honestly would not be surprised if we don't win a playoff game as currently constituted. and Stevens and Ainge will both be accountable.
Stevens for encouraging this team to settle for jumpers and Ainge for not providing actual shooters. although something tells me Ainge probably didn't expect this many jump shots being taken.
as for losing Bradley, we didn't have much of a chance with him so I don't expect much of a difference without him. however this team has a propensity for playing inspired ball when the time calls for it. so I could see 'em pulling one out - Atl in 4 or 5.
How do you come to this conclusion after we lost by only 1 point on the road after shooting uncharacteristically poor percentage, getting no foul calls, and losing one of our key players down the stretch?
It's actually funny because I was watching the game with my brother, and when we were down by around 15 at half time I said to him - "for some reason, I get the feeling we are going to come back and win this game".
The main reason I felt that way is essentially what you just said. We played some of the worst basketball I've ever seen in the first half. It was on par with how we started the Charlotte and Miami games - and yet when we got to half time in those games, we were down by 25-30. In this game we were playing that badly, getting no calls, and were still down "only" down by 15 or so.
I figured there is no way we could continue shooting that poorly, and it's unlikely Atlanta would keep shooting that well, so something had to give. I suspected we would make a run and end up right back in the game.
That's pretty much exactly what happened. Bradley put us on his shoulders, Amir had some huge plays (big defensive stops and big offensive rebounds), Thomas started to heat up, and we were up. We were in control of the game, then Bradley went down...and we started to lose control of it.
With Bradley, I strongly believe we'd have won that game. Without him, we lost by only one.
This Hawks team is no better then we are. They finished the season with the exact same record as us, and they beat us in the regular season 3-1, which is is nowhere near as big a swing as it sounds (one of those games went the other way, it'd be 2-2). We have similar levels of talent overall, and we have the best player in the series (IT4).
Before Bradley went down, we had every bit as much chance of winning the series as they did. Now...it will be hard. But not impossible. It just means our guys need to play every remaining game the way playoff basketball is meant to be played - with 110% effort. With Bradley out, this team cannot afford to fall into 15 point holes, because we no longer have the firepower to dig ourselves out. We need to fight every minute on the court.
I'm hoping that the loss of Bradley will inspire the other guys on the team to step up for him. Bradley played his heart out all night tonight in order to keep us in the game and give us a fighting chance, so I hope the guys recognise that and fight their butts off in order to prove that his effort and his sacrifice weren't for nothing.
Topic: What are the implications of losing Avery Bradley? (Read 10457 times)