Pre-4-Game West Coast Binge

We can obviously continue to pat ourselves on the back for our most recent home stand, but reality is coming around the corner starting tomorrow @ GSW, Draymond or no Draymond.  So enjoy today!  

I thought I would get this thread started early given the gravity of the week's task ahead for the Celtics and hopefully have a thorough discussion of all the angles.  Clearly not a gimme in the bunch.  3 of the teams are currently contending, high seed playoff-bound teams with solid winning records and the one that doesn't have a winning record is the GSW, recent 4-time champions.  Certainly a handful with a B2B thrown in there vs. SAC on Wednesday.  All ending on Christmas Day and of course putting the Celtics on the road against the Lakers.  Just what everyone, especially the media sans Celtics fans, wanted.  But insert a well known Rick Flair quote and you have a contest made perfect for Boston.  Our guys love this! Someone should tell Darvin Ham to order up some balloons and put them up in the rafters for LeBron's last regular season home game against the Celtics.

We've proven B2B's don't appear to give us much trouble against quality competition like they used to.  So maybe nothing to worry about as much there.  I think just looking at these four games, I'd have to lean toward the Clippers ranking the most difficult, Lakers & SAC tied for 2nd (but if I had to pick I'd put the Lakers 2nd) and GSW finishing 3rd for the time being, but you can't tell how the Draymond Incident is going to affect them.  But all 4 games are going to require our best effort to date, definitely surpassing what we just saw the last week and a half.  If you want to call it a reward or Christmas present, we get DET at home after Christmas.  But then I say, some team is going to/will lose to them and break their streak.  We'd be super susceptible for that given what could transpire up and through Christmas Day this week.  

After the B2B with GSW & SAC, we do get a couple of days off to prepare for LAC on Saturday.  That may play very nicely in our favor.  

Without dboss chipping in just yet, I'd say this 4-game stint actually looks very favorable.  The schedule lays out nicely I must say. More favorable in my mind than when I started this thread!  But I'll defer to the chief.

BTW, the Bucks and 6er's haven't gone anywhere over our most recent home stretch.  Both still breathing down our necks 2 games back.  All of us are on solid win-streaks.  If I were a gambling man, I'd say we would/will blink first given the difficulty of our road schedule this week.  MIL get SAS at home.  Well, time to start another streak back up, SAS.  PHI vs. MIN looks like it might be an interesting extra to add to your viewing pleasure come Wednesday in roll you into our contest vs. SAC on NBATV.  Maybe dboss will add that who blinks first tidbit to his prognostications for this week!  Keep up the good work!  I'm just sayin'!  No pressure.

All jump in wherever you like!  

db

The Celtics are coming! The Celtics are coming!

Hide the women and children.  Lock all doors and windows and get your affairs in order.

The Celtics are ready to sweep through the West Coast like a firestorm in the midst of a parched and drought stricken landscape.

First stop at GS, a 6-6 home team with a small point differential of +0.2    They still live and die from behind the arc.  The usual suspects will be waiting but the ugly antics of Draymond Green will not be one of them.  

Defend everybody.  Leave no stone unturned.

The B2B second night at the Kings presents a worthy challenge.  The Warriors shoot 40 3PA per game and the Kings put up an average of 41.8 3PA.

You could almost divide these 4 games into 2 pairs.  Both the Warriors and kings are led by high scoring, high usage PG's and both teams shoot a lot of 3 pointers at a high level (GS 40 attempts at 37.1% and the Kings take 41.8 at 36.8%).   Like the Warriors, the Kings also have a small margin for error (+0.5 point differential)  The Celtics defense, at the point of attack, just needs to kill the snakes.  

The Clippers and the Lakers have not adjusted to the new NBA.  The Clips shoot 32.2 three's per game and the Lakers only shoot 29.5 three pointers.  The Clips are 7-7 against good teams and the Lakers are only 9-10.  

The Celtics have an advantage against all 4 teams.  We have points guards that can defend at a high level and are switchable and we have 2 floor stretching centers.  Those teams do not have that.  The difficult tasks will be the B2B vs the Kings and the game against the Clippers.  The Clippers have a loaded roster and their +5.6 differential is 5th best in the NBA.   But you just have to dig a little deeper to get a clearer picture.  

The Kings, Clippers and Lakers are solid at home (9-3,11-3 and 10-2)  GS is treading water at 6-6.

This road trip will give the Celtics an opportunity to improve the quality of play when they are  away from the TD Gardens (6-5)  

CJ has slowly added guys to the rotation.  He needs to continue to do that because hungry players will play hard.  Queta, Stevens and Brissett may help to turn things in our favor especially going against the Clippers with their extended bench play and the B2B vs the Kings means another rotation guy gets minutes.

It would be really nice to bump that road record up to 10-5 come Sunday evening!

db

P.S.  Great.  We get GSW the game after Curry's 268-game consecutive 3-point streak ends.  We know what happened in the following game the last time he went 0-fer in the playoffs against us.  Time to re-write the script!! Pile it on!!

Time to put some meat on the bones.

Adversity builds character which is often reflected in a most important dynamic.  I'm talking about mental toughness.  

This 4 game set will be another test of the mental resilience and fortitude of the Celtics.  Teams out there respect what they have done but any team worth their salt still believes that they can beat us.  Is is up to the Celtics to prove, no you cannot beat us when we play (CJ..."Celtics Basketball)

Do not allow yourself to be consumed by any level of trepidation.  This version of the Celtics is the best one that we have seen in a very long time.  

A few footnotes on tonight's  game against the Warriors.

With Green out due to a well deserved suspension, the Warriors are likely to go with a starting lineup of:

Curry, Kuminga, Thompson, Wiggins and Looney.   They have an everyday deep rotation with Chris Paul,  Saric (PF) Moody and everybody loves him, rookie Brandin Podziemski.  Some things never change as the Warriors remain a high end 3 point shooting ballclub.  40 attempts at 37.1%.  

They are #1 in total team rebounds mainly due to their offensive rebounding numbers.  They are a solid offensive team.  However their true shooting percentage (2 pointers, 3 pointers + free throws) ranks them at # 18 while our Celtics sit at #5.  

The main reason why GS is 11th out west is because they are not a very good defensive team.  While they average 115.9 PPG they surrender most of that at the defensive end of the court as opponents are scoring 115.7 PPG.  That is their conundrum.

The biggest question that I have as a fan is why they have reduced the court time for Andrew Wiggins.  Last season he played 32.2 MPG.   This year he is down to 26.8 MPG.  he's gone form being a 17.1 PPG scorer to 12.6 PPG.  His numbers are down across the board.  (Shooting percentages, rebounds, steals and assists)  Less minutes of course will generally translate into lower stats.  just our luck he will probably play 35 minutes tonight.

We all know what the Celtics need to do.  Chase Curry around and around and defend those rock solid high screens set by Looney.  Be ready to come out of those drop coverages.  Hit the defensive glass hard (Celtics are ranked #1 in defensive rebounds per game...I bet you did not know that)  

On offense the formula for success begins with ball movement that is greatly enhance by proper spacing.  They have no shot blocker so some post ups by KP, JT and JB should open up our perimeter game.  Lets's get out and run.    Last but maybe tops on my things to do list is turnovers.  They turn it over 15 times per game so we need to stay at, or preferably below, our average (13.

I must say that this evaluation has given me a high level of confidence that the Celtics start this trip with a Win.

ESPN says KP is questionable (calf) for tonight. Add BOS (-5.5) to that. Will that change anything above for your dboss? Actually I would think it would enhance it as we do crazy good things when KP is out.

db

dbrown4 wrote:ESPN says KP is questionable (calf) for tonight.   Add BOS (-5.5) to that.  Will that change anything above for your dboss?  Actually I would think it would enhance it as we do crazy good things when KP is out.  

db

If KP is out I'd be all for going with Queta and Stevens against the Warriors. Those two aren't going to score a bunch, and don't need to, but the defense would be solid. We'll see what Mazzulla comes up with.

More reinforcement to the idea that we need a big. See the Isaiah Stewart topic. I'm willing to trade whoever we have to and I hope we would. Of course, it's not up to me.

dbrown4 wrote:ESPN says KP is questionable (calf) for tonight.   Add BOS (-5.5) to that.  Will that change anything above for your dboss?  Actually I would think it would enhance it as we do crazy good things when KP is out.  

db

I think Boston can use smaller lineups and be just fine. No KP means we are faster end to end. Plus Queta can slug it out a bit with Looney and Saric as needed. Stevens and or Brissett can play. It certainly will not hurt one bit to have another wing defender in the mix. As we have seen, KP is not all that proficient at defending away from the basket.

His questionable status is about what the team wants to do rather than any health issues. He said the other day that he could have played in game 1 vs Magic. As we know AH does not play in B2B games so they either play him tonight and rest him tomorrow night against the Kings or sit him tonight and play him tomorrow. I would not be surprised one bit if KP played tonight and AH sat out. You could make an argument that AH could use one more rest day after Sunday's win at home and playing him Tuesday would get him 4 days rest before Saturday's game vs the Clippers.

In either case I can see the Celtics use a player to replace Luke's minutes regardless.

Well, we're not favored anymore. SAC(-2.5). With Tatum and Al out, that's understandable. Time to call on the bench!!

db

Don't be fooled today.  3:30pm East Coast Time.  Really only two things to see here today.  Either, "Hey, we've got this figured out without KP and Tatum (questionable) against one the  " or "Crap, we've still got some work to do."  

We've been good at shoring up holes when guys are out and the bench stepping up.  I expect more of the same today and definitely Monday.  I'll bet dboss's paycheck that Leonard will be present and accounted for as will all of the LAC's for this game.  Today's NBA Injury Questionable means I'll be there.  Probably so will JT.  This has the makings of a great matchup.  We'll see.  We've been disappointed and surprised this season.  Which will it be?

Well, it's about Showtime!  Enjoy!

db