Post Game Thread - vs Golden State Warriors, Away

[bobheckler]

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/celtics-fourth-quarter-run-helps-fuel-99-86-win-over-warriors



CELTICS' FOURTH QUARTER RUN HELPS FUEL 99-86 WIN OVER WARRIORS


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By A. Sherrod Blakely


March 09, 2017 12:58 AM



OAKLAND, Calif. – For the second straight year, the Boston Celtics were in a down-to-the-wire battle on the road against Golden State, the best team in the NBA record-wise.

And just like last season’s epic Celtics victory, success was again was on the Green Team’s side as they held off a late Warriors rally to escape with a 99-86 victory.

Isaiah Thomas had a team-high 25 points for the Celtics while Kelly Olynyk had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists off the bench. Jae Crowder had a near double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Meanwhile the Warriors (52-12) were led by Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry who had 25 and 23 points, respectively.

With the win, Boston (41-24) snapped a two-game losing skid and just as important, gave themselves a little breathing room as they try to hold on to the No. 2 spot in the East while keeping the heat on top-seeded Cleveland.

Golden State led most of the night, but the Celtics managed to stay within striking distance, seemingly waiting for the right time and opportunity.

It came in the fourth quarter courtesy of strong defense and efficient offense to the tune of an 18-5 run which gave Boston a 90-79 lead with 4:42 to play.

Golden State’s Steve Kerr had seen enough, calling a time-out three seconds later.

But by this point, the Celtics had come too far, had too big a lead to give this one away like they did against the Los Angeles Clippers earlier on this trip.

Boston got all the tough rebounds, contested shots and for the most part, did all that we have come to expect from the Warriors.

And the end result was what an even more impressive victory than the one they had earlier this month against Cleveland.

The end of the game was in stark contrast to how it began.

The Warriors quickly took control with a 7-2 run to start things off, a spurt capped off by a Klay Thompson jumper in the lane.

Boston fell behind by as many as eight points in the quarter before chipping away at Golden State’s lead which stood at 28-25 at the end of the first.

The Celtics didn’t take their first lead of the game until a Jaylen Brown lay-up with 7:13 to play in the first half put Boston ahead 38-36.

On Golden State’s ensuing possession, the Celtics forced a turnover and quickly converted that into a basket for Kelly Olynyk that made it a 40-36 game.

And just like that, Boston had a two-possession and a bit of momentum courtesy of their defense.

But the Warriors, even without Kevin Durant (knee), are still the odds-on favorite to win the West again.

And down the stretch in the first half, they were able to take the lead courtesy of a 10-1 spurt which in hindsight, was about as good a stretch of basketball they played all night.


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


http://www.espn.com/blog/golden-state-warriors/post/_/id/3968/wheels-fall-off-for-weary-warriors-amid-celtics-knockout-punch



Wheels fall off for weary Warriors amid Celtics' knockout punch




Isaiah Thomas pulls up for a 3-pointer and drains it during the fourth quarter capping a 15-0 run by the Celtics. (0:20)




Ethan Sherwood Strauss
ESPN Staff Writer



OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Golden State Warriors were overwhelmed by the Boston Celtics, 99-86, in a game that was close up until a sudden Celtics surge -- and equivalent Warriors collapse. Golden State lost this one in a disastrous fourth quarter that included a staggering nine turnovers.

Boston is not the team you want to face after a lengthy road trip. The road-weary Warriors, coming off a five-game jaunt, could only get so comfortable in Oracle's friendly confines. Brad Stevens' team is noted for its indefatigable attack, an effort level that can surpass its talent. This season's Warriors don't quite have that kind of reputation and, on this evening, seemed to lose focus just as the Celtics locked in.

Golden State began by finding seams in Boston's defense, getting a lot of dribble penetration off passes. The issue was its inability to cash in off those opportunities. Golden State went fallow from deep in the first half, only converting three of its 15 attempts (it finished 6-of-30 overall). By way of their ball movement and Draymond Green's defense, the Warriors went into the half with a five-point lead despite the team's poor shooting.

It was not an optimal start to the third quarter for Golden State. A 6-0 Celtics run brought quick timeout. The Warriors appeared to be sleep-walking, but then Klay Thompson suddenly came alive with an 11-point outburst. Thompson hit a series of mid-range jumpers and tossed in a 3-pointer off a rebound generated by Stephen Curry, who gave great effort on the glass Wednesday night with three offensive rebounds.


Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports


When Klay sat mid-quarter, Curry took over for the rest of the third, notching 11 points of his own. Though he was off on a few open 3s, Curry found success in this game with his drives to the rim and craft. On this evening, Curry was 4-of-5 in the paint and 4-of-4 in the restricted area.

Still, Steph's best highlight came from deep, at the expense of trash-talking rookie Jaylen Brown. With the third-quarter buzzer begging, Curry was boxed in, Brown hounding him. With a pump fake and a body contortion, Curry got the shot to go. Curry then celebrated that feat by pointing at Brown and saying something of his own.

That would be the high point for Curry and the Warriors, as their freeze continued while Boston found its rhythm. Golden State really let things get away during its run of a Curry-Ian Clark-Andre Iguodala-Patrick McCaw-James Michael McAdoo lineup that proved scattered on defense and indecisive on offense. The Celtics took advantage of a sequence of Warriors' giveaways, punishing the home team in a 15-0 run.

Isaiah Thomas delivered the dagger with a 3-pointer that pushed Boston's lead to 14. There was a bit more torture for Golden State fans to endure, though. As the Warriors, down nine with 2:53 remaining, tried to make a last stand, they found themselves thrice thwarted.

High-effort defense led to two Jae Crowder 3-pointers, both missed and both rebounded by the team in green, followed by a reach-in foul from Curry. Avery Bradley closed the never-ending possession with a mid-range jumper, a crushing blow considering that Boston had already bled the clock for over a minute.

The Warriors fans who stayed to the end were treated to an unusual sight and sound. As Thomas shot his last free throws, with the game decided in all but technicality, a chant rose from the rafters. Remaining Boston fans chanted, "M-V-P," serenading an opponent in a fashion not witnessed since well before the Kerr era.

Maybe it was just an off night, a cold-shooting stretch, the kind of thing that happens over the 82-game season. On the other hand, this game might speak to a growing sense that this team is vulnerable sans Kevin Durant. When Curry sits, the Warriors struggle to score. When he's in, he hasn't had that MVP form. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs just beat the Sacramento Kings, with Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge taking a breather.

There's still no telling when Durant will return, but provided he's healthy, it can't be soon enough for Golden State. Right now they're facing some adversity. And it sounds like an Isaiah Thomas M-V-P chant.


bob


.

[bobheckler]

I would call this a signature win except that they were without Kevin Durant.  That is one BIG loss.  Nevertheless, GSW is a formidable team, with the best record in the league, with the #1 offense in the league at 117 points per game,  we held them to 86; #1 FG% in the league at 49.4% (49.4% fg% for the season!) and we held them to 44%; the #3 3ptfg% at 38%,we held them to 20%; the #1 assists/game with 30.6/game, we held them to 23; the #5 team in fgas/game with 87.4fgas/game, we held them to 84.  I know, I know, your eyes are glazing over from the stats but do you see a complete pattern here?  We held them to below their season average in almost every offensive category.  For us, we edge their season-to-date defensive stats, but only by a little bit, except for points.  They are giving up 105.7ppg and we scored only 99.  In other words, our offense didn't do great but our defense was stellar.  Steph Curry and Klay Thompson only scored one point, combined, in the 4th quarter, Thompson hitting a single frito and Bradley SHUTTING CURRY OUT!  DEFENSE!!

The GSW announcing team talked about how GSW was running out of steam in the 4th quarter because this was the first game at home after long road trip and those are often games you lose, which is true.  Yeah, ok, so they just had a 5 game east coast road trip.  They played the Sixers, the Wizards (tough game, which they lost), the Bulls, the Knicks and the Hawks (which they won).  3 weak teams and 2 tough ones from 2/27 - 3/6.  They've had off from the time they left Atlanta on 3/6 until today.  That's 5 games in 9 days.  WE are in the middle of a 5 game road trip and our last 5 games have been against 3 tough teams (Cleveland, LAC and GSW) and 2 weak ones and we've played those 5 games in only 7 days.  My point?  I am not impressed with their whining.   They played without Durant, fair enough, but their schedule is no excuse.

One thing that we did very well was move the ball.  We earned 28 assists, they only give up an average of 22.7.  One of the GSW announcers is Boston Celtic 1966 first round pick (#eight) Jim Barnett.  He talked up Bradley like no tomorrow.  Said a lot of nice things about Smart's defense and how he makes winning plays too, but gushed over Bradley like he just gave birth to him.  GSW play-by-play announcer Bob Fitzgerald instead gushed about our offense with "I love Boston's offense!" and talked up Kelly Olynyk.

As he should have.  Kelly definitely gets the game ball for this one.  17 points on 7-9, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and only 1 TO in 26 minutes.  He had 3 steals and numerous defensive plays that didn't get a boxscore stat.  He thwarted the dangerous David West at the rim.  He squeezed Curry along the baseline on a drive and forced him to step out of bounds, so that's a turnover by GSW but not attached to Kelly specifically although he caused it.  He played a GREAT all-round game here.  Ok, just to show I'm not going completely off the rails here, we all know that Kelly is up-and-down, hot-and-cold.  A very streaky player whose consistency, or lack thereof, drives us all crazy.  Having said that, we just lost two tough games in a row, a game we should have won in Phoenix and one we became discombobulated in @ LAC.  This was a gut-check game for us, big-time.  For Kelly to come out and play his best game in a while says something and it says something good.  Now, let's see if he can do it 2x in a row in Denver.

Our perimeter defenders were making life as hard for Curry and Thompson as anybody does in the league, Bradley was denying Curry all over the floor and Smart was in Thompson's shirt, but they still shot a combined 19-39 for 48.7% for 48 of GSW's 85 total points.  What that tells me is that you cannot beat GSW with outstanding perimeter defense.  Sure, they didn't go off for 40 each but 23 for Curry (who is averaging 24.9) and 25 for Thompson (who is averaging 21.eight) isn't exactly smothering, if you just look at results and not effort.  In fact, they scored 48 points when their combined season average is 46.7 and their scoring averages for the last 10 games without Durant haven't moved the needle much.  The difference maker in this game was our bench's production in general and Kelly's offense in particular.  Our bench scored 35 points vs 17 for theirs.

Smart worked his ass off on Thompson, and Thompson still scored above his average.  Smart, on the other hand, laid down a stinker with 1-8 shooting and only 3 assists.  

IT with 25 points, but 7-20 and only 3 assists and 3 TOs almost killed us.  Bet he's not talking shit post-game now.

As I said, Jim Barnett wants to marry Avery Bradley.  Bradley had 12 points on 6-15 but had 6 rebounds and held Steph Curry to below his 18.1 fgas/game and that is big.  It is very hard to stop Curry and Thompson from scoring once they have the ball, the key is to deny them the ball.  Avery Bradley is the Deion Sanders of the NBA.  Probably a better tackler than Neon Deion was too.  

Crowder with 10 boards.  In his last 5 games (these 4 road games and the win over Cleveland) he is averaging 8.8 rebounds/game.  He is also shooting 40% from 3 for those 5 games.  In fact, he was 1 point away today from having 3 double-doubles in those 5 games.  He is playing very ruggedly.  His shooting, however, has been off.  3-9 this game and 3-13 in the stinker in Clipperland.

We are the only team to beat GSW in Oakland in the last 2 years. On to Denver. Spend as much time at altitude as you can, boys, it's a killer and their not-so-secret weapon.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900354





bob


.

[dboss]

The Celtics are a matchup nightmare for Golden State just like Toronto is a matchup nightmare for Boston.

That's the way it is.  It certainly does not mean that Boston is on the same level as GS considering their win/ loss percentage against the rest of the league and we have to add that damn *  because KD did not play and we have no one to match up with him.

However this was still a signature win on the road against a team that rarely losses at home.  Boston just likes to snap the records of other teams.  The Celtics are the first team from the EC to win at GS.  And Boston really needed to win to give themselves a shot at going +.500 on this trip.  Washington and Toronto are snapping at our heels.  There is a razor thin difference in the W/L column.  Scheduling does give the Celtics an advantage ovr both teams

With 17 games remaining the Celtics play 11 at home and 6 on the road
With 19 games remaining Washington plays 6 at home and 13 on the road
With 18 games remaining Toronto play 9 at home and 9 on the road.

If the Celtics can maintain the 2nd in the east position they should definitely have a shot at getting to the ECF

dboss

[cowens/oldschool]

We spanked those fockin pussies, Klay and Thompson did nothing in the 4th, they were gassed, are they smoking too much? I agree with bob, they're schedule is no excuse for collapsing in 4th. We are a nighmare match up for them, they might get their points, but Curry's % is always off against Avery Bradley. Last night was like a boxing match with one team getting stronger, digging deeper and the other team not able to keep pace, getting weaker and weaker.

[jrleftfoot]

Washburn`s story , as usual, could have been called in by a 6th grader. "Late Warrior rally?" I guess I missed it. The ESPN guy refers to " trash talking rookie Jaylen Brown." Brown says he didn`t say anything to anybody. I believe him because I have never seen him involved in an incident with another team`s player. Curry , on the other hand , has turned into too much of a showoff for my liking. Celebrating and finger pointing when you are up two with a quarter to go is pretty juvenile. I hope he`s enjoying his serving of crow. Bradley said KO was the game MVP in a post-game interview. His fake hand-off jam was a thing of beauty.

[bobheckler]

We spanked those fockin pussies, Klay and Thompson did nothing in the 4th, they were gassed, are they smoking too much? I agree with bob, they're schedule is no excuse for collapsing in 4th. We are a nighmare match up for them, they might get their points, but Curry's % is always off against Avery Bradley. Last night was like a boxing match with one team getting stronger, digging deeper and the other team not able to keep pace, getting weaker and weaker.

Cowens,

I know you're not into stats, but Steph was 8-16 last night, 50%.  He is shooting 46.3% on the year.  So his shooting wasn't off. Where he had problems was from 3, he was 2-9 and he shoots 39.7% on the season..  Instead he drove to the basket and made layups.  He had 2 shots outside the paint and inside the arc, and he made both.  He was 4-5 in the paint, 4-4 at the rim.   I suppose Steph Curry getting to the rim is better than Steph Curry taking an open 3, but 4-5 is still pretty damn good.


bob


.

[dboss]

Washburn`s story , as usual, could have been called in by a 6th grader. "Late Warrior rally?" I guess I missed it. The ESPN guy refers to " trash talking rookie Jaylen Brown." Brown says he didn`t say anything to anybody. I believe him because I have never seen him involved in an incident with another team`s player. Curry , on the other hand , has turned into too much of a showoff for my liking. Celebrating and finger pointing when you are up two with a quarter to go is pretty juvenile. I hope he`s enjoying his serving of crow. Bradley said KO was the game MVP in a post-game interview. His fake hand-off jam was a thing of beauty.

I thought Cuury tried to show Jalen up. great players should not do that to a kid that just came into the league. Everybody on the planet knows that Steph is a remarkable shooter. Really no need for him to brag about how good he is.

There will come a day when Jalen will return the favor and my guess is that he will just do it and not make a big deal about it.

Brown is an exceptional young man with tons of potential to become a force.

dboss

[bobheckler]

Washburn`s story , as usual, could have been called in by a 6th grader. "Late Warrior rally?" I guess I missed it. The ESPN guy refers to " trash talking rookie Jaylen Brown." Brown says he didn`t say anything to anybody. I believe him because I have never seen him involved in an incident with another team`s player. Curry , on the other hand , has turned into too much of a showoff for my liking. Celebrating and finger pointing when you are up two with a quarter to go is pretty juvenile. I hope he`s enjoying his serving of crow. Bradley said KO was the game MVP in a post-game interview. His fake hand-off jam was a thing of beauty.

I thought Cuury tried to show Jalen up.  great players should not do that to a kid that just came into the league.  Everybody on the planet knows that Steph is a remarkable shooter.  Really no need for him to brag about how good he is.

There will come a day when Jalen will return the favor and my guess is that he will just do it and not make a big deal about it.

Brown is an exceptional young man with tons of potential to become a force.

dboss

dboss,

Everybody around the bay area knows Steph Curry as a very humble, down-to-earth person. I, personally, know their interior decorator who has spent a lot of time with him and Ayesha and has had dinner with them numerous times talking about their house (they just bought a new one) and such and says that's who they really are. The behavior we saw at halftime from Curry towards Jaylen Brown is out of the ordinary. Is it the Green Effect? I sure hope not. Draymond Green is the "New Man" of the NBA. If Marcus Smart was a better shooter I'd say he was our "New Man". A player undersized by old school standards, who can defend multiple players, can run the floor like a guard/wing (or if he is a big, run like a swing) and can hit 3s to spread the floor for cutters and to be poppers and spread pnps or quick enough to get to the rim on spread pnrs. One reason why there is less contact in today's game is because there is more space because players are better shooters, across the board. We don't need to jam all those bodies into the lane anymore to be effective. One thing Green does, VERY well, is defend. We are all understandably proud of Avery Bradley and that he was the guard who got the most DPOY votes last year. There were two players ahead of him: DPOY winner Kawhi Leonard and Draymond Green. His defense is for real. Green, however, is probably the #1 biggest asshole in the league right now. 'Tude is fine, what he does is not.

Kevin Durant is like the nice girl who gets a vicarious thrill from dating bad boys. He went from egomaniac Russell Westbrook to asshole Draymond Green.

Anyway, just a overlong, rambling attempt to apologize for Steph Curry's poor sportsmanship from a resident of the SF bay area. He is worse this year but normally he is pretty good. As much as we like to dump on LeBron on this board he has been very classy inre Jaylen Brown. Also, it is 7:30 A.M. in Bangkok and I haven't had any coffee yet.


bob


.

[bobheckler]

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
about 6 hours ago
According to @Basketball-Reference, Kelly Olynyk is just the third bench player this season to have at least 17 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, 3 steals.
reply retweet like


bob
MY NOTE: Kinda says something about just how role-specific bench players are, doesn't it? Come off the bench and do everything well (score, rebound, assist, steal) and you're an anomaly. And Brad has a lot of our bench players playing crunch time in the 4th quarter against other teams' starters too. Rozier, Kelly and certainly Smart all play in crunch time.

.

[cowens/oldschool]

bob I was channel surfing earlier and saw that Curry is shooting 40% from the field in the 4th and 30% from 3 in the 4th. Playing with guys like Klay and Durant that also have to be accounted for defensively at all times, he should be getting alot of easy looks. There should be a recount of the past MVP voting....tell me hes better than Westbrook, Lebron, Kawhi, Harden.

[bobheckler]

[quote="cowens/oldschool"]bob I was channel surfing earlier and saw that Curry is shooting 40% from the field in the 4th and 30% from 3 in the 4th. Playing with guys like Klay and Durant that also have to be accounted for defensively at all times, he should be getting alot of easy looks. There should be a recount of the past MVP voting....tell me hes better than Westbrook, Lebron, Kawhi, Harden.[/quote


Cow,

Better than Westbrook?  Not this year.  In past years?  I'd say so.  His shooting is off this year but in previous years he was THE most feared player in the league.

Better than LeBron?   Hmm.  LeBron is more valuable to his team, because he is the team, but an argument can be made both ways.

Better than Kawhi?  All-round?  No, Curry's defense isn't even in the same solar system as Kawhi's, but there are two sides of the ball and Curry, during the years he won MVP was FAR better on offense than Kawhi.

Har-en?  I'm not a fan of Mr. No-D.  If Curry is going to get knocked down because of his defense then Har-en should be buried because of his lack of defense.  Matadors have group film sessions of his game to learn a few new tricks.

Steph Curry is not in the conversation for MVP this year.  The two years he won the MVP he owned the league.  Don't forget, Steve Nash won the MVP 2x also and his defense was worse than Curry's.  


bob


.

[bobheckler]

WATCH THESE DEFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS.  SEE HOW OFTEN KELLY IS IN THE PICTURE MAKING A GREAT DEFENSIVE PLAY OR ROTATING WELL TO PICK UP PLAYERS COMING OFF PICKS OR GRABBING LOOSE BALLS OR MAKING DEFLECTIONS FOR OTHERS.  HE IS NOT A SHOT BLOCKER NOR IS HE A BEAST DOWN LOW BUT HE DOES DO THAT STUFF A LOT.  I'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT KELLY'S DEFENSE FOR A WHILE.  YES, THIS WAS AN EXCEPTIONAL ALL-ROUND GAME BY HIM BUT HE DOES THESE LITTLE THINGS ON DEFENSE EVEN WHEN HIS OFFENSE DISAPPEARS.





bob


.

[mrkleen09]

I thought Cuury tried to show Jalen up.  great players should not do that to a kid that just came into the league.  Everybody on the planet knows that Steph is a remarkable shooter.  Really no need for him to brag about how good he is.

There will come a day when Jalen will return the favor and my guess is that he will just do it and not make a big deal about it.

Brown is an exceptional young man with tons of potential to become a force.

dboss

After the game they asked Thomas about this exchange and he said he didn't hear brown saying anything to Curry. He also noted I didn't hear Steph say one word to smart or AB when they were sticking him in the fourth-quarter. LOL

[dboss]

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
about 6 hours ago
According to @Basketball-Reference, Kelly Olynyk is just the third bench player this season to have at least 17 points, 5 rebs, 5 assists, 3 steals.
reply retweet like


bob
MY NOTE:  Kinda says something about just how role-specific bench players are, doesn't it?  Come off the bench and do everything well (score, rebound, assist, steal) and you're an anomaly.  And Brad has a lot of our bench players playing crunch time in the 4th quarter against other teams' starters too.  Rozier, Kelly and certainly Smart all play in crunch time.

.

I really wonder what triggers KO to play well?  He had a great game against GS the other night.  Will he play well tonight?  Who knows.  He is the most inconsistent player on the team.

He had a nice little run between 2/9 to 2/16 where he went 13-7, 19-7, 15-7, 16-7 and 17-7  then he goes on a bad stretch 4-5, 5-6, 2-3, 10-2, 7-2, 0-4, 4-7 and finally at GS 17-5.  This is the reason why only a one year qualifying offer should be put on the table this summer.  KO will never be a big time athletic player so everything that he is able to do comes for his basketball IQ.  His ability to read the defense and the offensive flows.  It comes from decision making (when to shot, drive or pass on offense ) and anticipating  rotations on defense.  He does not have the physical attributes like length nor the quick feet to recover if he makes a mistake.  He has shooting and passing skills and has improved on his positioning in the paint on both offense and defense

But perhaps his biggest nemesis is himself and his lack of confidence to put his stamp on the game night in and night out.

dboss

[worcester]

I started off as a big Kelly fan, then soured on him. Now, given his on again off again pattern I am willing to give him half of the $16M a year he'd make as a consistent player, $8M to resign KO.

[cowens/oldschool]

I started off as a big Kelly fan, then soured on him. Now, given his on again off again pattern I am willing to give him half of the $16M a year he'd make as  a consistent player, $8M to resign KO.

sounds fair, I really do like the good Kelly, really bob, why wouldn't I? The problem is if his shot is off, which happens to everyone, he doesn't have enough game where he can help the team.....well maybe sometimes he does alittle.

[bobheckler]

I started off as a big Kelly fan, then soured on him. Now, given his on again off again pattern I am willing to give him half of the $16M a year he'd make as  a consistent player, $8M to resign KO.

sounds fair, I really do like the good Kelly, really bob, why wouldn't I? The problem is if his shot is off, which happens to everyone, he doesn't have enough game where he can help the team.....well maybe sometimes he does alittle.

Cow and dboss,

I agree that confidence is Kelly's biggest problem and I believe I have been absolutely resolute and unwavering in that.  WHY IS THAT TRUE?  I have no freaking idea.  At this point he should be over it, but...

If I was Brad I would run some plays for Kelly early where he gets to post up a smaller player on the mismatch and get the easy shot, like he was getting against Matt Barnes (who is actually a pretty good defender although he is much smaller than Kelly and someone whom, if he wasn't playing professional basketball you would expect to see his picture hanging in the post office).  Streak shooters love to see the ball go through the net the first time, as opposed to true shooters like IT or Kobe or MJ who believed it was going to go in every time they shot and they just keep shooting until it does.  So I would do that for Kelly to help him get his game off on the good foot with an easier shot and build his in-game confidence.  Then again, if I was Brad, I'd be working 20 hour days, have no life and still think I had the best job in the world.

I don't know.  Some people are late bloomers.  Remember, we drafted Chauncey Billups and gave up on him.  Same with Joe Johnson.  You can't teach 7' and Kelly has remarkable court vision for a player that size.  What's tough to watch is that, physically, he's a doofus.  Against GSW, Horford ran a fast break (a 6'11" center running a fast break!  This ain't your grandpa's NBA!), Kelly was on the right wing.  Horford dropped the pass to Kelly who made an immediate touch pass to Rozier who was on the left wing.  It was a perfectly executed fast break with the two primary ball handlers being bigs and the finisher being a guard, meaning there were two bigs at the front of the rim to clean up if Rozier missed.  In the old days the mantra was "give it to the guard and just run and he'll get it back to you to finish".  Having a big that can floor general a fast break is a rare skill set to have, to be able to not only run on the break but also be able to run it with the ball in your hands, and we have two of them.  We have always made a big deal about how Robert Parish ran the floor and how wonderful it was to get a big down court before the defense set up.  Yeah, but he never was one of the ball handlers. Imagine if Parish could do that like Horford could, and so could McHale. Or, put another way, we had Bird who could do that, imagine if McHale, Parish or Max could do it too.


bob


.

[dboss]

The qualifying offer for Kellie will be $4,279,020  why would the Celtics give him $8 million QA?  By making him the offer KO would be a restricted free agent if he decided to see what he could get on the open market Boston would have the right to match that offer.  If he accepts the offer he would essentially be under a one year contract and become an unrestricted free agent at the end of that year.

My questions is can the Celtics make the qualifying offer and also add an extension?  I think they can do that.

Teams out there may be enticed to go after him mainly because he can stretch the floor and everyone wants to have a big that can do that.  It could drive up the price for him.  However this year KO is averaging under 10 PPG.  If he cannot get his scoring average up I cannot see Boston making a long term commitment to him unless the salary is reasonable. At this point he may have already hit his ceiling in terms of productivity.  This is year 4

Year 1  8.8 PPG 5.2 rebounds
Year 2  10.3 PPG - 4.7 rebounds
Year 3 10.0 PPG - 4.1 rebounds
Year 4 9.0 PPG - 4.7 rebounds

Totals 9.5 PPG - 4.7 rebounds

Shooting 2P/3P/FT

Year 1 .466/.351/.811
Year 2 .475/.349/.684
Year 3 .455/.405/.750
Year 4 .505/.358/.730

Assists, steals blocks, turnovers, insignificant

MPG average is 21

KO appears to be destined to be a rotation player off the bench.  I see no significant upside in his game although this year his defense looks better and he is doing a much better job positioning himself down low to catch passes for layups.

dboss

[worcester]

I had no idea we could make a qualifying offer to him of $4M +. That should be our play then. Helpful stats. Thanks. They make my job as the assistant GM easier.

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