POST GAME CHARLOTTE HORNETS - AWAY

Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Tatum's ridiculous run continues

NBC SPORTS BOSTON BY JUSTIN LEGER

he Boston Celtics earned their fourth consecutive victory Wednesday night as they topped the Charlotte Hornets, 115-101T

It wasn't smooth sailing for the first two-and-a-half quarters, but the Celtics flipped a switch midway through the third with a 32-12 run and didn't look back. Jayson Tatum followed up Sunday's 54-point performance with 44 points in the win. All five of the Celtics' starters scored in double figures, as did Derrick White with 11 points and eight assists off the bench.

P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges led the Hornets with 17 points apiece. LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier contributed 15 and 14, respectively.

Here are a few immediate takeaways from the Celtics' win, which brings them to 40-27 on the season. Next, they'll head back home to take on the Detroit Pistons on Friday night.

Jayson Tatum's ridiculous run continues
Tatum is doing everything he can to get his name into the NBA MVP conversation with 15 games remaining.

The 24-year-old superstar dropped 44 points -- 28 in the second half -- for his fourth consecutive game with at least 30. It's also the first time in his career he's scored 40+ points in two straight games.

But wait, there's more.

With Sunday's 54-point outing and his 44 points Wednesday night, Tatum ties Kevin McHale's Celtics record for most points in consecutive games (98). He trails only the great Larry Bird for most points by a Celtic in a four-game span. Bird tallied 174 in 1985, and Tatum has 168 over his last four games.

Tatum does have the most points in a three-game span, however, with 135. That tops the previous record set by -- you guessed it -- himself. He notched 128 points in a three-game span from April 28 of last season to May 2.

Robert Williams makes the most of his minutes
Robert Williams didn't see his usual workload as foul trouble limited the Celtics big man to only 20 minutes. You wouldn't know it by looking at the stat sheet though.

Williams brought down six offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone. He logged yet another double-double with 11 points and 11 boards while adding two blocks and a steal.

Williams currently has the fourth-best odds to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. His Celtics teammate Grant Williams made the case for Time Lord to take home the hardware, and at this point it's clear he deserves serious consideration.

Marcus Smart, Derrick White make winning plays
During his postgame press conference, Celtics head coach Ime Udoka made a point to highlight the contributions of Marcus Smart and Derrick White. Both C's guards were key to the victory with their unselfish play.

Smart, who has thrived in the starting point guard role this season, dished out nine assists. The longest-tenured Celtic has had at least nine assists in three consecutive games. A couple of those passes Wednesday night were something out of a video game.

He also had 12 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

As for White, he came off the bench and contributed 11 points with eight assists in 32 minutes. The Smart/White duo combined for 17 of the team's 30 assists and only one turnover. That right there is a recipe for success.

An Isaiah Thomas sighting
Wednesday's game took place in Charlotte, but there was no shortage of C's fans at Spectrum Center to give Isaiah Thomas a standing ovation when the beloved former Celtic entered the game.


Thomas ended up with five points (1-4 FG) and two assists in 11 minutes. Three of those points came from the free-throw line.


Wednesday marked Thomas' second game since signing a 10-day contract with the Hornets last week. He dropped 10 points in 14 minutes during his debut with Charlotte vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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Good points, cowens/oldschool.  I was watching with my mouth open saying things like, "Did he just do that?!!  Did he just make THAT shot?!!  I..Don't..Believe..What...I..Just..Saw!!" Ok, that last one wasn't mine!  

All around great TEAM game.  It's amazing how easy these guys are making this game of basketball look to the novice.  This is what wins championships.  LOTS of them in succession.  That's what I'm beginning to see as what maybe the genius behind Ime and Brad.  They are building the Celtics ala 1990's Chicago, 2010-2015 GSW, SAS ala Duncan era.  

While the rest of the idiot franchises are stacking their bowling pin teams, Boston, instead of being the bowling ball are the bulldozer coming down the lane taking teams out with one fell swoop.  

I'm truly amazed.  Whatever Ime's selling, I want it!!  And I don't even play for him!!  

Well, on the immediate horizon lies a little business we need to take care of.  All of this will be for naught if DET comes in here Friday and locks us up again.  It's time for the result to match up with DET record.  Blowout City.  We'll talk more about this before Friday but suffice to say, we need to figure those guys out once and for all.  

GW and DW both with game high +22's in +/-.  2nd place Tatum.  The rest no where close.    

Around the league last night the most disappointing result was CHI ending their skid, temporarily delaying our chance to move up in the East.  Pistons had them, too.  Since we won as well, no skin was lost, but disappointing nonetheless.  CHI is still in our way.  MIL won as well but that was expected.  

The really great 2nd tier news was MIA was MIA last night and probably fulfilled the media's hidden narrative as to why no one is mentioning them in the East and won't make it out of the 1st round.  Mainly because whoever has to play them, more than likely their odds-on, all-in fave BKN, will take them to the woodshed.  Anyway, this loss brought the East Loss-Column Range, for lack of a better term, down to 4 with approx 15 games left.  More pressure for us Friday and Sunday but I'm thinking we're up for the task.  

Now things get a bit more complicated as we have to look at the teams above us, when we play them, circle those on the calendar, look at their schedules for when they have to play each other, circle those on the calendar.  This is manageable since there are only 15 games left but still a task.  One day at a time.  Big game tonight for example.    We'll hear a lot of "preview of the ECF" right out of the gate on TNT.  As a matter of fact I will count the number of times this is mentioned and report back to you. Time to go all-in wife's paycheck.  Neither team will be there.  BKN winning would actually immediately help us vs. PHI winning again.  All eyes will be on that game tonight.

For those of you that watched the end of LAL vs. HOU and took my advice and not dboss' (just busting your chops, dboss!!) you saw the future of the Lakers unfold right in front of you.  Game went to OT.  Announcers made it clear LA has got OT's figured out this season going 6-1, so no biggie.  Well, HOU came out and hit their first 20 shots of OT while the Lakers couldn't throw it in the ocean 5 miles out.  

We thought our house cleaning last summer was dramatic.  Think Nagasaki.  Hiroshima.  Lebron will even be lucky to be left standing there after Jeannie cleans house.  It's LA. It's ALL drama. All that will be coming in just a few weeks.  Pelinka?  Dead.  Vogel?  Dead.  Niedermeyer?  Dead (OK, that was extra!!)  Everybody not named Lebron and maybe even him? All dead and gone.  It's rebuild time in LA.  Back to mediocrity for years to come while guess who starts running away from the tie for most championships.  This has to kill the Buss's as it is their lasting, life-long, franchise-long dream to finally overtake the Celtics in the title battle and put us in out place...2nd.  It was supposed to happen this year. But she has to do it.  There is no choice. Trying to buy a championship and stack your team just doesn't work.  It may work by chance like it did in the bubble, but for sustained multiple championships in succession in the modern era?  Ain't gonna happen.  That's the difference here in Boston with Ime and Brad.  Those two are thick as thieves on what's coming and where we're going. And they are giving us just a taste, just a tiny morsel of the tip of the iceberg RIGHT NOW to sample. It's delicious!!

We're about to RUIN yet again the dreams of a few franchises that think we've been dead, will continue to be dead and most importantly believe they are better than us hands down.  BKN?  Dead.  PHI?  Dead.  MIL?  Dead.  LAL?  Definitely Dead.  All because our two guys, Ime and Brad know EXACTLY what they are doing and doing it right out of the gate in their first years as head coach and Director of Player Operations.  There's your scary part right there. Smoke over that for a few minutes! 

db

Just noticed the top article on ESPN NBA home page.

"Lakers crumble at hands of West-worst Rockets." OUCH!! That is a direct hit to Russell West-brook to grab your attention. Very well done. And if you read the article and Russell's postgame presser comments, he doesn't have a clue. Fire Sale. Stephen A. is right on the money about him. Russell has sealed his fate and will retire championship-less. Oz has spoken.

The actual story headline reads,

"Los Angeles Lakers' woes continue in OT loss to Western Conference Worst Houston Rockets."

Expect Russell to lash out. Again. Nice guy. But he and Ben Simmons have A LOT in common, starting off with the Yips as one. Completely clueless to the actual problem going on between the ears as #2. I'm sure Stephen A. is about to explode waiting for 10:00am today. I've got to record that!!

Anyway, I digress. This has nothing to do with this thread!! Forgive me.

db

This was a SEGABABA for them.  A 4th quarter let down by them was a decent, if not a good, bet; and we took advantage of it.  It wasn't a sure thing though, not by a long shot.  We had only scored 9 point with 5:45 left in the 3rd.  Our defense was weak, we'd given up 16 points in those 6:15 3rd quarter minutes, and our offense looked like the bad ol' days.  Starting after PJ Washington's 2pt fgm at 5:50 left in the 3rd we went on a 54-37 run for the rest of the game.

Tatum said "F this shite" and took over.  He had 16 points at the half, so it's not like he was sleepwalking, but then he turned on the afterburner.  He had 4 of those 9 early 3rd quarter points (and an assist) bringing his total up to 20.  Then, with 17:45 left in the game he scored 24 points.  His 2nd half, total for the half, was 28 points on 9-12, 5-6 from 3, 3 rebounds.  As KD said in his post-game presser "Tatum is an elite shot maker".  He's making a lot of good decisions.  Something clicked.  I don't know what it was but you can see over the past few weeks he's not making the same dumb mistakes.  And aggressive?  24 fgas and only 9 of them 3s.  He has taken ftas in his last 61 ftas in his last 7 games.  That's 8.7 ftas/game and that is quite elite.  And you don't get that many ftas by just lobbing 3s.

Mark Murphy @Murf56
about 46 minutes ago
Per stat guru Dick Lipe, Tatum’s 98-point two- game swing (54, 44) ties Kevin McHale (56, 42 in 1985) for the most in franchise history.




Big Al with another big double-double in 34 minutes. Roll back the clock, Al, roll back the clock!  Let's not forget to thank OKC for adding another year onto his career by sitting him last year, and that extra year being an unexpected bonus in the Kemba trade.  Makes Brad look like an even bigger genius, doesn't it?

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
59 minutes ago
NBA plus/minus rankings in 2022 1. Jayson Tatum (+365) 2. Al Horford (+259)


Smart and White are looking like a formidable back court.  Aside from being superior defenders, both of them, they have been doing a good job of running the offense too.  Smart with 9 assists and only 1 turnover and White with 8 assists and zero turnovers.  17 turnovers, 1 assist is damn fine production from your point guards.  We had a lot of dunks last night and many of them were courtesy of Marcus Smart's court vision, and the rest of the players buying into Ime's motion offense system and moving without the ball.  Gotta give a plug to Ime here.  Our player movement has been as good the last month or two as I have seen in years.  The "Point Js" experiment has been shelved, and I say "none too soon".  We had 30 assists, which is a ton, and only 11 turnovers.  Excellent.  Our assist-to-turnover ratio was 30/46, 65.2%.  Also excellent.  White reminds me a bit of Tony Parker.  Not a great shot maker himself, but he can score.  He drives and finishes.  He hits open shots.  He's a good heads-up floor general and, last but not least, came out of Pop's system just like Parker.  His assist-to-turnover ratio since coming to Boston is > 3:1 and that is outrageously good.  We could do worse than having even a poor-man's Tony Parker coming off our bench.  And did you notice our turnaround began shortly after Marcus Smart called out the Js publicly for hogging the ball?  I honestly don't think one can quantify Marcus Smart's value to this team and, as you all know, I am quite comfortable trying to quantify things.  As he has said many times "He loves Boston and Boston loves him".  What do all our great teams have in common?  What do the Russell Celtics, the Cowens/Havlicek/Jo Jo Celtics, the Bird Celtics and the KG/Pierce/Allen Celtics all have in common?  Two things, in my mind.  First, they hated losing more than they loved winning.  Losing was so intolerable to them they would do whatever it took for it to not happen.  And secondly, the name on the front of the jersey was more important than the name on the back of it.  They were team players, on a team playing in a team sport.  If they gave the team what it needed to win, or at least to not lose, the name on the back of their jersey would get its fair share of credit as well.  Marcus Smart has those two traits.  That's why I say Marcus Smart is the boiled, distilled essence of what being a Boston Celtic means.  There have been many Boston Celtics but not so many that were "born Green".  He's one of them.




Jaylen with an off night.  You can tell when it's going to be a rough one by watching his handle.  When the ball isn't coming right back up into his hand he's going to have problems that game.  We all know he can do it, that's not the question, but there are games when he doesn't.  Last night was one of them.  That's ok, he's due to go off.  MJ was MJ, but MJ needed Scotty Pippen.   Jayson needs Jaylen, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with Scotty Pippen.


Speaking of Ime's motion offense, despite Tatum having 44 points and taking 26% of the team's total fgas we still had 4 other Celtics in double figures.  Grant shot 1-5 from 3.  2-5 and he'd have been the 6th Celtic with double digit scoring.  That's a tough offense to defend because everybody's a threat to score.


A 14 point win can't hurt our EC leading Margin of Victory (MOV).

Poor Gordon Hayward just can't stay on the court.  I have no hard feelings against him but I'm sure glad he's not in green anymore.  Same with Kemba.  They're not a couple of Kyries, who are hurting their team through their non-basketball related absence, but their unavailability due to basketball-related injuries (Thibs sat Kemba but he still can't play steady, dependable minutes anymore) still undermines their front offices' vision for the team this year.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360800


Bob


.

The Celtics beat Charlotte for the 3rd time in 4 tries this year.  Tatum was elite again and everyone else contributed to the win.  This win was needed and now the Celtics have won 17 out of their last 20 games.  That is an .850 winning percentage.  Everyone is taking notice now.  The Celtics play extremely well at both ends of the court.

The Celtics came into this season with a lot of bad habits.  It clearly was not all Brad's fault.  Brad admitted that sometimes a new voice is needed.  He was correct.  Ime now has the full attention of his team AND Marcus Smart has become an extension of the coach on the floor.

I want to mention one more thing.  Remember how painful it was to watch the Raptors and the Heat, in the bubble, neutralize our offense with their zone defenses?

Last night the Hornets played a lot of zone.  Ime referred to it, as did Tatum, as 'junk defenses'.  Ime even went so far to say that teams play zone because they can not play man to man.

cowens/oldschool wrote:First Take is giving us our due. They started a segment “Are the Boston Celtics the best team in the East” Tatum got a lot of props as did our defense and Ime’s coaching and Brads moves hiring Ime and acquiring White and Theis. Stephen A gave a lot of props to 2 J’s ability to defend as wings, add in Smart and White that’s some hellacious defenders, now add in RWill

We are rolling, the movement, the pack of wolves….great to see!!!

Cow

First Take is the ultimate front runner sports show.

They arrived a day late and a dollar short. Stephen A is a band wagon jumper and he should have secured his spot before the wagon was bursting at the seams.

Yep, you beat me to the punch, cowens/oldschool. Stephen A. went off of the Boston Celtics...in a good way.

With Setphen A., though, you will note he very craftily puts together his topic questions. This one today said, "Are the Celtics the best team in the East TODAY? Meaning, he's not going all in on the Celtics long term (playoffs, etc) as there are so many other holes in the East. But as of TODAY, he went all-in on us. Then they were right back to BKN, PHI, MIL, CHI, MIA, LAL, the game tonight, etc.

So yes, it was nice to have him give us the well deserved recognition, but it was at a price. We're still in the sandbox and the adults are playing the real game inside. Just a few more victories where we can move up in the standings to 3rd or 2nd and he will be forced to "refine" his position.

The good news is, there is still no target on our backs...yet. Even with this gushing on First Take, we're not the page turners. This rant was merely obligatory. So, nothing to see here. Please move along.

Now what we can't do is lay an egg between here and through Sunday's games. This is what the media is DYING for so we can be squashed like a bug and back out of the main discussion.

When the media says something to the effect of, "Damn it! What are going to do about the Celtics?!!" Then we're sitting at the big people table. What we need is for the teams above us to let up on the accelerator accidently, unbeknownst to themselves until it is too late. Since the margins are wahfer-thin, it will happen quickly and almost painlessly!

Just keep winning, just keep winning...

db

dboss,

Was Ktron able to stop by last night? Just curious.

db