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Post by cole on May 26, 2023 11:18:27 GMT -5
and Gallo should be about ready to get back on the court. Wasn't there talk that he could be ready by the playoffs? Well, it's stretched possibly to the finals so why isn't he ready to go. If there's talk of him playing in FIBA again this summer, he s/b ready for the Finals. Has he been working out with the team at all ... if not forget it.
I just don't think it's prudent to put him in untested, whether he says he's ready or not. Grant shoots almost as well and gives more otherwise. Maybe if it's garbage time
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:25:46 GMT -5
Why would taking 4 in a row be a surprise given we are a #2 seed and MIA just an 8 seed.
So they got lucky with the Bucks, got on a roll vs Knicks and they caught us in a 3-pt drought.
But now they are falling back to earth and we have found our 3-ptrs ... they are in trouble and we s/b able to sweep them in 4 if it holds.
BTW, I agree that this team is so damn good that they won in the regular season despite Mazz. They found out in POs that his "Offense Only" philosophy wouldn't work and as a group decided they needed to reincorporate Udoka's defense. Give the players credit for finding the Defense that made them great last year. And obviously Mazz has learned a few things from this experience - Defense Wins and Grant is a critical piece in POs.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:29:48 GMT -5
and Gallo should be about ready to get back on the court. Wasn't there talk that he could be ready by the playoffs? Well, it's stretched possibly to the finals so why isn't he ready to go. If there's talk of him playing in FIBA again this summer, he s/b ready for the Finals. Has he been working out with the team at all ... if not forget it.
I just don't think it's prudent to put him in untested, whether he says he's ready or not. Grant shoots almost as well and gives more otherwise. Maybe if it's garbage time
I'm not serious ... I just think it's funny that we heard all season that he could be ready by the POs and here we are and not a tweet.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:35:13 GMT -5
Butler Pass to HimselfHow bout that play where Butler passed the ball to himself and no traveling was called on his dunk. Smart was irate and the TV Crew went to their Referee Consultant for an explanation - Something like well, it depends upon whether he was passing it to a player up ahead or nobody was there and that was the 1st motion in his dribble. In this case, he had nobody to pass to so it was considered the 1st motion in his dribble and he was allowed to catch up to the 1st long dribble and complete the play - a legal play in BBall. So legal how come we've never seen this before?
See the play at the 2:05 mark on this video: Watch Smart appealing to the sideline ref regarding the pass to himself before the next play
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Post by sfbosfan on May 26, 2023 11:42:56 GMT -5
Regarding Doc and his supposed help to Spoelstra in various previous posts whether a joke or not I submit the following which I have a few times already but maybe some have not seen it.
I am not a Doc lover. OK beating a dead horse and opening some wounds. We had a 13 pt lead end of Qtr #3 game 7 2010. Yup, I know we lost Perkins in Game 6 and in the finals they got the egregious difference of 42 foul shots to our 18 and just 21 in critical Qtr #4. We had two 7 footers, Rashid Wallace and Garnett, but they seemed, especially Sheed, more interested in shooting 3s as we were losing the rebound advantage substantially, especially in the 4th Qtr. We had PP & Allen to do that with Rondo driving to the basket. They killed us with reb advantage 53 to 40 (I mean 13 extra chances) and only shot 38% and we did 42% but the extra chances killed us. Gasol schooled KG out rebounding him 18 to 3. What else was painful was that Kobe(GOD rest him) shoots 6 for 24 or 25% and was MVP. He’d been a goat had they lost. Sorry if any you feel I continue to cry about that game. Again, beating dead horse, it was because of the foul shot difference true but also because we were out rebounded. One of the reasons many posts I’ve said I like a strong presence in the paint…more rebounds can make up for bad shooting nights. From me I considered that it a "Tainted Tinsel Town “ victory !!! Although I’m pleased the Lakers and LeBron are not a worry for us I wanted revenge against the Lakers and LeBron who has had his way with us for 10 years with Miami & Cleveland. I want banner #19 and did not want them with 17 to tie us.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:49:16 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure we're winning the Rebounding battle in this series.
So you are jumping the shark (#18) and looking for #19? "I want banner #19 and did not want them with 17 to tie us."
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 11:56:45 GMT -5
And if the Celtics are truly “fake liking” each other, they should all be awarded Oscars for their starring roles in a “post-Game 5 locker room Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament.”
From Brown’s wide grin to Horford’s excitement to White’s happy dance to Smart’s cackle, the Celtics truly are amazing actors when they pretend to like one another…
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Post by cole on May 26, 2023 12:11:41 GMT -5
Easy when you win...
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:19:15 GMT -5
Give Smart his props ...
Celtics won’t lose again if Game 5 Marcus Smart keeps showing up |
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) By Karen Guregian | KGuregian@masslive.com
BOSTON — If Marcus Smart plays like he did in Game 5 the rest of the series, the Celtics will pull off a miracle.
That’s right. With all due respect to Jimmy Butler, just pencil it into the record books.
If that Smart shows up from here on out, playing lights out on both ends of the floor, the Celtics will become the first NBA team to erase a three-love hole, and beat the Heat in seven games.
Count on it.
That’s what Good Marcus means to the Celtics. He’s the one — not Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown — who most naturally breathes life into this team. He’s the player everyone feeds off, especially if he plays as well as he did in do-or-die Game 5.
Five seconds in, Smart immediately set the tone with a defensive gem, stripping the ball from Miami’s Bam Adebayo, diving on the loose ball, then getting it to Tatum for a layup and a quick lead.
The Celtics never trailed from that point on, coasting past the Heat 110-97, and sending the series back to Miami down three games to two.
Perhaps coach Joe Mazzulla put it best in assessing Smart’s overall performance and importance on the team: “He’s just an emotional key for us. When he’s locked in and playing both sides of the ball at a different pace, it kind of gives us our identity and our life.”
He was a lifeline alright.
That opening play was the first of five steals for Smart, a career-high for him during the postseason. Let’s just say when the Celtics are at their best, they take on Smart’s personality which is one predicated on fearlessness, hustle and determination.
As Mazzulla said, that became the Celtics’ identity Thursday night.
That initial theft by Smart, created by his relentlessness and effort, immediately established the C’s defensive mindset and intensity, pushing the pace and generating points in transition.
Smart not only sparked the defensive effort, he added 23 points, hitting 4-of-6 from 3-point land. It was Smart and White (six threes en route to a game-high 24) who led the charge, and pushed the series to a sixth game. Tatum and Brown, meanwhile, finished with 21 points apiece.
Seriously, the Celtics can’t lose if that’s what they get out of Smart every night.
While Bad Marcus shows up and tends to force things offensively, taking ill-advised threes over Tatum and Brown, thinking he’s as important to the offense as they are, he struck just the right balance in Game 5.
While Tatum and Brown provide the one-two superstar punch, Smart is often the straw who stirs the drink. If he stays in that lane, the C’s are virtually unbeatable.
Smart was certainly the catalyst in the first quarter. He triggered an offensive outburst that saw the team go on a 14-0 run after taking a 6-5 lead. He was a constant pain in the Heat’s behind all game. Smart just provides that missing intangible to get the team going. At least, that’s what stood out to Tatum during this win.
“Smart diving on the floor, getting out in transition, that was contagious,” Tatum said. “Smart just played his ass off tonight.”
Facing an impossible deficit, Smart knows it’s on him to lead the way, and have the team feed off of his energy. As great as Tatum and Brown are, they don’t lead in the same way Smart does. And while the veteran guard was aided by Gabe Vincent’s absence with a left ankle injury, that shouldn’t diminish the job he did Thursday night.
“I wanted to get us going,” Smart said following the win. “I just wanted to come in and give my team some energy early.”
Smart was aggressive from jump, and didn’t let the Heat get comfortable with any of their possessions. And keeping Butler (14 points) and his supporting cast uncomfortable has been a huge reason why the Celtics have been able to extend the series.
The best way for the C’s stay off the roller coaster that’s been plaguing them through the playoffs, at least in terms of energy and effort, is for Smart to just clone that performance going forward.
When Mazzulla took him out with 6:08 remaining, with the Celtics enjoying a huge lead, Smart not only received a rousing ovation from the crowd, but from the players on the bench.
To a man, all of his teammates were quick to point out just important his performance was in Game 5.
“Smart was just a beast tonight,” said Brown. “I don’t know what game y’all guys was watching, but Marcus on both sides of the ball was incredible tonight. It was a great performance from him. "
They just need more of the same. They need more of Good Marcus.
Because if that guy keeps showing up, it’s on to Denver.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:32:51 GMT -5
All pressure is on the Heat now, the Celtics need to keep it there | Vautour
(Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) By Matt Vautour | mvautour@masslive.com
BOSTON — No NBA team has ever blown a 3-0 lead in the NBA playoffs. How many times have the Heat heard that already? How many more times will they hear it before Saturday’s 8:30 p.m. tipoff?
Despite all their protestations to the contrary, there is suddenly a lot of pressure on the Miami players. After looking invincible for the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals, they suddenly look vulnerable after back-to-back convincing Celtics wins.
The Heat are halfway to the kind of history nobody wants to be connected to. They’ll try to avoid an embarrassing collapse as the number of worldwide TV viewers increases. They don’t want to be the first NBA team to blow it. It’s one thing to lose. It’s another to become the team that all future playoff collapses will be compared to.
What that oft-quoted stat about the futility of teams trailing 3-0 doesn’t say is that most of the teams that fell behind by three games weren’t the higher seed coming in. Most weren’t more talented and most didn’t have two All-NBA players in their primes.
The Celtics have little in common with most of the teams that were down 3-0 before. Boston is actually a 3-point favorite to win Game 6 Saturday and force a winner-take-all Game 7. If both teams play to their talent level Boston will win.
But this is the same Celtics team that was rolling early in Game 1 with a 62-49 lead before stumbling all over themselves throughout the second half. They haven’t handled success well. This team has a disastrous habit of losing focus and intensity after thriving too early. Whether it’s a lack of mental toughness as Charles Barkley called it, or a missing killer instinct, Boston often hasn’t nurtured some success into more success.
But the start of the second half Thursday was a good sign. After leading 61-44 at halftime, they didn’t relax. Instead they stretched their lead to 88-65 late in the third quarter, essentially turning the final 12 minutes into glorified garbage time. The Heat made the final score look closer than the game was by scoring a bunch of points late with Sam Hauser and Justin Champagnie running around for Boston.
The Celtics won despite a mostly quiet game for Jayson Tatum, who established a good tone early, but had just six points of his 21 points in the second half. Boston can be better. Obviously so can Miami, but if the Heat aren’t good early, they’re going to feel the weight of unwanted history starting to press on them, while Boston is already gathering strength from their once-improbable comeback.
“Even last year, we always seemed to make it a little bit tougher on ourselves. But what I do know is that you can see the true character of a person, of a team when things aren’t going well,” Tatum said. “Our ability to come together, figure things out when it’s not necessarily looking good for us. It’s unlike any team I’ve been on this year and last year, just the core group of guys being able to respond. I think that’s just a testament to our togetherness, obviously how bad we want it.”
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 12:48:39 GMT -5
BINGO ... I GOT BINGO!!!!!!!!
I just reread the opening post to this Game 5 thread ... How on target was my post?
The team energized the fans (Welcome back to the Jungle) and the fans the team. Fans got a HC win and the team got their trust (I'm a Believer) as well as convincing Media that they can do something historic.
All we need to fulfill the entire post is win #6 in Miami and force a Game 7 back here in Boston with a real chance to revisit the Finals vs Denver.
GO CELTICS!
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Post by cole on May 26, 2023 13:04:26 GMT -5
BINGO ... I GOT BINGO!!!!!!!!I just reread the opening post to this Game 5 thread ... How on target was my post? The team energized the fans (Welcome back to the Jungle) and the fans the team. Fans got a HC win and the team got their trust (I'm a Believer) as well as convincing Media that they can do something historic. All we need to fulfill the entire post is win #6 in Miami and force a Game 7 back here in Boston with a real chance to revisit the Finals vs Denver. GO CELTICS!
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:10:25 GMT -5
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:19:18 GMT -5
In regards to the refs - one play stands out when one of the game announcers questioned why the late whistle on a corner J taken by the Celtics. The ref waited to see if the shot was good and when it missed then blew his whistle. One of those infamous late foul calls by the refs. Van Gundy or whoever said why the pause ... just blow the whistle as it occurs!
But there's the rub. If the ref blows it right away, and then the basket is good, he's giving another potential point to that team in an +1. Not wanting to automatically do that is somewhat justification of game point shaving or manipulation of momentum.
We see this from the NBA constantly and of course it seems more prominent in away games where the opponent is given the HC advantage so it's moar irritating when you don't get that call when you are the HC team as was the case on this possession as pointed out by TNT.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:38:03 GMT -5
Win one to play one more.
The pressure is all on the Miami Heat now.
Yes, it’ll still be a disappointing end to the season for the Boston Celtics if they lose this series, even with all the comebacking they’ve been doing. But Boston was expected to lose after going down 0-3. They’re playing with house money now.
Miami looks wounded and worn out. They’ve been battling since the Play-In Tournament. Maybe the Heat are running out of steam. They’ve got to close it on Game 6, or things might fully boil over.
It’s important the Celtics stay locked in. That goes without saying, but it’s one game at a time. Within that one game, it’s one possession at a time. String enough good ones together again, and we’ll all be watching a Game 7 in Boston on Monday night.
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Post by Admin on May 26, 2023 13:40:33 GMT -5
My tweet to Magic Johnson:
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Post by elvissurfs on May 26, 2023 20:24:05 GMT -5
and Gallo should be about ready to get back on the court. Wasn't there talk that he could be ready by the playoffs? Well, it's stretched possibly to the finals so why isn't he ready to go. If there's talk of him playing in FIBA again this summer, he s/b ready for the Finals. Has he been working out with the team at all ... if not forget it.
Gallinari ain't playing in the NBA this year...he'll be lucky to play next year...guess he gets paid either way though...awesome...
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Post by elvissurfs on May 26, 2023 20:26:15 GMT -5
I think this is a joke, cuz doc's teams have blown a few series leads. Also, "buttcrack sports" doesnt scream serious insider to me, haha
Another one from their site ... some funny stuff.
Lol, that 'cracks' me up!....
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Post by elvissurfs on May 26, 2023 20:28:13 GMT -5
Why would taking 4 in a row be a surprise given we are a #2 seed and MIA just an 8 seed. So they got lucky with the Bucks, got on a roll vs Knicks and they caught us in a 3-pt drought. But now they are falling back to earth and we have found our 3-ptrs ... they are in trouble and we s/b able to sweep them in 4 if it holds. BTW, I agree that this team is so damn good that they won in the regular season despite Mazz. They found out in POs that his "Offense Only" philosophy wouldn't work and as a group decided they needed to reincorporate Udoka's defense. Give the players credit for finding the Defense that made them great last year. And obviously Mazz has learned a few things from this experience - Defense Wins and Grant is a critical piece in POs. I would give this a double 'thumbs up' if I could!...
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Post by elvissurfs on May 26, 2023 20:34:24 GMT -5
And if the Celtics are truly “fake liking” each other, they should all be awarded Oscars for their starring roles in a “post-Game 5 locker room Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament.”
From Brown’s wide grin to Horford’s excitement to White’s happy dance to Smart’s cackle, the Celtics truly are amazing actors when they pretend to like one another…
good stuff...
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Post by puddin on May 26, 2023 20:41:03 GMT -5
nytimes.com Boston Celtics Finally Look Like They Want to Beat the Miami HeatBoston hadn’t looked like the team that went to the N.B.A. finals last season — or like a team that wanted to get there this year.
by Scott Cacciola
Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart is difficult to miss. His jump shot can be an amusement-park ride. He will try the occasional alley-oop pass from midcourt. He spoke earlier this month about the apparent brutality of a playoff game as a “true dogfight — scratching and clawing, biting, blood, everything.” He dyes his hair green. It is all part of the colorful package, and, on Thursday night, Smart showcased his role as a defense-minded agent of chaos on the opening possession of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat. Smart was defending Jimmy Butler away from the ball, near the top of the perimeter, when Bam Adebayo of the Heat drove to the basket. Smart reached at the ball, stripped it free and dove to collect it near the foul line before shoveling it ahead to Jayson Tatum for a fast-break layup and the game’s first points. One play does not define anything, of course, especially in a postseason series. But that play — a clean steal before the Heat could even take a shot — seemed to hint at everything that was to come during the Celtics’ 110-97 victory, which extended their season. The Heat lead the series, 3-2. Game 6 is Saturday in Miami. The Celtics, the No. 2 seed in the East, forced 16 turnovers in Game 5. They threw a full-court press at the Heat coming out of timeouts. They led by as many as 24 points. By the fourth quarter, Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra was pacing in front of the visiting bench with his hands on his hips, and Butler, who finished with just 14 points against a host of defenders, looked weary. “I wanted to get us going,” said Smart, who checked out of the game to an ovation after scoring 23 points. “I wanted to come in and give my team some energy, especially going against a team like Miami.” He added: “We did the knocking around tonight.” The pressure is squarely on the Heat before Game 6. They would certainly welcome the return of Gabe Vincent, their starting point guard, who missed Game 5 with a sprained ankle. But in case anyone thinks they are reeling, Butler offered a Namath-esque guarantee at his postgame news conference. “We can and we will win this series,” he said. “We’ll just have to close it out at home.” Not so long ago, the Heat had all the momentum. In fact, early in the third quarter of Game 4 on Tuesday, they seemed to be closing in on a four-game series sweep. There was one possession in that game when three offensive rebounds led to a 3-pointer by Max Strus, pushing Miami’s lead to 9 points in front of a home crowd that was primed to celebrate a trip to the N.B.A. finals. The Celtics could have crumbled like a sand castle into Biscayne Bay. But a funny thing happened: They promptly went on an 18-0 run. No longer was the Heat’s zone defense such a riddle. No longer were the Celtics’ 3-point shots rimming in and out. And no longer did the outcome of the series appear to be a foregone conclusion after the Celtics’ 116-99 victory, which sent it back to Boston. Several Celtics mentioned the importance of a team meeting between Games 3 and 4, which happened at a time when nearly everyone outside their locker room figured their season was toast. Coach Joe Mazzulla was fielding questions about whether he had lost his team. Tatum and Jaylen Brown were being scrutinized for their inconsistent play. Broadcasters were cracking jokes about imminent trips to Cancun. “I mean, Game 3, that was as low as you can be,” Tatum said. “The good part about being that low is that you only can play better. It’s only up from there.” After Thursday’s win, Mazzulla said one of his assistants had provided valuable perspective. “The seasons are, like, nine months long, and we just had a bad week,” Mazzulla said. “Sometimes you have a bad week at work. We obviously didn’t pick the best time to have a bad week, but we did, and we’re sticking together and fighting like hell to keep it alive, and the guys are really coming together.” The Celtics are making a habit of digging holes — they trailed the Philadelphia 76ers, three games to two, in their conference semifinal series — before MacGyvering their way out. Smart acknowledged that the Celtics may have been too lax in how they had approached their series with the eighth-seeded Heat. “They snuck up on us and got us,” said Smart, who was asked to elaborate. “That’s the thing about sneaking up on somebody: They’re not supposed to know you’re coming. So that’s what happened. We didn’t know. We didn’t see it, and they got us. It wasn’t like we were trying to have that mind-set. It’s part of the game. It’s part of life. It’s part of the roller coaster of playing in the N.B.A.” Marcus Smart stands in a shooting motion with the ball over his head against a backdrop of out of focus lights. Now, the Celtics are halfway toward snapping one of professional sports’ most curious and seemingly shatterproof streaks. No N.B.A. team has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit. Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Lakers became the 150th team to have tried (briefly) and failed (miserably) when the Denver Nuggets swept them in the Western Conference finals. As for the Celtics, Smart pumped the brakes on looking beyond Game 6. “First of all, we have to worry about one — the next game, not two games,” he said. On Thursday, Smart was a kinetic force. He connected on back-to-back 3-pointers for an early 10-point lead. He started the first half with a steal and punctuated it with one, too, poking the ball away from the Heat’s Caleb Martin. He defended and scored, grimaced and scowled, finishing with five steals while shooting 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 6 from 3-point range. “He’s just an emotional key for us,” Mazzulla said. “When he’s locked in and playing both sides of the ball at a different pace, it kind of gives us our identity and our life.” ******** "Kind of".... my azz, Joe!
Stop with the weasel words, amigo.
Say it out loud without hedging your words or pulling your punches... and mean it!
For better/worse, a focused Smarticus absolutely gives the Cs their identity & life... and it starts with his locked in "bare azz balls out" DEFENCE!
And it spreads to his teammates like wildfire!
Pud
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Post by puddin on May 26, 2023 21:22:22 GMT -5
theathletic.com Celtics, after a bad week and a good talk, are alive again heading into Game 6Jay King BOSTON — As the Boston Celtics finished a film session Tuesday morning in Miami, an unlikely voice piped up. The season sat on the edge of destruction after three straight losses to begin the Eastern Conference finals. “I have something to say,” Matt Reynolds began, as Derrick White detailed to The Athletic. Reynolds, who joined the Celtics staff as a video coordinator in 2015 before eventually graduating into the role of assistant coach, doesn’t normally speak up in such a manner. Marcus Smart, who has been in Boston since before Reynolds arrived, said he had never seen the coach pull a similar move. But after looking like one of the best teams in the NBA for the entire season — and pushing through all types of adversity over the years — the Celtics were carrying themselves like a splintered team. They unraveled at the end of Game 2 before getting blasted from the start of Game 3. Like anybody would under the circumstances, the Boston players brimmed with frustration. They were upset with each other. With their situation. With the way their season, so promising just a week earlier, seemed to be disintegrating in a rush. “Matt’s really not really the guy to say too much,” Smart said. “He’s not a man of many words.” At the moment, that didn’t hold Reynolds back. If anything, it only amplified his message. He only spoke for about 35 to 45 seconds, but the Celtics needed to hear the words, according to Smart. They needed something to shake them out of what Smart called a “slump” earlier in the series. Reynolds told the players they were having one bad week in a nine-month-old season. “Don’t ruin the season off a bad week,” he told the players, as White recalled. The Celtics controlled Game 5 on Thursday night, winning 110-97. Now at 3-2 in the series, the impossible could be within their reach. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 series deficit, but they feel confident and together after handling the Heat two straight times. If the Celtics do advance, Reynolds’ talk should be looked upon as one of the nudges that sent them on their way. “He killed it,” White said. “He killed it.” Smart said the players all sat at attention as soon as Reynolds took the floor. To Celtics fans, he might be best known for his job of helping Joe Mazzulla decide when to challenge a referee’s call. The players know Reynolds as a grinder who worked his way up from a student manager position at Syracuse to a spot as an NBA assistant. It takes a certain type of person to survive in an NBA video room. The role requires working long days editing video, while also putting in time on the practice court whenever players need it. When Brad Stevens stepped down from his perch as head coach to take over as president of basketball operations, the team let go of a number of his staff members. Not Reynolds. The team kept him on as a special assistant. He earned a promotion to the role of assistant in 2022. With a sharp sense of humor and a relentless work ethic, he earned the respect of the players long before that. “Everybody loves and respects him,” White said. “We see the work he puts in. We’ve got a lot of love for Matt.” “He does all the little things for us to go out there and compete,” Smart explained. “He’s getting us the film, he’s done the film sessions, he’s doing the scouts. He’s out there giving us reads, watching film with us, going over the plays that we might see, going over the plays that we are going to see, going over the plays that we should be ready for. And just all the little things that you need for a team to win.” Just never such a speech. Not until the Celtics needed it most. Mazzulla said Reynolds’ view put everything into perspective. Through a 57-win regular season and two rounds of the playoffs, this Boston team played like one of the title favorites. “Sometimes you have a bad week at work,” Mazzulla said. “We obviously didn’t pick the best time to have a bad week, but we did, and we’re sticking together and fighting like hell to keep it alive, and the guys are really coming together.” From the opening tip in Game 5, the Celtics were locked in. Bam Adebayo drove toward the paint, but Smart knocked the ball away from the help side and then dove on the court to seize possession. From his knees, Smart shoveled a pass to Jayson Tatum, who raced to the other basket and finished a left-handed layup over Kevin Love. Our physicality on defense was key during our 110-97 victory in Game 5.
The Celtics took flight on an immediate 20-5 run by forcing turnovers and converting those into buckets. From there, they rarely stopped executing on either end of the court. They showed aggressive help on Adebayo and Jimmy Butler while still holding the Heat to 23 3-point attempts for the game. The Celtics pushed the pace, found open shooters and took care of the ball. While attacking all of the Heat’s defensive help, the Boston players stayed committed to moving the ball from side to side. The turnover battle has been a big one in this matchup; Boston only committed nine while forcing 16 for the second straight game. On both sides of the court, the Celtics played their best brand of basketball — the brand that leaves them hopeful they can accomplish the unthinkable. After the Heat shocked them three straight times to start the series, the Celtics now need just one more road win to force a Game 7 at home. They jumped into the bottom of the deepest well, an awful habit of theirs, but nobody climbs out of such predicaments as they do. “For some odd reason, even last year, we always seemed to make it a little bit tougher on ourselves,” Tatum said. “But what I do know is that you can see the true character of a person, of a team when things aren’t going well, and our ability to come together, figure things out when it’s not necessarily looking good for us. It’s unlike any team I’ve been on this year and last year, just the core group of guys being able to respond. “I think that’s just a testament to our togetherness, obviously how bad we want it, and we’ve got a room full of determined, tough guys that push comes to shove, you look to the left and the right of you, believe that the guy next to you is going to do whatever it takes and go down fighting if it don’t work out.” After Game 3, the Celtics looked like they might go down without a fight. Mazzulla called them disconnected. Robert Williams III agreed with the sentiment. Reynolds must have sensed it too. “I’ve been here nine years and I haven’t really heard him be that passionate when talking like that,” Smart said. “But we’re all grown up. We’ve all grown together. And we all figure out ways to help this team win. And that was one way that he could figure out to help us. We needed it. We needed it a lot. “Guys were not feeling good. They were a little bit down. We were losing. It’s never fun losing. It’s never fun losing the way we were losing, getting ready to get swept.” The Celtics fought off the sweep in Game 4 and attacked throughout Game 5. They are awake now and have hope. They don’t expect anything to come easy over the rest of this series, but they are alive again. In a moment of doubt, Reynolds reminded them they could still rescue themselves. “When you’ve got a guy like that who doesn’t really say much, he says it with a lot of conviction and a lot of passion, it definitely gets you going,” Smart said. “And we’re glad to have Matt here. And we were glad to have him be able to have that sense to say, you know what, I’ve gotta say something, let me say it. And it definitely fueled us. “(After that) we were just excited. We were just excited to be together. We were just excited to have another opportunity to go out here and play the game of basketball. We worked our butts off all year and we let it slip. We had a bad week. And that’s exactly what he said. We had a bad week, guys. It can’t get any worse. So just keep playing and things will figure themselves out. Just continue to play the right way and trust each other. He just gave us the speech. And everybody was in that mindset. We all felt what he said. We took it to heart.”
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Post by Admin on May 27, 2023 10:51:39 GMT -5
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Post by hedleylamarr on May 27, 2023 10:58:44 GMT -5
Clutch Points: “Boston smells blood. You can see it in their eyes. They smell blood.” Draymond Green thinks that the Celtics have flipped the script in their series against the Heat as they attempt to overcome a 0-3 deficit 👀 (via @thevolumesports) pic.twitter.com/e9BLNediVd
– via Twitter ClutchPointsApp Draymond Green, Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat
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