Celtics (0-0) at Cavaliers (0-0) Round 1 Game 1 4/18/15

[AngryAndIrritable]

CBS did a poor job today. 

1) Have Crowder against Lebron as much as possible. ET can't do anything vs Lebron
2) Have AB and Smart out there as much as possible against Irving

IT will get his points but it doesn't have to be at the expense of Irving getting points

It's CBS's first playoff game ever too, he will learn. He has improved a huge deal this year compared to last year as an NBA coach.

I hope so.  CBS loves to spread his lineup out on the floor.  He has a schedule he likes to follow and it won't work again the Cavs

After the 1st quarter, CBS sees lebron coming in the game, plug in Crowder right away. Lebron goes to sit down, rest Crowder.  Same with having Smart against Irving. Irving had a tough time vs Smart vs anyone else on the court

Crowder was the only player on the court tonight who could have feasibly troubled Kyrie. Maybe not the entire game, but in patches it could have had a suitably disruptive effect.

[hwangjini_1]

Love went for 19-12 today. I don't like that one bit.

wow!!!! he made more shots than he took!!  now THAT is efficient basketball. 

[hpantazo]

I have an honest question for the people who don't think the refs were jobbing us



Do you think donaghy was the only one?

The thing is, I'm sure if the refs called the game more fairly the Cavs would still win easily, but it just really bothers me to see guys on our team fighting hard for loose balls and making the right defensive plays just to get screwed by the refs. It's just not right.

[Tr1boy]

Listen, we all knew the Celts were going up against a monster here.  We had a great looking 1st quarter and decent 2nd. It's the third where we lost the game

I'm still aiming for the Celts to win 2 and at least 1. But anything more than that would be a dream

[aporel#18]

Glad to be able to watch the Cs fight, not so much about the results.

Refs did their job as usual with LeBroid, no surprises here, but today it was so blatant even the knucklebocker announcing team was honest about it.

Expect the broom, but I'll watch every minute I can of this team. They deserve some praise for their will to win, even if their play hasn't been very good.

This Celtic team will be very good very soon, and the Cavs will be irrelevant again.

Go Celtics!

[hwangjini_1]

Listen, we all knew the Celts were going up against a monster here.  We had a great looking 1st quarter and decent 2nd. It's the third where we lost the game

I'm still aiming for the Celts to win 2 and at least 1. But anything more than that would be a dream

and the celtics did ok in the 4th quarter too. i find it encouraging that the celtics hustled all game and made it as close as they did considering kyrie's heroics.

game 2 coming up. let's see if they can win one in cleveland!!! 

[MBunge]

I've seen much better C's teams get destroyed easier.

Watching a much better team get killed is a different kind of painful.  In that case, you know they're capable of competing, but they don't.

The Celtics didn't play their best game today, but I think they played a lot closer to their best than the Cavs did.  They're just nowhere close to being ready to hang with a contender, and it shows. 

All of that would be fine if they all kinds of potential and just needed time to grow.  This isn't the 2010 Thunder.

Smart is a rookie.  Sully is coming back from injury.  IT and Cowder came in mid-season trades.  Zeller and KO clearly have room to grow.  Boston has some unprotected first round picks coming from a Brooklyn team that is worse than us.  And we've got a lot of cap room for the first time in forever.

Some people really need to get over their tank envy.

Mike

[hwangjini_1]

Glad to be able to watch the Cs fight, not so much about the results.

Refs did their job as usual with LeBroid, no surprises here, but today it was so blatant even the knucklebocker announcing team was honest about it.

Expect the broom, but I'll watch every minute I can of this team. They deserve some praise for their will to win, even if their play hasn't been very good.

This Celtic team will be very good very soon, and the Cavs will be irrelevant again.

Go Celtics!

well said and a tp for you.

goooo celtics!!!

[PhoSita]

I've seen much better C's teams get destroyed easier.

Watching a much better team get killed is a different kind of painful.  In that case, you know they're capable of competing, but they don't.

The Celtics didn't play their best game today, but I think they played a lot closer to their best than the Cavs did.  They're just nowhere close to being ready to hang with a contender, and it shows. 

All of that would be fine if they all kinds of potential and just needed time to grow.  This isn't the 2010 Thunder.

Smart is a rookie.  Sully is coming back from injury.  IT and Cowder came in mid-season trades.  Zeller and KO clearly have room to grow.  Boston has some unprotected first round picks coming from a Brooklyn team that is worse than us.  And we've got a lot of cap room for the first time in forever.

Some people really need to get over their tank envy.

Mike

I'm not envious of the tanking teams.  They've got the high picks, but who knows if they'll find their way out of the mire before their young guys are ready to move on?


What I want is for the lottery to work differently so a team like the Celtics doesn't have to choose between building a decent but not great roster and getting a shot at the kind of talents that can set their franchise on a path to contention.

[Tr1boy]

ET, Sullinger, AB did very for the team today. Actually ET and AB were key reasons why we lost imo

I still don't get why KO was sitting on the bench for that long in the 4th. 

[greece66]

It was a good performance.
Our D and rebounding could have been better, but our offense was good for most of the game.
And so was coaching (sorry, I'm not getting aboard the blame-it-on-Stevens bandwagon).

[CelticSooner]

Love went for 19-12 today. I don't like that one bit.

wow!!!! he made more shots than he took!!  now THAT is efficient basketball. 

I laffed TP

[hwangjini_1]

I've seen much better C's teams get destroyed easier.

Watching a much better team get killed is a different kind of painful.  In that case, you know they're capable of competing, but they don't.

The Celtics didn't play their best game today, but I think they played a lot closer to their best than the Cavs did.  They're just nowhere close to being ready to hang with a contender, and it shows. 

All of that would be fine if they all kinds of potential and just needed time to grow.  This isn't the 2010 Thunder.

Smart is a rookie.  Sully is coming back from injury.  IT and Cowder came in mid-season trades.  Zeller and KO clearly have room to grow.  Boston has some unprotected first round picks coming from a Brooklyn team that is worse than us.  And we've got a lot of cap room for the first time in forever.

Some people really need to get over their tank envy.

Mike

I'm not envious of the tanking teams.  They've got the high picks, but who knows if they'll find their way out of the mire before their young guys are ready to move on?


What I want is for the lottery to work differently so a team like the Celtics doesn't have to choose between building a decent but not great roster and getting a shot at the kind of talents that can set their franchise on a path to contention.

the best solution i have seen for the problem you point out, may be the 30 year wheel format. the more i read about it, the more appealing it becomes.

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

Irving only got 10 this second half. We adjusted. If we can hold him to 10 each half from here we have a better chance.

AB has to find his shot or he has to sit.

We held LBJ to about as good as you are going to, if we keep it up, gives us even more of a shot.

Give Sully more minutes.

Let KO have a chance to foul out, he played well but kept getting fouls. I need for CBS to play him with JJ more, if you are going to switch and start KO, you have to put JJ with him. That or keep them as a bench tandem!

Make Smaht shoot more, make or miss. Don't use him on Kyrie until the second half, start AB on him to use quickness, then switch to Smaht second half to rough him up a little.

I think you have to start Jae, he did as well as you're going to get from our guys.

Get Bass more shots after he starts hitting. I don't know why we can't stick to what's working. It's not like they have a big who can stay with Bass. If they put LBJ on him, thank you!

I know Gigi is bad on defense but we struggled on O at times, put him in and see what happens. I mean, at least 10 minutes. I know we have a lot of bigs but you need to go offense when we can't score.

I didn't think Zeller was bad, I'm just not feeling his help defense. Should force feed Zeller early to get Mosgov in foul trouble.

Lot more things we should try, what do we have to lose?

[Kuberski33]

Listen, we all knew the Celts were going up against a monster here.  We had a great looking 1st quarter and decent 2nd. It's the third where we lost the game

I'm still aiming for the Celts to win 2 and at least 1. But anything more than that would be a dream

CBS said he hated their defense the entire first half - and they did give up 62.  I think they can clean that up. Turner and Bradley really struggled.  They need what a healthy Sully brings.  To me the most encouraging thing was they hung around, got open looks and kept battling. 

There's very little margin for error here, but to me it's encouraging when you take a long term view.  To have any chance of making this interesting they have to take Game 2.  I don't expect it, but I'll be watching and I'm still really enjoying watching this team play. 

Don't get the negativity.