Post Game Minnesota - Away, 5/15/21

12 players, including Waters and Tacko.  The only starter was Tatum, and we whupped them bad.  What a disheartening loss for the Minnesota Timberwolves, although probably not for their fans.  They sent their first round pick this year to GSW as part of the D'Angelo Russell - Andrew Wiggins trade, top 3 protected.  Minny is now tied for the 5th worst record in the NBA which would mean that, without help from the pingpong ball, GSW would get their pick.  By losing they remain tied for 5th worst instead of taking sole ownership of 6th worst which would have made jumping up to top 3 harder (if not almost impossible).  

Jayson Tatum and Evan Fournier both went to Brad and asked him to play today.  They felt they needed to work on developing better habits for the play-in/playoffs.  That's a hopeful sign, they're taking their play seriously.

Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 2 hours ago
Evan Fournier: "Playing well matters regardless of the circumstances. So I’m glad we got the W and everyone contributed today."

Being locked into the 7-spot the W-L was meaningless from a seeding perspective.  What this was about was helping Brad get a solid idea of who he should consider a rotation player in the playoffs and to get them some reps.

Working down the boxscore:

Semi with 6 on 3-6 and 7 rebounds.  0-3 from 3, all his points coming from 2.  2 of his 7 rebounds were offensive and he got points out of them.  Unless we're playing the Bucks I don't think he plays much more this year.

Tatum with 26, but on 8-21, 4-11 from 3.  Not so hot.  One exciting sighting of note was his willingness to give the ball to Pritchard or Waters to bring up.  He did that several times, so it's not like he forgot he's a ball hog, he did it intentionally.  There is hope yet.

Kornet got the start.  He had 12 points and 6 rebounds in 31 minutes.  4 blocks.  Might be the best I've seen him play.  Now he'll probably sit the rest of the year unless RWill gets hurt or he or Tristan's in foul trouble.

Pritchard got his 3rd NBA start.  He started out hot but ended up 4-12.  He missed a couple at the rim.  He had 4 of our 8 steals.  Either way, at this point, he's a rotation player and whatever he did this game wasn't going to change that.  One thing that seems to be a constant with this kid is that, no matter what, he's going to go out there and compete.  He's going to play hard.  Win, lose, shoot well or not he's not going to sleepwalk.  Our little mini-Smart, because there's definitely dog in this one.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 5 hours ago
Payton Pritchard three 3's in the first quarter in Minneapolis today. He becomes the 3rd Celtic in history to make 100 3's as a rookie. J.R. Bremer (2003) Jayson Tatum (2018) Payton Pritchard (2021)

JR Bremer made 101 3s in his rookie season.  Tatum made 105.  Pritchard now has exactly 100.  105 might be a stretch with only one game left, but 2 isn't.  It's not bad being #2 behind a shooter like Jayson Tatum, especially considering Tatum played almost double the minutes in his rookie year to get those 105.  If Brad doubled Pritchard's minutes and he'd have blown Tatum away.  Think about that.

Fournier with 18 on 6-11 and 5-8 from 3.  More significantly he had 6 assists.  Between his newness and COVID it was really important for him to spend time on the court with his teammates and get some reps and these were good reps.  Danny needs to resign this guy.

Parker got 17 minutes.  He had 9 points, 3 boards and no defense.  This is why he isn't getting minutes.  He has way too many NBA games under his belt, and has played for way too many NBA coaches, to still think defense doesn't matter.  He might be a Gerald Green "in case of emergency, break glass" type of offensive sparkplug in the playoffs, but no more than that.

Grant with 11 and 6 on 5-8.  A better game for Grant.  Now sit down.

Nesmith only got 22 minutes.  That kinda surprised me.  He almost certainly will be a playoff rotation player.  He was 4-8 for 9 points, but he picked up 5 fouls.  5 fouls in 22 minutes is not optimum.

Tacko with 7 uninspiring minutes.  He's not aggressive.  I don't know if that's because he doesn't know where to be or a reflection of his sunny, pleasant personality but he has no dog in him.  Sorry.

Waters with 22 minutes.  14 points on 4-8, 3-3 from 3.  A Celtic high 7 assists.  He's not going to make it in the NBA, if he makes it in the NBA, with his shooting.  He'll make it with his floor generalship, and he had a very good game doing that.  I sincerely doubt he'll play in the next round but he's at least sitting down with his head held high.  A decent game by Tremont.  Now sit down.

Marc D'Amico @celtics
about 2 hours ago
Coach Stevens on Tremont Waters: "He’s an excellent shot creator for others and he did a good job today."

Romeo with 8 points on 3-5.  He even hit a 3, which is something for Romeo.  Now sit down.

They had 34 ftas.  We shot 43% from 3.  Some of our fouls were dumb but some were the Timberpups doing what they do, they play uptempo offense but no defense and uptempo offense will get you whistles.  I liked our 3pt shooting, that's something we can control.

So, what's our play-in/playoff rotation look like?  RWill, Thompson, Tatum, Smart, Kemba, Fournier, Pritchard, Nesmith.  There's 8, and that's not enough.  We really need 9, 10 would be better, but we don't have them.  That means players that probably shouldn't be playing much will be getting minutes.  Grant.  Semi (especially against Milwaukee (Giannis) and perhaps Philly (Simmons).  I doubt Romeo will play except in spot defensive assignments and even then it might take foul trouble for Nesmith for that.  That's how thin we are without Jaylen.

KAT doesn't like to play defense.  He was going to score this game no matter what, he was going to make sure he was going to get his.  There have been talk about how he might be made available.  I am honestly conflicted about that.  He's a talent, no two ways about that, but he has no competitive spirit in him other than for scoring and a center must anchor the defense.  He plays like he doesn't care, and I don't like that.  We've already seen too much of that on this team, I don't want more, and I shudder to think what the price Minny would be asking for to get him.

Apparently Deuce was traveling with Daddy on this trip to Minnesota.



https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307877


Bob


.

That is funny because Kevin McHale was in the audience at the HOF ceremonies. Was it prerecorded???? He was there because KG gave a shout out to him for his help while he was with Minny

D’Angelo Russell is terrible, when he first got traded to GS I thought his game was gonna take off and he was going to be another lefty version of Harden. Obviously that never happened, what a great trade, dumping him and getting a top pick for GS.

3 ball is so essential now, guess like how post play and post D was so essential in 80’s and 90’s, their top rookie phenom went 1-9 from 3. They’re defense is terrible, KAT’s game has really regressed. I’m not a scout, so I don’t see him often, but Luke did okay against him, as well as a 3rd string center can do. Good team win, the rut we have been in, I will gladly take it. Nesmith didn’t have a great game, but I liked the way he defended Edwards for the most part. Frenchy has a great stroke, he can play great playing off 2 J’s going forward.

I wonder if his personal life has taken a toll on him. He lost 6 family members to Covid, including his Mom, and then he got it. I read that he really did not want to comeback this year at all, with everything he had gone thru.
I will say, you are right, he has regressed. I can remember when he first came into the league he was so highly touted by other teams. It is too bad, because he has the skills to be a good center.

I just could not figure out when that picture of Tatum’s son was taken because I saw Garnett shout out to him at the HOF ceremony and they showed him on camera

Maybe I was mistaken and that pic was taken in Boston. That would explain it. I should have realized that Tatum takind Deuce on a road trip would not make sense. I just assumed that since we were playing in Minny that McHale would be in his old home state.


Bob


.

KAT's professional career is the poster child of my fears for our team stars. As I have been saying from the start of the season, we do not have the guns to go for a championship and that is fine.

What is not fine is how uninterested and lazy our star players have looked on defense in most of the games this year. How they have "no fire in the belly".

Main issue for me has always been a very simple rule: Good habits are built with persistence over a long period of time... Bad habits are built quickly and can wipe out the good habits in weeks.

I am afraid what we will see from this team next year regardless who is in it as I mainly envision the untouchables (JT+JB). CAT career model is much easier to follow than what Brad is preaching and what we are used to seeing from players in Celtics uniforms. No effort on defense -> no desire to win.

I am almost wishing we flop in the play in so we do not give psychological weapons to the Nets or Philly for next year. They practically have a rented place in Embiid's head after the last couple of years. I would hate for a Philly-Celtics matchup right now to give him confidence that he has shaken that off...

worcester wrote:Seeing that pix of Deuce with Kevin makes me realize, Deuce is as tall as Tremont, a player who I unkindly criticize. He has skills. He has heart. He can distribute, but he is just too small to play effective D. I do hope he finds a niche somewhere in the NBA, just not here.
As for Kat, I'm with you Bob. No ganas. No fire in the belly. Despite his great natural ability and size I would rather we pass on.him.

I truly believe that KAT is a much better player than what we are seeing. He’s in Minny with a bad franchise who is losing on purpose. He probably wants out. He just doesn’t appear motivated. As a professional he still should play hard but everyone is not wired the same. I believe that if he went to another team like somewhere east where Lobster and Clam Chowder are delicacies, he’d be an entirely different player. Despite what i just saw today, I’d like to see him in green.

Well, it looks like we'll be playing the winner of the 9/10 for he 8th spot.  I'd give us absolutely no chance of beating the Wizards as we are currently constructed and still showing no desire to play and win consistently.  Besides, the Wiz will give BKN the scare or their lives and may just knock them out.  Now that would make this whole season digestible.  We would hand BKN a sweep on a silver platter with and average +30 for 4 games.  

db

worcester wrote:You have good judgment Ktron. Maybe he'd work out. Can Danny trade JLo for him somehow?

Sure, and he can throw me in the deal and make it a 3 way :>)