tough loss, but some positives to take away

[AB_Celtic]

I wouldn't read into this game at all.  Miami was on their 4th straight road game and the second night of a back to back and Boston badly wanted that game and put everything they had into it.  There were obviously some positives from Green, but when Lebron started guarding him consistently late in the game, Green's play was significantly altered.

I honestly dont even remember one play in the fth quarter when Lebron guarded Jeff Green.

I was surprised because he never did. The guy who made plays on Jeff was Battier.

Yep.

Riveting words, CC.

I think the reason Lebron wasn't on Jeff is because they wanted him on Pierce. Career game from Green or not, Pierce is still Mr. Clutch on this team, and you want your best defender on Mr. Clutch.

It could have come back to bite them had we made our free throws or made a basket or two more, but they got lucky and walked away with a slim win.

[Moranis]

I wouldn't read into this game at all.  Miami was on their 4th straight road game and the second night of a back to back and Boston badly wanted that game and put everything they had into it.  There were obviously some positives from Green, but when Lebron started guarding him consistently late in the game, Green's play was significantly altered.

I honestly dont even remember one play in the fth quarter when Lebron guarded Jeff Green.

I was surprised because he never did. The guy who made plays on Jeff was Battier.

Yep.

Riveting words, CC.

I think the reason Lebron wasn't on Jeff is because they wanted him on Pierce. Career game from Green or not, Pierce is still Mr. Clutch on this team, and you want your best defender on Mr. Clutch.

It could have come back to bite them had we made our free throws or made a basket or two more, but they got lucky and walked away with a slim win.

The last minute or so James was on Pierce, but there was a good 4 or 5 minute stretch in the 4th when James was on Green and Green did nothing.  Battier had the nice play at the 10 second mark as well.

[eugen]

HEAT did not deserve to win. In my opinion CS lost the game for this reasons.

1-not being able to manage at home,10 point lead
during 4th quarter, considering the impotance of this game...Doc did not make a good move in few games having a lead in 4th quarter
2-this team does not have a great center to defend under the rim. Imagine if KG does not play...Can not see Wade, Lebron or Bosh making very easy basket under the rim. Dannys fault levaing the team without a great center to help the diffense. Here I see the maayor problem of this team. In off season if Cs do not get a great center, I do not think they can beat MIAMI or INDIANA.
3-in 4th quarter the team played very static, not making movement with or without the ball, that made the difference during the 1st, 2nd or 3 rd quarter. Maybe in 4th quarter the team seemed to be tired

And where would that "Great Center" that Danny's supposed to add magically come from? 

How did the SPURS get Diaw last year?

[2short]

positives to take from the game:
no all star point guard: rondo
no rookie power forward: sully
no backcourt sub: barbosa

Still a team gelling with new guys added to roster.  No KG
Good game by lebron and wade but we only lost by 2.  Calls seemed pretty even so straight up series I'm fine with going against them with only adding kg back to lineup.

great job by ainge making such a deep team, even with all the injuries we've had I don't think too many teams want to face us in playoff series

[Fred Roberts]

I thought the calls were actually a little lopsided in Miami's favor (shocker) in the 1st half.

We were beating up on the Heat, but there were a number of ticky tack 50/50 calls that kept going the Heat's way. I think fouls were 2/1 in favor of the Heat in the first half.

Anyways, yes, plenty of positives to take away. Jeff, Terry, Lee were outstanding. PP, Bass & Bradley played okay. Too many turnovers. Other than the turnovers, I think we'd have won handily.

Of course, we had some hot hands and if those go cold, things change quickly.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I wrote this as a FanPost, but it's relevant here too:

They played great. They were missing not only their out-for-the-season All-Star point guard, but also their emotional leader and defensive anchor, and they still gave Miami all it could handle. It’s an effort to be proud of.

And none of that matters.

In thinking about this season’s Celtics team, the word that shines through for me is maddening. This team … wow. This team had a lot of growing pains to go through during the first part of the season, sure; I think we all realized that would be the case—lots of new guys, plus Avery Bradley was out for a while and then had to be reincorporated. I, and you, expected lots of hiccups, lots of road bumps and detours and ugly performances while guys were learning defensive rotations and offensive sets.

Yet we knew, you and I, what this team was capable of: championship-level play, or close to it. And even while these guys were struggling, we saw flashes of that promise: a win over OKC, a win over the trendy-pick Knicks in New York, even a win over Miami, a game during which we all learned that our aforementioned floor general was done for the season, and maybe for a good part of next as well. These guys—KG, Pierce, & Co.—were gritty, grinding along, and we expected them to turn the corner at any moment.

And they did, for the most part. Even with Rondo out, and then Sully, and then the Blur. Guys were settling into their roles, getting comfortable, gaining confidence, and the team went on some winning streaks.

But the streak-breakers were sometimes (read: too often) among the league’s cellar dwellers, such as New Orleans on Jan. 16 to halt a 6-game streak, or Charlotte on Feb. 11—with KG and Pierce—to end a 7-game streak.

“But it was a classic trap game,” some Boston fans said. “Cs will get ’em next time.” Or: “No problem. It was the second night of a back-to-back after that triple-OT win over Denver.” OK. Fine. I can maintain the positivity.

But then the Cs lost to Charlotte—again—this time by nearly 30 points.

“But Pierce sat out.”

Doesn’t matter. This is the Bobkitties we’re talking about. The Washington Generals of the NBA. The Cs should soundly thump them, even without Pierce. And have you noticed that there’s always some excuse for these guys from certain quarters? Always some at-the-ready defense to explain away the inevitable letdowns and the consistent inconsistency? Always some “legitimate defense” for their underperformance?

“But the Cs almost beat the Heat last night, without KG! Doesn’t that say something about this team?”

Yes, it does. It says, to me, that this team gets up only for “big games,” that this team doesn’t show up night in and night out, that this team focuses only when it feels like it. All of which is the opposite of how a championship-caliber team plays.

Yes, it’s great, and pretty impressive, that they could almost beat the champs without KG and without Rondo and without Sully, just like it was great and impressive that they almost knocked them out of last season’s playoffs without Bradley and without Green and without Wilcox and O’Neal.

Pretty interesting, though, how a team can, on one hand, overcome so much adversity, so many big hurdles, but then ultimately is brought down by such small things, by things that are so … basic … so fundamental. Things that high school kids are drilled on ad nauseum but that these professionals seem to lose sight of. It’s like a guy who has all the tools to conquer Mount Everest, and is nearly at the top, but then slips and falls because he forgot to tie his bootlaces.

Paul Pierce might’ve put it best:

“There’s always positives from every game, but you've got to look at negative things when you play against the best team in the NBA right now. It’s always going to come down to the little things, and those things really add up at the end of the game when you have a two-point loss.”

First, Paul, let me say thank you to you. Thank you for saying what I’ve been saying all season, and thank you for pointing out what many Cs fans have been ignoring all season: The little things matter. It’s not that these guys simply miss a free throw here and commit the occasional turnover there; they usually don’t lose because they botch a play at the end of a game, or because the refs make a bad call in crunch time; it’s the accumulated weight of numerous mistakes, all the straws that lead to the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it’s 9 (NINE!) missed free throws and 20 turnovers (that’s 40–60 possible points) when you have very little margin for error.

So they nearly beat the Miami Heat last night.

Big. Freakin. Deal. The reality is this: The Boston Celtics might be the biggest speed bump these Miami Heat will face this postseason, but they’re still nothing more than a speed bump. And that’s not going to change unless they get their heads in the game from tip-off to final whistle.

[angryguy77]

It's great we played tough, but this game will mean nothing come playoff time. I really can't take anything positive away from a loss, other than we are not as bad as the cats.

We've known that we can give the Heat a run for their money for a long time now. Nothing that went well in this game kept me from saying a few choice words after it was over.

What I saw was:
A team that played with a lot of effort.

One guy go nova.

Evidence that this team will not take care of the ball no matter how dire the situation is. This problem will never go away it seems.

A coach showing the world what drugs can do to a mind.

[wahz]

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.

I'm as worried about this as anyone but I'm hopeful.

1. With Garnett playing, Miami scores 95 or less. We played well but he would have made that much of a difference. Of course maybe Jeff doesn't go off and we lose but I think we win going away.

2. We match up almost absurdly well with these guys: KG vs. Bosh; Bradley vs. Wade; Green vs. Lebron; Haslem vs. PP; Chalmers vs Lee. By design obviously. They have various additional shooters, but we have Terry, and at times Crawford who can free themselves unlike what Battier, Ray and Miller can do,  and we can counter some size with Bass(who is coming on just like last year),and Wilcox. We are about as athletic as they are with Lee, Green, and Bradley

If we stay healthy we can do it. We have to be HEALTHY. It will take a great team effort and we have to slow Lebron down some

[kgainez]

I'm not sure JG has the game he has with KG

but if the game WAS that close with KG in, I'd feel MOST comfortable with the ball in his hands.

KG is top 5 in 'clutch' shots this year.

[aporel#18]

The media is trying to spin this game as the Celtics played a perfect game and still couldn't beat the Heatles.

In fact, we played bad team defense, and since the refs started making his job in the second quarter, we stopped from attacking the rim, settling for jumpers. Of course, Jeff was unstoppable, as we all expected him to be, and that's hard to replicate, but aside from Jeff, only Courtney Lee played above our expectations.

On the other hand, LeBroid 37pts/12ast, Karate Hamster took a lot of shots but he was a beast rebounding in the 4th, Bosh was good (+20) and Macario Chalmers made almost every trey to score 21. You could argue that guy with bad ankles wasn't very good, but the rest of the Heatles played good to great.

Yet they trying to say Miami can still play better, which I doubt, but they are missing the fact the Celts played without the best defender in the league (not best shotblocker) and the fact they still are improving as a team due to lots of new guys/guys coming back from injuries.

For me, this is a big positive, but if you looked at the Heatles celebration, while Pierce left the floor without emotion after missing the deciding shot, it's still better. They wanted this win bad, and our Celtics could've played KG, but they didn't feel the need to force things.

Let them buy into their superiority and celebrate with the media. Come playoff time, the Celtics will be an improved team, ready to crush their souls.

Go Celtics!!!

[dmopower]

Our defense was aggressive and is comming along well. The whole KG defense being gone is legitamate, but it isnt his blocks that we missed. KG is the best big in the game at defending the pick and roll and has been his entire career.

 Miami runs tons of pick and rolls so KG being gone IS huge. Plus he has legit size and instincts that you cant teach.

On offense our guys moved well without the ball, especially in the first half. They were running off screens on both sides of the court at the same time often  and setting second and third screens per posession and it was working.

 Getting the ball over half court without turning it over was our glaring issue that I saw and it has been. I believe Lee should do more of the ball handling bringing it up and let bradley set screens and come off screens.

 JG still has to come off the bench or it will be too weak but let him play with the starters in money time like James Posey did. I think this is our best lineup for closing with our bigs.

 Doc did mismanage minutes but anyone that was supprised by that has not been paying attention it appears. Doc makes horrible in game changes but his game to game adjustments are spot on. A tribute to his coaching staff
and or the players input for sure.

 If healthy we CAN beat the Heat and the Heat know this. Of course the plannets need to be all lined up and a ref that hates Leboy wouldn't hurt either.

[LB3533]

I wouldn't read into this game at all.  Miami was on their 4th straight road game and the second night of a back to back and Boston badly wanted that game and put everything they had into it.  There were obviously some positives from Green, but when Lebron started guarding him consistently late in the game, Green's play was significantly altered.

I honestly dont even remember one play in the fth quarter when Lebron guarded Jeff Green.

I was surprised because he never did. The guy who made plays on Jeff was Battier.

Yep.

Riveting words, CC.

I think the reason Lebron wasn't on Jeff is because they wanted him on Pierce. Career game from Green or not, Pierce is still Mr. Clutch on this team, and you want your best defender on Mr. Clutch.

It could have come back to bite them had we made our free throws or made a basket or two more, but they got lucky and walked away with a slim win.

The last minute or so James was on Pierce, but there was a good 4 or 5 minute stretch in the 4th when James was on Green and Green did nothing.  Battier had the nice play at the 10 second mark as well.

Jeff Green had 5 points in the 4th quarter (should have been 7 points)

Green's last basket was at the 9 minute mark of the 4th.

Green was subbed out at 7:39 with Pierce as his replacement.

Green sat out until 3:25.

Green got his shot "blocked" by Bosh (goal tending) at 2:48

(Terry turnover 2:25)
(Bradley 3pter 1:49)

Green missed a layup at 1:08

(Bass missed layup 31.9 sec)

Green blocked shot by Battier at 8.0 sec.


So it doesn't look at all like James was on Green from the 3:25 mark to the end of the game. It may be possible that Lebron was denying the ball to Green but that wasn't really stopping Green when Green had the ball or anything of that nature.

Green was still scoring at the start of the 4th and he got cold when he had to sit due to fatigue.

Now the next time we face the Heat, Green is probably going to have to deal with Lebron all game, but that leaves Pierce somewhat free and clear.

Either way, the Heat have to deal with it and we have to deal with the possibility of an ineffective Green on the offensive end.