2022-2023 POST GAME ATLANTA HAWKS - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Boston Ends Regular Season With Win Over Hawks
Boston's reserve players stepped up Sunday

NESN by Adam London

The Celtics wrapped up their 2022-23 regular season with a 120-114 win over the Hawks on Saturday night at TD Garden.

With the win, Boston put a bow on a 57-25 record, while Atlanta finished its slate with a .500 record of 41-41.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
To say the reigning Eastern Conference champions had a different look on Easter Sunday would be a significant understatement.

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Robert Williams III did not dress for the regular-season finale, while Malcolm Brogdon was available but did not play. Rotation regulars Derrick White and Grant Williams did see the floor against the Hawks, but their combined playing time was less than 12 minutes.

Still, the shorthanded Celtics managed to put together a very efficient performance. Boston shot 47.2% from the floor and knocked down 25 of its 54 (!) 3-point attempts. The sharpshooting helped the C’s overcome losing the turnover battle by a 15-9 margin.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Playing time this season has been scarce for Payton Pritchard, but he made the most of his opportunity Sunday. The third-year guard had a career game with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, which marked the first triple-double of his NBA tenure.

— Speaking of career games, Sam Hauser knocked down more 3-pointers against Atlanta than any other game in his young NBA career to date. All but two of Hauser’s 26 points came from beyond the arc.

— Mike Muscala, acquired by Boston ahead of the trade deadline, also set a personal best in the regular-season finale. The versatile big man poured in 27 points, eclipsing his previous high by three.

— White only played a shade over five minutes and didn’t factor much into the decision. But by starting Sunday’s game, he accomplished the feat of playing in all 82 contests for Boston this season.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook attached a +142 price on Pritchard hitting more than 3.5 3-pointers against Atlanta. The Oregon product knocked down nine treys, so a $100 bet on this wager would have paid out a total of $242.

UP NEXT
The Celtics, the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, will play the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game in the first round of the playoffs. The Hawks and the Heat will tip off in Miami at 7 p.m. ET.

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The Celtics finished off the regular season with an 8-2 record. Their 57 wins is their best since the 2008-09 season.

This team is deep and very talented.

CJ has several rotation options for the playoffs that extends beyond a top 8.

Since the post allstar games Grant's MPG are down to 21.  Partly because Rob is back and Sam Hauser has been playing really well.

Last year Sam was not a viable rotation guy.  His shooting could be a factor in the playoffs and his defense continues to improve.

PP is our energizer bunny and he can shoot.

Muscala looks like a guy who can stretch the floor and could spell AH at that position.

Continued good health and a 3 level deep team should take us all the way.

Muscala is definitely a poor mans version of Al.

Pritch definitely is an energizer bunny, 14 rebounds for a guy barely 6 feet tall with minimal lift at best?

Hauser keeps on getting better and better each game, we know his strengths and when On he can definitely help. He is making heady plays, back cuts, defensive stops. Not just a 3 point shooter.

Those guys may not even get minutes, as the main rotation bench guys will be RWill, Brogdon and GWill; but I feel confident at some point any of the other 3 will come in and give us a boost of energy and a barrage of 3’s.

I’m really liking the bench and see them being huge contributors in this years playoff run!!

What those guys said

Yeah, dboss, you re-emphasized what I said in the other thread about our "quiet" 8-2 finish. Us, LAL and GSW were the only others to accomplish that feat. That could be significant. We'll see.

db

dboss wrote:Since the post allstar games Grant's MPG are down to 21.  Partly because Rob is back and Sam Hauser has been playing really well.

Last year Sam was not a viable rotation guy.  His shooting could be a factor in the playoffs and his defense continues to improve.

PP is our energizer bunny and he can shoot.

Muscala looks like a guy who can stretch the floor and could spell AH at that position.

Continued good health and a 3 level deep team should take us all the way.

+1

48 minutes of garbage time.  The only starter was Derrick, and he only played 5 minutes.  Why play him at all?  Because with yesterday's game Ironman Derrick White played all 82 games this season and that's worth rewarding with a cameo appearance.  What is just as amazing to me is that he started in 70 of those games.  After his relatively underwhelming fraction of a season last year with us I did not have him being a starter for most of this season.  What.  A.  Steal by Brad.  We've been saying it more and more the past few weeks but DWhite was acquired for Romeo, Josh and a couple of picks and that is a steal despite all my good feelings towards Josh.  

DWhite................fg%..........3pt fg%.......2pt fg%.......ft%
2022-2023---------46.2%-----38.1%-------54.8%-------87.5%
Career Average----44.7%-----35.2%-------52.1%-------84.6%

Who had a 6 point win, which wasn't really as close as the final score makes it look, with Payton, Sam and Moose crushing the Atlanta Hawks on their bingo cards?  Not me.

Congratulations to Payton Pritchard for having his first career triple-double on, what is likely, to be his final regular season game as a Celtic.  Nothing but good things to say about Payton but, as I pointed out above, he isn't getting ahead of Derrick on the depth chart, nor is he getting in front of DPOY Marcus Smart, nor NBA 6th Man contender Malcolm Brogdon, nor likely All-NBA Jaylen Brown.  We are blessed with amazing depth in our backcourt that we're probably going to let PP go because we're so rich in guards.

The only Boston Celtics who have had at least 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists:  Larry Bird 5X, John Havlicek 2X and Payton freaking Pritchard.  Only 2 players in NBA history have had a triple-double with 9 3pt fgm and that's James Harden 2X and Payton freaking Pritchard.  Put on your oxygen mask, kid, you're traveling in rarified air.

And, if the above stats aren't enough, Payton is tied with a lot of people for 3rd place for most 3pt fgm in a Celtic game.  Smart, Hield and Curry had 11; Gallinari (with Atlanta), Jaylen and Fournier (as a Knick) with 10; 'Toine (2X), IT, Harden, Tatum, Strus (with Miami) and Payton freaking Pritchard with 9.





Two straight stellar games from Sam.  He does this when he starts, but seems to lose his shooting touch when he comes off the bench.  If he plays like this in the playoffs, and he's been great on both ends, coming off the bench we're gonna murder ever-ree-body.  26 points on 9-16, 8-14 from 3.  I think one of his two missed 2pt fgas was a missed dunk.  6 assists and 1 turnover, a block and a steal.  He's not going to get 38 mpg in the playoffs but he needs to remember how this feels.




The Moose got Loose!!  Another player who isn't going to get 33 mpg in the playoffs but who showed he's fitting in well despite coming to Joe's system mid-season.  27 points on 9-13, 4-7 from 3 and 8 rebounds.  One of my picayune beefs with Muscala (other than that he dunks as often as Tyler Zeller did and that makes me spasm.  DUNK THE DAMN BALL, MIKE!!!) is that his game was all 3s and that's it.  He made a lot of off the ball cuts in this game that got him to the rim.  In fact, he went 5-6 from 2 and his missed 2pt fga was a blown layup that could have and should have been a dunk.  Other than that a great game by Mike Muscala.  Al, Blake and Mike are a bearable front court because of their experience, although they are short and lack beef, but add a healthy Robert Williams and we're stacked.



JD Davison throws beatiful lob passes towards the rim.  My question is "can he do anything else?".  35 minutes of not much more than that yesterday.

Justin Champagnie 2-12, 1-5 from 3 in his 20 minute Celtic debut.  If you're only here for a cup of coffee you might as well make it a triple espresso.  Despite that he still was a +3, which is why I don't put much weight on that stat.  Somebody carried his ass...

They had 21 points off of our 15 turnovers.  They had 23 fast break points vs 4 for us.  They had 11 steals vs 5 for us.  These are not good stats for us.  So, how'd we win?  54 of our 89 fgas were 3s and we shot 46.3% on them.  With 6:52 still left in the 1st all 11 of our fgas were 3s.  When you're fighting for a spot on a team you stay close to the script you know the coach wants you to follow and Joe wants 3s.  Atlanta shot 28% on theirs, and they only took 39, and there's the game.


John Karalis @John_Karalis
yesterday
The Celtics finish the season with the league's second-best offensive and defensive ratings. No other team is top five in both. Cleveland is the only other team in the top 10 (1st defense, 8th offense) in both.

We also ended with the #1 Margin of Victory @ +6.4ppg.  #2 is Cleveland @ +5.4.  The other two teams in the East that we are likely to face are Philly @ +4.3 and Milwaukee @ +3.6.  Considering that most of our (Boston as well as those other 3 teams) played most of our games vs EC teams that should tell you we are the Beast of the East.  In the WC the #1 MoV belongs to Memphis and they're just +3.9.  Denver is +3.3.  In other words they even don't dominate their conference as much as the #4 MoV team in the East does, and I don't think the WC is the stronger conference this year.  I just think they have better parity.  The playoff teams are closer in quality to each other in the west than they are in the east, so it's harder for them to dominate their conference.  That doesn't mean it's better, the same way our 2008 Championship team dominated the East and people assumed that meant the East was weak and the West was strong.  No.  It meant we were head-and-shoulders better and they were more uniformly mediocre.

Next game is Saturday vs the winner of the Hawks/Heat Play-in. If "timing is everything" then we're peaking at the right time.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401469371


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Post Game Prosperity:

Great win to close out the reg. Proves Intramural basketball can be fun too.
I enjoyed being able to watch players that one rarely get to see play a full game.

PP: Trade value just took a quantum leap! Hopefully we’re in a position to provide him more exposure come playoffs. Hate to lose hm but dude deserves to be playing somewhere.

Sam:
Looks like he may be able to really contribute post season. Choke not Ye ole Hauser. Choke not

Mike:
Dude was chucking and making till he missed a few. Chuck no more. Dude is a decent rebounder as well.

JD:
Y’all quit dogging him. Dudes a lion and looks just like one. He’ll be okay. Just needs time. Leave JD- B. :>))

Kabengele:
You fell on your ass a number of times post noon yesterday. Pre-game Easter mimosas or just deliriously dizzy happy to be getting some burn? You got that dunk after getting your face cracked on the other end. Way to respond muh man.

Duece: So glad you were away on a day long Easter egg hunt. What a relief.

Post Game Pettiness:

This may seem petty to a lot of us but it’s not to me. (I know Bob, I need to turn the sound down but I can’t!) By now you should understand why. I hope…


Here’s a perfect example of what makes Scalabrine such a bad analyst.

Preparation:
If you prepare like you are supposed to, you are more than aware that if White plays it will be his 82nd game this year. Let’s find out who else has a chance to finish all 82.

You go to Dick lipe PRIOR to the game (or look it up yourself) and ask him to pull up the possibilities.
Knowing you are going to and should talk about it. Do that and you sound prepared and and somewhat smart.

Instead. Scalabrine questions himself live on air as to who else may play 82 then petitions Dick Lipe
live on air as if Lipe is sitting there waiting for something to do.
Lipe is a PT employee and still manages to be stat ready. That should be a hint and a half for  Scal but…
Minutes later Lipe feeds the info to Scalabrine who says “ahh here it is. Thanks to Dick Lipe, here are the players blah blah blah.

So instead of being show and game prepared
Scal petitions a statistician live on air and instead sounds unprepared and not so smart.

One more:

Atlanta Shot hits rim bounces high over and in back of the backboard.
Scalabrine laughs and says “it has to go over and behind the backboard so good call the officials got it right”

(Seconds later)

Replayyyy shows it did go behind the backboard.

Scalabrine- “ oh no! It did go over the backboard. The officials got it wrong. Bad call”

Will someone at NBC please do their job and tell Scalabrine to quit petitioning for stats live on air and quit yelling Dick Lype’s name. Nobody knows who he is!

*Broadcasting 101