PREMIUM
Stephen Nover's NBA Conference Finals Game of Year
(NBA) Boston vs. Miami,
Money Line: -125.00 Miami (Home)
Result: Loss
Money Line: -125.00 Miami (Home)
Result: Loss
Mike Budenholzer, Monty Williams, Doc Rivers and Nick Nurse are about to have company in the fired coaches department.
Sometime Tuesday night after the Celtics get swept by the Heat, a team they were 13 games better than during the regular season, Boston management needs to pull the plug on Joe Mazzulla.
The Celtics have shown no leadership, coaching ability and guts in losing the first three games of this Eastern Conference Finals. Boston was outscored by an average of 6.5 points in its two home games in the series and then was blown out by 26 points in Miami during Sunday's Game 3. The Celtics have surrendered an average of 120.6 points to the Heat, who were the lowest-scoring team in the NBA.
Somewhere Red Auerbach is turning over in his grave. I've closely watched the NBA for 60 years and have never seen a worse coaching job in a playoff series than what the overmatched Mazzulla has done. Every button he touches is the wrong one. Boston's confidence and morale is shattered.
So why should things be any different in Game 4? Answer: They won't be.
The Heat are 10-2 ATS in their last 12 games. They are 6-0 in their six home playoff games. Mazzulla isn't suddenly going to outcoach Erik Spoelstra. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are still going to give Miami the best all-around player on the court and best big man even if Mazzulla decides he might want to finally double-team Butler a little more.
The Celtics are 31-for-106 (29.2 percent) from 3-point range. Jaylen Brown, showing he's not ready for prime time, has missed 18 of 20 3-pointers. The Celtics are due to make a higher percentage of their 3-point shots. But I have no confidence in them to do that - and sadly neither do they.
Sometime Tuesday night after the Celtics get swept by the Heat, a team they were 13 games better than during the regular season, Boston management needs to pull the plug on Joe Mazzulla.
The Celtics have shown no leadership, coaching ability and guts in losing the first three games of this Eastern Conference Finals. Boston was outscored by an average of 6.5 points in its two home games in the series and then was blown out by 26 points in Miami during Sunday's Game 3. The Celtics have surrendered an average of 120.6 points to the Heat, who were the lowest-scoring team in the NBA.
Somewhere Red Auerbach is turning over in his grave. I've closely watched the NBA for 60 years and have never seen a worse coaching job in a playoff series than what the overmatched Mazzulla has done. Every button he touches is the wrong one. Boston's confidence and morale is shattered.
So why should things be any different in Game 4? Answer: They won't be.
The Heat are 10-2 ATS in their last 12 games. They are 6-0 in their six home playoff games. Mazzulla isn't suddenly going to outcoach Erik Spoelstra. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are still going to give Miami the best all-around player on the court and best big man even if Mazzulla decides he might want to finally double-team Butler a little more.
The Celtics are 31-for-106 (29.2 percent) from 3-point range. Jaylen Brown, showing he's not ready for prime time, has missed 18 of 20 3-pointers. The Celtics are due to make a higher percentage of their 3-point shots. But I have no confidence in them to do that - and sadly neither do they.
