Current Events > What a joke of a game by the Celtics

(+) Yeah! (+)

Celtics gameplan:

Shoot 3 pointer, miss

Shoot 3 pointer, miss

Shoot 3 pointer, miss

Shoot 3 pointer, miss

...
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shockthemonkey posted...

Hasnt that been their strategy for at least the last 3 games? Thats all I watched but thats all they did.

Pretty much
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Cavs and Celtics were two of the best 3-point shooting teams the entire year. Neither team could buy a 3-pointer tonight.

Imagine thinking it was a bad gameplan to do what got you there in the first place. -_-

Casual sports fans are cancer, tbh.
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The NBA is RIGGED

You call me a casual?

All the 3 pointers are what make the NBA so much worse today than it once was. But if you can make them, then go for it. If you can't, then stop trying.
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And while the Celtics were missing 3s, the Cavs had LeBron making easy baskets and steadily tying the game and then eventually winning the game easily.

You can't stop LeBron, he's just too good. But that's why you can't just keep trying 3s and missing, because LeBron WILL come back. Not all of the Celtics missed 3 attempts were bad/low %, but a lot of them were. If they would have gone for 2s instead this game would have been totally different.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

And while the Celtics were missing 3s, the Cavs had LeBron making easy baskets and steadily tying the game and then eventually winning the game easily.

Did you forget the fact that the Cavs shot 35 from beyond the arc and only made 9 of them? Or the fact that Boston actually made 1 more 2-point field goal than the Cavs did? But that doesn't fit the narrative you want, so you ignore it.

Casual fans are so annoying.
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Did you forget that they attempted 3 after 3 and missed them, giving the Cavs opportunity to come back and going from a nice lead to an equally bad loss by the end of the game.

The Celtics were lucky that the Cavs missed about as many 3s as they did. But once the 2nd half started at least, they should have realized that 3s just weren't working and tried another approach.

This is all Curry's fault tbh
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Damn_Underscore posted...

Did you forget that they attempted 3 after 3 and missed them,

So did the Cavs.

Damn_Underscore posted...

But once the 2nd half started at least, they should have realized that 3s just weren't working and tried another approach.

So should the Cavs.

Neither team did, which is why it was a close game. Stop being casual.
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But who won? The Cavs, easily by the end. Why? Because LeBron can score at will and even though the Celtics team is much better than the Cavs team minus LeBron, LeBrin makes everyone else so much better. The Celtics had to focus on LeBron and it gave everyone else easy opportunities, even without LeBron beeing double teamed.

The Celtics were lucky that the Cavs missed a lot of 3s, but given that they were missing a lot themselves they should have changed their gameplan. But no, they continued to try for contested 3s.

And what is the quarter-by-quarter breakdown of 3 attempts, because it seemed like the Cavs made a lot more 3s toward the end of the game.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

And what is the quarter-by-quarter breakdown of 3 attempts, because it seemed like the Cavs made a lot more 3s toward the end of the game.

Celtics:
1st = 2/9
2nd = 2/10
3rd = 0/7
4th = 3/13

Cavs:
1st = 1/9
2nd = 1/8
3rd = 4/12
4th = 3/6

So it's okay for the Cavs to keep shooting them, despite bricking constantly. But it's not okay for the Celtics to keep shooting them? You know what the difference is? The Cavs won. Hindsight is 20/20.

For the record, the last 3-pointer the Cavs made was with 5:44 left on the clock and made it 74-72. So they weren't making a bunch of them down the stretch.

Get out of your own narrative and look at the game objectively. The reason the Cavs won was because their defense was harassing them in the paint and they were giving relatively open looks on the outside, which the Celtics kept taking because they were higher-% shots that they had been known to make consistently. They just shot poorly. It had nothing to do with the gameplan. Shit happens.

The reason the Celtics attempted more 3s at the very end of the game was because they were down. They had to make up ground, and they were running out of time to do it. Their literal only hope was to make a bunch of 3s, because layups and short range jumpers weren't going to close the gap when LeBron decided he was going to match any 2-pointers they made.
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It's also not just the fact that they missed a lot of 3s, most of the time they passed the ball around looking for a 3, then if they couldn't get one

They had half as many turnovers, 20 more shots, and lost big. Stop with the insults and admit it was a bad gameplan by the Celtics.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

admit it was a bad gameplan by the Celtics.

It wasn't.
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Let's say both teams tried to reset during halftime. When it still wasn't working at all for the Celtics in the 3rd quarter, they should have tried something else then at least.

IIRC near the end of the game the Celtics were down by 4 and rebounded a missed free throw. They tried to get a 3 twice (which admittedly would have turned the game around) instead of looking for an easier 2. They had that same mentality all game.
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@Reis

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Damn_Underscore posted...

IIRC near the end of the game the Celtics were down by 4 and rebounded a missed free throw. They tried to get a 3 twice (which admittedly would have turned the game around) instead of looking for an easier 2. They had that same mentality all game.

One panic play does not make or break a gameplan. I'm not sure what you aren't getting here.

Their gameplan was to shoot 3s (which they'd been making consistently and was their bread & butter) and play lock-down defense. They did a great job on defense, considering they kept the Cavs under 90 points despite LeBron scoring 35 alone. And they got a ton of open looks. They just shot poorly. That's not a problem with the gameplan. And it's also not something you typically expect to last forever. Statistically speaking, teams tend to "bounce back" and end up around their average % by the end of a game. That's why it's called the average. The more shots you take, the more likely you are to end up close to your average.

Their gameplan was perfectly sound. And it was good enough that they were within 3 points, just one possession, with only 3 minutes left in the game. The gameplan was not the problem. It's as simple as that.
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It's one example of failure in a gameplan that didn't work and should have been adjusted.

Yes, they obviously shot poorly and were doing so the entire game. The gameplan should have been adjusted but never was. In any other game, you can hope for the team to bounce back. Not in a playoff Game 7 (or any elimination game).
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Yeah the reason they shot a bunch of 3's near the end was because that was the only thing they could do to hopefully close the gap. If they tried to shoot for 2's or layups, LeBron can easily retaliate back with his layups.
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But the difference between this game and the games in Cleveland is that the Cavs weren't making everything.

If the Celtics switched their priority to high % 2s sometime in the 3rd quarter even, they would have won the game.
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