So how much trouble are we in?

[snively]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

Nope. IT's D is the bigger issue and it has been all series.

[Hank Finkel]

To be perfectly honest, good teams don't give up these 20+ to 0 runs.

Even if the Celts get past the Wiz, they're gonna get killed by the Cavs. You can't allow LeBron to get huge swings like that and be competitive.

Celts have been down fifteen to twenty in three out of four of these games. In those games they've given up enormous runs.

I'd rather they lose in six or seven to the Wiz than get utterly clowned by LeBron.

I couldn't agree more.  This team got no help from DA (in the form of a trade deadline improvement) to get further in the playoffs this year and these guys are still playing their arses off  anyway. 

[Darío SpanishFan]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

No. Playing 4 versus 5 in defense is a bigger liability. Sorry to say that because I love IT, and he's been through a painful experience, but I've been saying that all year. Welcome to the bandwagon whoever wants to get in.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

Nope. IT's D is the bigger issue and it has been all series.

I think the biggest issues are rebounding and turnovers.

But regarding IT's D, I'd rather have one bad defender out of five players on the court than four bad offensive players out of the five guys on the court.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

To be perfectly honest, good teams don't give up these 20+ to 0 runs.

Even if the Celts get past the Wiz, they're gonna get killed by the Cavs. You can't allow LeBron to get huge swings like that and be competitive.

Celts have been down fifteen to twenty in three out of four of these games. In those games they've given up enormous runs.

I'd rather they lose in six or seven to the Wiz than get utterly clowned by LeBron.

I agree that the big runs are terrible and unacceptable, but I'd rather lose to LeBron, even in a sweep, because a) few (if any) people would expect Boston to beat Cleveland, whereas the Celtics are certainly capable of beating the Wizards; and b) I'd LOVE to shut up Wizards fans.

[Rosco917]

IMO The Defense of the Wizards is up close and personal, very physical. They're taking advantage of their size just about everywhere, over-playing keeping us on our heals. But nowhere more than with our guards.

When on offense the Wiz are forcing the C's to continually switch to protect IT. He's being run around like a ping pong ball. All this switching is being taken advantage of by their big, talented backcourt. By the time the C's react bring in Smart or Rozier, their out of the bag. They scored almost 60 points between both guards, and a team 121 in regulation time. Our starting D sucks.

Let's not talk about the rebounding. Small ball is just not effective when it's not accompanied by some kind of big ball.

Gotta give the Wiz credit, they've figured it out. I'm not feeling real good heading back to Washington.   

[Surferdad]

A lot.  Wizards in 7.

[kozlodoev]

We've been down big in every game. Frankly, we're fortunate to still be in the series.

[snively]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

Nope. IT's D is the bigger issue and it has been all series.

I think the biggest issues are rebounding and turnovers.

But regarding IT's D, I'd rather have one bad defender out of five players on the court than four bad offensive players out of the five guys on the court.

Offense is not the problem. We've got a 112.9 oRTG in the series. The only guy struggling with his shot in this series is AB. We're shooting 41% from beyond the arc for the series.

The problem is we are giving up an absurd 119 oRTg to the Wizards. And that's not all because of turnovers and offensive boards (Chicago worked us on the glass too), though those are a factor. It's IT's inability to cover a single one of the Wizards starters that is crushing us.

[mctyson]

Like I said in the game thread, 3s kept them in game along with taking care of the ball.  They then missed a ton of wide open looks, Washington tied the game, then they turned the ball over a ton and got destroyed.

Outside of the major rebounding issue, they are not in trouble if the (a) make open shots, and (b) take care of the ball.  If the do not do that, they will lose at home and the series will be over.

Any basketball team that follows those guidelines will win a game.  A better analysis might be a way to solve why we haven't been able to consistently do these things  over the past four games

There is nothing Stevens nor any of us can propose to have guys make open shots.  As far as turnovers are concerned, they have to stop trying to split defenders and need to be more purposeful with passes.

[kozlodoev]

I think we need this:

https://www.facebook.com/NBAONTNT/videos/10158826277240724/

[Evantime34]

The Wizards have been bad on the road all season. I won't admit we are in trouble until Washington can win in Boston. (that being said if Washington wins in Boston on Wednesday I think the series is over)

In playoffs:
Wizards at home: 112.4 offensive rating, 97.8 defensive rating, 14.6 net rating
Wizards on the road: 105 offensive rating, 114.5 defensive rating, -9.5 net rating

In regular season:
Wizards at home: 110.5 offensive rating, 105.3 defensive rating, 5.2 net rating
Wizards on the road: 106.5 offensive rating, 108.4 defensive rating, -1.9 net rating

[Evantime34]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

Nope. IT's D is the bigger issue and it has been all series.

I think the biggest issues are rebounding and turnovers.

But regarding IT's D, I'd rather have one bad defender out of five players on the court than four bad offensive players out of the five guys on the court.

Offense is not the problem. We've got a 112.9 oRTG in the series. The only guy struggling with his shot in this series is AB. We're shooting 41% from beyond the arc for the series.

The problem is we are giving up an absurd 119 oRTg to the Wizards. And that's not all because of turnovers and offensive boards (Chicago worked us on the glass too), though those are a factor. It's IT's inability to cover a single one of the Wizards starters that is crushing us.

I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers but according to NBA.com Washington's offensive rating this series is 112.5 and Boston's is 110.

At home our offense isn't a problem (124.4 offensive rating, best in NBA this round), but on the road it is a problem (95.5 offensive rating, worst in NBA this round). The numbers and the victories indicate that both teams are much better at home, good thing we have home court advantage.

[Rondo9]

Celts are in trouble.

Wiz look like they have a clear upper hand through four games. First two were close and the next two in Washington were blowouts.

The first game the Celtics eventually blew out the Wizards.

[snively]

HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE?

as long as our best player and pg shows he is incapable of playing defense (even in the playoffs) we have no advantage...

Careless turnovers and players like Crowder and Bradley not stepping up is more of a concern than IT's defense.

Nope. IT's D is the bigger issue and it has been all series.

I think the biggest issues are rebounding and turnovers.

But regarding IT's D, I'd rather have one bad defender out of five players on the court than four bad offensive players out of the five guys on the court.

Offense is not the problem. We've got a 112.9 oRTG in the series. The only guy struggling with his shot in this series is AB. We're shooting 41% from beyond the arc for the series.

The problem is we are giving up an absurd 119 oRTg to the Wizards. And that's not all because of turnovers and offensive boards (Chicago worked us on the glass too), though those are a factor. It's IT's inability to cover a single one of the Wizards starters that is crushing us.

I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers but according to NBA.com Washington's offensive rating this series is 112.5 and Boston's is 110.

At home our offense isn't a problem (124.4 offensive rating, best in NBA this round), but on the road it is a problem (95.5 offensive rating, worst in NBA this round). The numbers and the victories indicate that both teams are much better at home, good thing we have home court advantage.

Basketball Reference.

The number indicate that we are getting shellacked defensively. When you give up 116 and 121 in consecutive regulations, the problem is not underachieving offensively. We could have scored 110+ and still lost.

Defensively is where we're getting killed and have been all series. We just got lucky with the Morris injury in Game 1 (giving us a place to hide IT defensively) and then we needed a historic offensive explosion from IT to keep pace in Game 2.

We have the capability of getting scorching hot offensively again so I'm not counting us out but that doesn't change the fact that defense is the big problem here and IT's more than anybody's.