When you’re the standard, that’s how things work.
That’s legitimately what happens.
That’s just how basketball works, even for the Champs.
That’s what this win was.
But that’s the beauty of the regular season.
They played great, weren’t intimidated, and went blow for blow with the Celts' best players.
But that’s going to happen.
With that said, let’s dive in.
Do people understand what we’re watching yet?
Do you get it?
Welcome to the early stages of Jayson Tatum’s NBA prime years.
There are two things that I can’t help but notice watching Tatum start the year.
Look again at how many times Tatum had Jalen Duran in hell while in space.
Go ahead, read that sentence again.
48.4% on 10.3 a game.
Joe knows this so what does he do?
Plays like this
God damn do I love Joe’s brain.
You give Tatum this much space
and that’s a layup.
It’s not a complicated play, but basketball doesn’t have to be complicated.
- If we’ve said it once we’ve said it a thousand times.
Derrick White is a tremendous Celtic.
Him being on this team is such a blessing and I cannot stress that enough.
He does everything you could want from a basketball player in pretty much all aspects.
Oh and the vibes?
Take the two biggest possessions of the game for the Celtics which essentially won them the game.
Imagine there are people who find these possessions boring because they ended in 3s?
Manipulating the defense, fantastic ball movement, wide open shots.
Do these people understand how insane they sound?
Or, is it just because this is happening with the Celtics that they have issues with it?
It’s hard to say (no it isn’t).
The ball wasn’t moving, there was more iso ball and contested 3PA, it was all gross.
This is the way.
That is not a coincidence.
This is why we never doubt Al, he always makes up for his dud performances.
Well, no Hauser in this game but Pritchard?
There’s a reason he has the ultimate green light and we’re seeing it.
If you subtract garbage time, their defense ranks 16th in the NBA in points per possession.
Both Cade Cunningham and Ivey got whatever they wanted.
OK, that’s fine.
That still doesn’t excuse poor defense.
Let other teams do the whole “we’re saving till the playoffs” bullshit.
Best in the NBA with a ORTG of 129.
Tighten up the defense a little bit and we’re cooking.
- I haven’t really loved the ball movement at all these last two games.
Don’t listen to those morons and just play Mazzulla Ball.
We know that works.
Small sample sure, but what the hell is that?
At this point in the game, 2s don’t hurt you!
Let them take all the 2s they want!
Instead, you help off the strong side shooter?
That’s CTE basketball at its worst.
If that’s worthy of this section, I’m not sure what is.
Going 5ish minutes without scoring, getting no stops whatsoever, those 48 possessions were mostly filled with shit.
And yet, here the champs sit, a perfect 3-0.
Hopefully, it’s much better than the shit we watched last night.
