Post Game Thread - vs Mavericks, AWAY 12/18/19

[bobheckler]

A solid win against a good WC team.  True, they didn't have Luka, and that is a BIG loss, but they were healthy otherwise, which is certainly more than can be said for us.  We were down 2 starters and 2 centers and they had Porzingis, Powell and Boban Marjanovic waiting in the wings.  It's too bad Rick Carlisle didn't put Boban in, that might have been met with Brad sending in Tacko.  Clash of the Titans!

We were down 10 points, on the road without 2 starters, and came back to win by 2 possessions.  That's heartening after our recent losses and our struggles on that west coast trip.

We won 3 out of 4 quarters.  Unless you lose that one quarter by a ton, that's how you win championships.  You win every quarter like it's its own stand-alone game.  Good job by Brad and the guys after a long rest.

We tied the 1st quarter, 29-29, even though we only scored 5 points with 5 full minutes gone in the 1st.  An icy start, but they were kinda cold for the first 3-4 minutes themselves.  13-5 @ 7:01.  Thank Goodness for Kemba, who had 16 after one and was shooting lights out, because nobody else could.  He isn't the ballhandler you-know-who is, but he is a much, much better player for this team because he doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective.  Nobody's standing around watching him because he might not have the ball, they might.

Tatum and Brown were a combined 4-12, I think, and then they caught fire.  Jaylen, during the 2nd period I think, was a force on both ends.  With only one or two exceptions he was in the middle of every score and every great defensive play for about 3 minutes.  His energy was contagious and turned Tatum around, I think.  Kemba dropped 32 on them on 9-18 and 5-10 from 3, but Jaylen Brown dominated at his position and his position occasionally included guarding Porzingis.  He had a bad defensive lapse once or twice but otherwise did pretty well.  Against every other offensive player he played complete lockdown defense.  Kemba kept us from getting blown out in the 1st quarter but I credit Jaylen for firing up the rest of the team and getting everybody else into the act.  Brown with a 10 point 2nd quarter.  Tatum was still 4-11 at the half but was 8-13 after 3.  A 4-6, 9 point 3rd for Jayson.  Jaylen still had 12 at the half, a 14 point 2nd half.  These kids are finding their grooves and are really turning into something special.  And everybody likes each other!  Kemba loves the Js, the Js love Kemba, everybody loves Smarty.  Brings a tear to my eye...

3 players with 24 or more points.  That's pretty impressive.  Kemba/Jayson/Jaylen shot a combined 27-59, 45.7%.  When you consider two of them started a combined 4-12 that's quite a surge.  Once again, I give credit to Jaylen for this.  Jayson followed Jaylen this time.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 7 hours ago
Jaylen Brown finished 8/8 from the FT line tonight. He is now shooting a career-high 75 percent from the line, a nine-point improvement from his career average.

I've said that the parts of the game holding Jaylen back were his frito shooting, his handle and his on/off aggressiveness.  Three problems set up, three problems knocked down.  If Jaylen Brown doesn't make the All-Star team it's because they don't want to give one team so many slots.

We won, so no sour grapes here, but Tony Brothers is as terrible a veteran ref as I have seen in a long, long time.

With the injury list looking like a casualty list after the Battle of the Marne Brad had to dig deep.  

I thought GWill played a pretty good game.  He was the primary defender on Porzingis when Theis wasn't on the floor.  Kanter played some defense on Zinger but Brad tried to put him on someone else whenever possible (not that it mattered, he still sucked).  Won't see it by looking at his boxscore, but I liked GWill's game last night.

Green also with a solid outing.  Nothing flashy, not high scoring or anything, one ugly turnover, but he wasn't losing his guy on defense or missing rotations like you'd expect to see from a deep bench guy who doesn't play much.

Brad and Jaylen are saying they played terrible defense.  Dallas shot 39%.  They say "they missed a lot of open shots".  I say "who cares?".  There are times you win with poor offense and/or defense and a lot of luck and there are times you lose with great offense and/or defense.  We've been on the shit end of the stick before, time for some regressing to the mean.

Speaking of poor defense, Kanter with 13 rebounds, 7 of them offensive, but only 2-10 from the floor.  How do you get 7 offensive rebounds and only 2 fgm?!

Romeo with a 5 minute cameo.  Not much to see.  He tried to back his man down in the low post once but the ball didn't come up into his hands and he had to retrieve it and that was the end of that.  Javonte Green with 14 minutes and, in my opinion, they play the same position, big guard.  I think an NBA 3 would eat Romeo alive.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401161055





bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Bob you gave to look at the big picture, Romeo played 5 minutes and didn’t get injured, on a team with a rash of injuries, that’s good. 2 J’s with not a particularly great game, still did enough to impact the game for us. Jaylen’s form on his FT’s looks great, 8-8 for him is huge, as is 75% now. His driving to the basket game is so lethal, if he gets to 80%, with the rest of his game, he will be a multiple all star. I like that when the game was going back and forth, 2 J’s got it going and their superior talent stood out. Last year, if Kyrie was off and Morris and Rozier had to get theirs....we would have lost a game like this, as 2 J’s would be ignored.

I like Kantor, he has a real talent for rebounding, his shot was off as he’s not the quickest leaper and Mavs bigs can all jump and blocked his shot a few times. Grant did do some good things, he still does a lot of the little things on offense that Semi doesn’t do, but Semi plays better defense. Would have liked to see Luka vs 2 J’s, but that will be a match up we can enjoy for years down the road as they are the best young wings in the game, Luka being MVP consideration worthy.

[bobheckler]

Bob you gave to look at the big picture, Romeo played 5 minutes and didn’t get injured, on a team with a rash of injuries, that’s good. 2 J’s with not a particularly great game, still did enough to impact the game for us. Jaylen’s form on his FT’s looks great, 8-8 for him is huge, as is 75% now. His driving to the basket game is so lethal, if he gets to 80%, with the rest of his game, he will be a multiple all star. I like that when the game was going back and forth, 2 J’s got it going and their superior talent stood out. Last year, if Kyrie was off and Morris and Rozier had to get theirs....we would have lost a game like this, as 2 J’s would be ignored.

I like Kantor, he has a real talent for rebounding, his shot was off as he’s not the quickest leaper and Mavs bigs can all jump and blocked his shot a few times. Grant did do some good things, he still does a lot of the little things on offense that Semi doesn’t do, but Semi plays better defense. Would have liked to see Luka vs 2 J’s, but that will be a match up we can enjoy for years down the road as they are the best young wings in the game, Luka being MVP consideration worthy.

cow,

Romeo played 5 minutes without getting carried off.  Yeah, Big Picture.

There was a period of a few minutes where Jaylen was the best player on the floor, either team, both ends.  He was Jimmy Butler when Jimmy is fully on.


bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Bob you gave to look at the big picture, Romeo played 5 minutes and didn’t get injured, on a team with a rash of injuries, that’s good. 2 J’s with not a particularly great game, still did enough to impact the game for us. Jaylen’s form on his FT’s looks great, 8-8 for him is huge, as is 75% now. His driving to the basket game is so lethal, if he gets to 80%, with the rest of his game, he will be a multiple all star. I like that when the game was going back and forth, 2 J’s got it going and their superior talent stood out. Last year, if Kyrie was off and Morris and Rozier had to get theirs....we would have lost a game like this, as 2 J’s would be ignored.

I like Kantor, he has a real talent for rebounding, his shot was off as he’s not the quickest leaper and Mavs bigs can all jump and blocked his shot a few times. Grant did do some good things, he still does a lot of the little things on offense that Semi doesn’t do, but Semi plays better defense. Would have liked to see Luka vs 2 J’s, but that will be a match up we can enjoy for years down the road as they are the best young wings in the game, Luka being MVP consideration worthy.

cow,

Romeo played 5 minutes without getting carried off.  Yeah, Big Picture.

There was a period of a few minutes where Jaylen was the best player on the floor, either team, both ends.  He was Jimmy Butler when Jimmy is fully on.


bob


.

True he and Jayson are in a different class of player vs that teams wings not named Luka, it’s a pleasure to see these kids/guys get their touches and play thru cold spells. Hardaway and Jackson were just no match for them both ends. Is it me or does Jayson look taller? He definitely looks bigger, another glimmer this season is the way JT is able to thrive at the 4.

[dbrown4]

That's the absolute beauty of Kemba.  He's the quietest 30-40 points per game player I have ever seen.  He is part of a true Big 3 and we still didn't have GH or MS present.

It's unfortunate that all we really have left on our bucket list is not only obtaining full strength but remaining at full strength.  It's also unfortunate that through 25 games, we have nothing even close to that to analyze.  

I believe the rest of the league GREATLY fears a Celtic Fully Operational Death Star.  I don't think anyone can beat us at full strength. That's all they can hope for is that we keep piling significant injuries up the whole season.  So far, they have been ok with things.  We're a 1/3 of the way through and still nowhere near full operating potential.  Like I've said in another thread, we're in 2nd place in the East and in 3rd in the league (4th really) behind the Clips and have been far overburdened with significant injury after significant injury.  We've had to use ALL of Danny's treasure trove of draft picks to stay afloat.  But our record speaks for itself.  No panic.

db

[dboss]

I had a gut feeling the Celtics would win this game.

Dallas was favored by 2.5 points even with Luka.  This was a team win with contributions coming from everyone.  Even Romeo had an assist.

Kanter continues to struggle defending the pick and role but I very much appreciate his physical presence in the post.  Grabbing 7 offensive rebounds is impressive.

Kemba, Jason and Jaylen are a tough cover for any team.

This team has been playing and winning with significant guys missing.

Jaylen Brown looks like he is on the verge of checking off free throw shooting from his list of to do's.  He calmly knocked down 8 of 8 and none bigger than the 2 made in the final minute after struggling to maintain possession on an inbound pass.  He is now shooting 75.9% for the year and 84% at home.

Kemba is a hellava scorer and Tatum continues to do whatever he wants to do.

Dallas is a very good team so winning in their gym given all the missing pieces while coming off b2b losses is a signature win

[tjmakz]

Any road win against a playoff bound team is a good win.
Luka has lead Dallas to play better this year than they should based on their lack of talent.
Porzingis is a borderline all-star player but the rest of the roster is filled with players who would not be starters on good teams.
Dallas looks very different without Luka.
I give them credit for being competitive despite the lack of talent on the roster.
A win for Boston on Christmas Day at Toronto would be a signature win.

[dboss]

Any road win against a playoff bound team is a good win.
Luka has lead Dallas to play better this year than they should based on their lack of talent.
Porzingis is a borderline all-star player but the rest of the roster is filled with players who would not be starters on good teams.
Dallas looks very different without Luka.
I give them credit for being competitive despite the lack of talent on the roster.
A win for Boston on Christmas Day at Toronto would be a signature win.

"A win for Boston on Christmas Day at Toronto would be a signature win."


would be another signature win.

[worcester]

"Kemba, Jason and Jaylen are a tough cover for any team."

Add Gordon and Marcus to that list and you've got a match up nightmare for opposing coaches.

[dbrown4]

You can't cheat on any of them either. Have to guard each straight up. Actually all these injuries are helping us against the opposition. They don't waste time on scouting reports because there is nothing to scout. Hayward being the ring leader. You really don't want to see Smart ever because he wrecks opposing team's offense. You know what you are getting as an opposing team but can't do anything about it. He's just annoying and destructive. Then add his 15 points.

Just one box left for us to check off...sustained full strength. Seriously can't come soon enough. One third of season gone.

db

[tardust]

Any road win against a playoff bound team is a good win.
Luka has lead Dallas to play better this year than they should based on their lack of talent.
Porzingis is a borderline all-star player but the rest of the roster is filled with players who would not be starters on good teams.
Dallas looks very different without Luka.
I give them credit for being competitive despite the lack of talent on the roster.
A win for Boston on Christmas Day at Toronto would be a signature win.

They didn't look much different when they beat the Bucks on the road. Lets not forget 40 percent of the Celtic starters were out.

[tardust]

Jayson is slowly starting to finish his buckets around the rim better.  He does little things that doesn't show up in the boxscore.  Twice during the game he held his blockout of a Mav that cleared the way for Brown to get two rebounds.  He contests a lot of 3 pointers and his height is bothering the shooters.  He has started to created open jump shots for guys at the 3 point line but they haven't been falling for it to show up as assist.


Difference between Kemba and Kyrie-  Kemba does it without near as much dribbling,  most of the time. He can score in bunches just as much as Kyrie does.

I still worry about lack of  size inside.

[jrleftfoot]

Had to laugh at Perk's description of Grant Williams: " He kind reminds me od Big Baby witout the 6 other personalities"

[gyso]

Kendrick Perkins roasts Glen 'Big Baby' Davis with hilarious Grant Williams comparison

https://tinyurl.com/unrjnp3

[NYCelt]

Perk and Scal.

I like those two on the broadcast.

Not as in-depth and not nearly the classic Mike and Tommy combo, but more on the funny and entertaining side. I can see what's going on, so I don't need the constant play-by-play. Leave that for radio guys like Max & Co. If you get the humor of Scal and Perk, it adds a different slant to the game.

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