POST GAME NY KNICKS - AWAY

EDWARDS COULD BE OUR NEXT EDDIE HOUSE.   HE CAN FILL THE BASKET!

TACKO!

112288

112288,

I believe this write-up is for the Celtics - Raptors, not Celtics - Knicks.


bob


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THANKS!

Boarding a flight to NZ right now. So glad to read the game on thread that the Celtics won. Tatum may not have scored but he had 4 steals and 9 rb's...not too shabby. Glad the rooks are all contributing! Welcome back to form Gordon.
Jaylen, you can cash that paycheck now. You have earned it.

21 points from the rooks?! Williams, Edwards and Tacko in GT all contributing. Can't ask for much more...but I'm going to! Keep it up!
Nice!

It takes this team a little while to get going but when they do, it's a steamroll. Edwards got some make up time from Friday's scratch. Still want to see him light it up for 30 again...hmmmm. Wednesday night is coming up. Or I'd be just as happy with a GH launch as well. What could be more humiliating than for the Bucks to have to figure that BS out on the fly.

All the stories about KW's being MIA were clearly put to rest last night. I'm beginning to see some comparisons to KG's arrival in Boston with KW's. He's beginning to figure out you can play basketball AND win at the same time after 8 years of hell. Kryrie who?! Let's see if we have learned anything from our opener vs. the next top tier team in the league on Wednesday

JB continues to impress. GH is extremely efficient. Just needs more touches for more shots? I think he's lying in the weeds waiting.

Even given the Knicks game, we could have easily been staring at 0-4 start. Media, NBA and the other 29 teams would have loved that. Sorry, Charlie. If we go 2-2, I'm OK with that. 3-1, I'd be very happy.

db

Walker and Brown with excellent games and stat lines.

R Williams taking another step forward at C with a solid outing. Made up for the other 2/3 of the center rotation being out.

G Williams building value quickly.

Funny commentaries as I surfed around various sites this morning; if any criticism at all, it's directed at Tatum's low FG% for the game. Yet, at the same time, praise for Edwards with an equally lousy FG%. Both will be, and are, just fine. Need MrKleen to surf around and throw a "patience" at people.

The team is performing at the higher end or ahead of expectations on both group and individual levels so far. This looks like the enjoyable team we all hoped for. May it continue.

Always appreciate a Knicks beat down at MSG.

Thank God I'm not a Knick fan anymore!  I grew up in NY with the championship teams of Clyde and Willis and Monroe, Bradley and DeBusschere but became a Celtic fan when I moved to Boston after graduation.  Man, has that ever worked out for me!  They are making a run to replace Don Sterling's Clippers as the worst perennial doormat in the NBA.

RJ Barrett, however, is going to be a good one.  Mitchell Robinson is Hassan Whiteside, a rim-protecting center with no offense outside of 6'.  Bobby Portis, who always killed us when he was with Chicago, didn't have a good night.

I think we can relax about Kemba now.  He starts off slow, don't know why, but then he settles in.  He had 3 points on 1-4 after 1 and 11 points on 3-8 at the half (so, 8 points on 2-4 in the 2nd), 22 points on 7-12 in the 3rd (11 points on 4-4) and another 10 in the 4th quarter.  He ended up 7-12 from 3.  4 assists, zero turnovers.  And, perhaps best of all, he's not a ball hog like you-know-who.  He is perfectly content to let Hayward or Smart run the offense and just catch-and-shoot.

Another solid game by Jaylen.  19 points on 6-14.  He was 1-5 from 3, not pretty, but that means he was 5-9 from 2 and that's good.  He's attacking, taking more shots closer to the rim and the results are excellent.  6 of Jaylen's 14 shots last night were in the paint, at or within the restricted area, and he was 5-6.  This is a very, very promising development in his game.  He has played aggressively in 3 straight games.  He has taken his shares of fgas in all 3 and he has been efficient.

Tatum, however, has yet to get on track this season.  He's shooting 34.4% on the season and 45% from 3.  He's shooting better from 3 than he is from 2.  He's rushing a bit on his inside shots, I think.  He was 5-17 last night.  He's rebounding well, though, another 9 last night.  He's a good shooter, we all know that, so when he settles down and starts hitting his shots like we all know he can we'll be doing great.

Hayward was alright, but he had 4 of our 12 turnovers because he had some bad dribbling in traffic.

Robert Williams is still making mistakes but, it looks to me, like he's making fewer of them.  That's good, progress.  At this rate he'll be our starting center in a couple of months.  7 rebounds in 22 minutes.  A lot is made of his shot blocking ability, he had 1 last night, but he also had 4 assists and zero turnovers.  He takes pride in his passing, he says, and it's starting to show.  He's averaging 1.7 assists per game and only .7 turnovers.  That's an excellent assist-to-turnover ratio for a big.

His brother from another mother (and father), Grant Williams, had 2 great blocks at the rim.  Not a great boxscore, but a solid game.

Edwards was 3-11, 10 points.  They were good looks, so I'm ok with that, he's a shooter and you have to let shooters shoot.  He also had 3 assists and no turnovers.

Poirier or Tacko?  Poirier played 6 minutes, picked up 2 fouls.  Looks like he's having a bit of an adjustment issue.  I'm not sure what they are because, well, he hasn't played much.  Tacko played 4 minutes, against the end of their bench, so let's not read too much into it.  What was amazing is that even the MSG crowd was cheering him.  Tackomania is league-wide, and he's ours.

As a team we shot 33.3% (16-49) through halftime, but 45.2% (42-93) for the game.  That's a 59% (26-44) 2nd half.  Wow.  Where the Hell did that come from?  Well, we had 7 fast break points by halftime but 16 for the game, there's 9.  We took 10 ftas at halftime but had 29 for the game.  That was good for another 11 points.  So there's 20 easy-peasy points right there.  We got 17 points off of their turnovers by halftime and ended up with a whopping 36 for the game.  I don't know how many of those points-off-turnovers turned into fast break points, so I cannot do a direct correlation, but that certainly takes away fgas from them.  They only took 80 fgas, we took 93.  

We had 8 assists at halftime but 24 for the game.  Whatever Brad said during halftime got the ball moving around.  24 assists on 42 fgm is nice.  Not great, but solid.  Compared to the hopeless, hapless, helpless NY Knicks, who only had 15 assists on 31 fgm.  

After 3 games, the Boston Celtics are:
1st in turnovers/game (the fewest)
1st in turnovers generated/game (a defensive stat)
3rd in offensive rebounds/game
3rd in steals/game
9th in blocks/game
5th in fgas/game but 17th in fgm/game (c'mon Jayson!)
9th in Defensive Rating/game (100.0ppg)
9th in Points given up in the paint
12th in 3pt fgas/game (for those who think we take too many)

So, pretty good in some areas, mediocre in others and work needed in yet some others, but it's only after Game 3.  We're ok, and we're going to get better.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401160671





bob



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Bob,
You forgot to mention "Ugly" area. Unfortunately, Celtics are there in FT category, so far (68%)
With so many players running to the hoop it'll hurt.
I hope it progresses into 80's.

AK

Grant Williams is starting to grow on me like a 3-day old beard.

Brad is still in the data gathering stage.

The lid came off of the rim in the 4th qtr of the Rators game for Kemba and last night he was a scoring machine.  

JT still driving with his head down and still getting too many shots defected.  Would like to see a bit more passes from him especially on the break.

RW is turning into a very good passer and he sets nice screens.

Our 3 wings are more than capable of putting up 18-20 ppg.  

Marcus Smart has an uncanny feel for the game.

This team appears to really enjoy playing together.  I like how they keep grinding away no matter what the score is.

JT is pressing - to use a classic/cliché term that seems apt. In contrast, Scal in his commentary last night said that Kemba is letting the game come to him, which started in the second half of the last game. I've noticed since the first game, JT just hasn't found that rhythm, flow, whatever. IMO, he's not a good enough athlete to hesitate and then get his shot in the NBA. JB is, he's a spectacular athlete, so if he hesitates he can still make something happen on his second move. JT season stat line so far is 46% made for 3s but only 35% for total shots; weird stat line but shows something is way off with his game; no assists last nigh either; 4 against TO and 2 against 76ers.

sinus007 wrote:Bob,
You forgot to mention "Ugly" area. Unfortunately, Celtics are there in FT category, so far (68%)
With so many players running to the hoop it'll hurt.
I hope it progresses into 80's.

AK

sinus,

Good point.

Jayson Tatum is a career 84% frito shooter, shooting 75% this year.  His ftas/game are up, even/minute, and 75% isn't TOO far off from 84%.  If he's shooting 4.0 ftas/game (4.1/36mpg) I'm good with that because it still comes out to more points.

Kemba is taking 1.5ftas/game fewer this year than last year, but his ft% is the same.  I'll bet his usage rate is down too.  He was THE ballhandler in Charlotte, he's not the only one here.  You're not going to the line as much when you catch-and-shoot from the arc than you will if you are consistently dribbling around defenders who are slapping at you.

Jaylen's ftas/game are very nicely up, but his ft% isn't.  He is averaging 4.0 ftas/game through these 3 games vs 2.5 last year.  His ft%, however, is still only 66.7%, and that has to go up for him to be an All-Star.  He's averaging 17.3ppg so far this game, upping his ft% to 80% would add at least another point onto that and he starts getting talked about for an All-Star berth.

Hayward's ft% this year is actually higher than his career average.  It's hard to say what his ftas should be, since his usage rate in Utah was very high, much higher than here I think, and we can't compare it to his first two seasons here for obvious reasons.

As a team we are 16th in ftas/game, middle-of-the-pack.  Our team ft% is 24th.  That, I believe, is what you are referring to, right?  So, who's dragging us down if Kemba and Hayward and Jayson aren't (and Jaylen's even slightly better than his career)?

Enes Kanter.  28.6% from the line so far.  He's averaging a very healthy 7.0 ftas/game.  So, of our team's 26.3 ftas/game Kanter is taking 26.6% of them.  A 28.6% ft% will have a significant impact on your team's ranking if you're taking over 1/4 of the total ftas.  Kanter is a career 77.8% frito shooter over 10+ seasons.  Whatever is screwing him up at the line I'm convinced it will unscrew itself because he is a good frito shooter.  He took 1577 ftas before this year.  He has taken 7 this year and has only hit 2 of them.  I'm banking on the 1577 being more representative than the 7.


bob


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bob



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JT still isn’t quite strong enough in traffic on finishes. Agreed he’s got all the moves, but he doesn’t quite have the strength of say a young Carmelo Anthony or Paul Pierce on his finishes, 215 or 218 is still too thin. He loses his balance too easily trying to finish. He is rebounding better than ever which is a great sign, would like to see a breakout 30 plus game from him sometime, he could also pass better....don’t mean to pick on the kid.

Maybe when he turns 22 in the spring it will all click in; so young and having to learn so much at the NBA level.

Nice blowout win on the second night of a back-to-back.


KJ

Boston outscored the Knicks 72-44 in the 2nd half including a 3rd and 4th qtr 36 point efforts.

With Kanter and Theis out RW and GW played more minutes.  Brad has gone with his super wing lineup in each game along with Walker.

The play of RW at center just looks like a better fit in the starting lineup than  Kanter.  Theis has only played 12.5 minutes so far and he has not been particularly effective.  Again it is only 2 games but there is no way he should be our starting center.  We need more length in the middle and RW is the best defensive big on the team who should only get better with more reps.  

Grant Williams sees plays before they happen.  Very smart.  I am very impressed with his BIQ.  He is very physical and he also know how to establish positioning.  He has played some small ball center and the other night Brad paired him at the 4 with RW at the 5.   Interesting.  What we have yet to see from Grant however is the ability to make shots.  He does not look comfortable shooting from distance.  I do think he will carve out some minutes for himself because like Smart he makes impactful plays.

We are so very early in the season that these observations may not carry a lot of weight.  Yet I am very encouraged by the play of the Williams boys because both of them look like they can help this team and both will be in the mix given the need for defense and rebounding in our frontline.

The Bucks are up next.  Grant looks like a guy that is strong enough to keep the Androids away from the paint.  

GH has played very well on offense although he is still passing up shots that are his to take.  He is rebounding well but his assist to turnover ratio is a negative through 3 games.  He is also struggling trying to stay in front of guys, just a step slow on defense.

If Brad stays with our 3 headed wing attack he needs to put Hayward on the right player.

The Bucks are up on Wednesday.  Trying to check the freak one on one is a losing proposition.  I hope that last year's playoffs taught Brad something.  I expect to see more zone  and the Celtics need to turn Giannis into a passer as much as possible.  Double team him up top before he has the space to take you off the bounce.

Brad can add the Heat's recent victory over them to the film list for help/ideas as well...

db

dboss wrote:Boston outscored the Knicks 72-44 in the 2nd half including a 3rd and 4th qtr 36 point efforts.

With Kanter and Theis out RW and GW played more minutes.  Brad has gone with his super wing lineup in each game along with Walker.

The play of RW at center just looks like a better fit in the starting lineup than  Kanter.  Theis has only played 12.5 minutes so far and he has not been particularly effective.  Again it is only 2 games but there is no way he should be our starting center.  We need more length in the middle and RW is the best defensive big on the team who should only get better with more reps.  

Grant Williams sees plays before they happen.  Very smart.  I am very impressed with his BIQ.  He is very physical and he also know how to establish positioning.  He has played some small ball center and the other night Brad paired him at the 4 with RW at the 5.   Interesting.  What we have yet to see from Grant however is the ability to make shots.  He does not look comfortable shooting from distance.  I do think he will carve out some minutes for himself because like Smart he makes impactful plays.

We are so very early in the season that these observations may not carry a lot of weight.  Yet I am very encouraged by the play of the Williams boys because both of them look like they can help this team and both will be in the mix given the need for defense and rebounding in our frontline.

The Bucks are up next.  Grant looks like a guy that is strong enough to keep the Androids away from the paint.  

GH has played very well on offense although he is still passing up shots that are his to take.  He is rebounding well but his assist to turnover ratio is a negative through 3 games.  He is also struggling trying to stay in front of guys, just a step slow on defense.

If Brad stays with our 3 headed wing attack he needs to put Hayward on the right player.

The Bucks are up on Wednesday.  Trying to check the freak one on one is a losing proposition.  I hope that last year's playoffs taught Brad something.  I expect to see more zone  and the Celtics need to turn Giannis into a passer as much as possible.  Double team him up top before he has the space to take you off the bounce.

Agreeing with your observations of GWill and I like the Smart comparisons, when I see him play, I like thinking of how oldschool PF’s like Debusshere or Silas would do in today’s game. Neither of those guys were exceptional leapers, they were physical and skilled, understood the nuances of positioning and strong as shit. Glad there is still a place for that kind of player.