Post Game Thread, vs Timberwolves, Home, 12/23/22

[bobheckler]

A couple of outages but was able to watch most of this one.

We looked awful for the first half.  We especially looked bad in the closing minutes of the first two quarters.  It was 23-20, Minny, with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter and they went on a 6-2 run with D'Angelo Russell scoring all 6 of their points, 4 of them from the line because of fouls by Sam Hauser.  We did a great job of putting on a run in the 2nd, coming from a 29-22 first quarter deficit to a 50-46 lead with 2 1/2 left in the 2nd and then give up an 8-4 run to be down 2 at the half.

Let's remember, this was a Timberwolves team without KAT or Kyle Anderson.

The Js went 4-19 from 3.  Our primary 3pt shooters off the bench,  Grant and Sam and Malcolm, went a combined 2-10 from 3, with only Grant hitting any (and even then he was 2-6 from 3).  Our bench produced a total of 14 points.  Flashbacks to last year, and not good ones neither.  Their bench had 31.

Horford, on the other hand, was 5-10 from 3.  We've been struggling, we all know that, but Al wasn't going to let it happen again.  17 points on 6-14, 5-10 from 3, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, 2 assists and zero turnovers.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
Al Horford tonight became the 6th man in NBA history, and the first Boston Celtic, to record 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 5 3's in a single game. (It had only been done TO Boston once...Al was there when his teammate Paul Millsap did it in April of 2016.)

Smart with 10 assists and zero turnovers, he is now averaging 7.3apg and only 2.4TOpg.  That's 3:1 and that's pretty damn good.  And he's still the heart of this team.




Jaylen with a 23 point 4th quarter.  Not too shabby, especially considering we scored a total of 33 in that quarter.  What I liked the most about those points is that a bunch of them came from off-the-ball cuts to the rim.  It's so simple.  As Tommy used to say "move the ball or move yourself".  Jaylen started moving himself and we started pulling away.  He was also running.  I don't know how many of these 4th quarter points were on fast breaks but there were more than a few.  Overall we had 24 fast break points, which is excellent, to 10 for them.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
23 points 4 rebounds 2 assists 1 steal 8-14 shooting 3-6 on 3's +14 That's a pretty good NBA stat line. Tonight, it was Jaylen Brown's 4th quarter.

Derrick White with 18 on 8-13.  Take his 0-3 from 3 out and that's an 8-10 game from 2.  He also had 2 of our 6 blocks.  We need more of this Derrick White.

58 points in the paint, against a team with Gobert.  Not KAT, but he's not the shot blocker/changer that Gobert is.  58.  That's our highest total points in the paint this season.

To be honest, I don't care how ugly this was, we needed to win and we did.  Let's get another under our belts so the taste is out of our mouths and then we can start thinking about style points.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 1 hour ago
BOSTON CELTICS - Last 7 games (NBA Rank) Offensive Rating - 1.046 (Last) Field Goal % - 41.5 (Last) 3 Field Goal % - 29.0 (29th) Assists - 23.4 (22nd) Scoring Differential - -5.1 (26th) And they'll still wake up Christmas morning with the NBA's best record and #1 offense.

I copied that tweet there to talk myself off the ledge.  We're now, I believe, 5-7 in December and still #1. The NBA, where "HTF did that happen?" happens.

Next up:  Milwaukee.  BIG game.  YUGE.

Souichi Terada @SouichiTerada
yesterday
Celtics back atop the East with a 23-10 record, 0.5 games ahead of the 22-10 Bucks. Those two teams will meet at the Garden on Christmas.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468637





Bob


.

[dbrown4]

Here's what I saw vs. Timberwolves:

1.  We didn't look ahead to Sunday.  As bad as we've been playing, and it's been AWFUL, I've been throwing the baby out with the bath water and thinking we'd lose to the Timberwolves as well and make it a home sweep.  As always, glad I'm wrong.  

2.  Flashes of play that got us off to such a great start this season showed back up.  Thought they played ok+.  We played sans RWIII so that's a wash with KAT.  Ball movement, defense, JT driving to the hoop and not relying on the 3-ball as much, etc.  We don't need everyone going off from 3-ville.  Al picked up the slack there.  That was enough.    

3.  White's new haircut...It makes a difference!  That's what I've been telling Harden to do with his beard all along but he won't listen.  For Harden, it's the title that's missing.  And he will retire to the Charles Barkley Club.  For White, getting his hair cut got him out of his slump.  He looked and played totally different, physically and on the court.  

4.  Horford's back!!  Looked and played like the consummate veteran he is.  Beautiful.  

5.  Still not giving up enough on the 3-ball for driving down the lane and other mid-range shots that I'd like to see as those percentages were very low in the first half, but it was better.  Defense led to fast breaks, etc.  So I was impressed enough with the team with what I saw getting back to what got them here.  

6.  We've found a new way to score...Offensive Rebounds!!  Who'd a knew?!!!  Kornet played out of his brain like we had become used to.  That may have been the difference in the game as everything else offensively was a wash pretty much.

7.  It was the randomness that was not quite full-on.  The perfect sequences we've seen before is random combination of defense leading to fast break layups, constant ball movement, mid range, back doors, JT/JB driving for lay ups resulting in going to the free throw line for And 1's THEN 10 shots/made baskets in a row from 3-ville.  3's become an afterthought yet amass to a deadly blitzkrieg to kill competition off, leaving them scratching their heads and exhausted.  Every time we lead with 3's the result is the same.  We lose.  EVERY SINGLE TIME.  We had to reset with that in the game last night.  Announcers noticed it as well.  JT especially.  

 Mental toughness - They showed it last night.  It's still there in spades.  MS, AH, JT, especially JB and DW all displayed it, IMHBAO.  Where the eff was RWIII?!!!  (ESPN says Day-to-Day)  He's the one I'm most concerned about in the mental toughness area.  Please don't tell me he's injured after a couple of runs!!  

This performance and return to the mean MAY be enough for Sunday.  This game was not ugly, I thought, just not completely random.  Still not totally convinced we'll will win Sunday but I'm feeling a little better about it.  Going to guess early that MIL will be favored, probably MIL (-2.5) even sans Middleton.  Just depends on how into the game our guys are knowing the importance of a win against MIL will be.

We got some help from BKN last night.  Big game vs. MIL where MIL got slaughtered.  Missed that one.  We're back in first place temporarily before Sunday.  PHI also held on to beat Kawhi/Paul and the Clippers.  

BKN might be a problem but we know we can predict with great accuracy....well...you know.  

db

[dboss]

I was throwing down shots of Tequila (Casamigos) before, during and after the game and I did not miss a drop. It was my birthday celebration so the win was especially appreciated.

The Great Marcus Smart was mostly responsible for breaking the 3 game losing streak.

Marcus Smart is a special player.

The Celtics continue to shoot poorly but last night we saw great ball movement.  A lot of guys missed open shots that were created from the ball being shared.  

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Brown were on full display. It was an amazing performance. His 23 points 4th QTR contribution set a career mark for him. After the game, Marcus interrupted Jaylen's post game interview. It was clear that Marcus has been in Jaylen's ear about keeping his head up. Marcus knows this team better than anyone else.

Al Horford played a complete game while knocking down the 3 ball (5-10) controlling the glass (11 rebounds) and doing all the other things that contribute to winning.  (2 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and NO turnovers)

Derrick White still cannot buy a 3 pointer (0-3) but he was excellent in taking his man off the bounce, rebounding the ball and playing defense.  We needed everyone of his 18 points.

I think they mentioned that Boston is 15-1 in games where the Jays score 30 points or more each.

What really makes those two special is the fact that they can miss tons of 3 pointers but still manage to be great scorers.

The thread by wideclyde captures a lot of what I have been seeing.  Those extra fractions of a second matter.

It's on to the Bucks!

[cowens/oldschool]

Thankfully J’s are so talented they can be terrible from 3 and still do enough both ends to get a victory. Both can have a shaky/bad 3 quarters and one dominant stretch and that can be good enough to get a win. As long as each gets 30 we’re good. Simple formula, but obviously we’ll take as much help from the other guys.

[bobheckler]

I was throwing down shots of Tequila (Casamigos) before, during and after the game and I did not miss a drop.  It was my birthday celebration so the win was especially appreciated.

The Great Marcus Smart was mostly responsible for breaking the 3 game losing streak.

Marcus Smart is a special player.

The Celtics continue to shoot poorly but last night we saw great ball movement.  A lot of guys missed open shots that were created from the ball being shared.  

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Brown were on full display.  It was an amazing performance.  His 23 points 4th QTR contribution set a career mark for him.  After the game, Marcus interrupted Jaylen's post game interview.  It was clear that Marcus has been in Jaylen's ear about keeping his head up.  Marcus knows this team better than anyone else.  

Al Horford played a complete game while knocking down the 3 ball (5-10) controlling the glass (11 rebounds) and doing all the other things that contribute to winning.  (2 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and NO turnovers)

Derrick White still cannot buy a 3 pointer (0-3) but he was excellent in taking his man off the bounce, rebounding the ball and playing defense.  We needed everyone of his 18 points.

I think they mentioned that Boston is 15-1 in games where the Jays score 30 points or more each.

What really makes those two special is the fact that they can miss tons of 3 pointers but still manage to be great scorers.

The thread by wideclyde captures a lot of what I have been seeing.  Those extra fractions of a second matter.

It's on to the Bucks!

DBoss,

Happy Birthday!

Glad to see you're a fellow tequila drinker. My preference is for Asombroso. The Reposado is a rose color because it's aged for 3 months in used Burgundy wine casks and it picks up some of the color, and tannins I suppose. It also has a nice vanilla finish, which takes some of the bite away.


Bob


.

[sinus007]

Hi,
It's a good win. And 30+36 points from Js is great. But if they don't find their 3pt shooting groove tonight they don't have a chance vs Bucks.

AK

[Ktron]

A couple of outages but was able to watch most of this one.

We looked awful for the first half.  We especially looked bad in the closing minutes of the first two quarters.  It was 23-20, Minny, with 2 minutes left in the 1st quarter and they went on a 6-2 run with D'Angelo Russell scoring all 6 of their points, 4 of them from the line because of fouls by Sam Hauser.  We did a great job of putting on a run in the 2nd, coming from a 29-22 first quarter deficit to a 50-46 lead with 2 1/2 left in the 2nd and then give up an 8-4 run to be down 2 at the half.

Let's remember, this was a Timberwolves team without KAT or Kyle Anderson.

The Js went 4-19 from 3.  Our primary 3pt shooters off the bench,  Grant and Sam and Malcolm, went a combined 2-10 from 3, with only Grant hitting any (and even then he was 2-6 from 3).  Our bench produced a total of 14 points.  Flashbacks to last year, and not good ones neither.  Their bench had 31.

Horford, on the other hand, was 5-10 from 3.  We've been struggling, we all know that, but Al wasn't going to let it happen again.  17 points on 6-14, 5-10 from 3, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, 2 assists and zero turnovers.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
Al Horford tonight became the 6th man in NBA history, and the first Boston Celtic, to record 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 5 3's in a single game. (It had only been done TO Boston once...Al was there when his teammate Paul Millsap did it in April of 2016.)

Smart with 10 assists and zero turnovers, he is now averaging 7.3apg and only 2.4TOpg.  That's 3:1 and that's pretty damn good.  And he's still the heart of this team.




Jaylen with a 23 point 4th quarter.  Not too shabby, especially considering we scored a total of 33 in that quarter.  What I liked the most about those points is that a bunch of them came from off-the-ball cuts to the rim.  It's so simple.  As Tommy used to say "move the ball or move yourself".  Jaylen started moving himself and we started pulling away.  He was also running.  I don't know how many of these 4th quarter points were on fast breaks but there were more than a few.  Overall we had 24 fast break points, which is excellent, to 10 for them.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
23 points 4 rebounds 2 assists 1 steal 8-14 shooting 3-6 on 3's +14 That's a pretty good NBA stat line. Tonight, it was Jaylen Brown's 4th quarter.

Derrick White with 18 on 8-13.  Take his 0-3 from 3 out and that's an 8-10 game from 2.  He also had 2 of our 6 blocks.  We need more of this Derrick White.

58 points in the paint, against a team with Gobert.  Not KAT, but he's not the shot blocker/changer that Gobert is.  58.  That's our highest total points in the paint this season.

To be honest, I don't care how ugly this was, we needed to win and we did.  Let's get another under our belts so the taste is out of our mouths and then we can start thinking about style points.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 1 hour ago
BOSTON CELTICS - Last 7 games (NBA Rank) Offensive Rating - 1.046 (Last) Field Goal % - 41.5 (Last) 3 Field Goal % - 29.0 (29th) Assists - 23.4 (22nd) Scoring Differential - -5.1 (26th) And they'll still wake up Christmas morning with the NBA's best record and #1 offense.

I copied that tweet there to talk myself off the ledge.  We're now, I believe, 5-7 in December and still #1.  The NBA, where "HTF did that happen?" happens.

Next up:  Milwaukee.  BIG game.  YUGE.

Souichi Terada @SouichiTerada
yesterday
Celtics back atop the East with a 23-10 record, 0.5 games ahead of the 22-10 Bucks. Those two teams will meet at the Garden on Christmas.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468637





Bob


.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
Al Horford tonight became the 6th man in NBA history, and the first Boston Celtic, to record 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 5 3's in a single game. (It had only been done TO Boston once...Al was there when his teammate Paul Millsap did it in April of 2016.)


He’s so obsessed with bombarding fans with irrelevant stats like the above. As for me, I’m on my hand and knees praying to the good Lord that Grande sticks with radio and is not Mike Gorman’s heir apparent.

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