Post Game Thread - vs Los Angeles Clippers, Away

[bobheckler]

No Horford (shooting elbow sprain), no Jerebko (sick), 2nd night of a back-to-back. Not good.

Kelly got 7 rebounds, 4 of them offensive, only Crowder had more with 8 but played 15 more minutes, but that only highlights how many shots we missed.  You don't need offensive rebounds if you put the ball in the hole.

Crowder 3-13.  Kelly 2-6.  Rozier back to his old ways after a great shooting game, 2-7.  That's 7-26.

IT with 32, 10 in the 4th.  

Happy 23rd Birthday Marcus Smart.  It's amazing he is still that young.  I feel like I've been watching him for years.  Oh, wait a second...21 points on 6-12, 8-9 from the line on his B-day.  Pretty good.  He was also guarding everybody from CP3 to JJ Redick to Jamal Crawford to Blake Griffin.  When he is shooting well he is an amazing all-round player.  

Brad went VERY small in the 2nd half.  He had Crowder playing 4.  The problem was they rebounded and we couldn't get the ball and run on them like a small lineup has to do.  He also had a lineup towards the end that had no real shooters on it.  We got killed during that time because they scored and we didn't. Isaiah Thomas and Marcus Smart combined for 16-31, 51.6%. The rest of the team was 18-52, 34.6%.

Jamal Crawford is amazing.  When he gets hot, wow.  He hit 3 straight 3s to close out the 2nd quarter that made it a game.  The story is that they went on a 41-14 run and towards the end it was Jordan dunk after Jordan dunk as we were too small and too tired.

35 3pt fgas out of 83 fga.  That might work great when you're fresh and you've got your legs under you but we didn't.

Our front court is SO weak.  Kelly rebounded surprisingly well but didn't help much with the scoring (for the previous 10 games before this one Kelly shot 51.4%.  He has struggled his last 3-4 but he was doing well the other 6-7.  ON THE SEASON, Kelly is shooting 50.1%, while his career fg% is 47.2%).  Zeller made a cameo and Mickey couldn't stop Griffin (can't blame him for that!).  What is the point of having Zeller if you're down a center and the only other 7'er on the team is a 4/5 finesse player?  For all the talk about what a great professional Tyler Zeller is, being ready for when his number is called and all that, Brad doesn't use him when we were screaming for someone who could be in DeAndre Jordan's weight class.  Will Zizic fix this next year?  Hmm, I don't know.   All I do know is that he has to get on the floor to fix it and that's more than Zeller can do this year.

We shot 41% for the game.  Why didn't Gerald Green play?  It was turning into a Jordan dunkfest at the end, why didn't Zeller play?  Well, one reason might be that he picked up 3 personal fouls in 6 minutes.  Still, he gets 6, send him out to hack-a-Jordan, who was 3-16 from the line.  That's amazing.  A professional basketball player shooting 3-16 from the frito line.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900340



bob


.

[steve3344]

Only two players - Smart and IT - had good games.  I knew it would be a tough one without Horford and Jerebko on the Clippers home court, now with their whole squad back together.  But what I didn't know, or even think possible, was that we could get outscored by THIRTY-ONE points in as short a time span as 13 minutes.  What an avalanche.  From leading 66-53 with 4:29 left in the third to trailing 107-89 with 3:33 left in the game, the C's were outscored by a shocking 54-23.  In little over a quarter.  Boy was that hard to watch. Cleveland keeps giving us opportunities to narrow the gap but we can't take advantage.  Frustrating.  And up next on Wednesday is Golden State.  Hate to think how that one will end up in the likely scenario that Horford is again unavailable.  Wizards and us both have 24 losses now.  The good news is Boston's played eight more road games to date than Washington.  Huge plus for us.

[worcester]

Jalen also played well. How come no one passes the ball to him?

[mulcogiseng]

The reputation of this team is not that they are D-elite like last year. It's not that they are an offensive juggernaut like they are at times. It's not even that they play hard and overachieve. It's that they can be had if you keep playing. This team doesn't seem to value the ball or the lead. Those are fixable things. I wasn't particularly fond of the way this team played at the beginning of the season. I haven't changed my mind. They just don't play the right way consistently. That is because of the makeup of this team. That will change dramatically next season. This is still a good team and can do some damage in the playoffs but they need to play better and it needs to be more than just two or three players having a good night. I hope Brad rethinks his strategy of endless threes next season. There is no reason other than coaching why this team can't score more points in the paint. Brown needs to have plays run for him. Inside, outside or in between, get Jaylen the ball. Next year Zizic will be a potent inside threat. Yabusele and Nader both can attack the rim or hit from outside. FultzBall will make an impact. But this year they have to play better and smarter and when they take the lead, don't give it up.

[cowens/oldschool]

Not one of Brads better coached games, agree with bob we should have played Zeller more, if you get him the ball down low he has good hands and can score, obviously his problem is defense and rebounding, but I would have played him more. Jaylen can get to the line, hes got to get more attempts, especially when so many others are off. I loved listening to McHale on TNT, he loves our offense and Jaylen. We looked really good despite our cold shooting, because our perimeter defense was also very good. Up 66-53 I thought Doc was being tuned out.....then it all changed.

They started going at us harder, got all the 50/50 balls and Crawford got smoking hot, then they went at us inside, not hard to do to us without our best interior defender. We needed a second scorer to step up and no one could. Smart had 14 at the half and finished with 21, but I still like his better shot selection. Jamal Crawford is some weapon coming off that bench, still doing it at an advanced age.

[dboss]

Size does matter.

My two on-going complaints about the Celtics which does reflect coaching is (1) Their offense makes little use of a center that is best at scoring in the post and (2) They do not find ways to take something or someone out of the game.

They shot 10/35 or 28.6% from distance. For the year we have seen an improved in the three point shooting percentage from .335% last year to .365% this year. But 33.3 3PA per game is too damn high IMO.

Does Steven even know how to run a more diverse offense?

[willjr]

NBA Drama Is Brewing in Boston and Atlanta http://teamstre.am/2mykt1K

[steve3344]

Clips shot 84% on their last 25 shots of the game, making 21 of them.  Wow.

[RosalieTCeltics]

Tiring of IT calling out the coaching staff in public, especially Stevens. You have a problem, take to the office. You may be a terrific player but who the hell do you think you are. Welcome to the new world of spoiled players. Ego getting in the way.

No one likes to lose, that is for sure. They got totally outplayed in that stretch. I am disappointed in IT. Suck it up guy, you may have had 32 points but how many shots did you take and miss. I love the guy, but this is setting a tone here.

The other night I watched Jalen Rose, and a couple of other announcers talk about free agents. He insinuated that LA may go after IT when and if he hits free agency. ???

[dboss]

Tiring of IT calling out the coaching staff in public, especially Stevens. You have a problem, take to the office.  You may be a terrific player but who the hell do you think you are. Welcome to the new world of spoiled players. Ego getting in the way.  

No one likes to lose, that is for sure. They got totally outplayed in that stretch. I am disappointed in IT. Suck it up guy, you may have had 32 points but how many shots did you take and miss.  I love the guy, but this is setting a tone here.  

The other night I watched Jalen Rose, and a couple of other announcers talk about free agents. He insinuated that LA may go after IT when and if he hits free agency. ???

Rosalie

You certainly hit all of the highlights. One may ponder the notion that IT got a little outside the lines. Public pronouncements like that are unacceptable. No matter how much a player may be upset about a loss, publicly criticising your coach is unacceptable. Leadership never does that. This is twice now.

The IT free agency drama may result in an attitude trade. That is the reason why my beloved Patriots are top dog AGAIN. They will trade out of attitude issues.

Dboss

[dboss]

Also another minor thought. Small ball has run amuck. I agree. That is a private conversation between coach and player.

Dboss

[cowens/oldschool]

He shouldn't have said anything, but I agree that lineup was terrible and Stevens as good a coach as he is, did not coach as good as I would have liked last 2 games. He made a few mistakes last few games....now get Jaylen more touches already.

[gyso]

Players should not be publicly complaining about their coaches, that is the fan's job! Stop blurring the lines!!

#firebrad #nomorebadlineups

[Sponsored content]