Kyrie after Bulls loss: “I still don’t see anybody beating us.”

[celticinorlando]

Very interesting. It would be easy to discount the regular season and say this team is built for the playoffs...but this is dangerous to me.  The thought of this team just flipping the switch at playoff time sounds great but will it happen?

Can they formulate any kind of chemistry before then? And the way it is going they are going to be on the road a lot in the playoffs.

Also Kyrie added:

Kyrie asked by reporters in Chicago if he’s worried about struggles leaking into playoffs.

“No, it’ll be fine.”

Why?

“Because I’m here.”

[gpap]

It's quite possible.

There's too much talent on this team for them to be losing to the Bulls.

[wiley]

Good!  Much better than wallowing words...
TP to Kyrie (not possible?)

[SHAQATTACK]

Very interesting. It would be easy to discount the regular season and say this team is built for the playoffs...but this is dangerous to me.  The thought of this team just flipping the switch at playoff time sounds great but will it happen?

Can they formulate any kind of chemistry before then? And the way it is going they are going to be on the road a lot in the playoffs.

Also Kyrie added:

Kyrie asked by reporters in Chicago if he’s worried about struggles leaking into playoffs.

“No, it’ll be fine.”

Why?

“Because I’m here.”

we an't doing squat without ALL our bigs healthy and Gordy engaged 100 %

[ozgod]

I loved this interview. On the plus side it's good to see Kyrie being positive rather than "throwing his teammates under the bus" (as some members here put it). The reporters did their best to try to get him to say something about being frustrated with the team or teammates, he said "I don't get frustrated anymore, it's all part of our team, part of regular season, and learning one another". I don't mind what he said, because that's what a lot of us have been wanting him to say. We've been wanting him to be uplifting and not critical and this is it right here. By saying "because I'm here" I think he's putting the pressure on himself and taking it away from the likes of Gordon, and Rozier, and others who have been up and down the whole season.

This is 100% a motivation and effort issue. They CAN play well we've seen it. For whatever reasons we're switching off when we feel the opposition is substandard. Nobody is taking accountability and playing hard, they're expecting someone else to do the work. We can always point to career nights - Markannen 33, Lavine 40, Kemba 50 or whatever it was, the Lakers record # of 3s...the bottom line is these nights by these teams tend to happen against us. These don't happen if the team is switched on, particularly defensively. I mean look at this, you can't tell me this is a switched on defense:

https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1099504655573438464

I think these guys have mentally checked out in terms of trying to chase the No3 seed. They accept they'll be No4 or 5 come playoff time (shame we couldn't take advantage of Philly losing to Portland tonight) and they probably expect to be able to beat whoever it is they play because "they will be switched on and motivated" during playoffs. If it's Philly at 4 and us at 5, or Indiana at 4 and us at 5 we probably have a better than even money chance of beating them without home court but then in the second round against Mil or Tor its going to be tough. As Orlando says it's very dangerous to think that because then you don't develop the habits that you want to become second nature by the time the playoffs come.

If we want to get to the finals it's going to be the hard way, and I guess this team and the players are ok with that. They prefer to beat the tougher teams than the easier ones because the easier ones aren't worth their effort maybe.

[SCeltic34]

Well, the playoffs are a different beast.  It's about matchups and results from the regular season between two teams often aren't predictive of the future outcome.

That said, this team currently has too many issues, especially team chemistry, for me to feel particularly confident about our prospects.  I think we can still make it out of the East, but without home court advantage my optimism has waned tremendously.

[ozgod]

I hope to post the full interview soon when someone puts it up but here's a snippet:

https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1099520694897958913

[Ogaju]

I agree with him, but he really should let his play do the talking. Dude talks too much.

[gouki88]

I agree with him, but he really should let his play do the talking. Dude talks too much.

Not sure how his play isn't doing the talking. He's playing like a top 3 PG in the league

[ozgod]

Kyrie was asked of all the losses you've had this year, "where do you put this one?"

Kyrie: "Behind me"

 

[ozgod]

Here's the full interview. Its the first interview and is 4 min long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC_Uc2HoxdI

[CelticSooner]

Kyrie is now doing the very same thing he was harping on the young players about. 2010 Celtics have returned minus actually ever accomplishing anything. That’s a lazy attitude and on one hand he’s probably right. This team will ultimately be judged by what they do from April on.

[GetLucky]

I loved this interview. On the plus side it's good to see Kyrie being positive rather than "throwing his teammates under the bus" (as some members here put it). The reporters did their best to try to get him to say something about being frustrated with the team or teammates, he said "I don't get frustrated anymore, it's all part of our team, part of regular season, and learning one another". I don't mind what he said, because that's what a lot of us have been wanting him to say. We've been wanting him to be uplifting and not critical and this is it right here. By saying "because I'm here" I think he's putting the pressure on himself and taking it away from the likes of Gordon, and Rozier, and others who have been up and down the whole season.

This is 100% a motivation and effort issue. They CAN play well we've seen it. For whatever reasons we're switching off when we feel the opposition is substandard. Nobody is taking accountability and playing hard, they're expecting someone else to do the work. We can always point to career nights - Markannen 33, Lavine 40, Kemba 50 or whatever it was, the Lakers record # of 3s...the bottom line is these nights by these teams tend to happen against us. These don't happen if the team is switched on, particularly defensively. I mean look at this, you can't tell me this is a switched on defense:

https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1099504655573438464

I think these guys have mentally checked out in terms of trying to chase the No3 seed. They accept they'll be No4 or 5 come playoff time (shame we couldn't take advantage of Philly losing to Portland tonight) and they probably expect to be able to beat whoever it is they play because "they will be switched on and motivated" during playoffs. If it's Philly at 4 and us at 5, or Indiana at 4 and us at 5 we probably have a better than even money chance of beating them without home court but then in the second round against Mil or Tor its going to be tough. As Orlando says it's very dangerous to think that because then you don't develop the habits that you want to become second nature by the time the playoffs come.

If we want to get to the finals it's going to be the hard way, and I guess this team and the players are ok with that. They prefer to beat the tougher teams than the easier ones because the easier ones aren't worth their effort maybe.

To be fair, Markkanen is a killer player. He's scored over 20 and had over 9 rebounds each of his last 9 games, 4 of which were 30+ points. The kid is the real deal.

[gouki88]

I loved this interview. On the plus side it's good to see Kyrie being positive rather than "throwing his teammates under the bus" (as some members here put it). The reporters did their best to try to get him to say something about being frustrated with the team or teammates, he said "I don't get frustrated anymore, it's all part of our team, part of regular season, and learning one another". I don't mind what he said, because that's what a lot of us have been wanting him to say. We've been wanting him to be uplifting and not critical and this is it right here. By saying "because I'm here" I think he's putting the pressure on himself and taking it away from the likes of Gordon, and Rozier, and others who have been up and down the whole season.

This is 100% a motivation and effort issue. They CAN play well we've seen it. For whatever reasons we're switching off when we feel the opposition is substandard. Nobody is taking accountability and playing hard, they're expecting someone else to do the work. We can always point to career nights - Markannen 33, Lavine 40, Kemba 50 or whatever it was, the Lakers record # of 3s...the bottom line is these nights by these teams tend to happen against us. These don't happen if the team is switched on, particularly defensively. I mean look at this, you can't tell me this is a switched on defense:

https://twitter.com/chicagobulls/status/1099504655573438464

I think these guys have mentally checked out in terms of trying to chase the No3 seed. They accept they'll be No4 or 5 come playoff time (shame we couldn't take advantage of Philly losing to Portland tonight) and they probably expect to be able to beat whoever it is they play because "they will be switched on and motivated" during playoffs. If it's Philly at 4 and us at 5, or Indiana at 4 and us at 5 we probably have a better than even money chance of beating them without home court but then in the second round against Mil or Tor its going to be tough. As Orlando says it's very dangerous to think that because then you don't develop the habits that you want to become second nature by the time the playoffs come.

If we want to get to the finals it's going to be the hard way, and I guess this team and the players are ok with that. They prefer to beat the tougher teams than the easier ones because the easier ones aren't worth their effort maybe.

To be fair, Markkanen is a killer player. He's scored over 20 and had over 9 rebounds each of his last 9 games, 4 of which were 30+ points. The kid is the real deal.

Loved him at Arizona. Happy to see him playing well, but this one was a bummer

[Fierce1]

Celts always struggle against bigger opponents.
Against the Bulls, Celts only had 32 rebounds compared to the Bulls' 49 boards.

Another Lopez, Robin, was giving the Celts a hard time on defense and offense.
Robin Lopez only averages 7 points per game.
But against the Celts, he had 17.

I agree this Celts team was built for the playoffs.
Ainge built a team to match up with GSW.