POST GAME TORONTO

Postgame: Stevens finds silver linings

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

TORONTO -- Maybe he's braced himself for nights like this because Boston Celtics first-year coach Brad Stevens found himself focusing on silver linings as he broke down his team's season-opening loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.


Brad Stevens coached his first regular-season game on Wednesday night in Toronto.
"I’m not a guy that takes a lot of positives in losses, usually," said Stevens. "But I am able to take away some things tonight that we got better at."

Stevens understands that there will be a lot of nights that will follow the same script as Wednesday's game. His young team played inconsistently over 48 minutes, rallying from a big deficit to make a late charge, but made critical errors that ultimately forced it to endure a 93-87 loss to the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre.

"I walk out of here and, certainly I'm disappointed because you’re in a close game and you have a chance [to win], but I walk out of here with some positives to build on," said Stevens. "We’re going to get better at handling the ball, we’re going to get better rebounding, we’re going to get better at keeping our guys in front of us, [but] we fought back and competed."

The Celtics turned the ball over 22 times leading to 20 points; were outrebounded 48-33 overall, with the Raptors utilizing 19 offensive rebounds to generate a whopping 28 second-chance points; and Boston's defense struggled when guards allowed dribble penetration and forced cracks in Boston's help defense that Toronto exploited.

But Boston also rallied from as much of a 16-point deficit to make things interesting in the fourth quarter, saw Jeff Green score a game-high 25 points while being ultra aggressive, and generated enough positive glimpses that Stevens is confident they took a step in the right direction despite the final result.

Stevens himself navigated another hurdle. Try as he might to downplay it, this was his first regular-season game and he was in the spotlight because of it. The 37-year-old Stevens apologized to reporters before the game for not feeling any nervousness before tip-off, and after the game he was focused more on Game 2 on Friday night against the Bucks than Wednesday's loss.

"I found myself in the same mode that I am during any game that I’ve coached in before," said Stevens. "I’ll go back and kick myself for certain things, I’m sure. [But it's] not any time for any of us to sulk right now."

Added Stevens, "I felt pretty good out there the whole night, at least I felt like I knew what was coming and going. At the end of the day, we didn’t do everything perfectly, I didn’t coach a perfect game, but I think we can all rest assured that we’ve got a team that will fight, and we’ve got a team that will compete, and we can just shore up a couple of those mistakes, maybe we can come out on the other end of it."

* NO SILVER LINING FOR BASS, HUMPHRIES: Brandon Bass scored 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting with two rebounds and two assists over 32 minutes. He was a team-best plus-12 in plus/minus. Asked about his efficient shooting night, Bass offered, "It would feel a lot better if we got the win," he said. Kris Humphries, who took advantage of increased minutes with Jared Sullinger serving a one-game suspension, finished with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds over 21 minutes. Echoing Bass' sentiment, Humphries said: "At the end of the day, it’s winning and losing in my eyes. It’s the kind of team and the kind of game that we’ve got to figure out a way to win. I know it’s the first game of the year, but I feel a little disappointed. I was hoping we’d get this. But we’ve got 81 more."

* TROUBLE ON THE GLASS: The Celtics don't have a lot of pure size, but Wednesday's struggles on the glass had more to do with cracks in the defense than anything else. Even still, those 19 offensive boards for Toronto helped the Raptors take 20 more field goals than Boston. "That’s the key to the game," said Stevens. "Some of that has to do with size, [Jonas] Valanciunas and [Amir] Johnson are two big guys, [but] I think a lot of it had to do with quickness to the ball, and quickness in getting inside the defense. I mean, they drove us, they got to the commit, sometimes rightfully so and sometimes we overcommitted, and it’s hard to block out when you’re on the backside of that. We’ve got to do a better job of containing the ball." Said Humphries of the glass woes, "A lot of time offensive rebounding [occurs when] we go over to block a shot or help with a post-up or something like that and they get a run at the basket where a guard or a smaller guy has to try to keep them off the glass. It’s a team thing. If we’re playing help defense, it’s got to be a team thing to defensive rebound. There’s areas that we’ve got to improve on, and we’re looking to do that."

* DELAY OF GAME REARS ITS UGLY HEAD: After a preseason filled with warnings about delay of game penalties, the Celtics got tagged at some inopportune times on Wednesday, giving the Raptors some free points (and stopping their own momentum) in the second half. "It’s something that they’ve made sure they’ve let us know about," said Stevens. "We know that. And we have to take care of that."

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My Take

The Celtics lost to the Raptors on the road 93-87.

The Celtics lost the battle on the Glass (48 rebounds to 33 rebounds) and Toronto put up 20 more shots than Boston.  This is because Boston got hammered on the offensive glass and the Celtics turned the ball over 22 times.

In my pregame analysis I noted several keys to winning this game.  Gang rebounding and protecting the ball were two of those keys.  It did not help that Sullinger, one of our best rebounders was serving a one game suspension.

There were too many lulls in the game where Boston’s offense was indecisive and this resulted in only 15 assists for the entire game.

There were a few bright spots.

Jeff Green began the season the same why he ended last year’s.

He scored 25 points and displayed the aggressive style that embraces some of our expectations that he is our go to guy and should be able to lead this team offensively.  Jeff also collected 5 rebounds, 2 assists and had a steal and a block shot.

If we do not get Brandon Bass the ball he cannot score.  In the second half the Celtics went to bass repeatedly and he delivered scoring 17 points on 6 of 7 Field goals and going 5 for 5 from the charity stripe.  We need more rebounds from him however  as he only pulled down 2 boards for the entire game.

Vitor began like gangbuster and at one point I was thinking he could drop 20 in this his first NBA game.  It should be noted that he scored the first basket for the Celtics.  Who would have thunk that. His overall game however was up and down and reflects inexperience at this level as well as a lack of command over his defensive and rebounding assignments.

Nevertheless he did score 13 points and with more repetition he could provide production at center for us.

The numbers on Wallace were a surprise.  He played 40 minutes and only took 1 shot.  He played with a lot of energy all night but was stuck on 3 (3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks)  

Avery filled up the stat sheet with the good, bad and the ugly.  He scored 8 point but shot 4 for 13, He had 5 rebounds but 4 to’s that negates his 4 assists.  He generated  2 steals but ended up with 6 fouls.  I am going to continue to give him a pass because his PG duties really leverage the things that he can do well.  We must get a PG in there and I would settle for Crawford although Pressey may factor into the equation.

KO is starting to look more and more like a marshmelo.  He had zero rebounds last night, 3 turnovers and 4 points in 16 minutes of play.  He lacks the aggressiveness to factor on the glass and he is still trying to see where he fits into the offense.  This process is even more difficult because we do not have anyone who knows how to get him the ball.  

Looking at the depth charts for our 4/5 spots Kelley is at the bottom and I think he will still get some minutes but it will be a lot closer to the 10-12 range.  Sullinger, bass, Humphries and Vitor are all ahead of him at this point.  As KO develops more upper and lower  body muscle he will be more prepared to give a hit and take a hit.

I thought that Humphries showed good form on defense and also the glass as he led the team with 9 rebounds.  He also had 8 points and 2 very loud block shots.  So Humphries has to play and now I can see where he can be used at center along with Vitor.

dboss

A great rally fell short.  Of course, getting down by 16 in the first place wasn't good, but you take your positives where you find them.

1.  Green was nowhere to be seen in the 1st quarter, only picking up a few points.  He came on more in the 2nd and had 11 at the half.  Then, in the 3rd he went nuts and had 9.  We were all hoping the pre-season Jeff Green wasn't what we were going to get and our hopes were fulfilled.  When he plays like that, we have a go to guy, and boy, do we ever need one.

2.  Vitor!  Vitor!  Vitor!  They ran the offense almost exclusively through Vitor in the 1st quarter and he delivered.  He did get a couple of smack downs by Valanciunas, but hopefully he'll learn from that.  He was largely invisible in the 2nd half, had no more points and had little impact, but some of that was because of the Green explosion.  Green had to have the ball in his hands, he was in "unstoppable" mode.  He had 3 blocks (3 TOs too).  He'll improve with the TO's, I hope, but the blocks produce an interior intimidation factor we desperately need.

3.  That's because Kelly Olynyk is of no use there.  I'm not abandoning him, of course, but we're all seeing now why summer league doesn't tell you much.  KO is the worst rebounding big I've ever seen (as KJ and I discussed on the Game On thread, Melo doesn't count since he wasn't an NBA player, he was a soccer player on High Growth Hormones).  Being 7' in college might be all you need, but that's not enough in the pros.  You have to put your body on someone and understand that they are going to push you back.  Players that were a few inches shorter than him but longer, like Amir Johnson, successfully contested him for rebounds.  Tyler Hansbrough ate him alive on the offensive boards.  He just didn't put a body on him and Hansbrough attacked.  Twelve rebounds for him, 5 of them offensive and virtually all of them against Olynyk.  Why did Larry Legend let him go?  He did that to us at Indy, with Garnett and Sully and Bass trying to keep him off the boards, unsuccessfully, too.  Not a good debut or homecoming for the Toronto-area native.  His lateral speed is an issue too.  Landry Fields, who is 6'7" and right-handed, scored over him by taking just two dribbles to his (Fields') left, and KO still couldn't reach his shooting hand.  You can see the frustration was/is getting to him a bit.  In one sequence, instead of setting a back pick on a player to give the driver a clear path to the hoop, he put both his hands into the middle of Steve Novak's back and just pushed him out of the way.  And Novak wasn't even the player he needed to back pick, he was just the closest player to Olynyk.  Ridiculously obvious, even the NBA refs couldn't miss that.  He is smarter than that, he now needs to start playing smarter than that.

4.  Another hair pulling experience for me with Mr. Herky-Jerky.  Not good defense by him, he got bailed out with misses of open looks a few times.  On the other hand, he only threw up one questionable shot, by my recollection, and had 5 assists with only 1 TO.  I'm just going to have to focus on the color of his jersey this year and not on his game.  If I don't I'm going to have to get a prescription for Carbatrol (anti-seizure medication).

5.  Five assists and only one TO is better than what our ostensible point guard, Avery Bradley had.  4 assists and 4 TOs is no way to run an offense.  Furthermore, his assists don't seem to be generating a lot of motion.  Crawford's assists were, in more than a few, pretty.  Pick-and-roll assists.  There was one where Hump should have had a dunk but didn't handle the ball cleanly (I checked the boxscore after that, I think they gave the TO to Crawford, but it was Hump's fault, he should have corralled it).  There was no energy or motion coming out of Bradley's floor generalship, there was some coming out of Crawford's.  As far as his own offense goes, AB was 4-13.  Despite his hard work and dedication, is Avery Bradley maxed out as a player?  And, if so, is he really a starting SG or just a role-player defensive stopper?  I love Bradley's defense (love, love, love!) but he needs to show more than that to start.  So does Lee, for that matter.

5.  Crash didn't have a statistically eye-opening game, but he was throwing his body all over the place.  4 steals and 4 TOs (I think one of each came on the same sequence, where Wallace dove for and stole the ball and then skittered on his back out of bounds).  He played 40 minutes, guarding Rudy Gay at times and DeMar DeRozan most of the time.  Those are two very tough scorers, DeRozan when he goes on a streak and Gay all the time.  You won't see it in the boxscore, but Crash played hard.  DeRozan shot 6-19.

6.  This was the least aggressive I've seen Phil Pressey so far.  Let's hope it was just first night jitters.

7.  "Steady Eddy" Bass did his thing.  The Toronto color guy repeated several times how efficient a player he is.  Bass does not play outside himself.  Another player that didn't stuff the stat sheet last night, like Crash, but he worked hard.  He won both jumpballs against 7' Jonas Valanciunas.  6-7 fgs, 5-5 from the line for 17 points in 32 solid minutes.  Now that's efficient.

8.  Hump came in and worked hard too.  9 rebounds with 2 offensive, and 8 points on 3-4 and 2 blocks in just 21 minutes.  I can see why he was considered a double-double machine.  Furthermore, he played out of position, playing center most of the time.  He was our Tyler Hansbrough.  Wallace has that odious contract, sure, but he's working his ass off.  Hump gets more money this year than Crash, but it's expiring, and he's working his ass off too.  We really haven't seen much of Keith Bogans, so let's give him an 'incomplete' for a grade and I've seen too much of BMATS.  That stands for 'Big Man At The Schoolyard'.  It's my new name for Marshon Brooks (or is that spelled 'MarShon'?  Another reason for him to irk me).  Ironic, isn't it?  Hump looked like he just found something swimming in his soup at the press conference.  Crash is AWOL the whole summer.  We were all ready to trade Hump and Crash for a couple of yellow dogs to free up space and cap room and now we see they're the pros who are the actual value in that trade (plus the 3 1st round picks, of course) and the "uncut gem" that was supposed to be Brooks turns out to be quartz.  Just goes to show, ya neva know.

9.  We only had 66fgas.  That is WAY too few.  Not enough motion took the shot clock down too far every time.  We had 22 TOs.  That is WAY too many.  We need to take that burden off of Bradley.  We had 33 rebounds.  That is WAY too few, especially considering they had 48, with 19 of them offensive.  You are not going to win a lot of games giving up 19 offensive rebounds.  Hansbrough has been singled out, but Valanciunas had 5 O-boards too.  I remember one of those was just a bad bounce off the board and it landed in Valanciunas' hands, but that's still too many for a player who doesn't have a particularly lively body or high-end motor.

Some reasons to feel good, plenty of reasons to shake our heads.  Our lack of beef is hurting us.  Granted, Tyler Hansbrough is a brutally, effective rebounder but there's usually at least one of those on every team.  We've got Hump, but we're too weak there overall.




bob


.

This is going to be a "Typical Game" for the Celtics as the coach gets his lineups set, players get some playing time together and better personal is acquired.

Overall the performance was typical of a young team.

Growing Pains!


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Forsberg's take.  I like dboss's better...

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4707822/leftovers-wallaces-d-coach-rondo


Leftovers: Wallace's D, coach Rondo
October, 31, 2013
OCT 31 10:35 AM ET
By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com



Leftovers after the Boston Celtics lost to the Toronto Raptors in their season-opener on Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre:


WALLACE FOCUSES ON DEFENSE

Gerald Wallace played 40 minutes and put up only one shot (a layup midway through the third quarter). There were quality parts of his line (3 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals) and while the team probably wants a little bit more offense out of him (3 points), he did an under-the-radar job on defense. According to Synergy Sports data, Wallace defended a team-high 21 possessions and limited the Nets to a measly 0.476 points per play (opponents were 4 of 14 shooting against him). Those are some very encouraging numbers, particularly when you consider the talent the Raptors have on the wings.


COACH RONDO LEADS FROM BENCH  


Rajon Rondo on the bench Wednesday night.


Sporting brown corduroys and a navy blue blazer, Rajon Rondo arrived at the bench for Thursday's season-opener looking like the hippest assistant coach in the league. With a basketball-skinned notebook, Rondo sat on the bench offering his usual advice to his teammates (and coach Brad Stevens). Said Stevens' of Rondo's presence, "I think this will be really good for him. It’s kinda like when you redshirt somebody in college and they have to sit out however many games, they get to watch and learn and see it from a different vantage point, so whenever he comes back, he’s going to be better for it. It doesn’t feel like it now for him or us, but if our team can keep fighting like they did [Wednesday], that’s OK. When he gets back, we’ll be better." Rondo likewise gushed about his new coach's first game after the loss (hop HERE for more on that from the Boston Herald).


NO HOME COOKING FOR OLYNYK

Kelly Olynyk got to play his first NBA regular-season game in his hometown, but first-game nerves might have played a part in a tough night. Olynyk finished with four points on 2-of-5 shooting with no rebounds and three turnovers over 16:18. He was a team-worst minus-19 in plus/minus. As Brad Stevens politely put it: "I thought he looked like he was a first-time player on a road game in the NBA. But he’s had great moments so far. I said beforehand he’s going to be one of our players that we’ll go to all year. He’s just going to get better and better." Olynyk's head must have been spinning a bit because after the game he said he wasn't even sure if his parents ever made it. They did and when a reporter asked if he had a chance to talk with them yet he deadpanned, "No, I didn’t have time during the timeouts or else I would have."


AGGRESSIVE FAVERANI LAMENTS MISTAKES

In his NBA debut, Brazilian center Vitor Faverani wasn't bashful. The Celtics went to him early and often on the blocks and he had 13 points (on nine shots), three rebounds, and two blocks by the intermission. His production quieted in the second half (0 points, 0 rebounds, 3 fouls in nine second-half minutes) and he was hard on himself about the drop-off. Faverani finished at minus-17 on the night. "Too much mistakes, but I feel comfortable on the floor and coach gave me minutes and confidence in me," said Faverani."But I make the mistakes, so that’s bad." Stevens liked the rookie's aggressiveness while drawing the start. "Vitor was very solid early on; he’s got so much room to improve and he’s already improved," said Stevens. "I think certainly we’ve got a keeper there, and we just have to keep helping him get better and better and better."



bob


.

Bob, 112288

Once this team has a chance to play together for at least 25-30 games we will get a better feel for how far away they are from being good.

It is difficult to judge them until Rondo returns.  But some issue have nothing to do with the PG play.

The lack of rebounding continues to be a problem but perhaps with Sully playing we can narrow that gap and increase our chances for a win.

I thought coach Stevens did a pretty good job

dboss

We have no true experienced center and others who are playing the position are undersized. Results point to the circumstance of personnel problems.

No surprise here.

112288

One interesting thing to note is that, despite the disparity in FGs taken, Boston didn't lose by much.

The lulls in offense were certainly damaging to their chances. I think that Rondo's presence will eliminate a great deal of that. Not to mention the 20+ turnovers. Cut that number down, and they'll be in a position to win games.

Many of us were wondering what would happen to Humphries within this team, and I think we have our answer. Olynyk lacks the physicality, so his minutes will be going down, while Humphries will have more. Sullinegr didn't play last night, either, so expect more minutes to be siphoned from Kelly. I like him, but he just isn't strong enough. He'll have a tough year against the ropes.

Lee was disappointing on offense, but I enjoyed watching him and Bradley harassing Toronto's backcourt.

Jeff Green went for 25 on a solid shooting %. Wallace had 3 points despite playing more minutes. Although Wallace was contributing in many other ways, I think this serves as a reinforcement to my point that Green's scoring production is vital. I think he can be that go-to guy.




KJ

Interesting game.  Exciting at first.  Frustrating for much of the 2nd and 3rd quarters.  Great comeback, but very little help from the Coach IMO.

Everyone is learning the system and Stevens is still figuring things out.  And while the Celtics made a big run in the 4th, and clearly people like Green and Wallace needed a bit of a rest - Coach Stevens choose to rest them both at the same time, and for too long - which allowed Gay and DeRosen to get back on track offensively and that was ultimately the difference.  You cant still have your starters on the bench with 4 minutes left in a close game.  I think the 48 vs 40 minutes in college is still something that Stevens is figuring out how to deal with.

Green was aggressive and strong and showed what I have been saying all along.  Too small a sample size of course, but a one game sample bodes well for the future.

Wallace is a very overpaid - but MAN that guy works hard.  Love his tenacity.  He would have been that missing James Posey type that we needed to beat the Heat 2 years ago.

Bradley is still not a great PG and probably never will be, but he played a solid game.  He was aggressive driving to the hoop and played Lowry (who is a very dirty player IMO) well.

When they finally got the ball to Bass, he was tough.  He needs to be more aggressive in demanding the ball. Brandon is so so strong. Hansborough was throwing elbows and pushing Vitor / Kelly / Humphries around, but whenever Bass boxed him out - that was the end of that BS. Bass is a man amongst men, quite an impressive physical presence - I hope the Celtics realize this and harness his abilities better as the season goes along.

Humphries played well on the boards and is a tough, strong guy.  So is Vitor.  Very impressed with his game and his maturity.

The rest of the guys - Kelly - Crawford - Lee - Pressy, had very forgettable games.

Going to be a LONG season, but as long as they work hard and compete - I will still enjoy it.