Post Game Thread - vs Detroit Pistons, Away

[bobheckler]

Missed the first half but Flat as hell the 2nd half, though.

Horford and Kelly 4-21 combined.  They boarded, though.  Al with 9 and Kelly with 6 in 19 minutes.  Al also had 5 assists and zero TOs.  His shooting sucked.

Brown with 4 TOs but a solid shooting night (anything even close to 50% was solid in this game and he was 5-9) but he got a key offensive rebound late (and was 1-2 from the line from the foul) and then hit a monster 3 from the corner.  He was fouled and missed that frito to make it a 4 point play but the fgm was BIG.  We really, really needed a bucket there.  Has to be a confidence builder for him.

When Marcus Smart is scoring well, and he was 5-10 for 14 points, I am in absolute awe of him because he has more freaking ganas than anybody I've seen in green since KG retired.  I mean, he is right up there in the ganas quotient with KG, Bird and Cowens.  He was crashing the boards for putbacks and offensive rebounds that got him to the line and just doing it all.  Defending 6'9" Marcus Morris, with mixed results but he is giving up 5" for Pete's Sake.  Unreal.  He just needs to cut back on his 3s and focus on his penetrations and post ups and he'd open anybody's eyes.  Take high percentage shots for him so he doesn't wipe out his defensive goodness with too many empty possessions and he's a remarkable asset. What a competitor!  

We outrebounded Andre Drummond and the Detroit Pistons 52-41.  That's amazing.  Crowder with 11, Horford with 9, Amir with 9, Kelly 6.  There's our bigs (Zeller only played 4 minutes, so it isn't fair to expect many from him) and a wing and there's 35 right there.  

We got outmuscled, outhustled and outworked in the 2nd half.  Teams are getting physical with us, like Toronto did, and it's throwing us off.  We got to get back to being initiators again.   They were contesting every single pass.

Washington lost.  We are now 2 games up in the loss column with 23 games to go.  I know, that's a lot of games but after these last two games I really am counting them down.  We need to stabilize this thing and start playing playoff ball.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900285


bob


.

[dboss]

What the hell is wrong with our frontline rotation of Horford, Johnson, KO and Jerebko??  17 combined points scored and the second game in a row where we got no offensive help from this group.

KO played like he has 2 left feet.  It seems that whenever he has a good game and I get more confident that he is getting better he gives us  game like this.

Bring on the Euros!

dboss

[jrleftfoot]

Really great team rebounding. You have to think Brad made it a point of emphasis . Drummond`s 1 for 11 from the line  was a difference maker.

[jrleftfoot]

What the hell is wrong with our frontline rotation of Horford, Johnson, KO and Jerebko??  17 combined points scored and the second game in a row where we got no offensive help from this group.

KO played like he has 2 left feet.  It seems that whenever he has a good game and I get more confident that he is getting better he gives us  game like this.

Bring on the Euros!

dbos

I don`t think KO will ever be consistent. He`s a decent bench piece. Jerebko hasn`t adjusted to the mask. I`m surprised he hasn`t discarded it. The guy that has me baffled is Horford. He`s been disappointing in every respect except passing.

[bobheckler]

This is what I mean by ganas.  He just wants it and will do whatever it takes.

Boston CelticsVerified account
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"When I need to, I can get the ball," says Smart on his crunch-time offensive rebounds.
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Here is the big Smart putback

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/836028320953196544



Boston CelticsVerified account‏@celtics  37m37 minutes ago
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Jaylen Brown: "I've worked on my shot bc that's what people have been critiquing me on my whole life. And I think I've gotten better at it."
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Jaylen's BIG 3pt corner shot, he got fouled on it, when we really, really, really needed a bucket from someone other than IT.

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/836029737470349313



Rozier with the crossover to get some space and then the 3 with the shot clock under 2 seconds and less than 2 minutes left in the game.  The kid has ice water in his veins.  

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/836020002721431552



bob


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[bobheckler]

By Marc D'Amico |  @Marc_DAmico
Celtics.com


February 26, 2017


Key Moment
Jaylen Brown is Mr. Fourth Quarter for the Celtics. At least for one night.

Brown canned a critical 3-pointer from right in front of Boston’s bench with 37.6 seconds left Sunday night to push the Celtics ahead, 98-96. His basket came off of a dish from Al Horford, who had taken the ball off the dribble from the top of the key and kicked out to Brown for the catch-and-shoot jumper.

Boston sealed the game with six free throws during the final 37-plus seconds to polish off a 104-98 win. Have we not quenched your thirst yet regarding the big shot? Don’t worry. We’ll have plenty more coverage coming up, so stay tuned.


Key Player
Five Celtics scored in double-figures Sunday night in Detroit. But only one of them notched a double-double.

That player’s name is Jae Crowder, who notched his third double-double of the season with 14 points and a team-best 11 boards.

Crowder tied for the team high in two other categories as well. He dished out five assists, tying Al Horford for the team’s best mark, all while committing no turnovers. He also attempted nine free throws, making seven, to tie Isaiah Thomas for the team’s top total.

Crowder’s 11 boards set a new season high, and his five assists fell just one tally shy of matching his season high. The versatile forward also contributed a steal during his 33-plus minutes of action.


Box Score Nuggets
Boston shot exactly 40.0 percent from the field and exactly 80.0 percent from the free-throw line.
The Celtics scored 27 points during each of the first two quarters, and 25 points during each of the final two quarters.
Detroit shot a woeful 16-for-35 from the free-throw line, good (bad?) for a 45.7 percent clip.
Isaiah Thomas scored a game-high 33 points.
All five of Detroit's starters scored in double-figures, led by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's 18 points.
Andre Drummond grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with 17 points.
Marcus Smart (14 points) and Terry Rozier (13 points) combined to outscore Detroit's entire bench (20 points).
Both teams made 12 free throws.
Jae Crowder logged a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Boston outscored Detroit 40-28 in the paint.
Al Horford and Amir Johnson each grabbed nine rebounds.
Horford and Crowder tied for the team high in assists with five apiece.
Reggie Jackson's six assists led the game.


Quote of the Night
"When I need to, I can get the ball."

Marcus Smart on his critical offensive rebounds during the final minutes of the fourth quarter.


bob


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[cowens/oldschool]

bob the biggest play was the 3 by Jaylen, then the tipin/offensive board by Smart to make it a 5 point play. Smart is such a physical ganas tough hombre kind of guy, he has a nose for the ball just like Paul Silas and obviously relishes all the contact and battling in the paint and other guards he can just overpower. Once he gets his shot just respectable, hes gonna be such a terror with all the other plays he makes both ends all over the floor....actually hes already a terror, he'll just be better and more of a terror for opponents once his shot gets better.

Even though we won, victories can hide alot of flaws, is there any question that any legit playoff team would have killed us tonite? We went thru too long a bad stretch, but the Pistons are such a bad team, they couldn't take us on a night I question Stevens coaching and IT's ability to make better decisions. Stevens let us play too sloppy, too scatterbrained, hes got to take charge, call more time outs and get back to how we play when were rolling and playing well.

When IT has it going, hes great and amazing, but that 3rd quarter he had too many plays where he lost the ball taking bad shot after bad shot and on a young team hes the veteran and the point guard, hes got to slow it down and get the ball to his teammates in the right spots. He hit some amazing shots with high degree of difficulty, but why didn't he even attempt to feed the hot hand? Jaylen was 4-5 at halftime, third quarter IT couldn't get him one good shot, Stevens couldn't figure out a way to get Jaylen going, after he had it going and deserved the ball, instead one bad possession after another, 10 turnovers in 3rd. WTF!!!

Luckily we still made enough plays, huge moment for Jaylen and some great bully ball by Marcus. Morris hit one turnaround over him in the 4th, then every attempt after that was stopped by our 6'4" enforcer.

[worcester]

Jalen, Terry, and Marcus - three excellent draft picks at the #3,16 and 5 selections respectively...Let's see what Danny does these next two years with two picks guaranteed to be in the top four. Can hardly wait. Kudos, Danny!

[dboss]

bob the biggest play was the 3 by Jaylen, then the tipin/offensive board by Smart to make it a 5 point play. Smart is such a physical ganas tough hombre kind of guy, he has a nose for the ball just like Paul Silas and obviously relishes all the contact and battling in the paint and other guards he can just overpower. Once he gets his shot just respectable, hes gonna be such a terror with all the other plays he makes both ends all over the floor....actually hes already a terror, he'll just be better and more of a terror for opponents once his shot gets better.

Even though we won, victories can hide alot of flaws, is there any question that any legit playoff team would have killed us tonite? We went thru too long a bad stretch, but the Pistons are such a bad team, they couldn't take us on a night I question Stevens coaching and IT's ability to make better decisions. Stevens let us play too sloppy, too scatterbrained, hes got to take charge, call more time outs and get back to how we play when were rolling and playing well.

When IT has it going, hes great and amazing, but that 3rd quarter he had too many plays where he lost the ball taking bad shot after bad shot and on a young team hes the veteran and the point guard, hes got to slow it down and get the ball to his teammates in the right spots. He hit some amazing shots with high degree of difficulty, but why didn't he even attempt to feed the hot hand? Jaylen was 4-5 at halftime, third quarter IT couldn't get him one good shot, Stevens couldn't figure out a way to get Jaylen going, after he had it going and deserved the ball, instead one bad possession after another, 10 turnovers in 3rd. WTF!!!

Luckily we still made enough plays, huge moment for Jaylen and some great bully ball by Marcus. Morris hit one turnaround over him in the 4th, then every attempt after that was stopped by our 6'4" enforcer.

Cow

I have never been able to understand how Steven will allow his team to play through long stretches of games when the team is not executing.  Last night was an example of leaving them to their own devices.  Celts had 4 turnovers in the first half and in the third QTR every thing that they every learned about the value of every possessions was forgotten.  The Celtics committed 9 turnovers  during the quarter.  And it was every imaginable turnover know to man.  This laissez faire coaching style may not be good for the team.  

Most concerning however has been the play of our Frontline (4/5)  and in particular, the play of our $113 million investment.  Through 11 games this month, AH scoring average has declined to 10.5 PPG.  The previous months were 15.6 and 15.9  Al also is not taking as many shots from the field.  So what the heck is going on here?

And what about KO.

After having 5 straight games with 7 boards and 14 points he looks completely loss on offense the past two games because he thinks he has handle but he does not have handle and he resembles a player with no rhythm (generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions") He is stumbling all over the place.  Rather just see him shoot the ball from the outside and miss than to embarrass himself and his team.

Jonas' broke nose has apparently effected his shot although let's get real here for a minute.  Our top 2 rotation bigs are not very good basketball players.  

As has been noted dozens of times this year Marcus Smart is a winner.  Before the trade deadline I saw his name pop up a few times.  I was hoping that he would not be included in any trade.  He makes plays that defy the laws of physics.  

Was also very impressed with the pups, Rozier and Brown.  Their court time will serve to really solidify our rotation for the remainder of the year and into the payoffs.

The Celtics are without a doubt a guard/small forwarded dominated team with the worst collection of 4/5 guys in the league.  Danny has a lot of work to do to balance off this roster.

Dboss

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