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Celtics/NBA 2023 Playoffs Round 2 - Back to Boston for Game 7 - Sunday 3:30 PM on ABC

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Fenway said:
View attachment 696978


Heather Walker, the Celtics’ vice president of public relations, died Wednesday morning following a nearly two-year battle with cancer, the family announced. She was 51 years old.

Walker, who was hired by the Celtics in 2006, spent most of the last two years raising money to research glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, via her Move 4 Heather Challenge.
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Absolutely heartbreaking. My heart aches for those children and her family. I don't understand why this happens to people. Cherish your loved ones. This is more than basketball. This is family. I hope the Celtics honor her like she deserves.

Win for Heather.
Rest in Eternal peace.
 
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CDJ said:
They went into Milwaukee and beat the defending champs with the league mvp in a game 7. They have their fair share of comebacks.

I’m going to need somebody to actually prove to me they blow leads more than most other teams before I jump onboard that narrative. Otherwise I just assume people watch the Celtics and only the Celtics. It happens every night across the league.
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Let's see Philly, Phoenix, Denver all took care of business in 4/5 games. Simply no reason you should be going to a game 6 against the Atlanta Hawks. Not when you're up 3-1 at home and have a double digit 4th quarter lead or whatever it was. Plus Hawks were down one of their best players. Trying to compare this to how every other NBA team does holding leads doesn't make any sense. Not all teams are as good as the Celtics.

Added games add up on the body. This series should be over.
 
Don't think the Heat would have beat the Celtics if they matched up in the first round but Jimmy Butler is scary when he's locked in like that. Heat shooters regressed this year as well as their defense but the non Jimmy Butler players shot 45% from deep in the series. Bucks way of playing defense where they just camp the paint and let teams shoot isn't a reliable way to play defense anymore. Lucky they got the championship the year they did because they aren't beating the Nets if Harden and Kyrie don't get injured and were inches from getting bounced just by Durant.
 
BernieMcAvoy said:
Heat shooters regressed this year as well as their defense but the non Jimmy Butler players shot 45% from deep in the series. Bucks way of playing defense where they just camp the paint and let teams shoot isn't a reliable way to play defense anymore.
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Easy to say afterwards, but I thought the Bucks have been overrated since they fluked their way to a championship. I don't view their supporting cast behind Giannis as all that great. However, if the freak was on the Celtics instead of Tatum, the Celtics would currently be the defending champions, without a shadow of the doubt.
In no way shape or form should the Celtics have needed 7 to get by Milwaukee last year just like it wasn't necessary to need 7 for Miami.

Budenholzer appears to be way over his head with his "give up open 3 and clog the paint"-approach. He got torched by the Celtics last year and even the Heat without Herro shot way better than expected.
I mean, the Bucks needed two epic meltdowns in a row and it took some unfortunate events to happen: That 2 by Butler at the end of the 4th was a clear offensive foul. I'd be furious if that hadn't been called against the Celtics. Still a great shot, though.

But still, the 1-seed shouldn't lose to the #8 seed in the NBA 4-1. That was even more embarrassing than the 67 win Mavs losing to the Warriors (even though they had their number back then).

The Celtics are currently the highest seeded team remaining, so any series goes through Boston until they're eliminated. If that isn't enough to win the title, Stevens may think about switching things up. I mean, he could try to talk Cuban into a superstar-swap.
 
BigBadBruins7708 said:
I'd be happy if Tatum had half the heart that Butler does. His refusal to lose is an amazing thing to watch and up there with Jordan/Bird/Kobe
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Good luck waiting for that to happen. I am not holding my breath, though. This is a guy who during crunch time of a game regularly WALKS up the ball and taking all the 8 seconds to advance the ball over midfield. There is simply no urgency.

EverettMike said:
True story: Jimmy Butler lost to Jaysom Tatum last season. Butler even missed what would have been the game-winning shot.
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Great assessment. So it's not like the Heat were only held in the series due to Jimmys heroics in the first place. He outplayed Tatum over the whole series just as much or even more than Curry did.
 
EverettMike said:
True story: Jimmy Butler lost to Jaysom Tatum last season. Butler even missed what would have been the game-winning shot.
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True story: Jimmy Butler outplayed Tatum in that series and lost because of Jaylen Brown

Brown put up 24 and 7 with Smart kicking in 16/6/6. The next best Heat players were Bam putting up 15 ppg and no other Heat player averaged over 10 ppg in the series.

Swap Butler and Tatum last year and banner #18 is hanging in the rafters
 
Mr Cartmenez said:
Great assessment. So it's not like the Heat were only held in the series due to Jimmys heroics in the first place. He outplayed Tatum over the whole series just as much or even more than Curry did.
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It is a great assessment because people on here are acting like Jayson Tatum is James f***ing Harden or something when the post-season begins.


Jimmy Butler has plenty of bad playoff losses on his resume, too.

BigBadBruins7708 said:
True story: Jimmy Butler outplayed Tatum in that series and lost because of Jaylen Brown

Brown put up 24 and 7 with Smart kicking in 16/6/6. The next best Heat players were Bam putting up 15 ppg and no other Heat player averaged over 10 ppg in the series.

Swap Butler and Tatum last year and banner #18 is hanging in the rafters
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Replace Jayson Tatum with Jimmy Butler in Game 6 against the Bucks in Milwaukee and no it f***ing isn't.
 
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EverettMike said:
It is a great assessment because people on here are acting like Jayson Tatum is James f***ing Harden or something when the post-season begins.


Jimmy Butler has plenty of bad playoff losses on his resume, too.



Replace Jayson Tatum with Jimmy Butler in Game 6 against the Bucks in Milwaukee and no it f***ing isn't.
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1. Tatum gets outplayed by some superstars including Butler (which shouldn't have been the case, because Jimmy isn't more talented than him), but now that you have brought up Harden:
Who is who
Player A: 22.8 PPG, 6.3 A, 5.5 R, 153 G
Player B: 23.1 PPG, 6.9 A, 4.4 A, 79 G

2. That's a bold take considering that Butler just scored 56 points against a healthy Bucks team vs 46 from Tatum. JT had a great game last year, but saying that we wouldn't have won with Butler instead of Butler is egregious. I mean, nobody can prove it, but Butler was last year and currently is on another playoff-level than Tatum, that's almost not even debatable.
 
Mr Cartmenez said:
1. Tatum gets outplayed by some superstars including Butler (which shouldn't have been the case, because Jimmy isn't more talented than him), but now that you have brought up Harden:
Who is who
Player A: 22.8 PPG, 6.3 A, 5.5 R, 153 G
Player B: 23.1 PPG, 6.9 A, 4.4 A, 79 G

2. That's a bold take considering that Butler just scored 56 points against a healthy Bucks team vs 46 from Tatum. JT had a great game last year, but saying that we wouldn't have won with Butler instead of Butler is egregious. I mean, nobody can prove it, but Butler was last year and currently is on another playoff-level than Tatum, that's almost not even debatable.
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I mean, you watch basketball so I know you don't really think Tatum and Harden are equivalent playoff performers. Beyond the meaningless of the counting stats which Harden has always accumulated in easy playoff series, Tatum plays defense.

Also, down 3-2 on the road against a healthy Giannis in the ECF versus game 5 in round one when you're up 3-1 and Giannis has a bad back is so weak I can't believe you typed it out.

Look, I'm not gonna do this all day. It's absolutely fair to call out Tatum and to criticize him for bad playoff games. I have and will do just that. But it's now so over the top it's absurd. Anyone who would rather Jimmy Butler over Jayson Tatum watches Skip Bayless too much.
 
EverettMike said:
I mean, you watch basketball so I know you don't really think Tatum and Harden are equivalent playoff performers. Beyond the meaningless of the counting stats which Harden has always accumulated in easy playoff series, Tatum plays defense.

Also, down 3-2 on the road against a healthy Giannis in the ECF versus game 5 in round one when you're up 3-1 and Giannis has a bad back is so weak I can't believe you typed it out.

Look, I'm not gonna do this all day. It's absolutely fair to call out Tatum and to criticize him for bad playoff games. I have and will do just that. But it's now so over the top it's absurd. Anyone who would rather Jimmy Butler over Jayson Tatum watches Skip Bayless too much.
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You brought up Harden, not me, I never disputed that. But when your counting stats are more in that range of players, you got a serious problem. Tatum needs to be compared with the players who are really capable of winning and DO win titles. But his stats ain't matching up.

But let's just agree to disagree, so you don't have to do this all day.


One thing should be considered: If things go south this playoffs, it's a real possibility that they will shake things up a little. Not saying this will result in Tatum being moved, but I can definitely see a Brown-desperation trade to get someone better to "assist" Tatum. They would sacrifice a longer title window with the 2, but help for the short term goal as long as the team has so many weapons.
What more does a player like JT need? This supporting cast is as good as it gets. Everyone healthy (even Rob) and they added Brogdon to a finals-roster. And now will have HF throughout. No excuse not to win.
 
I'm torn, because obviously as a Boston fan I shouldn't be allowed to root for the Knicks, but as a Villanova alum I have to have a soft spot for a team led by Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.
 
All the talk about Jimmy Butler, he is great, true playoff player.

However we need to stop a game 7. That means win tonight against the Hawks in Atlanta.

Hopefully Brown didn't party too much at home in Atlanta last night. Hopefully Tatum realizes that a league MVP is earned not a given. Hopefully RW III earns his pay. Hopefully Horford remembers scoring is part of the game. Hopefully Smart plays smart. Hopefully the bench is ready and strong when called on.

This is it, win game 6 and put this series away. Don't believe you can win game 7 at home.

Go Celtics
 
Celts win by double digits and Tatum guess for 30+.

I'm waiting in a theater for a screening for work, so if I'm way off I won't see your jokes and anger until later.
 
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