Bulls (0-0) at Celtics (0-0) Game 1 4/16/17

[Clench123]

good, since I wasn't trying to insult.

You're not fooling anybody.  Stop it.

[Ilikesports17]

My gift to Danny Ainge for screwing us...

A TP for you, sir. I laughed.

As anticipated, this is a tough night for those who would defend Ainge at any cost.

Not really, seeing as Ainge has still has

1. Engineered a champion
2. Pulled off one of the greatest trades in NBA history to disband said champion
3. Rebuilt a 50-win team after bottoming out for just one year
4. Held on to #1 odds in the impending lottery

You know what? After looking at that resume, I see why you guys are so disgruntled. I think we should hire a real winner like Billy King, Phil Jackson, Rob Henigan, Ryan McDonough, etc. You know, all of those guys that are outperforming Ainge.

And I'm glad you'll be a living witness to the fact that his perturbed decisions has turned those "positive" things on their heads. 

Btw he didn't "pull off" one of the greatest trades in NBA history. 

It's like that quote about religion by Mark Twain, "Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.”

Bring it back to basketball and that quote fit perfectly.  Any dumb GM would look golden dealing with the Nets.

Danny got lucky.  Most of his "great deals" were, for the most part, luck.  Nothing else.

Makes sense. Unlike other GM's, Danny just gets lucky constantly. Acquisitions of Ray Allen, KG, Rondo, Jae Crowder, and Isaiah Thomas were all luck. His smaller moves, like acquiring the pick used to acquire IT in a salary dump was pure luck.

Remove 2008 and you'd see everything else clearly.  Since then his best move was acquiring Brad Stevens.  That was brilliant.

Other than that, I can't give him any credit.  Crowder turned out great.  Danny was going to trade him.  He was just collecting pieces.  I'd say the same for Isaiah.  Even though he has loved Isaiah from the start, he didn't pick Isaiah when he had the chance.  Isaiah was on the bench in Boston when he got here, he wasn't a starter.  All of that is saying the same thing...collecting pieces.

All of that is futile when you are too dumb to capitalize when opportunity for big moves present themselves.  You can cry all you want about great small moves he's made, he is yet to turn any of it into a big move.  Small moves don't win you championships, big moves does.  Bunch of role players and inconsistent bench players don't win you championships but trading for legit and proven players.

Danny sucks.  Soon enough that veil will  be removed from all of your faces.

You have convinced me. You're extremely persuasive.

Psst...My goal isn't to persuade you or anybody because quite frankly I don't have the patience for it and neither am I your typical politically correct dot your I's and T's mother****a.  What I do is post my comments and anyone with any reasoning skills would be able to figure out what I'm saying without having to make me prove something or convince them.  Facts speaks for themselves.  One fact that matters in the conversation of basketball is championships and Danny, since being the GM of this franchise, has only won one and that was 9 years ago.  All else is nothing but histrionic nonsense.  But if we are break it down, the reason he's only won one and still is considered one of the top GM's in the league is what I'm concerned about. 

He is not and shouldn't be considered one.  Period.

this is a really long draw out way to say that your posts are riddled with logical inconsistencies and emotional swings. That they ultimately dont contain many facts or logic, and demonstrate an unwillingness to evaluate anything in the proper context. However, Danny Ainge ultimately sucks as a GM.

[celtics2030]

It's a 7 game series. The Bulls still have to beat us 3 more times. The 2008 Celtics struggled hard in the 1st round that year and took a full 7 games to beat the Hawks. The Cavs barely got by the Pacers last night. These things happen, I wouldn't push the panic button just yet. If we lose game 2 though , then I would worry.

Celtics destroyed the Hawks by 20 or more every game at home

[j804]

The Celts proving the pundits right, did they look like the worse 1 seed in history? Possibly

[jpotter33]

Just watched the game on delay due to being with family. What I saw:

- A disgusting, p----poor performance by the C's overall. That might've been the most frustrating C's game I've ever watched, especially that first half with all of those dumb turnovers and offensive rebounds given up.

- As has been said all season long, our bigs rotation is just flat-out terrible, especially with rebounding, yet Danny still believes we're fine and didn't need to add another rebounder this season.

- Olynyk should NEVER see time in a Celtics uniform again. He was atrocious tonight, giving up numerous rebounds due to being a major pansy and constantly getting muscled out of position. JJ should see all of his minutes the rest of the series.

- Horford is soft. There, I said it. He was owned by Lopez and Portis all night long, which is incredibly sad given that he's making $26M.

- Smart and Amir are the only ones who play consistent good D on this team anymore. Everyone else has several mental lapses a game causing rotation issues or being out of the spot. It's just amazing how much of a 180 we've done this year.

- This team is offensively inept without IT. We're going to need him to score 30+ a night to even have a chance.

- We played only play incredibly dumb basketball anymore in everything from shot selection to passing. What in the world happened to this team and turnovers and smart play? IT and AB combined for 10 TOs, which is completely unacceptable from your starting backcourt. There were times that AB's and Jae's shot selection just made me cringe.

Honestly, this is just one more punch taken in what has been a successful, yet deeply frustrating season with this team. People can point to our record all they want, but the fact remains - Brad is right that we're not nearly as good as our record. For the vast majority of the season, we've played a terrible type of basketball, and as we've been seeing the past several weeks, that type of basketball doesn't work in the playoffs when things get serious. We're not going to win if we don't decide to play defense again, stop playing dumb and turning the ball over, and for God's sake stop being pansies and rebound the effing ball.

This iteration of the Celtics has just been frustrating to the core, and I'm so close to the point of just wanting to move on to the next iteration of this team after the draft. It's pretty clear that this team is inherently flawed, and I honestly question how high their ceiling is, especially with the p----poor effort they've been given lately.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Just watched the game on delay due to being with family. What I saw:

- A disgusting, p----poor performance by the C's overall. That might've been the most frustrating C's game I've ever watched, especially that first half with all of those dumb turnovers and offensive rebounds given up.

- As has been said all season long, our bigs rotation is just flat-out terrible, especially with rebounding, yet Danny still believes we're fine and didn't need to add another rebounder this season.

- Olynyk should NEVER see time in a Celtics uniform again. He was atrocious tonight, giving up numerous rebounds due to being a major pansy and constantly getting muscled out of position. JJ should see all of his minutes the rest of the series.

- Horford is soft. There, I said it. He was owned by Lopez and Portis all night long, which is incredibly sad given that he's making $26M.

- Smart and Amir are the only ones who play consistent good D on this team anymore. Everyone else has several mental lapses a game causing rotation issues or being out of the spot. It's just amazing how much of a 180 we've done this year.

- This team is offensively inept without IT. We're going to need him to score 30+ a night to even have a chance.

- We played only play incredibly dumb basketball anymore in everything from shot selection to passing. What in the world happened to this team and turnovers and smart play? IT and AB combined for 10 TOs, which is completely unacceptable from your starting backcourt. There were times that AB's and Jae's shot selection just made me cringe.

Honestly, this is just one more punch taken in what has been a successful, yet deeply frustrating season with this team. People can point to our record all they want, but the fact remains - Brad is right that we're not nearly as good as our record. For the vast majority of the season, we've played a terrible type of basketball, and as we've been seeing the past several weeks, that type of basketball doesn't work in the playoffs when things get serious. We're not going to win if we don't decide to play defense again, stop playing dumb and turning the ball over, and for God's sake stop being pansies and rebound the effing ball.

This iteration of the Celtics has just been frustrating to the core, and I'm so close to the point of just wanting to move on to the next iteration of this team after the draft. It's pretty clear that this team is inherently flawed, and I honestly question how high their ceiling is, especially with the p----poor effort they've been given lately.

Agreed on all counts.  If they come out with the same effort next game, I won't watch the rest of the series. 

[SparzWizard]

A lot of people here were talking about the concerns of facing the Cavaliers or the Raptors past Round 1.

Here, the Celtics can't even win Game 1 at their own house against the #8 seeded Chicago Bulls in the first-round. I had a feeling this would happen, and it did.

The Celtics are now in MUST-WIN mode for Game 2 and on. A Game 2 loss and this series will very likely be over.

Btw, I like what I saw from IT4 and his performance tonight. Kudos to him. Everyone else needs to step the hell up.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Just watched the game on delay due to being with family. What I saw:

- A disgusting, p----poor performance by the C's overall. That might've been the most frustrating C's game I've ever watched, especially that first half with all of those dumb turnovers and offensive rebounds given up.

- As has been said all season long, our bigs rotation is just flat-out terrible, especially with rebounding, yet Danny still believes we're fine and didn't need to add another rebounder this season.

- Olynyk should NEVER see time in a Celtics uniform again. He was atrocious tonight, giving up numerous rebounds due to being a major pansy and constantly getting muscled out of position. JJ should see all of his minutes the rest of the series.

- Horford is soft. There, I said it. He was owned by Lopez and Portis all night long, which is incredibly sad given that he's making $26M.

- Smart and Amir are the only ones who play consistent good D on this team anymore. Everyone else has several mental lapses a game causing rotation issues or being out of the spot. It's just amazing how much of a 180 we've done this year.

- This team is offensively inept without IT. We're going to need him to score 30+ a night to even have a chance.

- We played only play incredibly dumb basketball anymore in everything from shot selection to passing. What in the world happened to this team and turnovers and smart play? IT and AB combined for 10 TOs, which is completely unacceptable from your starting backcourt. There were times that AB's and Jae's shot selection just made me cringe.

Honestly, this is just one more punch taken in what has been a successful, yet deeply frustrating season with this team. People can point to our record all they want, but the fact remains - Brad is right that we're not nearly as good as our record. For the vast majority of the season, we've played a terrible type of basketball, and as we've been seeing the past several weeks, that type of basketball doesn't work in the playoffs when things get serious. We're not going to win if we don't decide to play defense again, stop playing dumb and turning the ball over, and for God's sake stop being pansies and rebound the effing ball.

This iteration of the Celtics has just been frustrating to the core, and I'm so close to the point of just wanting to move on to the next iteration of this team after the draft. It's pretty clear that this team is inherently flawed, and I honestly question how high their ceiling is, especially with the p----poor effort they've been given lately.

Spot on...I think the turnovers happened because this team thinks they are better than they are--"We're the #1 seed--playing the #8 seed" type thing--it was obvious they didn't respect the Bulls...Also, the team scored like 3 points in about 8 minutes with Smart running the offense in the 2nd quarter---we were lucky to be close in this game really.

[tankcity!]

We could use two superstars on this team.

I've been saying adding Butler would not make them contenders. The fact that there is a good possibility Smart won't turn into an all star hurts us in the long term. I was really disappointed in Crowder who has not been up to par in big games. Bradley isn't consistent on D anymore and he didn't play efficiently on offense this game.

Idk, I'm not a huge fan of this roster. IT is the only guy I feel can play against the big boys. Not sure about anyone else. Seems like a soft team to me. Also BS deserves some blame as well.

[CelticsElite]

A playoff series isnt decided in 1 game. We can come in big in game 2 and get some momentum.

[j804]

Watching some of the game again man this team is so flawed. We need huge changes have to go out and get a legit traditional center this small ball is disgusting. Need some reinforcements off the bench KO and Marcus will not get it done...KO we know will not be retained and Marcus is just a bad offensive player he's unreliable. Our starting SG is a terrible passer, ball handler, and below average to bad finisher. Crowder crumbles in big games and is overrated the best thing going for him is the good contract he's inked too. I don't know how this team won this many games. If we manage to win this series in 7 we are going to get manhandled the next round.

[Celtics4ever]

It seemed that Chicago wanted this game more than us.   I think we had an emotional letdown with the death of IT's sister.   We are not the strongest one seed ever and we could use some more talent and athleticism.   

But to me, I think we played poorly and were still in the game.  Chicago had some guys like Portis have the game of their lives.  We struggled and yet we still competed.

To be honest, every team concerns me, to some degree.   We bottom fed a lot this year.   I think this team needs to play well and hard to win.  It is clear that we need some more improvements. 

[More Banners]

Considering the circumstances, I didn't expect them to play at peak. It's not easy to have 'it' when the team's leader is sitting there crying. And we wonder why the team was a bit off?

I'm giving the whole squad a pass on this one. And I'm not too sure things will be all hunky dory for the next game either.

On an unrelated note, it's interesting to watch seasoned playoff veterans close out a game. We could use more of that.

[greece66]

woah this thread went downhill fast

ppl need to chill out

six more games left in the series

[PAOBoston]

Classic Celticsblog blog overreactions going on right now. Only game 1. Still ways to go.

It was a bad loss no doubt, especially after all the talk of not getting respect as a #1 seed etc. You earn respect.

The game in a way was lost in the 1st half with all the offensive rebounds/2nd chance points they gave up. They should have put that team away then. The team rebounding was much better in the 2nd half. If they had just done that in the 1st half, the game would have been over.

Jimmy Butler is a fantastic 2 way player. Carried the Bulls in the 2nd half.

Secondary/Bench scoring has to be on the list of things to fix in the offseason. How many more times are we going to have to watch IT come off the floor with a lead only to come back with the team down. Stevens continues to use the no offense 2nd unit. It doesn't work.