Jump to content

Hawks/Celtics Zach Lowe Analysis


Guest

Recommended Posts

ESPN article by Zach Lowe posted earlier today provides some pretty sound analysis of the impact of Bradley's injury on Boston's chances of advancing.   Lowe seems to get it far more than the other ESPN fanboys!

"Not all of this stems from the loss of Bradley, but a lot of it does. It's ironic that this is happening against Atlanta, a better version of Boston that experienced something similar during the death spiral of their dream season last year. The ultimate greater-than-the-sum-of-its parts team fell apart when a couple of those parts -- and not even the main ones -- fell away."

Full article found here:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15278135/the-celtics-out-loss-avery-bradley

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Quote

 

They (Horford and Milsap) are versatile enough for Atlanta to play any style, against any opponent. The Hawks are unbothered by your small-ball gimmickry. Amp up the perimeter talent around them just a bit, and Atlanta could be a great team. But that's a conversation for the offseason -- a conversation about cap space, trade assets, and whether Schröder might one day pop.

That offseason appears to be at least a couple of weeks away. This Boston team fights like hell, believes in itself, and plays together. They're going home now. They won't roll over. But at something less than full health, they're fighting from way behind.

 

 

Kevin, are you paying attention? (...hehe...)

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
43 minutes ago, capstone21 said:

It is an interesting read but Avery Bradley is not the major difference maker that hinges the Celtics success.  I think he is a decent player but he will not make or break their season.

He's their second leading scorer and best defender... who do they have that can substitute his production on both ends? Of course its a major loss for them. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I dunno, cap. I think Lowe makes the point that he's not that great individually, but that there is a domino effect that results from his absence that is especially dooming, given what they have to resort to. It does make some sense (to me anyway).

Thing is... we beat them up for the first 8 minutes or so, but then if I recall correctly, we only eclipsed a 20 point lead one more time during the game. It felt like we expended a lot of energy in the last 3 quarters w/o any clear advantage on them.

Arguing the other side, that might have been Milsap's worst offensive game all year, and we still won by double-digits. If he has anything closer to his norm, seems we run away with it after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if they did an analysis of us not having Thabo last year, or Millsap's shoulder injury. 

Injuries for other teams seems get the talk and analysis but not the Hawks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its so sickening that for almost a decade we be been making the post season but as soon as the avg fan hears or sees the name hawks.. they have this ultra negative"this team is garbage never accomplished treadmill team worth a sack of.........  ". My question  is why? . Why don't we get the respect. ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, hawkzlova123 said:

Its so sickening that for almost a decade we be been making the post season but as soon as the avg fan hears or sees the name hawks.. they have this ultra negative"this team is garbage never accomplished treadmill team worth a sack of.........  ". My question  is why? . Why don't we get the respect. ?

I, like many of you I suspect, am a native Atlantan.  So I have some possible explanations but all of them leave a bad taste in my mouth.  In no particular order:

1)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for my last post, I am slow in getting up to speed with this system!  

So I will start over and try to share my thoughts.

I, like many of you I suspect, am a native Atlantan.  So I have some possible explanations but all of them leave a bad taste in my mouth.  I also do not claim to have data to support my thoughts.  In no particular order:

1)  I think that Atlanta while a top 10 US market by most any measure is populated more than most large cities by transplants.  Since loyalty to a sports team (especially pro teams) often begins during childhood, not many residents are huge Atlanta fans.

2)  Atlanta's pro teams have largely moved to ATL in the past 50 years.  So love of a particular team has not been passed down through generations like in many large older cities.   We don't have a lot of history we can point to with pride.

3)  College sports (esp. football) is bigger in the South than in most areas of the country and takes top of mind more often than ATL pro teams.

4)  The lack of success (championships) by ATL sports teams, does not place ATL teams in the spotlight in most parts of the country.

5)  With a couple of exceptions (H. Aaron, D. Wilkins maybe), ATL has not had any superstars on their teams (at least during those players prime years).  This again tends to reduce the attention paid to ATL teams.

6)  ATL has not traditionally been a large media center.

7)  Being in the South provides better weather for longer periods of the year for outdoor activities which leads to people being more active and therefore less likely to participate in spectator sports.

When these things are taken together, I have to admit, I am not surprised by the lack of respect.  I am of course disappointed by it. 

Hopefully, a few deep playoff runs by the Hawks over the next few years will change attitudes.  But frankly, it is going to be hard to make this happen.  We can only hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've said my piece before on this but I will again. Bradley being hurt doesn't hurt the Celtics defense, but it does hurt them offensively. With him out the only shooter I'm worried about in the starting lineup is Thomas.

I thought Atlanta could beat Boston before the injuries but it'd be a long and miserable series, now it shouldn't be and it's on them if they drop both of the games up in Boston.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, capstone21 said:

It is an interesting read but Avery Bradley is not the major difference maker that hinges the Celtics success.  I think he is a decent player but he will not make or break their season.

Zach just putting forth an excuse that Boston fans can fall back on when they lose the series to Atlanta.  I don't remember what site I was on (maybe NBA.com), but their Boston site had four posts, all of them belittling Atlanta as being an easy first round opponent.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are backpeddling like a cornerback at the NFL combine. Several of these guys had the Celtics winning, even though the Hawks slapped them sideways during the regular season. With Bradley being injured, now they appear to have an out to justify such a bad prediction.

I'm not taking anything for granted, though. They were up 2-0 on the Nets last year and ended up having to play six games. Keep up the defensive heat, start knocking down the open looks, and they'll be back home in a few days; just that the Celtics won't be joining them... 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Sothron said:

Funny that when we had Thabo hurt, Korver hurt and DMC hurt we didn't get any damn bit of respect for those injuries or what it meant to our team.

No surprise. Do you realize that the other night there were 2 games on the schedule...Memphis at San Antonio and us. I haven't watched sportscenter for a long time now (boycotting), but decided to watch. They covered the Spurs game as the headliner, then went to hockey and then baseball before finally getting to our game at 11:13.... I'm guessing if Boston had won they would have covered it first. (Being that sportscenter is located near Boston and they are on the nuts of all teams Boston). 

 

We we are seriously the Rodney Dangerfield of the NBA. Smh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Dejay said:

They are backpeddling like a cornerback at the NFL combine. Several of these guys had the Celtics winning, even though the Hawks slapped them sideways during the regular season. With Bradley being injured, now they appear to have an out to justify such a bad prediction.

Don’t think Lowe did but as for that, here’s the best sentence I saw before this series from a neutral fan (and yes, they just happen to be a fan of you know who, no, not Boston):

Quote

The Hawks run a style of offense that will start to falter when an opposing team gameplans for it.

I mean, bruh, there's just so much wrong in this sentence...

1. Stevens has said he's stolen a lot of Budenholzer's plays.

2. Boston's the team that struggles in the half-court from the stats that have been shown by the analysts.

3. (this is related to #1) Boston may know what Atlanta runs, but Atlanta knows what Boston runs as well.

4. (this is related to #2) You can make the argument that Boston's offense "isn't suitable in playoff basketball either" and that if you take away their fast break opportunities, their offense will get stuck in the mud even moreso than Atlanta's.

Edited by Lurker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Spud2Nique said:

No surprise. Do you realize that the other night there were 2 games on the schedule...Memphis at San Antonio and us. I haven't watched sportscenter for a long time now (boycotting), but decided to watch. They covered the Spurs game as the headliner, then went to hockey and then baseball before finally getting to our game at 11:13.... I'm guessing if Boston had won they would have covered it first. (Being that sportscenter is located near Boston and they are on the nuts of all teams Boston). 

 

We we are seriously the Rodney Dangerfield of the NBA. Smh.

Bruh, BSPN got nuthin on NBARadio.

Eddie Johnson said the Selltics would won the next 2 games and ultimately take the series .....

He said this the day after game 2.  Think about that.  Said, "All dey gotta do is stop Korvah!  Dass all dey gotta due!"

SMDH

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

 

Quote

Stevens flat-out gushes when he talks about the Hawks and the inspired brand of basketball they've played since the end of last season. In a way, Atlanta offers a bit of a blueprint on how a superstar-less team can thrive with pure team basketball.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4717114/copy-machine-cs-want-to-soar-like-hawks

Quote

Stevens often is effusive in his praise of opponents, but he went out of his way to praise Atlanta's brand of ball.

He said his coaching staff even used the Hawks as a bit of a target for Boston's own young players.

 

The end.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Bruh, BSPN got nuthin on NBARadio.

Eddie Johnson said the Selltics would won the next 2 games and ultimately take the series .....

He said this the day after game 2.  Think about that.  Said, "All dey gotta do is stop Korvah!  Dass all dey gotta due!"

SMDH

Tell Eddie that teams that have a 2-0 lead in a best of 7 end up winning 94.1% of the time...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...