Post game - @ Charlotte October 29, 2016

The game last night was the Charlotte Hornets Home Opener and they placed little towels on each seat as mementos for the fans.  We bought tickets online from season ticket holders that couldn't be bothered to show up to congratulate the team for a successful last season. (they were 30-11 at home, 3rd in the league.  We gave them 2 of those 11 losses.   )  We sat beside other two season ticket holders that spent the better part of the 2nd and 3rd quarters in the bar, or at least elsewhere.  On line, tickets were hard to come by due to it being a Saturday night game as well as the home opener.  It probable went down as "Sold Out", but there were empty seats and green apparel everywhere.

The only time that the crowd really got into it was at the end of the 3rd quarter, when the Hornets took the lead.  The rest of the time, they had to be egged on by the PA announcer and the dancers.  I heard lots of grumbling about their team's poor frito shooting, poor refereeing, poor defense, etc.  A couple times I heard (in reference to Bradley), "Why do they let him shoot wide open like that?".  The guy next to me asked me (with obvious envy), "Where did Rozier come from?"

In the first quarter, our first five made baskets were 3-pointers.  The first non 3-pointer was a layup.  That helped us get out to a quick lead.  I got a good look at Gerald Green's hair.  He has a shamrock pattern wove into it, with a little (I don't know what to call it) pigtail coming out the back.  Odd yet extremely cool.  He seems to interact quite nicely with all of his teammates; talking between possessions, getting and receiving high-5's.  It was nice to see.

In the second quarter, we couldn't hit a bucket for the longest time. A couple times right in front of us, Jaylen Brown took his eyes off of his man to look at the ball.  His man headed to the hoop, caught the easy pass and went in for an easy slam. There were other turnovers that lead to lost possessions.  We only had 13 TO's for the game, but it seemed that they mostly came in the first half of the 2nd quarter.

Later in the game, the Hornets got into Crowder's head a bit.  He did get slammed quite hard down the other end of the court, with no foul called.  He was down on the floor for a while and then the trainer was checking out his nose.  I think he traded his mouthpiece for a new one.  He stayed in the game for a while, but later was subbed out and headed for the locker room.  Anyway, after he got called for a tech and then came down the other end and hung on the ropes a bit.  Amir walked out onto the floor and (in a nice way) asked him to ramp it down a notch or two. Great leadership from Amir, stuff that doesn't show up in the box score or on TV.

In the 4th quarter, we came out hard and took the lead.  At some point, we went on a 22-4 run (I read that somewhere).  It was still fairly close at the end, but Bradley hit the dagger and that was all she wrote.

Rozier, Brown and Mickey all got minutes.  For the most part, they held their own.  

Looking at the box score, all our starters had a positive +/- and all our bench players were in the negative.  For the Hornets, all their starters had a negative +/- and all their bench players were in the positive.  Kemba Walker scores 29 points, yet has a -18 +/-.  What a weird stat.

It was a very fun game to watch and actually be in the crowd.  It was truly a game of runs, but for the most part, we were ahead and they were playing catch up.  We don't get to go to a another local Celtics game until April, so I'll have some time to recover for the cost of those great seats.

gyso

one of the perks of having a son that has made a few connections.......

weather permitting we have a pair of freebee tickets to the Lakers game on Feb 3rd. Marcus is good friends with one of there video guys that he worked with this summer.

I just hope and pray for nice weather.


As for the game last evening, as GYSO says there were a few runs....but we had the longest and more importantly the last one.

Took a large amount of threes but mad a nice %.

Rebounding was OK.

Couple times I really thought we over passed and ended up with a poorer shot than we could have had but with a team that is looking for each other guess that is bound to happen.

Now for a couple days off.

beat

gyso

A great experience. Thanks for sharing.

I thought the most notable event was the eye opening performance of Avery Bradley.

An early signature game coming up on Wednesday.

I like our team.

dboss

Hi,
It was a good win. But the most important thing Celtics coaching staff should take from this game is they have to exactly note what AB had for breakfast that day. Come playoffs, they will make him eat that and ECF is guaranteed, maybe even Finals.

AK

dboss wrote:gyso

A great experience.  Thanks for sharing.

I thought the most notable event was the eye opening performance of Avery Bradley.

An early signature game coming up on Wednesday.

I like our team.

dboss

right now AB is in the lead for most improved player, his stroke, ball handling, rebounding, passing and finishing are all at another level this early in the season. Before the game was wishing we had Marcus because the Hornets have 2 big swingmen at the 2-3, Batum is 6'8" and Kidd-Gillhurst is 6'7". Well AB's defense on these bigger wings was stifling, loved when Kidd G tried to post Avery and he swatted it, the refs saved him with a foul, bad call, but Kidd G never tried to post AB again. We know Smart can handle bigger swing types, but so can AB, I actually underrated his defense, when he was on Batum, he got so close Batum couldn't even dribble, amazing at 6'3" he could shutdown those much bigger players.

beat wrote:one of the perks of having a son that has made a few connections.......

weather permitting we have a pair of freebee tickets to the Lakers game on Feb 3rd.  Marcus is good friends with one of there video guys that he worked with this summer.

I just hope and pray for nice weather.

beat

Beat Feb 3rd historically means a blizzard here in Boston, if I were you I wouldn't travel from out of town. That said I know a couple of Bostonians by the names of BobC and Rosalie who could easily get to the Garden in those conditions. Just trying to help you out buddy.

bobc33 wrote:

beat wrote:one of the perks of having a son that has made a few connections.......

weather permitting we have a pair of freebee tickets to the Lakers game on Feb 3rd.  Marcus is good friends with one of there video guys that he worked with this summer.

I just hope and pray for nice weather.

beat

Beat Feb 3rd historically means a blizzard here in Boston, if I were you I wouldn't travel from out of town.  That said I know a couple of Bostonians by the names of BobC and Rosalie who could easily get to the Garden in those conditions.  Just trying to help you out buddy.

Well Bob, when the time comes we shall see............I am a lot more concerned with the first 50 miles of the trip than the last.

beat

Just kidding of course Beat, it will be a fine day. If you and Marcus want to get to Boston a little early perhaps you could stop by, we could round up Rosalie, and have dinner before you go to the game.

That was a really good game recap. Sounds like you had a great time.

bobc33 wrote:Just kidding of course Beat, it will be a fine day.  If you and Marcus want to get to Boston a little early perhaps you could stop by, we could round up Rosalie, and have dinner before you go to the game.

Perhaps a later game in the spring OR we will probably try to head into a first round playoff game. Who knows what his schedule will be like then. Mine on the other hand is flexible..........the advantages of being retired !!

beat

Just a few observations.

As Sam would say "See Me In April" well how about end of Dece. The team needs to get a rhythm going and so by mid to late December they should have jelled as a team. It will also high light the deficiencies that they may have.

One thing is becoming obvious, they need to learn to box out in the paint on both ends to get more rebounds and the guards need to help out getting to rebounds as our bigs box out.

Another, too many outside shouts...drive baby drive to the rim!!!


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