Post Game - Celtics vs. Miami Heat - Sunday, February 11 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585387

Not pretty, but a W is a W.

We were up 9 with 8 left, we shouldn't have had it get down to 2. We saw the same thing happen last game vs Washington. They surged and we played "prevent defense", trying to run out the clock.

Only 9 turnovers, but Jaylen had 6 of them.

9 blocks (9!) and Big Al had 3.

Jrue with 6 assists and zero turnovers. He was 5-6 from 3, and we needed them all.

We only took 81 fgas, vs 97 for them. There's the explanation as to why the game was so close even though we shot 50% and they shot 41%. They had 14 offensive rebounds and we only grabbed 6. There's 8 more possessions. Even at 41% that's almost 7 points more assuming no +1s.

What I don't understand is, Joe was throwing a lot of double bigs at Miami in the first half, but not in the 2nd. In the first half we saw Z and Al and in the 2nd we saw Al and Luke, and we were rolling in the first half. Why did Joe go away from that?


Regarding the Jaylen Brown/Duncan Robinson altercation:

Gary Washburn @GwashburnGlobe
about 50 minutes ago
Mazzulla said he loved the scrape between Brown and Robinson and loved when they confronted each other again at the free throw line. Said team has to respond to friction and physicality.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
about 54 minutes ago
Joe Mazzulla on the intense physicality today for Celtics-Heat: “Amazing. Reps of how it’s gonna be. Reps of how it should be.”


I agree, Joe. You have to be physical. It will get much more physical in the playoffs, we need to be mentally and physically ready for it.


Bob


.

Started watching the recording and was caught up before the end of the game but couldn't post in the game thread.

Spoelstra is a great coach for a reason, you can see the perfect game plan against the Celts in action.

1)  Be physical with Tatum and KP, especially, get under Porzingis.
2)  Zone to be in maximally disruptive position on passes while being in position to help on drives.
3)  Our ball rotations are predictable to anticipate and so, run hard to the open man.
4)  Take away our offensive mind-share by making us focus hard on reading cuts and motion on defense.
5)  Combine 2,3 and 4 to make us tentative on ball movement and passing at the offensive end.

What I have noticed these last few games is that the teams are running hard to catch up with our perimeter ball rotations.  They are anticipating it.  We don't seem to have developed a counter yet.  Couple that with some injuries and we not as dominant as were at the start of the season.

I also saw that a determined cast of above average talent took Hauser and Pritchard out of any kind of effectiveness.

We have a really good team but there can be concerns with every team.  We don't have a player with high gravity, like Jocic, Curry, LeBron.  I don't want us to end up like the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks.  Hopefully, we can find some physicality off the bench.

Could you define high gravity, we have 2 wings that can jump comparable to any wing players in history?

cowens/oldschool wrote:Could you define high gravity, we have 2 wings that can jump comparable to any wing players in history?

Oh, I meant players that strike such concern in the opposing team that they get a lot of attention (they pull too much of the defense towards themselves). That leaves other players to take advantage of the half-brain focus on them.

Jocic shreds the defense with his passes and scores if left 1-1. Curry just creates so much confusion with his movement and shooting that often two players run to him and forget to switch. LeBron used to be able to back down anybody and demand a double team.

We don't have a player that other teams fear. Hence, we need to rely on execution with all cogs of the wheel operating well. If I have to game plan against us, I will look for how to break down a cog and then build from there.

Not that it is easy, we have good players. That is why we won today. But we have a much superior team on paper and the game was too close. So today's game was a good blue-print for how to game plan against us.

bobh,

All the injuries to MIA that I saw were self-inflicted, i.e. we were in the vicinity of the crime, but we were not guilty.  JB's reaction to Robinson, while a little extra, finally showed some "grit" from our team.  We still have a bunch of nice, extremely talented guys.  Even as gritty as Marcus was while he was here, he was still a nice guy or at least perceived as one by the rest of the league.  Can they win a title?  Absolutely.  Plenty of ways to skin the proverbial cat.  But the rest of the league needs to see this.

Robinson, while probably the first guy you'd pick a fight with if you wanted to win instantly, was just exuding his coach, who lives/exists to beat and humiliate the Celtics like his President, Mr. Riley.  I only got one pan on Riley, but the look and act Spoelstra gave storming out on the court with seconds left made EVERYTHING worthwhile.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were no furniture or fixtures left in the MIA locker room, Eric had a broken hand or two and had to be restrained in a straight jacket after that loss.   Eat it, Eric.  Not this year.  The difference?  We don't panic.   

We still need to avoid them in the playoffs.  Especially since we have now swept them for the season series.  That motivation is going to be plastered all over the locker room and everywhere in the arena with the message of Humiliate Boston at all costs.  And looking at the standings this am, if playoffs were old school and beginning today, we'd start right off against you-know-who.  And we'd probably go out just like MIL did last season.  They will be in the playoff mix.  Too big of a gap to have MIA cross the Mendoza Line to 11th place by the end of the season.  And if MIA can rig the play-in games so they face us in the 1st Round, I'd square dboss's paycheck and push all-in MIA would make that happen.    

We just need to keep building.  With every post-game interview, JT says, "Yeah, we're good.  We're a better team than last year's.  But we have a long way to go."  If your leader is saying that, and the team is picking up on it and not reading the headlines, we're good.  

JT with a near 3D!!  He's usually pretty skimpy on the assists with all the ISO still.  Not last night.  Getting better.  Predicting with great accuracy, starting with next season, he'll be a regular 3D machine.  If he can get that together by playoffs time this season, more power to him and us.

Charles Barkley said it best.  We win with great talent.  But our talent isn't on all the time.  And to win in the playoffs, it will need to be on all the time or we are toast.  Heck we still have games where everybody takes off a la MIL and LAC.  That's one of the things Tatum is talking about in which to improve.  Let's see how that progresses.    

On to @BKN@BOSB2B!!

db

Prakash,

I've seen the term, "Gravity" being used more and more, and you nailed the high gravity definition.  I'll add to your definition by describing low gravity or no gravity.

On offense, we send Queta or the new guy, Springer, over to the weak side corner.  Any defender sees them over there and ignores them, knowing they most likely offer no threat from the 3-point line.  So now there are 5 guys covering our other 4 guys because Queta and Springer have no "gravity" to pull one of the defenders in their direction.

On the other hand, send Sam Hauser or Payton Pritchard over to that same corner, and the weak side defender now has to pay attention to either one of them.    In other words, they have gravity that pulls a defender towards them, so much that if they don't defend the corner three, their coach will park their butts on the bench.

In closing, Queta and Springer are much like Pluto, with so little gravity that they cannot attract any other celestial bodies (defending players).  Sam and Payton are like Earth, with just enough gravity to attract something.

LeBron?  He is much like a gassy giant.  Um, gassy giant planet, I meant.

I’m going to have to brush up on my Astronomy to keep up with you guys!

This really looked like a playoff game.

I like the final score but I did not like the way the Celtics played.

On the topic of gravity, the Miami Heat are like a black hole for our offense.  The only way to avoid getting sucked in is to play fast.  We won this game but the Heat dictated the way this game was going to be played.

Trying to find a word that captures the way the Celtics played and I am going to call it deliberate.  They played slow and allowed themselves to get bogged down into a halfcourt game.   They shot the ball very well but their 81 FGA reflected a lack of pace.  The Celtics managed to produce zero fast break points.   The game looked like it was being played in slow motion.

I thought JT played a masterful game and came within 1 assist shy of a triple double with just a single TOV.

I do not particularly like extended lineups with 2 centers although I can see that CJ likes that.  If the Celtics are not going to run they have no option other than to run half court offense.

I thought that both Hauser and Pritchard played well but they each only logged 15 minutes on the court.  That is well below their season averages.  

The least productive player on the court was Kornet.  He played 2 minutes according to the box score.  While he was in the game he gave up 7 quick points and was quickly pulled by CJ and replaced with Brissett who also did not get to play much???

CJ could not seem to find the right lineups.  

The Celtics gave the heat a steady diet of Kristaps.  They cannot matchup with him.  I do not think there is a team that can match up well with him.  Clearly he is a player that teams fear.  I would say the same thing applies to JT and JB.  Players that require you to bring a steady diet of help defense are players to fear.

db, the Celtics are not in the business of avoidance.  They will play against anyone who is on the schedule.  

This may have been a very costly game for the Heat.  The Richardson and Rosier injuries looked bad.  They are scheduled for MRI's today.  They look like a play-in team again.  I do not care if we play them 1st, 2nd or 3rd or not at all.  The Celtics are a better team than last year and it does not look like that Heat zones will prevent us from scoring.   As long as KP is available we win.

The Celtics record improved to 41-12 with a 22-11 record vs .500+ teams and remained #1 in point differential.

Count on Miami to always be a tough match. With or without Butler, they seem to always give the Celtics a serious run. Nice to have swept the season series against them.

Hope T-Ro is OK. He went down hard grabbing that knee. After he escaped Charlotte and got into position for a possible playoff series with Miami, it would be a shame if he’s done for the season.

prakash wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Could you define high gravity, we have 2 wings that can jump comparable to any wing players in history?

Oh, I meant players that strike such concern in the opposing team that they get a lot of attention (they pull too much of the defense towards themselves).  That leaves other players to take advantage of the half-brain focus on them.

Jocic shreds the defense with his passes and scores if left 1-1.  Curry just creates so much confusion with his movement and shooting that often two players run to him and forget to switch.  LeBron used to be able to back down anybody and demand a double team.

We don't have a player that other teams fear.  Hence, we need to rely on execution with all cogs of the wheel operating well.  If I have to game plan against us, I will look for how to break down a cog and then build from there.

Not that it is easy, we have good players.  That is why we won today.  But we have a much superior team on paper and the game was too close.  So today's game was a good blue-print for how to game plan against us.

Decent points, I think when motivated JT and JB can strike fear in opposing teams, like they did in the last Timberwolves game. JT had 45 in that game and JB had 35, they just went all out and refused to let us lose that game. They can especially strike fear in teams with weak wings like they have done in alot of winning match ups against the Bucks. They can also strike fear in teams with great wings as JT has outscored Lebron in games and JB has highlight dunks over him. Actually I take that back, Lebron doesn’t fear any man, J’s just get up for him as he’s the standard bearer for SF’s and we are blessed to have 2 guys that can physically match up with him, most teams don’t even have one. Jaylen has been in a funk lately, he had way too many lazy boneheaded turnovers last night; then you look at the boxscore and he’s still coming up with 20 on a bad night for him, but a good night for most mere mortals. He was motivated for one hard stretch where he played intense post defense on Bam and shut him down in a way Zinger couldn’t do and very few wings could either.

We did play at a slow pace, I was shocked that we had zero fastbreak points; the team seems to be pacing itself, not giving full commitment and effort to run hard lately, but still winning. So many top teams have also been losing and have more problems than us, these ugly wins still count. We are at our best when the defense is switching on perimeter and flying around, then running off that havoc and we haven’t seen that intensity lately. We still have the best record and despite our substandard play lately, we are still pulling out games we would have lost last year and putting some distance between the other top teams

dboss,

Correct.  I should know better!  But MIA will push all-in and try to play us in the first round if the opportunity presents itself with the intent of repeating last year's Buck untimely exit against us.  Book it, Danno.  

db