Post Game Thread, vs Spurs, Away, 1/7/22

[bobheckler]

This one was unnecessarily close. We do a swan dive like that in the playoffs and it'll cost.

Celtics up 5 with 2:14 left, get tied up and then win by 5.




10 blocks. 3 by Spurs Alumnus Derrick White and 4 by RWill.

10 points, 11 rebounds and those 4 blocks for The Time Lord coming off the bench in 22 minutes. I understand the call to move RWill back into the starting lineup but, at least in this game, he did great off the bench and the player who would sit in his place would be Derrick White, who had 11 assists and zero turnovers against his old club.

What's most important is that Brogdon's back! This is his 2nd (3rd?) good game in a row. His importance to this team cannot be understated. If he's playing well we are a 7-starter team (Al, the Js, Smart, White, RWill and Malcolm). One could also argue we're an 8-starter team with Grant, who has started 14 of our 38 games this season to, I seem to recall, very positive results. I cannot think of another team in the league that has that much strength that deep. Five strong starters and a solid 6th man? Sure. Milwaukee comes to mind, so does GSW with Poole coming off the bench and Brooklyn with Seth Curry but 7 starters, much less 8?! The playoffs don't have any b2bs, but the benches get shortened down to 8-10 players. 8 starters is almost all Joe needs. Throw in even tolerable games by Hauser, Kornet and/or Blake and we're good.

And what about the trade of Vonleh? I'm wondering, just off the bat, why they didn't just waive him? Why trade him, PLUS CASH, when Brad could have just waived him and saved that cash? WTF am I missing? Regardless, we're down to 14 and I'm willing to bet that Brad will have us at 15 by the playoffs. Why trade a marginal player like Vonleh if he's just looking to pick up a marginal player at the trade deadline, or pick a marginal player off the scrap heap after the trade deadline and teams are trimming their rosters to make room for the players they traded for?


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468746


Bob


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[dboss]

RW needs to be back in the starting lineup.  Just because DW had 11 assists is not a good reason to keep RW on the bench.

From what I can see Rob is back in shape and whenever he is in the game the intensity that he brings is amazing.  It is not like DW is a significant playmaker at PG or scorer.

Last year the Celtics started their 5 best players.  

Brogdon also needs more minutes.

CJ needs to wake up.  How about calling some plays inside 5 minutes instead of letting your team almost blow another game?

[jrleftfoot]

Maybe Al is the guy who should come off the bench.The other 4 starters are all excellent defenders. White is the team's third or 4th best defender and runs the offense beautifully. Al is o.k. in stretches, but , IMO, he brings the least energy to the starting group. His veteran presence is often crucial down the stretch, but there's no law saying he has to start. I like White's energy starting the game, especially on Defense.

[Celtics17]

How in the world did we let them back in the game? It was 112-101. Coach Joe is really concerning me. It was pretty obvious that Brogdon had it going last night. In addition, he's the main point guard when Smart is out. Why was he on the bench during this stretch? The offense completely stalled. This should be coaching 101. Same thing with Rob Williams. He had only played 19 minutes until Coach Joe finally put him back in the game with 4 minutes left. Tatum said in his press conference he's not on a minutes restriction. Rob was dominant again last night. 22 minutes is just not enough. I get it, we need him to stay healthy, but we also need the number 1 seed. I don't see why he can't play 25-28 minutes. I like Coach Joe, but this is just baffling. We almost gave the game away to a team without three of their best players.

[cowens/oldschool]

Agreed with everyone it’s a little concerning to see so many of our guys with stellar nights and the game is still so close. We should have won this game by 15-20, they had 8 players in double figures and our 2 ex Celtics JRich and Romeo played very well. Romeo had some nice midrange scores in the thick of our defense. We need a better wing than Hauser, the 2 R’s are better 2 way players, we would have a load of wing depth with those 2 and be playing with faster pace; but at time of trade we didn’t have Brogdan and White was needed for our Finals run and Romeo still wasn’t ready last year.

[dbrown4]

Regardless, no panic. That's what the not calling timeouts produces. No panic. These guys can figure it out and will continue to do so. And when the team does it consistently it will be devastating to the competition as they will have been going along thinking they are beating the crap out of us and then all the sudden their lead is gone. Not only gone but insurmountable. Just like the Bulls with Phil Jackson. Just like the Lakers with Phil Jackson.

When did timeouts come along anyway?!! OK, 1949.

db

[dboss]

Maybe Al is the guy who should come off the bench.The other 4 starters are all excellent defenders. White is the team's third or 4th best defender and  runs the offense beautifully. Al is o.k. in stretches, but , IMO, he brings the least energy to the starting group. His veteran presence is often crucial down the stretch, but there's no law saying he has to start. I like  White's energy starting the game, especially on Defense.

Foot

Bringing AH off the bench is also an option that I wondered about. The Celtics could continue to start him but maybe pull back on his minutes (30 MPG). I actually like AH and RW paired together because Al is now primarily a stretch 5 or 4 on offense and Rob is our a threat in the post. Al's rebounding and scoring numbers are down YOY but he remains a very reliable deep threat (42.7%) on 4.6 attempts.

I do not like the 2 PG starting unit. Basically we are using a PG to play at the wing. Marcus is clearly our lead PG in the staring unit so that means DW is playing off ball. The problem is that DW is not a reliable knock down shooter. Switching AL for Rob does not solve the problem. We need Al shooting from deep.

White is shooting 33% from deep in 4 January games and shot 23.5% in December.

How about just going back to last season starting unit? Maybe you reduce Al's minutes and play Grant when he subs out.

I also like the size we get with Marcus and Jaylen in the backcourt as opposed to Marcus and DW.

[Ktron]

Regardless, no panic.  That's what the not calling timeouts produces.  No panic.  These guys can figure it out and will continue to do so.  And when the team does it consistently it will be devastating to the competition as they will have been going along thinking they are beating the crap out of us and then all the sudden their lead is gone.  Not only gone but insurmountable.  Just like the Bulls with Phil Jackson.  Just like the Lakers with Phil Jackson.  

When did timeouts come along anyway?!!  OK, 1949.  

db  

Thats part of what a coach does. Timeouts aren’t a fad or a trend. Its strategy!!

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