BGleas

New pet peeve, the adults that make AAU basketball a cesspool. My 12U team just lost in the championship game of our tournament this weekend. My complaint isn't about winning or losing, it's about a lack of integrity. We lost by 6 to a team that entered 14 and 15 year olds into the 12U division. Just pathetic for the people that run that program and for their parents who were talking sh*t to us after the game. They should be embarrassed they only beat us by 6. At the end of the day though, I'm proud of my boys. We battled and fought hard, and the refs even came over and congratulated us after the game for our effort. I'm guessing they realized what was going on. Still sucks that adults have to ruin these things!!

Curious why you're grouping TG with Leal there? TG is already a major rotation player and was one of IU's most important players last year?

You need the arc though. While it's not perfect, the game is better with the arc. Before the arc officials would call ridiculous charges with the defensive player essentially standing under the rim. Those 'under the rim' charges were way worse that the unintended results of the arc.

I understand a lot of guys are beat up at this point. I'm not using his shoulder as an excuse, I'm wondering if it's a reason for his poor 2pt/mid-range shooting. He has grabbed his shoulder and winced at various times in multiple Finals games. Again, not an excuse, but he's shot very poorly on open (keyword being open) mid-range shots and he's often come up way short/front rim on those in this series. Those shots are his bread and butter, so it leads me to wonder if the shoulder may be worse than we've heard. Maybe the shoulder is fine and he's just not shooting well. But, it is odd that he's shooting so poorly from the mid-range and the paint, and this is against a team that doesn't have a rim protector and these are shots he typically makes at a good percentage. I'm talking about the open ones, which he has had plenty of in this series.

I'm not looking for an excuse. I'm wondering if Tatum's shoulder is more hurt than we know. It's a legitimate question, as he's been clutching it numerous times since Game 5 vs Miami and he's never shot remotely close to this poor. Wiggins has been good defensively and has made it difficult on Tatum, but yeah I'm not crediting him as shutting Tatum down. Again, Wiggins has been good defensively, but Tatum has gotten great looks a lot of the time and he's gotten by him to the paint a lot too, he's not finishing when he gets there. The Celtics are also really good at creating switches, so it's not like Wiggins is on him all of the time. Tatum even struggled against Belijca (sp?) last night. Again, just so it doesn't get spun Wiggins has been good defensively, but I'm not watching these games thinking, 'wow, Wiggins is locking Tatum up!'

Honestly, that's the series right there. If he was shooting even just 40% they're probably up 3-1 easy right now. 45ish% and it's maybe over already. Edit: You have to wonder if the shoulder is worse than the Celtics are letting on?

The problem is we're asking NCAA refs to enforce this. It's going to be a disaster.

I will continue to beat the drum that Tatum is not getting the calls that other stars get. He has been attacking the basket a lot in this series and he's not getting calls. With that said, he's got to stop letting that completely take him out of his game, and he's got to stop going up soft. He had a play mid-to-late 4th quarter when he cut back door and got the ball right under the basket and instead of going up strong for a dunk and a foul, he kind of tried to draw the foul and flip it up like a scoop layup and ended up missing. If he had used his size and gone up strong it easily would have been an And 1 on Wiggins.

We have a series! The Celtics refuse to make things easy on themselves.

Good is debatable. Most of them were really clean, open looks. But I agree, in that situation you need to get something going to the basket. It's crazy to me how weak Tatum was tonight when driving. Am underrated and under-talked about thing in this series is that Tatum is shooting under 40% from the field inside the 3pt line in this series.

Yup, the Celtics shrunk in the moment. The Warriors used that championship DNA.

Yes, we lost because we stopped doing that and went into the prevent offense and just blew this game. I guess though, what's even the point of having challenges if that's the result? It was clearly without a doubt not a foul.

It seemed like a pretty cut and dry overturn to me. Horford didn't touch him at all.

I would argue we did that a lot most of the game until the last 3 minutes. Nobody got calls that weak.

That was horrible. Horford literally did not even touch him.

That is NOT a foul.

The Celtics look like a young team in their first Finals. The moment was too big.

It's mind-boggling. Their blowing this game.

Disagree with that. He certainly has been tonight. Jaylen Brown was the best player in Game 1. Steph completely disappeared in the 4th quarter of Games 1 & 3.

Geez, Tatum has absolutely shrunk from the moment here. He easily could have put this game away and had his Finals moment.

Yup, for both teams. Celtics looked gassed and completely out of sync offensively.

He really does. He's playing so soft.

Celtics are going to lose this game.

Tatum has been just horrible this half. Sucks because this was his moment to put his mark on this.

I'm saying he wasn't getting fouled. The Tatum one should have been a foul.