The Celtics are the first team in NBA history to have 3 starters score 0 points in a playoff game
Luka Garza, Ron Harper Jr, and Baylor Scheierman all combined for zero points today on a combined 0-7 from the field.
What’s the point of starting Ron Harper Jr for 4 minutes and never play him again
See if he can guard Maxey or Edgecomb, and he couldnt, so you sit him.
This isn’t a regular season game. Seems insane decision to me to gamble like that for a game 7.
They had a Tatum sized hole to fill kind of had to try something
They replaced their regular starter Hauser with a g league Ron Harper jr. Clearly a mistake and that’s why he was never played in the game after the first 4 minutes
I’d argue the opposite.
Hauser isn’t a regular starter. He’s a gap filler in a year where we lost our 1A franchise face and several key players.
Playing randoms worked out, it was the reason the game was close. We lost down the stretch because we went back to the starting lineup that had us start the season 0-3.
People are talking about how Boston won with certain guys, but we actually only started winning once we benched those guys and gave the no-names a shot.
Pritchard / White / Brown / Hauser / Queta is not a winning lineup.
We started winning when we subbed Hauser out for a rotating cast of: Minott / Walsh / Scheierman / Gonzalez / Harper Jr.
Then Tatum came back and we benched Pritchard and brought Hauser back.
They had most of the season to “figure something out”!
Did they not have plenty of experience figuring out how to fill the Tatum sized hole all regular season? You know, when he was out with that Achilles thing?
Yes, and Joe just never went back to it. Terrible rotation choices the last four games. All of his bench went cold, and i mean just look at the impact Hugo had. Could have been sprinkling in a lot more Garza/Gonzalez/Scheirman all series and just never did.
Shades of Dwane Casey putting CJ Miles on Kevin Love and getting cooked
and he was a -7 in those 4 minutes too
it very well could’ve changed the outcome of the game if he just started hauser instead
It was clear from the start that lineup was not working. Way too easy for the 6ers to score and guys other than white and brown are just doing cardio
Insane gamble. It’s not hyperbole to say that cost them the game
I looked up whether Ron Harper Jr had even played against the 76ers this year, but it looks like ever since he joined the league in 2022, he has never played against Philly, not even in preseason. Wonder what basis they were going off on to even start him.
Stupid is what stupid does
Joe Mazulla on fraud watch
Insane decision? Did he play huge minutes or something?
He played 4 minutes and that’s 4 minutes too much
Why didn’t joe try putting them on maxey or vj in the other 6 games?
so he still gets exp
Not if you get wiped out and lose the battle lol
Pro level COTY adjustments. You just wouldn’t understand
Mazulla tried to fish for that starter buff but didn’t get it.
They were trying something. Celtics lacked offense and he had a great game 82. Joe truly said fuck it let’s try it.
That stupid plan turned out to be really stupid.
Wait.. you’re talking about the COTY!?
Mr. Super eccentric.
Mr. “I can’t answer a question in a normal ass way”
It’s genuinely crazy to me, it seems like most peoples favourite part of the sport here is to shit on everybody the moment they lose in the playoffs, on some weirdly personal level.
It was the same shit with Steve Kerr when the warriors stopped winning, the same shit with any star player.
It’s like everybody is just waiting to say “I told you so, this guy sucks lol!”.
brother i’ve been waiting to shit on the celtics my whole damned life after beating them in a playoff series. and i’m fucking old.
Talk. Your. Shit.
As truly terrible as 76ers fans are in general, when you put it this way, I’m honestly happy for you at this moment. Enjoy my friend.
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holy shit cornball I am not even a celtics fan, at all. I back the lakers, LOL
But sorry I didn’t know you were a veteran, professional hater. My bad, enjoy the moment! x
LMAO, you on something bro
I mean I did say this earlier
we smoking on that BOS pack all night homie
I wasn’t lying 🤷
Mr “I don’t believe in awards”
“Starters”
“COTY”
lmao realized hes going to have to accept that award soon after losing this series
In all seriousness can someone explain why he started Harper specifically
I can’t think of a single reason why he would do that
Because Dylan Harper started on the Spurs so it only makes sense… right?
He has actually played well when given opportunities.
We have 4 bench wing defenders: Scheierman, Gonzalez, Walsh and Harper. Of those, Scheierman has been the best performer so far. Towards the end of the season Harper was actually edging out the remaining 2. Of those 4, the defence is dependant on the night but Scheierman and Harper are the better shooting threats.
The big thing for us was that our core roster wasn’t going to work. The team was outmatched. The Celtics strategy was basically to play incredibly fast paced and chippy basketball, with constant changes to lineups and coverages to confuse the 6ers.
He knew the Celtics needed to rely on the unknown, but it’s not like you can know which guys will step up until you’re actually in the game.
And while the starting lineup didn’t work, that idea did. The Celtics kept it close for most of the game.
Where the team really fell apart was moving away from that strategy. Our closing lineup was the same as the starting lineup at the beginning of the season that went 0-3.
Pritchard / White / Brown / Hauser / Queta.
It sucks because he 100% deserves it but geez man you gotta start asking questions after some of these playoff collapses…
To be fair, CotY, like MVP, is a regular season award. Can’t really hold his playoff collapses against him there, because that isn’t within the scope of the award.
Really hoping Detroit loses so we can have the only COTY candidate to not lose immediately
I do get it but he also cant make them score yk?
It is a regular season award. Like it or not.
“Jaylen Brown MVP season”
First mvp candidate to have a negative +-
I missed the first quarter and I’m not sure I saw Harper play a single minute.
You did not.
Quotation marks doing a lot of heavy lifting 😂
Was certainly a choice but really needed one extra guy to step up and dont hate seeing if they could, needed Harper, Baylor, luka, Walsh or Hugo to make a shot and none of them made 1
Turns out having a bunch of guys stand around while brown and white play 2 man ball is not the best strategy.
Sixers almost lost due to trying to run the same strategy. They are so lucky that Boston mistimed their comeback effort. With 4 minutes left you could see Max defer to Embiid trying to let him win off of isoball, that looked awful, so he moved on to PG, another failure.
Finally Maxey took the ball and turned the afterburners on.
If the boston comeback happens with 2 minutes left, Maxey never gets his “turn”. He needs to start realizing that Embiid and PG are just high level role players. They are the guys you want to lean on in the middle part of the game taking advantage of mismatches, but when it comes down to sealing the wins, its Maxey’s team.
To be fair alot of those looks were early and were wide open
The only play they run is high picks over and over again
Yeah our offense didnt have much the last 3 games, like I said the looks were open. It changes Phillys defense if someone else is making shots, but if no one is you can just squeeze in on the pick and roll
It’s a lazy offense without Tatum
Seems like the time you see if the former all-star you traded for can do anything?
Lol
It was the basketball equivalent of starting a reliever in a high stakes baseball game
Just utterly stupid
More like AAA reliever.
To be fair I think “starters” is warranted because they had no business starting
Damn the “we want Boston chants” aged like Salma Hayek
stop between this and Scal whining like a bitch I can only get so erect
The fact that they only took 7 shots all game is insane.
Brown and white passing the ball back and forth all game miiiight have had something to do with it
The 3 players barely played and can’t create for themselves so it makes sense.
That lineup cost them. Fireable bull shit
They lost control of the game and never quite got it back.
That and the small ball lineup against Embiid made no sense
Tatum was out, what was he supposed to do?
Don’t play g leaguers as starters. It’s not that hard
They literally lost KP, Jrue, and Tatum this year lol
Still don’t need to play Ron Harper Jr. and Garza as starters
I would
Why? This is the typical throw shit on the wall and see what sticks. Definition of desperation
Team missing best player in a must-win game seven is desperate - more at 11!
starting their best bigman over luka garza would be a start
the one who got into foul trouble?
Tatum was out basically the whole season he should already know what to do
Playoffs are a diffferent beast than the regular season
He could have used the lineups he used during the regular season still
naw
Apparently. Boston was good in the regular season
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that this starting lineup cost them the game. Every quarter was competitive, except for the first one. Kind of insane.
Maybe if the Celtics aren’t fighting uphill because of the 1st quarter, they pull this out.
mazzulla drank his own Koolaid so bad lol
Think he sniffed his own farts a bit much on that one
Thank you Paul George and best big in basketball Mr.Joel Embiid
Now the games done, and I feel safe saying it. What the fuck was Mazzulla doing
Mazulla tried to put out a trap game starting lineup in game 7, but the only thing he trapped was himself
Celtics sub started banning now hahahha
What was that lineup lol
…what was the thinking there…?
Anytime Brown or White got the ball they shot it no matter how bad the shot was
Cherry picked ass stat lol
This playoffs have broke a lot of records and some of them aren’t good.
Classis Playoff Celtics 🤣
Their collection of scrap heap players wasn’t ever going to be enough in the playoffs
At least Brad got his EOTY
Should have tanked the year when they had their own pick and Tatum out of the season. Imagine this team plus AJ Dybansta
That’s crazy
Fuck Boston
Mazzoula committed coaching malpractice with that starting lineup
It’s funny because before the game everyone was saying this was their death lineup
That is a very wild stat. And in a game 7
Guys celtics fans wanted to get minutes and it was shown why Joe barely played them all series.
2 of those starters played less than 10 minutes
Vooch being unplayable hurt. Idk why no Prichard starting tho he turned the game around
say what you will about Vooch, but he had some clutch threes for the Bulls this season, even had three game winners. I get his defense is ass, but I was surprised Mazzulla opted not to play him.
Derrick White had to miss 3s don’t you understand?
Honestly I was shocked he was 5⁄16. Somehow felt better than that watching the game (until the end).
Damn. That sucks.
mazulla listened to the fans lol
Galaxy brain starting 5.
Good
Taking this roster as far as they did, both in the regular season and playoffs, is genuinely amazing and was a treat to watch. Joe and Brad both did a phenomenal job, tremendous respect to both of them!
STARTERS for the MAINE CELTICS you mean? 😭
Bench warmers in disguise
I hope the Wizards ask for a lot when they try to get AD from them
Why would u put that evil on us by talking about BOS trading for AD bro smh