Celtics (0-1) at Hawks (1-0) Game #2 4/19/16

[tankcity!]

The crappy part about this is that we should be beating this team. If we were fully healthy and weren't in the middle of this ridiculously horrible play that we've been in, I think we win this series soundly.

I don't understand why people think that. Go position by position and I'm not sure where we are better than them?

Well you have to look at it from this perspective. We were up and Bradley left the game along with KO game 1. We lost by 1 point. The other thing to point out is that without Bradley, KO, and a unhealthy crowder, there is no shooting. It really is no longer a difficult team to guard. Look at the players on the floor, like no one can shoot and there is no floor spacing because of it. I do think we would have won this series if we were healthy and I'm no pom pom Celtics cheerleader. The Hawks had trouble scoring against us is what I saw. We just needed more spacing to be able to score.

[BringToughnessBack]

that doesnt look good for Horford , MCL?

If its his MCL, looks like another bullet we will dodge in the offseason. I am not a fan of him on the Celtics anyway, unless Durant comes with him.

This game has me thinking..I wonder how Cousins will do in a playoff game..that is if he ever gets in one...I would be a tad afraid to risk all of the Nets gold for a player with mental issues and an unproven playoff pedigree.

Yeah right, but you would rather use that pick to draft the proven Simmons or Ingram. LOL!!

I did not say I would rather use that pick for Ingram or Simmons(I would trade a top 2 for Durant and not much else) but 10 years from now you can show me the playoff records/performances of Simmons or Ingram vs. Cousins and see which players have become true superstars in both the regular season and playoffs. I am not looking for the Celtics to acquire the next Karl Malone either..I want championships.

At least with Garnett, he got the Timberwolves into the playoffs 8 times and had monster numbers each time he was there. How many times has Cousins and all that insane talent got the "Kings" into the playoffs. To me, that is something not worth trading a top 2 for..I might do it for the 2018 pick though and some of our stuff on current team. If Danny does do that trade of our pick this year and he pans out and suddenly becomes a player that makes those around him better and we win 4 championships in the next 10 years,  Great...I will be ecstatic

Here is a link to Cousins stats in the playoffs but hey, his regular seasons numbers are amazing..definitely an amazing talent but I define true superstars by more than their amazing talent.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/4258/seasontype/3/demarcus-cousins

I will  trust the talent evaluators- Danny and Company to see if those 2 draft prospects have the "it" factor. If they don't and they know that, the risk is more plausible.

From what I have seen of Cousins, he is an amazing talent but amazing talent does not make amazing players...and by that, I mean like Duncan, Wade, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Thomas(no, not ours), Lebron, Russell, Curry.... I can imagine Danny making that trade and than Cousins imploding in Beantown and the reaction here and all around Boston. The character and talent of a player can be judged with the right research behind it. We have seen 6 years of Cousins and still not a single playoff birth...zip...but even with that, I wish he was on our team tonight cause maybe we would have scored more than 72 points..I bet he would have scored at least 40  if not more since nobody else could score but would we have made the playoffs..that is the question...

[tankcity!]

that doesnt look good for Horford , MCL?

If its his MCL, looks like another bullet we will dodge in the offseason. I am not a fan of him on the Celtics anyway, unless Durant comes with him.

This game has me thinking..I wonder how Cousins will do in a playoff game..that is if he ever gets in one...I would be a tad afraid to risk all of the Nets gold for a player with mental issues and an unproven playoff pedigree.

Yeah right, but you would rather use that pick to draft the proven Simmons or Ingram. LOL!!

I did not say I would rather use that pick for Ingram or Simmons(I would trade a top 2 for Durant and not much else) but 10 years from now you can show me the playoff records/performances of Simmons or Ingram vs. Cousins and see which players have become true superstars in both the regular season and playoffs. I am not looking for the Celtics to acquire the next Karl Malone either..I want championships.

At least with Garnett, he got the Timberwolves into the playoffs 8 times and had monster numbers each time he was there. How many times has Cousins and all that insane talent got the "Kings" into the playoffs. To me, that is something not worth trading a top 2 for..I might do it for the 2018 pick though and some of our stuff on current team. If Danny does do that trade of our pick this year and he pans out and suddenly becomes a player that makes those around him better and we win 4 championships in the next 10 years,  Great...I will be ecstatic

Here is a link to Cousins stats in the playoffs but hey, his regular seasons numbers are amazing..definitely an amazing talent but I define true superstars by more than their amazing talent.
http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/4258/seasontype/3/demarcus-cousins

I will  trust the talent evaluators- Danny and Company to see if those 2 draft prospects have the "it" factor. If they don't and they know that, the risk is more plausible.

From what I have seen of Cousins, he is an amazing talent but amazing talent does not make amazing players...and by that, I mean like Duncan, Wade, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Thomas(no, not ours), Lebron, Russell, Curry.... I can imagine Danny making that trade and than Cousins imploding in Beantown and the reaction here and all around Boston. The character and talent of a player can be judged with the right research behind it. We have seen 6 years of Cousins and still not a single playoff birth...zip...but even with that, I wish he was on our team tonight cause maybe we would have scored more than 72 points..I bet he would have scored at least 40  if not more since nobody else could score but would we have made the playoffs..that is the question...

I agree, that guy seems like a cancer. It's crazy his teams have never been close to 500. It's not like he hasn't had a terrible team around him. The team this year was actually decent. I don't know how the Mavs had a better record to be honest. It's just too much risk. I might do it if the Celtics only offered the pick, but you know SAC will want more.

[Who]

Teague would be a good PG replacement for Isaiah if Isaiah is traded.

[dreamgreen]

The crappy part about this is that we should be beating this team. If we were fully healthy and weren't in the middle of this ridiculously horrible play that we've been in, I think we win this series soundly.

I don't understand why people think that. Go position by position and I'm not sure where we are better than them?

Well you have to look at it from this perspective. We were up and Bradley left the game along with KO game 1. We lost by 1 point. The other thing to point out is that without Bradley, KO, and a unhealthy crowder, there is no shooting. It really is no longer a difficult team to guard. Look at the players on the floor, like no one can shoot and there is no floor spacing because of it. I do think we would have won this series if we were healthy and I'm no pom pom Celtics cheerleader. The Hawks had trouble scoring against us is what I saw. We just needed more spacing to be able to score.

Good points but I still had the Hawks in 6. Think they were the best team in the East since the all-star break. They had a bad start of the season for whatever reason but this is who they really are IMO. In the regular season you can win on hustle but in the playoffs all teams hustle so talent wins out.

[apc]

Hate the Hawks ! We could have had home court AND play the heat.
I bet they lost that last game on purpose.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Yeah I would much prefer Simmons or Ingram first, then trading it at 3 if we get something of value, but drafting Bender if we don't.  If we're drafting 4-7, then absolutely trade the pick.

We may be a 5 seed, but come on, we're not winning anything.  Even if Horford and Schroeder miss the rest of the series, we're almost certainly not beating the Hawks.  Even if we did that, we're 100% not beating Cleveland.  We're a rebuilding team that overachieves in the regular season that is lucky enough to have the BK picks.

I mean imagine this pretty far fetched scenario just to make a point: if we draft Simmons, trade Bradley + Dallas + Boston for Jimmy Butler and then sign Kevin Durant which are all popular theories on here.  We're now about as good as Cleveland, who won't win the title this year.  We'd still need to make a couple moves after that to actually win the championship. At least in that scenario, Simmons would be getting better from year to year.

If we traded Simmons or Ingram for Cousins, we now have a huge cap hold on a guy who is going to need to be coddled and will clash with the other players.  He's going to start getting worse the year after we get him.

[CelticSooner]

Hate the Hawks ! We could have had home court AND play the heat.
I bet they lost that last game on purpose.

The way the C's are struggling on offense they would be fortunate to beat anyone right now. Bad matchup or not the C's have made them look better than they really are.

[alldaboston]

Hate the Hawks ! We could have had home court AND play the heat.
I bet they lost that last game on purpose.

The way the C's are struggling on offense they would be fortunate to beat anyone right now. Bad matchup or not the C's have made them look better than they really are.

Nah. We would be better off with Miami or Charlotte. I'm pretty sure we would be at least tied 1-1 after 2 games

[j804]

The guy's must feel like they wasted 82 games. They try so hard, harder than almost every team. For what? Experience. Experience at getting beat down when it matters most.

 Say goodbye to Any chance at KD. Hope for good luck lottery night.

Yup goodbye to KD even giving a thought of coming here. Way to show up IT such a joke fluke star who shrinks in the playoffs. Trade him or blow this team up for all I care

[SHAQATTACK]

Hawks are healthier and play n better ball than last year.

We have no,answer or star to contain Milsapp ......since Pierce left.

[alldaboston]

Hawks are healthier and play n better ball than last year.

We have no,answer or star to contain Milsapp ......since Pierce left.

Millsap wasn't even that good offensively today.

[walker834]

It is kind of weird how we scored all season and suddenly we look like a team that has no one who can score.  Danny was right in that regard.  Injuries are really only amplifying it.  With KO and Bradley missing is big though. After listening and reading comments,  I don't think people here are in position to criticize this team too much.  They don't owe you anything.  Back to the drawing board.

Crowder is banged up.  Bradley and KO were our two best scorers after Isaiah.  It hurts especially against a Hawk team that looks like it's really focused right now.

As long as this team is doing the right things I don't care and they appear to be at least trying to do that.  They are banged up right now.

[hwangjini_1]

and also....we have to seriously question what IT is gonna bring this team in the playoffs.  He was a nonfactor against Cleveland last year and has been empty for us against Atlanta this year.

tonight, the hawks knew that the celtics had virtually zero outside shooting. so they sagged off the perimeter and packed the paint against IT. they pressured him and let the rest of the team pretty much alone.

the strategy worked. without other players to take the pressure off of him IT was stymied. it is as much a team flaw as IT's play.

[blink]

I should know better than to peek in at the comments after bad loss but...
I have to say there is a lot of over-reaction here.  And the expectations that we were going on a deep playoff run might have been a bit optimistic. 

First off, we are missing two really key players.  Second, we all knew that Atlanta was going to be a bad match up for us.  Third, we aren't going to win many games with our starters shooting 14 for 41 and expect to win very often in the playoffs. 

Combine those three, and it's not shocking we are down 0-2.  Atlanta is a better defensive team that a lot of us give them credit for.  We aren't as bad as we looked tonight, but we need to make some adjustments to the rotation when we get back to Boston.

Losing Avery is huge problem for us.  We just don't have enough other consistent shooters to fill in the gaps.  I don't think we will get swept, but it is going to be extremely tough to pull out this series.