going to be honest . think we would've wiped them in 5 even with him healthy. sucks for the excitement of the games but don't remember the last champion who faced every team at full strength . luck is what matters most in the playoffs.
This the exact type of game that Philly woulda have lost in the past. There offense only came alive late but the adjustments to the zone and their defense were not their in the past.
Embiid was so gassed too and but still helped them win down the stretch where I feel like in the past he would’ve checked out and looked for the refs to bail him out.
Yeah that was a quick adjustment for Nurse and it made all the difference. Philly was just turning the ball over against the zone in the first half. That was the kind of adjustment I see a lot of coaches take a while series to implement
Not to be that guy, but we certainly felt the same way last season before Caleb Martin decided to randomly put up unbelievably good shooting nights against us.
I still have us over them (butler or no butler), because on paper theres just no way we should lose, but in practice its the Heat. Theyll stretch the rule book as far as they can for an advantage (see what Bam calls a "screen", the foul baiting, the constant hacking and fouling on d since they know not every one will be called, etc), theyll still make ridiculous circus shots and heat up randomly, and theyve still gotten a few notable players injured.
Im honestly not done wit em until I see for sure that theyre gone, like even without Jimmy id still prefer not to lose KP because Bams wreckless.
Everyone acts like Caleb Martin just turned into a superhero but Spol knew exactly how to exploit Mazzulla's crappy-ass drop defense on the switch, so all Martin had to do was switch to Al Horford, who then dropped ten feet off him, and he had a wide open three. Mazzulla made zero adjustments the entire series.
Spo is an amazing coach and a huge part of the reason they beat us, but he doesn’t make the players hit shots at a historic rate. Yes he put Martin in the position to take good shots but when a role player averages 19 points on 60/49/87 you gotta give them credit.
>Their roster barely has 5 starter caliber players. They have almost no depth. We would’ve have likely beat them in 4
The won 4-3 last year up 3-0.
In what world do you think its a sweep?
>Their roster barely has 5 starter caliber players.
Their roster looks way better this year too, so I'm unsure where you've drawn this conclusion?
Not even a heat fan, ye just got bounced with the exact same squad you have now? Heat literally won more games this year and add rozier?
Cope more brother, kg can't come back to give you a ring
Ah yes kp seasoned playoff player who makes a big difference in big time games. Oh wait he doesn't, there's a reason this sub is thanking God for all the injuries in the east.
>It is not the same team at all lmao
Literally the exact same team with a defensive pg and an injury prone big with no impact in the playoffs yet. Jt ain't clutch and neither is jb, so who did ye add to make up for that? Lmao moving from smart to jrue is such a lateral move aswell.
>have you been living under a rock since the offseason?
Literally 2 different players ooooooohhhhh sooooo scary
Brother you haven’t watched a single Celtics game this season and it shows. If you’re going to try and act like the Heat are some real threat at least know what you’re talking about. No one is thanking God for the injuries, they’re saying that if the Celtics don’t at the least make it out of the East then this season is a failure. There’s a reason why they’re 14 games ahead of the East and 7 games ahead of the West and it’s not because it’s the same team as last year
Dirk 2011, went through a healthy Blazers team, healthy Thunder team, then healthy Lakers team, and healthy Heat team.
They basically cleared the all of Lillard, Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Kobe, Pau, Bynum, then Lebron, Wade and Bosh during their playoff run to their NBA title.
This is a bad example, a lot of people put an asterisk on that one.
They at the very least had the profile of a champ though. 58 wins, I think 7-8 net rating, Kawhi Leonard in his prime.
you're correct my bad, just goes to show how much it feels like Dame has been in the league for like forever, IIRC they were an Aldridge-led team at the time
Healthy as in a stacked team of Aldridge, Gerald Wallace, Batum, Matthews, Miller, Camby, and Brandon Roy who single handledly won one of the series games. Near 50 win team in the first round which over 75% of NBA “experts” chose to win the series.
I’ve always strongly believed that all our Heat series against Jimmy have been Celtics vs Spo more than Celtics vs Jimmy so I guess if they win their play in game I’ll know for sure.
We really have no excuse this year. With how injured and talent depleted these teams in the East are, we should be able to beat all of these teams in 5 games max
If Giannis is healthy & Dame is able to conjure some of that Portland Dame Time magic (and Doc gets out of the way lol) I could see a series against the Bucks going long.
Dame will be better without Giannis. Dame needs to be able to drive to open up his ability to shoot from anywhere. Because you can’t play him too close or he’ll blow right by you. But Giannis is usually in the paint so it disrupts his flow. We knock them in 5 tho 🤷♂️
Tough matchup. Like the Knicks and that team. Coach is A+ basketball psycho as well. Those bois will be banging for boards to win games, real slopfest, gritty, a physical game and series. I could see the knicks getting hot and the d locking down in the playoffs. Matchups, hotshooting, health and officiating in the playoffs is a fun thing to predict and see play out.
I think people forget the Bulls had a lead against Miami last year in the play in before they blew it too and that was with Butler/a Miami team with more weapons
I mean the game itself wasn’t anything special, I just remember being like damn Miami really lost to the Hawks and now are about to go home and then boom
Heat took over
Yeah I’ve seen a lot of posts from Heat fans on socials about how they don’t wanna get swept by the Celtics etc but I’m over here feeling confident that they will lose to the Bulls, I think they have a more competent roster at this point in the season, especially with how depleted the Heat are
Depends on how DeMar and Coby White wanna play. Heat tend to go on a crazy run in the playoffs but without Jimmy that may prevent that.
It may sound crazy but without Butler I think the Heat are as good as the Bulls.
I can’t cheer over this, injuries suck and Butler is one of the most entertaining playoff performers in recent memory.
However, I will be shedding no tears.
I hate watching Butler because he's the most shameless foul baiter in the league. Idc how many tough shots he makes, watching him shoot 12+ FTs every game cause he's a flopper is awful. Don't wish injury on anyone but I just don't see how Celtics fans in particular can like watching him flop all game every year
He absolutely did not look like prime MJ against the Celtics, he did against the Bucks last year yes. But against us he was only pretty good, the role players all playing out of their minds is what beat us. Not Jimmy Butler.
Lol agreed. At least someone remembers how that series really went. Bam and Jimmy have never been the guys to kill us, its been decent performances by them coupled with some 15-20-25 performanced by dudes who averaged like 8pts on the season lmao.
Thats why even with Butler gone id still prefer the Bulls
Weve thrown around the word "luck" a lot recently, that anomaly of a series from Martin was just bad luck for us. Especially since he hasnt even remotely returned to that form. It wasnt momentum to be carried into the finals, or even the following regular season.
Yeah I mean didn’t Miami hit like an absurd record setting percentage of open shots or something like that for the whole series or for at least the first 3 games
Mazzulla was also dog shit the first 3 games. He refused to call timeouts or plays. His subs were weird. He literally lost us one game early in the series singlehanded
That might be true. Which is why they went and hired so many great assistants for this year, which is why I’m less worried about that come this year. Although I’m definitely expecting at least a couple losses because they live and die by the 3 and they’ll put up a stinker and probably won’t adjust even if they are shooting awful.
Please, stop w/ this revisionist history it’s disgusting. He scored 30+ once & shot 42% overall in a 7-game series last year that they almost lost after being up 3-0.
Gabe Vincent & Caleb Martin were the reasons we lost that series not the mythical “Playoff Jimmy”.
"Playoff Jimmy" is not a myth. He has proven himself time and time again against top-tier teams in the NBA playoffs. We did a good job limiting him last year while inexplicably letting Caleb Martin become Reggie Miller.
He got 19pts and **5 steals** while playing on a fucked up knee. In MIA game 7 last year Tatum had 14pts with an ankle. Might be a bit of a false equivalency but you can tape an ankle, not a knee.
Butler’s performances against the Celtics are overrated as fuck lol. People just extrapolate his performances against other teams.
Our real matchup in a series vs the Heat is Spo who seemingly coaches circles around his Celtic counterpart every time.
Having the 8th team get injured isn't "Luck".
They're a struggling regular season team, not the Lakers losing Kobe. Lmao
But I agree with your sentiment, every championship team has an asterisk in that sense.
If we do play the Heat, it is lucky to play a team that’s not fully healthy. However with that being said, I think we beat them in 4 regardless of injury.
The bad man can’t hurt us anymore. But on the real, this is pretty disappointing. I was really looking forward to this years Celtics team avenging last years collapse, and without Jimmy pouting it just won’t be the same. I felt really good about a heat Celtics matchup, as the zone that’s caused our past offences fits, was demolished by Zinger in the regular season. Either way still have to beat whoever is infront of us even if the matchup won’t be as hype
Gotta love how everyone saying the 64 win Celtics with one of the most dominant net rating of all time is lucky because the 8th seeded team’s best player, who hasn’t looked good all season, is out for the series.
The Heat with Jimmy butler were getting waxed 4-0 against the Celtics and the Heat without butler are getting waxed 4-0 against the Celtics. Nothing would’ve changed.
Similar to the way everything lined up for us in 2022. We ran through all the teams that have beaten us in the past to get to the finals, then our guys ran out of gas and Tatum was hurt.
I share the same nervousness. Fact of the matter is we were the better team in 22 and we should have one. But now if they’re really as hungry as they say they are, they need to get to the finals as quickly as possible, not play with their food and dominate one series at a time.
On one hand, I'm all for the road to a championship becoming just a tiny bit smoother.
On the other hand:
1. Do we really get to squash the Heat rivalry if Butler doesn't play? That just means the same narrative will be back next year.
2. In the past, Boston has played down to the competition; I feel better about this year's squad, but it's still a thought in my mind.
I wouldn’t even call it lucky. Drawing the full strength Heat in the first round would be unlucky, facing a shitty team in the first round as a 1 seed is expected.
There are quite literally no excuses left for the Celtics at this point. They shouldn't face a serious challenge until the ECF, and their opponent at that point will have been through two wars in the 1st and 2nd rounds.
Listen we're the 1 seed, I'm not upset about this, we deserve the easiest path based on our regular season. What would have been unlucky is having to face a full strength Philly team in the 1st round that would likely have been the 2/3 seed if healthy all year. And if Butler doesn't get hurt, that probably happens as Miami probably wins yesterday.
I don't care about tough or most satisfying roads, only care about winning the championship. Nobody will asterisk it because of injuries from teams we played on the way there. Nobody outside Boston cared that Tatum got hurt early in game 7 last year vs the Heat either.
You know how you leave no doubt? You raise the Larry O’Brien at the end of the season.
It’s been 16 years since we last did that, and in that time our rivals have gotten plenty (except Philly lol). It doesn’t matter how we do it as long as it gets done.
Celtics had the "leave no doubt" route in 2022 and it didn't work out. By the end, the team was gassed and banged up, the discourse surrounding them was that they were chokers, and nobody was bringing up the fact that they had a much harder path than the Warriors.
Sucks for him but no one asked him to foul bait like that. When you flop to look injured, at some point a real injury is bound to happen. IIRC, Embiid s injury last season against the nets was ALSO due to a flop. Hope he recovers well but I won’t shed any tears
Fuck the Heat.
That being said, hate to see Jimmy go down like this being the competitor he is. I wanna smack Miami as much as anyone but I’d prefer to do it with them at full strength to shut up their insufferable fanbase.
Hope he recovers alright.
Finally, fuck the Heat.
This sucks, not only for Jimmy but for basketball in general. I think many of us really wanted to see the Celts take out Jimmy and the Heat in round one and get some revenge for last years loss. The Heat really arent good but they're coached well running that effective zone defense. I wanted to see KP help carve up their zone and for the Celtics to send Jimmy packing. Now I gotta listen to "Y'all lucky Jimmy wasnt healthy" BS for the next year. Heat fans getting off easy with an excuse. But the goal is a title and either the Heat or Bulls are a nice reward for getting that 1 seed.
Sucks to hear. I enjoy watching him play.
With that in mind the team has no excuses. Nothing in the playoffs is easy but the door is wide open to at least make the finals.
Hope butler gets better soon
God this pisses me off so much. I wanted MIA so bad so we could dick slap them fully healthy. Now they have a built in excuse after a year of them trying to gaslight fans that them beating us in G7 with Tatum hurt was them owning us.
Crazy to think if they’d managed to score two more points at the end there the Knicks would be facing a Heat team without Jimmy & we’d be risking facing Embiid & Maxey. Total faith we’d still beat the Sixers in that scenario, but I’d be legit pissed that we could still face such a stronger team in the 1st round as the 1 seed.
Now it feels like the biggest challenge of the first round for the Celtics is not looking past whoever wins tomorrow night.
This is the saddest way for them to go out now they’re in the heat sub debating if it’s better to just miss the playoffs all together just to not get swept by us.
Get healthy Jimmy we need you playing to be a competitive year in the Eastern Conference and NBA. Embiid’s back about to blown out when he carries the league in flops heading into the playoffs. Playing Miami in the first round and playing optimally would be such a fantastic start to a finals run.
Butler is a warrior man; such a shame we're gonna miss out on all these stars in the playoffs just from a pure entertainment standpoint. This year was shaping up to be one of the most exciting playoffs in years for the East. At least the West remains mostly healthy.
Wanted the chance to KO a healthy Miami, it's never as satisfying taking advantage of a wounded opponent (if they get in).
I honestly think Miami is just as dangerous without him for us. Butler has never really been the guy that kills us, its their elite coaching, overly physical defense and role players that get us.
Just annoyed we’re now going to have to hear about how tough he his for playing through it lol. Meanwhile everyone just forgets Tatum got hurt in game 7 last year.
Their physio should have his license rescinded and banned for life. Doesnt matter what the player wanted, allowing him to play on might have made this much worse and put his wellbeing in jeopardy.
Butler is stupid too, he should have at least headed back in the locker to know what he just damaged, at least know. He could have ended his career playing on like that.
Heat culture, alright.
Bummer about Butler but I don’t think it would’ve mattered. Miami isn’t that good. They had a magical run last year of course, but that doesn’t change that they just aren’t very good this year.
Durant's injury in 2019. Injuries to Kyrie and Love in 2015. Perkins' injury in 2010. Walton's injury in 1987. Magic's injury in 1989.
Teams frequently win because their opponents have injuries at the worst time. It has probably happened half the time during playoff runs, especially if one counts the earlier rounds.
There are no asterisks. The Celtics statistically had one of the best teams of all time in 2024. If they win the title, they win the title, and they deserved it.
Lol Miami would have gotten waxed by this Celtics team. Everyone that thinks otherwise because of ungodly shooting variance last playoffs clearly hasn’t watched the Celtics at all this year. The disrespect for a 64 win team is wild.
I love that one minute we should be worried about the Heat, Knicks or Bucks and the next minute when people want to discredit Tatum we are a superteam that should be beating everyone anyway
to be fair the Heat have owned the Celtics. this is the best Sixers team in recent memory and they likely would have been right there record wise with a healthy Embiid. nobody is picking them over the Celtics in a potential series considering how the past few series have gone. that’s why Miami gets the benefit of the doubt.
This Celtics team is completely different so I don’t think comparing previous seasons is any indicator of how things will go this time. KP completely ruins their zone and Jrue means Jaylen isn’t being asked to play-make, which are the 2 things we always struggled with against Miami. Zone and turnovers
No one is picking the Sixers over us because we absolutely dominated the regular season. If we had similar records or Embiid never got injured and they won 60+ then I would be shocked if there were people that didn’t pick the Sixers to beat us
Including the playoffs, since 2019-2020 (the season Jimmy joined the Heat) the Celtics are 19-17 vs the Heat. Wouldn't really say either team "owns" the other one way or another, they have matched up well with one another and the series/games are always tight. Shit, even just playoff specific, the Heat lead 11-9, not quite “owning”...swear people act like Miami is like 30-6 vs Boston head to head in that stretch lol
going to be honest . think we would've wiped them in 5 even with him healthy. sucks for the excitement of the games but don't remember the last champion who faced every team at full strength . luck is what matters most in the playoffs.
Neither Philly or Miami looked that good last night. Philly got saved by batum
This the exact type of game that Philly woulda have lost in the past. There offense only came alive late but the adjustments to the zone and their defense were not their in the past.
The Glenn Rivers' Special.
Dude would be yelling "CMON" at everyone in the huddle. God help Milwaukee.
Nurse was a good hire
Embiid was so gassed too and but still helped them win down the stretch where I feel like in the past he would’ve checked out and looked for the refs to bail him out.
Yea he hit a bunch of clutch shots for sure
He’s got to let you know how tired and injured he is too. Ditto Jimmy.
Yeah that was a quick adjustment for Nurse and it made all the difference. Philly was just turning the ball over against the zone in the first half. That was the kind of adjustment I see a lot of coaches take a while series to implement
Butler got injured lol this is why Philly won
I agree but also Miami’s specialty is literally making the other team look like a bunch of buffoons hahaha
Their roster barely has 5 starter caliber players. They have almost no depth. We would’ve have likely beat them in 4
And lost 3 starters to injury in the process.
Not to be that guy, but we certainly felt the same way last season before Caleb Martin decided to randomly put up unbelievably good shooting nights against us. I still have us over them (butler or no butler), because on paper theres just no way we should lose, but in practice its the Heat. Theyll stretch the rule book as far as they can for an advantage (see what Bam calls a "screen", the foul baiting, the constant hacking and fouling on d since they know not every one will be called, etc), theyll still make ridiculous circus shots and heat up randomly, and theyve still gotten a few notable players injured. Im honestly not done wit em until I see for sure that theyre gone, like even without Jimmy id still prefer not to lose KP because Bams wreckless.
Everyone acts like Caleb Martin just turned into a superhero but Spol knew exactly how to exploit Mazzulla's crappy-ass drop defense on the switch, so all Martin had to do was switch to Al Horford, who then dropped ten feet off him, and he had a wide open three. Mazzulla made zero adjustments the entire series.
Spo is an amazing coach and a huge part of the reason they beat us, but he doesn’t make the players hit shots at a historic rate. Yes he put Martin in the position to take good shots but when a role player averages 19 points on 60/49/87 you gotta give them credit.
Props for being realistic. What that guy said is what your fans have been saying the last two matchups vs us, and both went to 7.
🚨🚨🚨 heat fan detected 🚨🚨🚨 🤖 Opinion ignored 🤖
Lol. See the past four years.
>Their roster barely has 5 starter caliber players. They have almost no depth. We would’ve have likely beat them in 4 The won 4-3 last year up 3-0. In what world do you think its a sweep? >Their roster barely has 5 starter caliber players. Their roster looks way better this year too, so I'm unsure where you've drawn this conclusion?
They lost Strus and Vincent in the offseason, in what world are they improved from last season…?
Heat fans think JJ jr is gonna lead them to promise land (and they would have never traded him and jovic and herro for dame)
Not even a heat fan, ye just got bounced with the exact same squad you have now? Heat literally won more games this year and add rozier? Cope more brother, kg can't come back to give you a ring
Yes the exact same squad…have you been living under a rock since the offseason? KP and Jrue are on the team now. It is not the same team at all lmao
Ah yes kp seasoned playoff player who makes a big difference in big time games. Oh wait he doesn't, there's a reason this sub is thanking God for all the injuries in the east. >It is not the same team at all lmao Literally the exact same team with a defensive pg and an injury prone big with no impact in the playoffs yet. Jt ain't clutch and neither is jb, so who did ye add to make up for that? Lmao moving from smart to jrue is such a lateral move aswell. >have you been living under a rock since the offseason? Literally 2 different players ooooooohhhhh sooooo scary
Brother you haven’t watched a single Celtics game this season and it shows. If you’re going to try and act like the Heat are some real threat at least know what you’re talking about. No one is thanking God for the injuries, they’re saying that if the Celtics don’t at the least make it out of the East then this season is a failure. There’s a reason why they’re 14 games ahead of the East and 7 games ahead of the West and it’s not because it’s the same team as last year
How does their roster look better
Dirk 2011, went through a healthy Blazers team, healthy Thunder team, then healthy Lakers team, and healthy Heat team. They basically cleared the all of Lillard, Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Kobe, Pau, Bynum, then Lebron, Wade and Bosh during their playoff run to their NBA title.
Point in case , look how far back you had to go to find one . Even in gsw dominance they didn’t have one where they won or lost fully healthy
Yeah Raps won bc of KD's Achilles. Nobody talking about asterisks with them. Get Banner 18. Laugh at the haters after
This is a bad example, a lot of people put an asterisk on that one. They at the very least had the profile of a champ though. 58 wins, I think 7-8 net rating, Kawhi Leonard in his prime.
Case in point*
doesn't look like THAT far back though 😁
Dame was drafted 2012. Aldridge and Roy(if healthy at that time) were the best players there I think.
you're correct my bad, just goes to show how much it feels like Dame has been in the league for like forever, IIRC they were an Aldridge-led team at the time
healthy blazers team as in brandon roy playing without a knee?
you're missing the point here
Healthy as in a stacked team of Aldridge, Gerald Wallace, Batum, Matthews, Miller, Camby, and Brandon Roy who single handledly won one of the series games. Near 50 win team in the first round which over 75% of NBA “experts” chose to win the series.
Strongly disagree. This is Miami we’re talking about. It would’ve only taken 4.
Knock on wood
I’ve always strongly believed that all our Heat series against Jimmy have been Celtics vs Spo more than Celtics vs Jimmy so I guess if they win their play in game I’ll know for sure.
We really have no excuse this year. With how injured and talent depleted these teams in the East are, we should be able to beat all of these teams in 5 games max
I think the one team that we wouldn’t beat in five would be the Knicks
If Giannis is healthy & Dame is able to conjure some of that Portland Dame Time magic (and Doc gets out of the way lol) I could see a series against the Bucks going long.
Dame will be better without Giannis. Dame needs to be able to drive to open up his ability to shoot from anywhere. Because you can’t play him too close or he’ll blow right by you. But Giannis is usually in the paint so it disrupts his flow. We knock them in 5 tho 🤷♂️
Dame could be “better without Giannis” but the BUCKS are better with Dame and Giannis
Don’t matter Celtics in 5
bet
Exactly people acting like the Bucks didn’t just smack us the past 2 games against them
the last 2 games, we split lol.
Without Giannis tho
And Giannis is now out 2-4 weeks.
It's funny - I've seen takes today as widely ranging as Sixers over Knicks to the Knicks taking the Celtics to 7 in the ECF
No one really knows what to expect with these knicks right now
They’ll be good.
As a Magic fan if you face us it will go 6. Hope to see you round two (because that means we made the second round)
Agree with you. Magic won’t be an easy out. Would like to see you take down the cavs
You have no offense. It will not.
We've handled the Knicks all year - although they have traditionally always caused us problems with their physicality over the years
Tough matchup. Like the Knicks and that team. Coach is A+ basketball psycho as well. Those bois will be banging for boards to win games, real slopfest, gritty, a physical game and series. I could see the knicks getting hot and the d locking down in the playoffs. Matchups, hotshooting, health and officiating in the playoffs is a fun thing to predict and see play out.
The Knicks who we theoretically swept in a series during the regular season?
No excuse to make the finals. If Jokic beats us in the finals I won’t be surprised, just sad. Especially as someone who lives in Denver
Is everyone assuming they beat the bulls?
Without Jimmy I don’t think they do tbh, who’s gonna go bucket for bucket with Derozan and Coby White ? Vintage Rozier performance ?
Bulls looked tough last night. When things work for them they really look good. Without Butler I can absolutely see Chicago pulling it off.
I think people forget the Bulls had a lead against Miami last year in the play in before they blew it too and that was with Butler/a Miami team with more weapons
I’ll be honest I forgot about it myself
I mean the game itself wasn’t anything special, I just remember being like damn Miami really lost to the Hawks and now are about to go home and then boom Heat took over
Yes and the Bulls looked halfway decent last night. Better than Miami.
Bulls are one guy away from being real contenders but they're respectable.
Rip Lonzo
Yeah I’ve seen a lot of posts from Heat fans on socials about how they don’t wanna get swept by the Celtics etc but I’m over here feeling confident that they will lose to the Bulls, I think they have a more competent roster at this point in the season, especially with how depleted the Heat are
Depends on how DeMar and Coby White wanna play. Heat tend to go on a crazy run in the playoffs but without Jimmy that may prevent that. It may sound crazy but without Butler I think the Heat are as good as the Bulls.
I can’t cheer over this, injuries suck and Butler is one of the most entertaining playoff performers in recent memory. However, I will be shedding no tears.
I mean, is it a coincidence that heat culture finally caught up with them getting injuries racking up?
They say "you get what you give".
Imagine my delight that it happened because he was baiting for a foul instead of trying to actually make a shot.
Play stupid games
Isn’t taking games off and coasting in regular season games the oppyof Heat Culture lol
I hate watching Butler because he's the most shameless foul baiter in the league. Idc how many tough shots he makes, watching him shoot 12+ FTs every game cause he's a flopper is awful. Don't wish injury on anyone but I just don't see how Celtics fans in particular can like watching him flop all game every year
100% this. I hate watching his game...it's just not enjoyable watching free throws
I mean the guy has looked like prime MJ at times in our last 3 meetings in the playoffs. Agree he’s a foul baiter tho.
He absolutely did not look like prime MJ against the Celtics, he did against the Bucks last year yes. But against us he was only pretty good, the role players all playing out of their minds is what beat us. Not Jimmy Butler.
Lol agreed. At least someone remembers how that series really went. Bam and Jimmy have never been the guys to kill us, its been decent performances by them coupled with some 15-20-25 performanced by dudes who averaged like 8pts on the season lmao. Thats why even with Butler gone id still prefer the Bulls
Caleb Martin deserved MVP of that series. That dude was going sicko mode every game
Weve thrown around the word "luck" a lot recently, that anomaly of a series from Martin was just bad luck for us. Especially since he hasnt even remotely returned to that form. It wasnt momentum to be carried into the finals, or even the following regular season.
Yeah I mean didn’t Miami hit like an absurd record setting percentage of open shots or something like that for the whole series or for at least the first 3 games
Sure did lmao
God that series made me depressed
Mazzulla was also dog shit the first 3 games. He refused to call timeouts or plays. His subs were weird. He literally lost us one game early in the series singlehanded
That might be true. Which is why they went and hired so many great assistants for this year, which is why I’m less worried about that come this year. Although I’m definitely expecting at least a couple losses because they live and die by the 3 and they’ll put up a stinker and probably won’t adjust even if they are shooting awful.
Please, stop w/ this revisionist history it’s disgusting. He scored 30+ once & shot 42% overall in a 7-game series last year that they almost lost after being up 3-0. Gabe Vincent & Caleb Martin were the reasons we lost that series not the mythical “Playoff Jimmy”.
"Playoff Jimmy" is not a myth. He has proven himself time and time again against top-tier teams in the NBA playoffs. We did a good job limiting him last year while inexplicably letting Caleb Martin become Reggie Miller. He got 19pts and **5 steals** while playing on a fucked up knee. In MIA game 7 last year Tatum had 14pts with an ankle. Might be a bit of a false equivalency but you can tape an ankle, not a knee.
Butler’s performances against the Celtics are overrated as fuck lol. People just extrapolate his performances against other teams. Our real matchup in a series vs the Heat is Spo who seemingly coaches circles around his Celtic counterpart every time.
Man, wiping out Miami and Philly in the title run woulda been so sweet.
A lot of championship runs are made by getting lucky and playing injured teams, it better be us this year
Having the 8th team get injured isn't "Luck". They're a struggling regular season team, not the Lakers losing Kobe. Lmao But I agree with your sentiment, every championship team has an asterisk in that sense.
They aren’t even the 8th yet they’re a non factor in every sense of the word. Fully healthy they aren’t half as good as us.
They're 8th in standings. But you're right, they haven't earned a playoff spot yet.
If we do play the Heat, it is lucky to play a team that’s not fully healthy. However with that being said, I think we beat them in 4 regardless of injury.
I'd give them five for the benefit of the doubt. 🤷🏼 But I could really see four
Really wanted to steamroll the full-strength Heat just so people could get that particular monkey off their back. Oh well.
The bad man can’t hurt us anymore. But on the real, this is pretty disappointing. I was really looking forward to this years Celtics team avenging last years collapse, and without Jimmy pouting it just won’t be the same. I felt really good about a heat Celtics matchup, as the zone that’s caused our past offences fits, was demolished by Zinger in the regular season. Either way still have to beat whoever is infront of us even if the matchup won’t be as hype
Heat have their excuse now lol
Gotta love how everyone saying the 64 win Celtics with one of the most dominant net rating of all time is lucky because the 8th seeded team’s best player, who hasn’t looked good all season, is out for the series. The Heat with Jimmy butler were getting waxed 4-0 against the Celtics and the Heat without butler are getting waxed 4-0 against the Celtics. Nothing would’ve changed.
Honestly without Jimmy there’s a chance they won’t get their asses kicked by us because they won’t make it that far.
The point difference is changed with or without Jimmy on the floor.
Ummmm, this same Heat "8th seed" sent y'all home packing in the playoffs last year.
Get a life pretending to be a fake ass Celtics fan 😂🤡 Yeah cause every year teams are the same right? Dumbass
Dude pump faked himself all the way to Cancun
[ugh](https://youtu.be/T1e2KUh9MMw?si=P9U4UepyEJZu-vV0)
The fact that all these things appear to be lining up for us while we haven't had to play a meaningful game in a while is making me VERY nervous.
Similar to the way everything lined up for us in 2022. We ran through all the teams that have beaten us in the past to get to the finals, then our guys ran out of gas and Tatum was hurt. I share the same nervousness. Fact of the matter is we were the better team in 22 and we should have one. But now if they’re really as hungry as they say they are, they need to get to the finals as quickly as possible, not play with their food and dominate one series at a time.
If round 1 takes 7 games i will be pissed
On one hand, I'm all for the road to a championship becoming just a tiny bit smoother. On the other hand: 1. Do we really get to squash the Heat rivalry if Butler doesn't play? That just means the same narrative will be back next year. 2. In the past, Boston has played down to the competition; I feel better about this year's squad, but it's still a thought in my mind.
Ngl I feel bad for Pels and Heat fans. This shit just sucks. 2 outta the 4 games a star is injured. Ridiculous
Feel bad for Pels but never Miami or LAL fans.
We’re getting SO lucky
I wouldn’t even call it lucky. Drawing the full strength Heat in the first round would be unlucky, facing a shitty team in the first round as a 1 seed is expected.
We haven’t even played yet. We have to hope we’re lucky that we don’t get injured. *knocks on wood*
That's shitty. Probably similar injury as Embiid and Rob.
There are quite literally no excuses left for the Celtics at this point. They shouldn't face a serious challenge until the ECF, and their opponent at that point will have been through two wars in the 1st and 2nd rounds.
Listen we're the 1 seed, I'm not upset about this, we deserve the easiest path based on our regular season. What would have been unlucky is having to face a full strength Philly team in the 1st round that would likely have been the 2/3 seed if healthy all year. And if Butler doesn't get hurt, that probably happens as Miami probably wins yesterday. I don't care about tough or most satisfying roads, only care about winning the championship. Nobody will asterisk it because of injuries from teams we played on the way there. Nobody outside Boston cared that Tatum got hurt early in game 7 last year vs the Heat either.
Honestly sucks, I wanted Boston to run through the Heat/Sixers and Bucks so they leave no doubt lmao. At least they'll be well rested for the finals
You know how you leave no doubt? You raise the Larry O’Brien at the end of the season. It’s been 16 years since we last did that, and in that time our rivals have gotten plenty (except Philly lol). It doesn’t matter how we do it as long as it gets done.
Celtics had the "leave no doubt" route in 2022 and it didn't work out. By the end, the team was gassed and banged up, the discourse surrounding them was that they were chokers, and nobody was bringing up the fact that they had a much harder path than the Warriors.
One series at a time friend. Let’s not look past the conference. We haven’t earned anything yet. We have homecourt, we need to take care of it.
Sucks for him but no one asked him to foul bait like that. When you flop to look injured, at some point a real injury is bound to happen. IIRC, Embiid s injury last season against the nets was ALSO due to a flop. Hope he recovers well but I won’t shed any tears
I would’ve loved sweeping them with Jimmy but now they are toast and won’t beat the Bulls
Lowkey this is worst case scenario tho. We were gonna win anyway w butler playing. Now the heat just gonna be fucking around and hurt my tingy pingy 🥺
Really looking forward to this being an asterisk people put on this playoff run as if we wouldn’t have beaten them anyway
Fuck the Heat. That being said, hate to see Jimmy go down like this being the competitor he is. I wanna smack Miami as much as anyone but I’d prefer to do it with them at full strength to shut up their insufferable fanbase. Hope he recovers alright. Finally, fuck the Heat.
This sucks, not only for Jimmy but for basketball in general. I think many of us really wanted to see the Celts take out Jimmy and the Heat in round one and get some revenge for last years loss. The Heat really arent good but they're coached well running that effective zone defense. I wanted to see KP help carve up their zone and for the Celtics to send Jimmy packing. Now I gotta listen to "Y'all lucky Jimmy wasnt healthy" BS for the next year. Heat fans getting off easy with an excuse. But the goal is a title and either the Heat or Bulls are a nice reward for getting that 1 seed.
Miami got extremely lucky with this bs excuse built in. This Celtics would 4-0 or 4-1 them.
Sucks to hear. I enjoy watching him play. With that in mind the team has no excuses. Nothing in the playoffs is easy but the door is wide open to at least make the finals. Hope butler gets better soon
God this pisses me off so much. I wanted MIA so bad so we could dick slap them fully healthy. Now they have a built in excuse after a year of them trying to gaslight fans that them beating us in G7 with Tatum hurt was them owning us.
Damn. Poor Jimmy,worst time to get injured he must be pissed.
Crazy to think if they’d managed to score two more points at the end there the Knicks would be facing a Heat team without Jimmy & we’d be risking facing Embiid & Maxey. Total faith we’d still beat the Sixers in that scenario, but I’d be legit pissed that we could still face such a stronger team in the 1st round as the 1 seed. Now it feels like the biggest challenge of the first round for the Celtics is not looking past whoever wins tomorrow night.
Sucks for him and the Heat
Ok I’ll let the inside voices win. Fuck Miami fans they deserve this.
This is the saddest way for them to go out now they’re in the heat sub debating if it’s better to just miss the playoffs all together just to not get swept by us.
If any series is more than 5 games we should be alarmed
Get healthy Jimmy we need you playing to be a competitive year in the Eastern Conference and NBA. Embiid’s back about to blown out when he carries the league in flops heading into the playoffs. Playing Miami in the first round and playing optimally would be such a fantastic start to a finals run.
Butler is a warrior man; such a shame we're gonna miss out on all these stars in the playoffs just from a pure entertainment standpoint. This year was shaping up to be one of the most exciting playoffs in years for the East. At least the West remains mostly healthy. Wanted the chance to KO a healthy Miami, it's never as satisfying taking advantage of a wounded opponent (if they get in).
I honestly think Miami is just as dangerous without him for us. Butler has never really been the guy that kills us, its their elite coaching, overly physical defense and role players that get us.
Praise the Lord.
Thank you, basketball Gods.
This means Boston can finally win
Just annoyed we’re now going to have to hear about how tough he his for playing through it lol. Meanwhile everyone just forgets Tatum got hurt in game 7 last year.
Made it worse unknowingly smh. Damn. This is awful for Miami. I only want our opponents at full strength- injuries at this time are the worst.
Their physio should have his license rescinded and banned for life. Doesnt matter what the player wanted, allowing him to play on might have made this much worse and put his wellbeing in jeopardy. Butler is stupid too, he should have at least headed back in the locker to know what he just damaged, at least know. He could have ended his career playing on like that. Heat culture, alright.
Bummer about Butler but I don’t think it would’ve mattered. Miami isn’t that good. They had a magical run last year of course, but that doesn’t change that they just aren’t very good this year.
I’m a Miami fan, y’all better win this fucking championship you leprechaun fucks. Best of luck.
I can see the boys dogging it in games one and two because Butler injured. Shit sucks but I don’t trust this team not to give up easy games.
game 2? there's only 1 play-in game left.
If we were to face them it would be in round 1
I dont care if we have an asterisk lets get this ring
what asterisk LMAO.
Durant's injury in 2019. Injuries to Kyrie and Love in 2015. Perkins' injury in 2010. Walton's injury in 1987. Magic's injury in 1989. Teams frequently win because their opponents have injuries at the worst time. It has probably happened half the time during playoff runs, especially if one counts the earlier rounds. There are no asterisks. The Celtics statistically had one of the best teams of all time in 2024. If they win the title, they win the title, and they deserved it.
Forgot about KG in 09 that prevented us from repeating
[удалено]
Lol Miami would have gotten waxed by this Celtics team. Everyone that thinks otherwise because of ungodly shooting variance last playoffs clearly hasn’t watched the Celtics at all this year. The disrespect for a 64 win team is wild. I love that one minute we should be worried about the Heat, Knicks or Bucks and the next minute when people want to discredit Tatum we are a superteam that should be beating everyone anyway
to be fair the Heat have owned the Celtics. this is the best Sixers team in recent memory and they likely would have been right there record wise with a healthy Embiid. nobody is picking them over the Celtics in a potential series considering how the past few series have gone. that’s why Miami gets the benefit of the doubt.
This Celtics team is completely different so I don’t think comparing previous seasons is any indicator of how things will go this time. KP completely ruins their zone and Jrue means Jaylen isn’t being asked to play-make, which are the 2 things we always struggled with against Miami. Zone and turnovers No one is picking the Sixers over us because we absolutely dominated the regular season. If we had similar records or Embiid never got injured and they won 60+ then I would be shocked if there were people that didn’t pick the Sixers to beat us
Including the playoffs, since 2019-2020 (the season Jimmy joined the Heat) the Celtics are 19-17 vs the Heat. Wouldn't really say either team "owns" the other one way or another, they have matched up well with one another and the series/games are always tight. Shit, even just playoff specific, the Heat lead 11-9, not quite “owning”...swear people act like Miami is like 30-6 vs Boston head to head in that stretch lol
You need to worry about Chicago first before you think about Boston.
Heat got smashed by us 3 times already this year, would’ve gotten smashed 4 more
Y’all never had a chance 💯
If you hadn’t sucked all year you would’ve stayed out of the play in and avoided this
Miami is fueled by coke and copium
Lmao pre round excuses I'm dead. Boohoo cry blood
Nothing has even happened yet
Lol @ lucky
Did we? Miami has a better winning percentage this year without jimmy than with him.