Brad rips the team after the loss - "We're a 'finesse' (AKA soft) team."

[jpotter33]

Look at some of these tweets and quotes from Stevens and the players:

Stevens: We have some players who are not playing who will play, but this is about holding your ground physically.

https://twitter.com/Scott_Souza/status/795461492518899712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Brad Stevens: "What’s most disappointing to me is the lack of physicality. That’s on me. I’ve got to play the guys that are more physical."

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/795461767572942849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Isaiah Thomas: "We’re not as good as we thought we were. When we don’t come out with a sense of urgency, we’re not a good team."

https://twitter.com/AdamHimmelsbach/status/795466617048199169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Isaiah Thomas: "At this point we're all talk."

https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/795465592081960965?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Brad Stevens called Celtics a "finesse team.” Takes blame for recent struggles, but essentially calls team soft right now.

https://twitter.com/ESPNForsberg/status/795462072003940357?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Isaiah Thomas: "When we don't come out with a sense of urgency, we're not a good team. And that's what happened tonight."

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/795463633274863616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Brad Stevens on the blowout: "This was not a big surprise to me that this happened." Thought Nuggets would bring A game tonight.

https://twitter.com/CelticsHub/status/795462114538323968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Stevens called the Celtics a "finesse team." Said he wasn't surprised they got smashed after what's happened the last week.

https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/795462103758934016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"No matter what you’ve done last year … the score starts 0-0 and you have to do it," says Brad Stevens.

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/795461997181681664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Some strong words from Brad Stevens: "The nicest way I can say this is: I think we play like a finesse team & [the Nuggets] play physical."

https://twitter.com/Marc_DAmico/status/795461325606551552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[jpotter33]

Ouch..

Obviously the team has an attitude problem. That much is clear. We're not going to out-talent teams, and we have to play hard to win. That's the only way.

I was a little confused with the "finesse" stuff, though. What's he meaning with that, and is he primarily judging our bigs?

[kraidstar]

Good stuff by Stevens. That is what they need to hear, they've accomplished nothing in this league so far.

KG, PP, Rasheed Wallace etc used to mail it in a lot in their later years, but at least they'd won a title, and had the excuse of saving themselves for the playoffs.

Our younger team should be hungrier than that.

[alldaboston]

Thanks for posting this. I wanted to, but I was lazy haha. I'll give you a TP later, i have to wait an hour lol

I'm pretty sure Brad means we're soft, when he says we're a "finesse" team. I hope this is a good wake up call though. Like Jae did last year. Said we didn't have our moxie or something like that

[Boris Badenov]

I wonder why he's saying this when we are missing two of our best defenders. Who's he calling out?

[BlackCeltic]

I wonder why he's saying this when we are missing two of our best defenders. Who's he calling out?

Safe to say he's calling out everyone. Marcus Smart was the only one I saw diving on the floor for balls and giving maximum effort.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I wonder why he's saying this when we are missing two of our best defenders. Who's he calling out?

I'll cut them some slack because Crowder and Horford were out, but they still shouldn't lose to Denver by 20+.

[jpotter33]

Geeze, after watching his press conference, it looks like he's talking a lot about IT's perimeter D. He was talking a lot about Mudiay and not being physical with him.

I mean, he's surely not talking about AB and Smart, who are about as physical as they can be.

[Kuberski33]

These nights happen in the NBA. So you can't overreact.  But there are some troubling signs.  Getting nothing from your backup bigs doesn't help. Team defense is breaking down because of them.  Shooting from anyone not named Thomas or Bradley continues to be below average.

[jpotter33]

Here's his press conference if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNRaHHjUAY.

I wouldn't be surprised to see lineup changes next game. It does sound like he's talking about IT's defense, though, along with Amir, Zeller, and JJ on the defensive end and on the boards.

I'm trying to think about who else wasn't necessarily being physical out there. Rozier maybe? I don't know.

[jpotter33]

I wonder why he's saying this when we are missing two of our best defenders. Who's he calling out?

Watch the youtube video of his press conference that I posted above. He's certainly talking about some specific players, though it's hard to gauge who he's talking about.

[max215]

Hopefully, he's talking about Zeller, and hopefully, we never see Zeller on the court again. Zeller is up there with Pau, Mirotic, David Lee, and Scola among my most hated players in the league.

[alldaboston]

Hopefully, he's talking about Zeller, and hopefully, we never see Zeller on the court again. Zeller is up there with Pau, Mirotic, David Lee, and Scola among my most hated players in the league.

I too hope that he's talking about Zeller.

But, in typical Brad fashion, Jaylen will suddenly be the one who loses minutes. And Zeller will remain a starter once we're healthy again. I swear, Brad loves Zeller smh

[max215]

Hopefully, he's talking about Zeller, and hopefully, we never see Zeller on the court again. Zeller is up there with Pau, Mirotic, David Lee, and Scola among my most hated players in the league.

I too hope that he's talking about Zeller.

But, in typical Brad fashion, Jaylen will suddenly be the one who loses minutes. And Zeller will remain a starter once we're healthy again. I swear, Brad loves Zeller smh

I think he knows what he's going to get out of Zeller, and that's comforting. The problem is that what he gets out of Zeller is poopoo. Zeller just confuses me. He was really good two years ago, but he seems to have completely lost it. I hate him almost as viscerally as I did Lee last year. He's just an intolerable player.

[PhoSita]

It's hard to be so much smaller than most of your opponents and out-tough them the majority of the time.

The Celts are physically overmatched against most teams and they are struggling with defensive cohesiveness right now.  It's a tall order to expect them to maintain intensity.  The Nuggets are a bad matchup.  Equally young / deep / skilled team, with tons of size inside and on the wing.