POST GAME MIL BUCKS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Blows Lead Late, Falls To Bucks On Christmas
The shorthanded Celtics collapsed late vs. the Bucks


NESN by Patrick McAvoy

The Boston Celtics looked like they were going to earn a massive win for much of the game Saturday, but the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks were too much late as they earned a 117-113 win at Fiserv Forum.

The Celtics’ record fell to 16-17 with the win, while the Bucks fell to 22-13.


ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics took control of the game early Saturday and pretty much controlled the action from start to finish but the Bucks took their first lead of the game with under five minutes remaining and stole the win. Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the lineup for Milwaukee and dominated per usual finishing the night with 36 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.

Boston’s defense was the key in the first half but struggled to begin the second half — which has been common for the team so far this season — and allowed 43 points in the third quarter alone. The Celtics’ defense looked solid once again in the fourth quarter, but the Bucks’ defense was too much and smothered Boston’s offense and held it to just x points to complete the comeback.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown was a beast for the Celtics on Saturday despite the loss. He came out on fire and scored 14 points in the first quarter and finished the day with a stat line of 25 points, four rebounds, three assists and one chipped tooth.


— Jayson Tatum also stuffed the stat sheet for Boston in the loss finishing the game with 25 points as well to go along with nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks.

— Antetokounmpo was the best player on the court Saturday and there wasn’t any doubt about it. The big man actually missed Milwaukee’s last five games while recovering from COVID-19, but didn’t look like he missed a beat at all across his 30 minutes of action Christmas Day.


WAGER WATCH
The Celtics didn’t win Saturday, but they still could have won you some money. The Bucks were seven-point favorites according to DraftKings Sportsbook and so if you took the Celtics at +7 on the spread with odds at -110 you could’ve wagered $110 and came away with $100 of profit.

UP NEXT
Boston now will take Sunday off and return to action Monday night on the road as they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves with tip-off scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

112288

Called the disaster with 4 minutes to go.  We could not even hit 12 footers to match baskets.

Sorry, but if the game is on the line moving forward, give the ball to Brown. He'll either score going to the basket, or go to the line shooting 2 shots at 89% FT shooting percentage.

If I saw this once I have seen it way way too often with Tatum getting stripped of the ball going to the basket.  

We played great for 2 quarters, but got blown out in the 3rd and could not hit the big basket in the closing minutes to keep the margin wide enough to run the clock down.

Signs are there to give us hope, but it will take the shuffling of 5 players in a trade or free agent signing to give us the horses to run with the better teams.

112288

I wish I could lay this one on the Celts missing players. What I saw was the Bucks zoning the Celts out and turning up the heat when needed.

This has been a tough season again. Hoping that PP sees more burn. Just that we give up offensive rebounds with him.

SMH.

112288 wrote:Called the disaster with 4 minutes to go.  We could not even hit 12 footers to match baskets.

Sorry, but if the game is on the line moving forward, give the ball to Brown. He'll either score going to the basket, or go to the line shooting 2 shots at 89% FT shooting percentage.

If I saw this once I have seen it way way too often with Tatum getting stripped of the ball going to the basket.  

We played great for 2 quarters, but got blown out in the 3rd and could not hit the big basket in the closing minutes to keep the margin wide enough to run the clock down.

Signs are there to give us hope, but it will take the shuffling of 5 players in a trade or free agent signing to give us the horses to run with the better teams.

112288

Agree about Tatum but not so much about Brown. How many times does Brown dribble in the lane and either turns it over or throws something up that doesn’t have a prayer. Tatum is worse in those moments but Brown has too many of those moments as well. Ill say this, its becoming obvious that neither know how to win games down the stretch. Time to seriously consider a big move.

Ktron

I agree that both do not have the killer mentality to win games, although Brown is a step above Tatum.

112288

Painful loss, had the lead the whole game despite being undermanned and lost it in the last minute. Smart played great, hit some big shots. RWill played great, defended with gusto, some key offensive boards, was really happy with what we got out of them. PP is growing into the sniper role, so many big 3’s. The refs were pissing me off, giving Giannis so many calls, on one he just fell down, Tatum didn’t touch him and got called, utter BS…!!!

Which brings us to the J’s. Jaylen started 5-5, then 6-7. I think he had 14 in the first and 19 at halftime. His midrange game was electric, he looked like Kobe 2, then he finished 8-19. He did get hit hard in the mouth/jaw by his own teammate, hard enough to chip a tooth. I don’t know if the big shot threw his equilibrium off, or he and Tatum are still dealing with odd after effects of covid; but these guys are so up and down and instead of taking over at clutch time, both disappeared today. Bird and Pierce also did a lot of iso in the clutch, but it’s like the defense has figured out their moves and knows the spin move is coming and the defense is a step ahead of them.

The zone got them rattled and I don’t mind iso ball, but to turn it over so many times in critical situations, I don’t get it. If the Tatum that put up 42 on the Bucks and LA showed up, we would have won. Tatum had a wide open lefty bunny lay up that he bricked, instead of banking or dunking, don’t know how he missed it. These guys have to have better counters, off their go to moves, they both have to protect the ball better and have more decisiveness and energy at the end. I know we were very shorthanded and this might be the best team in the East, but we had a 13 point lead with 6 minutes left and so many chances to close it. How can they constantly not read the defense and drive into multiple defenders? Ime has his work cut out for him.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Painful loss, had the lead the whole game despite being undermanned and lost it in the last minute. Smart played great, hit some big shots. RWill played great, defended with gusto, some key offensive boards, was really happy with what we got out of them. PP is growing into the sniper role, so many big 3’s. The refs were pissing me off, giving Giannis so many calls, on one he just fell down, Tatum didn’t touch him and got called, utter BS…!!!

Which brings us to the J’s. Jaylen started 5-5, then 6-7. I think he had 14 in the first and 19 at halftime. His midrange game was electric, he looked like Kobe 2, then he finished 8-19. He did get hit hard in the mouth/jaw by his own teammate, hard enough to chip a tooth. I don’t know if the big shot threw his equilibrium off, or he and Tatum are still dealing with odd after effects of covid; but these guys are so up and down and instead of taking over at clutch time, both disappeared today. Bird and Pierce also did a lot of iso in the clutch, but it’s like the defense has figured out their moves and knows the spin move is coming and the defense is a step ahead of them.

The zone got them rattled and I don’t mind iso ball, but to turn it over so many times in critical situations, I don’t get it. If the Tatum that put up 42 on the Bucks and LA showed up, we would have won. Tatum had a wide open lefty bunny lay up that he bricked, instead of banking or dunking, don’t know how he missed it. These guys have to have better counters, off their go to moves, they both have to protect the ball better and have more decisiveness and energy at the end. I know we were very shorthanded and this might be the best team in the East, but we had a 13 point lead with 6 minutes left and so many chances to close it. How can they constantly not read the defense and drive into multiple defenders? Ime has his work cut out for him.

I was traveling on 2 hrs sleep and once I got where I was going I fell asleep but kept waking up periodically with the game on. Every time I woke up our lead had grown and then I would doze back off. When it was 94-90 I think I had just woken up and told my nephew that I had slept and missed so much but was glad that we won. He then asked me  “ then y r they interviewing coach Bud” and started laughing. Thats when I realized that the game wasn’t over and that we have another quarter to go. I then got nervous and watched the entire fourth quarter and loved what our bench was doing. In the latter part of the third quarter which was faux end of game for me I saw Jabari and PP going nuts, scoring and making big plays.
Back to the forth quarter and we were up by 13 with about 6 minutes to go. I felt good but was still nervous. The phrase “past performances are indicative of future results” danced in my head.  It was around this time of the game when 2J either disappeared or started doing weird stuff. The lead went away and then the Bucks went ahead.
I was so pissed. Not at the team as a whole. From the little I saw I thought they were playing well. Especially being short handed. I was pissed at the guys who are supposed to take us home with a win. The 2 best guys on the team. It didn’t happen. I was angry and then saw Perk say on tv that it was time to break up Tatum and Brown. Not so sure I totally agreed with that because I was pissed at the time. I’ve calmed since then and I am still not sure.
That is all….

We should have lost this game by 25, if not more.  They were healthy, they even had DiVincenzo back, and we had 9 players in COVID protocol.  We signed a platoon of rest home occupants to fill in for them but didn't play any of them.  You try to pull it together, figure out who's playing how many minutes in which matchups, and then your starting point guard is officially out as of that morning shoot around.  We still have the problem with closing out games, I'm not minimizing that, but this game should never have been ours to win in the first place.

Tatum's shooting has cratered.  He shot 7-20, 35%, and 4-10 from 3.  Simple math, that made him 3-10 from 2.  That's awful.  He is shooting under 42% on the year, 33% from 3.  Those are Dennis Schroder's numbers.  His fg%, both overall and from 3, has been fairly consistent throughout his career, until now.  The part that bugs me the most is that despite his horrible 3pt fg% he's actually taking almost 1 more 3pt fga/game than last year when he shot 38.6% from there.  He had 4 assists and 4 turnovers last night.  His assist-to-turnover ratio has suffered this year because his turnovers are slightly up and his assists are down.  If Ime's strategy is to turn Jayson Tatum into a point forward the experiment is struggling.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
While he ranks 8th in the NBA in scoring average, Jayson Tatum just took over the NBA lead in actual scoring. NBA – POINTS LEADERS Jayson Tatum 840 Steph Curry 831 Kevin Durant 803 Trae Young 791 Steph Curry 785 Donovan Mitchell 754 Steph plays next on Christmas Day.

The numerical head fake of quantity over quality.  In order to lead the league in total points while being 8th in ppg and excrement in fg% you have to take a shite ton of fgas to offset your lack of efficiency.

Jaylen with a better 8-18.  Once again, looking at Ime's strategy of turning the Js into playmakers Jaylen's assist-to-turnover ratio is now down to 1:1, down from the 1.3:1 of last year.  His turnovers are the same, 2.7/game, it's his assists that are down.  He averaged 3.4/game last year, only 2.7 this year.  This experiment is looking like a broader attempt of trying to turn Avery Bradley into a point guard.  Doc tried it, Brad tried it, didn't work because AB isn't a point guard regardless of his stature.  Maybe that's what we have with the Js.  Great scorers, great defenders, not playmakers.  If that's the case then Brad really blew it by not signing IT, because that is precisely what is needed.  Jaylen has developed a nasty habit of trying to dribble between double teams.  His turnover number, or their steals number, will go down if he stops doing that because it isn't working.  

Since I am a Silver Lining type of guy, always have been, let's consider Pritchard is really starting to shine as a playmaker.  We know about his shooting, which sucked for the first 1/4-1/3 of the season, but has really come alive the last week or so.  6-14 last night, 4-8 from 3 but, perhaps more importantly from the perspective of my above perspective, he had 5 assists and no turnovers.  In admittedly much fewer minutes his assist-to-turnover ratio this year is 2.68:1 vs 2.26:1 last year.  In his last 10 games Pritchard has averaged 2.8apg and .6TOpg, for a mindblowing 4.67:1 ratio.  I can see Cowens' eyes rolling up into his head as I roll out these numbers, but I'm trying to back up my eyeballs that are telling me that whereas the Js have not progressed as playmakers, Payton Pritchard has.  Pritchard is doing what we thought and hoped Dennis would do, but Schroder is sooo inconsistent.  Pritchard needs to play.  I understand that there are players who won't be eligible to be traded until sometime in January, and maybe Brad's waiting for one of them before he starts packaging deals, but if the writing was on the wall regarding Schroder's departure because of his contract it's being written in sky writing with the recent play of Payton Pritchard.

We saw why Juancho doesn't play.  He doesn't play defense.  He was 1-5, 1-4 from 3.  So he's a 6'9" player who allergic to paint.  My favorite kind of player (time to wake up and smell the sarcasm).  I had high hopes for him when we got him.  I saw film of him running the floor, slashing to the basket.  Haven't seen that player in Boston since Day 1.  Spain has a professional basketball league too.  Consider it.

A great game by Robert Williams.  11 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers and 2 blocks.  I thought he got more blocks but...same number of assists as Tatum, half the turnovers.

Giannis with a 29 point 2nd half, a lot of it vs Tatum.  No excuse for that, that's just a mental breakdown.  Middleton and Holiday had nice games, 17 points each, but they weren't game changers.  It was Giannis and our loss of composure and focus.  And when I say "it was Giannis" I am thinking, in particular, about how he intimidated Tatum into passing to Robert Williams and then was still able to turn and jump and block Williams' dunk attempt at the rim with only 8.4 seconds left and the score 116-113.  That was MVP level play if I've ever seen it.

Too much iso, again, in the 4th.  We went up 19 in the 1st half because of ball and player movement and because we were hitting our shots.  It was, to coin a phrase, "Pop ball" and that is something Ime knows a bit about.  Then, when the game got closer and the Pucker Factor started to rise, we reverted back to the same old thing that has been losing games for us all year.  We just give the ball to one of the Js and let them go one-on-five.  It's predictable and very defensible, especially towards the end of games when legs are starting to tire.  I remember a story I heard Doc Rivers tell once about when he was playing for the Hawks.  He was trying to call a play and Dominique Wilkins kept breaking the play to do his one-on-one thing, and 'Nique was very good one-on-one.  Doc said he just kept throwing up shot after shot after shot.  When Dominique started yelling at him in the huddle Doc looked at the future HOFer, and undisputed leader of that team, and said "I'm the point guard.  When I call a play, you run it" and that was that.  That's what we need.  We need a point guard who will not defer to the Js.  IT would have been great, but that train has left the station.  It'd be great if Pritchard turned into that, but I don't think he's mentally strong enough for that (yet).  Schroder is, but as I said he's irritatingly inconsistent.  CP3 is older than dirt for an undersized point guard but there is NO doubt who's running the offense on that team, is there?  If Pritchard can develop CP3's attitude, and Payton's a pretty damn aggressive and competitive player, then this team could do an absolute pivot, but that's what I think it'll take.  We need a "give me the damn ball and do what I say because I'm running this show" type of player.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401358782


Bob


.

I hate to say it......this game was theirs, it was there for the taking......then the two superstars decided it was time to go iso. I could not watch the whole game, with company here at my house, but naturally I had the tv on and checked. I watched that last quarter, when the lead just melted away and I knew in my stomach that this game was not going to end in the Celtics favor. Why??? sure, we were shorthanded, but we had two or three guys out there who are making q ton of money just for situations like this.....we blew it

On the iso, Bird and Pierce went iso plenty of times in late game situations, when it works it’s great. The J’s do have that ability, no one was complaining of Tatum’s iso’s when he put up 42 on Lakers and Bucks. For whatever factors, reasons it just didn’t work. Could we have gotten them in better position or run a better play, ofcourse. They need a seminar in how to attack/score in end of game situations, all 5 players. A few seminars in fact, like how the other players are positioned so that they do not enable the double team to come over so easily and the quick counter, my eye test tells me Ime has not conducted these seminars enough.

A lot of the turnovers are J’s trying to thread the needle down low to RWill, and at times it doesn’t work, but it could and they are trying/learning. Also let’s say you have a team with a J, RWill and Al and Smart and Dennis, well that line up is terrible for shooting, has no shooters, so alot of assist opportunities are already blown by bad line ups. We did play fast early, then fatigue and Jaylen getting hit in the mouth, might have set in as we were very short on bodies. Could Al, GWill, JRich, Nesmith have helped? Of course, our advantage over Bucks is our wings, their advantage is Giannis. We let another very winnable one get away….

I had a houseful, so I didn't watch the game. My son-in-law was giving me updates from his phone. When our lead went from 4, to 2 and then gone, I knew the writing was on the wall.

A half an hour later, I asked him, results? Good or bad? His answer was "bad".

So goes this season's version of the Celtics. Just like last season, we just cannot win close games. Hopefully, we can get the player that gets us over that hump before the trading deadline. We have enough assets to throw in, so meanwhile, we have to live with results like this.

We have a big week ahead. Tomorrow Timberwolves, then Clips, then Phoenix. Townes out? George out? who can we pay to get Chris Paul or Booker out? Can we get some of our guys back?
It seems Horford and Williams have been gone forever. I am holding my breath that Tatum and Brown stay healthy. What a trip this year has been......did you see Kemba's stats for 3 games? 94 points in three games. Good for him. Will we ever be healthy????? I say my prayers every night, God must be saying "this girl is out of her mind, doesn't she have anything more important to pray for than the Celtics winning???" NOPE

Rosalie,

One of my son-in-laws is a Knicks fan. He said that Kemba announced a while back that he didn't want to play in the second game of a back-to-back. Thibs apparently took offense because he thought it was his job to decide who plays and who doesn't play. So Kemba sat from then on until recently, when Thibs had no choice to play Kemba due to lack of players available. Did the coach make a decision based on his ego instead of team success?

My SIL and I agreed that sometimes Thibs overplays his vet players to the point of exhaustion or injury. Two Knicks players were leaders in total minutes played last season, for example. Julius Randle and RJ Barrett were #1 and #2 on that list.

During the Celtics game where he torched us like crazy, he kept looking over at the coach when he was on the floor and scored Is there friction there? I am thinking there must be a bit of a chip on Kemba’s shoulder, he is a proud guy. If he continues at this pace though, when will he burn out.

I like the guy, felt bad the way things ended here and wouldn’t mind seeing him make a lot of reporters who buried him eat their words

PS. As long as it does not hurt the Celtics, which it probably would. At some point, that knee will give in again, and he will be back to square one. (I think)