Post Game Thread - vs Phoenix Suns, Home

[bobheckler]

MJ made a reappearance in the person of Devin Booker.  In fact, with 70 points, Booker scored more points vs the Celtics than any other player in NBA history.  He out-MJ'd MJ.  Man, when you outscore Elgin freaking Baylor you've done well (of course, Baylor didn't have the 3pt shot nor did Booker do it against Avery Bradley).  The Celtics were miffed that the Suns were calling time outs to give Booker additional chances to run up the score.  Well, I like their feistiness and unhappiness at being "punked" but if you think of it as feeding the hottest hand in the NBA last night then it doesn't seem so bad, does it?  Tommy said he was getting "10 year respect calls" from the officials.  Yeah, 10 years of Kobe.  He was getting EVERYTHING.  He had 51 points in the 2nd half.  IT held the record in TD Banknorth with 52 points, and that was for the entire game.  Booker came up 1 point short of tying that in a half.  This was history.  The fact that he made history and we still won the game is Chamberlain-esque.  Did he really come off the bench for Kentucky?!  Wow.  Players taken before Devin Booker at #13:  Jahlil Okafor, Mario Hezonja, Willie Cauley-Stein and Stanley Johnson.  Crap shoot.


Bill Doyle @BillDoyle15
yesterday
Devin Booker is the sixth NBA player to score 70 or more.
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Steve Bulpett @SteveBHoop
yesterday
Devin Booker with 70. Most ever scored against Celtics, eclipsing the 64 by Elgin Baylor of the MINNEAPOLIS Lakers in '59. C's win by 10.
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Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Celtics locker room basically silent. Like they lost.
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Ben Rohrbach @brohrbach
yesterday
Somebody Photoshop an "L" over that 70, please + thanks twitter.com/phxjgaspar/sta…
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Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
yesterday
Isaiah shrugs off Suns' push to get Booker points: "We're headed to the playoffs and they're headed to the lottery."
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Marcus Smart.  Not only couldn't he even slow Booker down he shot 1-13, 1-9 from 3.  The problem with a player being out for injury or illness (IT with bone bruise or Bradley out with the stomach flu) is that Smart thinks that's a green light for him to take their fgas.  He has NO shot discipline.  None.  We took a shot, got the offensive board and threw it to Smart on the wing who took an immediate 3 (missed, of course).  It didn't occur to him to run a play, nor did it occur to him he wasn't having a good shooting night.  By far the worst game, on BOTH sides of the ball, by Smart I have seen in a while.  His offense usually sucks but his defense usually offsets that.  Last night he was awful on both ends.

We did well, as a team.  We shot 47%, 34% from 3, had 31 assists on 44fgm, took 35 ftas and had 50 rebounds.  We just were inconsistent.  We had a phenomenal first quarter defensively, a phenomenal 2nd quarter offensively, and then coasted defensively.  Sure, we scored 31 in the 3rd and 33 in the 4th but we gave up 37 and 40.  77 points surrendered.  In a half.  Brad was pissed.  Listen to him, read between the lines when he starts talking about how we played (vs talking about Booker):




Gerald Green with another microwave performance off the bench.  Give him reps, Brad, give him reps.  We are going to need that in the playoffs when defenses become stiff and teams start double and triple teaming IT.  We need Gerald warm.




Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 10 hours ago
MOST WINS - NBA (Since Dec. 16) 1. BOSTON - 34 Golden State - 34 San Antonio - 34 Washington - 34 5. Houston - 31
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Alex Len, the #5 7'0", 260# pick out of Maryland, is a stiff, a dinosaur.  Crap shoot.


Thanks to the Atlanta loss we have now secured the 4th seed.  Can't get to 4th without going through 8th, which we did a few days ago, now we have to secure 2nd by going through 4th and hopefully 1st by going through 2nd.  This means at least one series with home court advantage and that is huge.

And then, there's this:

Dave McMenamin‏Verified account
@mcten

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New story: LeBron James had to be looked at by an eye specialist after suffering a corneal abrasion


LeBron is now saying he might not be able to play tomorrow vs Wizards.

We are two games in the loss column behind Cleveland.  If they lose vs Washington (in Cleveland) and we beat them on 4/5 in Boston then we're in good shape for #1 since Cleveland also has a road game in San Antonio.  Assuming we don't keep playing up-and-down like Brad is complaining about. It's Brad's job to be critical. It's Brad's job to find faults that can be improved upon. It's my job to enjoy winning a game despite an opposing player making history and seeing it as a win-win.



http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900471



bob



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[Matty]

He would have scored a damn lot less if Avery Bradley had played.