Spurs (4-2) at Celtics (4-2) Game #7 10/30/17

[RockinRyA]

This board has gotten meaner. God forbid I should express some criticism, which btw, was based on direct observation from different games.

Maybe you guys don't understand what is important in defensive basketball. The casual gavone thinks if a guy blocks a shot and gets a couple of steals that he is playing good defense. Blocks and steals are small parts of great team defense. Russell was great because he and his teammates knew how to rotate as a unit, he understood positioning and when he did block a shot, he kept the ball in play - much better than sticking it in the first row.

He's not as bad as you make it out to be. You also brought it out at the wrong place and the wrong time. There's about  3-4 "Kyrie Irving sucks" or "I wish we had IT" thread out there to post those kinds, not in the game thread when we had the win in the bag and he was already on the bench in a game he played well defensively.

Save your condescending remarks for someone else. I am sure I have been watching the Celts a lot longer than you have. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't comment on inside certain threads. Pompous jerk.

\
I can and I will. So if you're older does that necessarily mean you're better? That kind of thinking actually shows otherwise 

[hpantazo]

Gotta say, Kyrie was incredible tonight on both ends of the floor. He looks much better as he is quickly getting comfortable with Steven's system.

[nickagneta]

Gotta say, Kyrie was incredible tonight on both ends of the floor. He looks much better as he is quickly getting comfortable with Steven's system.

Doesn't Kyrie lead the Celtics in deflected balls and is one of the leaders this year in that category across the league? That in itself shows that his effort and improvement are:

1)  Much better than IT's and

2) Much better than in his past seasons.

Kyrie is not the same defensive player he was in Cleveland. That's obvious thus far. He is tremendousky better defensively than the defensive player he was in Cleveland. Small sample size, but pretty much right on statistically and via the eye test.

[Jiri Welsch]

This board has gotten meaner. God forbid I should express some criticism, which btw, was based on direct observation from different games.

Maybe you guys don't understand what is important in defensive basketball. The casual gavone thinks if a guy blocks a shot and gets a couple of steals that he is playing good defense. Blocks and steals are small parts of great team defense. Russell was great because he and his teammates knew how to rotate as a unit, he understood positioning and when he did block a shot, he kept the ball in play - much better than sticking it in the first row.

He's not as bad as you make it out to be. You also brought it out at the wrong place and the wrong time. There's about  3-4 "Kyrie Irving sucks" or "I wish we had IT" thread out there to post those kinds, not in the game thread when we had the win in the bag and he was already on the bench in a game he played well defensively.

Save your condescending remarks for someone else. I am sure I have been watching the Celts a lot longer than you have. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't comment on inside certain threads. Pompous jerk.

\
I can and I will. So if you're older does that necessarily mean you're better? That kind of thinking actually shows otherwise 

Well that escalated to ad hominems rather quickly

[GratefulCs]

This board has gotten meaner. God forbid I should express some criticism, which btw, was based on direct observation from different games.

Maybe you guys don't understand what is important in defensive basketball. The casual gavone thinks if a guy blocks a shot and gets a couple of steals that he is playing good defense. Blocks and steals are small parts of great team defense. Russell was great because he and his teammates knew how to rotate as a unit, he understood positioning and when he did block a shot, he kept the ball in play - much better than sticking it in the first row.

He's not as bad as you make it out to be. You also brought it out at the wrong place and the wrong time. There's about  3-4 "Kyrie Irving sucks" or "I wish we had IT" thread out there to post those kinds, not in the game thread when we had the win in the bag and he was already on the bench in a game he played well defensively.

Save your condescending remarks for someone else. I am sure I have been watching the Celts a lot longer than you have. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't comment on inside certain threads. Pompous jerk.

\
I can and I will. So if you're older does that necessarily mean you're better? That kind of thinking actually shows otherwise 

get off his lawn

[ImShakHeIsShaq]

Love this team! #HorfordDPOY

[Androslav]

Gotta say, Kyrie was incredible tonight on both ends of the floor. He looks much better as he is quickly getting comfortable with Steven's system.

Exactly.
His defensive awareness and effort are improving each game.

[trickybilly]

This board has gotten meaner. God forbid I should express some criticism, which btw, was based on direct observation from different games.

Maybe you guys don't understand what is important in defensive basketball. The casual gavone thinks if a guy blocks a shot and gets a couple of steals that he is playing good defense. Blocks and steals are small parts of great team defense. Russell was great because he and his teammates knew how to rotate as a unit, he understood positioning and when he did block a shot, he kept the ball in play - much better than sticking it in the first row.

He's not as bad as you make it out to be. You also brought it out at the wrong place and the wrong time. There's about  3-4 "Kyrie Irving sucks" or "I wish we had IT" thread out there to post those kinds, not in the game thread when we had the win in the bag and he was already on the bench in a game he played well defensively.

Save your condescending remarks for someone else. I am sure I have been watching the Celts a lot longer than you have. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't comment on inside certain threads. Pompous jerk.

\
I can and I will. So if you're older does that necessarily mean you're better? That kind of thinking actually shows otherwise 

Well that escalated to ad hominems rather quickly

Ad hominems plural?? a) i think there is probably a better plural form for hominen, not sure what it is, but there is one. I saw a tattoo on a girl I met once, under arm. She defintely had it... b) I think everyone knows that only one person made this personal.

There is one Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.bag here.

[greece66]

I was hoping to see Pops head-locking Baynes like he did to Simmons. But oh well. All is good

That was Terrence Ross actually, which makes it even better.

[smokeablount]

This board has gotten meaner. God forbid I should express some criticism, which btw, was based on direct observation from different games.

Maybe you guys don't understand what is important in defensive basketball. The casual gavone thinks if a guy blocks a shot and gets a couple of steals that he is playing good defense. Blocks and steals are small parts of great team defense. Russell was great because he and his teammates knew how to rotate as a unit, he understood positioning and when he did block a shot, he kept the ball in play - much better than sticking it in the first row.

He's not as bad as you make it out to be. You also brought it out at the wrong place and the wrong time. There's about  3-4 "Kyrie Irving sucks" or "I wish we had IT" thread out there to post those kinds, not in the game thread when we had the win in the bag and he was already on the bench in a game he played well defensively.

Save your condescending remarks for someone else. I am sure I have been watching the Celts a lot longer than you have. Don't try to tell me what I can and can't comment on inside certain threads. Pompous jerk.

Maybe your eyes have detereorated a bit after watching the C's for 50-odd years?  Because I can tell you as someone who actually played AAU ball and against future NBA players, and got on the court mainly for defense, Kyrie's defense is fine.  If you play PG in 2017, with more elite PGs than any other time in history, you're going to get beat sometimes. 

[kozlodoev]

Maybe your eyes have detereorated a bit after watching the C's for 50-odd years?  Because I can tell you as someone who actually played AAU ball and against future NBA players, and got on the court mainly for defense, Kyrie's defense is fine.  If you play PG in 2017, with more elite PGs than any other time in history, you're going to get beat sometimes.

Kyrie's defense is not simply fine, it's exponentially better than Thomas', even ignoring player size. Irving is actually able to stay in front of players and crowd the passing lanes -- something Thomas was shockingly bad at.

[Fafnir]

Maybe your eyes have detereorated a bit after watching the C's for 50-odd years?  Because I can tell you as someone who actually played AAU ball and against future NBA players, and got on the court mainly for defense, Kyrie's defense is fine.  If you play PG in 2017, with more elite PGs than any other time in history, you're going to get beat sometimes.

Kyrie's defense is not simply fine, it's exponentially better than Thomas', even ignoring player size. Irving is actually able to stay in front of players and crowd the passing lanes -- something Thomas was shockingly bad at.

Just the giving the team the ability to not help desparately when he's targeted has to help a bunch. He does get screened easily but at least he can recover better than IT can when it happens.

Add to it the opportunistic steals and blocks and its a big change. Also doesn't hurt that he's grabbing more rebounds than IT was able to on the defensive glass.

[playdream]

Maybe your eyes have detereorated a bit after watching the C's for 50-odd years?  Because I can tell you as someone who actually played AAU ball and against future NBA players, and got on the court mainly for defense, Kyrie's defense is fine.  If you play PG in 2017, with more elite PGs than any other time in history, you're going to get beat sometimes.

Kyrie's defense is not simply fine, it's exponentially better than Thomas', even ignoring player size. Irving is actually able to stay in front of players and crowd the passing lanes -- something Thomas was shockingly bad at.

I am not ready to bash IT like that, the majority difference is still their size

[smokeablount]

Maybe your eyes have detereorated a bit after watching the C's for 50-odd years?  Because I can tell you as someone who actually played AAU ball and against future NBA players, and got on the court mainly for defense, Kyrie's defense is fine.  If you play PG in 2017, with more elite PGs than any other time in history, you're going to get beat sometimes.

Kyrie's defense is not simply fine, it's exponentially better than Thomas', even ignoring player size. Irving is actually able to stay in front of players and crowd the passing lanes -- something Thomas was shockingly bad at.

Yeah fine is an understatement, he's been a plus on defense.  But the dude I was responding to seems to expect perfection so I understated my argument.  There is no reasonable argument to be made that Kyrie's D has been worse than 'fine'.

[Fafnir]

I'll never knock ITs effort he legitimately tried hard most of the time on defense, especially given that we know he was playing on a bad hip, while carrying a huge offensive burden.

Just couldn't bother shots/passes at his size and length and teams ruthlessly targeted him whenever they could.