Celts rout Knicks JV squad

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/2013/10/12/celtics-beat-knicks-for-preseason-win/YXv4txxNjLsyyn4h2mnbbP/story.html

Not exactly a fair fight but at least they kicked some butt.

I guess this was like a practice Game but I was a bit surprised that Woodson did not play their starters considering that they got beat by Toronto the night before and seeing how your team performs on back to back nights is important.  The Celtics had little resistance but the Knicks have their own issues on defense having given up 102, 100 and 110 points in their 3 games thus far.

KO finally was able to find a comfort level at both ends.  Both Vitor and Pressey continue to play well as they look to carve out some meaningful space on this team.



dboss

The Celtics put a 30 point whuppin' on the NY Knicks bench.  Not exactly Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling, but it felt good (just as beating that Nazi asshole must have felt).  Bradley said in the post-game that they would have played the starters every minute if that's what it took to win.  Good attitude, they're tired of losing.  I'm glad it wasn't necessary, for a number of reasons.


1.  If this keeps up I'm going to have to stop calling Jordan Crawford "Mr. Herky Jerky".  For one thing he seems to have gotten his basketball tourettes under control and looks positively smooth out there.  A team high 7 rebounds were a big bonus from him.  He made mistakes, he had 4 TOs, but overall I can't find much to bitch about.  Tommy gave him the Tommy Award for the game.  With all due respect to Phil Pressey, we may have found a backup point guard.  Who knew the best way to improve Crawford's shot selection was to make him responsible for passing the ball to a shooter?  Sounds ridiculously obvious once you think of it.

2.  Kelly Olynyk might be the worst rebounding 7'er I've ever seen.  He does not have the rebounding gene.  He 6 last night, but none memorable.  15 points on 5-6 is more like what we saw in summer league, as well as the 3 assists.  He was eaten alive inside, though, by Ike Diogu.  Boy, did he ever.  Diogu is a Cornbread Maxwell type of player.  6'8" and does most of his damage from 6' and in (although he did hit one baseline jumper last night) and he just went off on Kelly.  Kelly could not keep Ike off the boards.  21 points from Diogu, 8 rebounds with 5 of them offensive and I swear I think all 5 were with Kelly guarding him.  Kelly has got to learn how to deal with the fact that NBA players are a lot stronger than what he's used to.  He needs to really, really body up on them early or he's going to get pushed under the basket.

3.  Where in the World is Jeff Green?  Dave Cowens said that "when Jeff Green is a jumpshooter he's not a very good player but when he slashes he can really help our team".  First of all, I agree with this statement.  Secondly, I love that Dave Cowens, even though he is obstensibly a special assistant to Joe Dumars, said "our" team.  6'9" players that can run like a gazelle should not be taking 21' jumpshots all game.  His attention span seems to be quite short, as well.  His head was not really in the game.  Another 3-12 night for Green, with 3 assists and 3 TOs and only 1 rebound (this is not a typo) in 29 minutes. He's making Kelly Olynyk look like Moses Malone.

4.  Avery Bradley is just SOOOOO much better when he's not playing point.  This "double point" experiment by Stevens isn't working.  Let Crawford and Pressey play point and let AB do what he does best, blow up the other team's back court and shoot.

5.  Vitor is definitely working himself into a rotation job.  His defense last night was pretty good, and that's not supposed to be his forte.  He's trying hard to do what it takes and that's the first step.  So far, so very good with Vitor.  Go Vitor!  I finally saw him set his first real attempt at a pick last night.  I feel like a proud papa.  Unfortunately, it was an illegal one.  I sure as hell hope it doesn't discourage him.

6.  Pressey came down to earth last night with 1 assist and 3 TOs.  Despite this, over 3 games, he's 13 assists and 4 TOs.  That's still pretty damn good.  He has poise beyond his years and experience and we need that.

7.  Marshon Brook's boxscore looks better than his play.  I'm sorry, but I'm just not feeling the love for this kid.  Chris Babb didn't have a great night last night, but Brooks just seems like he's pure schoolyard and that makes me cringe.

8.  Brandon Bass was an unsung hero last night.  He had to defend against the much bigger Andrea Bargnani and did a good job.  Most of Bargnani's 11 points came against Olynyk, not Bass.  7 rebounds, 2 offensive, in 18 minutes is pretty solid too.

9.  We shot 54% for the night.  Finally.  In fact, other than the end-of-benchers (Sims, Taylor, Bell-Holter, Babb) the only two Celtics who shot below 50% on the night was,  Vitor with 3-7 (barely under 50%) and Jeff Green with his 3-12.  Ironically, we had 19 assists, which is down from the recent norm, for 39 assists.  Ok, but not great, and yet we scored 111 points.  We only took 72fgas though.  We're still struggling there.

10.  The Knicks had 87 fgas.  That's good.  What's bad is they only shot 33%.  3-18 from 3.  Live by the 3, die by the 3.  Hear that, Brad Stevens?


Yeah, we beat up on a bunch of underclassmen.  So what of it?  We started off strong, which we had not previously and, when we let a 15 point lead get down to 3, we fought to get it back up to 9 at halftime.  After halftime, we came out of the locker room and blow torched them.  We never trailed once in this game.  Now, Stevens has to figure out how to get these guys to do that against first string talent.


bob



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It was nice to see that it's possible to win with only 5 fast break points, 18 turnovers, and a less-than-50% assist-to-field goals ratio.  So, in lieu of some of the benchmarks that we often use as indicators of success, what fueled this victory?

1. The fact that the Celts assisted on fewer than half of their made field goals and yet shot for such a high percentage suggests that players were doing a better job of creating their own shots.  One of the best at doing that is Sully (seems that we frequently hear his name when we discuss positives).

2. The fact that the guards shot a collective 67% and the other three positions shot at 50% suggests that, throughout the team, there's an increasing sense of how it feels to be in one's shooting comfort zone.  While they probably can't hope to keep up that shooting against first-line defenders, at least they now have a better feel for what they have to work toward.

3. Part of missing field goals early in the preseason, especially among younger players, owes to hesitancy to hoist shots for fear of not deferring enough to teammates.  It appears that the young guys are gaining the confidence to take good shots without the split-second hesitation that can result in a miss rather than a make.

4. Crawford and Pressey at PG until Rondo returns (pending any additional acquisitions by Danny).  Case temporarily closed.  In addition to distributing the ball pretty well, both of these guys can score the ball.  Growing confidence means the world to them, including the confidence that Brad's displaying in both of them.

5. Jeff!  Jeff!  Has anyone seen Jeff Green?  He's beginning to look frustrated out there.  (A 3-12 game, on top of some other stinkers, will do that to a guy.)  To me, it looks like he is really struggling to gain some rhythm, which is throwing off his timing and his "feel" for his shot.  He's taking too many shots just outside the proper angles or just outside his range.  He's driving into traffic and too frequently throwing prayers rather than being under control.

6. Sometimes an apparent negative can signal a positive.  The Knicks got 15 offensive boards.  But one reason they got so many offensive boards was that they missed so many shots.  I thought this was the best defense I've seen yet from the Celtics, although I have to keep remembering about the level of the competition.

7. Conversely, when you make a high percentage, you don't need to take as many shots.  I'd like to have a read on the number of possessions the Celtics had.  I'd be willing to bet that, despite taking only 74 shots, they had at least as many possessions as in the other games, in which they've been averaging more than 80 shots, but with poor shooting percentages.

BobH, I posted this before looking at your post.  There are some redundancies between yours and mine.  Not a shock, since we presumably watched the same game.  But I probably wouldn't have bothered to post the duplications if had been aware that you had mentioned those factors.  Sorry about that.

Sam

sam wrote:It was nice to see that it's possible to win with only 5 fast break points, 18 turnovers, and a less-than-50% assist-to-field goals ratio.  So, in lieu of some of the benchmarks that we often use as indicators of success, what fueled this victory?

1. The fact that the Celts assisted on fewer than half of their made field goals and yet shot for such a high percentage suggests that players were doing a better job of creating their own shots.  One of the best at doing that is Sully (seems that we frequently hear his name when we discuss positives).

2. The fact that the guards shot a collective 67% and the other three positions shot at 50% suggests that, throughout the team, there's an increasing sense of how it feels to be in one's shooting comfort zone.  While they probably can't hope to keep up that shooting against first-line defenders, at least they now have a better feel for what they have to work toward.

3. Part of missing field goals early in the preseason, especially among younger players, owes to hesitancy to hoist shots for fear of not deferring enough to teammates.  It appears that the young guys are gaining the confidence to take good shots without the split-second hesitation that can result in a miss rather than a make.

4. Crawford and Pressey at PG until Rondo returns (pending any additional acquisitions by Danny).  Case temporarily closed.  In addition to distributing the ball pretty well, both of these guys can score the ball.  Growing confidence means the world to them, including the confidence that Brad's displaying in both of them.

5. Jeff!  Jeff!  Has anyone seen Jeff Green?  He's beginning to look frustrated out there.  (A 3-12 game, on top of some other stinkers, will do that to a guy.)  To me, it looks like he is really struggling to gain some rhythm, which is throwing off his timing and his "feel" for his shot.  He's taking too many shots just outside the proper angles or just outside his range.  He's driving into traffic and too frequently throwing prayers rather than being under control.

6. Sometimes an apparent negative can signal a positive.  The Knicks got 15 offensive boards.  But one reason they got so many offensive boards was that they missed so many shots.  I thought this was the best defense I've seen yet from the Celtics, although I have to keep remembering about the level of the competition.

7. Conversely, when you make a high percentage, you don't need to take as many shots.  I'd like to have a read on the number of possessions the Celtics had.  I'd be willing to bet that, despite taking only 74 shots, they had at least as many possessions as in the other games, in which they've been averaging more than 80 shots, but with poor shooting percentages.

BobH, I posted this before looking at your post.  There are some redundancies between yours and mine.  Not a shock, since we presumably watched the same game.  But I probably wouldn't have bothered to post the duplications if had been aware that you had mentioned those factors.  Sorry about that.

Sam

sam,

Feel free to duplicate what I say anytime. At worst, it will confirm what I saw wasn't overly biased and, at best, I get to ride your coattails.



bob


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Bob, c'mon. You never ride anyone's coattails.

Sam