Post Game Thread vs Hawks 2/19

[cowens/oldschool]

Boy what a great game for our bigs, Thompson 8-9, Theis 7-8, RW 6-8, great new game plan having the bigs cut and look for each other underneath. Stevens finally came up with something unexpected and Hawks never reacted the whole game. When the bigs weren’t feeding each other, the J’s were, as they both had some great further feeds to the bigs, even though both turned it over a few times too, kids, they’re working on it. Kemba with a monster game too, this load management is good for him, his best game of the year, even though in 2nd half I thought he played a little too much me ball, but thankfully the shots were falling.

Can’t believe the numbers our bigs put up and against a very good center that also has improved in Capella, who had his own monster game with 24 points and 15 boards. He can score in more variety of ways than just alley pops and is very mobile and can run the floor. Watching that game I can’t believe what an idiot D’Antoni was, getting rid of a board monster like Capella, who I’m hoping RW can grow into. Centers like that don’t grow on trees, what an idiotic move again by Rockets to go all in on that small ball crap, they thought he was impeding their offense, what they should have done was figure out better ways to use him. Good win and great job by Stevens implementing a new strategy on the fly in a strange year that teams barely practice.

[worcester]

A monster game overall for the Celts and especially for Kemba, our three bigs, and Brad.

[NYCelt]

RW3's numbers match up with Thompson and Theis in just half the minutes played. Naturally, there's more to it, especially player combos. Regardless, I hope it leads to extended minutes. Maybe it's finally time to really put him to the test.

[bobheckler]

We won by 12.  It wasn't that close but our bench fell apart in the 4th and Brad had to reinsert the starters.  NOT good.  Not just because of the bench but because the starters had already cooled down and taken their minds off the game.  All the reasons why some people get on Brad for sitting one of the Js for longer than they think he should, this was worse because normally they know they're going back in so they keep their minds on the game.  Last night they thought they were done, and they weren't.

10 of Theis' 14 points were in the 4th.  To be honest I don't know why Thompson's man would go that high out to guard him, he has no game outside of 4-6', but he did and that opened up the baseline for Theis who played like the veteran he is.  I had the Atlanta feed last night and they were shaking their heads in admiration for Theis last night.  Announcers around the league are giving him his props even if refs don't.  Kemba hit some big points but we'd be in deep kimchi if Theis didn't abuse John Collins, who had an awful game after the great game he had in Atlanta.



As Cowens pointed out, a great night for our much-maligned bigs.  43 points out of 121.  Thompson 8-9, Theis 7-9, RWill 6-8.  When your bigs are shooting 21-27 something's working.





It should tell you how weak Atlanta is that they had Gallinari in at the end and he was 2-14 on the night.  Yeah, but he's their "veteran".

Kemba with another great game.  Is he back?  I'd like to see more consistency before I declare so but the last week has been promising.  10-16, 5-8 from 3, he even had a block.  6 of his 28 were in the 4th, where he shot 2-3, 1-1 from 3.  They got the lead down to single digits and then Kemba and Theis put the brakes to that rally.  We scored 23 points in the 4th quarter.  Kemba and Theis had 16 of them (Tatum had 4, Semi had 3).



Pritchard 0-7, zero points, 1 offensive rebound (a real scrappy one too!) and a turnover.  Zero assists.  Not one for the scrapbook for him, his worst game as a pro so far.  I say "so far" to cover myself but I don't see how he could have one worse than this one.  Now we get to see if he really is as advanced as we all think he is.  He needs to have extreme short-term memory loss.  Just shrug it off kid.  It happened, it'll happen again if you're in the league long enough, fugetboutit.

Nesmith with another solid outing.  Still struggling a bit with his shooting but he hit a crazy 3.  He sure does like rebounding.  That has been the one consistent part of his game from Day 1.  He's coming around, and I don't think it's just from getting PT.  The light came on sometime in a film session or in practice and he's now doing things correctly on the court.  He doesn't look lost anymore.  I'm not saying he doesn't make rookie mistakes, he does, but he looks like he belongs now.

Tatum with 6 turnovers, 2 in the 4th.



Jaylen struggled early but steadied himself as he usually does.  His handle, however, was awful last night.  Very unsteady all game, as was Tatum's.

Atlanta with 25 ftas.  We had 10.  We won, so this isn't 'sour grapes', but the reffing has been pretty bad the last few weeks.  I don't feel they have been fair to us.  I know that every fan thinks the zebras are robbing them but we're getting hammered and getting nothing while they're getting every ticky-tack whistle.  I'd be ok with "letting the boys play underneath" if it was blown both ways.  I'd be ok with "you can't touch a driver" if it was blown both ways.  It isn't.

Capela with 15 rebounds.  The key to his game is having an effective driver.  He had Harden in Houston and he has Young in Atlanta.  He is a great pnr guy.  He had 9 offensive rebounds last night.  How often do you see a guy with more offensive rebounds than defensive ones?  The other side of this is that they had 41 rebounds total, so he was over 1/3 of them.  Not particularly good rebounding by his teammates, especially John Collins (3).  It seemed like we were getting killed on the boards but that was really just Capela.  Overall we outrebounded them 44-41, with solid rebounding not just from all our bigs (5 for Thompson, 8 for Theis and 7 for RWill) but 8 from Tatum and even 5 from Kemba.  Nice team rebounding, for us, none for them.

3 blocks for Tatum, 3 for Theis and 4 for RWill.  We really impacted them.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267611





Bob


.

[Vankisa]

Positives:

Kemba's explosiveness is starting to come back. He has GREAT energy on both offense and defense for good stretches. Most notable for me was in the game last night. He was flying all over the place with great energy and got completely winded. He ASKED to be taken out because he was done at around 03:49 in the 2nd quarter. This tells me he is not fine with conditioning yet, but that we are not that far off.
What I DID like though: Brad let him sit for a breather and inserted him back in around 02:25 again. In 1 single minute Kemba Walker EXPLODED.
Possession 1: Assist for a nice layup
Posession 2: Def Rebound, pull up 3. Looked good not winded at all
Posession 3: Off the dribble 3 ( I do not like those in general from him, but again looked good, in the flow)
Posession 4: Pushing the ball and penetrating for an "and 1"

This is my guess why he is given the ball so much by Stevens as well -> He is just incredible at pushing the ball when he is fit. It is something neither JT nor JB is doing, either it is too soon for them or you cannot replicate a smaller point guard with such skill in dribbling and lateral quickness (what we used to call démarrage in football terms here in the EU).

When he plays with this kind of energy on both sides Kemba Walker is a better defender than Irving or obviously someone like IT or Trae Young. He is also miles and miles better than Teague on P&R plays and chasing through screens.

The moving and cutting bigs is a change I like a LOT. Finally something new! It also complements nicely RWill's game so he might finally get some more minutes. He had great offensive and defensive showing. Still some unnecessary fouls, but he will only get that cleaned up with experience. Good job Brad Stevens!

I do not mind PPs bad game he is a rookie after all. Great potential for a very solid PG backup, he is bound to have his bad games in his rookie year. He needs those games too to learn to overcome them if he is to become a reliable player.

Now the negatives:

I do not like how Kemba Walker keeps pounding the ball on a lot of possessions. He had a great game yesterday, but that does not change it for me. This is not how you accept your role as the support to JT and JB imo. He should reserve his energy for pushing the ball and either finding a quick penetration or one of his pull up 3pters or give up the ball to JT or JB and try to find a sport for another go. He had some possessions with the chance to attack Trae Young 1v1 late in the game. Those are fine. But then 1:18 or so Atlanta switch Huerter on him and instead of finding the mismatch with JT on Trae he decided to 1v1 a long range pull up which was obviously short due to fatigue. Clean up those Kemba and we are on the right track.

The defensive letdown in the second half was, while not unexpected, disappointing still. 1Q - 22, 2Q - 19. This is good defense and you can see the energy and motivation was there. 3Q - 32 and 4Q - 36. No team in the NBA will win many games with those numbers of Opp. Points per quarter.

We know our bench is not great, but what I want to point out here is another weird decision making for me which changed the momentum a bit in the 4th Q. Jason Tatum was visibly fatigued and you can see this on film already from minute 10:30 in the 4Q. Now I might be biased because I now know he is battling the fatigue aftereffects of COVID19, but still. Why would you not let JB run with the reserves for a while, let JT take a breather for 1-2 game time minutes? I would say Brad Steven did it in the 2q for Kemba it payed great dividens but he actually DIDN'T. KEMBA took himself out. I do not know a 22-23 year old that would take himself out of a game so this has to come from Brad. After a time out nearly 7 minutes later JT had good solid plays in the last 3-4 minutes.

One last thing is - I do not understand why are we having no whistles for JT and JB especially in 4Qs... Have they somehow gained a reputation of being "finesse" players? I would believe that for JT as he has the propensity for such plays when he is not aggressive enough but JB? Is he somehow gaining this rep due to his smoking hot mid-range game this season? Bottom line BOTH of them should DRIVE much much more if nothing else just to drive the point to the refs they are stars now and should get a call or 2. Just look at Trae Young for crying out loud - JB at least gets much more contact than that !

[worcester]

Vankisa, such a profoundly astute analysis, and rxtra credit for the use of that French term, demarrage. Sorry, no accents available on my phone's keyboard.
You understand both basketball and human physiology well, and you are a fine writer. Kudos.

[bobheckler]

Vankisa, such a profoundly astute analysis, and rxtra credit for the use of that French term, demarrage. Sorry, no accents available on my phone's keyboard.
You understand both basketball and human physiology well, and you are a fine writer. Kudos.

Worcester,

Will you be as complimentary if you disagreed with Vankisa's observations. That would be demurrage.


Bob


.

[worcester]

Extra credit to you Bob for demurrage versus demarrage. To answer your question, yes I would offer praise even when I disagree with someone. Just like I did when that brave man took his family 1200 miles across the Mexican border to find them, food, water, warmth, and shelter. I am referring of course to Ted Cruz.

[dbrown4]

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

That's a good one for world history buffs.

Again, I'm amazed. If THAT team shows up every night, we'll go 16-0 with a +10 MOV. It won't even be close. I really couldn't believe that was the same team we've been seeing trying to find their asses with both hands just about every night. Defense was scary good, active hands, etc. We coughed the ball up a lot ourselves, but it didn't matter.

Nothing has changed, however...until they follow that game up with an even more stellar performance tomorrow afternoon...and then again against Dallas...etc. In other words, the jury is still out.

The smart money is to bet against this team over the next two games. You just don't know what you are going to get and the safest bet is to bet against until you see a change. And since they are a 50/50 team right now, there is a really good chance they will lose tomorrow and/or the next game. Again, until you see a change. We are consistently inconsistent. Not a good place to be. But the season is long and we haven't had our core working together on the court for very long...

db

[Shamrock1000]

Extra credit to you Bob for demurrage versus demarrage.  To answer your question, yes I would offer praise even when I disagree with someone. Just like I did when that brave man took his family 1200 miles across the Mexican border to find them, food, water, warmth, and shelter. I am referring of course to Ted Cruz.

+ one million. It's been a miserable week. We at least have power now, but are still without water. I would add to your sentiment, but this board is not the place.

[worcester]

dbrown, Did you know Bob Shandley at Davidson? My gal was good friends with him at Bowling Green 40+ years ago.

Shamrock. I wish you well and for that matter  well water. What a tough situation. No laughing matter.

[dbrown4]

worcester,

Name does not ring a bell. I was there from 1982-1986. When was Bob there?

[worcester]

Oops. Tom Shandley. 1978.

[Vankisa]

Vankisa, such a profoundly astute analysis, and rxtra credit for the use of that French term, demarrage. Sorry, no accents available on my phone's keyboard.
You understand both basketball and human physiology well, and you are a fine writer. Kudos.

Well thank you for the kind words worcester!

I am just another fan, trying to follow in the footsteps of the guys on this forum in expressing my thoughts and opinions, flawed as they are, in an understandable and meaningful way

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