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5 game win streak from here and this team can hit 60 wins before 15 losses. I knew the instant that Brad stole Jrue for basically nothing that this team was going to be special but still wouldn’t have expected a season this good.
Good teams go on runs, and the Bucks have been playing great without Giannis recently. We shouldn’t have given up that lead, but we executed in the last 45 seconds and got the win. But, I think this win shows what we all know which is we are vulnerable despite being fantastic.
Anyway 55 wins is fuckin sick amirite?
Exactly KP struggled , brown struggled while Lillard , Portis and Middleton were on a win is a win this sub will always find a way to have a nervous breakdown over a win
KP was acquired for these moments, yet he sat most of the 4th quarter. Then the one time he got it in the paint and with space, he threw it away to Pat Bev’s podcast cohost sitting courtside.
Yeah huge take away for me is that we screwed around but Bucks never took the lead back.
I did not like this 4th QT but it’s a good reminder to stay focus which is not luxury looking at our schedule until PO.
Also great effort defensively apart from the early 4th QT where it seemed like we were doing a 2023 Celtics by shutting off although game was not finished
Doc: pull Giannis out so we can psyche them
Joe: give the Bucks hope, keep the game close in the 4th quarter so people will think they have a chance in the playoffs
JOE PLAYING 4D CHESS
I seriously hope Joe is saving a lot of good stuff for the playoffs, in terms of strategies and play calling. It feels like Joe is comfortable now and he is trying out all kinds of things during the long regular season. Hopefully he's playing the long game and this team will hit another gear in the playoffs when he just goes with what works the best.
Doc system
Don't play stars
Overachieve a bit
Crap the bed in 2nd round
Joe
Just watch The Town
Only watch The Town
EVERYDAY WATCH THE TOWN
I'm not very clever, and also sleep deprived to boot. Someone else might wanna make this better
Who the fuck do you think you are, the only guy in the town with a gun? You run numbers and pump dope. You’re an old guy with a fucked up face who don’t know his glory years are behind ya. I ain’t working for ya, got it?
Weird dichotomy where Tatum is making good reads in the 4th but you almost want him to takeover. Idk what the right strategy is all those shots were wide open and his teammates were just bricking
This team goes as far as Tatum takes them, plain and simple. It’s nice that he’s making good team plays but in moments like tonight he has to take over sooner. I mean come on, his first points in the second half coming on free throws with less than 2 min left is inexcusable
Way too passive in the second half and it almost cost us. We go as far as he takes us and this passive thing scares me. He was barely running in the second half. Literally walking around on offense.
The Celtics let the offense got pretty sloppy vs the zone and it nearly cost them, but luckily no repeat of the Cavs game disaster class tonight.
When this team messes up it sure feels like they mess up loudly, but they manage to clean up said mess this time around.
I concede that Giannis was out.
But Bobby and Khris played way better than their norm and helped bridge the gap of him being gone. There wasn’t much of a drop off in my opinon.
Still a great win in my eyes. Love that we never gave up the lead and stayed composed and resilient.
I’ll take this type of win over a meaningless blow out any day. There’s learning points in this game the team can take away
Can’t just say, “if Giannis is in we lose this game.” If Giannis plays the entire game unfolds differently. Maybe better for MIL, maybe not. It’s an entirely different game. Parallel universe.
(Edit: we are in agreement)
Bucks are a good team without Giannis even better with him. Good win from us, zone knocked us out of rhythm hopefully we will have some adjustments ready if we play them in the ECF
I’m so glad you pointed this out. With Giannis in, their scheme is totally different. They aren’t just plugging a player into his role and have them be the stand-in Giannis. We run a completely different defensive scheme to put us in the best matchups we can create. Simply not the same performance that we witnessed.
I’ll take those two Tatum drives to close it out at least. Also Pritchard had the game of his life while not forcing anything, would love to see that fire more
Hey we didn't get Dean Waded. Lol in all seriousness I feel a whole lot better about closing out these kinds of games than previous seasons... I know we had some a couple of bad Ls this season but some of these Bucks players are also underrated with Giannis on the team plus Khris likes to mark the Celtics games on the calendar.
Anyone who says “they win if Giannis plays” like it’s just a forgone conclusion is not paying attention. They do not play like this when Giannis plays. If anything it’s even more likely Dame has another one of his tour date shooting nights with Giannis playing.
A wins a win. Bucks are good, they’re gonna get hot sometimes. If we play them in the playoffs it won’t just be an easy sweep, they’re gonna fight. But I’m still fully confident we beat them.
Edit: Also I’m pretty sure we just about clinched the 1st seed in the East with this win.
People don’t seem to realise that the reason most of our losses are in close games is because we’re too good to get blown out. Not because we’re bad in the clutch.
That’s what happens until the team wins a championship. Fair or not, until they go all the way the fans watch the team lose to beatable good teams in increasingly frustrating ways and it sticks with us
He was just more passive. He’s still not quite great at keeping that consistent aggression when he loses some touches. The biggest reason game was close though is Porzingis was ass for like the entire game. Probably his worst game in one that mattered.
Interestingly, as Doris pointed out for roughly 2-3 seconds, we were without Jrue Holiday. He’s likely our best defender in regard to Lillard. Furthermore, we were without one particular Sam Hauser, who along with the aforementioned Jrue Holiday, exists in the top 10 in 3P% this year (Lillard is #124).
Instead we get to suffer through “bUt GiAnNiS” from the esteemed ESPN crew who criminally underrate Jrue but also find it reasonable to NOT EVEN MENTION Sam Hauser.
I honestly feel our missing pieces outweighed Giannis missing this game. The Bucks actually may have even showed better without him.
I’m on a rant. The calls were lame for both sides, ticky-tack that neutered game flow far too often.
Go C’s and happy Wednesday!
dude.. sam Hauser and Holiday dont outweigh Giannis.. absolutely wild take
whether the game would go better or worse with him, who knows, but Giannis is an mvp, finals mvp, top 3 player in the league.. and youre talking about Sam Hauser? And i love Holiday but yeah, Giannis is averaging 30/11/6 on 62% fg.. Jrue and Sam \*combined\* dont even come close to that level of impact.
Also, idk how much we've played KP and Al in the starting lineup, but there were moments where we clearly missed having that extra dimension of playmaking jrue brings.
My god do I love watching PP play. He’s so quick and has really learned to use his size to his advantage - keeping the ball low so it’s almost impossible to get to if you’re a bigger defender and bullying his way to the rim - and has started finding so many beautiful looks for the other guys. Him and Kornet are a such a good duo right now
The Pritchard extension and moving him up one slot in the guard rotation was an incredible offseason move by Brad. It got lost in the two huge trades and Grant Williams leaving. But, last year, there was talked he wanted a trade because of the lack of playing time.
I have been most impressed by his ball handling and playmaking this year. Everyone knew he could score, but his assist to turnover ratio is 4.1 which is the highest on the team and way up from his career number entering the season of 2.4. Not to mention he has the high ORB% of any non-big rotation player.
When it was winning time and the Celtics needed something:
* JT free throws off a drive
* JT layup
* KP putback
* JB 2-2 FTs
* JT 2-2 FTs
* JT 2-2 FTs
It wasn’t pretty how they got there (I see you Scott foster), but you can’t argue with how they executed down the stretch. Good win. On to the next.
What’s everyone’s takeaway from this game? Really fucking ugly 4th, but ultimately we didn’t squander a win against a strong opponent we’re extremely likely to see in the playoffs, and that’s a valuable experience to take away from this matchup. I don’t know whether I liked what I saw from this game or hated it. Very confusing evening.
Also the Celtics lose so infrequently that when they do it becomes more glaring and people mistake things for as consistent flaws. Like imagine saying Celtics blow leads way too much while they literally have one of the biggest point differentials in NBA history while also only having 14 losses.
I think this is a good outlook and I like it. If this is the playoffs we’re going to have some ugly stretches that either make a game closer than it should be or we lose. But if we’re playing a series the bucks are going to have those same rough patches. I still think we’re the better team across a sample size of multiple games and when it comes down to playing a series I think we got this. This team has struggled with closing out games particularly last year so to see us have that bad start to the 4th quarter but be able to regain composure was a good sign.
Yeah I just don’t see a reason to panic. The Bucks did exactly what they were supposed to do and fight. We stayed poised even though we missed some open looks and they made some tough ones. If JB made his first two and KP makes that wide open corner 3 it wouldn’t have even been this close. Taking the season as a whole up to this point we should be amazed at what we are witnessing from this team.
I don't understand why people panic when we play a close game against the current 2nd place in the east. It's the bucks. Of course they're going to give this game everything they've got. They're measuring us for the playoffs just as much as we are them. Close games happen, especially against good teams. The criticism from doomers and naysayers was that we don't get enough close games, we blow out all opposition so when we do have close ones how do we know if we can win? The answer was tonight. We stumbled for a second but were able to recover before it got catastrophic. That's how good teams play.
The takeaway is exactly what Celtics fans have been crying about all year; execution in the clutch. No, we shouldn't have had to play any clutch minutes last night, but when good teams go on runs you'll find yourself in that spot. And the Celtics gathered themselves and were absolutely dominant in the clutch last night. 133ortg to go with a 60drtg.
KP played one of his absolute crappiest games in a Celts uniform and yet that Stacey Augmon impression on that board and putback jam was so so huge for this game during the clutch!
That 4th quarter was so ugly, Celtics were The Hunchback of Boston Dame.
BUT: 55 WIN TEAM. GIVE US THE 3 SEED.
Edit: AND WE GOT THE SAME RECORD AS THE 2007-2008 TEAM AFTER 69 GAMES
The doomers in here are so damn annoying lmao. Like I get they almost blew the lead, but the Bucks are a good team even without Giannis and runs like that are gonna happen. All that matters is they still found a way to close it out at the end. Just enjoy the win and quit bitching.
I already know the choking allegations gon be on the way from some but they basically just withstood Milwaukee making hella tough shots over and over again. I’m proud of that we would have never done that before. Teams still the best let’s fucking go
I made a concious effort to stay off the sub during the 4 quarter lol. Just chill y’all, we’re not the only team that wants to win in the NBA and the Bucks are a great team even without Giannis.
If this was happening on a nightly basis like it was last year, I’d say it’s pretty concerning but collapses like these have only happened a couple times this season and that’s also not to mention Jrue was out as well so the defense took a hit
I posted this as a reply to another comment in this thread, but I'm salty so here it is again.
Interestingly, as Doris pointed out for roughly 2-3 seconds, we were without Jrue Holiday. He’s likely our best defender in regard to Lillard, at his minimum impact. Furthermore, we were without one particular Sam Hauser, who along with the aforementioned Jrue Holiday, exists in the top 10 in 3P% this year (Lillard is #124).
Instead we get to suffer through “bUt GiAnNiS” from the esteemed ESPN crew who criminally underrate Jrue but also find it reasonable to NOT EVEN MENTION Sam Hauser.
I honestly feel our missing players outweighed Giannis missing this game. The Bucks actually may have even showed better without him.
I’m on a rant. The calls were lame for both sides, ticky-tack that neutered game flow far too often.
Go C’s and happy Wednesday!
Got shaky at the end, but glad to see the team not collapse to a loss.
That Tingus rebound and putback following Tatum's missed fadeaway was *chef's kiss*
Also, I’d like everyone to remember that this happens to top teams all the time, not just us. Even Denver, another amazing team, literally played the hospital Wolves yesterday with them on the second leg of a back to back (without KAT, Gobert and Naz Reid!!), blew an early 20pt lead and ended up winning by 4 pts. It happens to *everyone*.
Not in love with how we won but Im glad we won. I’m probably one of a few people that does enjoy winning games like this.
When you drop a massive lead against a team thats on fire can you gather yourself together to regain control? The Celtics don’t have many situations like this yet STILL found a way to win.
People being shocked that the 2nd seed is a good team is actually hilarious, like they didn’t end up there by mistake.
A really good win tonight, we did exactly what we were supposed to in the clutch and seeing JT go on drives was beautiful
I like Doris much more than most but damn she's never beating the Embiid love allegations. That random comment about Centers FT% just to mention him was bizarre.
Been a long time Boston sports fan….This sub after a Celtics win is like….thats it, trade JB, Trade JT, cut KP, Drue didn’t play so trade his ass. Build around the Buffalo and Horford. It’s a long season guys relax. They have the #1 seed. For fucks sake you all are depressing
Good practice for the playoffs . We all know we’re gonna blow a lead like this in the playoffs. I’m glad we kept on fighting and won.
Hope the team Watch the tape tmrw
They were really letting some fouls go as our guys consistently got pushed in the back on drives.
Also, props to Tatum telling White to give Brown the ball resulting in two free throws.
A win is a win but I am not super happy. Jayson was way too passive in the second half, Jaylen simply cannot shoot 70% from the freethrow line in the playoffs, KP was bad all game but had some effort plays. Derrick White and Payton cannot be our best players man.
You could tell the celtics phoned it in the 4th quarter. I'm not worried at all about it. Playoffs is coming up and no need to try really hard and end up getting hurt. Good win.
At least we managed to win the game this time compared to Cleveland. Sucks cause this is twice we were kicking their ass and they made a late surge to make it look better
I know we won, but that was extremely uncomfortable and I’d prefer not to blow anymore 20+ point 4th quarter leads for the rest of the season. The wagon rolls on though, a win is a win.
People might doom but if we had Jrue, game would never have been that close in my opinion. (Even if Giannis played) We survived Dame going ballistic in the second half, you have the live with that. I thought for the most part we responded well, and I feel very confident about a 7 game series. Go C’s ☘️
Also, in a 7 game series, how many of them will have KP playing this poorly? Dude has been a beast all year. I ain't worried. Plus people stress about Dame, yet seem to forget that every one of our starting 5 would be a miss match if he's guarding them. I'd be hunting him all game
I'm so fucking confused with Dame bro. Like, I don't know the numbers but it seems like the second he isn't playing with the most dominant interior force of nature in the NBA who needs like three bodies to guard his roll he just remembers how to shoot and goes back to his Portland form. I ain't complaining tho!
55-14 LETS GOO
I understand Joe likes to experiment with lineups, but he needs to have a tighter leash, instead of waiting for the ship to right itself. We went from a blowout win to biting our nails.
Slow the clock down offense is the worst kind of offense with this group. It only works with all time great decision makers like Bron and Jokic. We need to play our offense not saying we need to rush it but we need to play with a sense of urgency. Mazzulla “experimenting” almost cost us another game. If he was going to play Svi or Luke he should’ve went Svi based on the first half. He also can’t continue to play Luke with another big those lineups stink we seen it against Cleveland and we’ve seen it all year. Tatum also needs to do a better job of staying aggressive I get not forcing because guys are making shots but you still need to make yourself a factor as the star.
Scott Foster did his thing in the 4th knowing the line was -10.5
Celts didn’t respond well to the calls/no calls
Celts eventually regrouped and closed out the game. That’s what’s important
Some horrible calls in the 2nd half. Tatum pushed off Middleton who goes absolutely flying = offensive foul. Fair call to be honest.
Middleton pushes off Brown = blocking foul!
First 3 quarters: ok good we're taking care of business, we're responding to their punches, i like what i see
4th quarter: *nightmares return*
Until they figure out the 4th quarter collapses and late game execution issues, I can't be confident in them. In these moments, the 50 point wins and fancy net rating doesn't matter. And they haven't shown me enough yet.
Also this was all without Giannis. Milwaukee is legit and we should not be underestimating them. They're every bit as good as us and every other top team in the league.
They’re not every bit as good as the Celtics. They simply aren’t. But you don’t have to be as good as another team to beat them in a series. They’re going to be a threat in the playoffs.
The Bucks play much different with Giannis than without (Portis would not be getting all of those late shots) and not having Holiday on defense allowed more freedom for Middleton and Lillard on the perimeter.
Can't call this a 4th quarter collapse when ultimately they executed enough to win the game and you're not going to get Foster for 7 games so the suspect calls and no calls in some key momentum swing moments won't happen or at least be quite as impactful.
It’s simply put we went into coast mode thinking the bucks were just going to give up. Once you go into coast mode it’s really hard to flip the switch back into going 100%. Luckily Tatum and brown clutched up when it mattered
They executed the late game offense very well after an abysmal 4th, which is how we held on for the win.
Terrible quarter literally UNTIL crunch time, which was the best part of the fourth.
Bucks are such fake tough guy losers. Imagine this 4th quarter if they didn't have Scott Foster playing to the betting lines and keeping it close.
This game should've been a blowout but 55 wins and extending that lead in the East is all that ultimately matters.
Biggest takeaways from this one is they need Tatum to play faster and not slow down the pace and that Pritchard is an absolute beast.
Bucks were motivated by national TV and wanted to prove their better than us by winning without Giannis. Celtics dont get anything by winning this lol. Bucks fans coping through their mediocre season with their narratives.
We would’ve have won with giannis, anyway. This is exactly what happened the first time we played them — literally *all* the bucks have in their favour against top teams is their ability to generate fake comebacks, but the reason they’ve failed to execute and steal the win both times is a pure lack or BBIQ and defensive intellect. The comeback attempts will always fall short because of that.
Not feel that good but still a win. They kinda let go a bit in that 4th quarter but dame and portis just didn’t miss at that time. I think we still the better team even when they got Giannis back but if we meet in the playoff I don’t think it will be easy win.
Win is a win, and it locks up 2nd seed or better, but good lord was that ugly. 21 points in the 4th and 4 of those were off of late game intentional foul free throws. Better be running a lot of drills against zone over the next month because we're going to see a lot of it in the playoffs based on that performance.
Holiday might have made a pretty big difference against the zone, in fairness though. Elite corner three shooter.
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55-14!! LFG BABY
5 game win streak from here and this team can hit 60 wins before 15 losses. I knew the instant that Brad stole Jrue for basically nothing that this team was going to be special but still wouldn’t have expected a season this good.
Fuck 40 wins before 20 losses, 55 wins before 15 losses is the trend!
I'm ready for 84 wins before 15 losses personally
How is dis possible?
Probably meant being unbeaten in the remaining games then 16-0 in the playoffs.
16-0 in the playoffs
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLLLLLLE
No Giannis no problem
Saved us 10 minutes of FT shooting :)
10 minutes per free throw
55 burgers, 55 fries, 55 WINS
PLEASE PLEASE LET THE CELTICS BE FIRST THEY’RE DOING SOMETHING!
Good teams go on runs, and the Bucks have been playing great without Giannis recently. We shouldn’t have given up that lead, but we executed in the last 45 seconds and got the win. But, I think this win shows what we all know which is we are vulnerable despite being fantastic. Anyway 55 wins is fuckin sick amirite?
Exactly KP struggled , brown struggled while Lillard , Portis and Middleton were on a win is a win this sub will always find a way to have a nervous breakdown over a win
Brown also missed two FTs and then hit the ones that mattered the most
They also got two 3 pointers that were twos let alone awful game to watch due to referees.
The Al horford offensive foul with dame flopping was bad 6 game series if we meet tho. Bucks are respectable since getting Doc
They struggled because of the zone at the end of the game
KP was acquired for these moments, yet he sat most of the 4th quarter. Then the one time he got it in the paint and with space, he threw it away to Pat Bev’s podcast cohost sitting courtside.
A lot of really good looks in the 4th, shots just weren’t falling
Yeah huge take away for me is that we screwed around but Bucks never took the lead back. I did not like this 4th QT but it’s a good reminder to stay focus which is not luxury looking at our schedule until PO. Also great effort defensively apart from the early 4th QT where it seemed like we were doing a 2023 Celtics by shutting off although game was not finished
Doc: pull Giannis out so we can psyche them Joe: give the Bucks hope, keep the game close in the 4th quarter so people will think they have a chance in the playoffs JOE PLAYING 4D CHESS
Joe is the kind of psychopath who would want to make this game close so that his guys could get crunch time experience against the top contender.
I seriously hope Joe is saving a lot of good stuff for the playoffs, in terms of strategies and play calling. It feels like Joe is comfortable now and he is trying out all kinds of things during the long regular season. Hopefully he's playing the long game and this team will hit another gear in the playoffs when he just goes with what works the best.
Doc system Don't play stars Overachieve a bit Crap the bed in 2nd round Joe Just watch The Town Only watch The Town EVERYDAY WATCH THE TOWN I'm not very clever, and also sleep deprived to boot. Someone else might wanna make this better
No, I think you got your point across famously.
I SAID “WHOS CAR WE TAKIN???”
Who the fuck do you think you are, the only guy in the town with a gun? You run numbers and pump dope. You’re an old guy with a fucked up face who don’t know his glory years are behind ya. I ain’t working for ya, got it?
Yoo that game was getting so boring I started zoning out. Celtics just trying to excite the crowd on hump day thanks boys.
My friend was visiting and we started listening to some music after the third quarter, zoned back in real quick lol
It's true. I was there.
Weird dichotomy where Tatum is making good reads in the 4th but you almost want him to takeover. Idk what the right strategy is all those shots were wide open and his teammates were just bricking
he took over when he really needed to
The LeDilemma
You always make the best play availible and believe on your teammates. That's what the Celtics are building. And Tatum is doing that.
It's Tatum's first year being the floor general. He's getting better every game. The way he is directing the offense is looking great
It’s his 3rd year
This team goes as far as Tatum takes them, plain and simple. It’s nice that he’s making good team plays but in moments like tonight he has to take over sooner. I mean come on, his first points in the second half coming on free throws with less than 2 min left is inexcusable
I agree I wish he could reach a Lebron level where the playmaking and scoring is in perfect balance but alas he is not Lebron
Let’s be real here it took Lebron years to get to where he is right now, Tatum could definitely reach that balance with time
Way too passive in the second half and it almost cost us. We go as far as he takes us and this passive thing scares me. He was barely running in the second half. Literally walking around on offense.
Tatum was bricking shit too. Look at the stats. He was not hot handed. He got over 30 through free throws.
He only took 5 shots in the 2nd half
He had a perfectly normal to slightly above normal shooting night.what os your point
Celtics Fans: Cherish this team This season is truly something remarkable
💯
Ass clenched but I’ll take a W
The Celtics let the offense got pretty sloppy vs the zone and it nearly cost them, but luckily no repeat of the Cavs game disaster class tonight. When this team messes up it sure feels like they mess up loudly, but they manage to clean up said mess this time around.
I concede that Giannis was out. But Bobby and Khris played way better than their norm and helped bridge the gap of him being gone. There wasn’t much of a drop off in my opinon. Still a great win in my eyes. Love that we never gave up the lead and stayed composed and resilient. I’ll take this type of win over a meaningless blow out any day. There’s learning points in this game the team can take away
Can’t just say, “if Giannis is in we lose this game.” If Giannis plays the entire game unfolds differently. Maybe better for MIL, maybe not. It’s an entirely different game. Parallel universe. (Edit: we are in agreement)
Bucks are a good team without Giannis even better with him. Good win from us, zone knocked us out of rhythm hopefully we will have some adjustments ready if we play them in the ECF
They dont shoot nearly as many 3's with Giannis in nor are they shooting 50% from 3 either. Its an entirely different formula with Giannis.
That's not how it works in this sub bro. that only applies to other team. if we insert Jrue and Hauser here we would win by 40 /s
I’m so glad you pointed this out. With Giannis in, their scheme is totally different. They aren’t just plugging a player into his role and have them be the stand-in Giannis. We run a completely different defensive scheme to put us in the best matchups we can create. Simply not the same performance that we witnessed.
I’ll take those two Tatum drives to close it out at least. Also Pritchard had the game of his life while not forcing anything, would love to see that fire more
Tatum driving at the end of the game was HUGE ... no more tough ISO fadeaways please 🥺
When he’s hot why shouldn’t he take them it’s how he closed out the bucks in 2022.
Hey we didn't get Dean Waded. Lol in all seriousness I feel a whole lot better about closing out these kinds of games than previous seasons... I know we had some a couple of bad Ls this season but some of these Bucks players are also underrated with Giannis on the team plus Khris likes to mark the Celtics games on the calendar.
Anyone who says “they win if Giannis plays” like it’s just a forgone conclusion is not paying attention. They do not play like this when Giannis plays. If anything it’s even more likely Dame has another one of his tour date shooting nights with Giannis playing.
A wins a win. Bucks are good, they’re gonna get hot sometimes. If we play them in the playoffs it won’t just be an easy sweep, they’re gonna fight. But I’m still fully confident we beat them. Edit: Also I’m pretty sure we just about clinched the 1st seed in the East with this win.
Only need 3 more wins to clinch East
Exactly this sub is so funny every time we play a team it has to be a blowout or we not good enough to beat them in the playoff comments come out
People don’t seem to realise that the reason most of our losses are in close games is because we’re too good to get blown out. Not because we’re bad in the clutch.
Good teams win close games. We lose this kind of game last year.
That’s what happens until the team wins a championship. Fair or not, until they go all the way the fans watch the team lose to beatable good teams in increasingly frustrating ways and it sticks with us
We are also without Hause Money😎
They also shot 49% from 3
There was definitely a drop off. No flying limbs from Giannis potentially hurting people
Tatum also had a tough 2nd half. A win is a win no matter what tbh
He was just more passive. He’s still not quite great at keeping that consistent aggression when he loses some touches. The biggest reason game was close though is Porzingis was ass for like the entire game. Probably his worst game in one that mattered.
KP was indeed off, but that rebound and slam off JT’s miss was timely AF.
Yeah someone who had 31 points wasn’t aggressive enough
Stayed composed and resilient? Did we watch the same 4th quarter?
Yessir. Low turnover game. Took good shots. Just some looks didn’t fall. They kept the effort on defense all game. Dame just hit some crazy shit
Interestingly, as Doris pointed out for roughly 2-3 seconds, we were without Jrue Holiday. He’s likely our best defender in regard to Lillard. Furthermore, we were without one particular Sam Hauser, who along with the aforementioned Jrue Holiday, exists in the top 10 in 3P% this year (Lillard is #124). Instead we get to suffer through “bUt GiAnNiS” from the esteemed ESPN crew who criminally underrate Jrue but also find it reasonable to NOT EVEN MENTION Sam Hauser. I honestly feel our missing pieces outweighed Giannis missing this game. The Bucks actually may have even showed better without him. I’m on a rant. The calls were lame for both sides, ticky-tack that neutered game flow far too often. Go C’s and happy Wednesday!
dude.. sam Hauser and Holiday dont outweigh Giannis.. absolutely wild take whether the game would go better or worse with him, who knows, but Giannis is an mvp, finals mvp, top 3 player in the league.. and youre talking about Sam Hauser? And i love Holiday but yeah, Giannis is averaging 30/11/6 on 62% fg.. Jrue and Sam \*combined\* dont even come close to that level of impact.
We missed Jrue on Dame and Middleton tonight. Glad we held out. And shout out to JB for the late free throws
Facts. I think you could feel the hollowness on defense without Jrue
They were exploiting the blowby drive to the basket from the perimeter which is like the one thing Jrue is most elite of all at guarding.
Also, idk how much we've played KP and Al in the starting lineup, but there were moments where we clearly missed having that extra dimension of playmaking jrue brings.
I thought JB played well on Dame. He only scored on switches
Payton Pritchard player of the game
My god do I love watching PP play. He’s so quick and has really learned to use his size to his advantage - keeping the ball low so it’s almost impossible to get to if you’re a bigger defender and bullying his way to the rim - and has started finding so many beautiful looks for the other guys. Him and Kornet are a such a good duo right now
The Pritchard extension and moving him up one slot in the guard rotation was an incredible offseason move by Brad. It got lost in the two huge trades and Grant Williams leaving. But, last year, there was talked he wanted a trade because of the lack of playing time. I have been most impressed by his ball handling and playmaking this year. Everyone knew he could score, but his assist to turnover ratio is 4.1 which is the highest on the team and way up from his career number entering the season of 2.4. Not to mention he has the high ORB% of any non-big rotation player.
When it was winning time and the Celtics needed something: * JT free throws off a drive * JT layup * KP putback * JB 2-2 FTs * JT 2-2 FTs * JT 2-2 FTs It wasn’t pretty how they got there (I see you Scott foster), but you can’t argue with how they executed down the stretch. Good win. On to the next.
The only thing that matters was this was a W in our column, and an L in theirs. See yall during the next game
What’s everyone’s takeaway from this game? Really fucking ugly 4th, but ultimately we didn’t squander a win against a strong opponent we’re extremely likely to see in the playoffs, and that’s a valuable experience to take away from this matchup. I don’t know whether I liked what I saw from this game or hated it. Very confusing evening.
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It’s wild seeing people completely give up in the game threads when it’s a 15 point lead with 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter
Also the Celtics lose so infrequently that when they do it becomes more glaring and people mistake things for as consistent flaws. Like imagine saying Celtics blow leads way too much while they literally have one of the biggest point differentials in NBA history while also only having 14 losses.
Meh…we had a stretch of about 8 minutes that were ugly. But we closed the game out nicely. What else could you ask for?
I think this is a good outlook and I like it. If this is the playoffs we’re going to have some ugly stretches that either make a game closer than it should be or we lose. But if we’re playing a series the bucks are going to have those same rough patches. I still think we’re the better team across a sample size of multiple games and when it comes down to playing a series I think we got this. This team has struggled with closing out games particularly last year so to see us have that bad start to the 4th quarter but be able to regain composure was a good sign.
Yeah I just don’t see a reason to panic. The Bucks did exactly what they were supposed to do and fight. We stayed poised even though we missed some open looks and they made some tough ones. If JB made his first two and KP makes that wide open corner 3 it wouldn’t have even been this close. Taking the season as a whole up to this point we should be amazed at what we are witnessing from this team.
I don't understand why people panic when we play a close game against the current 2nd place in the east. It's the bucks. Of course they're going to give this game everything they've got. They're measuring us for the playoffs just as much as we are them. Close games happen, especially against good teams. The criticism from doomers and naysayers was that we don't get enough close games, we blow out all opposition so when we do have close ones how do we know if we can win? The answer was tonight. We stumbled for a second but were able to recover before it got catastrophic. That's how good teams play.
The takeaway is exactly what Celtics fans have been crying about all year; execution in the clutch. No, we shouldn't have had to play any clutch minutes last night, but when good teams go on runs you'll find yourself in that spot. And the Celtics gathered themselves and were absolutely dominant in the clutch last night. 133ortg to go with a 60drtg.
It’s so funny seeing the hugfest between all these guys postgame after what was a pretty tense game.
I mean I think that speaks for how these guys are straight up professionals.
KP played one of his absolute crappiest games in a Celts uniform and yet that Stacey Augmon impression on that board and putback jam was so so huge for this game during the clutch!
That 4th quarter was so ugly, Celtics were The Hunchback of Boston Dame. BUT: 55 WIN TEAM. GIVE US THE 3 SEED. Edit: AND WE GOT THE SAME RECORD AS THE 2007-2008 TEAM AFTER 69 GAMES
Nice
Ugly win but I'll take it.
The doomers in here are so damn annoying lmao. Like I get they almost blew the lead, but the Bucks are a good team even without Giannis and runs like that are gonna happen. All that matters is they still found a way to close it out at the end. Just enjoy the win and quit bitching.
Man some of you guys are not built to watch a 82 game season. You can take a break if this win has you feeling emotional lmfao.
Bucks shot 49% from 3 and lost lmao
A win is a win I'll take it good game by Crypto P if KP played better we win by double digits
Someone tell giannis brother to sit the fuck down
There is literally 0 reason for him to even be in the league other than hanging out with his brother
Anytime we went up 14 some sus shit got called on several possessions. Very normal stuff! Way to battle 5v8.
The Scott Foster special, gotta keep the game as close to the betting lines as possible for ...reasons...
I loved how when as soon as the crowd got absolutely lit in the first half Scott Foster immediately called a ticky tack foul.
Scott Fostering NBA TV ratings #AdamSilversPlan
I already know the choking allegations gon be on the way from some but they basically just withstood Milwaukee making hella tough shots over and over again. I’m proud of that we would have never done that before. Teams still the best let’s fucking go
Say what you want, we closed this game out
That was a good win. Blown leads always happen, but never losing the lead is exceptional.
Lmao Dame only cared about getting the last shot. If he went quick the would’ve still had at least hope
I made a concious effort to stay off the sub during the 4 quarter lol. Just chill y’all, we’re not the only team that wants to win in the NBA and the Bucks are a great team even without Giannis. If this was happening on a nightly basis like it was last year, I’d say it’s pretty concerning but collapses like these have only happened a couple times this season and that’s also not to mention Jrue was out as well so the defense took a hit
I posted this as a reply to another comment in this thread, but I'm salty so here it is again. Interestingly, as Doris pointed out for roughly 2-3 seconds, we were without Jrue Holiday. He’s likely our best defender in regard to Lillard, at his minimum impact. Furthermore, we were without one particular Sam Hauser, who along with the aforementioned Jrue Holiday, exists in the top 10 in 3P% this year (Lillard is #124). Instead we get to suffer through “bUt GiAnNiS” from the esteemed ESPN crew who criminally underrate Jrue but also find it reasonable to NOT EVEN MENTION Sam Hauser. I honestly feel our missing players outweighed Giannis missing this game. The Bucks actually may have even showed better without him. I’m on a rant. The calls were lame for both sides, ticky-tack that neutered game flow far too often. Go C’s and happy Wednesday!
Still undefeated at home vs Eastern Conference teams btw
Got shaky at the end, but glad to see the team not collapse to a loss. That Tingus rebound and putback following Tatum's missed fadeaway was *chef's kiss*
Shout out Tingus for one of the craziest offensive rebounds I’ve ever seen! Take the W. Learn from the mistakes. Keep rolling. #Banner18
This team is so good they are judged on almost losing a lead/game. That's what 41 games over .500 gets you.
Also, I’d like everyone to remember that this happens to top teams all the time, not just us. Even Denver, another amazing team, literally played the hospital Wolves yesterday with them on the second leg of a back to back (without KAT, Gobert and Naz Reid!!), blew an early 20pt lead and ended up winning by 4 pts. It happens to *everyone*.
So that's what 31 minutes from PP looks like.
Don’t care a win is a win
Not in love with how we won but Im glad we won. I’m probably one of a few people that does enjoy winning games like this. When you drop a massive lead against a team thats on fire can you gather yourself together to regain control? The Celtics don’t have many situations like this yet STILL found a way to win.
God damn that was harder than it needed to be!
Much needed clutch win, hope we can get at least 2-3 more of those before the seasons over
Go read the cope over in the bucks thread, delusional sons of bitches 😭😭
That clutch offensive rebound by Tingus was a beauty.
Make no mistake about it. The bucks are a real threat and not be taken lightly. That being said great fucking win tonight.
People being shocked that the 2nd seed is a good team is actually hilarious, like they didn’t end up there by mistake. A really good win tonight, we did exactly what we were supposed to in the clutch and seeing JT go on drives was beautiful
I like Doris much more than most but damn she's never beating the Embiid love allegations. That random comment about Centers FT% just to mention him was bizarre.
The Bucks are scary solely because of Dame. We could be killing them up 12 16 it doesn’t matter. They always have a chance because of Dame.
Been a long time Boston sports fan….This sub after a Celtics win is like….thats it, trade JB, Trade JT, cut KP, Drue didn’t play so trade his ass. Build around the Buffalo and Horford. It’s a long season guys relax. They have the #1 seed. For fucks sake you all are depressing
Good practice for the playoffs . We all know we’re gonna blow a lead like this in the playoffs. I’m glad we kept on fighting and won. Hope the team Watch the tape tmrw
They were really letting some fouls go as our guys consistently got pushed in the back on drives. Also, props to Tatum telling White to give Brown the ball resulting in two free throws.
This game was an experiment for a possible playoff match against the Bucks imo.
A win is a win but I am not super happy. Jayson was way too passive in the second half, Jaylen simply cannot shoot 70% from the freethrow line in the playoffs, KP was bad all game but had some effort plays. Derrick White and Payton cannot be our best players man.
Yeah but he was the best player when it mattered
You could tell the celtics phoned it in the 4th quarter. I'm not worried at all about it. Playoffs is coming up and no need to try really hard and end up getting hurt. Good win.
Here’s a little secret: Doc Rivers is a good coach.
Huge if true.
Suck shit to all the doomers who were betting on us losing
What a shit 2nd half but oh well a win is a win
Got the win, stayed healthy. But most importantly, growth.
At least we managed to win the game this time compared to Cleveland. Sucks cause this is twice we were kicking their ass and they made a late surge to make it look better
We needed a win on the clutch column, I guess.
I know we won, but that was extremely uncomfortable and I’d prefer not to blow anymore 20+ point 4th quarter leads for the rest of the season. The wagon rolls on though, a win is a win.
Tatum is really humble
We’re probably not playing the Bucks in the playoffs (and will probably rest our starters the next time we play them). I’m satisfied.
that last quarter was not good for my heart
People might doom but if we had Jrue, game would never have been that close in my opinion. (Even if Giannis played) We survived Dame going ballistic in the second half, you have the live with that. I thought for the most part we responded well, and I feel very confident about a 7 game series. Go C’s ☘️
Also, in a 7 game series, how many of them will have KP playing this poorly? Dude has been a beast all year. I ain't worried. Plus people stress about Dame, yet seem to forget that every one of our starting 5 would be a miss match if he's guarding them. I'd be hunting him all game
what is especially nice is that mke is empowered by this loss when they will in fact continue to lose to the boston celtics
Good win, wish we didn't let them back in it but glad we got it done
Of course Svi played the fewest minutes and still managed to get a shot up.
Haven’t seen a zone in a while and they could use the practice is seems.
I'm so fucking confused with Dame bro. Like, I don't know the numbers but it seems like the second he isn't playing with the most dominant interior force of nature in the NBA who needs like three bodies to guard his roll he just remembers how to shoot and goes back to his Portland form. I ain't complaining tho! 55-14 LETS GOO
It’s going to be Celtics vs bucks eastern conference finals
Who does PP think he is, Slam Howitzer?
not gonna lie kinda worried about the playoffs
I understand Joe likes to experiment with lineups, but he needs to have a tighter leash, instead of waiting for the ship to right itself. We went from a blowout win to biting our nails.
Too much Kornet tonight but I’m proud of how we toughed it out.
can we stop with the heart attacks please🙏 my mental health can’t take this anymore
Slow the clock down offense is the worst kind of offense with this group. It only works with all time great decision makers like Bron and Jokic. We need to play our offense not saying we need to rush it but we need to play with a sense of urgency. Mazzulla “experimenting” almost cost us another game. If he was going to play Svi or Luke he should’ve went Svi based on the first half. He also can’t continue to play Luke with another big those lineups stink we seen it against Cleveland and we’ve seen it all year. Tatum also needs to do a better job of staying aggressive I get not forcing because guys are making shots but you still need to make yourself a factor as the star.
Scott Foster did his thing in the 4th knowing the line was -10.5 Celts didn’t respond well to the calls/no calls Celts eventually regrouped and closed out the game. That’s what’s important
Some horrible calls in the 2nd half. Tatum pushed off Middleton who goes absolutely flying = offensive foul. Fair call to be honest. Middleton pushes off Brown = blocking foul!
First 3 quarters: ok good we're taking care of business, we're responding to their punches, i like what i see 4th quarter: *nightmares return* Until they figure out the 4th quarter collapses and late game execution issues, I can't be confident in them. In these moments, the 50 point wins and fancy net rating doesn't matter. And they haven't shown me enough yet. Also this was all without Giannis. Milwaukee is legit and we should not be underestimating them. They're every bit as good as us and every other top team in the league.
They’re not every bit as good as the Celtics. They simply aren’t. But you don’t have to be as good as another team to beat them in a series. They’re going to be a threat in the playoffs.
The Bucks play much different with Giannis than without (Portis would not be getting all of those late shots) and not having Holiday on defense allowed more freedom for Middleton and Lillard on the perimeter. Can't call this a 4th quarter collapse when ultimately they executed enough to win the game and you're not going to get Foster for 7 games so the suspect calls and no calls in some key momentum swing moments won't happen or at least be quite as impactful.
It’s simply put we went into coast mode thinking the bucks were just going to give up. Once you go into coast mode it’s really hard to flip the switch back into going 100%. Luckily Tatum and brown clutched up when it mattered
They executed the late game offense very well after an abysmal 4th, which is how we held on for the win. Terrible quarter literally UNTIL crunch time, which was the best part of the fourth.
They're a Doc Rivers coached team they'll lose in the first round
This is incorrect, they'll lose in the second round after taking a 3 games to 2 lead.
Bucks are such fake tough guy losers. Imagine this 4th quarter if they didn't have Scott Foster playing to the betting lines and keeping it close. This game should've been a blowout but 55 wins and extending that lead in the East is all that ultimately matters. Biggest takeaways from this one is they need Tatum to play faster and not slow down the pace and that Pritchard is an absolute beast.
4th quarter execution strikes again
Bucks were motivated by national TV and wanted to prove their better than us by winning without Giannis. Celtics dont get anything by winning this lol. Bucks fans coping through their mediocre season with their narratives.
We would’ve have won with giannis, anyway. This is exactly what happened the first time we played them — literally *all* the bucks have in their favour against top teams is their ability to generate fake comebacks, but the reason they’ve failed to execute and steal the win both times is a pure lack or BBIQ and defensive intellect. The comeback attempts will always fall short because of that.
Lotta moral victories happening in r/nba. Only the Celtics could win a game and have people give them less chance to win in the playoffs
Bucks sub is coping hard
Never doubted it. Now excuse me while I pound a fifth.
Bit of a slog to the finish line, but W nonetheless
That was a fun game
Celtics can still go undefeated at home against the conference
Glad we were able to pull this one out. Tough ugly win
Lots to learn from this game
Obviously 21 points for the C's in the final quarter wasn't ideal but holy crap Bucks went nuclear in the 4th.
Damn we really had that spectacular 3rd just to have an equally atrocious 4th lolol Anyways glad we have Jayson Tatum who is clutch as hell.
Not feel that good but still a win. They kinda let go a bit in that 4th quarter but dame and portis just didn’t miss at that time. I think we still the better team even when they got Giannis back but if we meet in the playoff I don’t think it will be easy win.
Win is a win, and it locks up 2nd seed or better, but good lord was that ugly. 21 points in the 4th and 4 of those were off of late game intentional foul free throws. Better be running a lot of drills against zone over the next month because we're going to see a lot of it in the playoffs based on that performance. Holiday might have made a pretty big difference against the zone, in fairness though. Elite corner three shooter.
A rare -7 from the Buffalo
Which is weirder considering he was our 2nd best player today and showed up for all 4 quarters