The 2022 National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs Thread

They haven't already? ;)

outrageously, no

Celtics‘ Al Horford and Marcus Smart are out for Game 1 vs. Miami tonight. Horford is in health and safety protocols.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 17, 2022

eesh

wtffff

boo

hiss

wait this is horfords 3rd time this season??

yeah guess so hes said that hes vaxxed fwiw, idk what he up to in his spare time tho

hopefully they can get a couple good games out of rob here uhhh

Boston is prepared for the likely scenario of Al Horford remaining in the league’s Health and Safety Protocols through Game 2 on Thursday, sources said. https://t.co/QsWWjKDRcq

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 17, 2022

thies vs bam is def the sequel nobody wanted to see

postpone it imo

brutal

oh ffs

random thought but does jimmy dog it from 3 all reg season so teams leave him open in the playoffs to shoot?

he is crazy enough to do that

celtics came to play baby

was wondering which celtic who hasnt played in months was gonna get minutes tonight, its nesmith

i do not think jimmy is secretly a sharpshooter he's just a 33% guy. no clue why his % has been so low with miami

man pritchard is a pretty good rebounding guard

yeah good nose for the ball

celtics are so happy to not be seeing giannis and lopez in the lane lol

yes, this feels very very different so far

yeah its so different. one of the things i love about bball tons of matchup variety on the team level

excellent first half from the cs but i am very unsure about their decision to play drop with butler/herro coming off picks, im sure theyd be switching if marcus and horf were playing but still

those guys can kill you from midrange all day

with horf and marcus out they just dont have enough playmaking when tatum sits

One potentially worrisome number for the Celtics: Tatum played nearly 23 minutes in the first half. The 1:13 he sat was an utter disaster. Without Smart and Horford, Tatum could need to play a ton of minutes in this one.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) May 18, 2022

the fact that they're controlling this without 2 of their best 5 guys is a big deal but i expect it will get nip and tuck at some point in the second half

heat need to turn up the intensity they coasted through the first 2 rounds

celtics need to do a rebound

refs really letting their presence be felt this quarter

Heat should pretend every quarter is the 3rd

this is insane

good advice from coach spo at halftime to start playing defense

we need a live Stephen A. reaction box

i actually can't think of anything i want less than that

Cs have had the ball poked away from them approximately 30 times this quarter

^i was going to say a million times give or take

MIA +25 in the 3rd, holy cow

what a shot by Butler

congrats to the celtics for winning three of the four quarters

Jimmy has five 40 point games in the playoffs so far...0 in the regular season

That stretch where tatum lazily passed it to Jimmy in the lane a few times in a row was the killer.

between a single day off after that series and missing two starters celtics just didnt have enough juice

rob hobbling a little in q4… marcus wasn’t even able to test his sprain yesterday.. horf out who knows how long and hugging people yesterday etc … not good! they’ve managed without a key player here, a key player there.. but this is a lot

i thought that was one of those game ones where it's hard to figure out what if anything was significant moving forward. a lot of what happened on both sides just felt like stuff that isn't going to happen again. the celtics had 42 points in the paint in the first half which was two shy of the all time playoff record for one half, then dropped down to 6 paint points in the second half. in the third quarter the heat had their biggest scoring margin for one quarter (+25) in team playoff history. even in the fourth quarter when it felt like things where tightening up there was that stretch where the teams made like 8 consecutive threes. i didn't feel like the game ever found any sort of level. i feel like both teams can look at the other and say that they got major role player games that are unlikely to be repeated.

i think it's pretty obvious that the celtics rotation is stretched when nesmith is out there. and when pritchard is playing 30 minutes. brown and tatum sat for a total 9 minutes the entire game. the one thing that seemed clear is that the celtics defensive structure is compromised with both smart and horford out. things were way too easy for butler being able to pick on pritchard whenever he wanted, that feels like the one major adjustment we'll see in game 2 if smart is out again. udoka is going to have to come up with another plan i think, butler really kills shorter/smaller players because he can live in the post and easily get to the line.

from the heat's perspective, they've shown an ability in every home game so far in the playoffs to step on the gas in the second half and suddenly go up by like 15 points. they've had a lot of success turning teams over and getting out in transition at home. their margins of victory at home in the playoffs so far with butler playing are 24, 10, 14, 16, 35, and 11. i do think too most pundits were a bit too dismissive of the idea that butler could be the best player in the series, he's now averaging 30-8-5 on 54/35/84 shooting in the playoffs with his typically top shelf defense, he's just playing at a very very high level. most importantly i think he looks really healthy and athletic right now, he's playing above the rim, has real lift on his jumper, and even blocked a tatum three last night. but i do think that the celtics getting smart back and being able to only let jimmy see tatum/brown/smart/white as his primary defender is the next phase of the series. if jimmy can get to an efficient 30 in 4 or 5 of the remaining games then i think the heat have a real shot.

ultimately, i felt like the road map for the heat in this series was to split the first 4 games in some fashion and then win games 5 and 7. for the celtics, i felt like it was to split the first 4 games in some fashion and then win games 5 and 6. so unless either team is able to go up 3-1 i'm going to feel like this series is progressing pretty normally on a macro level. the screws will start to turn in games 5 and 6, i think.

ok dece analysis i'll allow it

it was a feeling out game. the heat were sleepy in the first half, and then turned on the intensity in a way that the celtics were obv not ready for. i think everyone should more or less find their level in game 2 forward and it really becomes all about when and if smart and horford can come back.

still think Cs win it but I wouldn't bet against Jimmy at this point

dont think the celtics are enough better to be favored down a game, especially without home court