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Celtics crumble in fourth quarter, lose 99-94 to Pistons

CSNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics gave the game away and still had their chances to steal it back.

But too many missed free throws, too many missed shots around the rim all added up to a wasted opportunity for the Celtics who lost 99-94 to the Detroit Pistons despite leading for three-plus quarters.

You hear coaches and players talk all the time about playing their best for 48 minutes.

Anything less than that opens the door to defeat.

It is a lesson we see play out often in the NBA, a lesson the Boston Celtics experienced on Wednesday.

Isaiah Thomas was in the middle of what was one of his worst shooting games ever, and yet he had plenty of opportunities to salvage the night by knocking down free throws which he does better than any other Celtic.

For the game, Thomas was 9-for-13 from the line which isn’t bad for most players but certainly below his 89.9 percent free throw average prior to tonight’s game.

As a team, Boston shot 74.1 percent (20-for-27) from the line.

Boston (19-16) now falls back to eighth in the East, a half game back of the Pistons (20-16) who now hold a 2-1 series lead with their fourth and final matchup in Boston on Feb. 3.

Despite being on the short end of a 20-7 run to start the fourth which put them behind 88-82, the Celtics went on a 7-0 run – fueled by Isaiah Thomas to regain the lead 89-88.

But former Boston College star Reggie Jackson hit a long 3-pointer to put the Piston back on top 91-89.

And following an offensive foul against Jae Crowder (his fifth personal of the night), Jackson was in attack mode which landed him a trip to the free throw line with 1:52 to play.

Jackson, who finished with 24 points, made both shots.

Boston’s true strength, roster balance, was on full display Wednesday night.

And for most of Wednesday night, it proved to be too much for the Detroit to handle as the Celtics led by as many as 13 points.

Boston led most of the game, but the Pistons played with a level of physicality to start the fourth quarter that was absent previously.

And with that came a strong start that had Boston’s lead down to 77-73 about 90 seconds into the quarter.

Detroit was exactly where they wanted to be, which is within striking distance with plenty of time on the game clock.

A running hook shot by Andre Drummond made it a one-possession game, 77-75, with 9:16 to play.

Brad Stevens had seen enough and called a time-out to try and slow down Detroit’s 9-2 run.

The Pistons’ run continued as they held off a late rally on the part of Boston.
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STUD AND DUDS: REGGIE JACKSON, PISTONS RALLY TO TOP CELTICS

By WEEI

The Pistons outscored the Celtics 33-19 in the fourth quarter, grabbed their first lead of the evening and defeated their hosts in TD Garden, 99-94.

In the final frame, Detroit drained 4-of-6 3-pointers and shot 7-of-8 from the free-throw line, grabbing a six-point lead in the last four minutes. A 7-0 run by Isaiah Thomas briefly regained the lead, but it wasn’t enough. In the end, Pistons rookie Stanley Johnson’s crucial 3-pointer put the game away for good.

The Celtics had a couple chances to pull out the win, but costly fouls and missed free throws sealed their fate. Isaiah Thomas missed one of three attempts, and Marcus Smart also missed a free throw before committing a loose ball foul on the opposite end, giving the Pistons another pair of freebies and a four-point advantage with 29 second left.

As a result, the Pistons (20-16) leapfrogged the Celtics (19-16) in the standings for seventh place.

All five starters scored in double figures, led by Isaiah Thomas (22 points) and Amir Johnson (17 points, 11 rebounds). Former Boston College standout Reggie Jackson‘s 24 points led the Pistons.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Isaiah Thomas.

After a 1-for-15 start, Thomas made his final five shots and scored 15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to go with his 10 assists. After the Pistons opened up a six-point lead in the fourth quarter — their biggest of the night — the Celtics’ offense needed a lift, and he delivered. Detroit did an excellent job collapsing on Thomas all night until Thomas’ big scoring outburst — 13 points in the final 3:49.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Marcus Smart.

On a night when the Celtics needed his lockdown defense, Smart struggled to keep up with Pistons duo Jackson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (20 points). Offensively, he was atrocious, scoring two points on 1-for-10 shooting. He also made costly mistakes in the final two minutes, fouling Jackson with 1:52 left, missing a crucial layup with 53 seconds remaining and committing his fourth foul on a loose-ball play with 29 seconds left, when a pair of Aron Baynes free throws stretched Detroit’s lead to four.

WHINE OF THE NIGHT: 28 fouls.

The Celtics’ 28 fouls handed the Pistons 36 free throws. They made 23. Those fouls propelled Detroit, especially in the fourth quarter, sparking their offense and keeping them on the C’s heels.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 44.6 percent.

The Pistons finished 33-of-74 from the floor (44.6 percent) and made 10 3-pointers on 27 attempts — the first time the C’s allowed double-digit 3’s since Detroit made 11 against them at The Palace on Dec. 16. The Celtics did little to slow the Pistons in the fourth quarter, when they made 11-of-20 attempts.

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WE GOT KILLED IN REBOUNDING CATEGORY AND A NARROW GROUP OF SCORERS AGAIN. WE NEED TO BROADEN OUR SCORING DEPTH AND GET MORE BALANCE IN THAT AREA. WE NEED HELP AND QUICK!

112288

This is becoming way too common.  Too many scoring droughts.  We shot 7-21 in the 4th. We gave up 33 points in the 4th quarter too, so I can't say good things about our defense neither.  Bottom line, we imploded in the 4th.

NBA referreeing has gone consistently downhill for years.  Last night was no exception.  They called a foul on Smart, on a Reggie Jackson 3, because Jackson started doing a little one-legged hop backwards after his release.  The replay clearly showed that 1) there was no contact, Reggie was just doing body english and 2) the ref was watching the ball go to the hoop and not watching the shooter or his defender.  He called the foul after turning back, AFTER raising his other arm to show a 3pt fgm and after Jackson had already made a couple of hops away.  In other words, he assumed Jackson was hopping because he got stepped on and not because he saw it, because he didn't.  That was just one, of many, bad calls going both ways by the zebras.  Three men, watching 10 men, and they can't do it.

We started off looking great.  Nice ball movement, cutting to the basket.  10 assists on 14fgm after 1, 16 assists on 22fgm at the half.

1.  Thomas went off a bit in the last few minutes but that only serves to highlight how bad his 6-20 night was.  He was 1-15 until then.  He was a very uncharacteristic 9-13 from the line, and some were clutch misses.  I looked at his boxscore today and saw he had 22 points, 10 assists, only 2 TOs and 5 rebounds and thought "Wow.  That's pretty good."  Last night though, with my eyeballs on the game, I said "this is the worst game I have ever seen Thomas play".  He couldn't throw the ball in the ocean.  His defense on, well, almost anybody, stunk.  He made one good defensive play when he intercepted an inbounds pass that, quite frankly, got thrown in because Detroit was about to get a 5 second violation and it wasn't thrown in high enough (it was supposed to go to 6'9" Marcus Morris.  When you can't get a pass to a 6'9" player over a 5'9" player it's the inbounder's fault.  NFL quarterbacks take advantage of shorter cornerbacks and safeties all the time and those passes are a helluva lot longer than the one Thomas stole).  If you watched the crawler on ESPN on this game it highlighted Thomas' numbers.  That's why boxscores are great for backing up your eyeballs, assuming you know the game and have some BBIQ yourself, but cannot replace them.

2.  Kelly started out great.  He was the game high scorer after 1 with 10 points.  He hit a dagger 3 off an inbounds, a catch-one-dribble-pullup, with 2.something left on the clock and swished it with only .2 seconds left in the 1st quarter.  He was posting up Ersan Ilyasova and calling for the ball.  You gotta love that, you gotta love him calling for the ball down low.  He was penetrating, or cutting, or working out of the low post and made a couple of great interior passes to Amir, for one.  He had 4 assists and they were pretty ones.  He looked really, really good.  Honestly.  Then, he stopped.  He didn't score another point for the rest of the game.  4-6 and 2-2 from 3 after 1, 4-11 and 2-4 from 3 for the game.  That's pretty much true of everybody, but after his hot start it was perhaps more noticeable with him.

3.  Amir had a great game.  Worked his everlovin' butt off on both ends.  Moved without the ball and scored (at least 2, off the top of my head, courtesy of Mr. Olynyk) and scored off of other players' misses (like Thomas, who gave him lots of opportunities for offensive boards).  He had 2 blocks, one of which was outstanding because he had to get around Aron Baynes to get to Ilyasova.  He did a great job of frustrating the crap out of Andre Drummond, who never developed any real offensive rhythm.  Another one of Amir's understated but very effective games on both ends of the court.  He'll never be an all-star himself, but he will give all-stars off-nights.

4.  An awful game by Sully.  Awful.  He's struggling, ok, I got that, but when you struggle you go back to basics, you go back to what got you here in the first place.  He shooting like shit from outside.  So, what's his first shot?  A 20'er.  He missed, of course.  Then, he hogged the ball for at least 5 seconds while he was getting swallowed up and had to chuck it at the rim to avoid a 24 second violation.  Not content with that, he did something that almost made me faint dead away.  He put the ball on the floor and tried to drive the lane.  "There ya go", I'm thinking, "take it to the hole, Sully!  Beast-mode!".  Halfway into the lane, he tries a Rondo-like fake-the-behind-the-back-pass-and-pull-it-back-and-lay-it-up to God-knows-who and, of course, he mucked it up.  Unnecessary, unproductive and certainly not very smart when you consider he is not exactly playing the best ball of his career at this time.  One thing you can usually say about Sully is that he rebounds.  He may be colder than the North Pole in winter, but he boards.  Last night he had 2 rebounds.  2.  He picked up 5 fouls in 15 minutes because he was a step slow.  He's looking, quite frankly, like he's putting weight on again.  He was never truly 'svelte' but he started this year looking solid, rather than fat.  He's starting to look a little chubby again, to my eyes.  I have one thing good to say about Sully's game last night, really only one, and that is he hit both of his ftas.  That raises his season-to-date average to...wait for it...60%.

5.  Brad was throwing darts with the bench SGs last night.  Neither RJ nor his replacement Young showed anything.

6.  Speaking of back up guards, Smart was 1-10.  RJ took two shots, missed both, and then focused on defense.  Same with Young.  Smart couldn't figure out he was missing everything.  Our back court last night (IT, Turner, Smart, RJ, Young) were a combined 13-47 for 27.6%.  We took 91 fgas, so 47 is more than 50%.  It is amazing that, with our backcourt shooting under 28% on over half of the team's fgas, the score was even as close as it was.  I blame IT and Smart for not recognizing they were hurting the team, especially Smart because scoring is NOT his primary role, and I blame Brad for not getting the team back into a movement, motion, slashing offense.  All our good movement towards the rim stopped and we became a mid-to-long range jump shooting team.

7.  Jae Crowder has become a real, all-round baller.  Despite a couple of pretty sweet plays by Marcus Morris last night, Jae outplayed him.  5-10 for 16 points by Jae, but only 2-6 from 3 as he caught the Thomas-Smart virus.  Morris, who shows some good speed, was 2-8 and was getting frustrated.

8.  Andre Drummond had 13 points, but most of them came in the 3rd and 4th.  He only had 2 points at the half.  5 rebounds and only 1 offensive one is pretty good, from our defensive perspective, for the #1 rebounder, both offensive and total, in the league.  Just goes to show, you don't need a beast to stop a beast, Amir did a great job.  Sully sucked, Zeller and Lee never took off their warmups.  He was 1-5 last night from the line.  His season average is now 36.2%.  He is making Wilt Chamberlain look like Calvin Murphy. Our rebounding problem last night was twofold: Sully didn't get any and 19 year old rookie 6'7" Stanley Johnson (who?) got 10. He's averaging 4rpg for the season. Johnson also scored 11 points, for what might be, his first career double-double. The youngest player on our team is not a rookie, is 6'6", he's 20 and not 19, and he sucks.

8.  Stat Roundup:  Our scoring declined every quarter; from 33 points in the 1st, to 22 in the 2nd, to 20 in the 3rd to 19 in the 4th.  We had 16 points in the paint after 1.  We had 32 points in the paint after 3.  3 fast break points.  That sucks.

The appropriate finish to this awful game was Evan Turner, who actually had a pretty good game, blowing an allowed layup as time ran out.

I feel sorry for the people who play big money to go to TD Garden to see them.  I don't know what it is about our home court that isn't working, but right now I'd feel better NOT having a home court series than having one.

Time to start ginning up the trades, Danny.  If you were wondering where our ceiling was going to be this year, you're looking at it now.


bob


.

Here's Forsberg's graph showing Celtics shooting by half.



Chris Forsberg
ESPN Staff Writer

Celtics were frustrated after kicking away a 13-point lead Wednesday night against the Pistons. Isaiah Thomas offered a common complaint: The lack of a firm rotation. "Inconsistent minutes give you inconsistent play," said Thomas. "I think it's tough for [his teammates]." While injuries have forced Boston to mix and match a bit at times, the real issue here remains Boston's inconsistent offense. Pictured is Boston's shot charts by  half. The Celtics generated easy baskets near the hoop in the first half and built a big lead; they settled for jumpers in the second half and watched their lead evaporate. This team needs to be more aggressive going to the basket, regardless of who is on the floor.





bob
MY NOTE:  If you deliver consistently, you will get consistent minutes.  When you aren't, you don't.  Anybody who assumes they will start on this team is a fool since we have no obvious all-stars whose play demands that kind of role .  If you are not a starter, then you should realize your minutes will be more variable and not at the same time of every game.  There are 14-15 players on an NBA team.  Only 5 of them are starters.  If you cannot deal, mentally, with the concept of "being ready for when the coach calls your number" then you need to find another line of work OR you need to improve your game and consistency so the coach cannot justify NOT starting you.  Some players do not play well off the bench, others do.  If you cannot figure out where you are on the pecking order, then you need to have a long sitdown with someone who will explain it to you.  Isaiah Thomas, who plays as well off the bench as he does starting, got it right. You need to be aggressive no matter who is on the floor or how many minutes you are on it. David Lee is as frustrated with unpredictable and inconsistent minutes as anybody, maybe even more so since he came here specifically so he could get more time than he was getting in GSW, but he stays ready and plays hard when he does get on the floor.



.

Bob

I think we continue to avoid the real issue here.

This is NOT a well balanced roster and the blame goes to Danny Ainge

There simple is not enough separation overall between our PF and Centers.  I cannot name one who I would bench except for Jerebko.  So David lee is not happy that he is out of the rotation.  And he should be unhappy.  The notion that players should just be willing to sit and be ready if their number is called may work for the rookies but that is not going to work for a veteran like Lee who is better than half the bigs on the team right now.

Danny should never have signed Lee, Johnson and Jerebko. He should have just signed Johnson and then our rotation would be Johnson, KO, Sullinger, Zeller and a 5th guy Mickey.

The other big issue is that DA has drafted too many players that cannot shoot the basketball with any degree of consistency (Smart, Young, Hunter for example and you can add Sullinger to the list as well.


The Celtics need to fix this roster by the trading deadline. There are no untouchables on this team because there are no players on this roster that you can build a team around.

dboss

dBoss,

No blame, this is a rebuilding process that is 60% complete and you will have bits and pieces that will be missing from the whole before the whole becomes a team.

112288

dboss,

The roster configuration is certainly on Ainge (and, as long as he is the GM it always will be), but we all need to try to understand that the re-build is not over yet. There will be more changes with some perhaps coming before this season ends and definitely more coming next summer.

No one can debate that he has plenty of ways to go in making this team better with some young players that others may be interested in, plenty of cap room next summer and still far too many draft picks to count.

My biggest concern right now is that the Cs just do not seem to be able to shoot almost any type of shot very well as a team. Do we have a specific shooting coach? Seems like lots of fairly open shots (especially open are the free throws), but not much success-especially lately and in many clutch situations all season.

I for one could care less about this years roster makeup and its success or lack of success. Within 2 years it will be a vastly different roster as Danny makes a ton of moves like he did back in the summer of 2007-08. I believe the 2007-08 roster had 9 new players on opening day.

swish

dboss wrote:The other big issue is that DA has drafted too many players that cannot shoot the basketball with any degree of consistency (Smart, Young, Hunter for example and you can add Sullinger to the list as well.

I'm a "defense first" guy, and I know good two-way players are a rare commodity, but the Celtics lack of shooting is a serious problem, even more than having a quality center. Boston is nearing halfway through the season, and here's where they stand shooting-wise:

FG percentage - 43.3 - 25th in the league
FGs attempted per game - 88.5 - 4th
3 point percentage - 32.3 - 26th
3 pointers attempted per game - 27.4 - 7th
FT percentage - 77.8 - 11th
FTs attempted per game - 22.2 - 22nd

Some notable individual stats:

-- The NBA league average for three-point shooting is 35.0 percent. The Celtics have only four players above that mark -- Jerebko (39.4 on only 0.9 attempts per game), Olynyk (39.2), Bradley (38.2), and Crowder (35.1).

-- Smart is shooting 32.5 percent on all field goals, 20.4 percent on threes (3.9 attempts per game), and 67.4 percent on free throws.

-- Sullinger is shooting 41.9 percent on all field goals, 29.0 on threes (2.7 attempts per game), and 60.0 on free throws.

-- Turner is shooting 43.1 percent on all field goals and 16.7 percent on threes (1.4 attempts per game). He at least makes 82.9 percent on free throws.

It would seem to be a miracle that they have a winning record with those stats, but they're buoyed by excellent overall defense (2nd), offensive rebounding (5th), and steals (4th).

Defense is essential, but the rebuild will be treading water until they can find some guys who can play D and make shots.

On a semi-related note, have you seen the T-shirt that Evan Turner is selling? It has his silhouette on the NBA logo making the "three" sign with both hands after making a three-pointer.



Considering that he's shooting a horrific 16.7 percent on threes, that's not exactly the image he should be projecting.

Yes the rebuild is still in process and it will take better players to become more consistent.

I was just mentioning the fact that this is somewhat of a mess that could have and should have been handled a little better by our lord and master danny anige. He created this unbalance and for the life of me I cannot figure out the value of what he has done. He really should not have added so many PF's to the team. In any other year a guy as talented as Mickey would be the talk of the town.

If he is able to make several moves before the trading deadline and bring some balance to the force we will all be happier I am sure.

We are going o have to move 4-5 picks (first and second rounders) for this year and the hope is that the Celtics will not have to compromise the value of those picks because they have to get rid of them.

dboss

dboss,

The sheer number of stockpiled draft picks has already compromised their overall value. Everyone surely knows that Ainge cannot pick 6 rookies in each of the next two drafts and then 4 more in the following year as there is just no room on our roster for probably 14 of those 16 picks in the next three years.

The only way to make them somewhat more valuable is to move some of them at the trade deadline in February of this year. Not sure what will be available to use some of them on in February, but some draft picks need to move on to an other team or two.

Toss about 6 in with Lee and a forward for Cousins!

wideclyde wrote:dboss,

The sheer number of stockpiled draft picks has already compromised their overall value.  Everyone surely knows that Ainge cannot pick 6 rookies in each of the next two drafts and then 4 more in the following year as there is just no room on our roster for probably 14 of those 16 picks in the next three years.

The only way to make them somewhat more valuable is to move some of them at the trade deadline in February of this year.  Not sure what will be available to use some of them on in February, but some draft picks need to move on to an other team or two.

Toss about 6 in with Lee and a forward for Cousins!

Clyde,

I'm watching the Lakers Kings game. I'd be willing to do what it takes for Cousins. His talent level is off the charts.

bob I'm watching too, very good game, going down to wire

WOW!!! Rondo with the clutch lay up putting Kings up by 1 with 21 seconds left

Rondo with the classic strip from behind on Clarkson, leading to 2 FT's by Cousins

108-105

There are so many teams better than the Celtics, pace and perimeter defense can only carry you so far, now without AB our offensive shooting woes are really exposed, and his defense is also missed obviously. Jeez imagine how poorous we would be in the paint without Sully. Two players alot of posters like that I am sick of are IT and KO. Both these players are huge liabilities on defense.

bobheckler wrote:

wideclyde wrote:dboss,

The sheer number of stockpiled draft picks has already compromised their overall value.  Everyone surely knows that Ainge cannot pick 6 rookies in each of the next two drafts and then 4 more in the following year as there is just no room on our roster for probably 14 of those 16 picks in the next three years.

The only way to make them somewhat more valuable is to move some of them at the trade deadline in February of this year.  Not sure what will be available to use some of them on in February, but some draft picks need to move on to an other team or two.

Toss about 6 in with Lee and a forward for Cousins!

Clyde,

I'm watching the Lakers Kings game.  I'd be willing to do what it takes for Cousins.  His talent level is off the charts.

Cousins in my opinion is the most talented big man in the game.
I doubt Sacramento will trade him.
They need talent, not more draft picks.

I think everyone in the country is ignoring his little brother Jaleel.
He's averaging 9 and 9 at USF here in Tampa.
I would definitely look into taking him late in the second round of the draft.

Bradley is an OK player, but I would hesitate to say that his recent absence is the total reason why the Celtics have been struggling in the last week.

I say this because although Bradley has a good game every now and again those games make him look to be indispensable, he is very much like the entire rest of the roster in that he has more than his fair share of very inconsistent play.  There are games he scores 20 or so, but plenty of other games when he has 6 or 7 points.  He does play good defense almost every night, but he has many other holes in his game that sometimes clearly make him just an average type player in the NBA