BGleas

Derrick White is -21 and its only 2 minutes into the 2nd quarter.

This over.

Once we got the lead Jaylen started turning it over again and Tatum went back to settling for contested 3's.

I think that might be it. It's going to almost be physiological at this point, especially with White, Pritchard and Grant getting outplayed by Poole and Payton off the bench.

Jaylen Brown with 2-3 early turnovers. Not a good sign. He's just so sloppy.

The thing about those calls in that sequence is that both Curry and Thompson fouled Smart on both plays. Did he sell it? Absolutely. But, those were fouls.

It's hard for me to see the Celtics losing 3 in a row, but it just feels like the veteran, championship experience is overtaking here.

My prediction for tonight is that the Celtics lead most of the way, but one of those leads where it's 10-14 most of the game, but feels like it should be 20+ The Warriors close the gap to end the 3rd and then the Championship experience takes over in the 4th and they win by about 8-12.

Absolutely on the "others". Horford has to find a way to impact the game. He's got to outplay Draymond. Williams has to find a way to get some of those easy lobs (which he hasn't really gotten this series), and Smart needs to score 18ish+. The role players have to show up at home. Horford has basically been non-existent the last two games.

Agree completely. The Warriors have scored between 100-108 points in every game this series. The issue all series has been which team is going to show up offensively for the Celtics? The one that moves the ball, doesn't over penetrate and hits open guys for open shots, or the one that plays iso ball all night, over commits on the dribble drives and commits a ton of live-ball turnovers. It's pretty simple.

I don’t think you'll see much of Pritchard and most likely none of Neismith. The Celtics need to get Al Horford involved and Jaylen Brown going. Horford has been great in the wins and almost non-existent in the losses. He has to find ways to impact even if he's not getting a ton of shots. While Draymond has been pretty bad this series, he still makes an impact with energy, effort and defense. Horford needs to do something like dominate the glass even if he's not scoring. Other than that, its pretty simple. Don't turn the ball over, and get good shots with movement, not isolation.

No, it's not a slight. It depends on where your cutoff is for superstar is and you define it personally. All fair. I just don't think it's fair to call him a superstar for being the best player on a Finals team, and then pull it back for how those Finals go. He hasn't been great, but he hasn't been that bad either. He's been good, not great. The turnover stat, while also not great, isn't really that crazy. He's played the most minutes in this playoffs and also has the most points, rebounds and assists. So, he plays the most games, etc., and has the ball in his hands the most. The guys he passed for that record is a who's, who of NBA superstars.

Admittedly, he hasn't had a signature game in the Finals, and he's had some struggles especially in the 4th quarter and with turnovers, but he's still been pretty damn good. Edit: I admit that it's a bit of an arbitrary stat, but at the same time Kobe never did it, Kawhi has never done it, and LeBron didn't do it until his 3rd Finals appearance at 27 years old.

Quick thought on Game 6 and the Celtics. Steph is clearly the MVP of the series if GS pulls it out, but the last two games the change in the series has been Andrew Wiggins elevating his play offensively and on the boards. If I'm Udoka, I'm putting Grant Williams on Wiggins for a while and seeing how it goes. Tell Williams his main job is to box Wiggins out not let him impact the game on the boards and then also just be a complete Draymond-like irritant to get in Wiggins head. Mug him, push and grab him and just get him off his game. Force the refs to call all of that, and force Steph to do it by himself.

Absolutely! I said last night that he needs to add a post game ala Jordan and Kobe later in their careers. At times last night GS went small with Curry, GP II, Poole, Wiggins and Green. Tatum should have abused them from the mid-post.

With as physical as the Warriors played, the raw numbers don't really tell the story. I'm just not ready to joke about it yet 🤣

Yeah, I guess they could rest more. One thing that has been ignored with all the talk about the Celtics youth, length and size compared to the Warriors, is that the Celtics are basically only playing 7 guys. Pritchard gets a little run here and there, but the bench is basically White and Williams and that's it. The Celtics don't really have a backup wing at all. I believe Tatum has actually played the most playoff minutes in a season ever as of last night. I agree he and Brown look gassed, but I'm not really sure where Udoka has to turn. I expect the Celtics will get a favorable whistle tomorrow. It will be a matter of them not shooting themselves in the foot with bad turnovers and missed free throws.

Can't get onboard with that. You can't call a guy a superstar for being 24 and the best player on a team that goes to the Finals and then pull it back because he doesn't win or doesn't dominate those Finals. Jokic and Embiid have never been out of the 2nd round. Luka has never been to the Finals. Paul George never has. Dame never has. The guy is 24, a 3-time all star and was just 1st Team All-NBA (actually the hardest thing outside of an MVP). He's broken a ton of Celtics playoff records, etc. Does he still have things to work on? Sure, but so did all of the superstars at 24.

Haha, thanks! Yeah, not looking good, but even going into last night I didn't think that was must win. Always thought this would be 7. Go win Game 6 at home, which is definitely doable, and then anything can happen in a Game 7. I still think Warriors win in 7 though, their experience is too much of a factor.

Just go back and reread my posts, it's an unbiased, 100% accurate running diary of the game

Remember when you said the Warriors only have guy who flops? To your post, I'm trying to think of the horrible calls in the 3rd quarter stretch? I'm sure there was 1-2, but can't remember a specific bad really bad one or a stretch of several bad ones in a row. The refs got tighter in that stretch, no doubt, but I don't remember just terrible ones.

Last one 🤣

The Celtics were awful tonight. Tatum was awful again outside of his stretch in the early 3rd. Brown was awful. Lots of reasons they lost. They didn't lose because of the officiating, but the refs did essentially end the game with that awful stretch in the early/mid 4th.

He and Steve Javie literally addmited it during and after Game 1

I think that one stretch mid-4th quarter changed this getting in a big way.