POST GAME DETROIT - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Jayson Tatum Hits Game-Winner To Defeat Pistons 122-120
Boston improves to 4-3 on the season


NESN by Alexandra Francisco

Jaylen Brown balled out again. Jayson Tatum had a career high in assists and Tristan Thompson recorded a double-double.

Still, it came down to the wire for the Boston Celtics against Detroit on Sunday as the Pistons shot over 51% from the field and beyond the arc. Sloppy defense and turnovers didn’t help the Celtics much, either.

With under one minute left, Tatum perfectly dished it out to Brown who was wide open in the corner. He sunk the corner-3 to make it 120-118, and on the Celtics last posession of the game, Tatum drilled a pullup to win the game, 122-120.

Brown finished with a game-high 31 points and four assists but had six turnovers alone.

Tatum had 24 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and a career-best 12 assists. Marcus Smart dropped 17 with eight assists, Theis had 13 points and Tristan Thompson had a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double.


For Detroit, Jerami Grant led with 22 points, Svi Mykhailiuk had 15 off the bench as did Derrick Rose, who scored 13 points with four assists.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Marcus Smart
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Daniel Theis
C: Tristan Thompson

STILL SEARCHING FOR STARTER’S DEFENSE
The Celtics were making 3s and shooting well early, but the Pistons had the advantage much of the first quarter.


Thompson battled for offensive rebounds early to help the Celtics keep it close, and he gave his team a 14-12 lead despite a slow start defensively.

Really, almost no defense was being played through much of the first quarter. More than halfway through the frame, Detroit led 22-19 and were shooting 81.8% off 12 attempts before Brad Stevens called a timeout.

Brown came out of the regrouping with great energy to hit a game-tying triple and had 13 points in the first to carry Boston.


And fun fact:


It wasn’t enough, though, as Jerami Grant led the Pistons with 12 points shooting 5-for-6 from the field. But Detroit spread it around quite a bit.


Detroit led Boston 33-31 at the break.

BROWN CARRYING BOSTON ON HIS BACK
Semi Ojeleye made a layup to tie it up, and Tatum hit a 28-foot triple to take a 38-37 lead.

From there, Boston started going hard in the paint with efforts from Jeff Teague, Payton Pritchard and Robert Williams.

With seven minutes remaining in the second, Boston took a 47-44 lead for their largest of the game. As good as the offense looked to that point, the defense still left a lot to be desired. That started to change though, Tatum and Brown continued to cook.


Brown scored the Celtics’ last eight points of the quarter for a game-high 22 points at the break. Tatum had 13 points and five assists with three rebounds.

Boston entered the half leading 61-57, outscoring Detroit 30-34 in the second.

CELTICS CAN’T KEEP SEPARATION
It didn’t take long for Josh Jackson to help Detroit erase the four-point deficit and take a one-point lead to open the second half, but a 3-pointer from Tatum stopped the run.

Blake Griffin was hot initially in the third from the perimeter, but the Celtics set off on a small run once they figured out how to get Tatum out of the Piston’s traps with the pick and roll or a pocket pass.


Boston lead by as many as eight points in the frame, but seven (!!!) third-quarter turnovers alone didn’t allow them to maintain that advantage.

Brown finished the quarter with 28 points and three assists. Tatum had 20 points and six assists with five rebounds to that point, and Thompson had nine points and 10 rebounds.


The Celtics led 91-88 entering the fourth.

SEMI OJELEYE FOR 3?
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Ojeleye started things off for Boston in the final quarter.


Ojeleye hit another off a nice assist from Tatum to giving him nine points in the first four minutes of the quarter and Boston a 106-100 lead.

But Detroit was hitting its shots too.

Tied up at 113-apiece with under two minutes to play, Theis made a layup, grabbed the defensive board on the other end, and recorded a three-point play in the next sequence to five Boston the lead.


Smart extended it two more with a nice drive, but the Grant-Rose duo didn’t let up as the Pistons cut the lead back to two, and a Mason Plumlee three throw gave Detroit a 118-117 advantage.

Tatum made a great play, dishing it to Brown for a 120-118 lead late in the game.


With the ball and time for one more play in regulation, Tatum hit a 17-foot jumper for the game-winner.

PLAY OF THE GAME
This play is a microcosm of today’s game, in terms of the Celtics offense.


UP NEXT
Boston continues its road trip Monday and will face the Toronto Raptors at 7:30 p.m. ET.

I think I will just say to the Celtics, board the plane, get the hell out of there and be happy AND po'ed it was only 1-1.

Nice scoring balance by everyone. All 5 starters in DF. That's the way it needs to be. Pritchard with the highest +/- by far. JeT alert. WTH? Going to need a little more than that on a regular basis coming off the bench. Still the bench put up 22 points from a variety of scorers. Looks like Brad is tightening the rotations already. With the Big 3 2nd Tier being JeT, RWIII and PP being the coming off the bench.

Couldn't be much more fun watching J-Squares going off hitting nothing but net!

Nice game winner by JaT. We're going to see a lot of those over the next few years. I don't care who it comes against. No one is going to remember an facet of that game except for the part where we notched another W to the record with a game winning shot.

Bring on TOR!

db

To quote Jaylen Brown, "Marcus Smart is the heart and soul of this team."

So far this year, while attention has focused on Tatum and Brown for good reason, each W can be directly attributed in large part to Marcus Smart.

They drop two to Detroit if not for Smart, just as much as due to the efforts of J & J.

The new  ESPN Power Rankings has Boston dropping from 7th to 10.  The Celtics are 4-3.  They should be 5-1.  But you are what your record says that you are.

The one area that I thought would be better is their defense but they have been giving up a lot of points and I think it may be partly related to having 3 new players in their top 8 rotation.  It is still very early in the season but right now I am not seeing that lock down defense that stops other teams from scoring.

On offense they are -2 under their PPG average from last season.  They seem to stumble on offense when they make poor shots selections and in general, when the ball sticks a bit too much.  I have noticed that bad shots leads to the other team running out and getting easy baskets at the other end.  The team is not getting back on defense although last night's score was closer due to the free throw discrepancy. Everybody is shooting the 3 ball (36 attempts for the Pistons)

We have 3 guys averaging double figures.  

I figured that we would be a .500 ball club and you can see not having a 3rd high end scorer hurts the team.  Brad has to split up the two J's at times during the game and sometimes he seems to keep one on the bench too long.  We need both Jayson and Jaylen on the floor for most of the 4th QTR.  

I just do not get it.  Yesterday JB was on the bench and did not come back into the game until the 6:31 mark.  You get a couple of minutes to rest between QTRS but you sit him for 5:30 minutes to start the 4th???  He was red hot in the 3rd and cooled down while sitting too long on the bench.

We have seen the same thing play out where Brad has Jayson on the bench too long during the 4th.

I lost track of the number of games where Brad is late rotating keys guys back into the lineup,  That is a coaching flaw that will lose games for our team.

Brad went with a 9 man rotation yesterday and it seemed to work well with contributions coming form guys like Semi.  Rookie PP has been getting a lot of minutes (28 yesterday) and he looks like an everyday player who has been in the league for years.  Robert Williams is really playing well now.

It's on to Tampa, Fl for another road game tonight.

NYCelt wrote:To quote Jaylen Brown, "Marcus Smart is the heart and soul of this team."

So far this year, while attention has focused on Tatum and Brown for good reason, each W can be directly attributed in large part to Marcus Smart.

They drop two to Detroit if not for Smart, just as much as due to the efforts of J & J.

NYCelt

Marcus Smart has been fantastic for this team. The first few games he was taking more shots than Larry Bird but since then he has settled down to become a catalyst at both ends of the court. He just keeps making big play after big play at both ends. Yesterday his 17 points and 10 assists was the difference between winning or losing. The J's each made big time shots at the end but without Marcus Smart it would not have mattered.

Marcus Smart is still getting better as a basketball player.

You can build around him and the J's. It seems that as the 3 of them have played together for 3 and 4 years, their is a strong connection as they play pretty seamlessly together.

Smart was 6-6 from the foul line. Brown and Tatum were 0-0. This is going to bite them in the butt if they continue to produce little or no contact fouls by their wings and their PG coming down the stretch and into the playoffs.

By keeping the defense honest by driving to the paint to try to score, chances are they will get to the line to shoot free throws and score, and begin to get their opponent into foul trouble earlier then the way the are playing now in each quarter.

112288

Hi,
To continue on what Dboss mentioned, the Celtics' defense last night was horrible. At times, Pistons were scoring at will.
They can get away with such defense against teams like Pistons but not the top tier teams. Brad and the players must do something about it.

AK

112288 wrote:Smart was 6-6 from the foul line.  Brown and Tatum were 0-0.  This is going to bite them in the butt if they continue to produce little or no contact fouls by their wings and their PG coming down the stretch and into the playoffs.

By keeping the defense honest by driving to the paint to try to score, chances are they will get to the line to shoot free throws and score, and begin to get their opponent into foul trouble earlier then the way the are playing now in each quarter.

112288

True. They still teach youngsters that good things happen when you drive to the rim. Many of those that make it to play and coach in the NBA seem to somehow forget that lesson.

We went 9-13 from the line and the Pistons went 22-25. That is a huge difference and likely the main reason why it took two big time shots to win this thing.

There were other things that did not go right like our 18 turnovers (Jaylen with 6) or our measly 6 fast break points.

The Celtics have a lot of work to do to get better.

dboss wrote:...

I just do not get it.  Yesterday JB was on the bench and did not come back into the game until the 6:31 mark.  You get a couple of minutes to rest between QTRS but you sit him for 5:30 minutes to start the 4th???  He was red hot in the 3rd and cooled down while sitting too long on the bench.

We have seen the same thing play out where Brad has Jayson on the bench too long during the 4th.

I lost track of the number of games where Brad is late rotating keys guys back into the lineup,  That is a coaching flaw that will lose games for our team.

...

This I find quite annoying as well. It seems to me he(Brad) has a plan set in stone for each game and just is unwilling or plain incapable of showing some flexibility with minute allocations or ad hoc changes. I am suspecting a he is trying to go "by the numbers" like his 3 point game style, but I could be wrong.

I hope he learns to go a bit more with the flow of the game and not slave away to the 35 +/- X minutes where X is a predefined, unchangeable number. I know it is not the playoffs, but wins matter Stevens.

112288,

I'm not paying attention enough to know why this anomaly is. Are those two just that quick getting to the basket and avoiding the fouls/And 1's or are they just not driving enough and relying on their 3's like last night. When you're hot, you're hot, though.

What do you guys and gal think on this? It has been mysterious for quite some time why we aren't getting fouled on their drives to the hoop. I'm guessing there is some risk in driving to the basket and what happens. Several things happen:

1) We score a lay up/dunk unencumbered -either we aren't looking for contact or defense is just giving up

2) We score a contested shot but no foul

2) We are fouled in the act and go to the line, subjecting us to two free throws with their expected value (EV)

3) We score and are fouled, subjecting us to 1 free throw with its EV

4) We turn the ball over - zero points

5) We dish to an open wing, etc. - another whole data set outside the scope here but still important to the play.

The above does create a range for statistical analysis. Other teams must look at J-Squares and realize if they get passed you, let them score. You lost. Don't compound it by fouling them and literally giving JaT another point for your mistake. That's what the numbers tell them to do. Because they are such good FT shooters. Well, JaT more than JB so they would be more prone to foul JB if the situation lends itself to that.

Each of those 5 options has a % chance of happening per play assigned to it based upon a ton of other factors. (what the defense is yielding, what play has been called, who's on the floor, time left on the shot clock, etc.)

Maybe we just have two finesse wings in the J-Squares. Yes they drive to the hoop but just are very good at either avoiding contact or the lanes just open up.

I've got to believe the And 1 is the most valuable EV when considered as a unit even though it has multiple actions to complete it. This would be more so than a 3 or a layup EV. But the And 1 occurs, I'm going to say, rarely (or not very often) because it is contingent upon you scoring AND getting fouled AND making the free throw. I'm going to need to verify that though on the And 1 EV. So the probability you are multiplying the potential 3 point play by must be very small making it not a consideration by the stat analysts.

db

Good news, bad news.  The good news is that a W is a W is a W.  The bad news is that we barely won, couldn't hold onto a 4 point lead with only 1:46 left and needed monster games from the Js, and solid games from the other 3 starters, to do this against the worst team in the NBA.

Jayson Tatum just 2 rebounds away from an impressive triple double.  Career-high 12 assists.  He's figured out he has a bullseye on his back and he's drawing the defense to him and kicking.  Excellent.  I just wish he wasn't such a slow starter, that puts tremendous pressure on the rest of the team, especially Jaylen, to come out firing on all 8 right from the tip.  

Jared Weiss
@JaredWeissNBA
·
11h
How one small step backward against Blake Griffin propelled Jayson Tatum to the next stage of his career.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1345935791348920320

I'll give Griffin credit, he's adapted his game to become a decent pick-n-popper, but he's done.  He has no wheels left.  What a shame he wasted his career in two dead ends like LAC and Detroit.  Remember when he was drafted?  He was SO much better than the #2 pick Hashem Thabeet, and that's even if Thabeet didn't end up a bust, Griffin was considered a generational athlete.  The #3 player in the 2009 draft?  James Harden.  And #7?  Steph Curry.  The draft is a bit of a crap shoot.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
Through the first two weeks of the season, 301 players have played 50+ minutes. Jayson Tatum ranks 143rd in free throws/minute. Among the players getting to the line more often; Grayson Allen Cedi Osman Doug McDermott Patrick Williams Lu Dort Maxi Kleber Khem Birch LaMelo Ball

WTF?




Jaylen Brown has become the monster that Jayson Tatum was in the 2nd half of last season.  I expected him to take another step up, he has added and improved some part of his game every year, but I didn't expect this.  He's tied with elite scorer CJ McCollum for 6th in ppg and only .3ppg out of sole possession of 4th place.  He's 2nd in the NBA in total points scored with 196 points (elite scorer Bradley Beal, with 30.6ppg in 7 games is the leader).  This is incredible, especially when he came into the league with a reputation for being great on defense but limited on offense except in the full court.  Last night he went 13-16, 5-8 from 3 for 31 points but his biggest might have been the 3 he hit with 34 seconds left off Jayson Tatum's drive-and-kick (for Tatum's 12 assist).

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
NBA - FIELD GOAL % (Non-Bigs) 1. A. Rivers, NY .600 2. BROWN, BOS .598 3. Bradley, Mia .571 4. DiVincenzo, Mil .566 5. Curry, Phi .561 Hill, OKC .561

Austin Rivers has taken a grand total of 15 fgas over 2 games, 39 minutes total, 2020-2021 season-to-date.  Including him on this list based upon those few fgas and minutes is a joke.




Sean Grande
Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 8 hours ago
Through two weeks... NBA - Most Field Goals 1. BROWN, BOS 79 2. Beal, Was 73 3. TATUM, BOS 66 4. 5 Tied 60 NBA - Most Points 1. Beal, Was 214 2. BROWN, BOS 196 3. Curry, GSW 194 4. George, LAC 176 5. LaVine, Chi 172 6. TATUM, BOS 170


Thompson with his usual solid double-double game, 12 points and 11 rebounds.  4 offensive rebounds.  He had a decent game against Plumlee, who embarrassed him on the O-boards on Friday.  Plumlee with a solid 13 point 8 rebound game, but only 2 of those boards were offensive and I can live with that.

Theis with a very nice offensive night.  15 points on 7-8 and 1-2 from 3.  I will take that game, and his defensive presence, all the time.  This is all I ask for from him.  Efficient offense on a moderate number of fgas and use your veteran experience and time in Brad's system to rotate on defense.  I'd say "hit his fritos" but we all know about The War on Theis and last night was no exception.  Piston fans cannot complain about the officiating over the last two games in Detroit.  They've been given free rein to play bully ball and Theis has been abused by the refs.  LOTS of hometown cooking for Piston fans by the refs.

Smart finally had the type of game we need him to have.  17 points on 5-10, excellent, but 1-5 from 3.  Awful, and yet, somehow Mahcus Smaht is shooting 41% from 3 so far this season.  I thought he was dying from out there.  This is why "the eye test" cannot always be trusted.  I remember the bad shot decisions more than his hot shooting streaks.  More importantly than his scoring is his floor generalship.  He had 10 assists last night and only 2 TOs.  Both the Js made a point of singling his leadership in their post-game pressers.  They know, as we all know, that anybody who just looks at Smart's box scores sees and knows nothing about his value.



Semi with another good game.  It's taken 4 years but he's finally starting to look like a keeper (if not for us for someone else).  11 points on 5-7, 3-6 from 3.  I've said this before but if only he was 5" taller we'd have a world-class beast.  He's averaging about the same number of mpg as last year, 14+, but his shooting is up.  He's shooting 3.7 fgas/game vs 2.8 last season.  His fg% is 45.5% this year vs 40.8% last year.  His ppg, while modest because that's not his role on this team, is up too.  

Grant with a Coaches DNP.  I don't expect that to last, Brad is very much a matchup coach, but no minutes for GWill last night.  We went big against Plumlee and Griffin, with Theis and Thompson getting a combined 52 minutes.  

The other Williams kid got 17 minutes (so 69 minutes total for our bigs) and did pretty well, I thought.  Nothing too awesome but as long as he doesn't blow defensive rotations I can live with what we get from him based upon just his raw natural athletic talent.

Teague left the game with a left sprained ankle.  For those of you who were looking for more Nesmith you may be getting your wish.  Brad, of course, could make me look like a fool by replacing Teague's minutes with a ballhandler like Waters instead of a shooter.

P-Rabbit is absolutely fearless.  Remember how everybody was awed last year by Tyler Herro's ability to come in and not give a shit about the bright lights and just ball?  Our #26 pick got 28 minutes last night.  That's practically starter minutes.  Granted some of those minutes were him covering for Teague but he's averaging 22mpg total and was averaging 20.8mpg before last night.  21mpg.  From a player 4 spots from dead last in the 1st round, who wasn't even expected to be picked in the 1st round.  That is remarkable.  Many people thought it would be Nesmith who would explode out of the box because shooting translates well but 4 year players like Brogdon and our own Payton Pritchard are showing NBAs that paying to train teenagers, when that's why the NCAA exists, isn't always the best policy.  Well, we know why they love to pick one-and-doners, right?  It's FOMO.

https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4066354/payton-pritchard






Bob


.

A silver lining of this game is our role players offensive development - last night was the first time I remember when every time I saw Semi Ojeleye catch the ball behind the arc I was shouting shoot it!

PP seems to already be a better offensive player than Wannamaker. Not sure if he has the size to be as steady as Wannamaker on defense, but the kid can play.

Do we know how bad Teague's injury is? I thought he looked terrible on defense specifically pnr. Then it was announced he has an ankle sprain so I guess some slack is to be given.

Vankisa wrote:

dboss wrote:...

I just do not get it.  Yesterday JB was on the bench and did not come back into the game until the 6:31 mark.  You get a couple of minutes to rest between QTRS but you sit him for 5:30 minutes to start the 4th???  He was red hot in the 3rd and cooled down while sitting too long on the bench.

We have seen the same thing play out where Brad has Jayson on the bench too long during the 4th.

I lost track of the number of games where Brad is late rotating keys guys back into the lineup,  That is a coaching flaw that will lose games for our team.

...

This I find quite annoying as well. It seems to me he(Brad) has a plan set in stone for each game and just is unwilling or plain incapable of showing some flexibility with minute allocations or ad hoc changes. I am suspecting a he is trying to go "by the numbers" like his 3 point game style, but I could be wrong.

I hope he learns to go a bit more with the flow of the game and not slave away to the 35 +/- X minutes where X is a predefined, unchangeable number. I know it is not the playoffs, but wins matter Stevens.

Vankisa

Brad at times lacks a natural feel for the game. We are not coaches but even fans like ourselves can see how the flow of a game is developing. Brad has a set number of minutes that he wants to play guys. Over and over and over again we see 4th quarters where one of our two best players are sitting on the bench well beyond the time needed for a blow. Brad is too metric centered as a coach.

The J' s are young and both are in great physical shape. Manage their minutes early not late. We do not have enough fire power to have either of them sit for 1/2 of the 4th QTR. In the first Piston's game Brad had Tatum on the bench way too long. We saw this very same pattern last year.

Vankisa wrote:A silver lining of this game is our role players offensive development - last night was the first time I remember when every time I saw Semi Ojeleye catch the ball behind the arc I was shouting shoot it!

PP seems to already be a better offensive player than Wannamaker. Not sure if he has the size to be as steady as Wannamaker on defense, but the kid can play.

Do we know how bad Teague's injury is? I thought he looked terrible on defense specifically pnr. Then it was announced he has an ankle sprain so I guess some slack is to be given.

Vaniska

On the second game of B2B and Teague likely out, we can expect to see more of PP and maybe one of our other PG's (Edwards or Waters) can get us 10 minutes off the bench.  GW had a rare DNP and Semi stepped up and made shots (11 points)  It was one of the better games that I have seen from him.  I think it is very difficult for guys who do not get consistent minutes to play with consistency.  GW will play tonight.  I think Brad will go a little deeper into his bench.  RW has been playing well and should factor into our front line rotation again.  DT had a solid game with 15 points last night and TT had a double double.  We need more of that.

Vankisa wrote:A silver lining of this game is our role players offensive development - last night was the first time I remember when every time I saw Semi Ojeleye catch the ball behind the arc I was shouting shoot it!

PP seems to already be a better offensive player than Wannamaker. Not sure if he has the size to be as steady as Wannamaker on defense, but the kid can play.

Do we know how bad Teague's injury is? I thought he looked terrible on defense specifically pnr. Then it was announced he has an ankle sprain so I guess some slack is to be given.

Vankisa,

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 19 minutes ago
Celtics rule out Jeff Teague with a left ankle sprain for tonight’s game at Torontampa. Marcus Smart is questionable with a right thumb sprain that he had wrapped up last game.


Bob


.

Some glimmers

Tatum having a career assist night and was great to watch, he’s 22, see many more assists coming and triple doubles, he has that kind of all around game.

Jaylen is morphing into a Jordan/Kobe clone right before our eyes, has that extra burst dimension that those two icons had. He just glides to the basket on drives like a whippet. His mid range game is pure both of those guys, your at his mercy. Had a total Jordan/Kobe fadeaway over the 5 that was beautiful and we’ve seen it before. Right now he’s got to be the most efficient scorer in the L.

These 2 kids are going to be getting better. RWill played and played well enough, but after banging his knee in a weird position last game, the fact he could still play hard is great, as durability has obviously been an issue. Big step.

Glimmers can be for opponents too, this kid Jamari Grant is really improved and much much better than I thought. He looks like a better version of Siakim right now. Detroit has a nice core of young improving players as Bey, Stewart and Josh Jackson look like they can be very good pieces.

Blake Griffin looks done. Sad.