Post Game Thread - vs New York Knicks, Home

[bobheckler]

Beating the Knicks gets so much easier when bonehead Carmelo Anthony gets himself tossed.


Amir looks completely out of sync.  His defensive rotations are slow, his offensive motions are stiff and he isn't rebounding well.  It's probably a short-term problem, we know he can do it, but right now he doesn't look good.

Jerebko is another one who doesn't look "all there".  He ran the floor well and hit a 3 but his defense has been a step slow, at least in this game and the Washington ones.

Kelly got the start and played well.  Gyso and Cowens thought that Porzingis ate his lunch.  I must have been watching another game.  I saw Zinger hit two elbow jumpers in Kelly's face.  Ok, fine, he's at least 3, probably 4, inches taller than Kelly but here is the final boxscore for the two:

Porzingis - 23 minutes, 14 points on 5-15 shooting, 0-2 from 3, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks (one on Bradley), 1 assist and 1 TO, 4 PFs.

/36 minute rate = 21.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 3 blocks, 6 PFs.


Olynyk - 30 minutes, 19 points on 6-11 shooting, 3-5 from 3, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 0 blocks, 3 assists and 3 TOs, 3 PFs.

/36 minute rate = 22.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.2 steals, 3.6 assists and 3.6 TOs and 3.6 PFs.


So, Kelly pretty much held his own against a highly touted player.  Kelly was the 2nd highest scorer in the game.  Granted, Melo was ejected in the 2nd quarter, but even if he stayed in and had a big game there is a lot to be said for Kelly being the #3 scorer in the game.  And he did it on very efficient shooting, 6-11 and 3-5 from 3.  Porzingis was an awful 5-15, with Kelly guarding him most of the time.  Can Kelly continue to be productive off the bench when Horford comes back?  He'll have to.


IT said "screw floor generalship, I'm going to put the ball in the basket", and he did.  Can we go far with him as a starter?  I don't know, but he was our scorer last night.

Smart with a Zinger-like 5-13 shooting night but he had 10 assists.  At least a few of them came from him looking up and throwing the ball down court.  That's where a lot of our 18 fast break points came from.  He's such a tough little bastard.

Zeller plays the pnr very well.  He hit his outside shots.  He is a terrible rebounder and defender.

Rozier with very sticky defense.  He also looked to penetrate all the time and usually succeeded.  Where his problems came in was his 1-8 shooting from the field, but those were offset somewhat by the 8 ftas he earned from his penetrations.  I'm just fine with all this.  Nobody in the NBA will be 1-8 for the season but his aggressive nature that got him to the line will pay big dividends for him.  This team desperately needs another player besides Thomas who can penetrate.

Brown was 3-9.  A few highlight film stuff, but he is still struggling to adapt to NBA speed.  He will.  No excuse for his 3-8 from the line, though.  It is still 15' from the frito line to the baseline and the rim is still 10' up.  He is shooting 55.6% on the season from the line so far.  Not good for a player whose game is slashing and creating contact.

Bradley was a pest on defense but shot 5-17 and 1-4 from 3.  He did get 10 rebounds and that has been a screaming weakness of ours, so I'm willing to look at the bigger picture and accept his shooting in exchange for his defense and rebounding.  Luckily IT and Kelly had efficient offensive nights.  We only shot 38.9% from the field for the game, just imagine what that number would be if they didn't shoot a combined 15-28 out of our total 90 fgas.  I like the 90 fgas too.

Gerald Green is useless.

They grabbed 21 offensive rebounds.  21.  And we thought Washington's 18 were a lot.  That's bad news.  The good news is that they only had 2 more points in the paint than us.  That's pretty damn inefficient on putbacks.  I don't think we can count on NYK incompetence by other teams in the future, I think we still have a big problem defending our glass.

Hernangomez was a beast on the boards, 12 in 24 minutes with 6 offensive, but 4-13.  There's the inefficiency.  I wonder what it would take to pry him loose?

Brandon Jennings had an awful game and deliberately got himself tossed.

DRose didn't get tossed but should have done himself a favor and tried, he was 3-10 and is not the same old DRose.


Boxscore:
http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899575







bob


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[gyso]

Bobh,

"Gyso and Cowens thought that Porzingis ate his lunch."

Clearly, you missed my use of the sarcastic font.  I thought that you knew me in such a way that clearly placed me in the "KO apologist's" camp.  I will try to get my actual point across better, by adding a LOL or emoticon (  ) after my post.

Mistakenly yours,

A KO Lover.

[bobheckler]

Bobh,

"Gyso and Cowens thought that Porzingis ate his lunch."

Clearly, you missed my use of the sarcastic font.  I thought that you knew me in such a way that clearly placed me in the "KO apologist's" camp.  I will try to get my actual point across better, by adding a LOL or emoticon (  ) after my post.

Mistakenly yours,

A KO Lover.

gyso,

I did think it was a bit odd, but I have been out of the loop for a while and am still heavily jetlagged even after 4 nights.  If I could only sleep past 3 a.m. I think I could settle down...


bob


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[mrkleen09]

Good bounce back game - with Kelly O and Marcus Smart making an immediate impact in the starting line up.

The Knicks are not a very good team and if Mello and Zinger are not having stellar games, they are losing - period. D Rose is a shell of his former self, and if you can D him up - he spends the whole night crying to the refs.

Interesting to see how they fare in a back to back tonight, but some good signs last night after a string of stinkers.

[bobheckler]

http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/post-111116-aggressive-play-leads-to-free-throw-barrage-for-boston



Terry Rozier was one of four Celtics who attempted at least seven free throws during Friday's win over the Knicks. He made 7-of-8 from the line.



Aggressive Play Leads to FT Barrage for Boston



Posted: Nov 12, 2016


By Taylor C. Snow |  @taylorcsnow
Celtics.com


November 12, 2016



BOSTON – The Boston Celtics ranked among the top teams in the league in nearly every offensive category entering Friday’s game against the New York Knicks.

One major exception, however, was in the free throw department; Boston was averaging just 20.1 free throw attempts per game, which was the third-lowest mark in the league.

That changed Friday night.

Boston vaulted itself 10 spots forward in the NBA’s free throw rankings as it took a whopping 43 attempts – nearly double that of its previous season-high of 24 – during a 115-87 win over the Knicks.

Kelly Olynyk could muster only a single-word response upon hearing that statistic: “Jeez,” he uttered with a raise of his brow.

“Jeez” is right.

The 43 attempts tied Boston’s highest mark during the Brad Stevens era. The only other time it had reached that total came against the Knicks as well, when the Celtics shot 34-for-43 from the line during a 96-92 win on March 27, 2015.

Boston mirrored that effort Friday night by making 34 of its attempts from the line, which marks the highest single game total in the league this season.

What was different on this night for Boston?

“We were just hitting first,” answered Olynyk. “We were getting them in the bonus early, and we got some rebounding fouls at our own end that turned into free throws."

Through its first seven games, Boston had attempted just 141 free throws while allowing opponents to get to the line 202 times.

On this occasion, Boston attempted 26 more free throws than its foe.

“The more aggressive team always gets the most calls,” said Avery Bradley, “and we came out from the beginning of the game being the aggressor, and it showed because we were getting calls on our side.”

Brad Stevens thought that Boston’s offensive approach was fairly consistent compared to its previous efforts, but noted, “I thought our guys did a good job of making some passes inside the seams that allowed the bigs to get fouled. And I thought the guards did a pretty good job of getting contact on drives.”

One of those guards, unsurprisingly, was Isaiah Thomas. IT entered Friday night having accounted for 44.0 percent of Boston’s total free throw attempts on the season. He had 62 attempts through his first seven games, while no other Celtic had taken more than 11.

Friday started off no differently.

“Isaiah got it going,” said Bradley. “He was being aggressive and he played very well for us tonight on the offensive end.”

One major difference this time was that his rim-attacking aggression seemed to be rubbing off on his teammates.

“It was kinda contagious with him moving the ball, making the right plays, shooting the ball when he was open,” added Bradley. “Everybody started making the right plays.”

Through Boston’s first seven games, Thomas was the only player who attempted at least five free throws during a single contest. Friday night, he was one of four Celtics – including Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown and Tyler Zeller – to take at least seven attempts from the stripe.

And it wasn’t just Boston's offense that was allowing it to get to the line; it’s defense also made an impact in that phase of the game. The C's pesky defense was able to get under New York’s skin and the Knicks’ collective frustration led to six technical fouls, including double-techs and ejections for Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Jennings.

Bradley said Anthony’s double-tech was a direct result of a tenacious play made by Amir Johnson on the defensive end.

“He plays so hard,” Bradley said of Johnson. “And we have to play like that every single game, every single one of us.”

The Celtics will look to maintain their aggression on both ends of the court Saturday night in Indianapolis, and hopefully that will result in an abundance of trips to the free throw line yet again.



bob



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