POST GAME BUCKS

OH BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEPRESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEXT GAME - AT WASHINGTON - SATURDAY - 7:30PM


POST GAME - WEEI

FAST BREAK: BUCKS STAMPEDE CELTICS IN GARDEN DEBUT 11.02.12 at 9:46 pm ET
By Ben Rohrbach

So much for the Celtics keeping their house clean, as Paul Pierce vowed in the days leading up to the team’s home opener on Friday night, because the Bucks muddied up the Garden paint all night long.

Led by their backcourt of Brandon Jennings (21 points), Monta Ellis (14 points) and wing Tobias Harris (18 points) — among the many Bucks who seemed to coast to the basket at will –Milwaukee scored 52 points in the paint, built a lead as high as 22 and never looked back in a 99-88 blowout.

But, hey, at least Jeff Green made some baskets (11 points, 5-9 FG), so the Celtics have that going for them. Kevin Garnett (15 points), Rajon Rondo (14 points, 11 assists), Paul PIerce (11 points), Brandon Bass (10 points) and Jason Terry (10 points) also reached double figures. Here’s what else happened:

WHAT WENT WRONG

Watching the paint dry: Six of Milwaukee’s first seven field goals came within nine feet. So, with four minutes left in the first quarter, Darko Milicic made his Celtics debut. And that didn’t help. By the time the opening 12 minutes mercifully ended, the Bucks had almost as many points in the paint (16) as the C’s scored altogether (18).

Sloppy second: If you thought the first quarter was bad, you should’ve seen the second. Or maybe you did, in which case you probably don’t want to relive it. But the Celtics shot 5-of-21 from the field, missed all four of their 3-point attempts, got to the line just twice and scored all of 12 points. In others, they settled for jumpers — never more evident than when Rondo passed up a layup for a missed a Green triple.

Turd quarter: After cutting the deficit to 12 midway through the third quarter — and making what seemed like an inevitable run — the Celtics committed three straight turnovers and fell behind by more than 20 points for the second time in as many games this season. In all, they committed seven turnovers (18 on the night) that led to 10 third-quarter points.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Buckeye on the prize: Despite struggling in Miami — and that’s putting it nicely — one thing is abundantly clear about Jared Sullinger‘s ability to contribute in the NBA: He does work on the offensive glass. In fact, he might’ve been the only Celtics player doing any work on either end in the opening 24 minutes. Three of Sullinger’s six first-half rebounds came on the offensive end, including a put-back layup and a trip to the free throw line.

Garnett gain: If not for Garnett, the Celtics might’ve trailed by 30 after the third quarter. He scored 10 of his 15 points consecutively in the first 5:19 after halftime, single-handedly keeping the C’s ship afloat. Well, it was more of a life raft. But Garnett attempted just eight shots in the season opener, so the C’s made a concerted effort to get him more touches (14). Now, if only he can get his interior defense groove back, the Celtics might be back in business.

C’mon, the Celtics lost their home opener by double digits to the Bucks. Nothing really went right.

112288

As we can see team chemistry is an issue at both ends.

It will probably take 2 dozen games before we can make any legit assessments.

Go Celts

Dboss

OOOOOF.

Not even going to break this one down....no need at this point.

Moving on.

I think it's got to start with defense - five out there determined not to let anyone drive or take an open shot. We need that swarming mentality from everyone, and as soon as someone (vet or not) doesn't press hard because he's out of breath or lost focus, sit him and put in the next eager defender.
The offense will take longer to gel, maybe months, but first things first.
With the depth we have, there's no reason not to run because no one (except perhaps Rondo) has to play more than 25 mpg.

I'm more of a glutton for punishment than MrKleen is, I'm going to try and break this broken mess down.

The short easy answer is that nothing worked. Not the offense, not the defense. The final score (88-99) is not indicative of how close this game was, because it wasn't. Look at it this way, Chris Wilcox (Yeah, Chris! Welcome back!) and Kris Joseph were both +9 and they only played the last 3 minutes. So, take away that last 3 minute surge that produced a +9 and what does the score look like 45 minutes into the game now? It looks like we were down 20 just as garbage time started in earnest.

1. Brandon Jennings completely out played Rajon Rondo on both ends of the court. Rondo chased him around like a puppy dog instead of using his feet and trying to stay in between Jennings and the basket. Jennings also had 6 steals, taking advantage of our revolting chemistry.

2. Our back court was supposed to be the strength of this team. Our back court stunk. Their starting backcourt scored 35 points on 15-37 shooting (Monta Ellis pulled the numbers down with 6-20) and 17 assists. Our starting backcourt had 21 points on 9-19 shooting and 12 assists. Our shooting percentage was better, but a lot of that was Rondo layups after the game was out of reach. Our backups had 12 points, but JET's points also came late, after the game was out of reach. When we needed him, to close the gap and make it a game with a quarter to go, he couldn't hit a bull in the butt with a bazooka. Again. A great example of how stats don't tell the story. He took only 2fga (0-2) for 0 points by halftime. Barbosa had a breakaway layup and didn't lay the ball up enough to clear the rim. It hit the side of the rim and bounced back. It was that kind of a night.

3. We struggled to get shots off all night. Not many open looks for us. Not that it mattered, we missed our shots even when we were open. At one point we were shooting 28%. It was very, very ugly.

4. Defensively, we had little baseline defense. A few good plays by KG and one by Green, but for the most part they penetrated or pick-and-rolled to the rim at will.

5. KG ended up with a decent shooting night, but started out very slow again. Only 5 boards.

6. Pierce looked horrible. Out of control, slow, out-of-sync. 3-11 shooting and 4 TOs. He came out like a house on fire against Miami, but stunk the house up last night. His opposite number, Tobias Harris, ate him up. Tobias who? Exactly.

7. I have no idea why we have so much trouble keeping Ilyasova off the boards but we do. Nobody knows how to find a man and put a body on him before they go for the ball anymore. He had 8 boards at halftime. There are some players (Tyler Hansbrough of Indiana is one) that you have to find early and put a body on them before you do anything else. Forget about the ball, find them and put a body on them. Ilyasova is another.

8. Sully took two charges, something it seems he has some talent for. He had 7 rebounds, 3 of them offensive, in just 18 minutes. Sometimes he looked a little lost out there, but so did everybody else. At least he, and Bass, knew what they were supposed to be doing out there, even if they didn't always do it well. Sully boarded. So did Bass, who also dropped in his very reliable jumpshots. Bass isn't a star on this team and never will be one. He's not the fire, he's not the anchor, he's not the spark, he's not the heart. But he is predictable and dependable. Night in, night out he gets his boards and hits his shots as they are offered to him within the flow of the offense. We are just two games into this long season, and he's the only consistent player we have.

9. Jeff Green's numbers make him look more productive than he really was, just like JET. He was throwing up brick after brick until the late part of the game when we were down by 20 and time running down. What I would call "empty numbers", because they don't change the dynamics or play of the game. They don't come at timely points, igniting a run or generating a series of stops, nor do they force an adjustment by the other team. They're just stats. Great for fantasy sports players but they don't do anything for me.

10. One small bright spot in this game was the return to the court of Marquis Daniels. He's a good person, a solid player and deserves to play somewhere, certainly more than some of the strutting, preening prima donnas we have in the league. A second small bright spot is that he is probably the ONLY Buck that we actually stopped. A very, very small bright spot indeed.


No chemistry, not on either end. No running, no uptempo. We only had 17 fast break points to 16 of theirs and ours, like every other good thing I can think of, came long after the game was decided. We had 36 points in the paint vs 52 by them. That wasn't them overpowering us, that was us with not interior defense and poor switching. We made it easy for them. We got outrebounded 46-36. We got out-assisted 26-22. Bobc's nephew Brandon was on the Game On thread last night and said that a 6th grade team could have beaten the Celtics last night. Boy, did he nail that one. I washed the awful taste of this game out of my mouth with ample quantities of beer first and sake later. Yuck.

Glimmers: Let me get back to you on this.
Glowers: Too long a list for now.

Can we please demolish Washington tonight?


bob

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Thanx Bob, just what I needed after last night's depressing performance. Good job though.
Only good thing for me last night was the Tommy Gun. Got to love that man. Give him a mulcogipoint. Say What?
Last free night of league pass which can only means that this poor play will too.

There just is too much standing around, passing off, no one wanted to take a shot last night until the fourth quarter and then they all thought they could win the game themselves. I know it is going to take time, it is hard not to be impatient.