2024 NBA Playoffs - East 1st Round: #1 Boston Celtics vs. #8 Miami Heat (BOS WINS 4-1)

[AussieCeltic]

Heat winning this next game. I don’t care that Boston won the first game by 20, they still give me 2007 Dallas Mavericks choke artist vibes.

Tatum/Brown/KP/White/Holiday

Vs

Dirk/JET/Devin Harris/Josh Howard/Devean George


Yeh I can totally see the similarities.

Dirk is the only guy from that Mavs team that would start on Boston.

[Ugly Duckling]

When Boston is moving the ball, they're a joy to watch (and incredibly efficient). Must be awfully boring from the other team's perspective, though.

I do agree with the "they'll give up more games than they should (0)" part. They get bored themselves and don't always show up. This might change in the playoffs. Or not, we'll see.

i may have been a little harsh. tatum is a great player no doubt, but his game is plain. he's not exciting to watch like so many other guys. for me at least. he also chokes in the playoffs, so we'll see. i do like watching derrick white, along with jaylen brown in spurts, so not completely boring. they kind of remind me of the tim duncan spurs in that they're good, but boring to watch

He chokes so much he has the most points in a game 7 ever.

Yeh he’s had bad games here and there, but what player hasn’t?? He’s a victim of his own early success.

Jimmy butler averaged 14ppg on 29% shooting in a series only 3 years ago.

Lebron is considered the GOAT by a lot of people here and he averaged 19ppg in the finals.

Tatum has always had big elimination games sans the finals v the Warriors.

i mean you probably know more about his playoff performance than i do, but are also biased. im neutral and have seen him become a shell of himself on multiple occasions when a series is on the line. so much so that he starts to force shots or defer and jaylen has to take over. last season wasn't the only time. he says it affected him and he's been playing great ball, so let's see. the greats can do it under pressure when the season's on the line

[KingDavid]

Skip to the 2:38 second of the clip for Joe Mazzulla answering the question about Caleb running into Tatum being intentional or it being serious.

Watch on YouTube

Skip to 3:55 where Caleb Martin addresses the play and states exactly what we've been saying; he was pushed. He was going for the putback dunk and got shoved on his gather; it's clear as day.

Watch on YouTube

[AussieCeltic]

Skip to the 2:38 second of the clip for Joe Mazzulla answering the question about Caleb running into Tatum being intentional or it being serious.

Watch on YouTube

Skip to 3:55 where Caleb Martin addresses the play and states exactly what we've been saying; he was pushed. He was going for the putback dunk and got shoved on his gather; it's clear as day.

Watch on YouTube

I think we should move on from this now, the players don’t care, the coaches don’t care… but honestly, what did you think Martin was going to say? Yeh I intentionally wanted to tackle him mid air?

[Larry_Russell]

Skip to the 2:38 second of the clip for Joe Mazzulla answering the question about Caleb running into Tatum being intentional or it being serious.

Watch on YouTube

Skip to 3:55 where Caleb Martin addresses the play and states exactly what we've been saying; he was pushed. He was going for the putback dunk and got shoved on his gather; it's clear as day.

Watch on YouTube

And why would he say otherwise?

[Larry_Russell]

i may have been a little harsh. tatum is a great player no doubt, but his game is plain. he's not exciting to watch like so many other guys. for me at least. he also chokes in the playoffs, so we'll see. i do like watching derrick white, along with jaylen brown in spurts, so not completely boring. they kind of remind me of the tim duncan spurs in that they're good, but boring to watch

He chokes so much he has the most points in a game 7 ever.

Yeh he’s had bad games here and there, but what player hasn’t?? He’s a victim of his own early success.

Jimmy butler averaged 14ppg on 29% shooting in a series only 3 years ago.

Lebron is considered the GOAT by a lot of people here and he averaged 19ppg in the finals.

Tatum has always had big elimination games sans the finals v the Warriors.

i mean you probably know more about his playoff performance than i do, but are also biased. im neutral and have seen him become a shell of himself on multiple occasions when a series is on the line. so much so that he starts to force shots or defer and jaylen has to take over. last season wasn't the only time. he says it affected him and he's been playing great ball, so let's see. the greats can do it under pressure when the season's on the line

What are you talking about?

He has historically, dominated in thise situations in the playoffs. Like record setting dominance.

Last season he got hurt and missed game 7 against the heat...outside of that dominate.

So if you are claiming that game 7 against the heat last year he had to defer because he couldnt walk and was on the sidelines injured then I guess your right.

[robbie84]

i may have been a little harsh. tatum is a great player no doubt, but his game is plain. he's not exciting to watch like so many other guys. for me at least. he also chokes in the playoffs, so we'll see. i do like watching derrick white, along with jaylen brown in spurts, so not completely boring. they kind of remind me of the tim duncan spurs in that they're good, but boring to watch

He chokes so much he has the most points in a game 7 ever.

Yeh he’s had bad games here and there, but what player hasn’t?? He’s a victim of his own early success.

Jimmy butler averaged 14ppg on 29% shooting in a series only 3 years ago.

Lebron is considered the GOAT by a lot of people here and he averaged 19ppg in the finals.

Tatum has always had big elimination games sans the finals v the Warriors.

i mean you probably know more about his playoff performance than i do, but are also biased. im neutral and have seen him become a shell of himself on multiple occasions when a series is on the line. so much so that he starts to force shots or defer and jaylen has to take over. last season wasn't the only time. he says it affected him and he's been playing great ball, so let's see. the greats can do it under pressure when the season's on the line

You're embarrassing yourself now. Just type in tatum game 7 on youtube and see what results you get.
You're one of those haters that makes stuff up because you can't find enough valid reasons to hate Boston lol.

[shi-woo]

He chokes so much he has the most points in a game 7 ever.

Yeh he’s had bad games here and there, but what player hasn’t?? He’s a victim of his own early success.

Jimmy butler averaged 14ppg on 29% shooting in a series only 3 years ago.

Lebron is considered the GOAT by a lot of people here and he averaged 19ppg in the finals.

Tatum has always had big elimination games sans the finals v the Warriors.

i mean you probably know more about his playoff performance than i do, but are also biased. im neutral and have seen him become a shell of himself on multiple occasions when a series is on the line. so much so that he starts to force shots or defer and jaylen has to take over. last season wasn't the only time. he says it affected him and he's been playing great ball, so let's see. the greats can do it under pressure when the season's on the line

What are you talking about?

He has historically, dominated in thise situations in the playoffs. Like record setting dominance.

Last season he got hurt and missed game 7 against the heat...outside of that dominate.

So if you are claiming that game 7 against the heat last year he had to defer because he couldnt walk and was on the sidelines injured then I guess your right.

Yeah this is an absurd hill to die on. The only blemishes on JT's resume is getting tired in the finals, which he owned up too, and spraining his ankle in that game 7 which sucked the life out of the team.

Other than that most memories I have of JT are him screaming in LeBron's face as a rookie in a game 7, making KD look like he needed to retire when the whole world picked the Nets to upset us, scoring 46 on Giannis when we were about to get eliminated, 51 in a game 7 against a Philly team with prime Harden, Embiid, and Maxey, and leading his team to the CF every year he had a team worse a damn.

All before he even turned 25

Ya'll realize his resume at this point in his career is identical to most super star players right, and he already has more playoff moments and success than most of yalls favorite players? He's just turning 26 now, the year most greats seems to figure it out, and has been a victim of his own success and greatness. LeBron, Jokic, MJ, Steph. None of these guys were winning titles when they were 24/25.

Tatum's doing fine, and his career will be defined by what he's able to do over the next 8 years, not what happened the previous 8 (which was pretty damn impressive)

[brackdan70]

He chokes so much he has the most points in a game 7 ever.

Yeh he’s had bad games here and there, but what player hasn’t?? He’s a victim of his own early success.

Jimmy butler averaged 14ppg on 29% shooting in a series only 3 years ago.

Lebron is considered the GOAT by a lot of people here and he averaged 19ppg in the finals.

Tatum has always had big elimination games sans the finals v the Warriors.

i mean you probably know more about his playoff performance than i do, but are also biased. im neutral and have seen him become a shell of himself on multiple occasions when a series is on the line. so much so that he starts to force shots or defer and jaylen has to take over. last season wasn't the only time. he says it affected him and he's been playing great ball, so let's see. the greats can do it under pressure when the season's on the line

You're embarrassing yourself now. Just type in tatum game 7 on youtube and see what results you get.
You're one of those haters that makes stuff up because you can't find enough valid reasons to hate Boston lol.

This narrative of Tatum as a choker comes from the finals against Golden State where he had some subpar games for him including game six. Not to make excuses for him but he was playing through an injury. Also last years game 7 against Miami he had a bad game. If you look at game six of that series he was terrific to force game 7. Also the series before against Philly he scored 51 in game 7..an all time great playoff performance. Look at the rest of his playoff career aside from the Kyrie give up series against Milwaukee in Tatums second year and he has been tremendous.

It’s one of those false narratives that media and casual fans love to grab on too. Down by 1 in game 7 of the finals, I want the ball in Tatums hands as much as any but maybe a couple players in the league.

[IceColdCubano]

I expect to see much of the same from game 1. Except I believe Miami will clean up their play a bit better, rotations be a bit tighter, forcing Boston to less three pointers, and they will emphasize to also shot more threes themselves. The game will be closer and far more competitive, but I expect a Boston win regardless just on their overall talent and ability to be able to score with less effort across all 5 players on the court. Miami's scoring in the clutch this season is too laborious, it requires too much effort and only by a selected few, missing Rozier, Jimmy means you know whose gonna have the ball, it allows Boston to key on that player or players far more effectively.

I think even if Miami solves the 3pt dilemma which is going to be hard to do regardless, since they can't have all their best defenders on the court together cause their all one dimensional therefore they won't be able to score on the other side of the ball. They have to be willing to live with giving up a lesser evil, like open KP at the top of the key all the time and that's gonna cost them or if they emphasis on switching on everything to cut out the middle their going to get hunted when ever either Herro or Duncan at half speed is on the floor. You also saw them go hard at Jovic, as 20 year old player with no NBA playoff experience you know hes gonna get called plenty with his hand in the cookie jar.

Only way Miami can win even a single game this series will be either at the cost of them stopping or taking away Boston's most important offense or go to primary, and relegating them to ISO far more often, hope they are inefficient in this ISO and in the other side of the ball also score efficiently or getting Hot from 3pt shooting.

Regardless of how well Miami plays on defense or how creative they get in putting something that confuses the Celts, if they cannot score efficiently or with ease, it means they'll never bridge the gap to win.

[Larry_Russell]

I dont see this being closer than 20 points.

Celtics will look to send a message today. they got roughed up last game with some questionable plays, they will show everyone they are united and focused.

[durden_tyler]

Shouldn’t be close. Celtics -14.5 again like in Game 1. They almost collapsed there in the end (against the spread) but recovered to cover.

Expect an even bigger blowout win for Game 2.

[Rancid669]

Heat by 10.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

Heat winning this next game. I don’t care that Boston won the first game by 20, they still give me 2007 Dallas Mavericks choke artist vibes.

Tatum/Brown/KP/White/Holiday

Vs

Dirk/JET/Devin Harris/Josh Howard/Devean George


Yeh I can totally see the similarities.

Dirk is the only guy from that Mavs team that would start on Boston.

Its not a 1:1 comparison, and I’m not predicting a Heat upset, but I think you’re selling the 2007 Mavs a bit short here. They had an absolutely dominant regular season, and while hindsight leaves Dirks cast mostly forgettable, at the time, Devin Harris and Josh Howard were viewed as upcoming stars, Jason Terry ended up having the best career of them but many viewed him as the 4th best talent on that squad, and even Devean George was viewed as having untapped potential being hidden on the Lakers.

[picc]

Feel like Spo got something for their asses tonight.

[brackdan70]

Feel like Spo got something for their asses tonight.

Maybe the Ralph Miller Zone Press.

[Wolfgang630]

Feel like Spo got something for their asses tonight.

Play the goons tonight

[azcatz11]

Feel like Spo got something for their asses tonight.

Spo put out the hit last night…

[JJ_PR]

I would never count out a Spo-led team. They still have Bam, Herro, and a bunch of good role players.

[Dirk]

Feel like Spo got something for their asses tonight.

Spo put out the hit last night…

Durden is on the Celtics -24.5.