POST GAME CLEVELAND - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Contines Late-Season Skid With Loss To Cavaliers

The C's have two games left on their regular season schedule


NESN by Abigail Adams

The Boston Celtics just cannot find a win as the regular season comes to an end.

The Cleveland Cavaliers topped the C’s 101-94 at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday as Boston took its fourth straight loss.

The Celtics dipped to 35-35 while the Cavs improved to 22-48.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Tremont Waters
SG: Aaron Nesmith
SF: Evan Fournier
PF: Jayson Tatum
C: Tristan Thompson

TYPICAL
Boston really could have used a better start than this.

The Celtics got off to a solid start Tuesday, but that was not the case Wednesday. Boston found itself in a five-point hole early versus Cleveland.



The Cavs, meanwhile, hit nine of 23 shots in the first frame.


Cleveland led Boston 22-17 after 12 minutes.

NOT MUCH IMPROVEMENT
Things did not change much in the second.

The Cavs maintained their lead on 33.3% shooting while the C’s completed just 16 of 48 attempted shots in the first half Wednesday night. Tatum led Boston with 11 points through 24 minutes.

Unfortunately, Boston collected just 12 points in the first half. Payton Pritchard led the charge with nine points and six rebounds through two quarters, though Grant Williams (three points) was the only bench player to score in the half.

With that, the Cavs entered the second half with a 42-39 lead, giving Boston a clear-cut chance to rebound.

SOME HOPE
Boston closed the gap in the third, though Cleveland wasn’t willing to give up its lead without a fight.


The C’s shooting did not improve much, but they managed finish the third just two points up on the Cavs.

Tatum led all scorers with 20 points while Payton Pritchard finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Kevin Love, meanwhile, trailed Tatum by just one with 19 and Collin Sexton had 18. Love had eight rebounds, though Jarrett Allen led all teams with 10 through three.

The Celtics took a 69-67 lead into the final frame.

A LOSS INDEED
Once again, the C’s fell short of a W on Wednesday.

Cleveland started the fourth on an 11-0 run that Boston struggled to overcome. The C’s shot just 34.6% while the Cavs completed 45% of their attempted shots.

There wasn’t much to the rest of this one. Boston lost 101-94 after the Cavs for their fourth straight loss.


PLAY OF THE GAME
FAST PP!


UP NEXT
Boston’s penultimate game of the season is slated for Saturday, though. start time has yet to be announced.

112288

All I can say is OMG!

Never imagined it would be so bad.


112288

LISTS OF A FEW OF THE TOP COLLEGE DEFENSIVE MINDS

BILL SELF - KANSAS #1
TOM IZZO - MICHIGAN ST. #3
JOHN CAPIPARI - KENTUCKY - #4
SHAKA SMART - VA COMMON WEALTH - #6

112288

112288 wrote:LISTS OF A FEW OF THE TOP COLLEGE DEFENSIVE MINDS

BILL SELF - KANSAS #1
TOM IZZO - MICHIGAN ST. #3
JOHN CAPIPARI - KENTUCKY - #4
SHAKA SMART - VA COMMON WEALTH - #6

112288

Jerry Stackhouse

Help me out here. I thought that one EARNED playing time. PP has had a pretty impressive rookie season. He’s worked and played hard. Yes, he's had some Klunkers but what rookie or player period hasn’t?
He deserved to start not only because of all of the above but because hes a better player than Drip Waters. How does this happen?
I don’t get it. Maybe somebody else here does.
This was disgraceful. Shorthanded or not, we lost to a team that was not trying to win (taking a red hot Love out when the game was still in doubt was evidence enough) Even with our G league bench, we should have outscored these clowns.
Not according to Brad though “They got a lot of good players. It’s more about them”. Good night

READ HIS BIO.  THIS IS THE GUY YOU WANT FOR THE CELTICS IF I WAS DANNY ANINGE!  HE DRIPS CELTIC BASKETBALL!  SOUNDS A LITTLE LIKE TOMMMY H.

MICK Cronin - CINCINNATI #10

Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin works hard to get his teams to have a defensive mindset.

He wants to win games not simply by outscoring opponents, but by shutting them down.

Cronin recruits physical players and coaches them to contest everything: shots, passes, cuts across the lane—you name it, the Bearcats will oppose it—and if his players do not play hard, they don’t play.

In 2012-13, Cincinnati limited their opponents to 38.7 percent shooting from the field (No. 14 in the nation) and 30.4 percent from beyond the arc.

Ktron wrote:Help me out here. I thought that one EARNED playing time. PP has had a pretty impressive rookie season. He’s worked and played hard. Yes, he's had some Klunkers but what rookie or player period hasn’t?
He deserved to start not only because of all of the above but because hes a better player than Drip Waters. How does this happen?
I don’t get it. Maybe somebody else here does.
This was disgraceful. Shorthanded or not, we lost to a team that was not trying to win (taking a red hot Love out when the game was still in doubt was evidence enough) Even with our G league bench, we should have outscored these clowns.
Not according to Brad though “They got a lot of good players. It’s more about them”. Good night

I CAN HELP YOU OUT ABOUT PP..................HE PLAYS UNDER BRAD STEVENS THAT'S WHY!

112288

We now stand as the 15th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft!

112288

112288 wrote:We now stand as the 15th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft!

112288

Any bigs? We have to acquire some. A real 6’10” or taller big in the draft or by trade, let’s get 2, a rook and a vet.

Ariel Hukporti. 7'0". Germany German-Togolese

ONLY 19 Years Old!

Hukporti is a physical specimen with NBA size and athletic ability. His movement skills are impressive for nearly 7-feet, 250lbs and he certainly passes the eyeball test.

He projects as a role player early in his career and will have to earn minutes with his rebounding, interior defense and running the floor but he’s got some offensive talent as well and should develop into more of a scoring threat.

His ability to get off the ground at his size is impressive. He’s a shot blocking force who reacts well and has a quick first jump.

He scores most of his points right around the basket, either on dunks or short lefty hooks and layups but is becoming a more capable outside shooter, showing good mechanics.

Well, the good news is, there are only 4 games left for our entire season plus the play-ins. We can't beat Charlotte or WAS.

db

Nerlans Noel is an UFA, kid is from New England.

I wanted him 2 years ago, make it happen Danny

We were without 4 starters, four, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still an NBA team last time I looked.  Not a good one, fair enough, but they've won games against other NBA teams this season besides us.  They've beaten the Hornets (with Hayward), the Sixers and the Hawks (in Atlanta), the Knicks and the Nets just to name a few.  With the exception of the Hornets (who have sunk in the standings without Hayward and Ball) every one of those other teams are better than us, and since their victory over Charlotte happened when they were healthy they beat a team that may have been better than us back then.  Absolutely, positively, period.  Every one of those teams, maybe even including Charlotte back then, are better than us.  Does anybody question that?!  My point is that a season's W-L record might tell you how good a team they are overall but on any given night they are still an NBA team and can rise up.  Rather than turning into Chicken Little ask yourself this, "would you rather be them or us"?  This game, this month, this season aside I'd still much rather be us.

Tatum 11-26, 1-6 from 3.  Fournier 6-20, 3-9 from 3.  With Kemba, Smart, RWill and Jaylen not playing we needed efficient scoring from those two and we didn't get it.  

Remember how so many people were begging Brad to play the young'uns to expedite their development?  Be careful what you ask for.  Nesmith with his first NBA start and he was 3-10, 0-4 from 3.  He had 7 rebounds, that seems to be a constant with him, but his calling card is shooting and he shot poorly last night.  Brad started Grant Williams in Nesmith's place to start the 3rd.  I'm not down on Nesmith, he's a rook without a summer league and an abbreviated pre-season, but you cannot rush the kids.  They can only absorb so much, intellectually and physically, early in their careers.  Throwing them into the fire prematurely doesn't make them better, it makes their heads explode because they're getting their brains beat in every single night by better, bigger, older players every night and that's not healthy for their development.  Ever play chess against a player who is head-and-shoulders better than you?  You lose and you don't learn much from it because they are crushing you with stuff you don't even know about, yet.

Another young'un, Payton Pritchard, with 15 points, but on 5-13 (38.4%).

More young'uns:  Romeo Langford completely freaking useless in 9 minutes.  You have to know what got you to the NBA and I don't think Romeo knows it.  Carsen Edwards 0-3, 0 rebounds, 0 assists in 5 minutes.  He's shooting 29.5% from 3 this season, which even down from his 30.5% career average.  What is the purpose of Carsen Edwards if not to be a lights out shooter?  Tremont Waters got the start, probably to protect him by surrounding him with older veterans like Tatum, Fournier and Thompson.  An inauspicious game for Tremont not just because he shot 3-9 but because he committed, in my opinion, an unforgivable sin.  He got the rebound and passed it to Jayson Tatum to bring up over half court.  What is the purpose of Tremont Waters if not to be a primary ballhandler?!

Semi with goose eggs across the board.  No fgas, no ftas, no rebounds, no assists, no nothing.  8 minutes of zero.

Grant did ok.  Part of this is because everybody else stunk, but he did ok.  He played good defense on Jarett Allen, he attacked the basket some on offense.  He at least looked like he wanted to win the game, production notwithstanding.  He was only 2-7, but a few of those misses were at the rim after a good move.  I'm ok with attacking the rim and taking my chances on a fgm or ftas.  Force the defense to make a good, clean play on you, or pay for it.  He was 2-4 from 3.  There were only 2 Celtics with positive +/- and one of them was Grant with a +3.  The other was Edwards with a +2, but he only played 5 minutes, so that doesn't say much.  Grant played 32 minutes.  How pathetic is it that the only Celtic who played significant minutes who had a positive +/- was Grant Williams?  Even if you like Grant, and I know some members of this board do not, but even if you do he's not the guy we should be counting on to have a plus effect on the game.

This is a cool little twitter video.  This is the little stuff, the stuff that doesn't make the boxscore, that coaches like to see.  Grant blew up a Cav offensive set with this.  A little thing but because of this the backscreen didn't get set or slash across the lane didn't get done, and they had to reset.  Having to reset your offensive set takes valuable seconds off the clock and gives an advantage to the defense because it shrinks the offense's remaining options before the buzzer.

Jared Weiss
@JaredWeissNBA
·
12h
The TT block will make the highlights but my favorite part of this play is Grant seeing Sexton cutting over to set some sort of back screen and just twerking him out of the way and getting back into position to contain the pick and roll.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1392653302291177473

Luke Kornet is starting to bother me.  He's 7'2" and plays like he's 6'2".  He was 1-5 last night.  That's not a good fg% for a 7'er.  He is soft as a grape in the paint on offense and defense.  He needs to spend a lot of time on the leg machines in the off season, he is way too easy to move off his spot for a 250# man.  He had 6 rebounds in 18 minutes, so that's something, but not enough.

Tristan Thompson had 10 points on 5-7 and 7 rebounds in 28 minutes.  His counterpart, Jarrett Allen, had 8 points on 4-10 and 10 rebounds in 32 minutes.  Thompson wasn't the problem.

Kevin Love was the problem (along with our shitty shooting).  He had 30 points and was 6-9 from 3.  14 rebounds.  30 and 14.  Not a bad night for anybody.  

Danny gave Brad a kindergarten for a bench and when they were put in the spotlight they played like kindergarteners.  I was done with the "youth movement" before this season started and the fork has dug even deeper into me as this season has progressed.  "Youth is wasted on the young" - George Bernard Shaw.

I'm going to address the "fire Brad and bring in fill_in_blank" primal screams in a different post.

We shot 35.6%.  That is mind-bogglingly bad.  That isn't even High School level shooting.  We have too many non-scorers on this team, and the scorers we did have didn't score much nor efficiently.  This is a scorer's league now.  The league office wants that, the owners want that, the players want that (stats like ppg bring bigger contracts.  Besides, playing good defense hurts) and the refs call the game that way.  Not having scorers is Danny's fault.  Brad is only peripherally involved with that part of the team's operation (to-date!!).  That might change this summer, at least according to Jackie Mac.

On the bright side we had 101 fgas.  That's a lot for a regulation 48 minute game.  I'm very happy with that.

27 ftas producing 22 points for them vs 14 ftas producing 10 points for us.  We lost by 8 points.  I don't want to blame the zebras for this, we missed those shots not them, but if we had gotten a few more whistles we still might have won despite our offensive incompetence.

Our defense this year is 19th, according to the Cleveland announcing crew last night.  Personally I'm surprised it's even that good.  Who are those other 11 coaches?  What's shocking is that our defense over the last 4 years or so has been elite.  Not just middle-of-the-pack, but elite.  The implosion this year is crazy.  Some of it can be attributed to the inability to generate on-court chemistry because we haven't had our top 7 players on the court at the same time all season, but it's deeper than that.  I'm still leaning towards the "too much youth" opinion.


Chris Forsberg
Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 41 minutes ago
Danny Ainge on @Toucherandrich shows support for Marcus Smart. Suggests that offseason changes are unlikely to involve “our best players.”

This is the Kiss of Death by Danny.  




Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Tristan Thompson said the Celtics have a bunch of great human beings and now they just need to turn it up a notch. “Guys gotta understand: This is the playoffs. It’s for all the marbles. There are no redos.”


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307853


Bob


.

Another very disappointing game and another brain fart coaching performance.

Brad should have started PP in the backcourt.  PP has been in the rotation all year long.  TW has spent more time on the bench than a double coat of shellac.  This is another clear indication that Brad Stevens is clueless.  He is just throwing stuff against the wall hoping to get a stick.  

I am sure he was thinking, I'll bring PP off the bench for scoring
but that was a bad decision.    He should have started PP at the point and played him 35+ minutes and neither Edward or Waters should have been in the game other than to give PP a 2-3 blow.

Parker is a DNP again.  I know what you are thinking.  He doesn't play defense.  He would fit right in and maybe get a a few baskets in the paint.  He is a veteran NBA player.  You have to find minutes for him when you are down 4 starters.

At the Wolves looks like a sacrificial event.  

The final game at NY will also be a loss because they just keep on defending no matter what the score is.  

We will finish at 35-37.  

I would sit Tatum, Thompson, Smart and Walker for the remainder of the schedule and get them rested for the play in matchup(s)

Grant Williams sucks and he was a wasted draft pick along with Edward, Langford and Waters.

PP and Nesmith were good selections but their development continues to be hampered by their coach.

Half the roster looks like a bad intersection accident involving multiple vehicles and that is on Danny the other half drives poorly, knowing better, but Brad will not write any tickets.

Don't forget the 2-game sweep for the play-in. At this point, we're only good at beating ourselves, much less hungry teams willing to sacrifice themselves for a 100% chance of being swept by PHI and/or BKN.

db

112288 wrote:LISTS OF A FEW OF THE TOP COLLEGE DEFENSIVE MINDS

BILL SELF - KANSAS #1
TOM IZZO - MICHIGAN ST. #3
JOHN CAPIPARI - KENTUCKY - #4
SHAKA SMART - VA COMMON WEALTH - #6

112288

Great list of coaches there.

Unfortunately, I think all are too smart to take what would be a step backwards for them by going to the NBA.

Calipari learned the hard way but is in a great place now.

112288 wrote:LISTS OF A FEW OF THE TOP COLLEGE DEFENSIVE MINDS

BILL SELF - KANSAS #1
TOM IZZO - MICHIGAN ST. #3
JOHN CAPIPARI - KENTUCKY - #4
SHAKA SMART - VA COMMON WEALTH - #6

112288

I'm not interested in any of these coaches, not one.  Why not?  Because they are all college coaches.  College coaches bust out of the NBA a lot and that's not just bad luck and timing.  It's a different game and the relationships with the players are different.  You don't get to recruit whomever you want without regards to salary, you coach who the front office gives you and that is a huge difference.  As far as their rankings go let me remind you Rick Pitino was right up there too.  How quickly we forget.

Furthermore, if we're so anxious to advance we're going to fire Brad and start over why would you want a coach with the same learning curve in front of them that Brad had?  That's a step back for us, not forward.  Our problem is youth, in my opinion.  How does going younger with the coaching staff fix that?  I don't mean, nor care, about the chronological age of the coach.  I'm talking about their experience levels and only one of those coaches have any NBA experience, John Calipari.  He was the head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1996-99.  That's 22 years ago.  After getting fired by NJ (one reason was because he called a reporter a "Mexican idiot" and was fined $25K by the league.  Imagine the league's response to that in 2021!).  The next year he was an assistant coach in Philly.  So, despite being an NBA head coach for 3 years he couldn't get hired as an NBA head coach again.  He's 62 years old, is a living god in Lexington, KY and makes over $9M/year and gets to call all his own shots.  Why would he leave that and start over from scratch?  Tom Izzo is 66 years old.  I don't care about how chronically old he is, I doubt he's about to break down, but how long is it reasonable to expect a going-on 67 year old man who has never coached an 82 game season in his life to stick to it?  Shaka Smart is the head coach of Marquette, not VCU.  When he was the head coach at VCU he lost in the Elite Eight in the 2011 NCAA March Madness to...wait for it...Brad Stevens and his Butler Bulldogs.  He went to the University of Texas and in the 6 years he coached there never won an NCAA tournament when he was there.  He was 0-6.  In 2021, this year, 3rd seed Texas lost in the first round to 14th seed Abilene Christian University.  Abilene freaking Christian.  That's like 3rd seed Milwaukee losing in the first round of the NBA playoffs to a team like the Orlando Magic, and you want him?! He just signed a contract to coach Marquette on March 26, 2021, less than 2 months ago.  So throwing his name into the ring is just flat-out ridiculous, he just signed a brand new contract to coach Marquette.  He's probably still in the process of moving his family to Wisconsin, that's how new and fresh the contract is. Just name-dropping, that's what this is.

Our defense for the last 4-5 years has been elite.  Not just ok, not just good, but Top 5 elite.  Not this year, true, but to suggest that Brad doesn't know how to build defensive schemes or get players to buy into playing defense is provably false.  We have a problem this year but, since we know the coach can get players to defend at a high level, I'd say the problem this year is with the players he's coaching this year, because there was no problem with our defense for years.  Is Pop a bad coach now because his teams have been <.500 for the last 2 years?  Did Pop just suddenly forget how to coach?  We came back from 32 down against Pop and his Spurs just last week.  If we're freaking out over Brad because of our loss to the Cavs last night, despite being down 4 starters, why didn't/aren't we exalting him for his record victory over the best living NBA coach? Shooters like Ray Allen are expected to have short-term memories, not us.

If you're frustrated with this year because you thought we'd be better you better strap yourself in, remember to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before putting one on your children, and put your head down between your knees in crash position if any of these coaches replace Brad, because there's going to be serious turbulence.  And while we're losing as their learning curve flattens out, assuming they don't alienate the veterans because they're grown-ass men and not kids fresh out of High School like they're used to, our core players will be getting frustrated because they're not rookies anymore either.

And then there's this:

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 2 hours ago
Danny Ainge says on Toucher and Rich: “It’s our job to deal with what the real issues are, not the perceived issues. And Brad Stevens is not the real issue.”


Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 2 hours ago
Danny Ainge on @Toucherandrich on notion of running it back next season: “We would definitely look to make some changes ... How significant? We’ll see.” Ainge goes to bat for Brad Stevens and says he shouldn’t be judged on one down season given all the circumstances.


Unless Wyc has reversed his field Danny isn't going anywhere, and if Danny's not going anywhere Brad isn't going anywhere either.  I'd bank on it.  If an experienced NBA head coach who had previously been an NBA player was available then, maybe, but even then I'd still seriously doubt it.  This is just sports board sturm und drang.

Our top 7 players haven't played together this entire season.  Not one minute.  Remember Brad's first year, when our roster was a revolving door?  He didn't even know who was on the team from game-to-game, so how could he coach?  This year is the same except it's injury and COVID and not as much Trader Danny (although the Theis trade was definitely a speed bump, so some of the blame has to go to Danny for trading away the anchor of our elite defense for a pair of, in my opinion, chumps). Blame Danny for giving Brad a kindergarten for the bottom half of his roster. Blame the training staff for not doing a better job of preventing injuries. Blame the players themselves for not being as diligent with sanitation as they should be. Don't blame the lemonade man. He can only work with what he has.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:We were without 4 starters, four, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still an NBA team last time I looked.  Not a good one, fair enough, but they've won games against other NBA teams this season besides us.  They've beaten the Hornets (with Hayward), the Sixers and the Hawks (in Atlanta), the Knicks and the Nets just to name a few.  With the exception of the Hornets (who have sunk in the standings without Hayward and Ball) every one of those other teams are better than us, and since their victory over Charlotte happened when they were healthy they beat a team that may have been better than us back then.  Absolutely, positively, period.  Every one of those teams, maybe even including Charlotte back then, are better than us.  Does anybody question that?!  My point is that a season's W-L record might tell you how good a team they are overall but on any given night they are still an NBA team and can rise up.  Rather than turning into Chicken Little ask yourself this, "would you rather be them or us"?  This game, this month, this season aside I'd still much rather be us.

Tatum 11-26, 1-6 from 3.  Fournier 6-20, 3-9 from 3.  With Kemba, Smart, RWill and Jaylen not playing we needed efficient scoring from those two and we didn't get it.  

Remember how so many people were begging Brad to play the young'uns to expedite their development?  Be careful what you ask for.  Nesmith with his first NBA start and he was 3-10, 0-4 from 3.  He had 7 rebounds, that seems to be a constant with him, but his calling card is shooting and he shot poorly last night.  Brad started Grant Williams in Nesmith's place to start the 3rd.  I'm not down on Nesmith, he's a rook without a summer league and an abbreviated pre-season, but you cannot rush the kids.  They can only absorb so much, intellectually and physically, early in their careers.  Throwing them into the fire prematurely doesn't make them better, it makes their heads explode because they're getting their brains beat in every single night by better, bigger, older players every night and that's not healthy for their development.  Ever play chess against a player who is head-and-shoulders better than you?  You lose and you don't learn much from it because they are crushing you with stuff you don't even know about, yet.

Another young'un, Payton Pritchard, with 15 points, but on 5-13 (38.4%).

More young'uns:  Romeo Langford completely freaking useless in 9 minutes.  You have to know what got you to the NBA and I don't think Romeo knows it.  Carsen Edwards 0-3, 0 rebounds, 0 assists in 5 minutes.  He's shooting 29.5% from 3 this season, which even down from his 30.5% career average.  What is the purpose of Carsen Edwards if not to be a lights out shooter?  Tremont Waters got the start, probably to protect him by surrounding him with older veterans like Tatum, Fournier and Thompson.  An inauspicious game for Tremont not just because he shot 3-9 but because he committed, in my opinion, an unforgivable sin.  He got the rebound and passed it to Jayson Tatum to bring up over half court.  What is the purpose of Tremont Waters if not to be a primary ballhandler?!

Semi with goose eggs across the board.  No fgas, no ftas, no rebounds, no assists, no nothing.  8 minutes of zero.

Grant did ok.  Part of this is because everybody else stunk, but he did ok.  He played good defense on Jarett Allen, he attacked the basket some on offense.  He at least looked like he wanted to win the game, production notwithstanding.  He was only 2-7, but a few of those misses were at the rim after a good move.  I'm ok with attacking the rim and taking my chances on a fgm or ftas.  Force the defense to make a good, clean play on you, or pay for it.  He was 2-4 from 3.  There were only 2 Celtics with positive +/- and one of them was Grant with a +3.  The other was Edwards with a +2, but he only played 5 minutes, so that doesn't say much.  Grant played 32 minutes.  How pathetic is it that the only Celtic who played significant minutes who had a positive +/- was Grant Williams?  Even if you like Grant, and I know some members of this board do not, but even if you do he's not the guy we should be counting on to have a plus effect on the game.

This is a cool little twitter video.  This is the little stuff, the stuff that doesn't make the boxscore, that coaches like to see.  Grant blew up a Cav offensive set with this.  A little thing but because of this the backscreen didn't get set or slash across the lane didn't get done, and they had to reset.  Having to reset your offensive set takes valuable seconds off the clock and gives an advantage to the defense because it shrinks the offense's remaining options before the buzzer.

Jared Weiss
@JaredWeissNBA
·
12h
The TT block will make the highlights but my favorite part of this play is Grant seeing Sexton cutting over to set some sort of back screen and just twerking him out of the way and getting back into position to contain the pick and roll.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1392653302291177473

Luke Kornet is starting to bother me.  He's 7'2" and plays like he's 6'2".  He was 1-5 last night.  That's not a good fg% for a 7'er.  He is soft as a grape in the paint on offense and defense.  He needs to spend a lot of time on the leg machines in the off season, he is way too easy to move off his spot for a 250# man.  He had 6 rebounds in 18 minutes, so that's something, but not enough.

Tristan Thompson had 10 points on 5-7 and 7 rebounds in 28 minutes.  His counterpart, Jarrett Allen, had 8 points on 4-10 and 10 rebounds in 32 minutes.  Thompson wasn't the problem.

Kevin Love was the problem (along with our shitty shooting).  He had 30 points and was 6-9 from 3.  14 rebounds.  30 and 14.  Not a bad night for anybody.  

Danny gave Brad a kindergarten for a bench and when they were put in the spotlight they played like kindergarteners.  I was done with the "youth movement" before this season started and the fork has dug even deeper into me as this season has progressed.  "Youth is wasted on the young" - George Bernard Shaw.

I'm going to address the "fire Brad and bring in fill_in_blank" primal screams in a different post.

We shot 35.6%.  That is mind-bogglingly bad.  That isn't even High School level shooting.  We have too many non-scorers on this team, and the scorers we did have didn't score much nor efficiently.  This is a scorer's league now.  The league office wants that, the owners want that, the players want that (stats like ppg bring bigger contracts.  Besides, playing good defense hurts) and the refs call the game that way.  Not having scorers is Danny's fault.  Brad is only peripherally involved with that part of the team's operation (to-date!!).  That might change this summer, at least according to Jackie Mac.

On the bright side we had 101 fgas.  That's a lot for a regulation 48 minute game.  I'm very happy with that.

27 ftas producing 22 points for them vs 14 ftas producing 10 points for us.  We lost by 8 points.  I don't want to blame the zebras for this, we missed those shots not them, but if we had gotten a few more whistles we still might have won despite our offensive incompetence.

Our defense this year is 19th, according to the Cleveland announcing crew last night.  Personally I'm surprised it's even that good.  Who are those other 11 coaches?  What's shocking is that our defense over the last 4 years or so has been elite.  Not just middle-of-the-pack, but elite.  The implosion this year is crazy.  Some of it can be attributed to the inability to generate on-court chemistry because we haven't had our top 7 players on the court at the same time all season, but it's deeper than that.  I'm still leaning towards the "too much youth" opinion.


Chris Forsberg
Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 41 minutes ago
Danny Ainge on @Toucherandrich shows support for Marcus Smart. Suggests that offseason changes are unlikely to involve “our best players.”

This is the Kiss of Death by Danny.  




Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Tristan Thompson said the Celtics have a bunch of great human beings and now they just need to turn it up a notch. “Guys gotta understand: This is the playoffs. It’s for all the marbles. There are no redos.”


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307853


Bob


.

Bob, fully healthy, other than Brooklyn, NO those teams are not better than us. Now, with being down 4 starters they are but thats been within the last few weeks. Pocket that excuse. Also The Cavs did not have Nance nor Garland last night. Pocket that excuse as well.
I’ll humor you and join your rational romper room by agreeing that yes, I’d rather be us then them- but not yesterday, today or tomorrow. I don’t know what your point is, rather I should say i do know what your point is that they are an NBA team but thats just another way of minimizing this debacle. Next year will be different I’m sure and I’m excited about that already but I won’t dismiss or rationalize poor decision making, poor play or poor effort.
I also feel that games like this is where the Nesmith’s etc should be playing and showing they belong. It’s hard making the NBA and harder staying and when you get your shot, training camp, summer league, practice or not, you have to perform. That’s not to say they’re going to step up and hit a mistake free 50 but they should be playing in games like this, It’s not the fire its the NBA. PLay and expect the mistakes because they’re coming even with the vets. So, I’m not disappointed with what Nesmith, PP and Grant gave. The others? Well, THEY shouldn’t been out there in my opinion. They’re not NBA players. Cue the fat lady.
You and I will never agree on the weight on some of your analysis when it comes to numbers. Numbers is another tool used to evaluate but you also have to evaluate that number and I think thats where the Stop sign sits with some of your analysis.
Case in point- Thompson and Allen. You took their numbers and compared them and stated Thompson wasn’t the problem. I watched along with you and saw how many times Thompson’s defense was horrible. How many passes he dropped, how many bunnies he missed or couldn’t even attempt because he was either gathering himself or committing bonehead fouls. A lot of these plays were not against Allen. If you want to compare their numbers, compare them head to head and there you may have a more realistic evaluation. Numbers can also be used as crutches.
BTW Kevin Love was a problem because we didn’t defend an old man that doesn’t even post up anymore. We couldn’t even figure that mess out. Our shitty shooting doesn’t conflate with what Love did to us. Two separate issues.
Varejou came out of moth balls we made him look like he’d been playing all season.
I agree we have a lot of youth and that is an issue. If there’s anything good that has come out of games like this and OKC, SAC is that some of those Younguns got to play and at least I think we know who will not be on this roster or in the NBA next year. I’m excited about next year as I said. There will be changes and we will be better. Strike a match to this one and let it burn out. This hot mess needs to be in the rear view mirror post haste!!

bobheckler wrote:

112288 wrote:LISTS OF A FEW OF THE TOP COLLEGE DEFENSIVE MINDS

BILL SELF - KANSAS #1
TOM IZZO - MICHIGAN ST. #3
JOHN CAPIPARI - KENTUCKY - #4
SHAKA SMART - VA COMMON WEALTH - #6

112288

I'm not interested in any of these coaches, not one.  Why not?  Because they are all college coaches.  College coaches bust out of the NBA a lot and that's not just bad luck and timing.  It's a different game and the relationships with the players are different.  You don't get to recruit whomever you want without regards to salary, you coach who the front office gives you and that is a huge difference.  As far as their rankings go let me remind you Rick Pitino was right up there too.  How quickly we forget.

Furthermore, if we're so anxious to advance we're going to fire Brad and start over why would you want a coach with the same learning curve in front of them that Brad had?  That's a step back for us, not forward.  Our problem is youth, in my opinion.  How does going younger with the coaching staff fix that?  I don't mean, nor care, about the chronological age of the coach.  I'm talking about their experience levels and only one of those coaches have any NBA experience, John Calipari.  He was the head coach of the New Jersey Nets in 1996-99.  That's 22 years ago.  After getting fired by NJ (one reason was because he called a reporter a "Mexican idiot" and was fined $25K by the league.  Imagine the league's response to that in 2021!).  The next year he was an assistant coach in Philly.  So, despite being an NBA head coach for 3 years he couldn't get hired as an NBA head coach again.  He's 62 years old, is a living god in Lexington, KY and makes over $9M/year and gets to call all his own shots.  Why would he leave that and start over from scratch?  Tom Izzo is 66 years old.  I don't care about how chronically old he is, I doubt he's about to break down, but how long is it reasonable to expect a going-on 67 year old man who has never coached an 82 game season in his life to stick to it?  Shaka Smart is the head coach of Marquette, not VCU.  When he was the head coach at VCU he lost in the Elite Eight in the 2011 NCAA March Madness to...wait for it...Brad Stevens and his Butler Bulldogs.  He went to the University of Texas and in the 6 years he coached there never won an NCAA tournament when he was there.  He was 0-6.  In 2021, this year, 3rd seed Texas lost in the first round to 14th seed Abilene Christian University.  Abilene freaking Christian.  That's like 3rd seed Milwaukee losing in the first round of the NBA playoffs to a team like the Orlando Magic, and you want him?!  He just signed a contract to coach Marquette on March 26, 2021, less than 2 months ago.  So throwing his name into the ring is just flat-out ridiculous, he just signed a brand new contract to coach Marquette.  He's probably still in the process of moving his family to Wisconsin, that's how new and fresh the contract is.  Just name-dropping, that's what this is.

Our defense for the last 4-5 years has been elite.  Not just ok, not just good, but Top 5 elite.  Not this year, true, but to suggest that Brad doesn't know how to build defensive schemes or get players to buy into playing defense is provably false.  We have a problem this year but, since we know the coach can get players to defend at a high level, I'd say the problem this year is with the players he's coaching this year, because there was no problem with our defense for years.  Is Pop a bad coach now because his teams have been <.500 for the last 2 years?  Did Pop just suddenly forget how to coach?  We came back from 32 down against Pop and his Spurs just last week.  If we're freaking out over Brad because of our loss to the Cavs last night, despite being down 4 starters, why didn't/aren't we exalting him for his record victory over the best living NBA coach?  Shooters like Ray Allen are expected to have short-term memories, not us.

If you're frustrated with this year because you thought we'd be better you better strap yourself in, remember to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before putting one on your children, and put your head down between your knees in crash position if any of these coaches replace Brad, because there's going to be serious turbulence.  And while we're losing as their learning curve flattens out, assuming they don't alienate the veterans because they're grown-ass men and not kids fresh out of High School like they're used to, our core players will be getting frustrated because they're not rookies anymore either.

And then there's this:

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 2 hours ago
Danny Ainge says on Toucher and Rich: “It’s our job to deal with what the real issues are, not the perceived issues. And Brad Stevens is not the real issue.”


Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
about 2 hours ago
Danny Ainge on @Toucherandrich on notion of running it back next season: “We would definitely look to make some changes ... How significant? We’ll see.” Ainge goes to bat for Brad Stevens and says he shouldn’t be judged on one down season given all the circumstances.


Unless Wyc has reversed his field Danny isn't going anywhere, and if Danny's not going anywhere Brad isn't going anywhere either.  I'd bank on it.  If an experienced NBA head coach who had previously been an NBA player was available then, maybe, but even then I'd still seriously doubt it.  This is just sports board sturm und drang.

Our top 7 players haven't played together this entire season.  Not one minute.  Remember Brad's first year, when our roster was a revolving door?  He didn't even know who was on the team from game-to-game, so how could he coach?  This year is the same except it's injury and COVID and not as much Trader Danny (although the Theis trade was definitely a speed bump, so some of the blame has to go to Danny for trading away the anchor of our elite defense for a pair of, in my opinion, chumps).  Blame Danny for giving Brad a kindergarten for the bottom half of his roster.  Blame the training staff for not doing a better job of preventing injuries.  Blame the players themselves for not being as diligent with sanitation as they should be.  Don't blame the lemonade man.  He can only work with what he has.


Bob


.

Let me add Jerry Stackhouse to the list of people you think aren’t good enough to coach our beloved Celtics.
There’s a list of EX NBA coaches and players that could probably get the job done as well. (I’m not gonna bother taking the time listing them because nothing anyone says here is going to change your thinking and Im going to respect that). Instantaneously? Maybe not. Maybe so. But honestly, Bob, if you think there is not another coach on this planet earth that can coach this team as well or better than Brad (and I think Brad should stay with the right changes) you are wrong. And if you just so happen to be right, than this entire league is in deep shizik.

How about Lionel Hollins?

Former NBA Champion, former Memphis and Nets head coach and now an assistant with the Lakers.

"Hollins boasts an impressive track record that includes leading the Grizzlies to the playoffs in three straight seasons (2011-2013). Lionel took the Grizz all the way to the Western Conference Finals in his final season in Memphis and guided the Nets to the postseason the very next year."

dboss wrote:How about Lionel Hollins?

Former NBA Champion, former Memphis and Nets head coach and now an assistant with the Lakers.

"Hollins boasts an impressive track record that includes leading the Grizzlies to the playoffs in three straight seasons (2011-2013). Lionel took the Grizz all the way to the Western Conference Finals in his final season in Memphis and guided the Nets to the postseason the very next year."

And Lionel don’t take no guff!

dboss wrote:Grant Williams sucks and he was a wasted draft pick along with Edward, Langford and Waters.  

PP and Nesmith were good selections but their development continues to be hampered by their coach.  

Half the roster looks like a bad intersection accident involving multiple vehicles and that is on Danny the other half  drives poorly, knowing better, but Brad will not write any tickets.

What a complete waste that 19 draft was....

Brad starting Waters was absurd. Brad is a good coach but not a great coach. He makes plenty of bone headed decisions like starting Tremont over Payton, and he is not a motivator. Yes, we are stuck with him, and yes Danny gave him a flawed team But losing to the Cavs? C'mon man.
I never want to tank, but now I do. 4 straight. Right outta the playoffs. Go home guys as soon as you can. I hope we get one good draft pick, dump the flotsam and jetsam, keep Marcus, Aaron, Payton, Rob, JT, JB, Grant, trade Kemba if possible but probably can't ....and replace ALL the others

Yes Grant is not much, but we'll be shedding so many players. He is the brainiest biggest hustler of the lot, so grudgingly I would keep him. Evan only at the right price. Do not pay him Jaylen's salary.