POST GAME NEW ORLEANS HORNETS

Celtics Wrap: Boston Dispatches Pelicans 113-100, Earns Sixth Straight Win

NESN by Logan Mullen on Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 9:44PM

BOSTON — Yep, the Celtics have found their form.

Boston earned its sixth straight win Monday night, beating the New Orleans Pelicans 113-100 at TD Garden.

It was a sound performance from Boston pretty much wire-to-wire, despite injuries to some key players. Kyrie Irving (shoulder), Al Horford (knee), Aron Baynes (ankle), Gordon Hayward (illness) and Guerschon Yabusele (ankle) all were out.

Still, Boston was efficient in both ends, shooting 49 from the field in addition to keeping the visitors right at 100 points. The Celtics never trailed after tying the game with 4:24 in the first period.

Marcus Morris led the Celtics with 29 points. Jayson Tatum (21 points), Jaylen Brown (16), Semi Ojeleye (11), and Terry Rozier (10) also tallied double figures for Boston. Anthony Davis dropped a game-high 41 points, while Julius Randle added 20.

With the win, the Celtics climbed to 16-10, while the Pelicans fall to 14-15.

Here’s how it all went down.

STARTING FIVE
PG: Terry Rozier
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Daniel Theis

LATE SURGE
Little separation could be created by either side during the first period, but a 9-0 run towards the end of the frame gave the Celtics a 28-21 advantage after 12 minutes.

The opening stanza featured seven lead changes and four ties, but the highlight of the quarter easily was a big play by Celtics rookie Robert Williams. The big man electrified the crowd when he blocked Pelicans star Anthony Davis right at the rim.

Tatum led all players with nine first-quarter points.

NARROW SECOND
It was level-pegging in the second period, with the Celtics ultimately heading into the break ahead 59-53 after getting outscored by the Pelicans 32-31.

Neither side would let the other really get into a rhythm on both ends, as the Pelicans posted a 6-0 run at one point while the Celtics had a 5-0 stretch of their own.

Though their lead didn’t get bigger than 11 in the half, the Celtics mostly were efficient in the offensive end when they attacked the rim. They shot 51-percent from the field (24-for-47), but only executed two of their 14 3-point attempts. Boston outscored New Orleans 26-24 in the paint.

Davis had a game-high 18 points in the first half. Tatum led the Celtics with 15 points through the first 24 minutes.

C’S MAINTAIN CONTROL
The Celtics took an 83-72 advantage into the final frame, outscoring the Pelicans 24-19 in the third.

Morris came storming out of the break, putting together a 9-3 run by himself in the first 1:22 by knocking down treys in three consecutive trips down the floor to up the C’s lead to 13.

Although their lead got cut to single digits during the middle portions of the third, the Celtics got their advantage back up to 15 in the final minute of the period. The Pelicans finished the frame strong, however, scoring four points in the final 20 seconds.

Morris and Randle each had nine points in the third quarter.

BOSTON SLAMS THE DOOR
The Celtics made sure they didn’t allow the Pelicans to make things interesting in the final stanza, outscoring New Orleans 30-28 in the final 12 minutes.

Although the Pelicans strung together a few quality offensive possessions, Brown pretty much put the game away by drilling two triples in the middle part of the frame, the latter of which upped Boston’s lead to 103-81 with 6:06 to play.

PLAY OF THE GAME
So smooth.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will hit the road for a matchup with the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. Tip-off from Capital One Arena is set for 7 p.m. ET.

112288

This was another impressive win.

I thought the defense was tremendous despite AD.  He went 17-34 and Randle also played well but it was not enough to offset the play of the Celtics.

Also tonight we got a glimpse of Robert Williams.  We have a legit shot blocker and rim protector.  His first extended minutes and he gets the best big man in the game.

Reminds me of days gone by.  Wilt would score 40 but Russell would come away with the W.

This was another team win led by the hot shooting of Morris and Tatum and great defense from Smart.  Rozier and Brown played well and Semi is really starting to click.

Real nice win.

I don't get paid for this, unlike Logan Mullen, but Morris had 31 points and Brown had 19. Please, no Faux sports news.

Quite a performance by our bench team masquerading as our starters.

Williams had 11 rebounds, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 3 blocks in 25 minutes - and it's not even Christmas yet. Must be a late Chanukah present.

Impressive performance considering all the injuries. I knew depth was a good thing, we played at a fast pace, Tatum and Morris carrying us early with Smart being the disruptive glue guy. We are playing harder and out efforting teams, great effective minutes for Robert Williams, first block he even kept ball in play. Jaylen attacking early, missing bunnies, but got hot at right time to put game away. Anthony Davis showed his all world level, shame after 5 years in the league, this is 
the best talent you can put around him?

If there is a deeper team from 1-12, let me know....now that Williams is showing he can be that energetic defensive/rebounding force will only add to our defense and running and pace. Not to get to far ahead of ourselves, but with our depth and youth and talent, I see us running teams off the floor, in waves after waves....

My favorite stats of the game;

Williams: 4 OREB.
Rozier and Brown: 3 OREB each.

2nd chance attempts at approximately 20 points.

Difference maker.

Early in the season we had discussions about depth.  

Last night proved once again that quality depth wins games.

Forget about last nights' game for a minute.  The trend I am seeing is that this team is really starting to click as more groups of players are playing better with each other.  Roles are becoming more clearly defined and as guys accept their roles on the team the wins come easier.

The inclusion of Robert Williams was quite revealing.  

Firstly I rarely see anyone block a shot by Anthony Davis.  Davis does not get his shots blocked because Davis is long and shoots with a high release point.  

Williams had 3 blocks last night to go along with several intimidations.  The combination equals rim protection.  That has been the missing component on this team for a long time.  Now how does Brad get this kid into the rotation because that needs to be done.

I think this kid can have an impact on our interior defense just like Smart impacts our perimeter defense.

Williams can also rebound the basketball.

Long athletic teams like The Raptors and the Bucks give us fits because of their length on their frontline.  Williams has the quickness and athleticim to go out and check Serge or defend the rim against the freak.

The Celtics have great point guard depth and outstanding wing depth.  They have stretch 4 and 5 depth but they have been missing what Williams can do.

I think you can play him with either Horford or Morris.  Those guys stretch the floor and Williams can patrol the paint.

Williams is the missing piece to this mosaic.

Here is the Game Flow chart:

the Rook really can get of the floor quick.

good to see him get some action and play well. Anyone think this may lead to Brad changing his rotations any?

I mean for Williams to get minutes, either Baynes or Theis would lose some, right?

kdp59 wrote:the Rook really can get of  the floor quick.

good to see him get some action and play well. Anyone think this may  lead to Brad changing his rotations any?

I mean for Williams to get minutes, either Baynes or Theis would lose some, right?

kdp,

I think this is one of those good problems to have.

Williams needs minutes. More accurately, the team needs Williams to get minutes.

Theis has also shown nice upside lately. If I'm Stevens, I think the guy that gives up minutes for Williams is Baynes. Just an odd-man-out situation.

Regards

Wally Pipp.

https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/the-real-wally-pipp-story-060215

I heard Mike Gorman say that Kyrie was talking to Anthony Davis after the game was over and suggested that maybe he was trying to sell him on coming to the Celtics?  Well, Kyrie or no Kyrie, if Davis wasn't impressed then he wasn't  paying attention (and we know he was paying attention).  We were playing without 4 of our top 9-10 players.  No Kyrie, no Horford, no Baynes, no Hayward, no Yabusele.  With the exception of Yabby the first four are an NBA starting 4 and, as you can see from GYSO's game flow chart, we were in charge the whole way.

Morris lit it up.  He is having a helluva final contract year, the year we all thought Rozier was going to have.  He was absolutely deadly.  I don't understand why Gentry didn't just glue someone to him.  Watch the highlight film I provided at the end and see how many open shots he had.  That's just poor coaching.  He's not going to be here next year, someone will pay him what Danny cannot/will not.

Tatum had 21 on 10-16 and it all got lost in the Davis/Morris offensive explosions.  He was 1-5 from 3, which means he was 9-11 from 2.  I know Brad is trying to wean him off of long 2s, seeing the benefit of stepping back another foot or two and going for 3, but it's hard to argue with 9-11.  A nice step-up game from the kid when he knew we needed offense because of our injuries.

Jrue Holiday, who has been on fire lately, had 7 points on 3-10.  Thank you, Mr. Smart.  Smart was blowing Holiday up all game.  In.  His.  Face.  I don't play in fantasy sports leagues and every time I think maybe I should give it a try I think about Marcus Smart and his contributions that you would never know about if you only looked at the boxscore and then I think "Nah, I'm good".

Robert Williams, aka The T I M E L O R D (I'm told by GYSO that there has to be spaces between each letter), had quite the coming out party.  Given credit for 3 blocks, at least 2 of which were on Davis.  He has springs for legs, he goes up and then goes right back up quickly.  That was Bill Russell's strength too (there ya go, bobc, an obligatory reference to Russ).  Brad was asked about Williams' game and how he did a great job on Davis and Snarky Brad showed up and said "yeah, he held him to 41".  Still, I actually thought he did a better job than Theis.  Theis worked hard, played him well too, but there wasn't much he could do.  Davis is a freaking stud-and-a-half.  Both Theis and Williams contested most of Davis' shots.  That's about all that's possible.  Williams' first block on Davis comes at a little before 2:00 on the highlight film.

Wanamaker came in and did a very credible veteran job of running the team.  One of my concerns if Rozier gets traded because he's in his last year and is going to have beaucoup bucks thrown at him (and he wants to start) is "who's going to back up Kyrie and play tough defense on the league's really fast guards?  Wanamaker showed something last night.  He played good defense on Holiday too.

Randle is playing very well.  I don't know why teams don't overplay his left hand, though.  He is very left-hand-centric.  Forget about him going right, or faking right, or spinning right.  9 times out of 10 he is going to come back to his left hand.  And that 1 in 10 is just me giving myself some slack.  Semi played pretty good defense on him.  One of the relatively few players in the league that can match up with Randle physically; weight, strength and foot speed.

Davis had 41 points on 17-34 shooting, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.  He was also a Pelican-worst -18 +/-.  This is why that stat, +/-, which analysts love to tout as an individual game stat, is valueless.  Anybody who thinks that Anthony Davis was the least valuable player on the floor for the Pelicans needs to go back to baseball or soccer or whatever sport they know something about.

Semi attacked the basket last night more than usual (which, admittedly, isn't a lot).  JAYLEN attacked the basket a lot too.  He is just SO much more effective when he is going to the rim than when he is staying outside and shooting.  He was 4-7 from 3 last night, which is excellent, but overall?  No.  Being 4-7 from 3 made him only 2-9 from 2, but some of those were good defensive plays that made him miss, and then he got his own miss.  That's where his 3 offensive boards came from.  Those misses diluted his 2-point average but the idea is sound.  Attack, Jaylen, attack.  That's what got you into the league, not your long-range gunnery skills.

We shot 48.9%.  With our 2nd unit and end-of-bench.  We scored 113 points.  Our season-to-date average is 110.4 ppg.  So, we raised our offensive average with last night's game, with our 2nd unit and end-of-bench, and beat a .500 WC team.  Furthermore, our #2 defense is giving up only 102.8 ppg.  We only gave up 100 last night.  Our offense AND our defense outperformed our own benchmarks, with our 2nd unit and end-of-bench.  We outrebounded NOP 51-39 without Horford and Baynes.
We had 5 blocks to their 1.  Take T I M E L O R D's 3 blocks out and we still out-blocked a team with Anthony Davis on it. We had 14 offensive rebounds to only 6 by them.  Davis should be impressed, I know I am.

Mirotic only played 7 minutes.  A break, for a change.

Jahlil Okafor only played 3 minutes.  Cheick Diallo played 19 minutes.  That sums up Jahlil Okafor.  Before the game Danny went over and gave him a hug.  Please, Danny, no.  If he can't get off the bench except for the last 3 minutes in a game where the other team has no true center he is not an NBA player.  I don't know wtf his problem is but he is not cutting it in this league.  He needs to go to Europe or, even better, China where they don't play defense.  Jah, the Rastafarian name for God, would be a living god in China.  Sit down, Starbury and Jimmer, you're yesterday's idols.  Think about it, Jah.  They will pay you more than anybody will pay you here and you'll own everybody in that league.  You own nobody here.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071074















bob



.

FYI:

"petit scarabée" can be translated to mean grasshopper. Or so it says here:

https://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/grasshopper

worcester wrote:Wally Pipp.

https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/the-real-wally-pipp-story-060215

Aron Pipp?

NYCelt wrote:

kdp59 wrote:the Rook really can get of  the floor quick.

good to see him get some action and play well. Anyone think this may  lead to Brad changing his rotations any?

I mean for Williams to get minutes, either Baynes or Theis would lose some, right?

kdp,

I think this is one of those good problems to have.

Williams needs minutes. More accurately, the team needs Williams to get minutes.

Theis has also shown nice upside lately. If I'm Stevens, I think the guy that gives up minutes for Williams is Baynes. Just an odd-man-out situation.

Regards

Williams is likely to get minutes from Baynes but I also think that he will get minutes from Al Horford. Al has a knee issue and i think it has to be managed. When I look at the game log for Al he has maybe 2 games this year where he was really good. He is not rebounding the ball well and gives us very little inside scoring. Al has turned into an outside shooter. For a center he hardly ever gets to the line. I think he does not have the capacity to play at a high level of intensity for 30 minutes. Al has always been an undersized center and in order for him to be effective he has to play with more energy. As he has gotten older he has less energy and intensity when playing a lot of minutes. His rebounding, scoring and assists are all trending down. He only has 2 double doubles all year long. He only has 3 games with double digit rebounds. Williams may be able to take some burden off of Al.

Okay, Bob mentioned Jah, the Rastafarian God. This song comes to mind.

Hey Bob I think Jaylen needs a combination of outside shooting skills as well as taking his man off the bounce.  It seems everybody keeps forgetting that he shot the deep ball very well all season last year and during the playoffs.  For him to be a great offensive player his drive needs to set up his jumper and his jumper needs to set up his drives.  Him knowing how to score is still a learning experience.

He began the year shooting very poorly from deep.  I think he was pressing but I see nothing in his mechanics that tell me he will not shoot the ball well from deep.

dboss wrote:Hey Bob I think Jaylen needs a combination of outside shooting skills as well as taking his man off the bounce.  It seems everybody keeps forgetting that he shot the deep ball very well all season last year and during the playoffs.  For him to be a great offensive player his drive needs to set up his jumper and his jumper needs to set up his drives.  Him knowing how to score is still a learning experience.

He began the year shooting very poorly from deep.  I think he was pressing but I see nothing in his mechanics that tell me he will not shoot the ball well from deep.

dboss,

Sure, he shouldn't just give up on 3s, that would be inconsistent with Brad's offensive philosophy if nothing else, he should just go at the rim more. Force the defense to react, force them to try and stop him. 36% of his fgas are 3pt fgas. I'd ask for no more than that, maybe even a little less. He's shooting 30% from 3 this year, down from 39.5% last year, so it's not big loss.

Also, this year we have Kyrie and Gordon back. We don't need players to shoot the 3 to open the floor up as badly as we did last year. We need drive-and-kickers to Kyrie and Gordon or we need catch-and-shooters from Kyrie and Gordon and at 30% I'm not liking Jaylen as a catch-and-shoot 3pt shooter. Unfortunately I haven't seen any improvement in Jaylen's ballhandling. He really, really needs to improve that. To be an All-Star, generally, you have to take a lot of ftas, hit a high percentage of them and be able to handle the ball well. If you cannot handle the ball well you cannot create the plethora of moves an All-Star has that earns them all those points and/or ftas.


bob


.

gyso wrote:Okay, Bob mentioned Jah, the Rastafarian God.  This song comes to mind.

Makes me think of how much I love Jamaica. Can't get my wife to go; too hot for her.

Have a deal with my son. He maintains an average above 94 through high school and I send him and two friends to Jamaica.

Scarab was the Egyptian beatle of lore. Loosely translated, yeah, "Patience grasshopper."

I love Brad's sarcasm: "yeah, he held him to 41"

Still, Williams is one fine player in the making.

NYCelt wrote:

gyso wrote:Okay, Bob mentioned Jah, the Rastafarian God.  This song comes to mind.

Makes me think of how much I love Jamaica. Can't get my wife to go; too hot for her.

Have a deal with my son. He maintains an average above 94 through high school and I send him and two friends to Jamaica.

gyso,

Maybe he needs a chaperone? It's usually cooler at the beach. Mon.

https://weatherspark.com/m/20739/1/Average-Weather-in-January-in-Montego-Bay-Jamaica



bob


.

How the worm has turned. Not much complaining about Mook this year

bobheckler wrote:

dboss wrote:Hey Bob I think Jaylen needs a combination of outside shooting skills as well as taking his man off the bounce.  It seems everybody keeps forgetting that he shot the deep ball very well all season last year and during the playoffs.  For him to be a great offensive player his drive needs to set up his jumper and his jumper needs to set up his drives.  Him knowing how to score is still a learning experience.

He began the year shooting very poorly from deep.  I think he was pressing but I see nothing in his mechanics that tell me he will not shoot the ball well from deep.

dboss,

Sure, he shouldn't just give up on 3s, that would be inconsistent with Brad's offensive philosophy if nothing else, he should just go at the rim more.  Force the defense to react, force them to try and stop him.  36% of his fgas are 3pt fgas.  I'd ask for no more than that, maybe even a little less.  He's shooting 30% from 3 this year, down from 39.5% last year, so it's not big loss.

Also, this year we have Kyrie and Gordon back.  We don't need players to shoot the 3 to open the floor up as badly as we did last year.  We need drive-and-kickers to Kyrie and Gordon or we need catch-and-shooters from Kyrie and Gordon and at 30% I'm not liking Jaylen as a catch-and-shoot 3pt shooter.  Unfortunately I haven't seen any improvement in Jaylen's ballhandling.  He really, really needs to improve that.  To be an All-Star, generally, you have to take a lot of ftas, hit a high percentage of them and be able to handle the ball well.  If you cannot handle the ball well you cannot create the plethora of moves an All-Star has that earns them all those points and/or ftas.


bob


.

Bob

I'm not seeing the same things as you are. Granted, his 3 point shooting .299% has been hideous but he should improve greatly before the year is finished. He shot great last year so it is not like he cannot make 3 pointers. You say he has not improved his handle but I think that he has. His cross over looks a lot tighter and although he may get the ball slapped away sometimes he only average 1.5 turnovers per game. The other night he had two spectacular drives to the hoop while changing direction. (the one with the euro step and the other he finished with a dunk) It really looks to me like he is starting to click including his free throws. It is a small sample size but I think he has turned the corner. He is a SG. In this league he has to shoot the 3 ball to be effective. I think I would give it a few more games. Again a small sample size over the past 3 games (21 PPG, .568% FG, .583% 3 pointers and .824% from the line.) I think he got ahead of himself to start the season but he is a very smart and determined young man.

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How did Robert Williams fare, defensively, vs. Anthony Davis?

The NBA's tracking data had Williams defending Davis on a team-high 32 possessions (tied with Daniel Theis) and allowing 15 points on 7-of-17 shooting with 2 blocks (Theis allowed Davis 21 points on 8-of-13 FG)





bob



.

I can see Williams getting 10-15 minutes a game for the next few weeks, eventually around after all star game I’d like him to earn 20-25 minutes a game. If he can earn that, our defense and rebounding will be greatly improved. On Jaylen, I definitely see improvements in his handle and love seeing him coming off the bench with the attacking mentality, knowing his role, attack, punish, get to the line....