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Post by 112288 Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:22 pm

NEXT GAME - FRIDAY - HOME - CHAR BOB CATS - 7:30PM

Rapid Reaction: Hawks 105, C's 97

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

The final five minutes of games continue to be a nightmare for the Boston Celtics, who watched a nine-point lead evaporate late in the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks and absorbed their ninth straight loss with a 105-97 defeat at Phillips Arena:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Jeff Teague scored a team-high 19 points to pace six Atlanta players in double figures, while Kyle Korver added 17 while catching fire beyond the arc to help spark a fourth-quarter rally. Avery Bradley, back after a three-game absence, scored a game-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting to pace the Celtics. Rajon Rondo registered 19 points, 12 assists, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals over a team-high 40:44.

TURNING POINT I: DIGGING OUT OF EARLY HOLE
The Hawks scored 12 of the game's first 14 points and needed just four minutes to build a double-digit lead. That advantage went as high as 14 (the Hawks shot a ridiculous 77.8 percent in the first quarter) and that's where it was midway through the second quarter before Boston started chipping away. Rondo hit a 3-pointer to close out the first half and pull the Celtics within five and Boston would tie the game little more than two minutes into the third quarter.

TURNING POINT II: THIS TIME HAWKS RALLY
The Celtics were up nine after a Rondo free throw with 5:44 to play in the fourth quarter. The Hawks embarked on a furious 10-0 run over the next two minutes and a Korver 3-pointer with 3:42 to go pushed Atlanta out front 90-89. Jared Sullinger answered with a triple of his own to push Boston back out front, but the Celtics inexplicably left Korver open in the corner the next trip down and he made them pay by igniting a 9-0 burst and a DeMarre Carroll layup left the Hawks up seven with 73 seconds to go.

BRADLEY'S BACK
Bradley missed the last three games with a right Achilles strain, but showed no rust in his first game back. He made half of his beyond the arc (going a perfect 4-for-4). Bradley added four rebounds, two assists, and three steals over 34:49.

LOOSE BALLS
The game featured only four lead changes and one tie despite the swings. ... The Hawks shot 52.6 percent overall (40 of 76) and Korver's final-quarter outburst helped them finish at 39.1 percent beyond the arc for the game. ... Boston shot 44 percent from the field (37 of 84), but a glossy 46.2 percent (12 of 26) from beyond the 3-point line. ... The Celtics were playing without Kris Humphries (knee). ... Chris Babb was a healthy DNP. ... Chris Johnson rebounded from one of his worse outings to provide a nice spark off the bench with 10 points on 3-of-6 shooting and was a team-best plus-8 in plus/minus.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics (23-55) lost their ninth straight game and 14th in 15 tries. The silver lining: Coupled with Orlando's win over Brooklyn, the Celtics are now tied with the Magic for the third-worst record in basketball with four games to play. A win would have thrust Boston into a tie with Utah for the fourth-worst record. The Celtics will take Thursday off before launching into a back-to-back that starts Friday night with a visit from the Charlotte Bobcats.
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CELTICS TIE FRANCHISE RECORD WITH 13TH STRAIGHT ROAD LOSS


By WEEI  

The Celtics continued their losing ways, dropping their ninth straight game, losing to the Hawks, 105-97, Wednesday night in Atlanta.

The defeat was also the Celts’ 13th straight road loss, tying a franchise record originally set in 1979. The C’s only two road wins over their last 15 games away from TD Garden came against the NBA’s two worst teams, Philadelphia and Milwaukee.

The Celtics are now tied with Orlando for the third-worst record in the NBA, standing at 23-55. They have four games remaining, playing the Bobcats and Wizards at home, with road games against Cleveland and the Sixers.

Milwaukee owns the NBA’s worst mark at 14-63, while Philly stands at 17-61. Utah (24-54) and the Lakers (25-53) are right behind Boston and Orlando.

Rajon Rondo played 40 minutes in the Celtics’ loss, scoring 19 points to go with 12 assists. Avery Bradley led the C’s with 24 points.

Doing in the Celtics against the Hawks — who are clinging to the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference — was a fourth quarter in which the C’s were outscored 35-20.


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Post by Sam Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:38 pm

Thanks, again, for the quick summary, 112288.  I'm still not quite sure how you do it so quickly.

I saw only the second half and will watch the first half during tonight's replay.  But there were some good moments and bad moments.  Both involved Rondo from my point of view.  I really liked the balance in his game during the third quarter.  By that I mean that he was a past-first PG who shot only opportunistically.  The net result was that he enabled Sully and Bradley in particular rather than just taking over the game himself.

Unfortunately, he also slowed the tempo just at the time the Hawks were mounting a comeback—getting away from what had worked for the Celtics and making it easy for the Hawks to extend a trapping defense because, while Rondo was walking the ball up, the Hawks were able to become well entrenched in their defense.  Tommy was irate about what he specified was "Rondo's bad habit learned in the Doc Rivers days."  Brad was just as pissed, but he was more delicate, saying only that the Celtics "bogged down" in the last five minutes.

There was, of course, a lot of other action, and I'm sure Bob and others will be more detailed.  But I believe these were basically the stories of the game.

Tommy also made the point that it would be nice to see the Celtics settling into a style, even this late in the season.  In the third period, it looked like that was happening.  In the fourth quarter, not so much.  This slow-down thing has too frequently been a problem since he returned from injury; and watching Brad's furious body language and his difficulty in summoning acceptable words, one has to wonder how much of this stuff Brad (and Danny, for that matter) will accept before re-thinking their publicly expressed commitment to Rondo.

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Post by 112288 Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:51 pm

Thanks Sam. Had the Atlanta feed tonight and the great DW the color man said that there was mismanagement on Celtics part on defense by not knowing where Korver was at all times. Cannot disagree. 

I can see that the last 5-8 games for the Celtic players was a blur as games and losses came at a fast pace, and some mental tiredness by players what has become a long season....especially for the rookies and second year men.

At least the Red Sox won today and the Yankees just lost tonight!

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Post by 112288 Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:06 pm

Sam,

Just a folllow up.  I spoke early on that this season was all about clearing cap space and dead wood for those who did not fit into Danny's long term agenda. It also was about putting the pieces of the puzzle back together again.  This exercise was 2 fold:

1) Evaluate the better talent on the team to see if they can play in Brad's system. If so...they are keepers...if not......they will be gone in trades and or outright releases.

2) Although subtle, begin to fill-in the team with great role players that will play an intricate part in the new dynasty in a few years.  The Eddie House's or the Tony Allen's of the game.   Here are a few that come to mind ...........Chris Humphries who could be a great impact player off the bench that can give a physical presence and score.   Also Bayless and Johnson for energy and scoring off the bench.    Babb we have not seen as much in meaningful minutes, but he could be a great lock down defender and scorer as everyone is claiming.

So although it may seem minor, Danny has begun to bring in the role players that are needed in the overall team concept being put together.

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Post by Berlin-T Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:55 am

Cancelled my NBA Pass because of the pathetic play of late. So what did I do last night? Stayed up until 4:00 A.M. watching them blow another lead. If they're not tanking - at least some of them, Rondo comes most to mind - then they're doing a darn good impression of it. That 4th quarter meltdown was sickening. That's not Celtic basketball and I don't give a damn about ping pong balls.
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Post by bobheckler Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:56 am

Much has already been said.  With 5:18 left in the game, we had a 9 point lead.  In those 5:18, we had 5 turnovers, shot 2-9 from the field and had 2 of those 9 shots blocked; a total of 8 points in over 5 minutes.  Atlanta, on the other hand, went 7-9 for 23 points and two turnovers. Considering that the Celtics gave up 35 points in the 4th quarter, that means that Atlanta only had 12 points through more than half a quarter of play.  That's not bad, but the game isn't over until it's over.  If we had just played like that for another 4-5 minutes, we would have won based upon the strength of our 3rd quarter, which wiped out a 5 point Atlanta lead and replaced it with a 7 point Celtic lead after 3.  Giving up 23 points in 5 minutes, most of it in transition, killed us.  

I had the Atlanta feed for 3 quarters too.  They were having a lot of fun, Al Horford was there with Dominique Wilkins and the play-by-play announcer, yucking it up.  Why not?  It was a blast being a Hawks fan for the first half.  I finally found the Boston feed for the last quarter.  I thought Chris Herren did a good job, better and more professional than Max.  I can take only so much "Hooowee, give that boy another biscuit!".

Stevens wanted to win this game.  Bass played the fewest minutes of any starter and he still played 33.  Forget about Brad giving up on the season and just go for "player development".  In the bigger picture, 2-3 years from now, this is what we want in a coach.  Someone who will chew concertina wire to win, even if he has no emotional response to it.

They shot 77.8% in the first quarter.  Of their 32 first quarter points, 20 of them were in the paint.  Atlanta got to do whatever they wanted.  By halftime, they were "down" to 62.2%.  Can you imagine that?  Letting a team shoot over 60% through 24 minutes?  Yuck.

We gave up two 30 point quarters.  Unless you are the second coming of Doug Moe or Stan Albeck you are not going to win a lot of games giving up that many points.  Even then, it took an entire league of teams not playing defense to make it work.  It didn't work after the merger because "Defense Wins Championships".  Would things be different if we had a rim protector?  Maybe, or maybe he would have just fouled out picking up everybody else's man as our porous defense let them through.

1.  I listened to Tommy on the post-game show with Draper.  He was furious.  I don't know if I've ever seen Tommy that upset with the Celtics.  He has a point.  You do what you are told to do by the coach, Stevens was yelling at them to run and Rondo wasn't running, he was jogging at best.  He had 12 assists, including a truly amazing Sportcenter 3/4 court bounce pass to Jeff Green on a break, but he also had 5 TOs.  Tommy said that, when you have a team that is not executing well, you make up for that with high energy and running.  He's right and Rondo did the opposite in that critical 4th quarter.  He reverted to the style of play that won games when he had assassins like Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and KG to finish his plays for him.  'Nique mentioned, repeatedly, about how long Rondo has the ball in his hands and doesn't move it around.

2.  Jeff Green had 9 points of his 13 total points while shooting 3-7 in the 3rd quarter including some real amazing 3pt shots.  For the game, however, he was 5-15.  He is shooting 37% in his last 10 games, 35% in April.   His season fg% is .407.  What are the chances he ends the season below 40%?  Pretty good at this point, 5 more games of 5-15 and he'll be within projectile vomiting range of that target.

3.  Life got easier for Sully with Horford out.  15 points on 6-15 and 11 rebounds, 4 offensive.  The Atlanta announcer gave him credit for being "seventh in the league in offensive rebounding".  He also was the one who made a great outlet pass to Rondo, which led to that Sportcenter 3/4 court bounce pass.  Rondo asked for more court time with Sully, because he says that Sully is the best outlet passer on the team.  He's right.  You have to do something with the pass, though.  You have to run, not jog, or pass it.

4.  Great game by Bradley for most of the game.  He shot, he cut without the ball (like he used to before he found his jumpshot).  He was, in fact, the top scorer of the game for either team with 24 points and he did it efficiently.  That's the honey, now here comes the vinegar.  He was also the one who was assigned to guard Korver in those final 5 minutes and he repeatedly lost him.  How the hell do you lose one of the most deadly shooters in the league?  We got killed by transition 3s in those last 5 minutes.  Korver had 2, both coming with less than 10 seconds gone on the clock.  Teague scored all his points in that period with less than 10 seconds gone on the clock.

5.  Kelly played well for most of his 15 minutes of play.  He still doesn't finish at the rim well, getting blocked at the rim by Mike Scott because he did this weak "lean away" shot.  Otherwise, he had 9 rebounds, 3 offensive in 15 minutes.

6.  Chris Johnson came in and played well, giving us energy as usual.  He also only played 14 minutes as Brad rode his starters hard.


We have no identity.  Early on in the season, we had an identity as a scrappy bunch of defenders who were offensively challenged.  We shrugged that off with a "just wait until Rondo gets back".  Is it just my flawed memory, but did our offense and defense identities both start to fall down when Rondo came back?  We're not tough defenders anymore.  We will play hard, play stupid for the last 5 minutes and lose, but we're not hanging our hats on any one aspect of our game.  That is disturbing since that is the type of team development I was hoping to see this year in addition to individual players developing.  

Flailing about desperately for a silver lining here, Orlando beat Brooklyn last night, so we are now tied for the 3rd worst record in the NBA (dance, Cowens, dance).  I don't expect that to last since we play the 76ers again.  Sam Hinkie will have snipers ready in the rafters if they look like they're going to beat us again.


bob


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Post by bobheckler Thu Apr 10, 2014 12:19 pm

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Post by Sam Thu Apr 10, 2014 1:27 pm

First of all, I developed an instant dislike for this child because he obviously doesn't think any Celtics fan could possibly have been born before 1960-or-so.  But, aside from wanting to send him a diaper filled with wet Pablum, I happen to agree with everything he said.  In fact, I mentioned it on last night's Post-game Thread.

I added that Brad was positively fuming last night.  He usually strolls; at the end of the game, he was stalking.  In his post-game interview, he quite obviously struggled mightily for words he wouldn't regret later.  Instead of castigating Rondo, he substituted, "We bogged down toward the end."  I'm quite certain that's the maddest I've seen him—ever!

I also conjectured that, with Danny Ainge on the scene, Rondo certainly did himself no favors (in terms of remaining a Celtic) in basically blowing that game through lack of late effort.  That was completely odious.

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Post by bobheckler Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:52 pm

sam wrote:First of all, I developed an instant dislike for this child because he obviously doesn't think any Celtics fan could possibly have been born before 1960-or-so.  But, aside from wanting to send him a diaper filled with wet Pablum, I happen to agree with everything he said.  In fact, I mentioned it on last night's Post-game Thread.

I added that Brad was positively fuming last night.  He usually strolls; at the end of the game, he was stalking.  In his post-game interview, he quite obviously struggled mightily for words he wouldn't regret later.  Instead of castigating Rondo, he substituted, "We bogged down toward the end."  I'm quite certain that's the maddest I've seen him—ever!

I also conjectured that, with Danny Ainge on the scene, Rondo certainly did himself no favors (in terms of remaining a Celtic) in basically blowing that game through lack of late effort.  That was completely odious.

Sam


sam,

Which child are you referring to?


bob



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Post by bobheckler Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:13 pm



Check out Rondo's flop, at the free throw line. It could earn him a fine from the NBA.

And while you're at it, look at how late Kyle Korver's man, Avery Bradley, was and how far he had to come from to get in the play. NOT good transition defense.

We had a 9 point lead at 5:18 left in the 4th. This atrocious transition defense sequence gave Atlanta the lead with 3:43 left. That's a 10-point collapse in just 1:35.



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Post by k_j_88 Thu Apr 10, 2014 3:58 pm

Sam,

To be fair though, the "slow down" has been present all year. Yes, Rondo has been an enabler of that style of play, but it's been going on since the season began. I think everyone here was talking about how the team needed to push the ball more as a result of a lack of a PG. Well, even with a PG a good tempo needs to be set. I do feel as though most of that responsibility falls on Brad's shoulders. And if the starters won't run, put in Pressey, Johnson, and Babb. They'll hustle all night.



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Post by bobheckler Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:10 pm

bobheckler wrote:

Check out Rondo's flop, at the free throw line.  It could earn him a fine from the NBA.

And while you're at it, look at how late Kyle Korver's man, Avery Bradley, was and how far he had to come from to get in the play.  NOT good transition defense.

We had a 9 point lead at 5:18 left in the 4th.  This atrocious transition defense sequence gave Atlanta the lead with 3:43 left.  That's a 10-point collapse in just 1:35.



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The League, in fact, did issue a "flop warning" to Rondo for this.


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Post by k_j_88 Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:20 pm

You win as a team and you lose as a team.

I am quite shocked that the coaching staff is not getting a sliver of criticism. I do not believe that selective criticism can even begin to scratch the surface of what the problem actually is.



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Post by Outside Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:19 pm

k_j_88 wrote:You win as a team and you lose as a team.

I am quite shocked that the coaching staff is not getting a sliver of criticism. I do not believe that selective criticism can even begin to scratch the surface of what the problem actually is.
That's a valid point. As I've said elsewhere, my biggest disappointment is that the defense hasn't come together and improved as I expected it would, and responsibility for that rests primarily on the coaching staff. It of course hurts that they don't have a legit center, but Stevens rarely had that at Butler, and his teams ran effective defensive schemes that were part of his calling card.
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