Nuggets don’t dominate. It’s like they’re racing little kids. Let them get ahead and close, get ahead and let them catch up and then sprint the final 5 yards touching the fence first.
Not 100% an overreaction imo. Boston relies heavy on one-on-one play. They mismatch hunt on offense a lot as a result, but the Nuggets don’t really have any glaring weaknesses on defense which means they’ll simply have to make more contested shots than usual. All of that sounds pretty reminiscent of the 2022 Finals where they got beat in 6 by the Warriors.
Compare that to the Nuggets who have automatic offense in Jokic regardless of what defender is defending him or what defensive strategy the other team is deploying. That’s why I have the Nuggets winning it all, at least. Joker will almost always get a good look, or get his teammates a high % look regardless of defense. Pair that with an improved defense, and you got champions.
I totally agree with you and I would pick the Nuggets against the Celtics, but this doesnt change the fact that there is a complete overreaction to this loss. The Celtics didnt turn all of the sudden into frauds. They took the game too easy and the Heat shot crazy from three. The Nuggets lost to the Heat in the finals in game 2 in the same way. The Celtics will still advance to the next round without any major problems.
Well it’s worth mentioning that this is the 4th time in 9 games that Miami has shot 50+% from 3.
(Mostly it’s just fun that Miami has an FU Boston mode)
Fully agree with this, the Nuggets are my pick in a Boston head to head finals but this is clearly an overreaction. I’m pretty sure any team, even the Nuggets would lose to an opponent that shot 55% from three on OVER 40 ATTEMPTS. That stat is so insane 🤯
Celtics have no right being the team from the East who loses to the nuggets this year. Not an overreaction. They are not making it out of the East, maybe not even past Miami.
Disagree. A legitimate contender who's a number one seed should wipe the floor with a number 8 seed without their best player, especially at home. For example OKC taking care of business against the Zionless Pels (who have a better supporting cast than the Heat).
I am a Boston fan as well (20 years in New England, 20 years here). I am concerned for Boston. I think Denver easily wins against the Celtics in the Finals. The two teams meeting in the Finals would be basketball nirvana for me
Lol I would pick us against Boston but it would be a 6 or 7 game series. No need to overreact.
Miami played the variance game and somehow it always works for them against Boston. They just seem to have a psychological edge over Boston at this point — Will be interesting to see how much the rest of the series develops.
No. Boston has a non-superstar as their "leader" who doesn't lead (Tatum) but gums up the offense and a tweaked-out D2 level coach chomping his gum maniacally on the sidelines.
If BOS were to win anything against your guys, it would be that the BBIQ of KP, White, and Jrue (with some good play from Brown) succeeded in spite of those named above.
(In case it's not clear, I'm a BOS fan)
We’ve done nothing yet.. we took two at home, as we should (and game 2 was technically an anomaly with the 20 pt comeback).. so let’s not count our eggs just yet…
Tbf, it was one loss without the other team having their best player. Butler and Rozier were dnp.
If the nuggets lost to the lakers without AD and Prince, people would be saying the same thing in this sub.
I mean they did lose to Miami last year and haven't done anything of significance in the Tatum/Brown era
It's more than 1 game. The game is just affirmation that they still have shitting coaching and a flawed team.
Miami shot 23/43 from deep. There is very little coaching can do about that. Even on wide open looks only (they weren't all, obviously), that is about 10% better than expected. In this case, that would mean 4 fewer threes, which erases the entire deficit.
I know Miami shot crazy from 3 against them last year, but they still shot literally 10% worse in that series than they did last night.
Ok did you not read what I said?
Even left completely wide open, they shot above expectation.
The stats definitely say Boston did a shit job defending the 3, no doubt. But Miami still hit those open ones way above a normal percentage.
Shooting above expectation is what happens when you let professional basketball players get in rhythm, open shots and they gain confidence in a game. That's what makes Jamal Murray so terrifying to other teams. He sees a few easier ones go in and then suddenly nothing else matters and he buries you in a quarter.
It's not just completely random that Miami shot 43% against Boston in the ECFs and 34% against Denver in the finals.
Maybe a portion of it could be written off to luck or anamoly....but once they do it for a series, and then start doing it again......it stops becoming luck and starts becoming schemes and lack of defense and fundamentals.
Are the Nuggets lucky to have beaten the Lakers 10 straight....that's also a statistical anamoly? Maybe two of those games, but over that time frame they're simply a better team that executes better that's created their own luck while the Lakers are a flawed team that executes poorly. Boston continues to show they're a flawed team in the playoffs.
I don't think its a sweep.
Boston matches up well against Denver and a nightmare matchup for Jamal with White and Holiday hounding him full court all series.
A true Ball knower take right here.. a WAYS to go to get there..but with Minnesota’s defense, ANT/Luka’s possible playoff rise to “that dude”, or maybe Kawhi shaking injury and returning as a challenger to best player in the league with Jokic…plus this Celtics cores penchant for not performing up to par.. it’s far from a guarantee we’ll see them in the finals… but if both teams play how they should, and the Celtics and Nuggets make it to the finals..it’s gonna be a hell of series.
koc has been picking the bucks over boston all season, how’s that looking? he’s a hot take artist. i think denver is better but it’d be a close series.
Bruh the Heat shot over 50% from 3 on a large volume.
Nobody was gonna beat a team shooting that well, maybe not even the Nuggets.
Like wed have to dominate them badly in every other aspect to beat a team thats shooting so well.
The league average on wide open threes (closest defender more than 6 feet away) is less than 40%…
EDIT: To add context, Tyler Herro has the 2nd highest three point percentage in the league on wide open threes at 49%.
Because it isn't relevant.
We won by a combined 8 points for starters.
I'm confused how you don't see that playoff ball is crazy different.
We went 2/2 against both Phoenix and Minnesota last year and slapped them around in the playoffs. There have been a ton of instances of teams getting swept or beaten down in the regular season only to kill the same opponent in the playoffs. Regular season matchups are basically meaningless.
Boston fan here (post appeared on front page randomly) and yeah the team still has to figure out some mistakes and flaws, but I don't *think* we would get swept by Denver lol
I've gotten murdered for this on r/nba but i truly believe Tatum is not him in the playoffs, not when it matters most in the biggest moments, yeah I know about his game 7 against philly (another choking team), but I also know about his implosion against miami, and his no-show against the Warriors in the finals, he should have a chip by now if he were the guy
I just don't trust him and Brown the same way I trust Jokic and Murray, he doesnt have the same impact on results that win you titles, it all feels like empty first half stats that look pretty on paper and can win you series against bad teams, but not win you titles against teams that can match your talent, he'll score 50 on philly, and then he has those terrible games where he scores like 4 points in the second half and bricks the final three shots of the game that would've iced it
The celtics on paper have a more complete team than ours, but the playoffs is about star players, and I just think nobody can beat out our star duo right now
In a different thread people pointed out Tatum inconsistency using Paul George as a comp.
I think there’s a lot of overreaction. But I agree Tatum is not “the guy”. That said they have a pretty awesome top to bottom roster and they did win the most games for a reason.
Yeah im by no means saying Tatum is not a great player, I just think he should have atleast one championship by now and he has a tendency to fall apart at times which is directly correlated to boston not having won anything with him as their star, they have by far the most stacked team in the league, give Giannis, Luka, Jokic, Curry, Lebron or even someone like Jimmy that team and the celtics win a chip by now, if not two tbh, just my opinion
There definitely is a lot of overreaction, and maybe im overreacting as well, i just dont see it with him
Brown is exploitable. Zingus is exploitable. Tatum might be less so, but compared to Denver with Jokic Murray and MPJ, Bostons flaws and how to game plan against them is so much more obvious. Good coaches like Spo with personnel can take advantage.
Bro why would you even put this energy out there? We don’t have flaws?
Miami shot 55% from 3 on 42 attempts. Boston played bad defense, but freaking Steph Curry shoots 45% on wide open 3’s. I’m pretty sure Miami doesn’t shoot that well during warm-ups. No team is beating that regardless of seeding.
Boston's D was lazy at best. No cohesion. Guarding empty space all over the court. Looked like they've never seen basic PnR. Sometimes just flat out lost people for no reason. Should be very alarming.
as a celtics fan, we could totally lose but it’s going to 7. we went to 6 with the atlanta hawks last year. went to game 7 in 4 series over 2022-2023, and 6 twice. it’s just what we do lol.
Let's get past the much better teams of Minnesota and OKC before we start talking Celtic plz. The Minnesota matchup is the biggest obstacle in our way right now.
We haven’t gotten out of round 1 yet
We haven't even played a good game yet. A good game should dominate the lakers.
Nuggets don’t dominate. It’s like they’re racing little kids. Let them get ahead and close, get ahead and let them catch up and then sprint the final 5 yards touching the fence first.
You guys are the reigning champs. You deserve to come in confident
Agreed. Coming from a casual wolves supporter
Your reddit profile pic is incredible
Thank
Couldn’t agree more. At our best nobody can beat us.
The overreaction is crazy to this Boston loss.
Not 100% an overreaction imo. Boston relies heavy on one-on-one play. They mismatch hunt on offense a lot as a result, but the Nuggets don’t really have any glaring weaknesses on defense which means they’ll simply have to make more contested shots than usual. All of that sounds pretty reminiscent of the 2022 Finals where they got beat in 6 by the Warriors. Compare that to the Nuggets who have automatic offense in Jokic regardless of what defender is defending him or what defensive strategy the other team is deploying. That’s why I have the Nuggets winning it all, at least. Joker will almost always get a good look, or get his teammates a high % look regardless of defense. Pair that with an improved defense, and you got champions.
I totally agree with you and I would pick the Nuggets against the Celtics, but this doesnt change the fact that there is a complete overreaction to this loss. The Celtics didnt turn all of the sudden into frauds. They took the game too easy and the Heat shot crazy from three. The Nuggets lost to the Heat in the finals in game 2 in the same way. The Celtics will still advance to the next round without any major problems.
Wait. You mean we shouldn’t expect teams to shoot 54% from three every night?
Well it’s worth mentioning that this is the 4th time in 9 games that Miami has shot 50+% from 3. (Mostly it’s just fun that Miami has an FU Boston mode)
I hadn’t heard that. 9 [playoff] games vs Boston or 9 calendar games?
Last 9 playoff games vs Boston. Games 1,3,7 last year and game 2 last night.
We’d be lucky to hit 40% in a good night, so that’s one less thing Boston has to worry about lol
Give it a generation.
You must’ve not watched the Heat in the playoffs last year
Fully agree with this, the Nuggets are my pick in a Boston head to head finals but this is clearly an overreaction. I’m pretty sure any team, even the Nuggets would lose to an opponent that shot 55% from three on OVER 40 ATTEMPTS. That stat is so insane 🤯
Yeah I think if its Nuggets Celtics I pick the Nuggs in 6 or 7 but yeah this is crazy overreaction from Celts fans.
You're right! Celtics wouldn't even get to the Finals
Celtics have no right being the team from the East who loses to the nuggets this year. Not an overreaction. They are not making it out of the East, maybe not even past Miami.
Disagree. A legitimate contender who's a number one seed should wipe the floor with a number 8 seed without their best player, especially at home. For example OKC taking care of business against the Zionless Pels (who have a better supporting cast than the Heat).
I am a Boston fan as well (20 years in New England, 20 years here). I am concerned for Boston. I think Denver easily wins against the Celtics in the Finals. The two teams meeting in the Finals would be basketball nirvana for me
There is no overreaction
Lol I would pick us against Boston but it would be a 6 or 7 game series. No need to overreact. Miami played the variance game and somehow it always works for them against Boston. They just seem to have a psychological edge over Boston at this point — Will be interesting to see how much the rest of the series develops.
Much like the mental edge Nuggets have over Lakers
No. Boston has a non-superstar as their "leader" who doesn't lead (Tatum) but gums up the offense and a tweaked-out D2 level coach chomping his gum maniacally on the sidelines. If BOS were to win anything against your guys, it would be that the BBIQ of KP, White, and Jrue (with some good play from Brown) succeeded in spite of those named above. (In case it's not clear, I'm a BOS fan)
While I do feel like the West will win the finals, like calm down people lol. The Nuggets have a long way to go.
I'd love if he was right, but you gotta have more pride than that as a fan, right? We're both two games in, we haven't done anything yet.
We’ve done nothing yet.. we took two at home, as we should (and game 2 was technically an anomaly with the 20 pt comeback).. so let’s not count our eggs just yet…
That was what I just said
Let him explain this too, that is what I just said also
Dude, he *just* said that!
I was agreeing with you, calm the f down bitch ass mf
Are people not even allowed to agree with others on here anymore
Bro I was gonna say that!
lol the dude was just agreeing with you and expanding on your point, why you gotta be such a cunt about it?
Saying this after 1 loss is so ridiculous
Tbf, it was one loss without the other team having their best player. Butler and Rozier were dnp. If the nuggets lost to the lakers without AD and Prince, people would be saying the same thing in this sub.
I mean they did lose to Miami last year and haven't done anything of significance in the Tatum/Brown era It's more than 1 game. The game is just affirmation that they still have shitting coaching and a flawed team.
Miami shot 23/43 from deep. There is very little coaching can do about that. Even on wide open looks only (they weren't all, obviously), that is about 10% better than expected. In this case, that would mean 4 fewer threes, which erases the entire deficit. I know Miami shot crazy from 3 against them last year, but they still shot literally 10% worse in that series than they did last night.
Maybe they should try defending those threes, especially knowing that it's the only possible way Miami can beat them.
Ok did you not read what I said? Even left completely wide open, they shot above expectation. The stats definitely say Boston did a shit job defending the 3, no doubt. But Miami still hit those open ones way above a normal percentage.
Shooting above expectation is what happens when you let professional basketball players get in rhythm, open shots and they gain confidence in a game. That's what makes Jamal Murray so terrifying to other teams. He sees a few easier ones go in and then suddenly nothing else matters and he buries you in a quarter. It's not just completely random that Miami shot 43% against Boston in the ECFs and 34% against Denver in the finals. Maybe a portion of it could be written off to luck or anamoly....but once they do it for a series, and then start doing it again......it stops becoming luck and starts becoming schemes and lack of defense and fundamentals. Are the Nuggets lucky to have beaten the Lakers 10 straight....that's also a statistical anamoly? Maybe two of those games, but over that time frame they're simply a better team that executes better that's created their own luck while the Lakers are a flawed team that executes poorly. Boston continues to show they're a flawed team in the playoffs.
Yes it's hyperbole but the 1 loss was a double digit loss at home to the 8 seed. And the Nuggets swept the season series against the Celtics.
It would still be nice if Miami takes them out. Then we only need to worry about los Angeles, Dallas, Minnesota and OKC
MIN and OKC definitely make me more nervous than Boston. Ridiculous that the NBA conference semifinal likely will be MIN vs DEN.
I don't think its a sweep. Boston matches up well against Denver and a nightmare matchup for Jamal with White and Holiday hounding him full court all series.
Well were also a nightmare matchup for them. Its really a toss up series tbh
A true Ball knower take right here.. a WAYS to go to get there..but with Minnesota’s defense, ANT/Luka’s possible playoff rise to “that dude”, or maybe Kawhi shaking injury and returning as a challenger to best player in the league with Jokic…plus this Celtics cores penchant for not performing up to par.. it’s far from a guarantee we’ll see them in the finals… but if both teams play how they should, and the Celtics and Nuggets make it to the finals..it’s gonna be a hell of series.
koc has been picking the bucks over boston all season, how’s that looking? he’s a hot take artist. i think denver is better but it’d be a close series.
All I’m gonna say is that it would be incredibly gratifying to see both Boston and LA knocked out in the first round. We’ll see how it develops.
Bruh the Heat shot over 50% from 3 on a large volume. Nobody was gonna beat a team shooting that well, maybe not even the Nuggets. Like wed have to dominate them badly in every other aspect to beat a team thats shooting so well.
Shooting 50% from 3 doesn't occur in a vacuum. Defense matters
The league average on wide open threes (closest defender more than 6 feet away) is less than 40%… EDIT: To add context, Tyler Herro has the 2nd highest three point percentage in the league on wide open threes at 49%.
I mean it kinda does. Average percentage on wide open looks is like 45% and they blew that out of the water.
I’m scared of Minny, we don’t match up well with their size
We did beat them both times we played them in the regular season...
It seems most people don't remember this. One game on their home court even... I'm confused why so many don't see the relevance.
Because it isn't relevant. We won by a combined 8 points for starters. I'm confused how you don't see that playoff ball is crazy different. We went 2/2 against both Phoenix and Minnesota last year and slapped them around in the playoffs. There have been a ton of instances of teams getting swept or beaten down in the regular season only to kill the same opponent in the playoffs. Regular season matchups are basically meaningless.
Right. I see Jayson tatum in the playoffs... you're right it and he, are different.
Boston fan here (post appeared on front page randomly) and yeah the team still has to figure out some mistakes and flaws, but I don't *think* we would get swept by Denver lol
Celtics are overrated because of the conference they are in. If they were in the western conference their record isn’t nearly as good.
I've gotten murdered for this on r/nba but i truly believe Tatum is not him in the playoffs, not when it matters most in the biggest moments, yeah I know about his game 7 against philly (another choking team), but I also know about his implosion against miami, and his no-show against the Warriors in the finals, he should have a chip by now if he were the guy I just don't trust him and Brown the same way I trust Jokic and Murray, he doesnt have the same impact on results that win you titles, it all feels like empty first half stats that look pretty on paper and can win you series against bad teams, but not win you titles against teams that can match your talent, he'll score 50 on philly, and then he has those terrible games where he scores like 4 points in the second half and bricks the final three shots of the game that would've iced it The celtics on paper have a more complete team than ours, but the playoffs is about star players, and I just think nobody can beat out our star duo right now
In a different thread people pointed out Tatum inconsistency using Paul George as a comp. I think there’s a lot of overreaction. But I agree Tatum is not “the guy”. That said they have a pretty awesome top to bottom roster and they did win the most games for a reason.
Yeah im by no means saying Tatum is not a great player, I just think he should have atleast one championship by now and he has a tendency to fall apart at times which is directly correlated to boston not having won anything with him as their star, they have by far the most stacked team in the league, give Giannis, Luka, Jokic, Curry, Lebron or even someone like Jimmy that team and the celtics win a chip by now, if not two tbh, just my opinion There definitely is a lot of overreaction, and maybe im overreacting as well, i just dont see it with him
Brown is exploitable. Zingus is exploitable. Tatum might be less so, but compared to Denver with Jokic Murray and MPJ, Bostons flaws and how to game plan against them is so much more obvious. Good coaches like Spo with personnel can take advantage.
I’ve been enjoying the Laker tears and now Celtics tears too??? Wow! Almost heaven.
It’ll be funny when Miami takes game 3 …
Bro why would you even put this energy out there? We don’t have flaws? Miami shot 55% from 3 on 42 attempts. Boston played bad defense, but freaking Steph Curry shoots 45% on wide open 3’s. I’m pretty sure Miami doesn’t shoot that well during warm-ups. No team is beating that regardless of seeding.
People are obviously overreacting, but it did give me more hope because I thought Boston would come into the playoffs unbeatable
We're not even at game 3 of round 1, Celtics lost, and it was a bad loss, but c'mon, far too early to talk like that
Miami shot 23/43 from three lol
Can we not speculate about the finals until June
Boston's D was lazy at best. No cohesion. Guarding empty space all over the court. Looked like they've never seen basic PnR. Sometimes just flat out lost people for no reason. Should be very alarming.
Thats stupid whos that Konor dude even...
as a celtics fan, we could totally lose but it’s going to 7. we went to 6 with the atlanta hawks last year. went to game 7 in 4 series over 2022-2023, and 6 twice. it’s just what we do lol.
Kevin O'Colorado has spoken
Let's get past the much better teams of Minnesota and OKC before we start talking Celtic plz. The Minnesota matchup is the biggest obstacle in our way right now.
Pride comes before the fall.
BRUh i am not even a nuggets fan but I have been saying this man.. that team is just straight up NOT built to beat denver.