Post Game Thread - vs New York Knicks, Home

[bobheckler]

http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400828341



Thomas scores 21, leads Celtics past Knicks, 100-91



1 2 3 4 T
NY 18 23 24 26 91
BOS 22 29 26 23 100
Box Score
Play-By-Play
Highlights
9:52 AM ET


Associated Press



BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas took off for the basket, just what the Boston Celtics needed with the game tightening up.

Thomas had consecutive key baskets and finished with 21 points, Evan Turner scored 19 and the Celtics won their fourth straight with a 100-91 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday night.

With the Celtics clinging to a 90-85 lead and just over three minutes to play, Thomas came up with his timely driving baskets to push the lead back to nine. The first came on a drive down the lane and the second he easily beat everyone down the floor after grabbing the rebound.

"Super quick because he loves to score," Turner said of Thomas. "He was tenacious and I think he knew we needed a couple of plays and stepped up."

EDITOR'S PICKS

Begley: Is this the best the Knicks have to offer?
The Knicks' season has reached a low point, and the loss in Boston on Sunday revealed some of the problems this team needs to overcome.

Celtics' Crowder: '€˜That'€™s what you call getting your swagger back'
The Celtics say their win over the Knicks on Sunday -- Boston's fourth straight -- only helped their confidence continue to grow.
The Celtics had opened an 88-78 lead on Turner's driving basket with 6:11 to play before New York made its charge. Thomas' plays made sure the Celtics were never in danger of losing.

"We need him to be a good playmaker for us," Boston coach Brad Stevens said. "I think he would tell you it wasn't his best day, but again, he did make the biggest plays to push the lead from five to nine. That gives you a little bit of a comfort level."

Thomas added eight rebounds and six assists.

Jae Crowder defended Knicks star Carmelo Anthony tough and scored 18 points, and Kelly Olynyk added 11 points and nine rebounds for Boston.

"He's tough. I mean, he's tough," Anthony said of the 5-foot-9 Thomas. "Little guy with big heart out there. Hard to stay in front of him, got to stay in front of him. Draws a lot of attention. If he don't have it with the way that they space the court, when guys (are) making shots, it's kind of tough to kind of stop him."

Anthony led the Knicks with 29 points despite shooting just 11 of 26. Kristaps Porzingis had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

New York, which shot just 37.1 percent, lost its fourth straight. The Knicks committed 13 turnovers.

"Turnovers always swing the momentum, especially on the road," New York coach Derek Fisher said. "That's where we really got ourselves in trouble."

Boston pushed its 10-point halftime lead to 59-44 on Crowder's 3-pointer from the left wing 4:11 into the third quarter. The Celtics led 77-65 after three quarters.

Thomas made a behind-the-back pass to Jonas Jerebko, who nailed a 3 from the right wing to cap an 18-6 run that gave Boston a 47-33 edge late in the first half.

The Celtics led 51-41 at halftime.

LOOKING FOR HELP

Anthony said the Knicks never felt comfortable shooting the ball.

"It's more stress than anything because you're praying (for them) to go in, you're hoping them to go in," he said. "It's not confident when you're shooting the ball."

ANOTHER DOUBLE-DOUBLE, ROOKIE

Porzingis had his 12th double-double of the season. New York took him with the fourth pick in the 2015 draft.

TIP-INS

Knicks: Porzingis walked to the bench gingerly after taking a charge, but came back. He had X-rays that were negative on a right finger injury in Saturday's loss in Atlanta. ... Before the game, Fisher agreed with Anthony, who recently said the players needed to want to win more. "For sure," Fisher said. "The players are the ones that have to make the plays. We can create game plans, strategies, coverages, etcetera, but when the game starts it's really those guys that have to get it done."

Celtics: G Marcus Smart returned and played 13 minutes after missing the previous 18 games with a lower left leg injury. Stevens felt the schedule didn't allow for much 5-on-5 play in practice, so the 6-foot-4 guard needed to get in shape through game action. "He's going to have to impact the team the best way that he can by defending and by being tough and by being an energy player for the time being," Stevens said.

UP NEXT:

Knicks: Host Detroit on Tuesday.

Celtics: Host the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.


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http://greenstreet.weei.com/



STUD AND DUDS: ISAIAH THOMAS, CELTICS WIN FOURTH STRAIGHT


12.27.15 at 10:37 pm ET


By Josue Pavon


For three quarters, the Celtics sat comfortably ahead of the Knicks before New York found its rhythm in the final frame — but the C’s fended off their hosts in a 100-91 victory.

The C’s defense coerced the Knicks into bad passes and off-balance shots, forcing eight of the Knicks’ 13 turnovers in the third quarter and building a double-digit lead. Offensively, the Celtics got a lot of players involved, making it difficult for the Knicks to stop the bleeding.

In the fourth quarter, New York scored in transition and from the free-throw line to cut the C’s lead to five before Boston’s 10-6 run in the final four minutes clinched the win. Isaiah Thomas scored a team-high 21 points to go with eight rebounds and six assists. Jae Crowder added 18 points and six rebounds. Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 29 points and 10 rebounds, and rookie Kristaps Porzingis (16 points, 12 rebounds) also finished with a double-double.

For a complete box score, click here. To go beyond the box, read on.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Jae Crowder.

Crowder was a force on both ends of the floor, holding Anthony to 11-of-26 shooting on the defensive end and knocking down three of his five 3-point attempts offensively. He finished with a game-high plus-13 rating.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Jared Sullinger.

Sullinger had a frustrating night battling Porzingis and Robin Lopez in the paint. He scored three points on 1-for-9 shooting and only grabbed five rebounds, while Lopez and Porzingis combined for 18 boards on the night.

VINE OF THE NIGHT: Marcus Smart’s first made shot after missing 18 games was an and-1.

https://vine.co/v/iqz9aiQjp7O

WHINE OF THE NIGHT: Transition
Behind transition offense, the Knicks went on a 7-2, fourth-quarter run to cut the Celtics‘ lead to five midway through the fourth quarter. They crawled back from a double-digit deficit by getting to the free-throw line and hitting 3’s on fast breaks. Outside of that stretch, when the C’s needed an improved transition defense, they did a solid job defending .

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 51 rebounds.

The Celtics did an excellent job of cleaning up the glass. Other than Avery Bradley (1 rebound), all of the Celtics’ starters grabbed at least six rebounds. Kelly Olynyk pulled down a team-high nine from off the bench. Thomas’ eight rebounds led the starters. Jared Sullinger and Jae Crowder each had six and Amir Johnson pulled down seven.

@ OF THE NIGHT:

Ben Rohrbach @brohrbach
I was afraid 5 years, $35 million was an overpay for Crowder based on a limited sample size. Now? That's a bargain contract.
5:51 PM - 27 Dec 2015
12 12 Retweets 22 22 likes



bob



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[bobheckler]

I had Mike Breen and Walt Frazier last night.  Clyde is always amusing and, while he is an obviously die-hard Knick, is fairly non-partisan.  His alliterations can get to be a bit much at times, but it's his shtick.

Not a thing of beauty, but we beared down in the 2nd to put them down 10 at the half and then held them at bay so they couldn't rally back in the 4th.  It got close, though, they got it down from a high of about 13, in the 3rd, down to 5.

1.  The sportswriters at WEEI and AP are saying that Thomas "led" us to victory.  I didn't see it that way.  He scored 21, sure, but he was an execrable 6-18.  He had 8 rebounds, somehow, and 6 assists with 3 TOs (2:1 is ok but not real good for a starting point guard).  His forte, of course, is penetrating and wreaking havoc on interior defenses, and getting to the line and sinking a high percentage of his fritos.  He did do those last night.  He was 8-10 from the line, which is actually down from his 90% average.  He was, for the most part, the only player who repeatedly was able to figure out how to get the better of Porzingis inside.  Imagine that!  The smallest guy on the floor, maybe in the league, the only one who scored multiple times against 7'3" Kristaps Porzingis and 7'0" Robin Lopez.  It's not about length, or athleticism, it's about craftiness and he is one "crafty Lilliputian" (that's what Clyde called him).  The usual couple of dumb turnovers by IT dribbling and then getting in over his head.  In one case he wasn't just in over his head, he was in under Porzingis' crotch.  IT drove to the hoop and drove his shoulder into the Zinger's groin.  Zingis went down like a poled ox.  Not even with Muggsy Bogues did I ever see a player, not in the process of falling flat on their face, hit another player in the cup with his shoulder.

2.  The other player who scored against them inside was Kelly.  Like Thomas, he didn't try to overpower them, he used craftiness (and the rim) to find the blue sky.  Kelly had a couple of nice moves last night.  He also had some very nice rebounds.  He had 9 on the night, a lot for him, but his last few, with the score difference being 5-7, were really nice.  A bunch of Knicks crashing the boards, trying to get the ball for a desperation putback and he was in the middle of them wrestling the ball away from them.  He borrowed Sully's muscles for a while.  Kelly was in at crunch time despite having 5 fouls.  He made a cut to the basket off a pnr, got the entry pass with the shorter man on him but made a beautiful touch pass to Sully (who blew the gimme and then proceeded to only hit 1-2 of his fritos).  Over the last 10 games he is shooting 49% and averaging 12.3ppg.  Over the last 5 games he is shooting 59.5%, 58% from 3 and 13.4ppg.  In December, which is almost over, he is shooting 52.8% and 13.2ppg.  So, even with that slump he had in the middle of the month his numbers are still quite good.  No real eye-popping plays for him last night, no flying over 3 defenders for a putback dunk, but solid play.  Sully never lacks for confidence, he just sometimes lacks on execution.  With Kelly, it's all about confidence.  When he has it, he is a very difficult match up for opponents.  When he doesn't, he's an empty jersey.  One thing I liked last night was once he took it inside against the tall trees, got the bump and the whistle and tried to finish with the +1 but blew the bunny.  Last year he would have just turned and walked to the frito line, ever the phlegmatic Canadian.  Last night he grabbed the ball and was obviously pissed at himself for not finishing.  That's what he needs to be like.  He needs to elevate his expectations of himself to where he expects to finish those plays.  He defended Porzingis for some of it and did ok.  The Zinger made some shots, but Kelly was right there on his shooting hand, good defense, Porzingis is just SO long.  If he is hitting his shots, and someday he will, there isn't a damn thing anybody except maybe Rudy Gobert will be able to do about it.  Even then I'm not sure.  Porzingis is more mobile than Gobert and will either drag him outside or drive past him.

3.  Speaking of Sully, NOT a good night for him.  3 points on 1-9 shooting, 4 fouls because he was a step slow on defense.  One of his shots from outside wasn't anywhere near the rim and practically broke the backboard.  As opposed to Kelly, who has had a good December, Sully has shot 35% in December and scoring only 8.2ppg.  His rebounding is still very good, at 9.5.  That's one thing we can usually count on from him although last night he only had 6.  He wasn't putting his body on anybody and that made it easy for them to go over him.  What is particularly disturbing is that Sully has shot 37.5% from the line over the past 5 games and is shooting only 59% from the line season-to-date.  He's a career 74% frito shooter, never shooting below 74% for a season in his first 3 seasons.  This year, with his new hair and new frito shtick.  I hate it all.  It's so "look at me!".  Back to basics, Sully.

4.  Amir played a solid game.  He defended Porzingis for most of it and for most of it against  Porzingis.  He just made Zingis uncomfortable.  Zingis with 16 points but was 4-13 and a lot of that had to do with Amir's defense.  Amir's boxscores usually do not tell the tale and last night was one of them.  Last night he was a defensive anchor.  2 blocks, 7 boards and discombobulating defense on a future superstar.  He got a defensive rebound, handed it off and started running.  Thomas hit him with an over-the-top 3/4 pass court pass for the dunk.  Amir ran the entire length of the floor.  Tommy must have been ecstatic watching the big man run.  Clyde said that Amir was "bounding and astounding" with his tip-in scores and efforts near the rim.  He did, however, unfortunately, sadly, disturbingly, have another lazy inbounds pass stolen.  That makes 3 in 2 games.  No excuse for that.  Pay attention, Amir, stay crisp.

5.  Thomas didn't shoot his team out of the game, but Carmelo did.  He played hard, I'll give him that, but very inefficient at 11-26.  We've been treated to a couple of great performances by Jae Crowder the past week or so.  He went against Nic Batum and won.  He went against Marcus Morris and did well.  Last night he made Melo work for everything, scored 18 of his own on 6-11 and was very disruptive on defense.  Clyde saw it too, saying that Jae was "houndin' and poundin'" Melo on defense.  How does Danny see a player who hardly played for Dallas and say "this guy could be great for us"?  $7M/year, especially with the cap exploding, looks like a steal now, doesn't it?  

6.  Just as Bradley's $8M/year looks like a steal now too.  Not a big shooting night for Avery but he held the very dangerous Aaron Afflalo to 4 points on 2-10.  That is well below the 13ppg he's average this season and the 10ppg he averaged the last 5 games.  Afflalo is very good and if he gets into a rhythm he can hurt you.  That didn't happen last night because Bradley was on him.

7.  Turner scored 19 points on an excellent 8-11 and is driving me crazy.  I'm going to have to stop watching him closely or I'll lose it.  Sometimes he is just so sloppy.  The reason why he was so efficient with his offense is because he was very good at getting to the rim.  5 of his 8fgm were at or near the rim.  It's how he gets there that is always an adventure.

8.  Stat Roundup:  42% vs 37%.  I'm glad we're defensively-oriented but I would feel better if we didn't have to count on holding teams to under 40% to win.  40% from 3 is very nice especially with IT's 1-5 from 3 dragging the number down.  44 points in the paint for both teams is nice considering they have a starting front court of 7'0" Robin Lopez, 7'3" Kristaps Porzingis and Melo.  14-6 on fast breaks.  Brad has to like that number since our fast break numbers have fallen off a bit over the past week or two.

9.  Smart got a few minutes on the court to get his rhythm back.  Sasha Vujacic had a lousy game.  Just little positive side-benefits of this game.  Every time I think of Sasha

18-13 feels pretty good.  I like that we have a 4 game winning streak going after a 3 game losing streak and the hapless Lakers coming to town.  After that, starting the new year, we have a home-and-away against Brooklyn.

We are in 6th place, .005 behind Indiana for 5th but having played 2 more games than them and are only 2.5 games back from EC leading Cleveland.  What a difference one year has made to the EC!
















Of course this last video shows all the Melo and Zingis fgm and don't show you their far more prevalent misses. If you only watched this video and didn't watch the game or look at the boxscore you would think they were offensive machines. In fact, based upon this video you would never guess they shot 37% as a team. Oh well, I guess that's why it's called a HIGHlight film and not a LOWlight film.


bob


.

[sinus007]

Hi,
I'd give ball to Crowder for this game.
Very solid win. And on the bright side - Smart is back.

AK

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