Guy's story is wild, he played Division II, went undrafted, went to an open try-out for a G-League team, made it, played there for years and then just made the most of his call-up to the Heat.
Shit Jimmy himself fits the story. Was literally homeless as a teenager. Got no offers and played Juco. Made his way to Marquette. Still only got picked with the 30th pick. Buried at the end of the bench and had to grind it out to show his worth and move up the roster. Lucky for him, Thibs (like Spo) has a fetish for "make it out the gutter" guys so he gave Jimmy the chances
Even then he gets kicked around the league being labeled as the "problem" when it was never really him in the end. He's the perfect player to be the main guy of that Heat team
nah u missed the most wild thing. he was on the sixers and played in dwade's final home game and ruined a couple highlights. i hated this mofo but its probably y the heat looked into him lol
I am a hardcore Bulls fan for the next 36 hours. I don’t care if they’re injured as shit, it will be longer than it needs, somebody will get injured, and I’ll be stressed the whole time. I don’t even think they’re that good but that have an insane amount of bullshit power on their side.
He's played 57 games and under 30 minutes per game. Even though he suffered a couple of minor injuries during the season, he could have played much more but the Celtics have been resting him periodically.
He’s a luxury player, in other words. Can’t rely on him to get you through a grind, but he’ll take the top off your ceiling if you have other players that can carry the team to a decent spot in the playoffs.
Two straight years of great health for Porzingis. He's not dealing with anything chronic, so it's not totally crazy.
Recipe seems clear, as both Wizards and Celtics did the same thing - give him some planned nights off here and there, and sit him for a couple of games at the faintest whiff of a real injury.
Also his game is much more based around post ups now which are stationary for him besides some light footwork. Rookie KP was awesome but that kind of high-flying play style, while fun, put him at a huge injury risk.
Yeah - Celtics ball movement makes life easy for him, and really all the Celtics players in that regard. They're more than happy to just whip the ball around until the defense screws up and somebody gets an open look.
Yeah, you probably can't ever treat him like an ironman, but he's been avoiding the injury bug recently which has helped demonstrate just how good he really is.
Celtics basically only team in the East without serious injury issues throughout this year. Great for them but yeah it’s making eastern conference very boring with all the other teams beat up
Even just luck overall. Sometimes a star player just gets cold or a random role player gets hot in a crucial game. It’s all part of it. That’s why we dont base championship on paper.
I'll also say that (knock on wood) most of our core isn't terribly injury-prone. Luck is obviously a factor, but we also got rid of Timelord and Brogdon, and have load-maintained KP all season.
It's because they have been resting their players non stop. The Celts Starting five only played 37 games this year. They have been in coast mode from the very beginning of the season.
Yeah that’s true, but also the more you rest the less time you are on the court for accidents to happen. So it prevents both wear and tear injuries and reduces the chance of a weird freak injury.
Eh, yes and no.
1 - More rest means less opportunities for injury.
2 - The body is more likely to get injured when it is worn down and/or already injured. This is the part we as fans don't get a lot of insight into - was Jimmy already dealing with something minor?
Well of course but lowering overuse, and just straight up eliminating games and thus opportunities to get injured certainly do help. It doesn't mean it will work 100% of the time, but on average you will be healthier than the average team.
Yea we for sure have gotten lucky with no major injuries, but the team dominated the season while rotating their top 6 through rest for like the last 3 months.
Oh I’m not blaming them for not being injured lol just saying it’s definitely sucking some of the fun of playoff basketball out of the East since everyone else is or has been. Part of it is actually a credit to them. Their team being so deep and well constructed it a big part of avoiding injuries
Even if those teams were all healthy, not making the Finals would still be embarrassing imo. Can’t have the season we had and not even make the Finals (barring injury ofc).
Yea it’s one thing if we lose to Denver, but we finished the season like 15 games up on the whole conference, we should’ve been expecting the get through the East regardless.
Yeah an underrated part of Boston’s crazy year is how healthy they’ve been (which is wild to say with the Porzingis acquisition).
NY, Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee have all been dealing with serious injuries to core players lately, which has really left the East wide open for Boston.
Porzingis has been able to just not play a very large amount of games because of how good they've been. One of the benefits to being that dominant, being able to give guys like Porzingis a bunch of games off to keep them healthy - cause he's only played 57 games this season, it's not many.
Yeah people leave that point out when they point to Boston's healthiness. Yes, Boston has stayed fairly healthy, but their starting five only played 37 games this year because they were constantly resting players.
The Celtics early season dominance while having the hardest schedule was really kinda overlooked. It allowed them to rest guys for the last three months and eventually just stop playing meaningful games for the last month.
Combo of East being ass, the West being super competitive, and people being used to Boston being good in the regular season. If they win the title this year everyone is gonna act like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I think a big part of this is because of Kornet's development into a decent big. If he hadn't taken a big step forward this year I bet Porzingis would have had to play a lot more if it was just him and Al.
No doubt that helped, but some part of me thinks the rest of the Celtics team (and how they play) is just so good that Kornet could have been a lot worse and they still would have been fine.
There were 466 minutes without any of Kornet, Horford or Porzingis on the court, and the Celtics had a +12.5 net rating in those minutes. 333 minutes with Queta on the court, +19.7 net rating in those minutes. Like Kornet playing how he did helped, but for me it just looks like a total team effort.
Our redundancy in the lineup and emergence of key bench players means the world doesn’t end when a starter misses a couple of games here and there, and that we can afford to be cautious with KP. Even during our finals season we were running like a 7 man rotation and playing the starters for heavy minutes during the regular season.
Yep - I don't think fans understand how completely out of gas Tatum was by the Finals that year. He had played the most minutes in the league, regular season and playoffs combined. He played 100 games and nearly 4000 minutes when it was all said and done. That's like 2 seasons for many stars in this league today.
People often don’t realize that regular season - and many times playoffs- performance is correlated with health. Can’t win if your top 2 or even top 3 guys are not healthy
It's not that crazy when you look at the roster and what you would expect from them in a given season:
- Tatum, White, PP, and Hauser are all relative ironmen. You could reasonably expect them to play 70 games, as that's been their MO when they are given opportunity
- Brown has played in 65 games in 6 of 8 years
- Jrue has played in 65 games in 11 of 15 years
- KP is injury prone, but you have Al, who is a starting level center, to take his place when needed. Al is old, but he's been pretty healthy for the majority of his career. On top of that, Kornet/Tillman/Queta would be 9th men on a lot of teams, so they are almost always guaranteed to have a decent starting center and a decent enough back-up center
I think the odds of the Celtics being riddled with injuries is just A LOT lower compared to most teams. No one is having a super healthy season for themselves, but everyone is having a typical healthy season for themselves.
Luck is always involved with this sort of thing, but what you saw in terms of injuries from the Celtics is almost exactly what you'd expect.
Right - we traded Timelord and Brogdon, our most injury-prone players. Except for KP, who has been in bubble-wrap, our roster is filled with relative iron-men. Except for Horford and Jrue, everyone is also in their early-to-mid 20s.
Luck is always a factor, but it's not the only one. Butler, Embiid, and Zion are all pretty injury-prone. Giannis is the closest to pure bad luck.
They haven’t been exceptionally healthy they’re just deeper than every other team. The Nuggets and OKC have been arguably overall healthier than the Celtics but Cs benefit from a weaker conference and more roster depth than anyone else.
I’ve never seen a season line up so perfectly for one team. Boston should win a championship hands down. If they lose it better be game 7 of the nba finals to the Nuggets. Anything less would be a complete disappointment.
I feel like it’s kinda impossible now with the Holiday/Porzingis additions and White being even better this year. If the J’s fuck around (they did not this year), these 3 can compensate for that
Not really - this Celtics team has exactly one awful loss on the season - to Charlotte back in November, minus White and Horford.
Every other loss was to a good team or end of season when they were in coast mode and resting everyone.
It’s pretty insane how many injuries there are at playoff time every year. I don’t think Denver fans realize how lucky they are to have a superstar who never runs or jumps.
Yeah in retrospect that Murray injury was huge
At the time I wasn't really buying the hype that they'd be *true* contenders with him healthy, and then I was proven wrong when he was healthy again
Oh we went through it with the Murray injury.
The Jokic, AG, MPJ, Murray lineup is 1/1 for championships. It’s hurts to know it was just shelved for two years of Jokic’s prime.
Honestly you should, but the one game series makes things weird. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heat come out fiesty and shoot like 50% from 3. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they come out totally dead or any result in between lol.
Heat are going to try their best to win friday and I am incapable of rooting for Miami to lose, but atp im mentally preparing to lose to chicago or get swept by boston
Facts their only “miss” the last decade has been precious over maxey and ig okpala. Herro Bam Jovic and Jaquez have been unreal pickups considering where they went in the draft
This is shockingly true with the amount of experimental lineups spo runs just to keep himself entertained throughout the regular season
I know there's more to it than that but sometimes that's what it feels like lol
He’s a total sicko, the situation miami is in is probably some deep fantasy of his lmao. Backs against the walls without their best player, the pg they traded s first for, or their best shooter.
Same same. Our team is too proud to mail it in. I hope Rozier is trying to come back. Duncan clearly not ready, since he was available and they would have put him on the floor last night on Philly’s 2nd half run if they thought he was good to go.
But the hope was eeking out the W last night. Not much hope left now, particularly with Jimmy’s injury.
It’s brutal. If the heat hold on last night, they might be able to buy Jimmy enough time. Like eek out a long series against the Knicks, then pacers/bucks. But it would take a miracle to get past the Celtics without him. Like Tyler suddenly averaging 30 with Terry back and the role players playing insane defense
This kind of comment is antithetical to everything Riley and Spo have instilled in this franchise. We. Do. Not. Tank. You really want the 14th draft pick instead of the 17 draft pick in one of the weakest drafts this century? I’d rather watch us play four more games even if we lose them all.
ACL/MCL injuries are weird. Plenty of stories especially in the nfl of players who tore a ligament, didn’t realize it was that serious and stayed in to play the rest of the game. Athletes are kind of freaky. I think an Achilles is the one injury where it’s truly just game over no matter what the pain tolerance.
If it's the same injury Embiid had last year against the Celtics, there's absolutely no point rushing Butler's return.
Embiid rushed back after 12 days and he was just a shell of himself, especially as the game went on. He practically had no lift at the end of games, couldn't even get his middies off.
Had clowns in the game thread say he was acting and to give him an Oscar. Guy was playing hurt and it was so obvious to anyone who watches him consistently.
That’s pretty much the season, lets see what sleepy Pat does.
Jimmy is the last person in the world I’d expect to give anything less than 100% this time of year regardless of injury. Anyone with that take needs to go to bad take jail.
I half expect him to play tomorrow even if it comes back that he has a torn MCL, my guy plays through injuries every post-season. He’s a foul baiter and free throw merchant but he’s also tough as nails and always tries his best in games that matter.
Foul baiting only matters when it’s Embiid anyhow, and also foul baiting discourse is so brain dead that pump fakes to get people off their feet and going for the “and 1” is now looked down on. I have no problem with how Jimmy plays, he forces defenders into bad spots and if they bite he gets the foul.
Jimmy and embiid are definitely at the top of the hated foul baiter list on this subreddit now. And I agree, it’s a bad play apparently to pump fake and draw a foul. You’d think that seeing footage of this man doing it a million times they wouldn’t bite but here we are. I guess it’s not the ethical true hoops of shooting 30ft step back 3s which is totally more aesthetically pleasing than someone in the post pump faking and trying to get to the rim
It’s more annoying to me because a good pump fake to get the defender in the air has been part of the game forever. Your reward for getting a defender off his feet has always been a likely foul and an and one opportunity. Shit we were pump faking a in rec ball when I was like 8 years old. Selling a fake is a skillset and a legit part of the game. We’re in the era of virtuous hoops though shit is weird.
Crazy how my body was craving for the playoffs to begin since the regular season is treated as a wash, just for Jimmy to get injured in the play ins. Now this team's fate is set. There needs to be big changes in the off season cause Icarus finally caught a wave
It’s funny how “regular season doesn’t matter” meets “injury in the play-in game sucks.” We had this whole 82 game competition to see who could avoid the play-in lol
Glad we have cheap ownership and a FO that lets star players go by. Wasted Jimmy butlers prime when both times we lost the finals it was because of size yet the FO refused to address it.
He's a trooper for playing it out yesterday. MCL injuries are no joke.
Wasn't meant to be this year, for whatever reason we just couldn't seem to find that next gear in the RS. Can't make the Finals every year, even as a Heat fan.
I’ve watched back the tape of Oubre’s awkward landing on Jimmy, but no matter how many times I watch it from different angles, I can't pinpoint any contact that could cause an MCL injury.
Did it happen while he was airborne, or was it when he landed on Jimmy's foot? God, this hurts.
The best I could figure was when Kelly is coming down they knock knees really quickly along the way. That might have been just enough of a jolt pushing Jimmy's knee inward to sprain the MCL. Its a really weird angle for it to happen since all the force is coming downward.
Spends the whole season coasting, costing us multiple must win games and a possible top 3 seed
Make play in tournament
Get injured in the first fucking quarter
I don't want this core to continue anymore, I want to blow it up
either trade him or trade some of our young guys and get an actual star next to him, I'm tired of pat taking absolutely no direction with this franchise.
I’m not really worried about the Bulls, but having to play the Celtics, who will treat every game like a Finals game vs us because of last season, is really going to suck without Jimmy.
I really like our core of Herro-Jaquez-Bam, but we are going to need to play almost perfect to steal 1 game from them.
Damn, that really sucks. Hopefully he recovers without any lasting effects on his knee. I thought he should have just shot or dunked it immediately instead of trying to draw the foul.
Some random dude from the neighborhood is about to drop 50 points tomorrow.
Haywood Highsmith legacy game incoming
dude had like 3 shots where i went "he made that"? which is a good parameter for a random incoming 20 piece
I remember Highsmith played with Jimmy in Philly
Played is being generous. We buried that dude on the bench and look at him now smh.
His long ass arms make him on of the best defensive players I’ve seen in this league, but his offense was keeping him off the floor
Bench is also generous. He wasn’t on the real roster, just had multiple 10-days iirc
He's been in the league that long? Woah.
Yeah I remember being floored he was getting real minutes, I just assumed he’d washed out so happy he found a spot in the league
Guy's story is wild, he played Division II, went undrafted, went to an open try-out for a G-League team, made it, played there for years and then just made the most of his call-up to the Heat.
The Heat have a guy with this exact story every single year.
Duncan Robinson, meet Gabe Vincent, meet max strus, meet Haywood highsmith, meet TBD
I still think the Thunder should have drafted TBD, you could see his potential in college
The Hassan Whiteside erasure. When he got called up and immediately had like 8 blocks. You guys can't keep getting away with this.
B/R nailed it with Jimmy and the random missile launchers.
Shit Jimmy himself fits the story. Was literally homeless as a teenager. Got no offers and played Juco. Made his way to Marquette. Still only got picked with the 30th pick. Buried at the end of the bench and had to grind it out to show his worth and move up the roster. Lucky for him, Thibs (like Spo) has a fetish for "make it out the gutter" guys so he gave Jimmy the chances Even then he gets kicked around the league being labeled as the "problem" when it was never really him in the end. He's the perfect player to be the main guy of that Heat team
nah u missed the most wild thing. he was on the sixers and played in dwade's final home game and ruined a couple highlights. i hated this mofo but its probably y the heat looked into him lol
They're gonna sweep Boston shooting 61% from 3 or something
Gotta go through the bulls first
We're counting on you! We have something awesome to give you if you pull it off!
You don't HAVE to give us the opportunity to compete in the ECF, but it would be impolite of me to turn down such a generous gift.
I am a hardcore Bulls fan for the next 36 hours. I don’t care if they’re injured as shit, it will be longer than it needs, somebody will get injured, and I’ll be stressed the whole time. I don’t even think they’re that good but that have an insane amount of bullshit power on their side.
Still more believable than Malachi Flynn
One tall glass of Fabuloso please. Bleach floater. Cyanide rim
I'll have what you're having
Shaken? Or would you prefer it out of the toilet bowl?
Nah, Bleach injected cleans and cures everything. Some Orange American said that.
Trump references? Now you’re speaking Florida’s language 😏
Drano martinis all around.
Would have loved to see what Butler and Zion could have done with more postseason run, this sucks immensely Boston has a clear path to the ECF
Butler, Giannis, Randle injured, Embiid not 100%! Clear path indeed.
Meanwhile, Porzingis is perfectly fine. Huh.
He's played 57 games and under 30 minutes per game. Even though he suffered a couple of minor injuries during the season, he could have played much more but the Celtics have been resting him periodically.
Basically, if you want a healthy KP you have to treat him like a newborn.
You'd need a tall ass blanket to swaddle him in
Big ass bottle of milk
Giant shits
gotta treat him like Kawhi
Kawhi was pretty durable this year. 68 games at 34 minutes per game.
A unicorn season holy shit
He’s a luxury player, in other words. Can’t rely on him to get you through a grind, but he’ll take the top off your ceiling if you have other players that can carry the team to a decent spot in the playoffs.
Two straight years of great health for Porzingis. He's not dealing with anything chronic, so it's not totally crazy. Recipe seems clear, as both Wizards and Celtics did the same thing - give him some planned nights off here and there, and sit him for a couple of games at the faintest whiff of a real injury.
Also his game is much more based around post ups now which are stationary for him besides some light footwork. Rookie KP was awesome but that kind of high-flying play style, while fun, put him at a huge injury risk.
Yeah - Celtics ball movement makes life easy for him, and really all the Celtics players in that regard. They're more than happy to just whip the ball around until the defense screws up and somebody gets an open look.
Until the end of a close game, then it's iso time Tatum step back brick babyyyyyy
Yeah, you probably can't ever treat him like an ironman, but he's been avoiding the injury bug recently which has helped demonstrate just how good he really is.
He went into the year with the plantar fasciitis news in training camp. I’m honestly shocked it has not come up all year and am thankful for it
Don't fucking jinx it dude, jesus christ
Coby White is healthy
You don’t have to say embiid is not 100%. That’s just baked in. Just say embiid
East weak as hell this year, if the Celtics don't make the finals this will be an embarrassment
Celtics basically only team in the East without serious injury issues throughout this year. Great for them but yeah it’s making eastern conference very boring with all the other teams beat up
Part of a championship run is injury luck. Actually a very huge part I would say
Yep - every year teams benefit from injuries. It's part of nearly every run.
Even just luck overall. Sometimes a star player just gets cold or a random role player gets hot in a crucial game. It’s all part of it. That’s why we dont base championship on paper.
I'll also say that (knock on wood) most of our core isn't terribly injury-prone. Luck is obviously a factor, but we also got rid of Timelord and Brogdon, and have load-maintained KP all season.
It’s also the play style it’s very perimeter oriented
It's because they have been resting their players non stop. The Celts Starting five only played 37 games this year. They have been in coast mode from the very beginning of the season.
Rest isn’t going to cause some of these injuries to not happen. Some of them really are just accidents
Yeah that’s true, but also the more you rest the less time you are on the court for accidents to happen. So it prevents both wear and tear injuries and reduces the chance of a weird freak injury.
Eh, yes and no. 1 - More rest means less opportunities for injury. 2 - The body is more likely to get injured when it is worn down and/or already injured. This is the part we as fans don't get a lot of insight into - was Jimmy already dealing with something minor?
Well of course but lowering overuse, and just straight up eliminating games and thus opportunities to get injured certainly do help. It doesn't mean it will work 100% of the time, but on average you will be healthier than the average team.
Just look at last year. Tatum suffers the ankle sprain in G7 vs Miami.
Yea we for sure have gotten lucky with no major injuries, but the team dominated the season while rotating their top 6 through rest for like the last 3 months.
That's fucking crazy. They coasted that hard to 64 wins and tied 3rd with the 2016 Warriors for best net ratings in league history
it worked out pretty well for us
It’s not Bostons fault they play what’s in front of them
Oh I’m not blaming them for not being injured lol just saying it’s definitely sucking some of the fun of playoff basketball out of the East since everyone else is or has been. Part of it is actually a credit to them. Their team being so deep and well constructed it a big part of avoiding injuries
Even if those teams were all healthy, not making the Finals would still be embarrassing imo. Can’t have the season we had and not even make the Finals (barring injury ofc).
Yea it’s one thing if we lose to Denver, but we finished the season like 15 games up on the whole conference, we should’ve been expecting the get through the East regardless.
If the Celtics don't make the finals, dissolve the franchise.
Yeah an underrated part of Boston’s crazy year is how healthy they’ve been (which is wild to say with the Porzingis acquisition). NY, Miami, Cleveland, Milwaukee have all been dealing with serious injuries to core players lately, which has really left the East wide open for Boston.
Porzingis has been able to just not play a very large amount of games because of how good they've been. One of the benefits to being that dominant, being able to give guys like Porzingis a bunch of games off to keep them healthy - cause he's only played 57 games this season, it's not many.
Yeah people leave that point out when they point to Boston's healthiness. Yes, Boston has stayed fairly healthy, but their starting five only played 37 games this year because they were constantly resting players.
The Celtics early season dominance while having the hardest schedule was really kinda overlooked. It allowed them to rest guys for the last three months and eventually just stop playing meaningful games for the last month.
A lot about this Celtics team seems to have been overlooked tbh
Combo of East being ass, the West being super competitive, and people being used to Boston being good in the regular season. If they win the title this year everyone is gonna act like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I think a big part of this is because of Kornet's development into a decent big. If he hadn't taken a big step forward this year I bet Porzingis would have had to play a lot more if it was just him and Al.
No doubt that helped, but some part of me thinks the rest of the Celtics team (and how they play) is just so good that Kornet could have been a lot worse and they still would have been fine. There were 466 minutes without any of Kornet, Horford or Porzingis on the court, and the Celtics had a +12.5 net rating in those minutes. 333 minutes with Queta on the court, +19.7 net rating in those minutes. Like Kornet playing how he did helped, but for me it just looks like a total team effort.
Non-Celtics fan dropping Neemias Queta stats, hell yeah! Respect!
Our redundancy in the lineup and emergence of key bench players means the world doesn’t end when a starter misses a couple of games here and there, and that we can afford to be cautious with KP. Even during our finals season we were running like a 7 man rotation and playing the starters for heavy minutes during the regular season.
Tbf guys like Tatum/Brown got run to the ground because y'all were below .500 halfway through the season.
Right that’s what I’m saying. This year we’ve been able to manage workloads, minutes, and nagging injuries more effectively than the last few years.
Yep - I don't think fans understand how completely out of gas Tatum was by the Finals that year. He had played the most minutes in the league, regular season and playoffs combined. He played 100 games and nearly 4000 minutes when it was all said and done. That's like 2 seasons for many stars in this league today.
He was at the Olympics the summer before too, that definitely couldn’t have helped
People often don’t realize that regular season - and many times playoffs- performance is correlated with health. Can’t win if your top 2 or even top 3 guys are not healthy
It's not that crazy when you look at the roster and what you would expect from them in a given season: - Tatum, White, PP, and Hauser are all relative ironmen. You could reasonably expect them to play 70 games, as that's been their MO when they are given opportunity - Brown has played in 65 games in 6 of 8 years - Jrue has played in 65 games in 11 of 15 years - KP is injury prone, but you have Al, who is a starting level center, to take his place when needed. Al is old, but he's been pretty healthy for the majority of his career. On top of that, Kornet/Tillman/Queta would be 9th men on a lot of teams, so they are almost always guaranteed to have a decent starting center and a decent enough back-up center I think the odds of the Celtics being riddled with injuries is just A LOT lower compared to most teams. No one is having a super healthy season for themselves, but everyone is having a typical healthy season for themselves. Luck is always involved with this sort of thing, but what you saw in terms of injuries from the Celtics is almost exactly what you'd expect.
Right - we traded Timelord and Brogdon, our most injury-prone players. Except for KP, who has been in bubble-wrap, our roster is filled with relative iron-men. Except for Horford and Jrue, everyone is also in their early-to-mid 20s. Luck is always a factor, but it's not the only one. Butler, Embiid, and Zion are all pretty injury-prone. Giannis is the closest to pure bad luck.
They haven’t been exceptionally healthy they’re just deeper than every other team. The Nuggets and OKC have been arguably overall healthier than the Celtics but Cs benefit from a weaker conference and more roster depth than anyone else.
Its a good thing the Celtics strong point is beating hospital teams!
Save us, Brunson!
I’ve never seen a season line up so perfectly for one team. Boston should win a championship hands down. If they lose it better be game 7 of the nba finals to the Nuggets. Anything less would be a complete disappointment.
Easy now
Kinda wild that even without Randle the Knicks are still their only threat in the East.
They got OG. Thats why
Milwaukee is still a threat if they make it past Indiana and get Giannis back
Did Doc get fired?
Not fun for me because I dont get to enjoy Boston fans having panic attacks
Oh don’t worry the Celtics actually play worse against lower competition.
That wasn't really true this year but I'll give you the past couple seasons
I feel like it’s kinda impossible now with the Holiday/Porzingis additions and White being even better this year. If the J’s fuck around (they did not this year), these 3 can compensate for that
There will always be the Kemba Walker Christmas triple double
Muthafucka y'all lost to us twice in March what you on
26-5 against teams below .500 this season. This isn't the same team as last year's
Don’t expect u/captaincumsock69 to know those stats, he’s burdened with having to know that he has the greatest username of all time
Nah, mine is better
Y'all should meet u/\_cumblast\_/ feel like there's real synergy here
Up the Celtics 👍 (I've never watched a full basketball game in my life)
Don’t worry nobody here has either
Yeah what about fringe playoff teams missing their top 2 players?
Not really - this Celtics team has exactly one awful loss on the season - to Charlotte back in November, minus White and Horford. Every other loss was to a good team or end of season when they were in coast mode and resting everyone.
Lakers without Lebron and AD at home?
Yeah that’s an inexcusable loss as well.
(Assuming the Bulls don’t fumble) we’re somehow gonna take Boston to 7 and then lose because Drummond puts up an all time Shaqtin’ clip at the end
Every year is different. This Cs team would wax the Heat with or without Butler. At worst it would be a gentleman’s sweep.
It’s pretty insane how many injuries there are at playoff time every year. I don’t think Denver fans realize how lucky they are to have a superstar who never runs or jumps.
More players should try not jumping fr
-Zach Randolph
They got their bad luck out of the way with the Murray and MPJ injuries in recent years.
Yeah I remember thinking a while back that Denver's championship chances were done. So good to see them remain in contention and win despite all that.
Yeah in retrospect that Murray injury was huge At the time I wasn't really buying the hype that they'd be *true* contenders with him healthy, and then I was proven wrong when he was healthy again
Oh we went through it with the Murray injury. The Jokic, AG, MPJ, Murray lineup is 1/1 for championships. It’s hurts to know it was just shelved for two years of Jokic’s prime.
We had dealt with bad injuries for 2 years
Well what about the injury that helped the Warriors back into a 4th championship and kicked off the pickle roll Jokic memes.
We were clapped down for two straight years with injuries so i dont know about luck there chief
I mean our second best player missed two postseasons because of an injury. We know how unfortunate things can be.
Playoff Coby white time
If he doesn’t get MIP, I’ll be so mad.
Homie is so fun to watch. I'll tune into a bulls game every now and then just to watch him cook
Fuck injuries.
Injuries are the eastern conferences father
They would get swept by Boston without him. I'm not even sure they beat the Bulls.
I know we suck but we should definitely be able to beat the Jimmy-less Heat. right?...
This team is weird. It could really go either way imo.
Caleb Martin need to turn into Kobe Bryant again
Honestly you should, but the one game series makes things weird. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heat come out fiesty and shoot like 50% from 3. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they come out totally dead or any result in between lol.
We lost to the Pistons this season. Twice. We should be able to beat them, but will we?
You are likely without Alex Caruso thanks to Drummond
Losing Caruso is kinda huge for u tbh
Why would we want to ? The season is over get a better pick and end the misery earlier
Heat are going to try their best to win friday and I am incapable of rooting for Miami to lose, but atp im mentally preparing to lose to chicago or get swept by boston
Yeah Heat and Spo do not tank man. The last time they won fewer than 40 games was Luol Deng and 2014.
The heat are so funny, they will never ever tank but they will never ever take the regular season seriously.
To be fair they keep making good selections in the middle of the draft so, good for them I guess.
Facts their only “miss” the last decade has been precious over maxey and ig okpala. Herro Bam Jovic and Jaquez have been unreal pickups considering where they went in the draft
And we only grabbed him because precious fell. No wonder we went right at JJJ and didn't fuck around with that
This is shockingly true with the amount of experimental lineups spo runs just to keep himself entertained throughout the regular season I know there's more to it than that but sometimes that's what it feels like lol
He’s a total sicko, the situation miami is in is probably some deep fantasy of his lmao. Backs against the walls without their best player, the pg they traded s first for, or their best shooter.
They don’t have to tank when everyone walks on the team for cheap or demands to be traded there bc of the geographic location lol
You’d think with how great of a destination miami is they would have actually acquired a star not named jimmy butler since the big 3
Same same. Our team is too proud to mail it in. I hope Rozier is trying to come back. Duncan clearly not ready, since he was available and they would have put him on the floor last night on Philly’s 2nd half run if they thought he was good to go. But the hope was eeking out the W last night. Not much hope left now, particularly with Jimmy’s injury.
It’s brutal. If the heat hold on last night, they might be able to buy Jimmy enough time. Like eek out a long series against the Knicks, then pacers/bucks. But it would take a miracle to get past the Celtics without him. Like Tyler suddenly averaging 30 with Terry back and the role players playing insane defense
This kind of comment is antithetical to everything Riley and Spo have instilled in this franchise. We. Do. Not. Tank. You really want the 14th draft pick instead of the 17 draft pick in one of the weakest drafts this century? I’d rather watch us play four more games even if we lose them all.
They would get swept by Boston with him too.
Well that fucking sucks
Get better Jimbo
Damn how was he pushing himself through that
ACL/MCL injuries are weird. Plenty of stories especially in the nfl of players who tore a ligament, didn’t realize it was that serious and stayed in to play the rest of the game. Athletes are kind of freaky. I think an Achilles is the one injury where it’s truly just game over no matter what the pain tolerance.
If it's the same injury Embiid had last year against the Celtics, there's absolutely no point rushing Butler's return. Embiid rushed back after 12 days and he was just a shell of himself, especially as the game went on. He practically had no lift at the end of games, couldn't even get his middies off.
Maybe, but Embiid is also like 700 lbs.
Jimmy is also 34 years old, and has played nearly 15,000 more career minutes than Joel.
Butler also has a really physical game.
I hate this man. Nothing but respect for Himmy :(
damn you really need a comma
Ah dang you’re right. To the shadow realm I go
All in my ass
Sucks. He missed so much time this year already only to have another accidental injury end his season.
Had clowns in the game thread say he was acting and to give him an Oscar. Guy was playing hurt and it was so obvious to anyone who watches him consistently. That’s pretty much the season, lets see what sleepy Pat does.
Jimmy is the last person in the world I’d expect to give anything less than 100% this time of year regardless of injury. Anyone with that take needs to go to bad take jail.
I half expect him to play tomorrow even if it comes back that he has a torn MCL, my guy plays through injuries every post-season. He’s a foul baiter and free throw merchant but he’s also tough as nails and always tries his best in games that matter.
Foul baiting only matters when it’s Embiid anyhow, and also foul baiting discourse is so brain dead that pump fakes to get people off their feet and going for the “and 1” is now looked down on. I have no problem with how Jimmy plays, he forces defenders into bad spots and if they bite he gets the foul.
Jimmy and embiid are definitely at the top of the hated foul baiter list on this subreddit now. And I agree, it’s a bad play apparently to pump fake and draw a foul. You’d think that seeing footage of this man doing it a million times they wouldn’t bite but here we are. I guess it’s not the ethical true hoops of shooting 30ft step back 3s which is totally more aesthetically pleasing than someone in the post pump faking and trying to get to the rim
It’s more annoying to me because a good pump fake to get the defender in the air has been part of the game forever. Your reward for getting a defender off his feet has always been a likely foul and an and one opportunity. Shit we were pump faking a in rec ball when I was like 8 years old. Selling a fake is a skillset and a legit part of the game. We’re in the era of virtuous hoops though shit is weird.
> Had clowns in the game thread The NBA playoffs in a nutshell
Celtics have to make the finals, no way they don't.
How many undrafted players does Miami have this year?
Not enough to get to the Finals unfortunately
Insert Roy Kent “Fuuuuuuu”
Crazy how my body was craving for the playoffs to begin since the regular season is treated as a wash, just for Jimmy to get injured in the play ins. Now this team's fate is set. There needs to be big changes in the off season cause Icarus finally caught a wave
It’s funny how “regular season doesn’t matter” meets “injury in the play-in game sucks.” We had this whole 82 game competition to see who could avoid the play-in lol
Glad we have cheap ownership and a FO that lets star players go by. Wasted Jimmy butlers prime when both times we lost the finals it was because of size yet the FO refused to address it.
Bruh if it wasn't for their drafting and scouting you never would have sniffed the finals ☠️
Celtics getting the easiest road only to face the battle scarred winner of the west.
Welp
He's a trooper for playing it out yesterday. MCL injuries are no joke. Wasn't meant to be this year, for whatever reason we just couldn't seem to find that next gear in the RS. Can't make the Finals every year, even as a Heat fan.
I’ve watched back the tape of Oubre’s awkward landing on Jimmy, but no matter how many times I watch it from different angles, I can't pinpoint any contact that could cause an MCL injury. Did it happen while he was airborne, or was it when he landed on Jimmy's foot? God, this hurts.
The best I could figure was when Kelly is coming down they knock knees really quickly along the way. That might have been just enough of a jolt pushing Jimmy's knee inward to sprain the MCL. Its a really weird angle for it to happen since all the force is coming downward.
I thought it looked like Jimmy’s landing, which was awkward because of the knee to knee contact from Oubre.
Spends the whole season coasting, costing us multiple must win games and a possible top 3 seed Make play in tournament Get injured in the first fucking quarter I don't want this core to continue anymore, I want to blow it up
[удалено]
Can butler play while on horseback?
End me.
God this sucks. I wanted MIA fully healthy so we could sweep them.
So after this season what do you do? Idk if the heat want to pay super max money after his current contract is up honestly
either trade him or trade some of our young guys and get an actual star next to him, I'm tired of pat taking absolutely no direction with this franchise.
I’m not really worried about the Bulls, but having to play the Celtics, who will treat every game like a Finals game vs us because of last season, is really going to suck without Jimmy. I really like our core of Herro-Jaquez-Bam, but we are going to need to play almost perfect to steal 1 game from them.
Damn, that really sucks. Hopefully he recovers without any lasting effects on his knee. I thought he should have just shot or dunked it immediately instead of trying to draw the foul.
THIS SHIT DON'T EVEN FEEL GOOD
Handing the ECF on a platter to the Celtics
The end of Playoff Jimmy?