Author: Dave Long

After coming up just two games short of winning the NBA title, the inevitable happens for your Boston Celtics. The exclamation point is that they had a 2-1 lead in the series before coughing up three straight losses to Golden State. And since they can only be described as (use your own word) bad to horrendous losses that saw them blow double-digit leads in all three, let the finger-pointing begin.

I don’t like the words “blame” or “fault” because those are words for losers who get stuck in the past and don’t focus on the future, which is where you need to be to find a solution, which is what Brad Stevens and the brass need to do.

So, while this may be semantics, I prefer to think about “responsibility” because it identifies areas that need to be improved in the off-season. That could be a weakness in personnel, questionable coaching decisions, repeated mental mistakes or just playing against a better team.

First thing is to assess what the season was in relation to expectations. This can be looked at two ways.

Glass Is Half Full: Getting to the NBA Finals was a major step forward with a disappointing ending. Especially in light of their train wreck first two months of 2021-22, which suggested we were in store for a repeat of the same infuriating under-achievement as last year. After somehow finding their mojo in early January it turned into a major step forward for a team that exceeded everyone’s expectations, which, after a few minor tweaks, makes the future look bright.

Glass Is Half Empty: This Celtics loss doesn’t approach a blown opportunity by the favored Lakers over the Celtics in 1984. They’re hardly the first underdog to blow a 2-1 series lead. I mean the Celtics put that same number on the defending champion Bucks just last month.

But what I care most about is how a team loses. And the way the C’s lost to GS raises major red flags about their heart and collective ability to hold their attention firm during adversity. They had their moments earlier in the playoffs, but they really needed the same mental toughness when the Warriors put the heat on, and this time the top three melted like a stick of butter in a hot frying pan.

Is that just part of the growing process, or in their DNA?

That’s where Stevens’ assessment should begin as he decides what steps are needed to win those last two games next year.

The Opponent

Golden State: First, the Celtics lost to a better team in a series GS earned. A surprise to me because I underestimated two things: their team defense and Steph Curry.

The D was exceptional because Andrew Wiggins (mostly) did a great job on Jayson Tatum in his forgettable series and their quickness to close out on open shots took away what the C’s do to put opponents on their heels. It especially flummoxed them in the half court during crunch time.

As for Curry, I somehow forgot how good he is at scoring around the basket, which destroyed my “crowd him to make him drive” strategy. This dude’s just good and raised an interesting question from my nephew, who asks, is he a Top 10 player all-time? I never thought of him that way, but since he’s the leader of a team that’s won more titles than Larry Bird did, maybe we should.

The Red Flags

Heart and Grit: They were resilient all through the playoffs even amid hiccups vs. Milwaukee and Miami. But it’s a tough call because good opponents can cause them. But at the end of it all, I’m back to where I was in December on Tatum. While he has the talent, does he have the make-up to be the team leader or do they need to find a Jimmy Butler team leader to pair with him?

Turnovers: Careless, mindless T.O.’s thrown up for grabs handed the Warriors free baskets that killed Boston all series. Tatum set a record for most T.O.s in a playoff season and in Game 4 alone Marcus Smart handed GS 10 free points himself on five totally mindless cross-court passes. As for Jaylen Brown, despite his occasional brilliance, almost every drive was an adventure because he has the worst handle I’ve seen since Tom Boerwinkle retired.

Can they fix this issue internally or do they need a point guard to do so?

The Bench: Despite some earlier heroics, Derrick White aside, it was mostly a Finals no show. So is it good enough?

IQ And Instincts: It made Jeff Van Gundy crazy all through the series and me for much longer than that. With the peak being Tatum giving take fouls to stop a fast break early in Games 5 and 6 that led to first-half foul trouble both times. Somehow he and Smart think that’s smart but risking early foul trouble over two points is just dumb.

Most amazing is they kept repeating the same dumb mistakes.

What Next

Since they also had similar collapses twice against Milwaukee and Miami, my view is they have to address all their red flag issues to take that next step.

Who To Build Around: I don’t think a big change is needed. But if a big deal surfaced to make them clearly better, the two untouchables are Tatum and Robert Williams. Though I’d be reluctant to move on from the wisdom, versatility and toughness of Al Horford as well. While I think everyone else deserves appreciation for a terrific season I’d be willing to part with anyone else in the right deal.

One-Player Wish List – Damian Lillard: Wouldn’t give up both Brown and Smart for him. But he’s a real point guard and the kind of seasoned leader to reduce that burden on Tatum.

So, overall mostly a job well done. But get to work, Brad, because you’ve got some holes to fill.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

As I write this, Game 5 of the NBA Finals goes off tonight in San Francisco with the Celtics and Warriors tied at two games apiece.

That is vexing to me as a writer because you will not see this until after it’s over, and going in I have no idea what is going to happen.

Part of that has to do with the rhythm of any seven-game series, while the other part, as Yogi Berra might say, is mental. By that I mean since Game 1 of the Milwaukee series the Celtics just can not stand prosperity. The latest example is Friday’s Game 4, where with a 2-1 lead and playing in front of a ravenous, frothing at the mouth crowd the series was there for the taking, especially after they jumped out to an early double-digit lead. But they didn’t/couldn’t keep their foot on the gas and let Golden State back in the game, which eventually cost them as under a barrage of late-game Steph Curry bombs they lost.

Give GS credit for staying the course and being tough enough to win in that environment. And the Celtics are hardly the first team to get bulldozed by Curry. But still, it seems like the C’s let a golden opportunity to take command of the series slip away.

However if you’ve been following this playoff season it shouldn’t have been a surprise really, as it’s had only two constants so far. One is that, by somehow going just 6-5 at home, the Celtics seem determined to make it harder on themselves. The other constant is their resilience. Just when you think they’ve put themselves in a hole they won’t get out of by losing all those supposedly vital home games, they do, thanks to being a ridiculous 8-3 in enemy buildings.

All of which brings me back to my original statement. I have no idea what’s going to happen in Game 5, let alone 6 and 7.

However, Curry’s brilliance aside, the unpredictability of the first four games speaks to why I much prefer the NBA playoffs to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It’s a to each his/her own world. But, while watching the run of a dark horse is fun, you can luck out to win in a one-and-done tournament (see Villanova–Georgetown 1985), but outside of losing a key guy to an injury, you can’t luck out in a long series. You’ve got to earn it by surviving the inevitable ups and downs that come when excellent teams face each other seven times in a row. It builds friction among players that leads to increasing physical play and the kind of hard feelings that can form the foundation of a real rivalry. That rarely happens in the tournament.

There’s also the overreactions of the fans and pundits from game to game to enjoy. Like Steven A. Blowhard saying the Warriors looked in trouble after Game 1. Ridiculous. The C’s famed Mother’s Day massacre of L.A. shows Game 1 is just one game. Instead, most times, these things go game to game. Especially in the first four.

Then there was just last year when Phoenix dusted the Bucks by double figures in the first two games, to have the media spouting OMG, they’re dead because only four teams have ever climbed out of an 0-2 hole to win a title. Well guess what? It’s now five times because the best player in that series took it over after Game 2 to lead Milwaukee to win four straight, culminating with Giannis Antetokounmpo’s historic 50-point game in Game 6.

Which brings us to the point of this diatribe. While sometimes, like Cedric Maxwell in 1981 or Grant Williams in Game 7 vs. Milwaukee, an unexpected surprise happens. I’m standing by what I said before the series: that for the Celtics to win Jayson Tatum had to play Curry even and Jaylen Brown had to outplay Klay Thompson. So far the latter has happened, but with Curry averaging 34 per and making several backbreaking shots in the GS wins, the former has not.

And that’s where the series lies in the last three games — in the lap of Tatum, who has not played well in either of the last two series. At least not to the dominating level he showed in series wins over Brooklyn and Milwaukee.

It speaks to a guy’s talent when a big mouth like me can say a guy averaging 22 a game isn’t playing well. But the way to tell if a star is struggling, beyond the stats, is hearing announcers like the ABC crew bending over backward to talk about Tatum’s improved passing and floor game. That’s great and speaks well to the future. But Tatum isn’t paid to pass. He gets the big money for scoring big and imposing his will on big games. That’s what’s needed here because the Celtics won’t win unless he does.

Can he do that? Yes. Will he do it? I don’t have a clue. Though as of right now I’d bet on Curry, because Tatum hasn’t reached the point yet where you know he’s going to come through even when he doesn’t.

It was like that with Larry Bird. But even he suffered through some tough times, like his miserable games 3, 4 and 5 vs. Houston in the 1981 Finals, where he shot 11 for 37 as he scored just 8, 8 and 12 points in those games.

You can say it’s not fair to compare Tatum to Bird. But at that point he wasn’t Larry Legend. He was just in his second season and yet to win a title. But he came back in Game 6 to put 27-13-5 on the board in a 102-91 series-ending win.

Which brings us back to resilience. It’s been their calling card so far and how you win. You keep moving forward to get your groove back.

We’ll know by now if Tatum found his in Game 5.

There’s good news and bad news from the NBA Finals today.

The good was the Celtics bombing away during an incredible comeback that erased a 15-point Golden State third-quarter lead with a 40-16 fourth-quarter surge to win Game 1 big. The bad was showing once again they can’t handle prosperity by coughing up Game 2 in a 107-88 Warriors rout.

The latter via a barrage of first-half turnovers in a mostly inept offensive effort before getting flattened by a third-quarter Warriors explosion.

True, GS couldn’t go to Boston down 0-2 so they played with desperation, but the Celtics’ lack of intensity was equally responsible for the loss.

In the end being tied 1-1 is good for Warriors fans, those with no dog in the hunt, ABC/ESPN and the league but a repetitive irritation for Celtic Nation. Fortunately resilience has been their calling card so far, so maybe that irritation will fade by series end.

In the meantime, here are a few observations from the first two games.

Raise your hand if you knew Payton Pritchard was the second leading Celtics rebounder in Game 1 with six. One behind leader Jaylen Brown and tied with bigs Al Horford and Rob Williams. He also scored 8 points and played plucky on-ball defense vs. Jordan Poole in the decisive fourth quarter, and the C’s were a plus 14 in his 15 minutes of PT.

Speaking of Poole: This is unofficial, but that shot he made from one step past mid-court to end the third quarter of Game 2 is likely the longest shot made in the finals since Jerry West buried one from two steps beyond mid-court as time expired in the fourth quarter to send Game 3 in 1970 to OT. The Knicks recovered from that to still win 103-101, but that 53-footer was the ultimate clutch shot from Mr. Clutch.

Anyone ever seen Darth Vader and Draymond Green in the same room? Easy to hate that guy’s act after it was chippy stuff all around in Game 2.

I could not disagree more with ref analyst Steve Jaffe and Jeff Van Gundy saying a ref has to take into account game situations when deciding to give Draymond a game ejecting second technical foul for his first-half dustup with Brown. So what if he already had one? Doing that gives a guy whose M.O. is committing mayhem carte blanche the rest of the game. Sorry, he’s the doofus who put himself in the situation by being unnecessarily mouthy earlier in the game. He’s the one who crashed into Brown on his 3-point attempt and gave his landing on him a little extra oomph, then put his feet on his head to be annoying and Brown pushed him back. Double T, no questions asked. See you later, Draymond. Terrible interpretation by the refs.

I’ve never seen anyone who can go from being lights out in the first quarter to stone cold and absolutely awful the rest of the game as Brown was in Game 2, which came on top of his Game 1-saving fourth quarter to make it more perplexing. How does that happen?

Am I the only one who sees the irony in Mark Jackson waxing poetically about the Warriors; mini-dynasty? Because it happened immediately after he got fired for the toxic environment he created when he was their coach.

He hasn’t played all that well yet, but after two years of bad luck and hard rehab it’s nice seeing Klay Thompson healthy and back on the court.

Amid all the local drooling over Jayson Tatum’s many high moments, I’m still pretty tough on him for his lapses. I’m not picking on him; I just think he still drifts too much in his focus. So if you’re wondering why I included him in the Game 2 carnage despite scoring 28 points, it’s because they were -36 when he was on the floor. So something wasn’t working.

Having said that, it was a relief to see his touch return in Game 2. Though I’m with Mark Jax that he’s still not quite in sync, because he’s forcing things in favorable match-ups.

Anyone on the“Stephen A Blowhard is a basketball genius” bandwagon remember he proclaimed the Warriors to be “in serious trouble” after losing Game 1? That’s Game 1 of a best-of-seven series when the Celtics shot a very hard to repeat 7 of 9 from distance in their fourth-quarter blitz. Talk about an overreaction, which predictably lasted one game. Truth is, series like this usually have mood swings and the first two games rarely tell you much because they’re like fighters feeling each other out. As for Stephen A, shouting it louder than everyone else may get you to the top of a sports network, but it doesn’t make you right, which he rarely is. And that imbecile Skip Bayless makes him seem like he’s basketball’s Einstein.

Along that line, the overall stat so far to make Celtic Nation queasy is that the Dubs basically shot the same in both games, while the C’s were a hard-to-match 51.2 percent on 3’s in Game 1 and a back to normal 39 percent when they got croaked in Game 2.

While I love prehistoric history more than most, linking this Celtics team to those from its rich long ago history seems a stretch to me. I see the connection for guys who have played for the franchise and old buck fans like me, but it’s won one title in 36 years! Which by the old way of thinking is three and half decades of failure. The kind of franchise people around here during the Bird era goofed on.

This group is actually more like what Curry and company were in 2015. A young up and comer looking to be the NBA’s next great multi-year contending team. Time will tell if they become that, but if they do, I’ll settle for that.

Phew! That was a close one.

Try as they might to give away the last two games with repeated sloppy play and disappearing stars in crunch time the Celtics managed to hold on to win Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals 100-96.

Outside of the final two games, it wasn’t all bad. But beating the Heat in Miami was not easy.

It earned the C’s their first trip to the NBA Finals since 2010. But before we get to the three-time champion Golden State Warriors here’s a quick review of surviving the seven-game series with Miami.

Give Miami Credit for Toughness: With Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry limping, they looked dead in the water after a Game 5 Celtics beat down. But somehow they pulled it together, which is what admirable teams do, to be a missed Butler 3 from being in the lead with under 30 seconds to go. Ditto if an eagle eye at the scorers table hadn’t disallowed a crucial Max Strus 3 after seeing his heel catch the sideline in an after-the-play review to see if it was a 3 or a 2.

Tatum’s Hall of Fame Berth Back On Hold: While he’s certainly had some high highs, he didn’t deserve the MVP, because the play in this series was so erratic. And as I said before the playoffs you only get into the Top 10 players group if you dominate in the playoffs. But in Game 6 he disappeared in the fourth quarter and in Game 7 he had the softest 28-point (with at least four missed lay-ups) game I’ve ever seen. Fortunately he has the Finals to erase that. Word to the wise: Ditch the Kobe wristband, ’cause he looked like Kobe when he shot 40 percent from the field and 31 percent on 3’s in the 2010 Finals.

Why Let Marcus Smart Take The Last 5 Shots With Game 7 Slipping Away? Because with Tatum shrinking from the moment somebody had to take them and as ineffective as he was, Marcus had the stones to take them. Plus he was wide open on the 3’s.

That’s The Derrick White We Were Sold: He’s had his ups and downs since arriving in February. But he was the best guy off the bench vs. Miami in making huge defensive and offensive contributions in games 4 through 7.

Bravo – Jimmy Butler: He played through pain. Put his team on his back to score 47, 41 and 35 in the way many expected Tatum to and Tatum didn’t. I’m fine with the 3 he took in the final minute. Strength or not he broke Boston’s backs in Game 6 with 3’s. Standing O for Jimmy.

The Main Event: What to expect from the Warriors.

Previous 2021-22 Games: GS won a tight one in Boston before the January turnaround and C’s blew them out in March in SF in the game Curry got hurt.

Players to Watch

Steph Curry: After all the early playoff hoo-ha over Kyrie Irving, we get to see the real deal here instead. A two-time MVP, three-time champ and the best shooter who ever lived. He kills you with 3’s and off the dribble is a leader and a winner. All the things Kyrie ain’t. So watch out for this dude.

Klay Thompson: After two painstaking years rehabbing tears of an ACL and Achilles that cost him two seasons he’s back to form shooting 38 percent from deep and averaging 20.4 per. The only really bad thing to say about Klay is his father, Mychal, played for the Lakers in the ’80s heyday.

Jordan Poole: He’s their version of Rob Williams. A low first-round pick who came on strong in Year 3 to average 18.5 per game and can go for 30 on any given night.

Who Should You Boo: This is a pretty hard team to not like. So thank goodness for Draymond Green. Loud, abrasive, nasty and borderline dirty. Guaranteed he will raise the ire of Celtics Nation more than once for sure. And, oh yeah, he’s very good, which is what makes his act most annoying.

Best Match-up: Marcus Smart vs. whoever he guards. Because they have a lot of guys who can score and he can cover all of them. Just not at once.

Issues

3-Point Shooting Battle: Both teams can blow you out shooting 3’s. GS takes 40 3’s a game and makes 36 percent. Draymond shoots under 30 percent, so be my guest.

The Boards: GS rebounds collectively as a team with team leader (with 596) Kevon Looney the only one who can hurt the C’s on the offense glass consistently.

Strategy

Celtics on Defense: Tight, tight, tight D to make the GS guards put it on the floor and take it inside the line. Even if it means them scoring off the dribble, because giving up two is better than getting blown up with a barrage of 3’s, which they can do when Curry and Thompson get it going. The D can get away doing that with Al Horford and Lob it to Rob Williams back there protecting the basket.

Celtics on Offense – Who To Attack: The GS guards. The Warriors are not a big team and have no real shot blocker, so Tatum and Jaylen Brown need to use their size advantage to shoot at the rim and get the foul shots that come with that.

Key Stat: The Celtics hold opponents to shooting 31.9 percent from deep, while for Golden State it’s 36 percent. If that stat holds, edge to C’s because it will throw GS a bit off its game.

Golden State Wins: If the Celtics let the secondary players capable of doing real damage like Poole and Andrew Wiggins have big scoring series to supplement what Curry and Thompson generally do.

Boston Wins: If they control it offensively and defensively around the basket, consistently force GS deep shooters to put it on the floor, while Tatum plays Curry even and Brown outscores Thompson.

It was a busy week again. Here’s a look at some top stories and sidebars.

News Item: NBA playoffs carry on

By the time you see this Golden State may have closed out Dallas (down 0-3 as I write this) for a place in the NBA Finals and it’s possible Miami will have the Celtics on the brink (or on vacation) after their embarrassing “Back To December” non-effort to put them down 1-2 after somehow resting on the laurels of an impressive 25-point Game 2 win. Game 4 on Monday will show whether they’ll bounce back as they did vs. the Bucks or continue with the turnover fests of Games 1 and 3.

As for the Warriors, while they’ve faced a pretty weak field out west, they’re proving me wrong after I said last November I thought their glory days were over. Despite playing less than 70 games for the fifth year straight, 32-year-old Steph Curry has shown he’s still a major force as GS has gone 11-3 behind his 25 points, five rebounds and six assists per playoff slash line.

News Item: It’s not whether Brady will be any good on Fox, but whether he’s worth $375 million

I learned a long time ago not to question Rupert Murdoch when he spends what seems like a ridiculous, unrecoverable amount of money on something related to broadcasting. That moment came when Fox Sports outbid the field by over $100 million to bring the NFL to his fledgling Fox Network. The other three more established networks whined that you couldn’t make money at that exorbitant rate. Except that’s not what he was after. He wanted stations around the country who wanted/needed NFL games on their station to become Fox affiliates. So what he actually bought was an entire network overnight, which made those seemingly titanic rights fees chicken feed.

I have no idea how or whether the 10-year, $375 million Brady deal will be recouped by Fox. But I know they usually have something up their sleeve. So I’m guessing there’s a plan in place, and if I have to bet (no pun intended) it probably will have something to do with the emerging new revenue source sports betting will provide the NFL over the next decade.

News Item: Do people watch games because of announcers?

I’d love to see the research on this question. I know I don’t. I watch for the teams playing and put up with the rest or enjoy it a little bit more if it’s someone like Ian Eagle and Charles Davis or the Van Gundy brothers in the booth.

News Item: Parcells shut out again

It’s becoming an annual thing to congratulate the newest New England Patriots Hall of Fame inductee and then rant over the exclusion of inductee Bill Parcells. First congrats to Vince Wilfork for his most deserving honor. A great player and a true Patriot in every way during 11 years in Foxboro.

But Bob Kraft, what about the Tuna? Since I’m not in the room for the discussions I can’t say it is simple pettiness over the ugliness of his departure and the border war that followed. And far be it from me to pat Parcells on the back, because his behavior at the end was questionable and far from gracious, so I understand the hard feelings.

But enough is enough. That happened 25 years ago and if the Hall is to stand for anything more than a feel-good summer day for Bob it should honor all those who made the Patriots dynasty what it is. Parcells and Drew Bledsoe are Nos. 4 and 5 behind the Big Three for bringing the stability and legitimacy that got every football fan’s attention while laying the foundation for what was to come, including bringing Bill Belichick here as an assistant under Tuna.

I know you have a rule for one inductee per year voted on by fans. Sorry, break it. If you need a clue as to how dumb fan voters are, look at any starting line-up for the MLB All-Star game. There’s nothing I hate more than Hall voters suddenly realizing a guy like Dennis Johnson or Ron Santo belongs in after he passes on. Parcells is now 80. So, Bob, make an exception. Put Tuna in, because he earned it and you should be a big enough man to make happen.

News Item: Sideline reporter during playoff game

Sometimes it’s prudent to ask what planet people are living on when they make decisions that simply defy common sense. One such incident is the NBA forcing coaches to speak to sideline reporters at the beginning of the second and fourth quarter when a playoff game is going on. I think it’s pretty stupid and generally useless during the regular season, but during the playoffs teams’ seasons are on the line and their being forced to take attention away from a critical moment to answer some question is insulting to players, coaches and the fans whose teams are playing in such important games. Come on, Adam, wake up and fix this nonsense and give greater respect to the game itself.

News Item: Belichick pokes the bear

Bill Belichick gets pounded by the media, often unfairly. OK, make it sometimes unfairly. I get his desire for playing it close to the vest and how the media can cause distractions, often for little reasons beyond bringing attention to itself. But I have no sympathy for Coach B because he brings the vitriol on himself. Take what he did last week. The NFL has a rule that each team must make its assistant coaches available to speak to the media twice each off season. So what does he do, schedule those meetings a month after the draft and five weeks before summer camp opens on back-to-back days in mid-May when no news is going on. An unnecessary provocation just to poke the bear. So you reap what you sow, Bill.

In a week with the Bruins going out in a Game 7 loss to Carolina, Tom Brady getting a record deal to become a game analyst for Fox Sports if he ever does retire, the Patriots finally getting hit with a really tough schedule in 2022 and the Red Sox showing a little life, the surging Celtics continue to be the big local story after knocking off the defending champion Bucks in Game 7 on Sunday.

By the time you read this Game 1 vs. Miami will be history, with Game 2 coming up Thursday. So here are some things to think about as Miami, Boston, Golden State and Dallas battle it out over the next 10 days.

While acknowledging Khris Middleton was a big loss for the Bucks, remember the Celtics won Game 2 without Marcus Smart and Games 4, 6 and 7 without lob-it-to-Rob Williams.

OK, after a rough couple of early Round 2 games, Jayson Tatum’s impending Hall of Fame induction is back on track.

How anyone could think Brooklyn would be a tougher opponent than Miami is beyond me. While they don’t have Kevin Durant, they have more good, tough-minded players, a better point guard and one of the best coaches in the NBA, and everyone plays D to the max. Plus while Jimmy Butler is a bit nuts, he’s a real leader.

I’ve got Dallas in the other series. They had a near duplicate of the season turnaround the Celtics had and own the league’s best record from January after Boston. They also beat the Celtics at the Garden in late March. Plus they have Luka Doncic. I hate to think how good he’s going to be if he ever realizes he’s got to work on his body. Because he’s wreaking havoc right now looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

At the beginning of the year I thought this might be the last stand for Golden State’s mini-dynasty. But I’m not so sure now. Jordan Poole has come out of nowhere to be a pretty good player to make Andrew Wiggins a possible trade chip and they have the potential of James Wiseman to move, which they should do quickly before he turns into the bust I think he’s going to become.

It’s hard to make the all playoff awards team before the playoffs even start, but Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer did the impossible this year. It’s getting a lot of play now, but remember who said a month ago in my NBA Notebook before the playoffs started that Budenholzer had already won the award for most idiotic move by a coach for tanking his final game of the year to hand the Celtics home court advantage when/if they met in Round 2. He gets bonus points for the message he sent to his team about being afraid to play a team as feeble as the Nets.

Plus not making any adjustments to his “dare you to beat us with 3’s” strategy as Tatum, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard and company were raining 3’s on the Bucks all through Game 7 boarded on coaching malpractice.

While the ultra-serious Ime Udoka is not exactly a barrel of laughs, the more I see the more I like. The latest example was, with Derrick White and Daniel Theis repeatedlythrowing up bricks, the coach searching out a hot hand by running in the up and down Pritchard right after Tatum picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter. It yielded four 3’s and 14 points along with a couple of scrappy, big rebounds. One of which was kicked to Smart in the corner, who buried it as the lead grew with Tatum on the bench.

Udoka also gets credit for not ducking Brooklyn in Round 1 to earn home court on Sunday.

Fans at the Garden certainly have been on their game the first two rounds. They were loud and energized in Round 2 vs. Milwaukee and totally in Kyrie’s head vs. the Nets in Game 2 of Round 1.

I dig the Van Gundy brothers. So I’m hoping Mark Jackson gets one of the head coaching jobs he’s rumored to be in contention for and that ABC steals Stan from TNT to pair the Van Gundys with Mike Breen. Together they’d be a hoot.

Not sure this means anything, but the Top 5 playoff leaders in rebounds, assists and steals are all on vacation, while three of the top scorers (Doncic, Butler and Tatum) remain. Ditto for the 3-point leaders (Tatum, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson).

Forgot to mention this last time. Of course the New York Post had the best headline after Tatum won Game 1 vs. Brooklyn with a shot over Kyrie at the buzzer. That came not too long after Kyrie had flipped off the fans several times at the Garden. It read “Bye, bye birdie” over a picture of Tatum with his arms raised in jubilation as Kyrie walks by with a look of disgust on his face.

Chris Paul came up small in the playoffs again. This time by scoring 5, 7, 13 and 10 in his last four games vs. Dallas, which included a shocking 33 Game 7 drubbing. My question to those giving the “the playoffs grind is tough, he’s 37” excuse is yes, that may be so, but what’s the excuse in his first 16 years when his personal record in the playoffs is under .500? He may have been a better regular-season player, but give me a prime-of-life Rajon Rondo in a big game any day, any way.

Am I the only one who sees the irony of so many treating Kyrie leaving the Celtics as a calamity, while the Nets were anointed as sure to be champs when he and KD hooked up in Brooklyn?

Know why that didn’t happen? ’Cause, repeat after me, he ain’t that good.