homer, but i think off pure talent alone, we can win 3. we will need something to win a fourth against miami.

[dasani]

Yes, Doc's minutes management for the team is questionable. I did not like his substitutions throughout the game at all. Especially in the fourth. On to the postives: Hopefully Jeff's confidence can grow and Lee played better than expected.

eta: I didn't like AB's defense really this game. I noticed he really isn't a strong off-ball defender. His poor offensive game tonight didn't help either.