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FAST BREAK: AVERY BRADLEY, CELTICS CAN’T HOLD OFF PELICANS
WEEI

By Ben Rohrbach

In an ugly but entertaining game, Avery Bradley‘s contested go-ahead layup attempt ricocheted off the rim in the final seconds against the Pelicans, and — after a pair of Brian Roberts free throws — Jared Sullinger‘s game-tying 3-piont attempt sailed wide, as the Celtics fell short against New Orleans at home, 95-92.

The Celtics (13-20) lost their second game in as many nights and third straight — a killer for a team headed on a five-game-in-seven-nights West Coast trip against the Thunder, Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors and Nuggets on Sunday.

Bradley (22 points) led the Celtics in scoring while Sullinger (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Brandon Bass (16 points, 11 rebounds) each notched double-doubles. Jeff Green (16 points) also reached double figures.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Cold start: Whether it was the frigid temperatures, the same-day trip from Chicago or just plain stagnant offense, the Celtics scored just 13 points in the first 10 minutes against a team that allowed 108.9 points per 100 possessions entering the game. Bradley scored seven points (3-5 FG) in that stretch, but his Celtics teammates scored only six (3-11 FG) — including a zero-point, zero-rebound start for the ailing Sullinger.

The Stiemer: Battling a knee injury, old friend Greg Stiemsma hadn’t scored in double figures all season — until his glorious return to Boston. No Stiemboat whistle sounded in his honor, but the 7-footer who found his way back into the NBA under Kevin Garnett‘s tutelage scored 12 points on seven shots in 19 big minutes off the bench.

Ryan Anderson: In a scary moment that deserves mention, the Garden crowd sat in silence despite a 75-73 C’s lead early in the fourth, as Pelicans forward Ryan Anderson lay motionless on the floor following a head-to-head collision with Gerald Wallace. Considering all that Anderson’s been through already this season, it’s no wonder every player on both sides of the ball stood in support as paramedics carted him off in a neck brace on a stretcher. He was taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cervical stinger.


WHAT WENT RIGHT

Two-way Avery: Remarkably, Bradley continues to state his case as the Celtics‘ best weapon on both sides of the ball. A returning All-Defensive selection, his prowess on that end is indisputable, and his shooting has been nothing short of stellar. He entered the game shooting 42 percent on corner 3-pointers, 45 percent on midrange jumpers and 56 percent at the rim (up from sub-50% earlier in the season), and Friday night’s effort (7-15 FG, 4-6 3P) only helped his cause.

Mega Bass: Since totaling a trio of double-doubles in a six-game span in mid-December, Bass slumped to averages of 8.0 points and 3.5 rebounds over his previous four games, but the broad-shouldered big man bounced back with his fourth double-double of the season against Anthony Davis and the Pelicans. Likewise, Sullinger shook off the effects of his hand injury to notch his second straight double-double.

Board room: The Pelicans are one of 14 teams out-rebounding their opponents, but the Celtics did a nice job keeping their bigs at bay, grabbing 22 offensive boards and scoring 28 second-chance points. Kris Humphries (7 points, 12 rebounds), Bass and Sullinger all reached double figures on the glass and combined for 21 offensive boards, as the Celtics out-boarded the Pelicans, 49-45.
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Rapid Reaction: Pelicans 95, Celtics 92

By Brian Robb | Special to ESPNBoston.com

BOSTON – Rapid Reaction after the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Boston Celtics 95-92 Friday night at TD Garden:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Anthony Davis scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and Tyreke Evans chipped in with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists off the bench for the visitors, as the Pelicans handed the Celtics their sixth loss in their past last seven games. Avery Bradley scored 12 of his 22 points in the third quarter, but was held scoreless by the Pelicans in the fourth quarter. Brandon Bass posted his fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Jared Sullinger had his worst shooting night on the season, going 3-of-17 from the field, including missing the game-tying 3-pointer as time expired. The Celtics showed plenty of fight, finishing with a season-high-tying 22 offensive rebounds but couldn’t overcome their second straight brutal shooting night, making just 34.8 percent of their shots from the field.

TURNING POINT
The Pelicans led 93-92 in the game’s final minute when Kris Humphries blocked a Tyreke Evans layup with 20 seconds remaining to give the Celtics a chance to take the lead. Avery Bradley took the ball to the basket on Boston’s next possession but was swallowed up by old teammate Greg Stiemsma in the paint. Brian Roberts hit a pair of free throws after New Orleans corralled the rebound, and then Sullinger missed a desperation 3-pointer as time expired.

SCARY INJURY
Play was stopped for several minutes with 11:02 remaining in the fourth quarter as Ryan Anderson was stretched off the floor with a cervical stinger. The Pelicans power forward was injured as the Pelicans attempted to inbound the ball under their own basket to Anderson. Gerald Wallace collided with Anderson at a high speed on the play and Anderson hit the deck after the collision. The power forward remained on the floor as trainers tended to him and players from both teams surrounded him, before being wheeled off to an ovation from the TD Garden crowd. Anderson was sent for observation to a local hospital.

FOURTH-QUARTER WOES
The Celtics struggled mightily with their shot late in the game going a mere 15 percent (4-of-26) from the field in the fourth quarter.

LOOSE BALLS
Rookie center Vitor Faverani earned a healthy DNP. It was his third DNP-CD in his past four games. …Greg Steimsma scored a season-high 12 points against his former team. …Kris Humphries tied his season-high with 12 rebounds (six offensive) over 24 minutes of action. …The Celtics had a season-high 28 second chance points. …Jordan Crawford struggled mightily (2-of-14) from the field.

WHAT IT MEANS
Boston (13-20) dropped its second straight game at home and has lost six of its last seven games overall. The Celtics now head out west for a five-game road trip, starting in Oklahoma City Sunday night and followed by visits to Denver, Los Angeles (Clippers), Golden State, and Portland. With those five games coming over seven nights across three different time zones, it could easily be Boston’s toughest road trip of the season.

112288

Hard fought but they came up short.

After checking out the box score, they rebounded well, had 22 assists, and only 9 TOs. But they shot around 35% FG, and 24% from 3. They only managed 6 fast break points as well.

Pace, pace, pace.



KJ

Thouroughly entertaining game, on another thread Sam was discussing this teams identity, I would say were a rebuiding team that plays hard, has some legit assets and is missing too many pieces to execute consistently in a winning manner. However we do play hard and surprised how much I am enjoying watching this team grow despite the losses....the losses I actually don't mind as they can be a blessing down the road.

I thought Avery Bradley had some stellar defensive plays as he usually does every game, you know its coming, the guy is an athletic strong fundamental defensive freak....I didn't know how dominant it was until I saw the boxscore and saw Holiday's 2-11 FG stat line and Holiday is an all star caliber guard....love watching AB on defense on anybody.

Sully is having shooting problems and catching the ball problems all related to that hand brace on his left hand, he still brings his best in the paint, as he is a bull that can move anybody to get where he needs to go. Hes obviously playing out of position and one handed doesn't have his full repertoire of moves.

I liked the way Jeff Green played tonite, he didn't overdominate the ball, hes trying, the effort is there, hes just no Pierce, who could avg 25 a game in his sleep without a legit PG. I don't know why hes so inconsistent, at least he didn't shoot us out of this game.....he's lights better than Gerald Wallace. I'm sure an all-star caliber point like Rondo and a 7 footer would only make his game better....we just can't expect him to be Pierce.

Jordan Crawford is Jordan Crawford, hes not a natural point and is playing great for what he is, a 20 minute per game back up combo guard, theres alot of times for a split to 2 sec window Sully or Bass or JG will be in position down low for a quick entry/feed and it never gets done....he doesn't have that vision or instinct. To compare him to any elite PG is just not fair, so I'm okay with him.

Hump and Bass doing alot of good grunt work, we are loaded here, its hard to find time for KO who is not a 5 and may not even be strong enough to be a 4. KO is a finesse 4 similar to Dirk, he needs a 7 foot beast to cover his deficiencies just like Dirk, his offense could still develop, but he'll never even be a Steamer on defense, if he could play defense like that, we'd all be
happy.

Were a rebuilding team that plays hard, I'm loving watching Sully and AB grow, love the effort of Bass and Hump, hope Green can get it together, maybe when Rondo comes back he'll surprise us. I would actually prefer to get that Asik/Perk like 5 during the offseason so that we can get a better draft pick for this season.

My computer went cuckoo on me last night so I couldn't post near the end of the game.

Another winnable game, how many games have they lout that should have been won?

Offense is still sputtering, but they all played hard last night.  We need a shooter with ice water in his veins who will hit those shots at the end of a game.  I do not know what the answer is, but it is sure frustrating to keep losing these games.  Better off being blown off the court, then the answer might be more obvious.

Rosalie

Cowans is spot on. The team plays hard but is a rebuilding team with many pieces missing to make them good.

What I suspect what is happening now is teams are catching on as opposed to early on in the season to Stevens basketball strategy and are now adjusting to the Celtics play.

The next 5 weeks should prove to be interesting as we near the trading deadline. I suspect Danny will pull something off sooner then later if there is an opportunity out there that exists. Why come down to the last hour of the deadline. One guy if he goes should be brought back is Humphries. The guy could be a real asset with the Celtics moving forward.

112288

Great post by Cowens.

We had a full-house on the Game On thread last night.  It should snow more often.

I don't know what Brad Stevens thought about last night's game, but I liked it better than the Chicago one, which he said he liked but I didn't.  We fought hard, we did as well as we can with what we have now.  The Pelicans just have some better tools to work with now.

1.  Bradley played an all-star game.  22 points on 7-15, 4 rebounds, 1 steal and a Sportcenter block where he just swallowed the ball.  His last shot was a bit out of control and off balance, but our problem wasn't the last shot.  As Brad Stevens would say, the problem was the process that put us in that situation in the first place.  If we had played better throughout the game and hit even a mediocre percentage of our shots, we wouldn't have needed a game-winning shot, the game would already have been won.

2.  Sully was 3-17 and Crawford was 2-14.  That's 5-31 from two of our starters.  A lot of Sully's shooting woes came from his putbacks from his 9 (9!) offensive rebounds and getting stuffed by Anthony Davis.  He was getting hammered and no calls were given, but the efforts counted as shots.  Ticky-tack fouls, however, were awarded regularly to Los Alcatraz after the Ryan Anderson Incident.  Even look hard at a Pelican after that and you'll draw a whistle.  When you consider Nawlins has Davis and Steamer and Aminu, some big shotblockers, for Sully to get 9 offensive rebounds is extremely impressive.  He carves out a lot of space under the boards. He is an absolute beast, and he's ours.

3.  Crawford, on the other hand, doesn't have that excuse.  He made two nice assists and a great, great steal to thwart a 4-on-1 fast break by NOP in the final 8 1/2 minutes.  He also was 0-3.  He played 37 minutes total.  He had 11 assists and only 2 TOs, so one should ooh and ahh over that.  The Celts had 22 assists (half of them Crawford's) on 31fgm.  That's good.  Our offense in the earlier part of the game was good.  Good spacing, good ball movement.  Not much player movement, but the ball moved.

4.  Jeff Green, who has been really struggling of late, had a decent game.  It's not that 16 points is so awesome, certainly NOT his 2 rebounds, but his mind was engaged, he attacked the rim, he was aggressive.  If he keeps showing up and playing like that he'll have more 26 point games than 16 point games.  After all the games where he looked completely out of it, last night he was in the building.  He drew a really, really tough defensive assignment late in the game, Stevens put him on Tyreke the Freak.  Tyreke abused him a bit, but no more than he abused everybody else.  Tough, tough job for Green.  It showed Stevens' confidence in Jeff and it also showed Stevens' thinking outside the box.

5.  A beast of a game by Hump too.  7 points and 12 rebounds and boy, some of those rebounds were rugged.  Fighting multiple Pelicans, ripping the ball out of their hands.  He doesn't scowl like the way Perk and Sully do, but he is fierce.  6 of his 12 were offensive rebounds.  To put into greater perspective, out of the Celtics' total 49 rebounds, 22 were offensive.  This isn't Doc Rivers' Boston Celtics anymore.  Hump also had a big block on Evans that kept the game winnable.  I'm liking Hump a lot.

6.  Another 8 minute stint by KO.  It's hard for a vet to come in cold like that, almost impossible for a rook.  Pressey played 11 minutes.  He was a real pest on defense, made a great steal.  2 assists and a steal, zero TOs.  That's the thing I've noticed about Pressey.  He can't shoot, unfortunately, but he gets assists and rarely turns it over.  Not a lot of unforced errors by Pressey.  Tommy mentioned that the ball moves better, "around the horn" as he put it, with the 2nd unit than with the 1st and that has something to do with Pressey and Wallace.

7.  This was the first bad game by Courtney Lee in a while.  1-8 from the field and couldn't stop Tyreke Evans, which is why Jeff Green was handed the job at the end.  I can't complain too much about Lee though, he has had a good couple of weeks.

8.  Vitor got a Coaches - DNP?  Against a team with Ajinca and Steamer for centers?

9.  We shot 35% for the game.  Can't win like that.  We did have 89fgas, though, and you definitely can win with that.  We kept our TOs down to 9, so that gave us maybe a half dozen more opportunities for a fga.

10.  Their bench killed ours.  52 points by their bench, 4 out of 5 in double-digits.  Even Steamer was in double-digits.  Our bench had 20 points.

11.  I almost forgot Brandon Bass.  Another yeoman-like job by Bass last night.  He scored 16 points on 8-10, he had 11 rebounds, including 6 offensive ones.

Oh well.  I liked our effort, I liked our ball movement in the beginning but then we forget all about that in the 2nd half until the last few minutes when our energy levels pick up again.  That's not the way it should work but we're young and new in so many ways. I also have to give credit to Nawlins, they've put together a good team.  Davis is the real deal, a #1 pick that is actually a true impact player.  Tyreke "the freak" Evans can score in buckets and, now that he's not expected to carry the entire team in every statistical category, can be unleashed against other teams' benches.  Jrue Holliday is a very solid point guard to run the offense.  What's scary is that they were able to do this without lottery-pick gunner Austin Rivers, 7'0"er Jeff Withey and bombardier Anthony Morrow even taking off their warmups.

A bit of good news last night is that Paul Pierce's old nemesis, Andre Iguodala, hit a buzzer-beating 3 to beat Atlanta.

Off to OKC.  Play hard and learn, boys, play hard and learn.


bob


.

One problems I've witnessed is with the rotation. Vitor should be playing more. They need a center and he's the closet thing they've got to one.



KJ

It's well-known that I don't care about evaluating individuals as much as evaluating the team. Certainly individuals play a major part in how the team performs, but it's difficult-to-impossible to isolate pros and cons to individual players when basketball is the ultimate sport of interdependence. If a pass goes awry, is it always the fault of the player who got the turnover or could the intended receiver have moved incorrectly? If a player misses a lot of shots, what proportion of them were bailout prayers with the clock winding down? If a player seems to underperform on the boards according to the stats, was he boxing out to make it easier for teammates to grab the rebounds?

Among the few patterns that seem to be persisting, I would list the following:

• Fast starts by these Celtics tend to be the products of initial energy, adrenalin, and sometimes a surprise tactic or two. But, once the other team adjusts—as it's almost always bound to do—the Celtics usually don't have the repertoire and/or talent and/or options to counter-adjust effectively.

• Both their offense and their defense are pretty predictable, which means their play at both ends usually winds up requiring extra energy and superior execution to have a chance of working. Even the Russell Celtics had to be able to rely on respited vis easy transition baskets and easing off on defense while Mr. Eraser single-handedly thwarted the opposition. The current Celtics have no equivalent means of evading the constant pressure of having to play over their heads in order to be competitive.

• Being scrappy is certainly a desirable quality. However, it is also another factor sapping the energy of this team. It's not shocking that, in the last two minutes of play, their predictability and fatigue often leave them on the short end (no pun intended) of the stick.

• Not only is the roster unbalanced by position, but the talent in the most-used player combinations is also unbalanced by position. There are serious flaws in every possible combination—lack of height here; lack of bulk there; people playing out of position; rookie mistakes; inability to sustain synchronization—especially in transition—tendency to try to take matters into their own hands which simply invites an adjustment by the opponent; starting the offense too far out; waiting too long to get into halfcourt sets.

• Their positive moments tend to happen in overachieving spurts, while draining the energy that is needed later. Other teams tend to have better chemistry largely because they just keep playing their game (without the Celtics' types of incredible highs and incredible lows) while being confident that they'll persevere in the end. I'd be willing to bet that, in a large percentage of Russell Celtics games, the Celts were trailing at halftime. But they just kept playing their game, secure in the knowledge that they'd either outperform or outlast (or both) the opponent in the end. This team does not have that kind of mental luxury because so many of their finest moments are individual ones and not team-based.

• This team is lacking in rhythm. And the most effective rhythm on the basketball court is a function of five people. If one player is in a personal rhythm, there's no assurance that it will spread to the entire team. But if the entire team is in rhythm, the individual players almost automatically feed off it.

• If I had to guess what Brad's most frequent frustration is, it would be that he can't adjust to take advantage of opponents' weaknesses the way he could in college. There just aren't as many weaknesses to go around. At least a lot of adjustments in the NBA must be based on taking advantage of your own strengths. The Celtics have realtively few of those individually and even fewer as a team.

• If there is one position that can get the team into a good rhythm, it's the point guard position. As I've said many times, it's the most important position because it interfaces constantly with every teammate on the floor. Here's hoping Rondo can help take the team in a more positive, rhythmic direction. And let's see what Danny might have in mind to help right the ship.

Go Celtics.

Sam

Sam,

I agree with the point guard position.  Tommy keeps yapping that they are not pushing the ball.....looking for that down court pass and taking too long to set up their offense.

Rondo will help.

THAT LEADS ME TO ANOTHER POINT.......NO WAY DANNY WILL TRADE RONDO...........NEVER..........WHY?

1) Rondo can get a max contract from the Celtics.
2) There is no elite player who would consider the Celtics.....including a center without Rondo.
3) That's Danny chip in free agency next summer and beyond.

112288

112288,

Rondo is definitely the so-called "X-factor." In addition to hopefully giving the Celtics a shot in the arm (or elsewhere if that's what they need), his arrival will swell the guard ranks even more, probably by turning Crawford into a combo guard. It's difficult to believe that we won't see at least one guard and one power forward going in a trade of some sort.

Sam

Agreed Sam,


My point or rant is, I am sick of reading this trade Rondo talk.  When will these idiot talking heads look at the overall landscape of the Boston Celtics and see that by trading a STAR PLAYER who is in a key position (PG) and bringing a young unproven talent back is not going to get TOP FREE AGENTS to Boston anytime soon. You need the attractiveness of a guy like Rondo who makes other players and positions better when he is on the court.

LET'S LOOK AT THE TEAM AS A WHOLE

This team as it is constructed is 1 center away from having a great starting 5. Let us give Sully kudos for playing a tough position (CENTER) at his height and weight (I READ HE WAS TOLD TO BULK UP TO PLAY CENTER) If he drops 20 pounds and moves over to power forward ......the guy will be lights out one of the best in the league. The rest with Rondo freeing Green up to free lance and roam more, Bradly being Bradly.......that is a great starting five.

Keep Humpharies and have him come off the bench. Get a great shooting guard and we can become dangerous.

Let see what Danny does during the trading period.  That will dictate to some degree where we are headed.

112288

112288,

I agree. Can't attract better talent when you don't have the proper venue.



KJ