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Celtics implode in fourth, lose 109-101 to Hawks

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON – For the second straight game, a Boston Celtics starter had a career night scoring.

And for the second straight game, it still wasn’t enough to get the win as the Atlanta Hawks rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Celtics 109-101.

Boston (14-13) has now lost three straight, and four of its last five games.

And this defeat was indeed different from the previous ones as the Celtics led at the end of every quarter except the one that matters the most.

Leading the rally for the Hawks (16-12) was Dennis Schroder, who was making an impact at both ends of the floor. He came off the bench and scored 20 points to go with five assists.

An 11-4 run by the Hawks in the fourth quarter put them ahead 92-90. Atlanta continued to surge away and led 101-95, following a Kent Bazemore lay-up with less than two minutes to play.

Boston was able to cut into the lead, but never enough to put any real heat on the Hawks.

Crowder finished with a career-high 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field.

Millsap, who had 18 points and eight rebounds, made both free throws which gave the Hawks their new biggest lead (105-98) and just as significant, put the Celtics in a hole that was too deep to climb out of with so little time remaining.

The loss was disappointing not only because of the outcome, but how it came about.

Boston spent most of the fourth quarter – most of the game actually - playing with a lead, but started to make the kind of mental blunders about midway through the quarter that almost always spell defeat.

The Celtics forced an Atlanta miss that was headed towards the Hawks bench. Kelly Olynyk, rather than letting it go out of bounds, decided to grab the loose ball.

One problem.

He did so, but his foot was out of bounds, which gave the ball back to the Hawks.

And to Atlanta’s credit, they made the Celtics pay as Dennis Schroder drained a 3-pointer that cut Boston’s lead to 86-84.

Boston would make a couple plays to create some breathing room, Atlanta would counter with a solid play or two of their own.

It was that kind of game all night as the Hawks managed to hang close enough for three-plus quarters, and take over in the game’s final minutes of play.
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STUD AND DUDS: ISAIAH THOMAS, CELTICS COME UP SHORT AGAINST HAWKS

WEEI

By Josue Pavon

Forcing a total of 21 turnovers, the Hawks also capitalized on an 11-0 fourth-quarter run and doubled up the Celtics to the tune of 68-34 in the paint en route to a 109-101 win.

The C’s made costly mistakes throughout the fourth quarter and couldn’t find their offense in the last two minutes, as the Hawks took a seven-point lead — their biggest of the night. The Hawks shot 46.6 percent from the floor and committed just 12 turnovers.

Isaiah Thomas scored a game-high 29 points, and Jae Crowder added an impressive double-double (24 points, 10 rebounds). Dennis Schroeder’s 22 points led six Hawks in double figures, and Al Horford kept up with Crowder with (21 points, 10 rebounds).

STUD OF THE NIGHT: Jae Crowder.

On the anniversary of the trade that brought Crowder to the Celtics from the Mavericks, Crowder celebrated with his second double-double of the season. He played the hard-nosed defense that has made him a fan favorite in Boston, but fouled out in the game’s final minutes when the Celtics were desperate for a steal.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Avery Bradley.

Bradley submitted his second straight dud. He scored four points on 2-for-8 shooting. Bradley is 4-for-16 for nine points in his last two games.

VINE OF THE NIGHT: Evan Turner to Kelly Olynyk.

WHINE OF THE NIGHT: Why can’t the Celtics bench do this every game?

It was a group effort, as the Celtics bench combined for 30 points. Olynyk (8 points), Turner (8 points), R.J. Hunter (8 points) and David Lee (6 points) all took turns scoring, but the Celtics struggled to defend the paint. Hunter hit a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers that staked the C’s to a five-point lead, but Atlanta’s 11-point run kept the Celtics at bay for good.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 68.

That’s how many points the Hawks scored in the paint. Paul Millsap (20 points) and Horford were a handful for the Celtics in the post. The C’s couldn’t slow them down in the second half and also struggled to defend the Hawks’ back-door cuts — which led to easy layups in the fourth quarter, when the Celtics were outscored 38-28.

@ OF THE NIGHT: Hunter (8 points, 3 rebounds) put together a good game.

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Of course one can't put the blame for the loss on one player, but Olynyk played very poorly down the stretch. Poor judgement and utter passivity (he had Heinsohn tearing out his hair "your in the paint, your in the paint Kelly") as Mr. Passivity himself looked away from the basket. I don't know what's up with him. Maybe he's suffering from Jeff Green syndrom.

Another disturbing development is we're having player's having career nights and we're losing. Too much "me ball" and not enough "team ball" i.e. ball movement (although I can't blame Crowder for his effort last night)

The defense is suffering from the same lack of "team ball".

Although Crowder might have better kept his criticism of Steven's rotations to himself, I can't help but thinking that he has a point. There is at the moment no good chemistry among the players. Everything seems disjointed. Are they showcasing some players before the trading deadline? Or is Steven's having trouble adjusting to the pro game?

I have a lot of questions. Maybe some of you have answers.

Berlin-T

Our interior D was just terrible. So many back door cuts for made baskets by ATL. Is it just me or des anyone else think this is a different team without Marcus Smart. No way does Schroder score 20 on Marcus. We are soft without him.
Glimmer -RJ Hunter

Interior D fails when you do not have a qualified center who can protect the rim.

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112288 - we certainly could use that rim protector. All our wannabe centers just don't cut it.

You know Worcester, that is true but it also starts with the guards and small forward to stop initial penetration and especially the power forward that must be be the next line of defense. That is why we were so good when KG played for us.

Thinking back, baring injuries we should have won at least 3 championships, not just 1.

Looking at Dick just makes me so sad.........I really miss the guy and his personal updates of Cape Cod weather and events going on in Well Fleet.

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worcester wrote:Our interior D was just terrible. So many back door cuts for made baskets by ATL. Is it just me or des anyone else think this is a different team without Marcus Smart. No way does Schroder score 20 on Marcus. We are soft without him.
Glimmer -RJ Hunter

worcester,

It's not just you. We are a much tougher team when Marcus Smart is playing.

Berlin-T

112288...for sure we were a 3 ring team with kg.

BERLIN-T...it'll be very instructive to see what happens when Marcus is back. I also hope the productive KO returns sometime soon.

After many, many attempts to let Atlanta win the game, the Hawks finally decided to take us up on our offer.  We did everything we could to throw the game but they remained dense until the final frame.

We gave up 38 points in the 4th quarter, a lot of them on back door cuts by Millsap and Horford.  Pathetic perimeter defense most of the game.  Inept offense.  Maybe I need to stop holding back and say what I really think about our effort and execution.

I noticed this in the Detroit game, which I did not opine upon, but it seems to me we look fatigued.  Not physically so much as mentally.  Our brains are slow and that's slowing our reaction time and our defensive reactions.  I find that very, very disappointing since it has nothing to do with talent levels.  A good example of that was Olynyk's stupid, stupid attempt to chase down a ball going out of bounds off Atlanta.  He wasn't the only one, but that one stood out because of the isolated nature of it (isolated as in "he is out there all by himself on the sideline, nobody near him, so you can't miss what he did).

In the first quarter, 16 of Atlanta's 19 points were in the paint.  They weren't Millsap, who was picking up fouls, nor Horford who had only 2.  They were on back cuts by Korver and 6 fast break points.

We were getting caught on mismatches and didn't help out.  One time, for example, Bradley got caught guarding Splitter down low and nobody came over to help.  Splitter isn't that good a passer, Sully or Lee or someone BIG should have helped.  As it was, Splitter got a bunny over 6'2" Avery Bradley.

1.  The last couple of games, the ones we lost, I have been wondering about Brad's play calling.  He went small several times last night and every time we did Atlanta went with Horford and Millsap and they killed us.  The only players for us, playing heavy minutes, that were hitting their shots were IT and Crowder.  If you're going small you have to move the ball around faster than their bigs can respond (or run fast break basketball north-south) and everybody has to hit their shots.  We are not a good shooting team and we are not a good finishing team.

2.  Thomas started out hot and ran hot.  Still torn about him.  He plays a lot of ME-ball but nobody else is stepping up.  I know, that's what Laker fans always said about KoME, and there's something to it, but I don't have to like it.  When KoME played like Kobe the Lakers always did better.  I wonder how we'd do if IT did that.  29 points on only 6-12, but he was 14-15 from the line.  6 assists but 5 TOs, and when Thomas turns the ball over, more times than not, it is a live turnover which means they are off to the races.

3.  Crowder had a season high scoring night with 24 points on 8-13.  Some of his misses, though, were his wild off-balance chucks that are positively cringe-worthy.  When you are built like a middle linebacker in a sport where most players look like wide receivers, you should not be taking fadeaways, you should always be leaning into the defense.  10 rebounds too.  He played with heart.  He also had 3 TOs, mostly because of lazy, telegraphed passes.

4.  Sully with 10 points on 4-7 and 8 boards.  One time he had 3 Hawks around him and he still got the foul working his Mama's fat ass off for the O-board (Sully gives credit to his mother for his Rick Mahorn look-alike butt that keeps defenders well behind him, no pun intended).  Sully re-dedicated himself this off-season.  He worked on his conditioning.  He fell out of love with the 3pter (Thank God!  ).  He also got himself, what I would call, a "statement haircut".  A "look at the new me!" haircut.  He also developed a new, unique pre-free throw routine.  His career ft% is 74%.  His ft% this season, with his new "look at me!  I'm different!" free throw routine, he is shooting 59% and is 37.5% in his last 5 games.  He was 2-6 last night.  That's DeAndre Jordan/Dwight Howard/Andre Drummond territory he's encroaching on.  Another couple more weeks of this and other teams will be employing "Hack-a-Sully" defenses against us.  Sometimes it isn't cool being cool.  Horford and Millsap ate him up last night.  They just cut and cut and cut and he was late every time.  One time, Horford went right down the middle of the lane, with Sully at the frito line, to the front of the rim for a pass and a dunk and Sully was still glued to the floor at the frito line with his back to the basket looking outward.

5.  Lee started off very good, scoring well.  Then he let the refs get into his head.  He blew a bunny and stood there to jaw with the ref while all the Hawks took off down court.  His man dragged the defense down into the paint and the ball got kicked out to Korver for a 3.  He ended up 3-11.

6.  Kelly had that awful brain fart turnover.  He also had a nice pass to RJ for the corner 3.  He had 8 points on 3-5 in only 15 minutes.  Felt longer. And 4 TOs.  That must be why.

7.  Evan Turnover with 4 and a lot of ME-ball.  He got lucky at least once when he should have had another turnover but was able to save his rep by grabbing the loose ball.

8.  RJ started off cold, some poor shooting, but then warmed up.  After missing a 2 and a 3 (badly!) he put the ball on the floor and drove for a layup.  That cracked the seal.  After that 1-3 start for 2 points at the end of the 3rd, RJ went on a mini-tear and went 2-2 from 3 in the 4th for 8 on the game.  He struggled on defense against Schroder.  Didn't have the speed to stay in front of him.  Would have been a good time for Brad to put Rozier in.  As long as he was going small anyway...

9.  Jonas Jerebko turned back into a pumpkin with 0-5 shooting.  At one point Brad had him guarded Korver, and did a good job.  It's hard to imagine a player whose shooting falls down as badly as his has.

10.  Amir only played 16 minutes as Brad declared a holiday for tall defensive anchors.

11.  Avery Bradley who?  After being the best player on the team for weeks he has had a MOST forgettable week.  2-8 last night and not stopping anybody.

12.  Stat Roundup:  21 TOs.  21.  That's it, right there.  The rest of the stats were all close enough as to not be material:  fg%, rebounding, ftas, blocks, PFs.  Turnovers killed us.  A couple of ftm by Sully would have been helpful too.

We looked confused last night.  Basic PnR defense was too much for us.  Marking your man was too much for us.  Keeping Dennis Schroder out of the paint was too much for us last night.  Except for IT and Crowder NOBODY, including Brad Stevens, looked ready for prime time last night.

The 10-16 Timberwolves, with KG and Towns and Wiggins, come to Boston.  I hope we can still beat a sub-500 team.  After last night, I'm not so sure.

At least the Nets did what they were supposed to do.  They lost to Indiana.














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