Celtics vs. Hawks - Games 1&2 Collected Thoughts

I was fired up enough for the playoffs this year that I promised myself I would write at least a brief recap after every Celtics game. Of course in keeping with the history of this blog, I failed to write anything after the disheartening game-one loss putting me in an early hole. And now I'm completely frustrated after the debacle in game two, and I'm sleepy. And cranky. Here, then, are some quick-hit collected thoughts from games one and two, in no particular order.

• It seemed both teams, despite having clear areas of concern, could leave game one feeling good about things. Boston managed to have a real chance at a win despite the abysmal first half, while Atlanta could counter that it earned a close win in a game when several of its best shooters shot terribly. The C's could note that Atlanta killed them on the offensive glass -- which is not a strength and something that isn't likely to repeat, while the Hawks could point out that they won despite a poor second half when Boston forced a number of careless turnovers. It all pointed to a series with two even teams that figured to be tight throughout. Then game two happened, and I'm not sure where the Celtics can find a silver lining. Between the injuries to Bradley and Olynyk and the seeming inability to execute a functioning NBA offense, I'm just not sure what the path forward is, especially offensively. I guess this time the silver lining would be that Boston isn't going to shoot THIS poorly again, and that after the terrible first six minutes it was essentially an even game. Thus far, Atlanta's defense has been the story, and they seem to have completely disrupted what the Celtics want to do offensively.
• In a similar vein, with the makeup of this team, I don't see any way Boston wins this series if Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder don't play really well. They were both much less than that in these two games. Thomas looks flummoxed offensively and I thought Crowder was our worst player (or at least our worst player who we expect to actually be good) in game one. He has shot terribly, isn't attacking the basket enough and when he does he can't finish, and worse really struggled defensively in game one. Not sure if he is still not feeling 100-percent after his injury, but he doesn't look right, and he's too critical a player to be this bad.
• I love Thomas' attitude and swagger, and he said all the right things going into this series about how great players prove themselves in the playoffs. But this series, and going back to the Cleveland series last year, is demonstrating why you might not be able to rely on him as a true number-one guy. Against good defenses when teams have time to prepare and game plan, his lack of size is a real problem. Hopefully he is rejuvenated at home, but there has not been much encouraging thus far. He really needs to live at the foul line.
• The narrative that Marcus Smart needed to step up in Bradley's absence worried me coming into the game, and Marcus promptly showed why. He's just too excitable and erratic to be relied to step up his game offensively, in my opinion, and I think with his temperament the worst thing for him is when he is a focal point because he tries to do too much. He is just not that guy at this stage of his career, and asking him to do more brings out his worst tendencies.
• That said, I think my favorite play of game one was the late steal he made when he sprang up and picked off a seemingly harmless Teague pass and then scored on the follow-up at the other end. Players make passes like that all the time and there are maybe a handful of players in the league that have the athleticism and tenacity to pick that pass off. Marcus is an incredibly impactful defender and it's so much fun seeing the few times per game when he does things few other players can do.
• I love Brad Stevens more than maybe anyone other than his immediate family at this point (see the blog title) but some of the blame for these horrific starts have to be put on the coaches. The team looked absolutely clueless and confused offensively and defensively at the start in both these games, and while maybe you can blame it on jitters in game one, there's not excuse for it in game two. Teams have more time to prepare for playoff games than they do any other games all year, and it's just unacceptable to have two starts like this when Boston looked completely unprepared for what Atlanta was doing.
• I will now follow that criticism by saying it made my heart sing to hear Jon Barry repeatedly refer to Brad as a genius in game one after we had open look after open look on inbounds plays. I'm trying to figure out a way to get the audio of Brad being called a genius as my ring tone.
• There is no doubt not having Avery Bradley -- probably our best defender and shooter -- is painful, but I think not having Olynyk might be more problematic in this series. This is aping a point I saw Zach Lowe make on twitter during the game, but our spacing is brutal right now, and having Kelly (or Snoogins as this blog affectionately calls him) helping draw a big out of the paint would really help. Obviously Avery would help the spacing as well in comparison to someone like Smart, but there are just too many big bodies in the lane and it's killing our offense, Isaiah especially. The announcers can scream over and over about how we have to stop shooting so many 3s and attack the basket but it doesn't look like there is any room in there, and I don't know what the solution is.
• As much as we are struggling offensively, and considering the mobility of Atlanta's bigs, I think I would prefer more Zeller to Sullinger the rest of the series. Though he doesn't really help the spacing issue, I think he bring more different things to the table offensively than does Sully.

That's all I have. Here's hoping a return home on Friday sparks the offense and gets us back in this thing.