2023 NBA Playoffs Thread

[Steven43]

The Leprechaun was there the last play. Incredible ending.

Yes he was! 🍀

[heyman25]

Boston survived. They don’t finish worth a damn.
7 for 35 on 3’s . Smart saved their season. Tatum is a mystery how he can’t convert critical points.

[Bluedog]

Smart and White have both been really awesome when I've watched...

[bluedevilwildcats]

Boston survived. They don’t finish worth a damn.
7 for 35 on 3’s . Smart saved their season. Tatum is a mystery how he can’t convert critical points.

This is the 3rd game this series where they had an 80%+ chance to win with 4 minutes left. They lost the first 2 and barely pulled this one out.

Re: Tatum, yeah, he's pretty far down the list of guys I want with the ball when the game is on the line.

[gofurman]

Are they arguing the shot shouldn't have counted?? I guess there were two questionable defensive fouls called fairly late, but that happens.

Celtics were of course fortunate the refs reset clock to 3.0 from 2.1, but I just assumed that was justified.

It's pretty , though that literally 0.2 seconds is the difference between going to the NBA finals and possibly not...gotta hurt. And mentally hard to move on from that in a game 7.

Yep. That’s why I am amazed they aren’t more careful with clock stoppage throughout the game!
I’ll see it run an extra second here and there … probably 10+ seconds off easily by games end. Same in college. They only get careful at the end. During most of first and second half extra seconds tick off all the time. That decides games

[Skydog]

This is the 3rd game this series where they had an 80%+ chance to win with 4 minutes left. They lost the first 2 and barely pulled this one out.

Re: Tatum, yeah, he's pretty far down the list of guys I want with the ball when the game is on the line.

Boston was lucky they couldn't get the ball into Tatum on the last possession. Less chance for an off the foot dribble, shot clock violation or airball.

[SouthernDukie]

I’m definitely beyond any attempts at a reverse jinx now. I’m just going to enjoy the moment and hope for history to happen in these NBA playoffs. Also trusting Jayson Tatum has a spectacular Game 7.

Go Celtics!

[Tooold]

Admittedly I was only tuning in sporadically to check the score. But during the last part of the game, several times when I did tune in I saw Tatum make a good pass to someone a few feet from the basket who then missed a (fairly) easy shot. Maybe he was ineffective earlier in the second half (I know he didn’t score until his FTs well into the half), but in the last 5-10 minutes I thought he was distributing well…just not getting help from his teammates.

When Butler made his 3 FTs, I was sure it was over…what a miracle rebound. I am not a Boston fan, but I cannot help but root for Tatum.

[budwom]

heroic effort by Celts to give the game away...anyone else think the Horford foul on Butler at the end was highly dubious?

[Steven43]

heroic effort by Celts to give the game away...anyone else think the Horford foul on Butler at the end was highly dubious?

As far as Boston desperately trying to give the game away last night it was almost an exact repeat of last year’s game 7 vs Miami in Boston. The Celtics led 98-85 with 3 min to go and then missed shot after shot and had turnover after turnover and suddenly Miami was only down 98-96 and Jimmy Butler is taking a 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go that might well have won the game, considering how Boston’s offense had completely fallen apart at that point. Thankfully, he missed (barely).

Monday is Memorial Day. I’m sports-praying that we don’t have to build a memorial on Tuesday to Boston’s dead season.

[dukelifer]

Admittedly I was only tuning in sporadically to check the score. But during the last part of the game, several times when I did tune in I saw Tatum make a good pass to someone a few feet from the basket who then missed a (fairly) easy shot. Maybe he was ineffective earlier in the second half (I know he didn’t score until his FTs well into the half), but in the last 5-10 minutes I thought he was distributing well…just not getting help from his teammates.

When Butler made his 3 FTs, I was sure it was over…what a miracle rebound. I am not a Boston fan, but I cannot help but root for Tatum.

I was out and checking the score periodically. I saw Butler hit 3 FTs to go up 1 and then when I checked again it had the score 103-102 end 4th and I thought the game was over and never checked again until logging onto DBR and was very confused by the front page story.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Interesting parallel - final score last night was 104-103. That sounded really familiar to me. The 1992 Laettner shot game was 104-103.

On an unrelated note, refs usually go to painstaking lengths to get the clock right on late game reviews, so I am 95% sure it was right, but on the play where Butler was fouled, I believe the clock was at 2.1, then when they reviewed it, they reset to 3.0. If it had even been reset to 2.8, White's shot would have been late. Shows how much a fraction of a second makes a difference.

[UrinalCake]

The Leprechaun was there the last play. Incredible ending.

Also when Duncan Robinson missed two wide open threes in the last couple minutes. Those are going to haunt him.

[UrinalCake]

Anybody else think of this play when White got the tip in?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Anybody else think of this play when White got the tip in?

To a degree. But an elimination game of the Eastern Conference Playoffs of the NBA isn't NEARLY as big of a stage as a rivalry regular season road game.

[ClemmonsDevil]

To a degree. But an elimination game of the Eastern Conference Playoffs of the NBA isn't NEARLY as big of a stage as a rivalry regular season road game.

Ha! Correct!

[Rich]

Good call. 3 FTs.

I know it's moot now, but was the original call that Jimmy Butler's shot was a 2 pointer and 2 free throws, then the Celtics challenged the foul, and the refs awarded three free throws after the review? Or was that review by the refs necessitated by the rules and not a challenge review? At the time I thought the Celtics challenged the foul call and it was only then that the refs saw their error and awarded the three free throws.

[clinresga]

Boston survived. They don’t finish worth a damn.
7 for 35 on 3’s . Smart saved their season. Tatum is a mystery how he can’t convert critical points.

This is the 3rd game this series where they had an 80%+ chance to win with 4 minutes left. They lost the first 2 and barely pulled this one out.

Re: Tatum, yeah, he's pretty far down the list of guys I want with the ball when the game is on the line.

Boston was lucky they couldn't get the ball into Tatum on the last possession. Less chance for an off the foot dribble, shot clock violation or airball.

Y'all have some pretty high expectations. Agreed that Tatum does not yet have the stone cold killer mentality of Kobe or MJ. But to be ragging on a guy who in the last three wins for the Celts put up these numbers--33/11/7, 21/8/11, 31/12/5--seems petty. Without JT, the Celts are out 0-4, and Jimmy B is playing the Joker.

BTW, Spoelstra, the best bench coach in the NBA, disagrees with you. Who did the Heat double-team on the last play?

[luvdahops]

heroic effort by Celts to give the game away...anyone else think the Horford foul on Butler at the end was highly dubious?

The foul call itself was not dubious, as Horford clearly whacked Butler across the forearm. But Butler should have been called for double dribble before getting the shot off.

[Dwight]

Boston was lucky they couldn't get the ball into Tatum on the last possession. Less chance for an off the foot dribble, shot clock violation or airball.

Spoelstra had Strus deny Tatum the ball, which prevented him from being able to put a body on White after the shot attempt, and led to the winning putback.

Spoelstra has now experienced both sides of some of the biggest offensive rebounds in NBA history. 10 years ago, he was the beneficiary of a move by Popovich, who decided to take out Duncan at the end of game 6 of the Finals, which led to an offensive rebound by Bosh and the Ray Allen 3 pointer.