Post-Game Thread, Pacers - Home

[bobheckler]

We deserve to make the EC playoffs.  In the course of just one week we have beaten 3 of the 4 teams that we are competing with.  We lost to Miami in an embarrassment but beat Charlotte (in Charlotte), Brooklyn (in Brooklyn) and Indy.  If beating your head-to-head competitors in order to advance is the way playoffs should work then this week has been a pre-playoff playoff round robin for the Celtics, and we did well.  Yeah, we lost to the Clippers, but they had more years to build their team than us and there was the head-shaker against Miami but other than that we did what we had to do.  Next year we'll expect to do more but this year, we're doing quite well.

So, we hear all the time about how our bigs can't compete and all that and, in many cases, that's true but not last night.

1.  A great game right out of the opening tip for Tyler Zeller.  19 points on 8-9 (his lone miss was a 17' baseline jumpshot).  He didn't rebound, he only had 3, but he pretty much owned Hibbert for most of the game.  Hibbert came out in the 2nd half and got on track, a little bit, but for the most part Zeller did a good job of keeping him just a step or two further away from his spot than he liked.  On offense, of course, it was all clicking.  3 of his fgm were from outside the paint (one was in the low blocks so not technically in the paint but close) but 5 were within a few feet of the rim.  Pretty damn good against the 7'2", 290# Hibbert.  I'm seeing different numbers on Hibbert's wingspan, but none are less than 7'4" and some are up to 7'6".  That's a lot of length and beef for Zeller to not only compete against, but dominate and dominate Hibbert he did last night.  Like many bench players Zeller's problem is bringing it every night for 30+mpg, but he's the center we are going to war with this year and that's one bona fide NBA center more than this time last year.  Danny's acquisition of him filled a hole, not the hole, but it is a hole that was going to have to be filled sooner or later anyway.  Zeller's forte is his mobility and last night he was everywhere, moving.  Helluva job on both ends by Tyler last night.

2.  Jonas Jerebko is a bigger version of Jae Crowder (not aesthetically, obviously).  He's an energizer bunny who gets his fingers on a lot of balls.  He might not be as versatile defensively as Jae, he doesn't defend 3 positions, but he has defended 2 positions and has done them well.  Not a good shooting night for him, 2-8 but he had 8 rebounds in 20 minutes and was just in the middle of everything.  Every time a Celtic gets into the paint for a close-in shot (usually that's Thomas but also Turner) Jerebko will swoop in from the foul line to clean up misses or contest for the rebound.  Smart fundamental play.  When the shot goes up, especially if it is a softer one from close, have a board party at the rim.  Like Zeller, Jerebko was just everywhere last night.  He is what used to be called "raw-boned", meaning he's a lot of bone and muscle and not much else.

3.  The Grit-and-Grind Award for last night has to go to Cyclops.  Man, what a shiner Kelly had!  Popped in the eye by Shav during pre-game shootaround warmups, needed 4 stitches and there was talk he wouldn't play at all.  When you saw him in warmups you didn't think he would too.  Instead, he delivered a beauty.  19 points on 7-10, including 3-4 from 3, and at least 2 fast break dunks that I can remember off the top of my head.  No depth perception problems for Kelly last night, eye or no eye.  He ran a classic old-school give-and-go with Turner with him on the scoring end of it.  He also had a great turn-and-throw full length outlet pass to the streaking Crowder.  He had a reverse direction baby hook over Scola.  He was just working it last night.  For someone with a reputation for being a little soft he showed something last night.  He got popped in the face by Scola (and they called it on Kelly!) and might have cut the inside of his mouth but that didn't stop him.  Normally you'd say "so what?  A little hand to the mouth is no big deal" but when your eye looks like that any movement or contact to or near the face will make you twitchy.  He even played some defense against Hibbert and held his own, for the most part.  He tortured Hibbert because his shot was dropping and Hibbert didn't want to go out there with him.  Hibbert ended up sitting the last 3:51 of the game.  What does it say when the biggest player on the floor for either team doesn't play in crunch time?  It says that Brad's strategy and our bigs' pay rendered him a liability, and that's impressive.



Damn!  Look at that, will ya?!

4.  Thomas' ballhandling last night was unbelievably atrocious.  Scola stole the ball from him, one-on-one out on top.  If you put $10 down, in Vegas, on that happening you'd be a rich man today because of the odds they'd give you.  He had 4 TOs and there were a number of times where he just careened through traffic and barely kept control of the ball, taking time off the clock and accomplishing nothing.  For a shooter his fg% is abysmal.  His forte is getting to the line and he sure has that exaggerated head bob to make sure the refs see the contact down pat.

5.  Turner with another triple-double.  His mid-range game is pretty good, he just needs to forget about 3s, those are not in his range.  Last night he was 6-17, pretty bad, but you can see he has a smooth, confident move on his mid-range shots.  Then again, he's confident in his 3pt shot too and he shouldn't be.  




He, with Thomas and the spottily-used Pressey, are really the only penetrators on the team.  Everytime I think I'm out, he pulls me back in.




6.  George Hill didn't do much in the first half (2 pts on 1-1 in the 1st quarter, and a total of 5 points on 2-2 at the half) but he is the reason why this game didn't get blown wide open.  He had 9 points in the 3rd and 7 in the 4th, shooting 8-9 overall, for a total of 21 points.  Remarkable shooting, really.

7.  Crowder had his usual high energy game.  Running the floor and receiving Kelly's passes, stealing the ball and going 1-on-2 full court and laying it in after splitting the defenders and playing solid, solid defense.  He did a great job stopping Luis Scola in the paint, NOT something that is easy to do for anybody, Scola is that crafty in the lane and is much bigger than Jae.  13 points on 4-8 and just his normal grit-and-grind.  You don't want to start taking it for granted but it is his norm.  He's not going to go off for 35 points like Jeff Green would, and did, but he does so many other things that make you wish Green well but be feeling kinda smug with his replacement.  Nobody knows what Danny will do (probably not even Danny, he has admitted he has no "master plan" but is just accumulating the assets so that if a deal comes along he can get it) but I would be fall down shocked if he doesn't re-sign Jae Crowder.  The only possible caveat is if there is a marquis player on the trading block and the inclusion of Crowder is a non-negotiable requirement by the other GM.  It would be, if I were them.

8.  A really good defensive game by Smart, 4 steals, but his offense is back to the "bad old days".  He got dumped on his back again last night.  Am I being too homie about this, or does he seem to be getting pounded at a much higher frequency than other guards?  Messages being sent?

9.  A ho-hum night for Steady Eddie.  Only 9 points on 4-8 and 7 rebounds.  Only.  His counterpart, David West, had an underwhelming game of 10 points on 4-12.  West is a key instigator on that team, and I say that in a nice way.  When he gets going he is very tough.  Bass, and Jerebko, didn't let him get going.

10.  We started out horrible on offense, in it only because Zeller came out like a house on fire.  At one point in the 1st quarter we were shooting 38% as a team but if you took Zeller's high fg% out of it we were 3-13.  We ended up at 45%.  They average 97ppg on 43% shooting and last night we held them to 87 points on 42% shooting and we did it by shutting down their bigger, stronger front court.  We took 86fgas to their 81.  I'd like more fgas but as long as we have more than them that's ok (yes, I want better fg% too).  42 points in the paint vs 26 for them.  So, our front court CAN compete.  19 fast break points vs 9 with Kelly being on the receiving or delivering end of at least 6 of those.  


Because Brooklyn beat the hapless, hopeless NY Jacksons we are still 1/2 game back, in 9th place with 7 to go.  Miami and Brooklyn are tied for 7th/8th with, I think, Miami owning the tiebreaker.

Miami is in Cleveland tonight.  I hope LBJ sees this as a personal crusade.  Charlotte plays Indy tomorrow.  Either way, we win.  We play #6 Milwaukee tomorrow too.  Milwaukee is 3-7 in their last 10 games while we are 5-5.  #3 Toronto goes to see if trees really do grow in Brooklyn (you have to be old to get that reference).

If Cleveland, Toronto and the Celtics win these games we will be in 7th and only 2 games behind the slumping Milwaukee Bucks for 6th.

Isn't this SO much more fun than hoping the basketball Gods favor us with a favorable pingpong ball bounce, ESPECIALLY when they have a long, long track record of precisely NOT doing that?  Isn't it so much more fun knowing that every game could end your season? There may be other things that feel as good as winning, but there's nothing else exactly like it.





bob


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[Outside]

Love the clips.

[bobheckler]

Videos courtesy redsarmy.com











bob



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[dboss]

after watching the Celtics game I flipped over to watch the battle for NY.

The Knicks were down big time going into the 4th and managed to tie the game and then lose it at the end.

The Knicks are a most pathetic basketball team.

dboss

[wide clyde]

Last night was a good win against a fellow playoff hopeful team. Nice to be able to now win such games.

My only problem was too many three point attempts again last night. Not too many if you can hit 35% or more, but far too many for a team shooting less than 25%. And, too many of the threes were quite early in the shot clock.

After 75 games now there is no question that this team will be better than it currently is if it were to shoot fewer three pointers. Stevens plan to spread the floor with 3 point shoots may well work in the future when a couple of more quality shooters have been signed.

[Sam]

Good summary, Bob.

Just one possible addendum.  I assume you left Jae Crowder out of the list of bona fide Celtic penetrators by accident.  The only thing that's different about Jae's penetrations and the others is that 90% of Jae's are made at the most important times and 75% are made when the loss of the ball is an imminent threat (through turnovers, time infractions, etc.).  (The percentages are my own estimates.)

So many times, on the Game-on Thread, I start to write the old, hackneyed yet true bromide, "Taking too many threes."  Before pressing the "Send" button, instead I delete the post because Jae Crowder has muscled through for yet another clutch layup.

Between Bass, Crowder and Smart, the Celtics have enough bulls to satisfy several pastures of heifers.  Did you catch that break on which Jae split two defenders and bulled his way through for the score?  It was like hitting the 7-10 split as both pins gave off a "praaaaaang" sound as they went in their respective directions.

Mike mentioned, last night, that, in the previous 10 games, Jae ranked second on the Celts in ppg (I don't know who was first, but I'd bet on Bradley), and Jae ranked first on the Celts in rpg.  There's no question that he does all the little things, but he does the big things as well.

Isaiah and Jae are shooting only 38% and 42% respectively with the Celtics, but they are the quintessential volume ballers.  I'd include Jerebko, but he sort of spoils the curve by shooting 46%.  But the commonality among them is that each invariably imposes his own brand of energy, especially when the chips are down.  I hope all three of them stick next season, and I'd be delighted to add Bass to what I would call a "catalytic nucleus."

Sam

[Berlin-T]

I got the feeling watching the game that for the first time our bigs were in a position to make Steven's system work smoothly. We are not the strongest front line but we are darn quick. And that is how we neutralized Hibbert and even guys like Scola. Watching our bigs dart into the paint before Indiana knew what was happening was a joy to behold.

The question is: can we hold up against teams like Cleveland? That's a big order and although I think we'll have to wait until next year before we get even close to pulling something of that magnitude off, I'm actually looking forward to the games on April 10th and 12th with a hint of anticipation instead of the dread I was feeling a week ago.

Berlin-T

[bobheckler]

Good summary, Bob.

Just one possible addendum.  I assume you left Jae Crowder out of the list of bona fide Celtic penetrators by accident.  The only thing that's different about Jae's penetrations and the others is that 90% of Jae's are made at the most important times and 75% are made when the loss of the ball is an imminent threat (through turnovers, time infractions, etc.).  (The percentages are my own estimates.)

So many times, on the Game-on Thread, I start to write the old, hackneyed yet true bromide, "Taking too many threes."  Before pressing the "Send" button, instead I delete the post because Jae Crowder has muscled through for yet another clutch layup.

Between Bass, Crowder and Smart, the Celtics have enough bulls to satisfy several pastures of heifers.  Did you catch that break on which Jae split two defenders and bulled his way through for the score?  It was like hitting the 7-10 split as both pins gave off a "praaaaaang" sound as they went in their respective directions.

Mike mentioned, last night, that, in the previous 10 games, Jae ranked second on the Celts in ppg (I don't know who was first, but I'd bet on Bradley), and Jae ranked first on the Celts in rpg.  There's no question that he does all the little things, but he does the big things as well.

Isaiah and Jae are shooting only 38% and 42% respectively with the Celtics, but they are the quintessential volume ballers.  I'd include Jerebko, but he sort of spoils the curve by shooting 46%.  But the commonality among them is that each invariably imposes his own brand of energy, especially when the chips are down.  I hope all three of them stick next season, and I'd be delighted to add Bass to what I would call a "catalytic nucleus."

Sam

sam,

I could have been clearer in my terminology. When I was referring to "penetrators" I was talking about players who could break their man down off the dribble, perhaps with the help of a pick, and not just players who take it to the rim. Using that bigger definition Jerebko (with his sideline-across-the-lane sweeping hookshot), Bass (come out to block his shot and he'll roar past you for a two-handed power dunk) and even Kelly (with his layups which are often blocked) are penetrators as well as Crowder.

It seems to me that Crowder is, as you have pointed out many times, an opportunist. He is not a natural driver like Thomas, Pressey and Turner are. He's not always trying to find, or create, that seam he can squirt through like they do. What he does very well, though, is seeing there is an open lane between him and the basket and then putting the ball on the floor to drive rather than just taking the easier but not as effective jumpshot. If it's there, he's a bull in a china shop, but I don't see him probing for it like those others.



bob



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