Game 1 Question

[celticsclay]

Do to a work engagement on the West Coast missed the first half of the game. Obviously was pretty bummed to see the result at half. In the second half it looked like we mostly played them pretty even for 1.75 quarters (not counting the last 3 minutes of garbage time when we made it look more respectable). During what I worked it looked like Lebron, Love and Kyrie and Tristan were all playing really really hard and we were still able to get buckets and trade buckets with them (although we clearly could not stop them). Was this game a matter of us just playing horrible in the first half and not being awake? Did the game get called differently? What did I miss in the first half visually. Tp for the feedback in advance.

[Dannys Chipotle Guy]

Here is my bullet summary:

1. We missed a lot of WIDE OPEN jumpers. 1-15 from three in the beginning and like 8 or 9 of those were wide open and from guys like AB and Crowder and Big Al who should make wide open 3s

2. Lebron dominating/suspect defense on him. We switched lazy picks which seemed dumb and ended up with a lot of Kelly or Al or AB on James. He just bullied those matchups. He also bullied Smart, and blew by Crowder with ease. So it was a combination of really dumb defense on him, and him being the greatest player of his generation.

3. Tristan Thompson owned the boards. He grabbed like 6 boards in the first 2 or 3 minutes and completely set the tone.

4. Isaiah was awful. The Cavs pick and roll coverage was brilliant and they did a terrific job making IT really uncomfortable. On the first posession of the game he got trapped and turned it over. He didnt get anything resembling a rythym the entire game.

[celticsclay]

Here is my bullet summary:

1. We missed a lot of WIDE OPEN jumpers. 1-15 from three in the beginning and like 8 or 9 of those were wide open and from guys like AB and Crowder and Big Al who should make wide open 3s

2. Lebron dominating/suspect defense on him. We switched lazy picks which seemed dumb and ended up with a lot of Kelly or Al or AB on James. He just bullied those matchups. He also bullied Smart, and blew by Crowder with ease. So it was a combination of really dumb defense on him, and him being the greatest player of his generation.

3. Tristan Thompson owned the boards. He grabbed like 6 boards in the first 2 or 3 minutes and completely set the tone.

4. Isaiah was awful. The Cavs pick and roll coverage was brilliant and they did a terrific job making IT really uncomfortable. On the first posession of the game he got trapped and turned it over. He didnt get anything resembling a rythym the entire game.

Yea, in the second half IT did not look like his explosive self. I also noticed Lebron covering him a handful of times in the second half.

Related to point number 2, maybe I will get mocked for saying this, but it looked like Lebron was actually bothering Lebron in the second half a few times (forcing him into slightly tougher shots). Maybe he was letting up or getting tired at that point though.

[Dannys Chipotle Guy]

Here is my bullet summary:

1. We missed a lot of WIDE OPEN jumpers. 1-15 from three in the beginning and like 8 or 9 of those were wide open and from guys like AB and Crowder and Big Al who should make wide open 3s

2. Lebron dominating/suspect defense on him. We switched lazy picks which seemed dumb and ended up with a lot of Kelly or Al or AB on James. He just bullied those matchups. He also bullied Smart, and blew by Crowder with ease. So it was a combination of really dumb defense on him, and him being the greatest player of his generation.

3. Tristan Thompson owned the boards. He grabbed like 6 boards in the first 2 or 3 minutes and completely set the tone.

4. Isaiah was awful. The Cavs pick and roll coverage was brilliant and they did a terrific job making IT really uncomfortable. On the first posession of the game he got trapped and turned it over. He didnt get anything resembling a rythym the entire game.

Yea, in the second half IT did not look like his explosive self. I also noticed Lebron covering him a handful of times in the second half.

Related to point number 2, maybe I will get mocked for saying this, but it looked like Lebron was actually bothering Lebron in the second half a few times (forcing him into slightly tougher shots). Maybe he was letting up or getting tired at that point though.

Jaylen was clearly our best Lebron defender last night (im assuming you meant to write Jaylen instead of Lebron). Jaylen is at a size and strength disadvantage, but he does have the length and quickness to make Lebron make tough shots.

Gerald green also did a decent job.

[saltlover]

We missed a ton of great looks in the first half that fell in the second half.  Eventually those misses caused our defensive intensity to wane (also the Cavs did a good job of pushing the ball off our misses.)

I'm less disheartened than most.  If even some of the about 10 wide open 3s we missed in the first half went in, it's a different game.  We didn't play amazingly, but I didn't feel the first half score completely told the story.  I think we win Game 2.

[Dannys Chipotle Guy]

We missed a ton of great looks in the first half that fell in the second half.  Eventually those misses caused our defensive intensity to wane (also the Cavs did a good job of pushing the ball off our misses.)

I'm less disheartened than most.  If even some of the about 10 wide open 3s we missed in the first half went in, it's a different game.  We didn't play amazingly, but I didn't feel the first half score completely told the story.  I think we win Game 2.

Im not sure we win game 2, but I think it will be a 1 or 2 posession game with ~2 minutes to go.

We will have a chance to win. Just have to execute down the stretch.

[hpantazo]

The type of shots we missed , open jumpers, layups, and free throws,  combined with our lack of energy on defense screams of our starters being worn out after game 7 two days ago. They clearly were playing on tired legs. The poor switching on defense by the Celtics and the ability of  levels d to serious our flow on offense and trap IT was indicative of our lack of prep time for this series as well. The thing is, there's not much time to fix either issue before game 2.

The guys who looked the best last night were Jaylen Brown , Smart, and Gerald Green, guys who didn't play as much in the Wizards series. We gotta rely more on this younger group plus Rozier if we hope to give Cleveland a fight.

[kozlodoev]

Do to a work engagement on the West Coast missed the first half of the game. Obviously was pretty bummed to see the result at half. In the second half it looked like we mostly played them pretty even for 1.75 quarters (not counting the last 3 minutes of garbage time when we made it look more respectable). During what I worked it looked like Lebron, Love and Kyrie and Tristan were all playing really really hard and we were still able to get buckets and trade buckets with them (although we clearly could not stop them). Was this game a matter of us just playing horrible in the first half and not being awake? Did the game get called differently? What did I miss in the first half visually. Tp for the feedback in advance.

Disclaimer: I missed the first 1.75 quarters because of toddler bedtime.

But my impression is they just played at 40% or so after the game was in the bag. Wouldn't make any general conclusions from the second half, even though Ainge said today morning on Toucher and Rich that he thought the team played better.

[celticsclay]

We missed a ton of great looks in the first half that fell in the second half.  Eventually those misses caused our defensive intensity to wane (also the Cavs did a good job of pushing the ball off our misses.)

I'm less disheartened than most.  If even some of the about 10 wide open 3s we missed in the first half went in, it's a different game.  We didn't play amazingly, but I didn't feel the first half score completely told the story.  I think we win Game 2.

This kind of stinks and is also extra surprising at home...

[saltlover]

We missed a ton of great looks in the first half that fell in the second half.  Eventually those misses caused our defensive intensity to wane (also the Cavs did a good job of pushing the ball off our misses.)

I'm less disheartened than most.  If even some of the about 10 wide open 3s we missed in the first half went in, it's a different game.  We didn't play amazingly, but I didn't feel the first half score completely told the story.  I think we win Game 2.

This kind of stinks and is also extra surprising at home...

Did stink, especially at home.  But at the same time, I'd rather miss open shots than not be able to get them at all.  The Cavs are good, and there is little margin for error, but last night's game didn't remotely make me think that they're unbeatable.