Post Game Thread - vs Toronto Raptors, Away

[bobheckler]

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/stars-studs-and-duds-strong-game-thomas-loss



Stars, studs and duds: Strong game for Thomas in loss
January 20, 2016, 11:30 pm








Isaiah Thomas had another strong game statistically against Toronto on Wednesday with a double-double of 21 points and 10 assists.

But the game ended with a 115-109 loss, an all too common outcome it seems when Thomas has a big game.

And it may cost him a potential all-star spot when the Eastern Conference coaches decide on who will be all-star reserves.

Even before the fan voting closed, Thomas knew he had little to no chance or being elected to the game by fans. The last round of balloting had him a distant ninth among Eastern Conference guards.

But he might have similar problems winning over the Eastern conference coaches, in part because his strong play hasn’t necessarily resulted in more wins for Boston.

When Thomas has scored 20 or more points this season, the Celtics are 14-14 while their record when he scores 19 points or less, is 8-7. And when he has those huge offensive explosion-type games of 24 or more points, Boston has a 4-9 record.

That’s why games like Wednesday’s matchup against Toronto which has a pair of all-star caliber players in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, was so important.

It was a chance for Thomas to have a big night against all-star caliber talent in the backcourt, on the road.

And while Thomas had a solid game, the loss certainly doesn’t aid his efforts at becoming a first-time all-star.

Because statistically he’s right up there with most of the top guards in the East.

But most of them have already been named to an all-star team, so they are more established names in the eyes of coaches.

However, there’s still some time left with the all-star reserves not being announced until sometime next week.

But Thomas being named a first-time all-star at this point, much like his NBA career, will be an uphill battle.

However, the 5-foot-9 guard has defied all odds that come with a player taken with the 60th and final pick of an NBA draft, to become someone who is at least in the conversation to be an all-star.

But the process isn’t in his control now.

All he can do now is continue to try and play well, help Boston get back on a winning track and hope that will be enough to impress enough coaches to vote him in as an all-star reserve when the full team is announced next week.

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


STARS

DeMar DeRozan

The Celtics had no answer for how to slow down DeRozan who continues to leave little doubt about whether he will be an all-star reserve in next month’s game. He delivered a game-high 34 points on Wednesday, 18 of which came in the third quarter.


STUDS

Kelly Olynyk

Playing in front of lots of familiar faces (he grew up in Toronto as a youth and his mother used to work for the Raptors), Olynyk made himself at home soon after he entered the game. He had 18 points off the bench on 7-for-10 shooting.

Jonas Valanciunas

The Raptors center really had a major impact on Toronto controlling the paint, finishing with a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds which included him making all nine of his field goal attempts.

Luis Scola

Scola more than any other Toronto player, set the tone in the game’s early minutes with a barrage of baskets. He finished with 18 points, 11 of which came in the first quarter.

Isaiah Thomas

Thomas had a very Thomas-like game as he finished with a double-double of 21 points and 10 assists.

Avery Bradley

He’s gradually returning to form following a rough return after missing games with a hip injury. Bradley had a nice game offensively with 19 points on 9-for-14 shooting.


DUDS

Jared Sullinger

Kelly Olynyk saw more minutes than usual which usually comes at Sullinger’s expense. But even when he was on the floor, Sullinger was ineffective. He scored three points on 1-for-7 shooting, and had a lot of problems rebounding the ball or even just as important, keeping the Raptors from dominating the boards.

Team Defense

Boston has been one of the top teams defensively most of this season. But we’re starting to see more and more slippage of late, as team after team puts up big scoring numbers against Boston. For the first time this season, the Celtics have gone four straight games allowing more than 100 points scored.


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http://espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=400828520



DeRozan scores 34 to send Raptors past Celtics, 115-109



1:42 AM ET


Associated Press


TORONTO -- The mindset that propelled DeMar DeRozan to a 34-point effort may not have been much of a mystery to his Toronto Raptors teammates, who see it regularly. But it was to DeRozan.

"I don't know," he said when asked how it felt to equal his second-highest offensive output of the year on Wednesday night. "When it's going you really don't pay attention to it until after the fact and realize everything was feeling good."

Jonas Valanciunas added his eighth double-double of the season with 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Raptors won their season-high sixth straight game, 115-109 over the Boston Celtics.

Everything seemed to be "feeling good" for DeRozan in the third quarter, when he had 18 points to regain the lead for the Raptors. DeRozan has 64 points in his last two games.

Their defense went absent in the first and third quarters, and still they were in it at the end. But the Celtics couldn't quite steal a win in Toronto.
"We'll learn from it definitely in as far as how we can make things harder for DeMar and I'm pretty sure the coaches will figure some things out that we can throw at him maybe the next time we play him," said Boston's Avery Bradley, who had 19 points.

Isaiah Thomas added his fifth double-double of the season with 21 points and 10 assists, while Kelly Olynyk had 18 points off the bench in the loss.

"We never adjusted to what they were doing and all of those guys got real comfortable," said Jae Crowder, who had 17 points for the Celtics, who fell 5 1/2 games back of Atlantic Divison-leading Raptors.

Kyle Lowry and Terrence Ross hit big back-to-back 3-pointers down the stretch to put Toronto up by four with 2:16 to play.

"They made every shot at the end of the game and we were trying to exchange baskets with them and I find whenever we do that we are usually not successful," Bradley said.

After shooting 65.2 percent from the floor in the first quarter to take an eight-point lead, Toronto took its foot off the gas in the second to allow Boston back into it and required DeRozan's heroics and 40 total points in the third to regain the advantage.

"We have lost our defensive mojo a little bit," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "Defending the three ... that has been a concern for the past two or three games now."

Despite hitting 11 of 19 from beyond the arc in the first three quarters, Boston shot just 1 of 7 in the fourth.

But Boston coach Brad Stevens looked at his teams' defense as the key to the game.

"I think the story of tonight is the first and third quarters, 75 points, you can't win that way against a good team," he said.

ALL-STAR ROSTER STRATEGY

When asked what he would look for in picking NBA All-Star game players, Boston coach Brad Stevens said he prefers to look at efficiency more than anything else, such as points per game or rebounds per game. But, "at the end of the day, I think you're going to have a few guys that are going to be on everybody's ballots and then it becomes who you're most scared of when you're preparing to play them."

HIGHLIGHT REEL

DeRozan really got the crowd into the game late on in the first quarter, skillfully flipping the ball from one hand to the other as he floated underneath the basket before finger-rolling it off the glass and in, drawing the foul from Evan Turner in the process.

TIP-INS:

Celtics: After six seasons as a Raptor, Amir Johnson said his first appearance back in Toronto, "felt a little bit weird, but it felt good at the same time." Johnson was given a huge cheer during pre-game introductions and a standing ovation following a first-quarter video tribute. ... Rookie Jordan Mickey missed his second consecutive game (left ankle).

Raptors: With eight assists on the night, Kyle Lowry passed Damon Stoudamire (1,761) for third place on Toronto's all-time assists list. Jose Calderon (3,770) and Alvin Williams (1,791) rank first and second, respectively, on that list. ... On the subject of the all-star candidacies of Lowry and DeRozan, currently sitting third and sixth respectively in the voting for Eastern Conference guards, Boston coach Brad Stevens had encouraging words. "They're going to be All-Stars, there's no doubt about it," he said of the pair's quest to represent the Raptors on their home court at next month's game.

UP NEXT:

Celtics: Host Chicago on Friday night.

Raptors: Host Miami on Friday night.



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WEEI » Green Street
STUD AND DUDS: DEROZAN’S 34 POINTS LEADS RAPTORS PAST CELTICS


01.20.16 at 10:30 pm ET


By Josue Pavon  
 


After the Raptors opened up a 13-point lead in the first half, Celtics coach Brad Stevens turned to his bench, but it wasn’t enough to counter DeMar DeRozan who scored 22 second-half points en route to a 115-109 Rapors victory.

The Celtics closed the first half on a 10-2 run and took a 62-56 lead into halftime. Led by Kelly Olynyk’s 18 points, the Celtics bench combined for 47 points. Yet, DeRozan erupted for 18 third-quarter points and set the tone offensively for the Raptors as they outscored the Celtics 40-28 before heading into the fourth quarter.

In the final frame, the Raptors led by four points when Isaiah Thomas committed a costly turnover on an inbound play out of a timeout with 41 seconds left. The Celtics were able to regain possession but Avery Bradley‘s missed 3-pointer with 14.8 seconds left, sealed the Raptors win. It was the fifth missed 3-pointer of the quarter and further prevented the Celtics from having a chance to regain the lead that they saw slip away after halftime.

The Raptors did an excellent job of getting to the hoop while knocking down good looks from the perimeter — they outscored the Celtics 54-38 in the paint and shot 55.4 percent on 46-of-83 shooting. Although the Celtics shot 50.6 percent from the floor, it wasn’t enough to impede DeRozan’s second-half scoring outburst. The Raptors never led by more than six points in the fourth quarter but were able to pull away in the final minutes.

Isaiah Thomas‘ (21 points, 10 assists) double-double led the Celtics and Avery Bradley finished the night with 19 points. DeMar DeRozan (34 points) shot 52 percent on 13-25 shooting to lead the Raptors and Jonas Valanciunas (19 points, 12 rebounds) notched a double-double.

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

STUD OF THE NIGHT: DeMar DeRozan

DeRozan gave the Celtics one of the best individual performances they’ve seen from an opponent this season and did it in a number of different ways. He drove the ball to the hoop, stroked it from the mid-range, got to the free-throw line (8-of-9) and lit up the C’s — scoring 30 points in three quarters. Who does that? Not a lot of players in the NBA do. DeMar was ridiculous. He finished the night with 34 points and six assists.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Jared Sullinger.

Sullinger had an ugly outing up in Toronto. He couldn’t find his offense and was bullied  in the paint by Jonas Valanciuas and Luis Scola. Sullinger went scoreless on 1-for-7 shooting, committed two turnovers and was a team-low minus-19 on the night.

VINE OF THE NIGHT: #Stud

https://vine.co/v/ienBABKvKmK


WHINE OF THE NIGHT: Three-point shooting

The Raptors entered the game as one of the league’s worst teams in defending 3-pointers and it showed. Celtics shot 46.2 percent from deep on 12-of-26 shooting but needed a few more down the stretch when they counted most. The Celtics utilized their 3-point shooting throughout the game to keep themselves within striking distance but couldn’t hit the big ones at the end of the fourth. As the saying goes: “You live and die by the 3,” well the C’s lived by it for 36 minutes as the 3-ball certainly kept them close up until the last quarter where they went 1-for-6 and ultimately suffered their second straight loss.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 54 points in the paint

The Celtics have to do a better job at defending the post. In a game where Jared Sullinger only played 12 minutes, the Celtics had no other big men to count on for interior defense. Amir Johnson and Tyler Zeller struggled to keep up with Jonas Valanciunas (19) and Luis Scola (18 points) nor could they get stops against Toronto’s perimeter players as they were able to get to the hoop with little resistance.

@ OF THE NIGHT:

Justin Condo @JustinCondo
DeRozan is a superstar. Damn.
6:03 PM - 20 Jan 2016
 Retweets   1 1 like



bob


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[bobheckler]

I hate NBA refs.  I could tell within the first minute or two the refs were going to suck.  I don't mind that they "let the boys play", I actually prefer that style than the non-stop whistleblowing, but they were inconsistent.  They didn't even correct things in the 2nd half, where they could have given us some calls.  Valanciunas litterally ran over Sully in the paint, just put him flat on his back, for a dunk and no call.  Knocking Sully down usually requires a crane and a ball.  Bradley has the ball on the sideline, gets bumped by DeRozan out of bounds and the ref says Bradley "just fell out".  He went from a standing, non-moving position to flat on his face in the first row and that was just his "clumsiness"?  DeRozan just ran right through Kelly and no call.  But DeRozan gets the +1 on this play.  Watch this and you'll see Turner getting all ball and the ref is in perfect position to see it.  https://vine.co/v/ienBABKvKmK  A non-call on Bismack BiYOMMMBOOOO!!! even though he was juggling the ball as he went to the rim.  He cannot move and play patty cake with the ball, that's a different game you're thinking of.  Maybe lacrosse or or Irish Hurling (which has nothing to do with drinking at a pub.  It's like lacrosse, where you slash at each other with sticks, except the Irish do it like they're two-handed Claymores and they're playing against English knights).  I'm tired of hearing the "it's a tough game to ref".  There are 3 guys whose primary goals are to watch 10 men, who tend to group together, so you don't have to have your head on a swivel, you can just watch the grouping nearest you.  If there's no group near you, then you can watch a group that's further away.  How hard is that?

The Toronto color announcer, Jack Armstrong, was doing Tommy imitations all night.  Every time Toronto got away with a foul he'd say "I wonder what Tommy Heinsohn is saying now! " and then he'd go on a Tommy rant about the officiating, complete with Tommy's accent.  I guess that's about as close to an admission by a home court broadcaster that there was something fishy about the officiating.  Interestingly, Armstrong also mentioned that he could see David Lee in Toronto sometime in February.  There is a trade rumor/wish/waste of time that suggested that Lee would go north and DeRozan would come south (on the assumption that Toronto was going to lose him anyway).  I don't see DeRozan going anywhere as long as Toronto is in such good playoff shape, and I don't know what else Toronto would want for him, but the idea that Lee might go to Toronto for even a bag o'donuts got brought up by someone who, one could probably assume since he is their broadcaster, is into the Toronto rumor mill.

Leo Rautins, in the booth at halftime last night and not doing the game, talked about how Dwight is not doing well in Houston and how they might move him. He said "know what I figured out?...It wasn't Kevin McHale".  I think even Daryl Morey has figured that out by now.

No DeMarre Carroll.  That's a big piece missing for Toronto.  Kyle Lowry had foul troubles but somehow still managed to get in 37 minutes.  Not a good night for Lowry.  14 points on 4-11, 8 assists but 6 TOs.  Never got into a rhythm.

1.  It's probably just as well too since we had more than enough trouble with DeMar DeRozan.  He has all but announced he's  going home, to LA, next year.  Then again that's what they were saying about Kevin Love, right up until he re-signed with Cleveland.  If he was open to a long term contract with us I'd take him in a heartbeat.  I know all about his season and career shooting numbers, I don't care.  His shooting comes out of the system he plays in, surrounded by the players he plays with.  Put him in Brad's system and I think he gets a lot of open jumpers, jumpers which we are not hitting consistently but he would.  He's a streak shooter but when he's on a streak, well, you saw it last night.  34 points on 13-25 and only one 3pt fga.  8 points were on ftm but the rest was just him driving and hittng Js.  16 points on 7-10 in the 3rd quarter.  He's a dead-eye shooter par excellence and we need dead-eye shooters for space-and-pace to work.  He is a great catch-and-shooter and he is a great creator of his own shot.  He also showed me he can create for others too.  He had an amazing spin move into the paint and the dish to Valans for a dunk.  It took some really, really good court awareness to make that spin move in traffic like that and still be able to make the quick pass to the baseline.

2.  They had a "We love you, Amir" moment to begin the game.  Just like what happened when we did that for Pierce and Garnett, Amir went on to play the worst game I have seen since he came to Boston.  Unlike the Nets, our Celtics did not win the game for the returning prodigal son on his old home turf.  Amir did just about everything poorly last night.  His 35-year old replacement, Luis Scola, made it his personal mission to make sure the fans forgot all about Amir.  He just ate Amir up.  He outran him down the floor on fast breaks.  I love Scola, I have for a long, long time.  In fact, in general, I love Argentinean players.  They are some very tough hombres but there is no excuse for being beaten in a foot race by a 35 year old who was never known as a speed merchant.  8-12 for 18 points for Scola.  I feel like the only thing that capped his scoring was that DeRozan was in a zone and didn't want, nor needed, to give up the ball.  Very, very crafty player Luis Scola is.  His agent calls him "the best player under the rim in the NBA".  I agree.  He is actually very good at what Sully tries to do but now only occasionally does do.  He has added the 3ptr on to his game this year, like everybody else, but is shooting 43% from 3 this year (31% career) while Sully is 27% this year and career.  If Scola was even 5 years younger I'd trade Sully for him in a NY second.

3.  But Sully didn't guard Scola last night, he guarded Jonas Valanciunas.  Sully had yet another awful night.  Sully with 3 points on 1-7 and 2 rebounds in only 13 minutes.  Valan had 19 points on 9-9 and 12 boards.  I suppose I should cut Sully some slack since he was guarding a much bigger man, as usual, but he has been sucking for weeks now.  Sully was sat down because he didn't stop Valans from doing anything.  When Sully came to camp this year his body looked different.  Still big, of course, but he looked "cut", like he really worked hard on his conditioning.  Does anybody else look at Sully now and see a fat man again?  He looks just as big now as last year to me.  I love Sully's ferocity, his ganas, but his game and lack of discipline is quite disturbing to me.  If you had asked me a year or two ago I'd have said that Sully should be a Celtic for life.  Now, I'm wondering who Danny can get for him.

4.  The flip side is also true with Kelly.  A year or two ago I was ready to trade him for a 3-legged, one-eyed dog named Lucky.  Now?  Uh-uh.  18 points on 7-10 shooting, 3-5 from 3.  4 assists and zero TOs.  He hit a wide-open 3 and the Toronto announcers said "that's like a layup for him".  I wouldn't go that far, the only player in the NBA for whom a 3ptr is like a layup is Steph Curry (and sometimes Klay Thompson), but Kelly is definitely on a roll.  He's shooting 62.5% from 3 over the last 5 games and is 43.3% for the season from downtown.  That's pretty damn good.  Talk about "space", he's creating it by hitting his shots (Finally!).  I've remarked on his defense before.  His help defense has definitely improved.  He's picking up cutters.  Last night, however, our team defense sucked so guys like Scola were able to go to the front of the rim and get the offensive putback after Kelly picked up the penetrator and forced a tough shot.  If you're going to funnel players to a baseline defender you must pick up his man or there are going to be a lot of offensive put backs (I'd say dunks but I can't remember ever seeing Luis Scola dunk.  He doesn't blow layups though, so he doesn't need to dunk).  Kelly penetrated nicely a few times too.  Once he did and dished to Amir.  Valans went between Amir's arms, fouled him.  Amir was off-balance and grabbed the rim for safety so they waved off the basket from offensive interference, but no foul on Valans.  That should have been a bucket for Amir and another assist for Kelly but the refs, the refs, ah the refs.  4 assists and zero TOs for Kelly.  Give him some players who are reliable shooters and we'll see his assist totals going up.  He looks awkward, and yeah he does get himself into pickles sometimes, but he also has very good court vision for a big.

5.  Jerebko works hard all the time.  8 points on 3-4 and 2-2 from 3.  He has found his stroke again, Thank God!  He's only shooting 38.5% on the season, but he is shooting 42% from 3.  So, after all that early agony, he's shooting exceptionally well from 3 on the season.  Don't look now, but he shot 45.5% over his last 10 games.  His defense is very active, high motor.    Perfect trade bait.  I like him but we need what we need and he isn't indispensable or irreplaceable.

6.  I'm going to sum up Smart and Zeller's games as "good for the time they played".  Not great boxscores, but good effort.  Zeller blew a flip shot and got so pissed off he did two 2-hand dunks in a row afterwards.  Lesson learned.  Smart was just his usual disruptor self.  He went to the floor to earn a jump ball against 6'9" Bismack BiYOMMMMBOOOO!!! and then went on to win the jump ball.  Our energy and intensity level always go up when Smart is in.

7.  Thomas with a volume shooting 7-19 21 points.  This is why we need another shooter.  7-19 is not what you want your #1 scorer to be shooting.  Take IT's numbers out and we shot almost 55% for the game.  Our top scorer shot 37% and their top scorer shot 52%.  And there ya go.  He had 10 assists and only 1 TO but that TO was very untimely.  For reasons I don't understand Brad had Thomas take the ball out of bounds under the Raptor basket with :41 left and down by 4.  Thomas throws the ball over everybody into the back court where it is stolen.  That pretty much sealed the loss.  Unless you're calling for a short inbound pass to a big, and then IT steps in bounds and gets the ball back from the big behind his pick for a shot, I don't get it?  A hobbit could hamper IT's in bound pass.  Why not have Kelly (or Jonas or Turner or...) take it out and then get it to the quick Thomas for the shot?

8.  Bradley with a solid, all-round game.  19 points on 9-14.  It seems he's good for 2 mini-runs of his own per game.

9.  Crowder has the occasional bad game but he has become really quite reliable.  17 points on 7-11, 3-5 from 3 and defending anybody and everybody.

10.  Stat Roundup:  We gave up 55% shooting.  That sucks.  They had a 35 point 1st quarter and a 40 point 3rd quarter.  I know some of that was DeRozan just going dog-nuts, but still that's a lot of points to give up, it's still 24 points without DeRozan.  They had 54 points in the paint.  That's awful.  Scola and Valans, alone, were 10-11 in the paint.  Before someone starts talking about the need for a shot blocker let me point out that a lot of their points came off of offensive rebounds and because our porous perimeter defense was allowing penetrators through like from a fire hose and our poor defensive rotations weren't picking up either of those guys when they became free because one of our guys went to pick up the penetrator.  Even a rim protector can only stop one guy at a time and if the ball is coming right down his throat then his man is going to get a free shot at an offensive rebound because he has no choice but to leave his man and try and stop the ball.

Usually it's our offense that falls down.  We shot over 50% last night, so that wasn't the problem.  Our problem was lousy defense, Amir getting eaten alive by his replacement and DeRozan doing everything he could to make sure he gets on the All-Star team and not Bradley.


bob


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[bobheckler]

Josh Lewenberg: At one point Amir accidentally referred to the Raptors as “us” before correcting himself and asking if anyone has questions about Boston 15 hours ago – via Twitter JLew1050


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