POST GAME DALLAS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Luka Doncic Game-Winner Gives Mavericks 110-107 Edge

Boston now is 15-16 on the season


NESN by Alexandra Francisco


Tuesdays game, the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks could relate to each other having disappointed mightily with their respective starts this season.

And the Celtics clawed their way back from 12-point deficit in the fourth, showing grit and seeming destined to pull off the comeback thanks to late efforts from Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker.

But Mavericks’ wonderboy Luka Doncic hit two tough 3-pointers that came up clutch for Dallas, helping then close out a 110-107 win to improve to 15-15.

Doncic had a game-high 31 points for the Mavericks.

Boston falls to 15-16 with the loss, despite solid contributions from Brown (29 points, seven rebounds, five assists, two steals), Tatum (28 points, six rebounds, four assists) and Walker (21 points.)

Losing their second straight certainly hurts, but when Doncic hits two shots like that, there’s not much you can do.

Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown Named 2021 NBA All-Stars
it all went down:

STARTING FIVE

PG: Kemba Walker
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Daniel Theis
C: Tristan Thompson


ALL-STARS GONNA ALL-STAR
Tatum, Brown and Doncic were announced to the NBA All-Star team prior to the game, and they showed they were deserving early, leading their teams out of the gate.

Tatum and Brown had nine points apiece for the Celtics in the opening quarter.

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
Additionally, Walker supported with five points of his own to add some balance to the starting rotation’s scoring effort.

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
But Doncic’s game-high 11-points led the way for Dallas, and he did this:


— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) February 24, 2021
At the end of the quarter, the Mavericks narrowly led the Celtics 33-31 after one quarter, despite shooting just 25% from 3-point range.

Rookie Payton Pritchard, getting subbed in and providing a bit of a spark for Boston, gave them some momentum with a lob to Robert Williams late in the frame.

BACK-AND-FORTH
It remained a tight game through the second, with neither team creating more than five points of separation.

Pritchard kept dishing the ball, setting Semi Ojeleye with a corner-3 that tied up the game.

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
Finally, Pritchard even hit a triple of his own after experiencing a bit of a rut shooting as of late.


PRITCHARDDD pic.twitter.com/AsrI0I99Jz

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
But still, Tatum and Brown did most of the heavy lifting for Boston. Brown ended the half with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists while Tatum had a game-high 15 points and three rebounds.

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
Doncic was a bit quieter in the second, through he still entered the break with 14 points and five assists. Teammate Josh Richardson, however, eased his offensive burden with 14 points of his own.

The Mavericks shot better than the Celtics by the end of the second, yet Boston managed to lead Dallas 56-55 at halftime.

ICE COLD STRETCHES
Third quarters routinely are the bane of the Celtics existence, but this time, they benefitted from a 7-0 run to go out to their largest lead of the game to that point, up 65-0 with eight minutes to play.

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) February 24, 2021
After that, both teams couldn’t score to save their lives, with the game going scoreless for nearly five minutes until Dallas managed to tie it up again as Tim Hardaway started going off.

Doncic hit a 3-point jumper late in the game after Tatum brought Boston within one, and Dallas led 80-76 entering the final quarter.

NEED THIS W
Walker entered the fourth shooting just 3-for-12 from the field and 1-for-6 from deep. That changed when the Celtics needed it, and he hit two consecutive shots to put the Celtics up by one.


Kemba came to play in the 4th#Celtics Rewind presented by @tmobile pic.twitter.com/oqPFz45d2c

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) February 24, 2021
This block and saved basket from Robert Williams helped, too.


— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021

MG pic.twitter.com/E8AxggfP2U

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
Unfortunately for the Celtics, the Mavericks managed to pull out to a seven point lead inside the five-minute mark, tied for their largest of the game to that point that was extended to 12 within minutes.

Walker assisted Tatum on a deep jumper with 2:30 to play that made it a four-point game to make things interesting, though. Then Tatum returned the favor, and a Walker 3-pointer saw the Celtics trail 104-103.


COUNTTT ITTT pic.twitter.com/BmFL9jjBWH

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) February 24, 2021
Brown hustled hard for the go-ahead jumper to top off a 16-3 run, but Doncic worked like hell to get a 3 off after tough defense from Brown and Theis.


Brown hustled hard for the go-ahead jumper to top off a 16-3 run, but Doncic worked like hell to get a 3 off after tough defense from Brown and Theis.


Brown hit a shot on the other end, but the legend of Luka continued.

UP NEXT
The Celtics are back at it Wednesday night, with the second game of a back-to-back against the Hawks in Atlanta at 7:30 p.m. ET.

At least we had a day off to rest and Dallas played backed to back.  The winning margin would have been larger!

SO WHERE IS THE DEFENSE?????????

I am so sad what is going on with the Celtics............not acceptable!

112288

112288

They should have fixed RWills health issues a year or 2 ago, if he’s only gonna be a 12 minute a game player for the rest of his career, what good is one or 2 highlight plays a game? Can’t believe Celtics management handled this situation so badly, how could Danny come up with such a no plan to get this kid healthy. He should be a version of Capella, instead he’s so fragile, can only play a quarter a game at 23...???? What a disgrace!!!

This team is way behind the 8 ball, Tatum has so many mental lapses throughout the game, then goes one on one and hits a few. Didn’t see us playing so lethargic this year, guys beat us off the dribble and get in paint all the time. Thought Kemba was gonna be brick Kemba again, but he came to life in 4th, hitting some big shots. Luka so strong carrying Mavs throughout the game, so dominant and in control.

Actually who the hell knows what going on with Tatum, maybe we should rest him a month, give him high dosages of vitamins, zinc, D, he’s definitely not right, looks like he’s sleepwalking thru games....does anyone trust the Celtics medical staff?

There is no floor general and leadership on the court. Everyone is pressing and over pressing to try to win. That starts with not having faith in the overall game plan by the coach.

We need a leader plain and simple. Rondo would be a good fit and he can call players out who are not paying attention. He can distribute the ball and get all the players on the floor involved in the flow of the game.

Danny, pick up the F'ing phone and inquirer!

As Red stated, the two most important positions are center and point guard who can lead. We have neither!

112288

Yes. We have neither. Instead we operate on two wings and a prayer.

Worcester

Very good! You have not lost your humor!

112288

Yes, but I am losing my patience.

worcester wrote:Yes, but I am losing my patience.

better than losing your patients. Silver Lining!

Guys should I start a thread “How do the Celtics fix their season” or do we do it here...???

worcester wrote:Yes. We have neither. Instead we operate on two wings and a prayer.

Unfortunately this is where I thought we might be in the worst case scenario. 2 J’s making improvements, but not having enough help and not knowing how to lead a team this early still in their careers.

Cowens,

Start a new post! Let the rebuild begin!

112288

112288 wrote:Cowens,

Start a new post!  Let the rebuild begin!

112288

You got it

Hik,
One more of the "WTF" games. Unfortunately, it's not just a game - it's a trend.
I don't know what should be done. I hope that Danny and Brad know...

AK

Anybody who wonders what Marcus Smart's value to this team is should remember this power dive into mediocrity (or have we blown right past mediocrity and are now worse than that?) began when Smart went down with his calf injury.  We had 19 assists last night.  19 assists and 41 fgm is not a good team offense ratio.  At this point I think we know we have no professional floor generals other than Smart, who isn't playing.  Tatum and Brown are increasing their assist totals but also their turnovers because they are not floor generals.  Kemba is no floor general, less than IT to be honest.  Pritchard is a rookie, so he gets a pass (but even he's better than Teague).  We have no ball movement.  All our cuts to the basket are off of dribble hand offs and one-on-one moves, usually by the Js.  We have no player movement, everybody stands around the perimeter.  What's the point in moving unless it's to set a pick for a one-on-one move when there's no floor general that will reward you with a pass for a good cut?

I blame all this on Danny.  If Danny wasn't confident Teague was a MUCH better floor general, then who was he counting on?  As it turns out, the Jeff Teague in Atlanta last year is the new Jeff Teague, and not the one in Minny and in years past.  Kemba isn't a floor general and, even if he was, was sidelined for the first few months of the season with his knee.  PP is a rook, a late first round rook to boot, what could Danny's expectations of him have been?  He's overachieved, for sure, but you couldn't hang your hat on that.

The first place I'd like to focus on for the shambles that is our last few weeks is our perimeter defense.  Our pnr defense sucks.  We are following players around screens, letting them get us on their backs as their screeners roll to the rim and freezing our big, who is stuck in no-man's land between the penetrator and the roller.  Setting a pick and getting your man on your back is now SOP in this NBA, and we're doing a lousy job.  All ball defenders, not just Kemba.  Last night Tatum got two blocks from behind on Luka, and that was great, but the reason why he was blocking him from behind is because he didn't stay in front of him in the first place.

Another problem with our defense is that not only are we not fighting to beat them to the screen and fighting to stay with them over the screen, staying in front of them on pnrs is that we are letting them drive to our outside instead of funneling them towards the middle and help.  It's all fine and good to call for "ice", which is to channel the ball to the outside and trapping them, but you have to trap them.  You cannot let them get past you on the outside and drive to the rim.  That's even worse than letting them come straight down the middle of the paint.  At least, in the paint, it's all in front of the baseline defender.  When they come in from the wing the baseline defender has to turn his back on his man and on whatever is happening on the weak side and becomes a less effective baseline defender as a result.

Jaylen started off 1-5, ended up 12-20.  That's 11-15 after he fired up.

Our bench, which had been doing yeoman work, covering up for the typically awful shooting of Kemba and the on/off "whose turn is it today?" performances by the Js who have been struggling to have good games during the same game together, was awful yesterday.  19 points.  PP was 2-7, 1-4 from 3.  I'm not down on PP, he's an overachiever, but his numbers are down to 37.5% from 3.  Nice, about league average, but not what they were.  He's been in a bit of a slump and perhaps is reverting to his mean.

Another bit of blame I put on Danny is in his vision for this team.  As we saw going back to Kyrie, he thinks we should have two killer wings and a killer guard.  Quality bigs are an afterthought to him.  The problem with this vision is that if they play effective perimeter defense against us, or if our legs are getting tired and our jump shots are frontrimming, or if they play good transition defense, we're a small team.  Winning  a championship with two wings and a guard as your stars isn't going to be easy, they're all living in that "small-end" space.  Two wings and a killer big, in my opinion, would be much better.  Even when Pop's back court is struggling he has LaMarcus Aldridge to overpower them.  Even when LeBron is having an off night, Vogel has Anthony Davis to overpower them.  Even when Giannis has an off night, and they struggle mightily when that happens, Bud has Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis to pound them inside.  Philly has Embiid and Howard.  If Embiid is out, or struggling, Howard still has enough game left to pound you.  It's not just the physicality I'm talking about, it's the gravity.  Howard, Lopez and even Portis command attention when they are working inside, you can't just count on their man to keep them off the boards or to keep them from an easy shot in the paint.  Thompson is doing his job, his numbers are as good, or better, than when he was in Cleveland /minute.  Williams has improved, obviously.  Theis is doing what he does, his 3pt fg% is even up to 37.5%, which makes him a legit threat from 3, but he doesn't dominate inside.  As much as he wants to think he's a 5 that's a self-image born of playing in Germany for years.  He's not a true NBA 5.  He is, in my opinion, a very good NBA 4 who has been playing 5.  We need a monster, and freaking absolute monster, inside. A player you just cannot ignore.

Which makes me wonder why Brad didn't play Tacko against Boban last night.  Boban had 10 points and 8 rebounds in 13 minutes and looked like Tacko playing against other teams.  He could just reach over our bigs with ease.  I have no delusions of what Tacko is but if there was ever a time and place to give him a shot it was against 7'4", 290# also-limited-skilled Boban Marjanovic and, if Tacko isn't good enough for that then maybe it's time to say "farewell".

Luka is amazing.  Those two 3s to break our back and secure the win for Dallas were about as cold-blooded as you're going to see.  31 points on 11-23, 6-8 from 3, just 2 assists short of a triple-double.  Trae Young is one-dimensional.  He's phenomenal in that single dimension, but he can't defend for shit. Luka is a future MVP.  Is he a great defender?  Not right now, but he's only going to be 22 this Sunday, and he's single-handedly carrying his team right now.

I've been off the Kemba bandwagon for a while.  I was, officially, off the "youth movement" bandwagon before this season started.  The only untouchables on this team, for me, are the Js, SMART and maybe Pritchard, although I am somewhat open to PP saying bye-bye for the right deal.  Smart is on my "no trade" list because we're seeing how hollow our chests are without his on court presence.  How would, how could, Danny replace that?  We need veteran depth at point guard and a Monster of the Mid-Lane.  The All-Star game is March 7th, 11 days away, and the trade deadline is March 25th, 29 days from now.  You have that long to pull a rabbit out of your hat, Danny.  Brad likes to talk about how players are expected to "know their roles and do their jobs".  Well, Danny, Do Your Job.  My suggestion for a starting place is to give up your pipedream of a championship team lead by gnats.  Get us a ring-starved, big-assed grizzly (small "g") bear for the middle.  We need a ground game as well as an air game.  A monster down low will force the defense to stay honest on the Js, which will improve them even more. A monster down low will increase the number and quality of our jump shots by forcing the defense to collapse on him, and then he can kick it out after the defense rotates away from the shooters.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267645


Bob


.

Bob, You should be on salary with Wyc. Your analysis is perfect, and the Celts need to hear from the MF Prince of Darkness on all these matters. If the Celtics team was run like a corporation, which it actually is, there would be a top down review happening right about a month ago.

Bob



I wanted to begin by mentioning Marcus Smart but you beat me to the punch.  We have been dropping close games determined by a couple of possessions and I have to believe that Smart being on the court would greatly increase our survival rate.  He would be on the floor to help close out games for us.  

I posted a stat about our low assists per game as a point of reference for why our offense is flawed.  We do not move the ball.  Kemba Walker will never be a pass first PG so he cannot really lead this team plus his defense is porous.  We were 9-6 before he came back and 6-10 since his return.

The trend for this team is in the wrong direction.  It is not just on Kemba.  Everyone just takes turn going one on one.  

Ktron was spot on about Brad Wanamaker.  With Smart out we have no big strong physical PG to defend.  Teague is now appropriately super glued to the bench.  PP is still playing well although his shooting percentage is down.  He still takes good shots within the flow of the offense unlike KW and is a better on the ball defender.  

Last night Rob played only 14 minutes. We already know about the issue with his leg.  It is not a good excuse for not playing him more minutes.  What's really going on here?  If his condition will always limit him for his career then he should have had surgery after he was drafted.  I think it is a lot of smoke and mirrors. He played 21 minutes the other night so what happened to his other 7 minutes?  Oh I see... Grant Williams logged 7  nonproductive minutes (zero points, 2 rebounds and an ill advised euro step blunder on a fast break opportunity)  Robs lack of more playing time begins and ends with coach Stevens.  

Congratulations to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum for making the ASG rosters.  In their post game interviews both reflected on the lower significance of an ASG berth than winning games with their team.  

There are some structural problems on this team.. We know that already.  We do not have an above average big man with big man skills.  We lack scoring off the pine with veteran experience and we are straddled with an undersized overpaid PG who is in decline but none of that addresses fundamental questions about the coaching.

The issue of assists and in the case of this team, sharing the ball begins and ends with coaching.  It is a two part issue.  It begins with taking bad shots and untimely shots given the situation during any game.  It's a selfishness not to seek out a better shot or in part a perception that it is a good shot and it is okay to launch away.

Case in point KW made a 3 point shot with 1:55 remaining in the game and then Boston got a stop at the other end.  We were down by 1 point 103-104.  Instead of seeking out a high percentage shot Kemba launches a 27 foot 3 pointer that misses.  We did not need a 3 pointer then.  It was a selfish hero shot that reflects the way KW has always played.  

This team, because of coach Stevens, has no glue about what is a good shot from a bad shot.  A bad shot instead of a good pass is the main reason why the Celtics are at the bottom of the league in assists and assisted FGM.  This is clearly a coaching issue. If Brad Stevens cannot get his team to perform the easiest fundamental of the game he should be terminated!

I still do not like the Thompson/Theis Paring

If this team remains a .500 team for the remainder of the year AND gets bounced early in the playoffs then it is time for a coaching change.  If Danny cannot improve the roster this year, it will be a lost year and you can hang the reason around his neck.   It should not take this long to build a championship club given all those draft picks, as well as free agency opportunities and trades.

Right on dboss.

dboss wrote:Bob



I wanted to begin by mentioning Marcus Smart but you beat me to the punch.  We have been dropping close games determined by a couple of possessions and I have to believe that Smart being on the court would greatly increase our survival rate.  He would be on the floor to help close out games for us.  

I posted a stat about our low assists per game as a point of reference for why our offense is flawed.  We do not move the ball.  Kemba Walker will never be a pass first PG so he cannot really lead this team plus his defense is porous.  We were 9-6 before he came back and 6-10 since his return.

The trend for this team is in the wrong direction.  It is not just on Kemba.  Everyone just takes turn going one on one.  

Ktron was spot on about Brad Wanamaker.  With Smart out we have no big strong physical PG to defend.  Teague is now appropriately super glued to the bench.  PP is still playing well although his shooting percentage is down.  He still takes good shots within the flow of the offense unlike KW and is a better on the ball defender.  

Last night Rob played only 14 minutes. We already know about the issue with his leg.  It is not a good excuse for not playing him more minutes.  What's really going on here?  If his condition will always limit him for his career then he should have had surgery after he was drafted.  I think it is a lot of smoke and mirrors. He played 21 minutes the other night so what happened to his other 7 minutes?  Oh I see... Grant Williams logged 7  nonproductive minutes (zero points, 2 rebounds and an ill advised euro step blunder on a fast break opportunity)  Robs lack of more playing time begins and ends with coach Stevens.  

Congratulations to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum for making the ASG rosters.  In their post game interviews both reflected on the lower significance of an ASG berth than winning games with their team.  

There are some structural problems on this team.. We know that already.  We do not have an above average big man with big man skills.  We lack scoring off the pine with veteran experience and we are straddled with an undersized overpaid PG who is in decline but none of that addresses fundamental questions about the coaching.

The issue of assists and in the case of this team, sharing the ball begins and ends with coaching.  It is a two part issue.  It begins with taking bad shots and untimely shots given the situation during any game.  It's a selfishness not to seek out a better shot or in part a perception that it is a good shot and it is okay to launch away.

Case in point KW made a 3 point shot with 1:55 remaining in the game and then Boston got a stop at the other end.  We were down by 1 point 103-104.  Instead of seeking out a high percentage shot Kemba launches a 27 foot 3 pointer that misses.  We did not need a 3 pointer then.  It was a selfish hero shot that reflects the way KW has always played.  

This team, because of coach Stevens, has no glue about what is a good shot from a bad shot.  A bad shot instead of a good pass is the main reason why the Celtics are at the bottom of the league in assists and assisted FGM.  This is clearly a coaching issue.  If Brad Stevens cannot get his team to perform the easiest fundamental of the game he should be terminated!  

I still do not like the Thompson/Theis Paring

If this team remains a .500 team for the remainder of the year AND gets bounced early in the playoffs then it is time for a coaching change.  If Danny cannot improve the roster this year, it will be a lost year and you can hang the reason around his neck.   It should not take this long to build a championship club given all those draft picks, as well as free agency opportunities and trades.

I don't post here much (obviously) but I do watch nearly every game, at least until lately. This team has become unwatchable at times. They have the talent to win a lot more games but for whatever reason they simply aren't performing. I like Brad Stevens....but I think his ability to motivate this team is gone. I agree with you that short of a deep playoff run Brad has to go. And yes, Ainge has to use the salary latitude he has at his disposal, preferably to get a better center. Not really like Thompson's game....or Semi's or Teague or Grant Williams. Fall is a novelty, nothing more.
We should be doing better.

bobheckler wrote:Anybody who wonders what Marcus Smart's value to this team is should remember this power dive into mediocrity (or have we blown right past mediocrity and are now worse than that?) began when Smart went down with his calf injury.  We had 19 assists last night.  19 assists and 41 fgm is not a good team offense ratio.  At this point I think we know we have no professional floor generals other than Smart, who isn't playing.  Tatum and Brown are increasing their assist totals but also their turnovers because they are not floor generals.  Kemba is no floor general, less than IT to be honest.  Pritchard is a rookie, so he gets a pass (but even he's better than Teague).  We have no ball movement.  All our cuts to the basket are off of dribble hand offs and one-on-one moves, usually by the Js.  We have no player movement, everybody stands around the perimeter.  What's the point in moving unless it's to set a pick for a one-on-one move when there's no floor general that will reward you with a pass for a good cut?

I blame all this on Danny.  If Danny wasn't confident Teague was a MUCH better floor general, then who was he counting on?  As it turns out, the Jeff Teague in Atlanta last year is the new Jeff Teague, and not the one in Minny and in years past.  Kemba isn't a floor general and, even if he was, was sidelined for the first few months of the season with his knee.  PP is a rook, a late first round rook to boot, what could Danny's expectations of him have been?  He's overachieved, for sure, but you couldn't hang your hat on that.

The first place I'd like to focus on for the shambles that is our last few weeks is our perimeter defense.  Our pnr defense sucks.  We are following players around screens, letting them get us on their backs as their screeners roll to the rim and freezing our big, who is stuck in no-man's land between the penetrator and the roller.  Setting a pick and getting your man on your back is now SOP in this NBA, and we're doing a lousy job.  All ball defenders, not just Kemba.  Last night Tatum got two blocks from behind on Luka, and that was great, but the reason why he was blocking him from behind is because he didn't stay in front of him in the first place.

Another problem with our defense is that not only are we not fighting to beat them to the screen and fighting to stay with them over the screen, staying in front of them on pnrs is that we are letting them drive to our outside instead of funneling them towards the middle and help.  It's all fine and good to call for "ice", which is to channel the ball to the outside and trapping them, but you have to trap them.  You cannot let them get past you on the outside and drive to the rim.  That's even worse than letting them come straight down the middle of the paint.  At least, in the paint, it's all in front of the baseline defender.  When they come in from the wing the baseline defender has to turn his back on his man and on whatever is happening on the weak side and becomes a less effective baseline defender as a result.

Jaylen started off 1-5, ended up 12-20.  That's 11-15 after he fired up.

Our bench, which had been doing yeoman work, covering up for the typically awful shooting of Kemba and the on/off "whose turn is it today?" performances by the Js who have been struggling to have good games during the same game together, was awful yesterday.  19 points.  PP was 2-7, 1-4 from 3.  I'm not down on PP, he's an overachiever, but his numbers are down to 37.5% from 3.  Nice, about league average, but not what they were.  He's been in a bit of a slump and perhaps is reverting to his mean.

Another bit of blame I put on Danny is in his vision for this team.  As we saw going back to Kyrie, he thinks we should have two killer wings and a killer guard.  Quality bigs are an afterthought to him.  The problem with this vision is that if they play effective perimeter defense against us, or if our legs are getting tired and our jump shots are frontrimming, or if they play good transition defense, we're a small team.  Winning  a championship with two wings and a guard as your stars isn't going to be easy, they're all living in that "small-end" space.  Two wings and a killer big, in my opinion, would be much better.  Even when Pop's back court is struggling he has LaMarcus Aldridge to overpower them.  Even when LeBron is having an off night, Vogel has Anthony Davis to overpower them.  Even when Giannis has an off night, and they struggle mightily when that happens, Bud has Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis to pound them inside.  Philly has Embiid and Howard.  If Embiid is out, or struggling, Howard still has enough game left to pound you.  It's not just the physicality I'm talking about, it's the gravity.  Howard, Lopez and even Portis command attention when they are working inside, you can't just count on their man to keep them off the boards or to keep them from an easy shot in the paint.  Thompson is doing his job, his numbers are as good, or better, than when he was in Cleveland /minute.  Williams has improved, obviously.  Theis is doing what he does, his 3pt fg% is even up to 37.5%, which makes him a legit threat from 3, but he doesn't dominate inside.  As much as he wants to think he's a 5 that's a self-image born of playing in Germany for years.  He's not a true NBA 5.  He is, in my opinion, a very good NBA 4 who has been playing 5.  We need a monster, and freaking absolute monster, inside.  A player you just cannot ignore.

Which makes me wonder why Brad didn't play Tacko against Boban last night.  Boban had 10 points and 8 rebounds in 13 minutes and looked like Tacko playing against other teams.  He could just reach over our bigs with ease.  I have no delusions of what Tacko is but if there was ever a time and place to give him a shot it was against 7'4", 290# also-limited-skilled Boban Marjanovic and, if Tacko isn't good enough for that then maybe it's time to say "farewell".

Luka is amazing.  Those two 3s to break our back and secure the win for Dallas were about as cold-blooded as you're going to see.  31 points on 11-23, 6-8 from 3, just 2 assists short of a triple-double.  Trae Young is one-dimensional.  He's phenomenal in that single dimension, but he can't defend for shit. Luka is a future MVP.  Is he a great defender?  Not right now, but he's only going to be 22 this Sunday, and he's single-handedly carrying his team right now.

I've been off the Kemba bandwagon for a while.  I was, officially, off the "youth movement" bandwagon before this season started.  The only untouchables on this team, for me, are the Js, SMART and maybe Pritchard, although I am somewhat open to PP saying bye-bye for the right deal.  Smart is on my "no trade" list because we're seeing how hollow our chests are without his on court presence.  How would, how could, Danny replace that?  We need veteran depth at point guard and a Monster of the Mid-Lane.  The All-Star game is March 7th, 11 days away, and the trade deadline is March 25th, 29 days from now.  You have that long to pull a rabbit out of your hat, Danny.  Brad likes to talk about how players are expected to "know their roles and do their jobs".  Well, Danny, Do Your Job.  My suggestion for a starting place is to give up your pipedream of a championship team lead by gnats.  Get us a ring-starved, big-assed grizzly (small "g") bear for the middle.  We need a ground game as well as an air game.  A monster down low will force the defense to stay honest on the Js, which will improve them even more.  A monster down low will increase the number and quality of our jump shots by forcing the defense to collapse on him, and then he can kick it out after the defense rotates away from the shooters.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267645


Bob


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Bob, I agree that we need that monster down low, not for the same reasons but I do agree. My question is Who is he and where is he? I have a few in mind but I’ve been told that for some reason we cannot get them. We can say this is what we need and it is obvious, but who is it? Drummond? KAT? Vukovic?
I am also in agreement on the point guard issue even more so. We need that killer smart Rondo type who knows the other teams tendencies, what they are running, when they are running it and where you need to be. One who can get you the ball in the right place at the right time and minimize iso me 2 BS. We need that more than the grizzlie bear to win a title.
Golden State won with 2 guards and a wing. They didn’t have a grizzlie. Neither did Miami in LeBron’s day. We don’t necessarily have to have that grizzlies but it helps. We absolutely HAVE to to have the POINT. That LEADER that sets the tone and the table. On an earlier post I stated that everyone on this team at this point is fair game. I still say that but Smart and the J’s would be a last resort and I don’t see anyone out there worth moving them for but anyone else? Here’s your hat now what’s your hurry. We are at that point.
Brad- I Still think we can do it with Brad. He is a good coach but he has got to adapt and the team needs to give him some NBA vet help on the bench via coaches or ex players with some Cache’.
Danny- You have till the end of the season to show that the Peter Principle has not set in on your ass. Get to work and clean up this disgraceful mess post haste!!

I think I have said it in another thread already - This team needs a catalyst for change or this season will be the LEAST of the damage done.

Our young wings are still you know... young. Instill in them this lack of discipline, strategy and mental toughness to close out games and it will do far more damage than the obvious lost season (which I already count as one as I cannot believe there is anyone on this forum even that still has enough green in their glasses to think we are winning a championship this year).

So I am up for ANY change in the right direction. Get Drummond over here? Fine! Do a trade for someone with any kind of bench significance, anything. Other type of catalysts might be becoming less and less "unthinkable" as well. Like you know get a new coach, get a new GM, just break it all down and start from scratch with JT, JB and Smart. I do not think we are quite there yet, but let us face it. We cannot play worse with the talent and experience we have on this team.

Something has got to give...

I believe Danny has put himself in a bind with his management decisions in the past 5 years or so. Even if he wants to trade and sign. Who is he going to be able to get or sign? Have we seen any potential players express desire to come to Boston since the season has begun? I will refer to the 3 team deal Huston-Nets did involving Cleveland, not the Celtics...

Check Wyc response on the state of the team on my new post just now.

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