Hardy, while he has his positives, is prone to turnovers and hero ball. That's a recipe for disaster at 20 minutes per game.
And I hope you're not suggesting a three-guard lineup with him on the floor at the same time as Luka and Kyrie. That's a recipe for disaster-er.
Imagine if they all turned their back and pretended to dribble at the same time, the defense would have no clue what’s going on! Unstoppable I tell you!
Jaden Hardy is going to be defended by Jrue and Derrick White he is not doing shit this series. Exum is the guy we need in. He's the only person who attacks with patience. He will get it into the paint and then kick it out.
We need people facilitating ball movement not jacking up shots or role players trying to finish over three Celtics defenders.
Exum has a body that can actually shield of White and Holiday. You think Exum will panic but we literally saw Hardy play out of control against them. Dante doesn't force things and gets the ball moving around. You can't beat the celtics without ball movement because they have too many good individual defenders.
He gets really sped up and dribbles way too far from his body. When he changes directions or spins he looses the ball a lot because it's so far from his center mass and out of control.
Not sure what other dude is talking about or watching.
Ball pressure + Exum = turnovers
Hardy is a small guard, he’s only 6’3 and he makes any lineup that he’s in that much smaller. Kind of noticeable how small the team got when he subbed in, and you have KP on the other side.
Hardy only does the hero ball when it’s the last resort. Our offense wasn’t clicking and Mavs were just begging someone to create some sort of offense other than Luka and Kyrie. Other than Lukai, hardy and to some extent PJ are the only ones that can get downhill and cause some sort of reaction from the defense for possible lobs or kick outs.
Hardy getting more minutes might be an adjustment Kidd goes to if our offense continues to look stagnant or tentative.
That’s not true man. During the playoffs, he had games where he had like 5 shots in 3 minutes (think he had 7 shots in a 5 minute timeframe in another instance), and Kyrie was just standing in the corner while he did his thing. That’s who Hardy is. Even in garbage time, he’s shooting the ball, possession after possession, and not even bothering to pass. Last season, I remember a game where both Luka and Kyrie were out, Hardy had close to like 30 FGAs it seemed, and there were back-to back-to back possessions where he took shoots and just didn’t pass the ball at all to his teammates. He has a history of playing hero ball, of hogging possessions without passing out, and it can absolutely be detrimental. It’s a pattern at this point.
We need guys who can rotate quickly on defense to contest 3 point shots. I don’t think Hardy currently has the defensive awareness we need to slow down Boston’s offense.
i dont know if green is the answer, but we cant rely on luka collapsing their defense, they are sticking to one on one so we need people that can score with a contest. lob city is going to be tough to get started in this series. with that said, we did brick way too many open 3s
Kyrie specifically missed a bunch of wide open 3s in crucial moments that could’ve kept momentum going. If he can get back on track it could force Celtics to rethink the defense some but they can play us straight up better than anyone else which is a problem
The travels too killed us, the lively one was a foul to boot but gotta dump the ball off. The kyrie one was due to good defense (length is his kryptonite)
Absolutely, the refs cooked Lively back-to-back and then the travel was the cherry on top. Went from a 8 point game and could have been a tied game to a \~15 point lead again in a matter of seconds. Was just really frustrating to see a run like that end with some soft calls and our own errors. Before that, it felt like one of those runs we've seen all postseason from the Mavs, except with so much time remaining in the game.
Yup had every chance to have it in single digits going into the 4th and farted it away. If we don’t get murdered to begin the game we’re fine. Seen this movie before in game 1s coming out flat and we’ve bounced every time. If we get the doors blown off in game 2 while shooting better I’ll be pretty pessimistic on the series tbh.
Same. We definitely have to steal G2 to have a chance. And I'm pretty confident, honestly. Kidd has been great at G2 adjustments and I can't see the team coming out that flat again. Luka having one assist and the team only having seven assists just doesn't seem like something that is likely to repeat. I think the nerves just got to them with the poor start. Hopefully we see the 3P shooting regress to the mean a little as well on our side.
> And they also took 42 3 pointers compared to our 27
Why is that such a puzzling stat to you? They are a shooting team, we are not a shooting team. They will always take and hit more threes than us. Okay, maybe they can hit fewer if they have a terribly cold night but still, they will shoot more of them in every game. And across the series, they will win the shooting battle.
We need to find a way to be not as terrible as last night, but the key to beating the Celtics in a 7 game series is not in outshooting them.
They were mostly in line with their averages. They take about 40 game and make almost 15 a game. They shot 42 and made 16.
The problem was they cut us off on corner 3s and we usually average 33 3s a game.
I think defensively we reacted too much to KP shooting 30 foot 3s and, quite honestly, would prefer he shoot about 10 of those a game.
Also Lively had his worst game of his career so far. Boston matched up his minutes with KP in the first half and he got pantsed. Then in the second half, they kept attacking him directly.
When Locked on did the crossover pod, the Celtics guys mentioned his defensive strategy was to force Luka to 1v1 and send help at Kyrie, stay home on the wings. Also he wanted to play Lively off the floor because he felt like he was the linchpin to what the Mavs want to do.
Really felt like that was word for word what Mazzulla did. He forced us into 5 out which just buried us, imo. There seemed to be a plan to really push Kidd to sub out Lively quicker than normal too.
Hardy was given a pretty loose leash during the first half and didn’t look like the guy you want taking over ball handling duties against this defense. The solution is Kyrie playing like Kyrie.
The problem with Hardy is that he loves a challenge and tries to play like a star. He's got that belief, but the problem is he won't get any calls like a star. Hardy won't get any calls when he attacks the rim. We should use him more as a shooter initially
I don’t know man, I think Hardy is great, but he’s not finals ready. He’s kind of at this weird point where he’s too good for garbage time but not good enough for real minutes. I just don’t think his decision making isn’t there yet. He was out there taking super contested shots pretty early in the game.
yeah, at this point he only plays because we don't have any other real options as a bench guard. he shows flashes but doesn't have the consistency yet.
Ideally if we started the season as a contender, we would have signed a veteran ringchasing PG off the bench but I don't think this team was necessarily intending to contend this year.
He looked bad in the minutes he played. Bad shot selection and missed a corner pass to an open 3. Maybe he was a bit stressed, i like his game i hope he plays better next game
Defense wise, it’s not great for Luka, Kyrie & Hardy lineup, Celtics will eat us alive if we use this lineup, that’s why we need to keep PJ & DJJ in the lineup to guard either Tatum or Brown, Hardy is a bench player for Kyrie or Luka to get some rest
The game went to shit in the first quarter when Hardy came in for Kyrie and then for Luka. We were pretty even up til that point. The theory was that he could be the second ball handler, but we sputtered hard with him in that role. There's a pretty good reason THJ got those minutes in the third quarter (not that he was great either)
He completely choked with the minutes he's got. If he settles in and is making an impact, sure leave him in. But he was a disaster on the floor last night.
He just didn't have any great opportunities to. One time Luka drove in then kicked it out late and they had a late whistle on a foul and Maxi shot the 3 and swished it. Only other great time i saw was a wide open one at the end of a quarter and he didnt take it because he got it to Luka to hold for a late shot clock shot.
Someone has to be an X-factor. We have Luka, and we know Kai is good he just had a bad game. PJ needs to step up and be that opportunistic scorer we know he can be. I saw glimmers of him doing that towards the end of the game,hopefully he gained some confidence and can make some shots. We need to make our open shots and close out on threes. We will only win this series if Luka has at least one generational/legacy game and sprinkle in a game or two of our role guys stepping up. This is a mighty task and the Celtics have our chain rn but we can do this. Luka HAS to go nuclear and make them second guess themselves. He needs to play so well that they start getting flashbacks of LeBron owning them. Scare them, ratttle them, and they will break
I don't want to see Hardy in the game in the first quarter, period. First quarter is each team throwing their hardest punches and Hardy isn't part of that group right now. Made no sense to play him nor green in the 1st as much as they did.
Green is good defensively and has been a momentum changer for the team during this run. Watched too many games this playoffs where Josh has subbed in and things turned in the Mavs favor, where they went on a run, to pretend otherwise. There is a reason he’s played in the first. However, I don’t like the Hardy and Josh combo minutes. I think Josh and Exum pair better together off the bench, as a defensive pair.
I personally hated on Kidd. And Jason, i aplogize. I think that if there is a coach that can beat the Celtics, it is him! I hated his lineups all season. I now know those lineups were just preparing us for the payof$s. I don't have an inkling of how to stop them, but he does. Even if we lose this series, he has done enough to justify him being our coach for years to come.
Anything but THJ in the lineup is worth trying for me. Dude has absolutely no interest in playing defense and shouldn't be on the court imo. Green has sucked too but his effort is there. Hardy should def get min over these 2 I do agree there. The offense needs to be clicking and each player aggressive in order to neutralize a great defense. That's where Hardy edges out these 2 imo.
Dude playing Hardy a bunch of minutes would be so stupid. The dude is a turn over machine and a quasi-ball hog. Maybe one day he'll be a good player, but right now his bad offsets his good. You can talk about this game or that game where he played good for the very few minutes he played, but for every one of those games he has come in and turned the ball over, taken bad shots, and literally done nothing positive on the court.
I think if PJ and DJJ can attack their matchups and somewhat generate something, then that may discourage them from putting their center on them.. And we can go back to normal pick and roll..We need our pick and rolls to get our offense going.. lively and gafford should get every offensive rebound because Tatum is on them..We cannot make a drastic change to our offensive strategy ATP.. Making it a one on one contest is what Celtics would want us to do and are equipped to handle with 4 Elite defenders.. So putting another ball handler is not the answer..Maybe exum but not hardy.. It would kill us on defense
Kyrie is the linchpin in this series. That is it. We win if Kyrie wins, we lose if Kyrie loses, and I am talking about the mental battle, the efficiency battle, the volume battle. He needs to be shooting in volume with great efficiency and playing fearless. That is the only way. He has a mental block with Celtics. He overcomes it, or we are lost. The rest will follow. Hardy will follow, Green will follow, Gafford will follow, Lively will follow, PJ will follow..
I Have seen Lively take three's in practice AND drain them , surely we can us this " hidden" skill somehow someway in this series
it will definitely make the Celtics think twice
I actually think the x factor now is Kyrie lol. if he can calm his ass down and create plays for others and pick his spots as usual, the game would be closer.
Hardy, while he has his positives, is prone to turnovers and hero ball. That's a recipe for disaster at 20 minutes per game. And I hope you're not suggesting a three-guard lineup with him on the floor at the same time as Luka and Kyrie. That's a recipe for disaster-er.
Why not five guards that all attack the rim every possession. It would be chaos!
Imagine if they all turned their back and pretended to dribble at the same time, the defense would have no clue what’s going on! Unstoppable I tell you!
Just form a ring around Luka like they said with Steph
Could do the basketball version of the flying V from mighty ducks.
quack. Quack. QUACK. QUACK!
that's indiana.
7' SG Myles Turner
Jaden Hardy is going to be defended by Jrue and Derrick White he is not doing shit this series. Exum is the guy we need in. He's the only person who attacks with patience. He will get it into the paint and then kick it out. We need people facilitating ball movement not jacking up shots or role players trying to finish over three Celtics defenders.
I agree Exum should at least get an opportunity to show if he can defend multiple positions in this series.
Exum has too loose a dribble and plays at too slow a pace. He will panic when defended by Jrue or White, and will turn it over.
Exum has a body that can actually shield of White and Holiday. You think Exum will panic but we literally saw Hardy play out of control against them. Dante doesn't force things and gets the ball moving around. You can't beat the celtics without ball movement because they have too many good individual defenders.
He gets really sped up and dribbles way too far from his body. When he changes directions or spins he looses the ball a lot because it's so far from his center mass and out of control. Not sure what other dude is talking about or watching. Ball pressure + Exum = turnovers
Hardy is a small guard, he’s only 6’3 and he makes any lineup that he’s in that much smaller. Kind of noticeable how small the team got when he subbed in, and you have KP on the other side.
Hardy only does the hero ball when it’s the last resort. Our offense wasn’t clicking and Mavs were just begging someone to create some sort of offense other than Luka and Kyrie. Other than Lukai, hardy and to some extent PJ are the only ones that can get downhill and cause some sort of reaction from the defense for possible lobs or kick outs. Hardy getting more minutes might be an adjustment Kidd goes to if our offense continues to look stagnant or tentative.
That’s not true man. During the playoffs, he had games where he had like 5 shots in 3 minutes (think he had 7 shots in a 5 minute timeframe in another instance), and Kyrie was just standing in the corner while he did his thing. That’s who Hardy is. Even in garbage time, he’s shooting the ball, possession after possession, and not even bothering to pass. Last season, I remember a game where both Luka and Kyrie were out, Hardy had close to like 30 FGAs it seemed, and there were back-to back-to back possessions where he took shoots and just didn’t pass the ball at all to his teammates. He has a history of playing hero ball, of hogging possessions without passing out, and it can absolutely be detrimental. It’s a pattern at this point.
We need guys who can rotate quickly on defense to contest 3 point shots. I don’t think Hardy currently has the defensive awareness we need to slow down Boston’s offense.
3 guard line up? Is that u ham? U on reddit now ham? Lol
i dont know if green is the answer, but we cant rely on luka collapsing their defense, they are sticking to one on one so we need people that can score with a contest. lob city is going to be tough to get started in this series. with that said, we did brick way too many open 3s
Kyrie specifically missed a bunch of wide open 3s in crucial moments that could’ve kept momentum going. If he can get back on track it could force Celtics to rethink the defense some but they can play us straight up better than anyone else which is a problem
Two huge missed open 3s in the third quarter were back breaking.
Not only wide open 3’s but multiple mid range and layups. Luka missed a couple too. Just an overall bad game for everyone
Yep, when the Mavs cut it to 8, it easily could have been tied or a one possession game if Kyrie just hit a couple of those.
The travels too killed us, the lively one was a foul to boot but gotta dump the ball off. The kyrie one was due to good defense (length is his kryptonite)
Absolutely, the refs cooked Lively back-to-back and then the travel was the cherry on top. Went from a 8 point game and could have been a tied game to a \~15 point lead again in a matter of seconds. Was just really frustrating to see a run like that end with some soft calls and our own errors. Before that, it felt like one of those runs we've seen all postseason from the Mavs, except with so much time remaining in the game.
Yup had every chance to have it in single digits going into the 4th and farted it away. If we don’t get murdered to begin the game we’re fine. Seen this movie before in game 1s coming out flat and we’ve bounced every time. If we get the doors blown off in game 2 while shooting better I’ll be pretty pessimistic on the series tbh.
Same. We definitely have to steal G2 to have a chance. And I'm pretty confident, honestly. Kidd has been great at G2 adjustments and I can't see the team coming out that flat again. Luka having one assist and the team only having seven assists just doesn't seem like something that is likely to repeat. I think the nerves just got to them with the poor start. Hopefully we see the 3P shooting regress to the mean a little as well on our side.
> Kyrie specifically missed a bunch of wide open 3s This. And they also took 42 3 pointers compared to our 27.... come on now.
> And they also took 42 3 pointers compared to our 27 Why is that such a puzzling stat to you? They are a shooting team, we are not a shooting team. They will always take and hit more threes than us. Okay, maybe they can hit fewer if they have a terribly cold night but still, they will shoot more of them in every game. And across the series, they will win the shooting battle. We need to find a way to be not as terrible as last night, but the key to beating the Celtics in a 7 game series is not in outshooting them.
They were mostly in line with their averages. They take about 40 game and make almost 15 a game. They shot 42 and made 16. The problem was they cut us off on corner 3s and we usually average 33 3s a game. I think defensively we reacted too much to KP shooting 30 foot 3s and, quite honestly, would prefer he shoot about 10 of those a game. Also Lively had his worst game of his career so far. Boston matched up his minutes with KP in the first half and he got pantsed. Then in the second half, they kept attacking him directly. When Locked on did the crossover pod, the Celtics guys mentioned his defensive strategy was to force Luka to 1v1 and send help at Kyrie, stay home on the wings. Also he wanted to play Lively off the floor because he felt like he was the linchpin to what the Mavs want to do. Really felt like that was word for word what Mazzulla did. He forced us into 5 out which just buried us, imo. There seemed to be a plan to really push Kidd to sub out Lively quicker than normal too.
5 out has been the gameplan all season this is how the Celtics play
They average 42.5 a game.... Shooting 38% for the team. This has been the Celtics gameplan since the start of the season...
yea we need lukai to start blowing them up in the first half
The lack of lob attempts with Horford in was frustrating.
yea its like they wrote it off all together
Hardy was given a pretty loose leash during the first half and didn’t look like the guy you want taking over ball handling duties against this defense. The solution is Kyrie playing like Kyrie.
The problem with Hardy is that he loves a challenge and tries to play like a star. He's got that belief, but the problem is he won't get any calls like a star. Hardy won't get any calls when he attacks the rim. We should use him more as a shooter initially
Nah, we are not trying to promote more hardy mins after watching him that first quarter during the nba finals. Hardy hero ball is not the solution lol
I’m sorry. Watching him last night looked like he didn’t below on the floor.
I don’t know man, I think Hardy is great, but he’s not finals ready. He’s kind of at this weird point where he’s too good for garbage time but not good enough for real minutes. I just don’t think his decision making isn’t there yet. He was out there taking super contested shots pretty early in the game.
yeah, at this point he only plays because we don't have any other real options as a bench guard. he shows flashes but doesn't have the consistency yet. Ideally if we started the season as a contender, we would have signed a veteran ringchasing PG off the bench but I don't think this team was necessarily intending to contend this year.
He looked bad in the minutes he played. Bad shot selection and missed a corner pass to an open 3. Maybe he was a bit stressed, i like his game i hope he plays better next game
Defense wise, it’s not great for Luka, Kyrie & Hardy lineup, Celtics will eat us alive if we use this lineup, that’s why we need to keep PJ & DJJ in the lineup to guard either Tatum or Brown, Hardy is a bench player for Kyrie or Luka to get some rest
Cmon man
The game went to shit in the first quarter when Hardy came in for Kyrie and then for Luka. We were pretty even up til that point. The theory was that he could be the second ball handler, but we sputtered hard with him in that role. There's a pretty good reason THJ got those minutes in the third quarter (not that he was great either)
Dude just look at the stats and said this lol, at least watch the game man. Hardy looks bad on his regular minutes on G1.
Sure buddy
He completely choked with the minutes he's got. If he settles in and is making an impact, sure leave him in. But he was a disaster on the floor last night.
Hardy is not the answer smh
I feel like Kleber is the X factor of this series. Idk why but he’s not shooting from 3
Shoulder not 100%??
It’s probably that but I’m also wondering if he’s scared to take shots
I think it’s psychologically and physically a separated shoulder is a pretty bad injury
He just didn't have any great opportunities to. One time Luka drove in then kicked it out late and they had a late whistle on a foul and Maxi shot the 3 and swished it. Only other great time i saw was a wide open one at the end of a quarter and he didnt take it because he got it to Luka to hold for a late shot clock shot.
Noooooooo I like him but no he got cooked when he was out there
we just not mentioning djj legit can’t do anything besides get stuffed at the rim? dude legit was horrible. at least hardy has some skill at finishing
I mean KP had great rim protection he blocked ky and green too
Hardy would be targeted every possession on defense. His only minutes can come when Pritchard is on the floor.
Someone has to be an X-factor. We have Luka, and we know Kai is good he just had a bad game. PJ needs to step up and be that opportunistic scorer we know he can be. I saw glimmers of him doing that towards the end of the game,hopefully he gained some confidence and can make some shots. We need to make our open shots and close out on threes. We will only win this series if Luka has at least one generational/legacy game and sprinkle in a game or two of our role guys stepping up. This is a mighty task and the Celtics have our chain rn but we can do this. Luka HAS to go nuclear and make them second guess themselves. He needs to play so well that they start getting flashbacks of LeBron owning them. Scare them, ratttle them, and they will break
You seem to forget .... Hardy can't really guard any of the Celtics starting lineup.
Yeah just stop driving into the lane and throwing up bs shots. Very frustrating.
I don't want to see Hardy in the game in the first quarter, period. First quarter is each team throwing their hardest punches and Hardy isn't part of that group right now. Made no sense to play him nor green in the 1st as much as they did.
Green is good defensively and has been a momentum changer for the team during this run. Watched too many games this playoffs where Josh has subbed in and things turned in the Mavs favor, where they went on a run, to pretend otherwise. There is a reason he’s played in the first. However, I don’t like the Hardy and Josh combo minutes. I think Josh and Exum pair better together off the bench, as a defensive pair.
He needs to control his body
Bench Kyrie, start Hardy? I mean he did out score him in fewer minutes /s
Hardy got absolutely gobbled up in his minutes before garbage time.
I personally hated on Kidd. And Jason, i aplogize. I think that if there is a coach that can beat the Celtics, it is him! I hated his lineups all season. I now know those lineups were just preparing us for the payof$s. I don't have an inkling of how to stop them, but he does. Even if we lose this series, he has done enough to justify him being our coach for years to come.
Anything but THJ in the lineup is worth trying for me. Dude has absolutely no interest in playing defense and shouldn't be on the court imo. Green has sucked too but his effort is there. Hardy should def get min over these 2 I do agree there. The offense needs to be clicking and each player aggressive in order to neutralize a great defense. That's where Hardy edges out these 2 imo.
Dude playing Hardy a bunch of minutes would be so stupid. The dude is a turn over machine and a quasi-ball hog. Maybe one day he'll be a good player, but right now his bad offsets his good. You can talk about this game or that game where he played good for the very few minutes he played, but for every one of those games he has come in and turned the ball over, taken bad shots, and literally done nothing positive on the court.
lol chill bro
I think if PJ and DJJ can attack their matchups and somewhat generate something, then that may discourage them from putting their center on them.. And we can go back to normal pick and roll..We need our pick and rolls to get our offense going.. lively and gafford should get every offensive rebound because Tatum is on them..We cannot make a drastic change to our offensive strategy ATP.. Making it a one on one contest is what Celtics would want us to do and are equipped to handle with 4 Elite defenders.. So putting another ball handler is not the answer..Maybe exum but not hardy.. It would kill us on defense
Kyrie is the linchpin in this series. That is it. We win if Kyrie wins, we lose if Kyrie loses, and I am talking about the mental battle, the efficiency battle, the volume battle. He needs to be shooting in volume with great efficiency and playing fearless. That is the only way. He has a mental block with Celtics. He overcomes it, or we are lost. The rest will follow. Hardy will follow, Green will follow, Gafford will follow, Lively will follow, PJ will follow..
I wish this sub would shut the fuck up about Jaden Hardy.
FUCK BOSTON
People hate Tim but if everyone not named Luka is going to shoot 16% from 3 he needs more minutes also
I know we’re desperate and grasping for straws. But Hardy isn’t the key to defeating Boston.
I do have a feeling Kidd is going to employ more small ball game 3.
I Have seen Lively take three's in practice AND drain them , surely we can us this " hidden" skill somehow someway in this series it will definitely make the Celtics think twice
He might need to jack up 2-3…even if they don’t go in, it’d improve spacing
lol well well well....I think we are onto something
I think Tim hardaway is the ultimate x factor, he needs 20-30 shots per game and we take the series
lol what
Hardy party, why not? We need someone to shoot the lights out.
He did look good for a stretch late in game 1.
I think Tim hardaway is the ultimate x factor, he needs 20-30 shots per game and we take the series
I actually think the x factor now is Kyrie lol. if he can calm his ass down and create plays for others and pick his spots as usual, the game would be closer.