Post Game Thread - @ Lakers

[bobheckler]

And this was supposed to have been the easiest game this trip...

A lot of people want to trade, or not re-sign, Marcus Smart.  One game's shooting doesn't wipe out an entire season's shooting but is there anybody on the Celtics that hates losing more than Marcus Smart? 

I don't know if there is a rookie wall or not but Jayson Tatum was 1-6 last night and 1-3 from 3.  He is now shooting 40.4% in his last 5 games (vs 48.8% for the season), 35% from 3 (vs 45% for the season) and 60% from the line (vs 81.3% for the season).  His numbers are even worse if you go back 10 games.  He has played in 48 games so far.  That is more games than he played in his year at Duke and he has played them in fewer months.

Jaylen Brown was 4-11 and 1-5 from 3.  He also got lit up by Kuzma and Clarkson.

In fact, we have gone completely 3-happy.  44 of our 90 fgas were 3s.  We have no offensive motion anymore.  There's not a lot of cutting, so we're not getting a lot of layups.  We are also, surprisingly, not a good running team.  You would think we would be with all the young legs on our roster but we're not.  We had 5 fast break points last night.  They outran us (5 vs 12), they outscored us in the paint (44 vs 58), they out scored us at the line (8-10 vs 21-36).  It was only 3s that kept this close (15-44 vs 7-26).  So, is it good that we took that many 3s or is that symptomatic of why we lost?

Baynes played when Lopez played.  Theis got more minutes than Baynes.  Baynes is starting to look like a specialty player, a player that Brad uses against big, heavy centers like Lopez and Howard and Embiid but lacks the skills to use his size and strength to dominate less physically imposing centers.

We took 10 ftas, they took 36.  That's the game right there.  The only reason why this game was close is because they only shot 58% from the line.  If they shot a more reasonable 75% this would have been a blow out.  A lot of their fritos came off of penetrations.  Our perimeter defense was quite porous.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975446




bob



.

[wideclyde]

Ouch!

[worcester]

Truly an embarrassment. Where in the witness protection program did Jalen and Jayson go?

[mrkleen09]

This is one of the few times where I put the loss on the Coach and his sometimes over reliance on "minute restrictions"

#1 - At the start of the 4th - Kyrie was on fire and the Celtics were up by 88-82, when Brad took him out at the 8 minute mark.  Over the next 3+ minutes, the Lakers went on a 13-3 run - and still Kyrie sat.  He didnt come back in until there were 5 minutes left.  That 3 minute stretch, was when the game was lost.

#2 - You HAVE to have to have the ball in Kyrie's hands with the game on the line.  100% of the time, period, end of story.   Unless Smart has a layup - no questions and that is on the coach imo.

Not concerned with the losing streak to be honest.  Tatum hit the rookie wall, Rozier is back to his old up and down self, and Jaylen has yet to establish himself as a go to scorer.  

They will be fine - but staying up until 1245 am two nights in a row would feel better with a win.

[worcester]

Ditto mrkleen. Brad should have kept Kyrie in there.

[kdp59]

another signature......oh never mind

[112288]

Not too hard to figure out that the Celtics are not playing team defense or team ball. LAL killed the Celtics by dominating the paint in scoring.   It is clear that teams are spreading the floor better against the Celtics and then driving the paint for layups or dish offs to cutting teammates.

WHY?   Because we do not have a RIM PROTECTING CENTER who can bail out our perimeter defense which is slowly fading into the sun set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How the hell does 3rd year man Randle who basically playing himself off of the LAL team a few months back............literally man handled Horford!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He scored at will off of him........so pathetic!

Haywood or no Haywood...........we need another sniper added to the team.  What will happen when Haywood comes back is simple......they will double team him or add other pressure on defense to negate his scoring and force the scoring to others who are quickly becoming non threats!

The shot select is becoming even more pathetic as well.

Talk about poor shooting................Where the hell has Brown's shooting gone to?  He was red hot in the beginning of the year....hitting 3 pointers and other mid range shots..........now he can't even but a ball into the ocean!!!!!!!  At this point Smart is a better shooter then Brown.  

Ya know...............Brown reminds me of Jeff Green...........a lot of athleticism and flashes of greatness................but never put it all together!   Still young at 21 years old..................but question marks are beginning to creep into my mind!
Why not package him for Leonard on SAS????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I hear he wants out because SAS cannot attract talent!

112288

[worcester]

The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

[steve3344]

With what was on the line, I can't remember a regular season game that made me more angry. Tough night. Lakers now in the eighth slot.

[dboss]

Where to begin?

I did not think this was going to be the easiest game of the road trip.  To the contrary.  This was a Celtics/Lakers game.  Boston arrived in the morning after flying across the country and the Lakers have been playing much better as of late.

As I mentioned during the game on thread, the Lakers play hard and never quit and they like to get up and down.

We can look at many factors that impacted the game but the 68-48 rebounding advantage stands out particularly their 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass.  That led to a big points in the paint advantage.  Their 12-5 fast break points was another factor.

What stands out the most was the Celtics inability to control their defensive glass.  We need another big but I am not sure there is one out their to be had.

The Celtics shot the ball better than LA and turnovers was pretty even.  We lost the game because we could not keep them from rebounding missed shots.

As usual, the Celtics kept their fans in stitches right to the very last 3 point shot attempt.  It was attempt #44 to be exact.  My thoughts on individual perfromances.

Al Horford is an allstar again for the 5th time.  He played well with 13 points, 12 boards and 6 assists.  He also got murdered in the post attempting to cover Randle.  

Jason Tatum has officially slammed into that rookie wall.   What I am seeing from him over the last dozen or so games culminated last night in perhaps his worse performance of the year.  He looks off balanced on his jumper and is struggling with his mechanics a bit.  He is trying too hard to drive to the basket.  He is playing too fast unlike earlier when he took his time.  This looks more mental than physical although we can assume that the physicality of the game is catching up with him and he is wearing down.  Coach Stevens should look to get him back into catch and shoot situations to help him re-establish his rhythm.  

Jaylen Brown is struggling to find his range but that is something we have seen over the past year and a half.  He needs to work on his level of concentration.  I think both he and Jason would benefit from a more uptempo game but that does not appear to be something that the Celtics can implement this year.  They scored 5 points on fast breaks which is just plain awful.

Kyrie Irving went 4-11 from behind the arc or 36% which is not bd.  He was 13-24 overall which was very good at 54% and once again carried the heavy load on offense with 33 points.

Just when I was bitching about Baynes only getting 5 minutes the other night, he gets 11 and had a horrible game with stupid unnecessary fouls.  He ended up with no points and 2 rebounds and 2 turnovers.  And oh yes another missed 3 point shot from the corner.  The Celtics needed him to stay out of foul trouble (5) because his strength may have been of value in the post.

As has become the norm, Theis gave us 16 minutes with 5 rebounds and 4 points on limited opportunities.  3 of his rebounds were on the offensive glass.

Morris had 13 and 7 while shooting  6-11 from the field but only 1-4 from deep.  he had no assists.  Yes I called him a black hole because he is an unwilling passer.

Terry had his 9 points with 3 rebounds but did little to run the offense as he had no assists.

Marcus had one of his better scoring games of the year.  He went 4-10 from deep and recorded 8 assists.  He was 7-13 overall from the field so 10 of his 13 shots were 3 pointers.  Whenever Marcus hits a 3 early in the game I know he is going to take a lot of them.  At halftime he said his coaches and teammates wants him to take threes.  If that is the advice he is getting from the coaches in particular it defies any semblance of logic.  What are they thinking?  That he will hit the next one he takes?

This game ended in horror with the aforementioned Smart with the ball in his hands as the clock was running down.  3 point shot attempt number 44 was a miss.

We did not lose this game because Marcus missed the last shot.  We lost this game because of a collection of sub-par performances from a whole slew of players.  We lost mostly because you cannot surrender 20 more rebounds than you get.

dboss

[Sandpd]

Truly an embarrassment. Where in the witness protection program did Jalen and Jayson go?

I dunno, but I thought I saw their pictures on the sides of some milk cartons.

Ignorant question: Near the end of the game when LA missed the FT with seconds left, did the C's still have a TO to use? If they did, then it makes no sense to not to have taken it then and the onus is on Brad. They would have been able to advance the ball to set up a play from the half-court and we all know how successful Brad has been to set up plays after TO's. Even if they didn't have a TO to use, you'd think that they'd have at least talked about what to do while LA was taking FT's, hit or miss . . . other than having Smart dribble the ball full court to take a desperation 3 pt. shot. Oh well, hindsight is usually 20/20 vision.

[112288]

I hear Courtney Lee on the Knick's is available. He is putting up good numbers this year and was a nice addition to the Celtics in the past.

112288

[Sandpd]

Where to begin?

I did not think this was going to be the easiest game of the road trip.  To the contrary.  This was a Celtics/Lakers game.  Boston arrived in the morning after flying across the country and the Lakers have been playing much better as of late.

As I mentioned during the game on thread, the Lakers play hard and never quit and they like to get up and down.

We can look at many factors that impacted the game but the 68-48 rebounding advantage stands out particularly their 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass.  That led to a big points in the paint advantage.  Their 12-5 fast break points was another factor.

What stands out the most was the Celtics inability to control their defensive glass.  We need another big but I am not sure there is one out their to be had.

The Celtics shot the ball better than LA and turnovers was pretty even.  We lost the game because we could not keep them from rebounding missed shots.

As usual, the Celtics kept their fans in stitches right to the very last 3 point shot attempt.  It was attempt #44 to be exact.  My thoughts on individual perfromances.

Al Horford is an allstar again for the 5th time.  He played well with 13 points, 12 boards and 6 assists.  He also got murdered in the post attempting to cover Randle.  

Jason Tatum has officially slammed into that rookie wall.   What I am seeing from him over the last dozen or so games culminated last night in perhaps his worse performance of the year.  He looks off balanced on his jumper and is struggling with his mechanics a bit.  He is trying too hard to drive to the basket.  He is playing too fast unlike earlier when he took his time.  This looks more mental than physical although we can assume that the physicality of the game is catching up with him and he is wearing down.  Coach Stevens should look to get him back into catch and shoot situations to help him re-establish his rhythm.  

Jaylen Brown is struggling to find his range but that is something we have seen over the past year and a half.  He needs to work on his level of concentration.  I think both he and Jason would benefit from a more uptempo game but that does not appear to be something that the Celtics can implement this year.  They scored 5 points on fast breaks which is just plain awful.

Kyrie Irving went 4-11 from behind the arc or 36% which is not bd.  He was 13-24 overall which was very good at 54% and once again carried the heavy load on offense with 33 points.

Just when I was bitching about Baynes only getting 5 minutes the other night, he gets 11 and had a horrible game with stupid unnecessary fouls.  He ended up with no points and 2 rebounds and 2 turnovers.  And oh yes another missed 3 point shot from the corner.  The Celtics needed him to stay out of foul trouble (5) because his strength may have been of value in the post.

As has become the norm, Theis gave us 16 minutes with 5 rebounds and 4 points on limited opportunities.  3 of his rebounds were on the offensive glass.

Morris had 13 and 7 while shooting  6-11 from the field but only 1-4 from deep.  he had no assists.  Yes I called him a black hole because he is an unwilling passer.

Terry had his 9 points with 3 rebounds but did little to run the offense as he had no assists.

Marcus had one of his better scoring games of the year.  He went 4-10 from deep and recorded 8 assists.  He was 7-13 overall from the field so 10 of his 13 shots were 3 pointers.  Whenever Marcus hits a 3 early in the game I know he is going to take a lot of them.  At halftime he said his coaches and teammates wants him to take threes.  If that is the advice he is getting from the coaches in particular it defies any semblance of logic.  What are they thinking?  That he will hit the next one he takes?

This game ended in horror with the aforementioned Smart with the ball in his hands as the clock was running down.  3 point shot attempt number 44 was a miss.

We did not lose this game because Marcus missed the last shot.  We lost this game because of a collection of sub-par performances from a whole slew of players.  We lost mostly because you cannot surrender 20 more rebounds than you get.

dboss

+1

[worcester]

I was always taught you can pass the ball faster than you can run with it. Why was there not a play to pass the ball up court with 5 seconds to go?

[dboss]

I was always taught you can pass the ball faster than you can run with it. Why was there not a play to pass the ball up court with 5 seconds to go?

This team does not pass the ball well up the court which is the main reason we have no fast break. Smart should have tried to get the ball up ahead but he was locked into just dribbling the ball up the court with enough time to launch another 3 point shot.

dboss

[bobheckler]

I was always taught you can pass the ball faster than you can run with it. Why was there not a play to pass the ball up court with 5 seconds to go?

This team does not pass the ball well up the court which is the main reason we have no fast break.  Smart should have tried to get the ball up ahead but he was locked into just dribbling the ball up the court with enough time to launch another 3 point shot.

dboss

bob



.

[swish]

Started out 22-4 (.846 ) since then 12-10 (.545 ). It's a long season and ups and downs are quite common but it seems to me that many fans are quick to judge an entire season on early returns. First came the glee and now comes the gloom. Probably best to sit back and hold back judgement to much later in the season. Like Sam used to say! - SEE ME IN JUNE. In the mean time it's out of our hands.

swish

[dboss]

Started out 22-4 (.846 ) since then 12-10 (.545 ). It's a long season and ups and downs are quite common but it seems to me that many fans are quick to judge an entire season on early returns. First came the glee and now comes the gloom. Probably best to sit back and hold back judgement to much later in the season. Like Sam used to say! -  SEE ME IN JUNE. In the mean time it's out of our hands.

 swish

Swish waiting to see what happens until April is not a realistic option because we discuss each and every game. No one should get too high up or too down low. But it is obvious to most fans that this team needs better rebounding in the middle and they need another scorer off the bench. Waiting until June does not change that. It will also be out of our hands in June. It has always been out of our hands but never out of our minds.

dboss

[steve3344]

Started out 22-4 (.846 ) since then 12-10 (.545 ). It's a long season and ups and downs are quite common but it seems to me that many fans are quick to judge an entire season on early returns. First came the glee and now comes the gloom. Probably best to sit back and hold back judgement to much later in the season. Like Sam used to say! -  SEE ME IN JUNE. In the mean time it's out of our hands.

 swish

We're lucky Toronto is only 8-6 their last 14 games and Cavs went into the toilet. But at our pace the Raptors will soon overtake us for the top spot.

[wideclyde]

Out rebounded by 20 and a one point loss?

[dboss]

Out rebounded by 20 and a one point loss?

Wyde

Good observation. You would think that with a rebounding edge like that we would have lost by more however the Celtics outshot them
FG%, 3PTFG % and FT%, turnovers were even and we put up 90 shots to their 91.

If they do not crush us on the glass they would not have won the game. They are a feisty bunch that wins with an aggressive style and thy play hard throughout the game. If you beat them in the fundamentals they struggle to win.

dboss

[k_j_88]

I'd like to see more of Theis. As it stands, he's the most mobile big and has the best stamina. 16 minutes is simply too few.


KJ

[swish]

Started out 22-4 (.846 ) since then 12-10 (.545 ). It's a long season and ups and downs are quite common but it seems to me that many fans are quick to judge an entire season on early returns. First came the glee and now comes the gloom. Probably best to sit back and hold back judgement to much later in the season. Like Sam used to say! -  SEE ME IN JUNE. In the mean time it's out of our hands.

 swish

Swish waiting to see what happens until April is not a realistic option because we discuss each and every game.  No one should get too high up or too down low.  But it is obvious to most fans that this team needs better rebounding in the middle and they need another scorer off the bench.  Waiting until June does not change that.  It will also be out of our hands in June.  It has always been out of our hands but never out of our minds.    

dboss

"No one should get too high up or too down low."

They shouldn't - but they sure in hell do.

swish

[dboss]

Started out 22-4 (.846 ) since then 12-10 (.545 ). It's a long season and ups and downs are quite common but it seems to me that many fans are quick to judge an entire season on early returns. First came the glee and now comes the gloom. Probably best to sit back and hold back judgement to much later in the season. Like Sam used to say! -  SEE ME IN JUNE. In the mean time it's out of our hands.

 swish

Swish waiting to see what happens until April is not a realistic option because we discuss each and every game.  No one should get too high up or too down low.  But it is obvious to most fans that this team needs better rebounding in the middle and they need another scorer off the bench.  Waiting until June does not change that.  It will also be out of our hands in June.  It has always been out of our hands but never out of our minds.    

dboss

      "No one should get too high up or too down low."

 They shouldn't - but they sure in hell do.

  swish

Swish that is absolutely true.

dboss

[swish]

I think that the role of the free throw is being over looked here.
   Celts,,,,  8 for 10
   Lakers,, 21 for 36
Could have been easy for them if they are a decent free throw showing team.
Considering that being fouled on three point attempts is much less frequent than in the paint 2 point attempts - then the fact that we took 18 more shots from 3 point land certainly didn't help to get us to the foul line.
High volume shooting from outside the line can create a major deficit at the foul line

  swish

[Sponsored content]