Good, Bad & Ugly: Pressey, Olynyk "Comfortable" Together

http://www.csnne.com/blog/celtics-talk/good-bad-ugly-pressey-olynyk-comfortable-together



As the Boston Celtics pulled away in the fourth quarter of Monday's 102-86 win over Missouri, the cameras panned on a grinning Phil Pressey and Kelly Olynyk.

They are two rookies who have taken different paths to the NBA.

Pressey, who had 13 points and six assists on Monday, is an undrafted rookie out of Missouri whose father Paul Pressey played for the Milwaukee Bucks in addition to serving as an assistant coach on Doc Rivers' staff here in Boston.

Olynyk is from Canada and was a first-round pick that the Celtics traded up to nab in last June's NBA draft.

Regardless of where their starting points are, the two are steadily improving on the floor at a rate that's starting to pay dividends for the Celtics.

"Real comfortable" is how Olynyk describes the bond that exists between him and Pressey.

"I'm comfortable with playing with almost everyone now, but Phil is a true point guard, pass-first guy who looks to get everyone involved," Olynyk, who had his first career double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, told reporters after the Celtics win. "And it's easy to get into the flow of the game when you have a point guard like that."

And with that, we have the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Boston putting together their fourth win in five games.

The Good

Jeff Green

After scoring just two points in the first quarter, Green was an unstoppable scoring machine afterwards. He finished with a game-high 29 points while connecting on 11-for-22 shooting.

Opportunistic defense

Boston forced the Bucks into turning the ball over 21 times. The Celtics converted those miscues into 32 points.


The Bad

Crowd

You don't expect the Bucks' Bradley Center to be sold out, but the wave after wave after wave of empty seats was in many ways a reflection of the team on the floor. If the Bucks players seemingly do not show up for games, why should their fans?


The Ugly

Milwaukee defense

The Celtics wound up shooting 47.7 percent from the field, but could have easily shot better than that with the number of open to lightly contested looks they had at the basket.




bob
MY NOTE:  The Bucks were missing starting center Larry Sanders and Celtic-killer Ilyasova.  That might help to explain the "Ugly" a bit.


.

Pressey seems to deal with adversity throughout the course of a game better than Olynyk. But Kelly has been upping his intensity as of late. For a while there he was looking very bad.

He just needs to stay aggressive, remain aware, and keep running the floor.



KJ