Karalis: Thoughts on Dejounte Murray's suspension, the messy Hawks defense, Ime Udoka's new job, and more

The Celtics have a commanding, and I might say insurmountable, 3-1 lead over the Atlanta Hawk in their opening round series. As they head into what should be the final game of the series, here are a few stray thoughts from the series, the last game, and around the NBA. 

DEJOUNTE MURRAY SUSPENDED 

That bump I showed you in last night’s game report did, indeed cost him a game. He’ll miss tomorrow’s Game 5. 

While not unexpected, and it was a pretty dumb move. Just yell at the refs from a distance and save your money. 

I’ve seen and heard a few people say it’s a shame that he’ll miss the game because you want to beat teams at full strength. I don’t buy into that at all. I’m not crying for someone making a dumb mistake like bumping an official. He walked from the middle of the court directly at him, and had plenty of opportunity to stop himself. 

He made he stupid decision, he and his team have to live with it. This is the playoffs. I don’t care who is on the floor and who isn’t. No one should ever have to apologize for winning a playoff game. 

NIGHTMARE SERIES FOR JOHN COLLINS

I can see why he’s on the permanent trading block in Atlanta. He has scored 30 points combined over four games on 11-34 shooting (32.3%). He’s 4-19 (21%) from 3 in what has been a nightmare series for him and the Hawks. 

The problem for Collins is that he has teammates who do what he does best (rolling to the hoop in pick-and-rolls) as well or better than him, and he’s not good in his current role. He’s basically a 6’9” frontcourt player with wing athleticism but not wing skills. 

He’s talented in a lot of ways, but he’s a mess in this series. He hit ONE shot yesterday but all of his looks were wide open. They will continue to be, because he’s getting zero respect from the Celtics 'defense. 

I’d say the Hawks need to trade him, but they’ve been trying. 

HAWKS PILE UP GAMBLING LOSSES

I counted at least a handful of Celtics baskets after gambling for steals, including a critical one late in the game. 

via GIPHY

The Hawks' defense is terrible. It’s bad enough that they get destroyed at the point of attack on a regular basis, they then go for these big-risk moves that prove costly. 

I guess in this situation there's some justification for it. They're not beating the Celtics straight up, so they need to take the high-risk, high-reward plays and hope they work out. The problem is they're not, and they haven't all series. 

Defensive discipline will be hard to teach these guys. So few guys have it, and they're not going to get it no matter what the scheme. I’m struggling to figure out how the Hawks are going to become a true contender when this is their best effort. 

Oh, and if you’re wondering if I just started working for Atlanta Sports Journal considering these first three observations … no, there's no such thing. It’s just that the Hawks being horrible at a lot of things is why the Celtics are cruising to this five-game (presumably) series win. 

If Collins could hit a shot, Game 3 would have been different. If the Hawks played more disciplined, it would be harder for Boston to score. 

Right now, the Celtics are just waltzing to the rim and getting whatever they want. 

Look at this end of third quarter play by Marcus Smart: 

The only real strategic thing here is the Celtics had the floor spaced. Otherwise, this is just Smart blowing by Bogdan Bogdanovic. Drives like this happened all game long. 

What am I supposed to break down here? The only thing I can say is the Celtics need to do this more often and forget a few of the 3-pointers they take. 

GIVE IT UP TO GET IT BACK

This isn’t a hard, fast rule, but “give it up to get it back” on the fast break is a pretty strong rule that applies to all levels of basketball. The Celtics don’t do it often enough. 

via GIPHY

Jaylen Brown should have given this up to Smart and then prepared for the alley oop. It’s a little thing but you want the defender moving as much as possible and making decisions, especially Hawks defenders. 

Superstars can finish these plays more often than not, but this play is almost a throwback to Brown’s first couple of seasons where he sort of threw himself into opposing front lines hoping to finish over or through everyone. It was a get to the rim or die tryin’ sort of approach. 

Just give the ball up, especially to your point guard, and get the ball back for an easy finish. 

IME UDOKA GETS THE HOUSTON JOB

Udoka is back and he gets a crack at the rebuilding job in Houston. Where do I start? 

- He really blew a golden opportunity in Boston. Now his former team should be playing for a championship this year and he’s going to be trying to figure out how to get that mess in Houston in check. 

- There's a non-zero chance he actually gets into a fist fight with one of those players. At the very least someone will challenge him in a film session and will find out quickly that it was a bad decision. 

- What he did in Boston is going to be coming out soon, in my opinion. He’s going to have to address it at some point. The Rockets hired him for a reason, and they're going to have to stand by the hiring. 

Meanwhile, if their side downplays the Boston situation and makes it look like the Celtics overreacted, then someone on the Boston side is going to have to defend the franchise’s decision-making. 

One way or another, the details are going to come to light. 

I'm not thrilled about this. It's opening up a lot of wounds, stirring up a lot of feelings from a lot of corners of the internet, and I feel like we're going to be wallowing in ugliness again. 

Udoka did whatever he did and was punished for it. He lost a legacy-defining job, likely millions of dollars, his relationship with the mother of his children, and the respect of many around the league. Whatever it was that he did, this was a tough punishment. 

However, another team's decision to hire him is that team's choice, and as an observer and analyst of the league, I have to discuss the basketball side of all this. Whether he should or shouldn't be working in the league again isn't up to me, and I can't form an opinion on that because I don't know exactly what happened. 

Udoka will have tough questions to answer. We'll see where it goes from there.