Post Game Thread - vs Warriors, Away 2/2/21

[bobheckler]

I had this one marked down as a loss. The Dubs have been playing well lately and we just got off the plane. Happy to be wrong.

It's amazing how good our bigs look when the other team have none. Wiseman was out (he was coming off the bench anyway, but still...) and Kevon Looney, an undersized center like we have, sprained his left ankle late in the 2nd quarter. Having added that perspective our bigs still looked great. Thompson with 13 points on a perfect 5-5 and 8 rebounds, and Theis with 8 points and 11 rebounds. It's been reversed, where Theis has been the scorer and Thompson the rebounder, but this worked well. This combo hasn't looked good this year but, like I said, they weren't opposed by legit NBA bigs. Theis was given credit for 1 block, I saw at least one more. His attack at the rim with the game almost done got him to the line and only 1.2 seconds left on the shot clock. He hit 1 of 2, saving an otherwise empty possession. Thompson has been in a slump but this game has just been another good one for Theis. He's been playing really well.

Brown was awful for most of the game, 4-14 at one point, and then pulled it together. He ended up 8-20, 4-6 the rest of the way. He also had 10 rebounds. We're spoiled. 18 points is a bad game for him now. Such is the price of success.



Tatum looked good the whole game. I just wish his ego wouldn't be writing so many checks, he takes some unnecessarily hard shots. Both of the Js have a tendency to being one-on-one ME-ballers. They have the talent, but basketball is a team sport.



Kemba saved us in the 1st quarter. He ended up 6-18.

Grant Williams has been a Coaches - DNP a couple of games, or getting in during garbage time, but he played 27 minutes last night and looked really good. He had some brain farts towards the end that added some drama to the final score (he turned it over because he wanted to make the play himself and he fouled Curry taking a 3) but he had 15 points on 4-4, 3-3 from 3. We all remember starting his career an ugly 0-25 from 3. We may also remember him shooting 58% from 3 in the bubble and playoffs. He's now shooting 46.9% from 3 this season (15-32).



RWill, after playing really well the previous few games, and being singled out by Brad for his new consistency, had a poor game. And therein lies the dichotomy that is The Time Lord. Just when you think it's his time, he falls back into his old ways.

Anybody wondering if Steph Curry is back to form? Wow.

We had 16 assists on 39 fgm. That's a really poor 41% assist-to-turnover. They were 30-38, 79%. We're down Smart. We're down Pritchard. Kemba had 5 assists but he's not really a point guard, he's a dribble-hungry shooting guard in a point guard's body. Teague had 2 assists in 17 minutes.

I was thinking we could go 0-5 on this trip without Smart if we're not careful, probably 1-4 with us picking off either Sacto or Phoenix, and losing to powerhouses LAC, Utah and being touch-and-go with GSW fresh off the plane. We're now 1-0 and heading to 9-11 Sacramento. Pritchard will be a game time decision. If we win tonight we'll be no worse than 2-3 on this 5 game West Coast road trip without Smart and I'll take that. If we lose tonight we can still beat the 11-8 Phoenix Suns and still be 2-3. And if we can beat those two we are no worse than 3-2. Who thought we could go 3-2 on this road trip after we heard Smart wasn't even traveling wit the team? We're in 4th place in the East, only 3 games behind #1 Philly, 1/2 game behind Milwaukee and 1 game behind Brooklyn. Philly is 10-1 at home but 5-5 on the road. Brooklyn is 10-4 at home and 4-5 on the road. Milwaukee is 8-2 at home and 4-6 on the road. All three of the teams ahead of us have great home records but are .500 at best on the road. The Celtics are 5-3 at home (we had postponed games) and are 6-5 away. We are the only one of the top 4 teams in the East that have a winning road record AND we've played more road games than any of them.

The sky isn't falling, at least not yet.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267486




Bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Right now I see Kemba taking away from the 2 J’s. He over dribbles, bricks too many shots, this is exactly what I was afraid of. He’ll have a 5 minute stretch where he’ll hit 2 or 3 shots, then a bunch of bricks the rest of the way, similar to a bad Smart when Smart takes too many shots. Saw way too many possessions where he got the ball too late and in bad positions to a J for a rushed shot. Any coach can run this offense, the only great play was the inbounds to Theis where he was wide open and got fouled. This offense stinks, it was way better without Kemba, with 2 J’s taking turns initiating from the top of the key. Saw way too many possessions with Jaylen standing in the corner again....put Kemba in the corner. Offense looked way better to my eyes with PP playing with J’s.

Nice to see a strong good game from TT and GWill, unfortunately GWill is still just not a good rebounder. I’m almost amazed anytime he gets one and this was against a team that lost their top 2 centers and had an unknown 6’6” guy play in the 2nd half.

[cowens/oldschool]

Another thing that ticks me off, when are the J’s going to get their fair share of calls, just go breathe near Durant or Steph and it’s a foul. I’m not asking for that kind of treatment, but Jaylen has been getting hammered on some drives and nothing....that is total BS!!

[sinus007]

... when are the J’s going to get their fair share of calls.... I’m not asking for that kind of treatment, but Jaylen has been getting hammered on some drives and nothing....that is total BS!!

Hi,
When they change their name to LeBron (the most assured way).
As for the game, I think it was a good win.
JB was off from afar, but we've got another sniper - GW! (BTW, 100% vs 50% from Steph )
I had much higher opinion of TT's defensive capabilities. I'd take DT over him.

AK

[dboss]

A much needed win last night.  All additions to the W column are welcomed.

I am passing the game ball over to Grant Williams because he made all 4 of his FGA including 2 catch and shoot 3 pointers and a 3rd mini step away three off the bounce.  

The Celtics only had 16 assists last night and it seemed there was not enough ball/man movement. The ball was sticking  early in possessions.  The Warriors recorded 30 assists because they move the ball and run a more fluid offense.

I recall I thought I had going into the season last year.  I stated that Jaylen Brown could average 18 PPG.  He beat that number last year and now for only the second time this season, he only scored 18 points in a game.  Brown did contribute with 10 rebounds and 4 assists.  Tatum played well with 27/9/3 but his propensity for that step back fall away 3 pointer is not a good look.  Tatum still needs work on his decision making.  He is however virtually unstoppable.

Kemba Walker is turning into an enigma.  He played much better overall last night but his shooting is still not up to par.  I wonder if he really has the capacity to become more of a distributor than a scorer.

At times during the game it looked like Boston was playing 'It's your turn offense'  There were a few too many possessions where not enough guys touched the ball.

Robert Williams logged only 9 minutes and had one shot attempt off of a pick and roll that he missed.   With DT playing well and TT having an above average game for him Brad decided not to play Robert that much.  His showing however does not dissuade me at all from believing that he needs more playing time.  

We are not going to have a good read on this team until they have their full compliment of players.  

Tonight we play the Kings and the blur, De'Aaron Fox.  Kemba will not get a break.  Fox leads them in scoring, assists and steals.  He is the head of their snake.

At 11-8 the Celtics will definitely be over .500 after 20 games!

[NYCelt]

A game that proves the ongoing importance of bigs in the NBA, IMO.

We just happened to come out on the right end of it for a change, due to Warriors' misfortune.

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