Post Game Thread - vs Detroit Pistons, Away, Part Deux

[gyso]

Stars, studs and duds: Jerebko hits 'big one' in win

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/stars-studs-and-duds-jerebko-hits-big-one-cs


The Boston Celtics needed one basket to seal the victory, and so they turned to … Jonas Jerebko?

The 6-foot-10 forward drained a baseline jumper with 10 seconds to play that made it a two-possession and more important, gave Boston the necessary breathing room as they held on for a 99-93 win.

Jerebko’s jumper was his lone made field goal of the night.

And it could not have come at a better time as he took a dribble inside the 3-point line and pulled up for a jumper over Steve Blake to all but seal the victory.

"I knew I had Steve Blake on me so I knew I could get my shot off," Jerebko told reporters after the game.

Said Celtics head coach Brad Stevens: “Jonas hit a big one."

But like most of the success stories for Boston, it was by no means a one-man operation.

Multiple Celtics opted to not take shots earlier in the shot clock as both teams struggled to gain control in the final minute.

“The spacing was excellent,” Stevens said. “Detroit was scrambling and Jonas was the open guy. You find the open guy and the open guy has to make the play.”

For the Celtics, there were a number of possessions all game where this played out, but none as important as Jerebko’s baseline jumper in the final seconds of play.

Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from tonight’s game.

STARS

Andre Drummond

The most dominant center in the NBA was once again a major problem in containing. Drummond finished with 22 points and 22 rebounds which not surprisingly, were both game highs.

Avery Bradley

Bradley did most of his scoring in the first half as part of his team-high 18 points. But it was his defense that really stood out in helping Boston extend its winning streak to three in a row.

STUDS

Isaiah Thomas

Down the stretch, Thomas came up with big plays offensively which is what you want from your number one scoring option. He finished with a near double-double of 17 points and nine assists.

Jared Sullinger

He finished with a near double-double of 10 points and eight rebounds for Boston. Even more significant, he gave the Celtics a back-to-the-basket, low post presence which is something they don’t look for nearly as much as they should.

DUDS

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

You had to expect Boston would pay a lot more attention to Caldwell-Pope after he lit them up for a career-high 31 points on Dec. 16. The Celtics made him a non-factor all game as he finished with just six points while missing 10 of his 13 field goal attempts.


C's get clutch shot from Jerebko to beat Pistons, 99-93

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/cs-get-clutch-shot-jerebko-beat-pistons-99-93


The Boston Celtics continue on their winning ways and get a little payback in the process following a 99-93 win at Detroit.

Detroit rallied from a double-digit deficit and cut Boston’s lead to just 95-93, but ex-Piston Jonas Jerebko made his lone field goal of the night with 10 seconds to play that made it a two-possession game, 97-93.

Following a Detroit time-out, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed a jumper but the ball sailed out of bounds off of Jerebko with 6.2 seconds to play.

On the in-bounds play, the ball went off of Detroit’s Ersan Ilyasova.

Boston got the ball into the hands of Isaiah Thomas who was fouled with 3.3 seconds to play.  He made both free throws to secure the victory.

It was just 10 days ago that the Pistons handed Boston (17-13) a 119-116 loss, the most points Boston has given up this season in defeat.

The victory extended Boston’s winning streak to three in a row and moved them four games over-.500 for the third time under Brad Stevens – all three times coming this season.

Although Detroit dominated the offensive glass most of the game, Boston’s ability to create multiple offensive opportunities down the stretch allowed them to milk the game clock and secure the win.

Like their matchup on Dec. 16, the first half was a relatively close game with neither team showing any real interest in pulling away.

But in the third quarter, Boston outscored Detroit 25-15. The Celtics limited the Pistons to just 30.4 percent shooting in the quarter which included Andre Drummond (he had 17 points and nine rebounds at the half) being scoreless in the quarter. He finished with 22 points and 22 rebounds.

Another pain in the Celtics’ you-know-what, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, looked nothing like the guy that dropped a career-high 31 points on Boston Dec. 16.

The Celtics’ defense certainly was a factor.

But on multiple possessions, he simply missed shots. He had six points on 3-for-13 shooting.


Yahoo box score, video and link to post-game

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boston-celtics-detroit-pistons-2015122608/#

Jerebko hits key jumper as Celtics beat Pistons 99-93

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Jonas Jerebko enjoyed his time with the Detroit Piston and has no hard feelings about being traded away last season.

Thus far, the feeling is mutual - he has been cheered on each of Boston's visits to the Palace of Auburn Hills this month - but the fans are starting to get a little annoyed.

Ten days after Jerebko hit three straight 3-pointers to give the Celtics a chance to pull out a come-from-behind victory over his former team, he had a clinching jumper in the final seconds of Saturday's 99-93 win.

Detroit pulled within five in the last minute, and Boston's Evan Turner was called for an offensive foul with 36 seconds left. Reggie Jackson's 3-pointer trimmed the Celtics' lead to 95-93, but Jerebko hit a baseline jumper with 10.7 seconds left.

''The clock was winding down, and they were sinking into the paint, and I got open,'' said Jerebko, who was selected by Detroit in the second round of the 2009 draft. ''I knew I had Steve Blake on me, so I knew I could get the shot off, and I made it.''

Each of Boston's starters scored in double figures, and Turner added 13 points in a reserve role. Avery Bradley scored 18 points, and Isaiah Thomas had 17 points and nine assists.

''We were lucky to hold on in some ways, but we put ourselves in a great position,'' Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. ''Jonas hit a big shot, that's for sure.''

Pistons center Andre Drummond had 22 points and 22 rebounds for his fifth 20-20 game of the season. Coming into the day, Houston star Dwight Howard had the only other 20-20 game in the NBA this year.

But Detroit's starting backcourt of Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope combined for 23 points on 8-of-27 shooting, including 2 for 10 from 3-point range. They also had four assists and eight turnovers.

''It's hard to move the ball when you keep turning it over,'' Jackson said. ''Between the turnovers and all the shots we made, we were never able to run, which makes it difficult for me to attack and find open guys.''

Jackson finished with two assists in 27 minutes while his backup, Blake, had six in 21 minutes.

''We didn't take care of the ball and we didn't pass it,'' Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. ''Steve passed it, but that's it.''

The Celtics intentionally fouled Drummond in the first two quarters, with two of his misses helping the Celtics build a 10-point lead.

Ersan Ilyasova scored the final five points of the half to help Detroit close to 51-46. Drummond had 17 points and nine rebounds in the half, but went 3 for 8 from the line.

Boston increased its lead to 13 midway through the third, with a frustrated Van Gundy pulling several starters after defensive lapses. Drummond wasn't one of them, but he finished the quarter on the bench to avoid being sent back to the free-throw line.

''Right now, our starters aren't giving us a thing, and our bench is having to try to save us,'' Van Gundy said. ''We've had awful starts in the last three games, and today we had an awful third quarter. They had yesterday off, but they played like they practiced for 6 1/2 hours.''

The reserves didn't help, and despite going 4 for 20 from beyond the arc in the first three quarters, Boston held a comfortable 76-61 lead going into the fourth.

Stanley Johnson started the final quarter with a 3-pointer, and the return of Drummond and Morris helped Detroit cut the deficit to 80-71 with 8:25 to play. Stevens called a timeout, but Kelly Olynyk missed a pair of free throws, prolonging the Pistons' rally.

But Detroit couldn't hit enough shots to make a serious run at the lead. Like the Celtics, the Pistons struggled badly from outside, finishing 6 of 25 from 3-point range, and Drummond's offensive rebounds couldn't keep enough possessions alive.

TIP-INS

Celtics: Jae Crowder finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, ending his triple-double streak at three games.

Pistons: The Four Tops performed at halftime on the 80th birthday of Duke Fakir, the only remaining founding member of the Motown group. He received a Pistons No. 80 jersey as the crowd sang ''Happy Birthday'' to him. . The Pistons played their second straight home game against Boston, although there was a road trip in between.

UP NEXT

Celtics: Visit the Knicks on Sunday.

[bobheckler]

They came back, almost.  This is the 2nd game that we should have won more comfortably than we did.  Win, however, we did and that's what counts.  These two teams are very similar.  They have a Drummond (and we don't) but they have Reggie Jackson and we have Isaiah Thomas, they have Marcus Morris and we have Jae Crowder, they have KCP and we have Bradley.  Where we have an edge is that we have a Sullinger and they don't.

1.  It's a good thing Andre Drummond cannot hit fritos.  He was 4-10 last night, with one of his ftm a bank shot that could not have been intentional.  On his first fta the Detroit announcer said "First free throw wide for Andre".  Yeah, it was left of the rim, no iron at all, almost breaking the backboard.  Saying it was "just a little left" reminds me of the movie "Major League", where Bob Uecker said "just a little outside".



If he ever learns how to hit them, watch out!  He's shooting fritos at 38% this season.  So, when you think about it, shooting 4-10 from the line last night improved his average.  That is an abomination.  As it is, he was playing catch with himself off the backboard.  He had 22 rebounds and most, if not all, of his 7 offensive ones were him getting his own miss (as opposed to Sully, who gets most of his rebounds by just working his fat ass off to get position underneath and get someone else's miss).  Brad was calling for a Hack-a-Drum strategy and someone was intentionally fouling Drummond and the refs, and we have THREE of them assigned to watch 10 men, didn't see the foul happening and Drummond was waving his arms to draw the refs' attention to it.  When you're a 38% frito shooter, that's pretty freaking stinkin' thinkin'.  With 3:24 left in the game, and the score 88-78 Boston, Aron Baynes came in for Andre Drummond.  That is the downside of having a player who cannot hit fritos.  He could completely dominate the game up until crunch time, and then he's a liability that must be replaced.  Drummond came back in with 1:27 left and the Celts up 9 but at that point it was too late.  As games become more competitive, as they do as you progress through the playoffs and the competition gets tougher, having a player who cannot be on the floor at the end of close games is not much use.  Sully had a good 2nd half, but in the first Drummond was dominating everybody.  Sully had 8 points and 4 rebounds in the 3rd.  

2.  Amir with his usual understated game.  For a 6'9" player he has a very good inside game.  Tommy must absolutely adore his baby hook shot.  One thing last night he did wrong a few times were lazy in bounds passes.  He did one under our basket to IT, it got stolen by KCP and they scored.  He did it again a little later and we were fortunate to not turn it over.  Crisp passes, Amir, keep your head in the game.  Solid otherwise.  12 points on 6-7 and 8 boards in 28 minutes.  Kelly's performances while he was out notwithstanding, Amir regained his starting slot as soon as he was healthy.  He guarded Ilyasova on defense while Sully used his large body to try and keep Drummond out.  On offense, Ilyasova guarded Sully and that was tough for the Turk.  He only gives away 40# to Sully.

3.  Bradley started out hot, like he usually does.  He kept us in the game since nobody else was scoring in the first half.  9 points on 4-8 in the 1st quarter, playing all 12, and another 6 in the 2nd for a total of 15 by halftime.  To begin the game Bradley guarded Reggie Jackson and Thomas guarded KCP.  I thought that was very odd.  One would think that the small, quick IT would guard the small, quick Jackson and let the bigger, longer Bradley guard the 6'5" Caldwell-Pope but no.  Both of their starting guards had bad nights.  A combined 8-27 from their backcourt.  Reggie made it interesting with some big 3s to bring them close in the 4th, but he couldn't get it going for 3 1/2 quarters with Bradley on him.  I never understand why, when a team has a short player like Thomas or Pressey, the other team doesn't post them up every time until you figure out how to stop them.  Bradley had 3 steals as he played excellent two-way ball.  It's a shame that all-star berths are often decided by who has the most ppg.  His game is so good all-round.

4.  Kelly with a so-so game.  A couple of good moves, he ended up with 9 points on 4-8, 7 rebounds in 24 minutes.  So, this falls into the <25mpg category.  He didn't look bad, just not the big games he had as a starter.  He did a lot of the dribble-handoffs that make for a mediocre game by him and, sure enough, he had a mediocre game. The more the Celtics do a weave, it seems the worse Kelly's boxscore will be. When the ball is in his hands, he does well. When he is weakside and he slashes, he does well. Running back-and-forth around the perimeter? Not so much.

5.  Evan Turnover drove me crazy last night.  5 assists and 5 turnovers because he is a sloppy, sloppy dribbler.  When we're in trouble he turns into a ME-baller.  We turned into a team that stopped moving because the ball was either in his hands or Thomas' and they were ME-balling and everybody stood around and watched.  NOT pretty offense.  This game was in good shape until Stanley Johnson upped his energy level and started ball-hawking Turner into turnovers and mistakes.

6.  Some are becoming concerned about RJ's shooting.  It certainly is hard to understand how a shooter can suddenly be such a poor shooter, but I'm going to stand pat on my opinion for now.  He has been working hard on the part of his game that was deficient coming out of Georgia State, his defense, and he has become quite a credible NBA defender.  He is still a shooter.  What's more, he's a scorer.  He dribbles to the rim and penetrates.  He moves without the ball for layups and backdoor cuts.  He dribbles and passes very well.  It's just his outside catch-and-shooting that is looking bad, and I'm still willing to believe that once the game slows down a bit more for him he'll settle into his normal shooting groove.  He's just a rookie.  It's not fair nor right to expect rookies to be able to "do it all".  I think he's still doing quite well for a #28 pick.  He's getting minutes, which is more than #16 pick Terry Rozier and defensive eraser Jordan Mickey can say.

7.  Crowder and Marcus Morris had a little mano-a-mano battle going on.  I thought the score was pretty even, maybe Morris by a smidge but not by much.  Jae finished two shots that made me very happy.  Fouled PLUS the fgm.  With his beef he should be able to take most contact and finish through it.  Morris does look like a very good player.  I like Jae, but I think I would trade him for Morris straight up.  But it wouldn't be an easy decision.  Jae was 5-11 but 0-4 from 3.  So, 5-7 from 2 and that's because he finished on the fgas he got fouled on.  Makes a big difference.

8.  Jonas was playing his usual "don't look for me in the boxscore" game but he hit a BIG baseline 2 that effectively sealed the win for us.  I loved the reaction by his teammates.  A big shot like that, most of the time players will rush out onto the court and chest bump and hug etc.  Crowder etal walked over to him with big smiles on their faces, a little tap on the chest, and that was it.  It was like they were saying "See?  No big deal, you could do that anytime".  The smile on Jonas' face was BIG too.  He's gaining some confidence, again.

9.  Zeller getting some minutes.  Not bad game by Tyler.  All 3 of his fgm were from the wing from 17'-20' out.  His job was to drag Drummond out, open up the floor, and he did it.  That's how you defeat shot blockers par excellence like Drummond and Jordan and Howard.  You force them to play away from their crib.

10.  Stat Roundup:  46% for us vs 39% for them.  We scored well and held them to poor fg%.  They outrebounded us 51-46, but Drummond was a monster with 22 boards and his 7 offensive rebounds were stat padders because he was catching his own misses.  Despite Drummond going nuts, we still outscored them in the paint 50-46.  Neither team shot well from 3 nor from the stripe.  Of course, they have Andre Drummond as an excuse.  We had 6 players in double-digits, all 5 scorers plus Turner, and Kelly being just out of it with 9.  Nice balanced scoring.  They had 4.


17-13 and in 8th place.  We are tied with Orlando, but they beat us so they own the tie-breaker, for now.  The EC is ridiculously competitive. Cleveland is a really, really good team and we're only 3 games back from them.  A victory over the Knicks today would vault us up to 6th place.  I expect to see Jonas, and Kelly, playing a lot of minutes against Porzingis.



bob



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[wideclyde]

Bob,

Always nice reading your game reviews.

I would like to discuss point number 3 when you mention that Bradley started out fast again, but also again failed to be much of an offensive threat later on in the game.

This point is so true way more often than I like. I just do not understand how he can be so hot early in the game and then seem to be either so cold or so uninvolved offensively as the game progresses.  I have watched him many nights having the same type of performance as last night even though it appears that the other team really does not change their defense on him much at all.

Our team would be so much better if this guy could not only start games well (like last night) but also make much more of an offensive contribution later in games.  Wonder if he is out of shape or just seems to feed off the many, many pre game shots that he gets.

Bradley could be an all star type player if he could become more of a threat later in games because as much as he scores early people may remember him much more for not scoring late in almost every game. It almost seems that you can help defensively on other guys off Bradley late in games although I have not seen other teams doing this yet.

And, real quickly on point number 7, there is no way that I would trade Crowder for Morris even though Morris is a good player.  Crowder is a know leader on our team and very often supplies the "heart" that every team needs someone to bring in every game.  Not so sure that Morris has such qualities.

[bobheckler]

Bob,

Always nice reading your game reviews.

I would like to discuss point number 3 when you mention that Bradley started out fast again, but also again failed to be much of an offensive threat later on in the game.

This point is so true way more often than I like. I just do not understand how he can be so hot early in the game and then seem to be either so cold or so uninvolved offensively as the game progresses.  I have watched him many nights having the same type of performance as last night even though it appears that the other team really does not change their defense on him much at all.

Our team would be so much better if this guy could not only start games well (like last night) but also make much more of an offensive contribution later in games.  Wonder if he is out of shape or just seems to feed off the many, many pre game shots that he gets.

Bradley could be an all star type player if he could become more of a threat later in games because as much as he scores early people may remember him much more for not scoring late in almost every game. It almost seems that you can help defensively on other guys off Bradley late in games although I have not seen other teams doing this yet.

And, real quickly on point number 7, there is no way that I would trade Crowder for Morris even though Morris is a good player.  Crowder is a know leader on our team and very often supplies the "heart" that every team needs someone to bring in every game.  Not so sure that Morris has such qualities.

Clyde,

We had problems last year with starting out hot. Bradley's tendency to come out smoking has helped fix that and, as a result, we have found ourselves in the unenviable position of playing late game catchup fewer times. That has translated into wins. As far as why he doesn't just keep it up, I think it's because he truly wants to be known for his defense and, after setting the ball rolling offensively, turns into a glove on defense. That consumes a lot of energy. As far as being an All-Star goes, Kobe Bryant is the leading vote-getter this year. Doesn't say good things about the current state of the All-Star game, does it? It used to be a reward to the league's best players. Now, it's ballot-stuffing by fans who are idiots.

You have an excellent point about Crowder. I was looking at pure talent and didn't give enough weight to Jae's heart. Yeah, maybe I wouldn't trade him for Morris either. Kawhi Leonard though? He's gone.


bob


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