POST GAME PHILLY - AWAY - BOS 115, PHI 118 Final

1.  No Hayward, no Baynes, no Smart.  That's 3 of our top 9 or 10 players.

2.  Joel Embiid took more ftas than our entire team.  Some of them were legit but a lot weren't.  It's hard to win when there is a 27 fta discrepancy but we still almost did.  The NBA record this year is 29.

3.  The refs were not only inconsistent, they were confused.  They allowed Redick to take a fta instead of Embiid.  Embiid hit the shots, but the fact that they let Redick step up to the line and take the shot, and then have to change the score to uncount it, makes them look very, very bad.  NBA refs are the worst of any major league sport.  Soccer refs get dumped on a lot because they let players get away with flopping, but there's only 1 of them on a field bigger than an NFL gridiron and they have to watch 20 players (11/team, don't have to watch the goalies, really, so that's 20).  The NBA has 3 refs who only have to watch 10 players on a small court, and they can't.

4.  Despite all this we only lost by 3.

Smart screwed up.  He was supposed to get into Embiid's head and Embiid ended up getting into his.  We could have won this game if he was in at the end and defending Tobias Harris.

Morris rebounded well but other than that he was terrible.  Didn't stay in front of anybody and shot like shit.  A Philly boy looking bad in Philly.  Now he knows why you can never go home again, it's because he stinks whenever he does.

This was the 2nd straight game against playoff level competition the two J's had invisible games.  6-12 and 3-3 are good, just not enough.  You have to elevate your games in the playoffs.  You need to do more.  Tatum disappeared for long stretches and Brown didn't do anything to justify passing to him.  As Tommy says "Move ball or move yourself!" and Jaylen didn't.  Acting like a piece of furniture doesn't earn you fgas, moving to get open or to create mismatches you can take advantage of does.  They (and I'm talking about just about everybody except our bigs who are coming off of setting picks for Kyrie) don't move whenever Kyrie has the ball.  Kyrie is a mesmerizer but he should be mesmerizing the other team, the players who doesn't see him do it everyday.  When Kyrie starts putting them into the blender the J's should be moving.  Cutting baseline.  Moving to an open spot while their men are watching Kyrie.  Instead they stand there.  Basketball 101:  when your defender isn't watching you, go somewhere else, preferably to the front of the rim but at least away from where your defender thinks you still are.

Horford with a Playoff Al game.

Rozier with his best game in a LONG time, maybe best of the season.

Losing Baynes hurt and will hurt for as long as he's out.  Whoda thunk that he'd be our MVP this year, the player that we miss the most and suffer the most when he's out?  Should have plopped a few bucks down on that bet at those odds, I would have cleaned up.  Embiid was bulldozing everybody.  Nobody had a chance of a snowflake in Hell of containing him except Baynes.  Embiid was lowering his shoulder and putting it directly into the middle of the chest of every defender Brad put on him.  When Embiid is allowed to play like a modern-day Shaq and just bounce guys as big as Baynes back 5' lwith his shoulder like we were seeing him do there is nothing to do about it.  I don't know if the fix was in, but it sure looked it.

Scal's an idiot.  Seriously.  He's said the fta differential was because they were more aggressive and we were taking more 3s and wasn't necessarily evidence of biased or poor officiating.  At the time he said that we had taken 28 3s and they had taken 30.  By the end of the game they had taken 33 3pt fgas and we had only taken 32.  So the argument that we were 3-happier than them is provable nonsense.  The White Mumble strikes again.

The line on the game was Philly - 3.  We lost by 3, but we also lost Baynes and Smart.  It's a moral victory, perhaps, but we tied the spread with an even more weakened squad.  And have I mentioned the officiating was an abomination?  I am never happy with losing but all-in-all, keeping in the mind we were on the road and getting increasingly short-handed

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071740



bob


.

Morris sucks

I went outside this morning to see and I saw just what I expected to see.

Yup, the sky was still up there!

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
The only positive outcome of the game (on NBC Sports):
Rozier, who already has trolled the 76ers for the confetti celebration, did so again after Wednesday's game.

"I thought the confetti was going to drop tonight," Rozier quipped. "I did. It was a big win, not trying to take nothing away from them, but I thought the confetti was dropping tonight."

AK

I like Rozier; he's not afraid of the moment. He reminds me of Ainge a bit in that Danny could get hot as a pistol or be a bit wild himself. The other young guys (the 2 Js) should take a page from him and just relax and play some ball. Kyrie is who he is, get over it; I remember when Rondo was pushing to try to get Avery starting over Ray and a clip of practice came out were Paul was razzing Avery saying he couldn't cover Ray cause he was too small. That's the work place; veterans have their prerogatives. Toughen up youngens!

kdp59 wrote:I'm not sure why anyone thinks Philly can't resign Harris and Butler next season?

I mean they can pay them any amount that needs to be paid to get it done.

Just like the Celtics can sign Irving, Morris and Roizer for whatever...if they chose to pay the extreme tax penalty's that would require.

Philly is a good team and they may be great team depending on how Embiid plays come playoff time.

closest thing to Wilt I've seen in a while.

Butler and Harris are each eligible for max salaries worth up to about $32+ MM, so if the Sixers re-sign both players, and say Redick, they will have an even worse bench than they do this year, which is not a tenable situation. Not to mention adding extra help would get even more difficult in future seasons, since Simmons’ rookie contract expires in 2020 and he figures to be in line for a huge new deal of his own.

Bottom line, the Sixers will not be able to carry 4 max contracts and Simmons is coming up for a big pay raise in 2020.

The Boston Celtics made 11 more shots than the Philadelphia 76ers in Wednesday night's game at the Wells Fargo Center and still lost 118-115.

What was the difference?

The free throw line, where Philly hit 39 of 43 attempts compared to the Celtics making 13 of 16. In total, the Sixers shot 27 more free throws. In fact, a team shooting 43 or more free throws with its opponent shooting 16 or fewer has happened in less than a quarter of a percent (!) of all NBA games since 1966-67.

That game should be brought to League Headquarters and those refs should be reprimanded for incompetence. Never seen so many bad calls, bad for the game. With so many of our players out the Sixers still needed the refs to bail them out. We will crush them at full strength.

It would have helped to have Smart, Baynes and Hayward. Or at least a couple of them for the whole game.

Free throw discrepancy was big, but the calls are the calls. Lose it on a bad call, shame on you. Celts earned some of those calls on themselves trying to srcamble on several plays where Boston's defense was slow in transition.

Philly starting five is among the best in the league. Bench isn't bad. Tough team, probably up there with Toronto and Milwaukee. If they can keep the starters together, maybe better than Raptors and Bucks by next season.

Celtic bigs need rest and healing for the playoffs.

At Hornets next. Time for another road win.

The free throw issue in this game cannot and should not be an isolated event.

I have posted about this issue many many time.

The Celtics are ranked 29th in free throw attempts.  The reason for this seems clear to me.  #1 we do not have a post up presence and #2 the offense is designed to open up 3 point shots in particular and are filled with enough cuts to the rim where a player has a chance to pick up a foul and/or score.  The lack of a post scorer is foremost.

The offense in that respect is flawed because it lacks one of the very basic elements needed in an offense.  Part of the problem is personnel where our bigs lack post offensive abilities and the other part is an over reliance on shooting the 3 point shot.  

Embid is 2nd in the NBA if FTA behind James Harden.   The bottom line is that Boston got destroyed by Embid who put up 37 Points and 22 rebounds.  The Sixers had 17 offensive rebounds to only 10 for the Celtics.  The Celtics are 22nd in the NBA in rebounds per game because we have a weak ass center named AH.

That is what it is.  We are not going to win the free throw battle and we are not going to win the rebounding battle in most games.

That is why the Celtics will not win the title if AH is our best big.  Every championship Celtics team in the past had a high end rebounder.  (Russell, Cowens, Parish and KG)  Every single team had a dominant rebounder.

That is in fact the missing piece.

dboss wrote:#1 we do not have a post up presence and #2 the offense is designed to open up 3 point shots in particular and are filled with enough cuts to the rim where a player has a chance to pick up a foul and/or score.  The lack of a post scorer is foremost.

The offense in that respect is flawed because it lacks one of the very basic elements needed in an offense.  Part of the problem is personnel where our bigs lack post offensive abilities and the other part is an over reliance on shooting the 3 point shot.  

dboss,

In other words, if I read you correctly, drive and kick out.

Perhaps it's not exactly what you're saying, but I've seen the flaw all year as no real threat to drive or take advantage of a low post threat. That's what opens up the 3. So, no drive, and taking the 3 way too early in the shot clock, plus no presence on the glass for offensive boards.

There's that big again.

No drive to the rim = fewer trips to the line. All the complaining about the big difference favoring opponents at the line isn't all poor officiating, it's not driving and getting to the line.

This, in my book, is why you give minutes to a Rob Williams, so you have some idea of who you're drafting or looking to sign or trade for.

Drive, take the shot if the lane is open, kick if not. Dish to the low post if your forward is open down on the block. If kicked, and a shot goes up, forward should be in position to compete for the board.

Basketball 101 never goes out of style, does it?

Regards

I honestly think that during practice, shoot arounds, etc. they see that Williams has a long way to go. It is one thing to play him in a G league game and watch him dominate at times, but when he is on the floor his spacing is all off, and the way he plays the game shows how immature, yet talented, he is. That is why I believe he has not played much.
He may have to grow up big time in th next few weeks if Baynes is out an extended time. No where have I read 6 to 8 weeks as stated by someone in this post. It is not torn ligament, it is a strain. Yet, he is so big, that it may take a while to get back. This is a shame, he is so important to this team

NYCelt wrote:  
No drive to the rim = fewer trips to the line. All the complaining about the big difference favoring opponents at the line isn't all poor officiating, it's not driving and getting to the line.

In general, I agree.  Celtics dont play in the paint enough to see favorable FT numbers.  Last night however, that was 100% not the case.  Celtics took more shots in the paint than Sixers.  They drove the ball plenty last night.

dboss wrote:The free throw issue in this game cannot and should not be an isolated event.

If this were a season long conversation or that some people complained about the officiating every night, I would agree.  In the case of last night (which by definition is an isolated event), the refs were not just bad - they were historically bad.  

This is not a zero sum game.  You can admit the Celtics are not good at driving to the hoop and drawing fouls (in general), yet still call out a game  like last night when they DID drive often and got the short end of the stick.  Those are in no way mutually exclusive.

dboss wrote: Every single team had a dominant rebounder.

That is in fact the missing piece.

Who is the dominant rebounder on the Golden State Warriors?

Draymond Green their best rebounder, has never even cracked the Top 20 in the NBA in rebounding for any given season.

It’s the new NBA, 3 point% in each game dictates more wins than rebounding unfortunately.

                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                 
       The offensive and defensive efg percentage of a team is more meaningfull as a win predictor then the rebounding stats.

    swish

RosalieTCeltics wrote:I honestly think that during practice, shoot arounds, etc. they see that Williams has a long way to go. It is one thing to play him in a G league game and watch him dominate at times, but when he is on the floor his spacing is all off, and the way he plays the game shows how immature, yet talented, he is. That is why I believe he has not played much.  
He may have to grow up big time in th next few weeks if Baynes is out an extended time.  No where have I read 6 to 8 weeks as stated by someone in this post. It is not torn ligament, it is a strain. Yet, he is so big, that it may take a while to get back.  This is a shame, he is so important to this team

I totally agree. Brad has seen more of Williams than anyone, and I can't imagine that he would not give him minutes if he were ready. Maybe he becomes a rotation player someday (and that would be something given he was the 27th pick), but he is not the key to saving this season.

This is a weird Celtics team. They put together great runs where everyone thinks they have finally figured it out, and then they have these stretches of games where they look clueless and we all think the sky is falling. Truth is they are an ~0.600 team. Not bad, but not great. The thing that is frustrating is the way the losses come in bunches. Normally, a 0.600 team wins 3 and loses 2 of every 5 games. When the losses are more spread out, the situation doesn't seem as dire.

All that being said, they are tied for 4th best point differential in the entire league, which is often a good predictor of playoff success. I don't know how "streakiness" affects that correlation. Let's hope that they are more focused in the playoffs, and avoid one of these loss-clusters. When this team is firing on all cylinders, they are tough to beat.

Shamrock we were without 3 significant rotation players and it went down to wire, if Kyrie doesn’t miss 2 point blank lay ups....and we got nothing from Morris, Tatum and Brown.

We will own them come playoff time.

If anybody is following the Bruins this winter, IMO you can  see the difference between those teams with a legit title shot (Bruins) and those (like the Celts) that aren't quite there; I'm certainly not convinced. It's not talent; arguably the Celts have better talent than the Bs. But are they playing for each other? The past two years the Celtics were all in...this year there is at best inconsistency and at worst a lack of team harmony. The idea of harmonization runs across the organization from the coaching, to the player personnel, to the compete level...who complained about Brad last year, about the two Js, about Danny's team construction...I know Sam liked to find glimmers of hope so I feel that I'm somewhat in violation of that spirit but this is my honest assessment. Hope I'm wrong.
Back to the game against Philly. I still would have put RWIII in and told him to match Embiid elbow for elbow. He was going to go to the line no matter if a butterfly fluttered its wings or someone put an elbow in his mouth, might as well let him taste some of his own medicine. I don't like Embiid's big mouth by the way...he's not unstoppable, the Greek Freak is unstoppable.

NYCelt wrote:

dboss wrote:#1 we do not have a post up presence and #2 the offense is designed to open up 3 point shots in particular and are filled with enough cuts to the rim where a player has a chance to pick up a foul and/or score.  The lack of a post scorer is foremost.

The offense in that respect is flawed because it lacks one of the very basic elements needed in an offense.  Part of the problem is personnel where our bigs lack post offensive abilities and the other part is an over reliance on shooting the 3 point shot.  

dboss,

In other words, if I read you correctly, drive and kick out.

Perhaps it's not exactly what you're saying, but I've seen the flaw all year as no real threat to drive or take advantage of a low post threat. That's what opens up the 3. So, no drive, and taking the 3 way too early in the shot clock, plus no presence on the glass for offensive boards.

There's that big again.

No drive to the rim = fewer trips to the line. All the complaining about the big difference favoring opponents at the line isn't all poor officiating, it's not driving and getting to the line.

This, in my book, is why you give minutes to a Rob Williams, so you have some idea of who you're drafting or looking to sign or trade for.

Drive, take the shot if the lane is open, kick if not. Dish to the low post if your forward is open down on the block. If kicked, and a shot goes up, forward should be in position to compete for the board.

Basketball 101 never goes out of style, does it?

Regards

NY Celt

From my observation of this team the lack of FTA is mostly related to a lack of a post offensive option or having someone who can get to the rim and pick up fouls.  Al Horford is our center.  He gets us some post offense but it is pretty vanilla.  He only averages 1.3 FTA per game.  This team needs a more dynamic big man that you can go to in a post offense.

The 3 obvious areas of deficiency include rebounding, Free throw attempts and Points In The Paint.

Having above average perimeter defenders and 3 point scorers does not compensate for these deficiencies.

With all the changes to the way this game is being played, fundamental basketball remains.  

Rebounding by committee has not been effective as evidenced by our rebounding numbers.

We need a big guy that can defend and rebound and score in the post.

With Baynes hurt again Boston has few options.  Again I would make every reasonable effort to get RW some minutes.