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Recap: Hawks deliver kill shot to Celtics season

Chuck - Red's Army April 28, 2016 Recaps 23 Comments

Courtesy: USA Today

Thank god that’s over. I love a grit and balls playoff dogfight but this team was borderline unwatchable in the playoffs. Even the victories were brutal.

The Hawks choked out the Celtics, 104-92, to win this series in 6 games. Atlanta’s recipe for victory was the same: swarm Isaiah Thomas and dare the others to beat them. The others couldn’t. Boston shot 36% and 21% from 3 tonight. When the Celtics got into the paint, they were greeted by a brick wall of shot blocking defense that resembled the 1990 Georgetown Hoyas. When the Celtics found some offense, their defense disappeared (Atlanta dropped 39 in the 3rd quarter).

Thomas (25 points, 10 assists) had little help. Evan Turner and Jae Crowder shot a combined 9-32. Jonas Jerebko (13 points, 5-9 FG) was good early and Marcus Smart (13 points, 4-11 FG) had a decent stretch in the 3rd quarter.

Kelly Olynyk looked really bad. I realize he’s playing with a bum shoulder, but he looks like a guy who has missed 18 months with a severe knee injury. Total deer in headlights. Brad Stevens tried RJ Hunter, but he played frazzled. Tyler Zeller shook off the cobwebs for 8 points in the 4th quarter, but the Celtics need much more by that point.

I never liked the match-up with Atlanta and the odds decreased once Avery Bradley and Olynyk went down. The shortcomings of this roster (shooting, shooting and more shooting) were magnified in this series. I’m frustrated the season ended in another 1st round playoff loss, but this off-season is going to be a blast.

Box score

tvor03

What was up with Schroeder after the game? Definition of sore winner.
- MJ
  
  He and IT minced words at the end. Schroder got mad that the ref didn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t believe it took Splitter and coaches to settle him down,
  
  I can’t believe it but I found a reason to root for Cleveland: Destroy Dennis Schroder.
fannak

Well that was hard to watch alright. The playoffs reveal what you really are. My immediate reaction is that I would preference not to pay Kelly O or Sullinger. Turner is exasperation incarnate. Hope Danny can figure it all out and get the team the parts it needs to put the hurt on people. Should be one heck of an off season
Sean

Keep IT, AB, MS, JC, #3 pick.

Dump Sully & package everything else for something better.
- Jake Gruber
  
  Though I agree that I would love if this would happen, why would other teams take the Celtics worst assets and give up something better? The guys and the pick you named above are the assets that are worth any value. Turner had some value now, but he’s a FA. You can’t just give away your shitty used car for a brand new Mercedes!
  
  I would love to keep IT, but to me, the others are absolutely tradeable. I love the fight in Smart, but skill-wise I’m not sure if he’s ever going to get to where he needs to be (I know, it’s only been 2 years, but looking at his shooting mechanics, he’s got to adjust something), I love crowders fight too, but honestly his lack of quickness or consistent shooting hurts him against higher level teams. I wouldn’t trade him for anything, but for something good, I would consider it. Bradley I’d like to keep around too, but I’m not sure he’s a starting shooting guard on a championship team, so they would need to be able to bring in a real quality SG or scoring wing from other trades so that AB didn’t have to be relied upon to score so much.
  
  In sum, I love the fight those guys bring and I think they brought the toughness to this team this year and set the culture. However, you have to give up something good to get something good, and other teams aren’t interested in the Celtics scrubs. Good teams, that perhaps excel offensively but need some defense and toughness, are going to have a strong interest in these guys, and the Celtics can’t be stubborn about taking the opportunity help their team.
  - Sean
    
    We might not be able to get a mercedes but Ill take an acura
KWAPT

Olynyk looked horrible-and three words: “hit the weights”.
MJ

Great season guys. Through thick and thin, I love the Boston Celtics. I can’t wait for next year.
- Mike C
  
  Gotta say, for having such a rag-tag bunch of players I was surprised how much I enjoyed following this team this season. I would bet most fans would agree that they exceeded our expectations this year. Unfortunately, until we can obtain some new players that can help Thomas in the scoring department, we’re unlikely to ever get out of the first round. Its time for “FIREWORKS!!!”
DRJ

The single biggest coaching/management mistake this year was winning the last game of the reg season. So incredibly stupid. They KNEW… and still they couldn’t bring themselves to find a way to lose. Just ridiculous.

Also — shouldn’t have given Olynyk more than 1 minute of playing time (only to see how caked in rust he was). Zeller might have helped, somewhat… interior scoring and D, at least. KO was 100% useless.

Anyway, woulda been great to win the series — but really, neither Cs nor Hawks could beat a healthy Cavs team now. I’ll be surprised if it’s not a sweep for CLE in 2nd round.
- art
  
  Win or lose the last game of the season, the C’s weren’t going past the first or second round ’cause frankly, they’re just not good enough. And also the Hawks are probably the best of the 4 teams that finished tied. If the Hawks had won their last game, they would have been 3rd seed as they should have been.
- Finks
  
  Hoping for a Cavs sweep of the Hawks. If that happens, Horford will want to find a new home and Boston showed him we would be a good fit.
romeo0119

Sullinger got to go, Olynyk is too soft. I feel like the whole team, there was only 2 guys that can score. They couldn’t buy a shot in both game 5 and 6. We need a pure scorer beside Thomas.
- Curt Hays
  
  Mark Cuban will likely pursue Kelly. Get ready for Dirk 2.0
  - Dave
    
    I agree, Sully, KO, and Amir can walk. Zeller will likely leave to after being under utilized all season and E.T. I can see staying if we can get him back for the right price.
    - Curt Hays
      
      I disagree in regards to Amir. We have been BEGGING Danny for a player like Amir ever since Shaq went down.
      
      Keep Amir. Keep Kelly. Keep ET. Keep Jonas.
      
      Amir is getting overpaid, and it’s only for one more year…so I suspect he gets traded.
      
      Jonas and ET never get injured. They just don’t. You have to consider that.
      
      Zeller will leave, and I don’t blame him. If he’s a thinking man, he goes to San Antonio or Dallas where he will excel with the playing time he sees under those systems.
      
      Find a way to get rid of Young and Hunter.
      
      And finally, DON’T draft a defensive PG.
      - Dave
        
        Yea I would prefer to keep E.T. and Jonas as well. But yea I only say Amir since he’s overpaid but like you said he could be potential trade fodder.
        
        Young and Hunter definitely must go, in the 2013 draft I thought we were gonna get the Greek Freak, oh if him or Gobert were on this team what a difference that would make. I was hoping they get Portis last year and Rozier was picked it made me scratch my head, Portis definitely would have helped in this series.
        
        With the assets and flexibility the team has going forward I can see Danny working some of his magic, time to upgrade the team.
Jack Howland

I think the Hawks shooting vs ours is illustrative. They’re a “win-now” playoff team. They had at least five different guys hit threes, and most of their guys hit the shorter shots reliably. Apart from IT and ET (kinda), who else could we consider reliable shooters? When healthy, you could include AB and KO (again, kinda). JJ showed up fairly often. It seems like an NBA starter needs to be rock solid within 18 feet and 33%+ outside the arc. It just doesn’t seem like we have that many such guys, but the good teams are loaded with them. Really, do we even have two?

All that said, though: we talked a lot about missing AB’s offense, which was certainly true, but imagine the impact he would have had defensively. We would have had that transition game we crave, especially in some of these lightly officiated playoff games. Didn’t we know all along we couldn’t win a half court game against almost anyone?

Imagine that swarming defense next year, maybe as the second unit, with a trailing three guy like Korver following up fast breaks? So I say, keep IT, AB, MS, JC, and (because I’m still curious what can happen) KO. Maybe Amir for defense. As much as I love the rest, they don’t seem crucial to taking that next step forward.

Oh, and the rookies. I want to see more Jordan Mickey.
TinyCornbread

what do they say about insanity? doing the same thing but expecting a different result? Why is Danny disappointed? He did nothing in the off season to improve last year’s roster. He added AMir who struggled most of the year but played pretty well against the Hawks and then he drafted another guard when we clearly need a shooter and some better bigs. He’s sitting on a stockpile of assets that is only going to decrease in value because teams know he has to use them. I understand why he didn’t do a deal at the deadline but I think he only postponed the inevitable; he IS going to have to overpay for whoever or whatever we get. teams are going to put a gun to his head and he will either pay the price or not. Hate to be doom and gloom but I’m not overly optimistic about free agents coming to Boston. Players still think Boston is a racist town and its cold. Durant is a pipe dream. Adding guys like Jared Dudley will help but they aren’t the difference makers we need. I know Danny will swing for the fences in a trade and I am ok overpaying. To me the core is: Smart, Bradley, Thomas ( for now). I’d like to keep Mickey and Hunter but if they have to go so be it. I’d bring JOnas back if the price is right as well as Amir and Zeller but again I’d be prepared to part with pretty much anyone except Smart for the right deal
Curt Hays

Look, we’ve been upset, all season, by so many missed threes. Brad is embracing modern basketball, but he had the tools to pursue an older, more fundamental game if he wanted. Case in point, Tyler Zeller. There’s no reason that Brad couldn’t have used Zeller to generate offense instead of Sully. Zeller has that game that he learned from a young age in a basketball family. He showed it in the games he shined in, but Brad hardly used him. Amir hardly scored–hardly got the ball in the paint. And in the 4th,what helped us catch up? Old school ball.

Idk why we couldn’t just play fundamental, tried-and-true basketball. Jumpshots are not our friend.

I think Brad underachieved this season.
- Dave
  
  Oh the lost art of the post game 🙁
- Mike C
  
  AMEN! Were never going to be the Golden State Warriors no matter how much we wish we could. Driving to the hoop and dishing off for quality looks at two’s is a winning strategy thats been around since the NBA’s inception. Jacking up three’s as the shot clock expires by players who have no business shooting from there in the first place is a good way to lose games by 30 points night after night. Couldn’t agree more on utilizing Amir Johnson down on the block to take some of the scoring pressure off Thomas. Used in the right way, I believe Amir could turn into one of our primary scorers. I feel like Brad is an excellent coach who will only improve over time, but he definitely has alot of adjustments to make with this team if he ever wants to get past the first round of the playoffs.
KGino

If AB stayed healthy, no doubt in my mind we win this series. Yes, we are terrible on offense, but don’t forget this team led the east in points per game. Lots of overreactions considering our #2 scorer and top perimeter defender went down (while we had a lead/momentum in game 1). Great season by this team. Overachieved about as much as they could

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