Stevens this game is on you

[BringToughnessBack]

I still believe that 12-2 run in 2nd with us saving our TO’s for possible end of game was a big mistake -Yes, Stevens has been god like but when you clearly see your team losing it in the most important game of year, I try and stop that slide mid way instead of when its too late-

Oh, Rozier hits 30 percent of those horrible missed threes and we are in finals- he was horrible from long and kept firing one after another- 10 times- 🧠👀👇

[BackDoorCut]

The argument a lot of our peers are making is that they did not have their second best player. We didn't have our best two players.

We should have traded for a three point specialist at the trade deadline. We had a three point specialist who shot .408. He had a season ender in march.

Why didn't we press Lebron to tire him out? Do people realize lebron is one of the best athletes in the history of this sport? Have you seen him play live? The man is a rocket ship. If you full court press him he is either going to a. beat you off the dribble and create an odd man rush or b. get you in foul trouble and therefore the team in the bonus earlier.

Why didn't brad take out Rozier and Brown? So he could play nader and ojeleye? Guys who averaged 3.0 points and 2.7 points on 33.6 % fg and 34.6 fg% respectively. I'll play the odds Rozier and Brown are going to play closer to their 82 game samples.

There's a lot of people sitting here crucifying Brad for the decisions he made. If he put in Nader or Semi you would all be sitting here criticizing how he put in scrubs. Brown is 21 and Rozier 23 (i believe). These guys are young and going to learn as they age "hey my shot's not falling, time to get to the cup." I know when I was 21 playing ball I always thought the next shot was going in. As you should.

A lot of people making the argument for them taking the wide open 3s would argue that smart has to take those 3s to keep the defense honest.

My favorite attack I read in the early going of this thread was "brad lost to protect gordon and kyrie" Brad has literally said he came to boston on the condition they would not tank. Probably the most outrageous take I've heard. Completely and utterly ridiculous.

I'm proud of this team. We have the best and youngest core in the NBA moving forward. Danny Ainge has done an AMAZING job rebuilding this franchise. We have amazing talent on the roster now and fantastic draft capital. We have flexibility that I would say no other team has. If Danny wants to trade for someone all he has to do is decide if they're worth it. Brad is great. A top 3 coach at minimum. He's young much like our team and will learn and grow as our young players will.

Without Brad, this team doesn't sniff the eastern conference finals. So for some of you guys to pin this on Brad is outright stupidity to me. Think about that. He coached a team missing 2 starters and a rotation player to within 1 game of the conference finals. This game is certainly not on him.

[kozlodoev]

The argument a lot of our peers are making is that they did not have their second best player. We didn't have our best two players.

That doesn't really matter. We are not comparing who's missing, we're comparing who's left. Are you saying it's ok that our team was overmatched by the likes of Jeff Green and George Hill?

[Roy H.]

It wasn’t Stevens’ best game, but he’s got three healthy rotation-level guards. They shot a combined 8-for-42 overall (3-for-26 3PT).

How does a coach account for that?

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Not many guys I'd rather having coaching the C's than Brad but I do think a lot of the loss should lie fully on his shoulders. All the players, even the best ones will struggle, it's the coach's job to mitigate that with in game adjustments. Clearly, I am no expert here, but a few of the in game adjustments I would have made are:

1. After watching Rozier and Smart get roasted about 600 times on pick and roll and after the Cavs did it to us about 1-2 times straight in Games 6 and 7, I would have gone to a lineup of Baynes, Horford, Morris, Brown and Tatum or Horford, Morris, Ojeleye, Brown and Tatum - could "not" have been worse than what was going on with Smart and Rozier on the pick and switch BS the Cavs ran relentlessly. I would have taken my chances with Brown or Tatum on George Hill and would have had confidence that tatum and Horford, between them, could get the ball over half court and get the offense rolling.

2. I would have face guarded/denied James the ball 94 feet for 48 minutes. Ideally force someone else to initiate the offense and if he did get the ball I'd back off a bit but make him  change directions all the way up the court. Would have worked him relentlessly. We "did not" make it as hard as we could on him.

3. I would have made every possession a sprint up the court - even after made baskets. If needed I would have played Ojeleye and Moose a bit more if needed to rest guys. We had the younger legs and way too often particulalry in Game seven we walked the ball up, making it easy on James like. I would have tried to run him off the floor - you can rest all summer....     

could have used nader and yabu also for short spurts if possible if we were going to run to give others a rest. maybe could have gotten some drives and foul shots but we will never know. i surely wouldmt expect them to make any jays. after the other stuff failed repeatedly it was time to try something else. we did not. i mean we were in desperate times. desperate times cll for desperate measures. stated it was do or die every trip down now for us in GT. we had to make something happen.  welp.

[GreenEnvy]

I can’t blame Stevens too much for their abysmal shooting, a lot for their looks were good. Some were ill-advised but every team has a few of those.

I think a lot of people overlook that Brad was never a player in the League nor an assistant. He’s really just 5 seasons into his NBA career. He’s still learning. He’s going to get even better.

[Roy H.]

Not many guys I'd rather having coaching the C's than Brad but I do think a lot of the loss should lie fully on his shoulders. All the players, even the best ones will struggle, it's the coach's job to mitigate that with in game adjustments. Clearly, I am no expert here, but a few of the in game adjustments I would have made are:

1. After watching Rozier and Smart get roasted about 600 times on pick and roll and after the Cavs did it to us about 1-2 times straight in Games 6 and 7, I would have gone to a lineup of Baynes, Horford, Morris, Brown and Tatum or Horford, Morris, Ojeleye, Brown and Tatum - could "not" have been worse than what was going on with Smart and Rozier on the pick and switch BS the Cavs ran relentlessly. I would have taken my chances with Brown or Tatum on George Hill and would have had confidence that tatum and Horford, between them, could get the ball over half court and get the offense rolling.

2. I would have face guarded/denied James the ball 94 feet for 48 minutes. Ideally force someone else to initiate the offense and if he did get the ball I'd back off a bit but make him  change directions all the way up the court. Would have worked him relentlessly. We "did not" make it as hard as we could on him.

3. I would have made every possession a sprint up the court - even after made baskets. If needed I would have played Ojeleye and Moose a bit more if needed to rest guys. We had the younger legs and way too often particulalry in Game seven we walked the ball up, making it easy on James like. I would have tried to run him off the floor - you can rest all summer....     

could have used nader and yabu also for short spurts if possible if we were going to run to give others a rest. maybe could have gotten some drives and foul shots but we will never know. i surely wouldmt expect them to make any jays. after the other stuff failed repeatedly it was time to try something else. we did not. i mean we were in desperate times. desperate times cll for desperate measures. stated it was do or die every trip down now for us in GT. we had to make something happen.  welp.

Can you imagine the griping if Stevens played Yabu and Nader in a game we lost by a close margin? Those two aren’t NBA-level players.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

I can’t blame Stevens too much for their abysmal shooting, a lot for their looks were good. Some were ill-advised but every team has a few of those.

I think a lot of people overlook that Brad was never a player in the League nor an assistant. He’s really just 5 seasons into his NBA career. He’s still learning. He’s going to get even better.

shoulda stopped the jays from certain players, post up, drive, everybody collapse in the paint to get put backs whatever. try anything and everthing.  obvious we could not throw it in the ocean from 3.

[kozlodoev]

I can’t blame Stevens too much for their abysmal shooting, a lot for their looks were good. Some were ill-advised but every team has a few of those.

I think a lot of people overlook that Brad was never a player in the League nor an assistant. He’s really just 5 seasons into his NBA career. He’s still learning. He’s going to get even better.

So we should use the remainder of Irving, Hayward and Horford's primes so that Brad can "learn"? He didn't seem to learn anything between games 6 and 7 and he lost them in exactly the same way.

Wonder how much we should read into the fact that he also lost all finals his team played in on the college level.

[byennie]

The argument a lot of our peers are making is that they did not have their second best player. We didn't have our best two players.

That doesn't really matter. We are not comparing who's missing, we're comparing who's left. Are you saying it's ok that our team was overmatched by the likes of Jeff Green and George Hill?

They were overmatched by LeBron James. The fact that Jeff Green, George Hill, JR Smith, Kyle Korver, Tristan Thompson etc are all above average veteran players who were enough to win the series doesn't shock me. It's a bummer, yeah, but we're talking about veteran NBA starters. They can play, even if our young guys have brighter futures.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

Not many guys I'd rather having coaching the C's than Brad but I do think a lot of the loss should lie fully on his shoulders. All the players, even the best ones will struggle, it's the coach's job to mitigate that with in game adjustments. Clearly, I am no expert here, but a few of the in game adjustments I would have made are:

1. After watching Rozier and Smart get roasted about 600 times on pick and roll and after the Cavs did it to us about 1-2 times straight in Games 6 and 7, I would have gone to a lineup of Baynes, Horford, Morris, Brown and Tatum or Horford, Morris, Ojeleye, Brown and Tatum - could "not" have been worse than what was going on with Smart and Rozier on the pick and switch BS the Cavs ran relentlessly. I would have taken my chances with Brown or Tatum on George Hill and would have had confidence that tatum and Horford, between them, could get the ball over half court and get the offense rolling.

2. I would have face guarded/denied James the ball 94 feet for 48 minutes. Ideally force someone else to initiate the offense and if he did get the ball I'd back off a bit but make him  change directions all the way up the court. Would have worked him relentlessly. We "did not" make it as hard as we could on him.

3. I would have made every possession a sprint up the court - even after made baskets. If needed I would have played Ojeleye and Moose a bit more if needed to rest guys. We had the younger legs and way too often particulalry in Game seven we walked the ball up, making it easy on James like. I would have tried to run him off the floor - you can rest all summer....     

could have used nader and yabu also for short spurts if possible if we were going to run to give others a rest. maybe could have gotten some drives and foul shots but we will never know. i surely wouldmt expect them to make any jays. after the other stuff failed repeatedly it was time to try something else. we did not. i mean we were in desperate times. desperate times cll for desperate measures. stated it was do or die every trip down now for us in GT. we had to make something happen.  welp.

Can you imagine the griping if Stevens played Yabu and Nader in a game we lost by a close margin? Those two aren’t NBA-level players.

i get it but we had no other choices really unless brad would tell everyone on O just collapse and hope for a putback because if we do not get it it will be an easy two on the other end.

[green_bballers13]

The argument a lot of our peers are making is that they did not have their second best player. We didn't have our best two players.

That doesn't really matter. We are not comparing who's missing, we're comparing who's left. Are you saying it's ok that our team was overmatched by the likes of Jeff Green and George Hill?

They were overmatched by LeBron James. The fact that Jeff Green, George Hill, JR Smith, Kyle Korver, Tristan Thompson etc are all above average veteran players who were enough to win the series doesn't shock me. It's a bummer, yeah, but we're talking about veteran NBA starters. They can play, even if our young guys have brighter futures.

100% agree. Celtics fans are blinded by their hatred of Lebron to realize that CLE isn't a bad team. They are a good team.

[GreenEnvy]

I can’t blame Stevens too much for their abysmal shooting, a lot for their looks were good. Some were ill-advised but every team has a few of those.

I think a lot of people overlook that Brad was never a player in the League nor an assistant. He’s really just 5 seasons into his NBA career. He’s still learning. He’s going to get even better.

So we should use the remainder of Irving, Hayward and Horford's primes so that Brad can "learn"? He didn't seem to learn anything between games 6 and 7 and he lost them in exactly the same way.

Wonder how much we should read into the fact that he also lost all finals his team played in on the college level.

So when we win, the team is so talented with top picks. But when we lose, Brad couldn’t get anything out of them? The truth is we were a young, inconsistent team with no go-to scoring option beyond a 20-year-old rookie.

Full rebuilds typically don’t turn into contenders in this short a time. I think Ainge brought in a great basketball mind for the next decade-plus, not these past 5 years.

And our defense held them to 87 points. If anyone said we would hold hem to 87 before the game started, all of us would’ve been celebrating before the tip.

The fact that we missed a ton of good shots is not on the coach. We shot 6-36 (excluding the last three shots after the game was decided) from deep. Not too many off those were awful attempts. That’s brutal and well below our norm. The fact that we scored our playoff-low (and one off our season-low spanning 101 games) 79 points suggests our players simply Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline. the bed.

I think you can look at his finals losses and realize his teams probably didn’t belong there in the first place. He put Butler into the Final Four x2. He took a team that had no business making the playoffs there his second season. Nobody would have been shocked if we lost on the first round to Milwaukee. Few expected us to hang with the almighty Sixers, and we thrashed them.

Brad has improved his winning percentage in the regular season every year and produced more wins in the playoffs each time. Just because he’s still learning, doesn’t mean he isn’t already a great coach.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

The argument a lot of our peers are making is that they did not have their second best player. We didn't have our best two players.

That doesn't really matter. We are not comparing who's missing, we're comparing who's left. Are you saying it's ok that our team was overmatched by the likes of Jeff Green and George Hill?

They were overmatched by LeBron James. The fact that Jeff Green, George Hill, JR Smith, Kyle Korver, Tristan Thompson etc are all above average veteran players who were enough to win the series doesn't shock me. It's a bummer, yeah, but we're talking about veteran NBA starters. They can play, even if our young guys have brighter futures.

100% agree. Celtics fans are blinded by their hatred of Lebron to realize that CLE isn't a bad team. They are a good team.

 i also think we are hurt because this was doable. we were far closer to beating this team than our 2012 last hurrah. plus this was about to be done with a team without kyrie and Gh and theis. would have been such a super herculean achievement, IMO anyway. of course this lebron team did not have D wade and bosh. heck love was out last two games. oh well. i hope we cn upgrade the bench for next year, keep evberybody healthy. some players finally learn how to play smart and excel. this also hurts because there are NEVER ANY guarantees. you must seize the moment when opportunity arrives at your door. CARPE DIEM. this is the toughest i have taken a loss since 2012. i would have been ecstatic if this team won the east and got finals experience. would not have cared had we gotten swept 120-80 every game.

[SparzWizard]

Although he does get a fair share of blame for Game 7 (misuse of timeouts), I'll rather have Brad Stevens than Tyronn Lue, Dwane Casey, Scott Brooks or Doc Rivers as my head coach.

Rozier, Brown, Smart, Morris had rough performances. Tatum was the only one who came in to play. Horford helped but demonstrated his "Average Al" at best against LeBron James.