Post Game Thread - vs Orlando Magic, Home

[bobheckler]

Not real happy about this, other than it was a win.  We were coming off a loss.  They had just been eliminated from the playoffs and had nothing to play for except pride and the memories of the shellacking we've given them this year.  In league where >50% of the league makes the playoffs the Orlando Magic was eliminated from the playoffs with 7 games left to play.  This should not have come down to surviving a final shot.  Brad said to the players, in a huddle in the 1st half, "You guys are playing like your dog died."  Yep.  They had a 4-1 fast break.  NOBODY got back to help Jae.  It's a good thing Brad is a calm guy by nature.  Imagine if the Master of Disaster, SVG, was our coach.  There would have little pieces of Stan all over the Gahden after he exploded from that.

By far the best offensive outing I have seen from Aaron Gordon.  He really did do it all.  His 5 offensive board stat was a bit padded since he did a bunch of tap-ups to keep it alive that they called rebounds, but still, he was very active on the boards with 16.  He was THE force last night.

Statistically, I can't complain much.  We shot 45.2% on the game, that's pretty good.  Take IT's 10-23 out and we still shot 45.9%, so everybody was doing ok (except for Smart's 1-6, but I'll take only 6 fgas with whatever fg% that accompanies them to get the rest of his game.  It's when he takes >10 fgas/game that I want to kill him).  We had 45 rebounds, that's pretty good too.  They had 48 but, as I said, 6 of them or so were Gordon's taps that really weren't rebounds per se, just stat padders.  We had 27 assists on 38fgm, 71%, and that's REALLY good.  Only 11 TOs is good.  So, where's the beef?  They got 98 fgas.  This is a blow out if they hadn't been allowed to set the pace and I thought they weren't taking the Magic seriously until the 4th quarter.  

Smart posted up Jodie Meeks and Meeks blocked his shot.  That happened on 3/31/17.  Remember that date so you can tell your grandchildren that you saw Jodie Meeks block Marcus Smart's shot.  They'll believe you if you are clear about the date.  

"Adam Silver really needs to do something about Payton wearing his hat to work" - ktronic1

For those of you living under a rock:




Jerebko with 8 boards in 18 minutes.  Rozier with 6 boards in 19 minutes AND 4-8 from the field.  We can always count on Terry for the boards but his shooting has been a nightmare.  Last night he was finishing well.

Brown got the start with Bradley out again with that stomach flu.  Started out strong, disappeared for a while and then came back strong.

Our Magic Number to secure 2nd place over Toronto and Washington, who are tied right now, is 4.  Any combination of Celtic wins and Toronto losses AND Washington losses totaling 4 and we have 2nd place.  The race for first vs Cleveland, of course, is still a cliff-hanger.  Here's the rest of our schedule:

@ NY Knicks
Cleveland
@ Atlanta (b2b with Cleveland)
@ Charlotte
Brooklyn
Milwaukee

Cleveland and Atlanta will be tough, especially since they are b2bs.  Milwaukee, as we just saw last week, is a pain for us.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900524










bob


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[worcester]

Of the next 6 games, our most important may be the one against Brooklyn, depending upon what their losses are.

Brad is such a class act. I love the props he gave his own guys as being the team to beat.

[bobheckler]

bob


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[cowens/oldschool]

Brad made a key substitution in 4th which I didn't agree with, took out the rook for Amir. Turned out to be key move that enabled us to squeak out the win as Amir made some huge defensive plays that won't show up on stat sheet on switches that stopped drives cold. I love seeing Jaylen on the floor as much as possible, but having 2 rim protectors in Al and Amir in final minutes was the right call. Was it just me or did Smart walk with a limp a few times when he wasn't running? The way he throws his body around 24/7 he must be sore, could that be effecting his shot?

Wasn't a great win, but have to win when your not playing your best is what all teams have to go through, would like to see us get Al more involved in the offense and more touches/shots down low. Saw a lot of baskets scored right in KO's face, as usual. Wasn't a great defensive effort, but made the plays when we had to.

[bobheckler]

Brad made a key substitution in 4th which I didn't agree with, took out the rook for Amir. Turned out to be key move that enabled us to squeak out the win as Amir made some huge defensive plays that won't show up on stat sheet on switches that stopped drives cold. I love seeing Jaylen on the floor as much as possible, but having 2 rim protectors in Al and Amir in final minutes was the right call. Was it just me or did Smart walk with a limp a few times when he wasn't running? The way he throws his body around 24/7 he must be sore, could that be effecting his shot?

Wasn't a great win, but have to win when your not playing your best is what all teams have to go through, would like to see us get Al more involved in the offense and more touches/shots down low. Saw a lot of baskets scored right in KO's face, as usual. Wasn't a great defensive effort, but made the plays when we had to.

Cow,

They shot 41%. Our defense might have been better than your eyeballs are telling you.

Marcus Smart would have to have a permanent, crippling deformity of his lower body for that to be the cause of his career 35.7% fg% and 28.9% fg% from 3.


bob


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[worcester]

Bob, I think the deformity is between Marcus' ears. It's called hubris, but Brad still has faith that Marcus will make the big play when needed, and Smart usually does.

[swish]

Smarts college and nba record - 5 years - thus far seem to suggest that shooting is a big weakness in his game. It may be that he is destined to be a sub par shooter through out his career. After all - for all those players that year after year excel at shooting there is an equal number that struggle with their shot.

swish

[cowens/oldschool]

bob

We gave up 64 points at halftime to a non playoff team, too much, our defense sucked for stretches, especially with Kelly at the last line of defense at the rim.

swish

Right now he sure is a terrible shooter, and who knows if it will ever get better? Last night it was an adventure even inside at the rim. Thank god he can hit his FT's.

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