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CELTICS ALLOW SEASON-WORST 129 POINTS IN BLOWOUT LOSS IN DENVER

By Jackson Alexander 
 
Tuesday night’€™s matchup with the Nuggets appeared like the opportunity for the Celtics to break their four-game losing streak, and cease their recent struggles against Western Conference foes. Boston faced a sub-.500 Denver team just two games removed from an eight-game losing streak that recently faced some internal issues with the temporary dismissal of veteran guard Andre Miller.

That optimism seems silly in retrospect as Denver (17-17) steamrolled Boston, 129-88, to hand the C’€™s (13-22) their fifth straight defeat and eighth in nine games.

Randy Foye lit up the Celtics defense with 23 points and seven 3-pointers, while Ty Lawson (19 points, 13 assists) and Kenneth Faried (19 points, 13 rebounds) aided the easy victory with double-doubles. J.J. Hickson (17 points), Wilson Chandler (11 points) and Nate Robinson (10 points) also reached double figures.

Jeff Green led the way for Boston with 17 points Brandon Bass tossed in 15 points and Jordan Crawford and Vitor Faverani added 10 apiece.

WHAT WENT WRONG

West woes: Boston’€™s struggles when visiting Western Conference teams is bordering on comedic. With Tuesday’€™s loss, the Celtics have now dropped all six road games versus Western Conference teams this year, and the last 11 road games dating back to last season. Additionally, Boston is now 2-10 against Western Conference foes this season. It doesn’€™t get any easier for the Celtics as they wrap up their road trip versus the Clippers (24-13), Warriors (24-13) and Trailblazers (26-.

Slow start: The Celtics put together quite possibly their ugliest half of basketball this season. They trailed 68-45 after 24 minutes of play, and the 68 first-half points allowed tied a season-worst for Boston and equaled a season-best for the Nuggets. Seven Denver players scored at least six points with Lawson (12 points, nine assists) and Foye (14 points, four 3-pointers) leading the way. The Nuggets nailed 10 3-pointers in the half. The Celtics’€™ offense matched the defense’€™s inferiority, as they shot 34.7 percent from the field, and committed 10 turnovers (eight in the first quarter).

Sullinger ejected: Jared Sullinger was whistled for a pair of flagrant 1 fouls within 24 seconds of each other and promptly ejected at the 8:42 mark of the third quarter. Sullinger committed his first violation when he thwarted a would-be dunk by Hickson with a two-hand takedown. Just two minutes later, Sullinger, working on the offensive side of the ball, dealt Hickson a salty elbow to the side of the head. The officials reviewed the foul before deeming it egregious enough to warrant a flagrant 1 and sent the second-year forward to the showers early. He finished with eight points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes.

Humphries out: The Celtics were missing their most effective bench player, Kris Humphries, who sat out with an ankle injury. The 6-foot-11 forward was averaging 9.8 points per game on 56 percent shooting, and 6.9 rebounds in his last 10 games. Humphries absence left Kelly Olynyk and Faverani to man the front court bench spots. Faverani scored 10 points, his most in a game since Nov. 23, while Olynyk tallied six points and four assists.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Bayless debut: While Bayless did not enjoy a particularly ceremonious debut, he logged 24 minutes in his first appearance in a Celtics uniform. Bayless fired 11 shots, but made just three for six points. He also added three assists and three steals. Bayless was acquired from the Grizzlies in a trade that sent former Celtics guard Courtney Lee to Memphis.

Green remains solid: Green poured in a team-high 17 points, to continue a recent run of success. In his last three games, Green has averaged 17.3 points per game ‘€” albeit an admittedly empty figure considering he’€™s grabbed just six rebounds and dished five assists in three games ‘€” on 46.5 percent shooting.
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Rapid Reaction: Nuggets 129, Celtics 98

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Denver Nuggets defeated the Boston Celtics 129-98 on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center:

THE NITTY GRITTY
For the second time in as many games, the Celtics gave up a season high in points, this time watching the Nuggets shoot 51.8 percent overall (43 of 83) and 45.2 percent (14 of 31) beyond the 3-point arc. Randy Foye scored a team-high 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting with seven 3-pointers (he was also a game-best plus-31 in plus/minus) while adding five rebounds and five assists over 38:45. Kenneth Faried added 21 points and 13 rebounds, while Ty Lawson kicked in 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Nuggets. Jeff Green scored a team-high 17 points to pace five Boston players in double figures. But the Nuggets dominated the game, getting whatever they wanted inside and out against a Boston team that showed little resistance.

TURNING POINT
It took six minutes for Denver to build a double-digit lead. Boston fought back a bit while getting within a possession in the first quarter, but seemed defeated by the time the Nuggets pushed it back to double figures. A little 8-0 burst, punctuated by a Lawson 3-pointer, had the Nuggets out front 55-37 with 5:17 to go in the first half. Denver led by 23 at the intermission and by as much as 32 overall.

SULLINGER EJECTED
Celtics center Jared Sullinger picked up two flagrant-1 fouls in the span of 23 seconds in the third quarter and was ejected from the game. Hop HERE for more on that.

BAYLESS DEBUTS
Jerryd Bayless, formally acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday, played 26 minutes in his Boston debut and scored six points on 3-of-11 shooting with three assists and three steals. He hit a nice pull-up jumper to end the first quarter with his first bucket in green, but struggled with his shot from there (missing all three 3-pointers he attempted). He was minus-13 for the night.

LOOSE BALLS
Kris Humphries did not play due to a sprained left ankle and Boston missed both his size and effort level. ... Without Humphries, rookie Vitor Faverani scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds over 15:35. ... In the team's first game since trading away Courtney Lee, Keith Bogans logged 13 minutes and chipped in nine points with a couple of second-half 3-pointers. ... Denver dominated on the glass, 56-35.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (13-22) have now lost five straight and eight of their last nine overall. Sullinger's ejection showed the frustration level of this team. But this road trip doesn't get any easier. Boston visits the Clippers for the tail end of a back-to-back on Wednesday in Los Angeles, then another back-to-back looms later this week against Golden State and Portland as part of four games in five days.


112288

OK, we all knew this stretch of basketball was coming.....so we have to grin and bare and get this behind us.......better days are ahead I guarantee!

Love my man Sully...........he will be our inforcer that we so dearly need......way to kick ass and take names Sully.  Hickson was always a punk but never pull that crap with Perk or KG.

Bayless............giving him the benefit of just joining the Celtics I liked the way he handled the ball, moved and his scoring touch. Will be interesting to see if he can show improvement to stick next year on the cheap.

KO, just do not know about him.....he's like a deer caught in headlights.....wow .......slow reaction to almost everything.  Wonder if Trader Danny can package him for a more mature and polished player?  Just a thought.

112288

One of the best things about sports is the innate ability for the game to police itself.

You admire your home run too long or talk smack to the pitcher – you are bound to get drilled in the ass during your next at bat. You fail to control your speed on the ice and crash into the goal tender, you get punched in the head during your next shift.

Basketball has its own set of unwritten rules and you can stop by any playground, YMCA in the country and see them on display. You set a dirty pick on a much smaller point guard and you are sure to eat an elbow next time you try and box out. And if you choose to run up the score and showboat - you better not go up for an ally op or dunk –or you will find it hard to land on something other than you back.

Somewhere along the line – the NBA and David Stern became more interested in entertainment than sports – more interested in featuring a bunch of acrobatic, overpaid stars – that anything that resembles the game we all grew up playing and loving.

This modern version of the NBA – where stars can hold off the defender with their off hand, carry the ball and take 3 step crab dribbles – is a disgrace. These are supposed to be the best athletes in the world – yet the game in Europe, College and hell in HIGH SCHOOL – is more physical, more pure and fairer.

You saw this on FULL DISPLAY tonight in Denver and the other night in Chicago.

Kenneth Farid, streaks up and down the court – flapping his braids in the wind and prancing like a ballerina, yet as soon as Brandon Bass hits him on a drive – he cries like a big pussy.

And what does JJ Hickson think is going to happen when he decided to throw down an in your face - ally oop with a 20+ point lead? I can tell you what Bill Laimbeer, Anthony Mason, or Kevin Willis would have done – and it would have been more than justified. But not in this pussified version of the NBA circa 2014.

Not only was the first Sullinger foul not a flagrant, but it wasn’t even a foul. But in the modern NBA – the refs don’t have to even SEE the play, they simply need to judge the “intent” – If I intend to hit you hard but get all ball – oh well, still a foul.

And you wonder why people prefer NCAA basketball over the NBA?

Stern should just outlaw defense and add some trampolines so his millionaire circus acrobats can dunk from half court. Dr. Naismith and Red must both be turning over in their graves.

Mrkleen,

Ironically, your post may have the same effect on some people that Sully's throwing an elbow may have on the league office. But I hope and expect that not one of those people is wearing a green uniform. When Sully threw that elbow and left the game, I looked carefully, and I thought I detected the imprint of the word "Loscy" underneath the "Sullinger" emblazoned on the back of his uniform.

Sam

That elbow was poorly timed coming a possession after the bogus flagrant, but was nothing more than a common offensive foul in all but the hyper sensitive modern NBA

I remember the Pistons / Pacers fight and I know a lot of this over regulation stems from that incident and the backlash the NBA saw for years following that event.  But the game really has become overly policed to the point that it is ruled by paranoia. They can only review "flagrant fouls" on the monitors, so they call everything remotely close to a hard foul - "flagrant" and rarely change their mind, even when every angle of the replay shows ALL BALL.

The NBA rule changes are basically biasing the game in favor of one type of player (super athletic offensive stars) over others. Not every player is long and lean - and some have to earn their living under the basket, using their weight to push the pile so to speak.  If the NBA continues to treat Sully the way they have this season, he will be a far less effective player - and will spend big portions of his NBA career sitting on the bench with a bunch of bullshit fouls to blame.

LET THEM PLAY

I feel like I watched a two-hour docu-drama about the clubbing of baby harp seals.

So little to like about this game, so very little to like.  To start with, I had the feed from the Denver announcers.  What a bunch of moronskys.  Moronskys?  Well, everytime Mozgov blocked a shot or we tried but failed to stop him, one of the announcers would yell "NYET!" into the mike.  Here's another word for you, "stuchnyy".  It means "boring" in Russian.  The first time you yell 'Nyet' you're a wit.  It declines by half each time thereafter.  He also said that "in the old days, players didn't like to take charges, but it's par for the course now".  Then, he said of the first Sully flagrant "in the old days that would have just been a hard foul".  So, getting into good defensive position is stuff they didn't do but pounding people into paste was?  The s--t I put up with for my Celtics.

We looked like it was the first week of pre-season.  I didn't see any coherency on offense or defense.  I think that new movie coming out next month called "The Monuments Men" is about the Celtic defense last night.  I've seen more movement watching the snail races.

If there was any silver lining here it was the usual lunch pail job by Brandon Bass and that newbie Jerryd Bayless didn't come out of the chute looking like it was the poop chute.

1.  If you enjoy watching the Dinosaur Ballet, you had fun last night.  Sully and Hickson and then Sully and Faried went round and round all night.  Sully's frustrations are at medically dangerous levels.  He is getting mauled night after night and doesn't think he's getting the calls.  He needs to calm down, he doesn't want to get a rep with the refs and the league because that will only make things worse, but you gotta love, love, love his 'tude.  Nobody is gonna make Sully back down.  Nobody.

2.  Crawford had 2 points on 1-6 and 5 assists at the half.  The Denver announcer said, with 6 1/2 minutes left in the 3rd "If Crawford gets another assist this game, I'll be surprised.  He'll be gunning the rest of the game".  Crawford ended the game with 10 points on 3-9 and 5 assists.  I hate that idiot was right.  Nyet!  Over the past 5 games, Crawford is shooting 33%, 17.4% from 3.  He also has averaged 7.0 assists and only 2.6 TOs.  The last stats are quite nice but the first two?  Now that's a slump.  His counterpart, Ty Lawson, had 9 assists at the half and ended up with 13.

3.  Bradley's defense was inconsistent last night.  Granted Ty Lawson is ridiculously fast, but Bradley made some bad choices on defense too.  He also had only 2 points on 1-6 (making it 4 points on 2-12 from our starting back court at the half) and ended up with 12 on 5-12 but most of those came in garbage time.

4.  Bayless was 3-11, but he was active, he went north-south and he didn't create any TOs in 25 minutes.  The guy barely had time to get his name on the back of his jersey before he got thrown to the wolves.  Over the next month or so we'll see what Danny hath wrought.  And if we don't see it then we'll see it when Bayless' contract expires this summer.

5.  With Lee gone, Bogans got some minutes.  He actually did well.  He hit his shots (2-3, all from 3, and was 3-3 from the line) and played decent defense.  Not bad for a guy who was the 14th man just two days ago.

6.  They had 24 fast break points vs only 9 for us.  24.  That is SOOO bad.  No transition defense.  None.  Sometimes fast breaks are created by turnovers.  We only had 14 TOs, not toooo bad, The Monuments Men just didn't get back.  

7.  I love Kenneth Faried.  It is rare to see him take even a mid-range jumper but he has one of, if not THE, liveliest body in the NBA.  He is quick, quick, quick.  He's not a good free throw shooter, 63%, but he does just about everything else well.  He did a very respectable job of fighting Sully hand-to-hand in the trenches despite giving up 50#.  He covered Jeff Green at 3.  He scored 21 points and not one of them was further away than 5 feet.  He also had 13 rebounds.  Not bad for a #21 draft pick, huh?  The rumor floated on the Game On Thread was that he "is available".  Really?  Who does Denver want for him that we have?  Pick up the phone, Danny.

8.  We had 91 fgas last night.  That's very good.  Very good.  The bad news is that we only shot 39%, but getting 91 fgas is harder than improving your fg%.  I thought we ran a bit more last night, I'm not sure that's such a good plan in the thin vapor of The Mile High City, but that is what we want.  If any of that was due to Bayless, then I'm already happier than I was on Sunday.

9.  Kelly needs to live in the gym like an old jock strap.  If I see him on a photo-op at an amusement park next summer I'm going to throw something.

10.  Vitor had a good game, scoring 10 points on 4-8 and grabbed 5 rebounds in only 16 minutes.  He still sets "wave picks" though.  You can feel the wave of air as the defender runs past his pick.  What he does is he sets a pick and, just before the defender reaches him, he does a 180 so that he's facing the ball (just in case he passes to him).  No, Vitor, you have to set and hold that pick until after the defender bounces off it.  Then, you turn and look for the ball.  The pick-and-roll doesn't work if your man doesn't have to step up because you didn't slow down the defender on the ball.  We need Sully to make Vitor cry, like KG would.

I'd like to thank the officiating crew for dressing for the game so quickly after being let out from kindergarten.  Tommy probably had to be strapped down back in Boston.

We are now in 10th place in the east, 1/2 game behind Brooklyn, only 1/2 game ahead of the dysfunctional NYK and only 1 full game ahead of Cleveland and Philly.  In other words, we suck.  Here's where we start to see if Brad Stevens' "Steady Eddie" demeanor is a plus or a minus.  Does it keep the players focused and not let them get emotionally drained during these trying times or does it fail to fire them up and make them elevate their games?


bob


.

Tonight could be a blood bath.  We lose an hour traveling west, team will be tired coming in late, and we are down from a drubbing last night.

It will test the coaching abilities of Stevens for sure.

SAM, MRK & BOB....WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON KELLY O.  ........AM I WRONG TO CALL HIM A DEER CAUGHT IN HEADLIGHTS? IS IT BEING FRESHMEN BLUES OR DID DANNY PICKUP A BUST?  YOU SAW LAST YEAR THAT SULLY TOOK TO THE GAME LIKE A DUCK IN WATER BUT KO........HE IS LIKE MIA! HIS DEFENSE AND REACTION TO DEFENSE SWITCHES IS VERY POOR.......AND HIS SHOOTING IS SPOTTY AT BEST....WHAT GIVES?

112288

bobheckler wrote:I feel like I watched a two-hour docu-drama about the clubbing of baby harp seals.

bob
.

Touché Bob, unfortunately a masterful description of the game.

Now I'm going to look for my stomach medicine.

Berlin-T