POST GAME WASHINGTON - AWAY - PLAYOFF - 2ND ROUND - GAME 4

Celtics outclassed again, show no toughness in latest brutal collapse to Wizards

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia

Well, give the Celtics this much: They waited a full half before they allowed the Wizards to crush them.

Playoff caliber teams can get embarrassed every once in a while but what’s happening to the Celtics is inexcusable in any context.

Three days after allowing a 22-0 spurt that allowed Washington to blow them out of the building, the Celtics outdid themselves, permitting the Wizards to score 26 straight points in an epic playoff meltdown.  

The Celtics lost Game 4 to the Wizards, 121-102, Sunday night at the Verizon Center. The Celtics lost a game because they quit in an embarrassing third quarter display. The Celtics lost a game in which they were outscored 58-20 after building a mirage of hope with a 40-28 second-quarter lead.

The series is tied at 2-2 and the Celtics are lucky to be that close after allowing a 16-0 spurt to open the series in Game 1 and a 39-17 explosion by the Wizards in the first quarter of Game 2. Game 5 is set for Wednesday night in Boston. Game 6 will be Friday night back in Washington.

All of this as Gerald Green was heard proclaiming, “We are going to beat their ass in Game 4,” after the Game 3 embarrassment last Thursday. Not quite the way it turned out.

The Wizards again outclassed and embarrassed the Celtics on the glass and in the paint. The Wizards got into the paint with almost no resistance and despite starting Amir Johnson, there was zero presence on the glass.

“You guys are good. I didn’t think you’d be this good but let’s keep this up,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks told his team after they outscored Boston 42-20 in the third quarter.

The Wizards broke out to another fast start with an 8-0 run to start the game. But the Celtics took Washington’s punch this time and didn’t wait until the end of the first quarter to respond.

(Click here for the full box score)

Isaiah Thomas connected on his first three 3-pointers while Al Horford had four assists and a block in the first eight minutes. Jae Crowder provided the toughness on the glass with four rebounds.

Amir Johnson got his first start of the series and quickly picked up two fouls in the first five minutes. He also surrendered a pair of offensive rebounds to Marcin Gortat and was getting overwhelmed in the paint.

After Washington got off another big start, the Celtics started coming back quickly. An 8-0 run put the Celtics ahead 20-15.

Kelly Olynyk, fresh from his controversial appearance in Game 3, made his debut with two minutes left in the opening quarter. He was loudly booed every time he touched the ball, including a missed three with a minute left in the first quarter.

Tomas Satoransky filled in for the suspended Kelly Oubre while another reserve, Ian Mahinmi tripped Olynyk with 27.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Olynyk missed his first free throw but converted his second, as Boston took a 24-20 lead in the second quarter, their first winning first quarter of the series. They had been outscored by 49 points in the previous three first quarters.

Thomas continued his blistering shooting from deep to open the second quarter, hitting his first two from beyond the arc, building Boston’s lead to 30-20, forcing a timeout from Wizards coach Scott Brooks. While Thomas connected on his first first five threes, John Wall missed his first nine shots from the floor.

Thomas scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half and didn’t get to the free throw line all night, as he came out of the game with just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Bradley Beal’s three ended Boston’s 10-0 run that put the Celtics in command of the game. The Celtics started the game hitting seven of their first 11 from 3-point range. Horford nailed a straightaway three to put Boston up, 40-28, with seven minutes left in the first half.

Wall connected on his first field goal, a three with six minutes left in the second quarter, to cap a 9-0 run and draw the Wizards within five, 40-35. Wall continued warming up has he hit a pair of field goals to help close the Wizards within three, 42-39, as the only basket in the 11-2 Wizards run was a Bradley dunk.

A pair of Porter free throws followed by a Wall layup gave the Wizards a 45-44 lead. After a Horford put-back, Wall hit a three for a 48-46 Washington lead. Horford put in a layup for a 48-48 tie and then Marcin Gortat blew a layup at the buzzer as the Wizards closed the half on a 20-6 run to get back in the game.

Amir Johnson started the second half and gave the Celtics an immediate boost by scoring the first five points, putting the Celtics ahead, 53-48. Johnson’s three from the right corner with 11:10 left in the third would be the last meaningful Celtics field goal of the game. Boston went the next 6 minutes, 49 seconds without scoring a field goal.

The bottom fell out as Washington scored the next 26 points to effectively seal the game and ensure there will be at least two more games in the series.

All this means that the Celtics and Wizards will be battling each other while the Cleveland Cavaliers await the winner in the Eastern Conference finals. The Cavaliers swept the Raptors Sunday in Toronto, advancing to the conference finals for a fourth straight season.

The Celtics do have home court advantage in this series, which is now a best-of-3. But if Games 3 and 4 are any indication, it won’t matter much.
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NESN

BOS 102, WAS 121

The home team might not lose a game in the second-round NBA playoff series between the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards. After the C’s opened the series with a pair of home wins, the Wizards held serve on homecourt with two victories, including a dominant 119-100 win in Game 4 on Sunday night to even the series. John Wall once again ran the show for the Wizards with brilliant all-around play, but it was his backcourt sidekick Bradley Beal who led all players with 29 points. These teams traded runs in a pretty even first half, but Washington broke the game open with a 26-0 third-quarter burst that Boston never recovered from. Here’s how it all went down.

STARTING FIVE PG: Isaiah Thomas SG: Avery Bradley SF: Jae Crowder PF: Al Horford C: Amir Johnson C’s

OVERCOME ANOTHER BAD START The Celtics took 3:41 before scoring and started 0-for-4 from the field as the Wizards began the game on an 8-0 run. Boston recovered with a 12-2 run, led by a pair of 3-point shots from Isaiah Thomas. Hot shooting from beyond the arc powered an 8-0 Celtics run later in the frame as they took a 20-15 lead with 3:00 remaining. The Celtics ended the quarter with a 24-20 lead — their first edge after 12 minutes in the series. Thomas led the way for Boston with nine points. The C’s shot 5-for-8 from 3-point range in the quarter and their defense held the Wizards to 9-for-22 shooting overall. Boston also did a much better job defending Wall, who went scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting in the first quarter.

JOHN WALL FINALLY HEATS UP Thomas got the Celtics going early in the second quarter with a pair of early 3-point shots. He began the game 5-for-5 from beyond the arc. His fifth 3-pointer opened up a 30-20 Celtics lead and forced the Wiz to take a timeout. IT is now 5/5 from beyond the arc! pic.twitter.com/s08M48rciE — Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 7, 2017

The Celtics opened up a 40-28 lead, but the Wizards then went on a 7-0 run to close the gap a bit. Boston’s lead was cut to 42-39 with 3:12 remaining in the half after a seven-point burst from Wall. Wall pushed the Wizards to a 48-46 lead with less than a minute left in the half. He made a beautiful behind-the-back dish to Marcin Gortat, made a reverse layup over Al Horford and hit a 3-pointer all in a 90-second span. Wall finished the quarter with 14 points, but the Celtics tied the score 48-48 entering halftime.

Thomas led all scorers in the first half with 17 points, but he had zero points in the last 7:28 of the quarter (Boston had just seven total points in that span). Washington had 10 first-half turnovers, which matched their total from Game 3. The Wizards did dominate the boards 28-18, though.

HUGE RUN SPARKS WIZARDS Amir Johnson powered a 5-0 Celtics run to begin the quarter with two free throws and a 3-pointer. The Wizards then went on an 11-0 run, aided by five points from Bradley Beal and back-to-back shot clock violations by the C’s. Washington’s run increased to 22-0 — its second 22-0 run of the series — to open up a 70-53 lead. Boston’s turnovers, poor shot selection and fouling Washington on easy layups to set up and-1s contributed to the outburst.

The Wizards’ run got to 26-0 before Horford and Thomas each scored easy baskets off turnovers. Washington closed the quarter strong, though, and took a 90-68 lead into the final frame after outscoring Boston 42-20. Wall (13 points) and Beal (11) points paced the Wiz in the third, as Thomas (two points) struggled to keep up. Washington also opened up a plus-15 edge in rebounding with a dominant quarter on the glass.

WIZARDS HOLD ON The Celtics never challenged the Wizards in the fourth quarter as the teams played a pretty even frame. Thomas didn’t score in the quarter and rested for most of it as Celtics coach Brad Stevens primarily used his bench. PLAY OF THE GAME Wall is a playmaker, too. UP NEXT The Celtics and Wizards return to TD Garden in Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday night. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.





112288

Yuck.  Tied at the half, gave up a 42 point 3rd quarter and only scored 20.


Celtic players with heart

Kelly - 14 points on 5-9, 2 blocks.  They just don't know how to defend him. Got booed every time he touched the ball and still got the job done.
Rozier - 16 points on 5-10 in 23 minutes, but a lot of those were in garbage time. 7 rebounds, 4 offensive. PLAY HIM, BRAD!
IT - first half.  He had 17 at the half but only 2 in the 2nd half.

Celtic players with NO heart

Bradley - 5 points on 2-9, 4 TOs and poor defense on Wall
Crowder - 6 points on 2-9, and not such good defense.  Kept losing his man, either Morris or Porter.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400952529



bob


.

THIS SERIES WILL MAKE DANNY'S JOB MUCH EASIER COME THE NBA DRAFT AND FREE AGENCY!

EMBARRASSING AND A JOKE!

112288

Bob. Marcus may have had heart, but he also sucked big time.

This series has unmasked the big faults that the Celtics have.

1) Your best shooter is a 5'9" sensation and could be your starting point guard at that height IF he had a cast of sharp shooters that can help out. IT is doubled teamed.....they collapse in the paint making it almost impossible for him to score on a drive.

2) Celtics have soft players in positions #4 and #5. On offense, they have no inside game and on defense they cannot rebound....thus giving up multiple second chance rebounds and shots.

3) Our team is small on the wings and especially the positions > #1 and #2

4) So where is the great DEFENSE everyone talks about when speaking about the Celtics? I guess it is because we are trying to protect the paint because we have soft #4 and #5 players.

Ainge needs to move on with a lot of players who should not be brought back. Time to move on. I would have loved to get NOEL from Philly. He could have been a good center providing us with some rim protection.

Washington in 6.............I do not see how we can stop them....Brad has no answers and sticks to the same old line-up that is not working.

Where was Rozier? Where was Brown? Where was Green?

I hope they can figure this out by Wednesday!

112288

As I just said to Steve off-line they had 56 points in the paint and 25 fast break points. That's81 easy points.


bob


.

Bob,

KO missed 2 KEY 3 pt shots in the second quarter that could have stopped their come back of 12 points.   He got soft buckets.

Crowder could not hit a barn when he needed to.  Outside of IT - Green is the only guy on the team that can light it up..........but they never run plays through him!   I just do not understand.

112288

My starting lineup henceforth - all of whom shot 50% or more:

Horford, Olynyk, Thomas, Rozier, Bradley

Let the others develop some competency in their shot or some humility when it comes to asking for their next contract. I may keep Smart as a #7 or 8 man on the team, but not the #5 or #6. Avery? He had his chance as a starter. I am thoroughly underwhelmed by his playoff performances.

112288 wrote:Bob,

KO missed 2 KEY 3 pt shots in the second quarter that could have stopped their come back of 12 points.   He got soft buckets.

Crowder could not hit a barn when he needed to.  Outside of IT - Green is the only guy on the team that can light it up..........but they never run plays through him!   I just do not understand.

112288

Confirmation bias at its worst. You don't like KO, so you place extreme importance on his few small mistakes. KO was the least of our problems. He played a great game and he's been great the whole playoffs.

As if the second quarter had anything to do with the loss. It was the blowout 3rd quarter, and Brad's refusal to put guys like KO and Rozier and Jaylen in earlier that f#cked us.

Hey Rambone good to see you back. But man you gotta quit only posting when we lose, LOL!

I agree that generally Kelly has played OK to good this series. At times he's been the only guy besides IT who can score. HIs defense has been undervalued for the past two years also. I am not saying Kelly is an elite defender, he is NOT. But he holds his own more times than not and combined with his offense he is a plus player.

If we want to complain how about our starters?

the way things are going we won't have long before we are talking about trades, FA's, Draft etc. Lets be honest even if we hold home court this series, The Cav's will destroy us the way they are playing now (have they even lost a playoff game yet?).

I hope you bring your opinions here then as well.

Thanks KDP. Here are my full thoughts about the state of the Celtics right now:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Yuck.  Tied at the half, gave up a 42 point 3rd quarter and only scored 20.


Celtic players with heart

Kelly - 14 points on 5-9, 2 blocks.  They just don't know how to defend him. Got booed every time he touched the ball and still got the job done.
Rozier - 16 points on 5-10 in 23 minutes, but a lot of those were in garbage time. 7 rebounds, 4 offensive. PLAY HIM, BRAD!
IT - first half.  He had 17 at the half but only 2 in the 2nd half.

Celtic players with NO heart

Bradley - 5 points on 2-9, 4 TOs and poor defense on Wall
Crowder - 6 points on 2-9, and not such good defense.  Kept losing his man, either Morris or Porter.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400952529



bob


.

theres 2 ends to the game, Kelly is a piss poor pathetic rebounder

There is 2 ends to the game for Marcus Smart too. Kelly might be a piss poor pathetic rebounder but he isn't the worst rebounder in the league regardless of position. Smart is the worst shooter in the league regardless of position.


bob


.

Rmbone - so glad you are back with your voice of raison. Vive la France!

cowens/oldschool wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Yuck.  Tied at the half, gave up a 42 point 3rd quarter and only scored 20.


Celtic players with heart

Kelly - 14 points on 5-9, 2 blocks.  They just don't know how to defend him. Got booed every time he touched the ball and still got the job done.
Rozier - 16 points on 5-10 in 23 minutes, but a lot of those were in garbage time. 7 rebounds, 4 offensive. PLAY HIM, BRAD!
IT - first half.  He had 17 at the half but only 2 in the 2nd half.

Celtic players with NO heart

Bradley - 5 points on 2-9, 4 TOs and poor defense on Wall
Crowder - 6 points on 2-9, and not such good defense.  Kept losing his man, either Morris or Porter.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400952529



bob


.

theres 2 ends to the game, Kelly is a piss poor pathetic rebounder

Bob your heart no heart summary is missing some things.

Crowder did not have a great game shooting the ball but he did have 7 rebounds and 4 steals and 4 assists

On the other hand you put KO in the I got a heart category and he sucks.  Zero rebounds for the lame 7 footer and did not make the big shots we needed.

Bradley struggled on offense but his D on wall was not that bad.  Wall shoT 8/25 or 32% .  I'll take that.

dboss

Crowder is a keeper, but in time Jaylen will eclipse him on the court. Replacing Jae with Gordon Hayward is not my idea of moving forward (big bucks for not that much improvement), and it will cement in the minds of NBA players that Boston still has racist attitudes. No thanks.

There are no keepers on this flawed team. There are players who will be here next year but it will be because they weren't able to be upgraded. I miss Sam the most when there is no check to the heartless posts by board members.

112288 wrote:Bob,

KO missed 2 KEY 3 pt shots in the second quarter that could have stopped their come back of 12 points.   He got soft buckets.

Crowder could not hit a barn when he needed to.  Outside of IT - Green is the only guy on the team that can light it up..........but they never run plays through him!   I just do not understand.

112288

112288,

We didn't lose by 19 points because Kelly didn't stop their comeback from 12 points down.  The numbers don't work.

At 7:28 in the 2nd we had a 40-28 lead.  Morris missed a 5' shot (Kelly's man?).  Al got the rebound and turned it over.

At 6:47 Kelly blocked John Wall's layup.  Gortat scored off the offensive rebound.  Someone should have rotated and picked up Kelly's man while he was trying to protect the rim vs Wall.  But Kelly stopped the ball on the initial penetration.  Lead down to 10 on the Gortat score.

At 6:22 Smart turned the ball over, fouled Wall, who made both fritos.  Lead down to 8 on the Wall fritos.

At 6:05 Smart missed a 3pt fga.  Was that a key 3pt miss that cost us the 12 point lead too?  

At 5:50 Wall hits a 3pt fga.  Lead down to 5.

At 4:39 Bradley made driving dunk.  Lead up to 7 on Bradley score.

At 4:05 Smart is fouled by Morris.  He misses BOTH fritos.

At 4:05 Kelly Olynyk is replaced by Amir.  The score is 42-35, a 7 point lead.

At 3:12 Kelly comes back in for Amir.  The score is 42-39, a 3pt lead, down from the 7 point lead when Kelly left.  4 points off the lead in just :53 seconds with Kelly on the bench, replaced by the better defender, but the Celtics do not score a single point as they give up those points.

At 3:00, in the Celtic's first possession after Kelly came back in, Kelly hits a 2' shot.  Lead up to 5.

At 2:25 Kelly misses a 3.  Lead still at 5.

At 1:49 Kelly misses another 3.  Lead still at 5.

At 1:36 Gortat gets a layup off Wall assist.  Lead 3.

At 1:19 IT misses a layup.  A key miss?

At 1:14 Crowder fouls Porter and Porter hits 2 fta.  Lead down to 1.

At :58 Crowder misses 3pt fga.  Key miss?  Any less key than any other?

At :54 Wall hits a 2.  Washington leads by 1.

At :43 Horford gets a tip-in.  Celtics by 1.

At :36 Wall hits a 3.  Wiz by 2

At :18 Horford gets 2.  Tie score at the half.

You see Kelly miss a few shots, you see the lead go down and, because you don't like Kelly, you attribute his missed shots to the result but Kelly wasn't the reason why John Wall scored 5 points, he's the reason why Wall didn't score 7 points by blocking his layup and the type of misses you are pointing to didn't happen during that stretch of the game.  Also, the lead dropped from 7 down to 3 while Kelly was on the bench and Amir was in for him.  We lost 3 points off that lead, to have a tie at halftime, but Wall was going off and that's not Kelly's man.  We scored 6 points in the final 3:12 and Kelly had 2 of them.  4 points off the 7 point lead, down to a 3 point lead, in the :53 Kelly was on the bench and then another 3 points off that to tie it up in the remaining 3:12 seconds with Kelly in.  It took 3:12 to give up 3 points with Kelly in and <1 minute to give up 3 points with Amir in. That's why Brad rushed Kelly back in.

The reason why we lost this game is because of that AWFUL 42-20 3rd quarter.  How many key shots did Kelly miss in that quarter?  Answer:  Zero.  Kelly took zero fgas in the 3rd quarter.  He had 8 points at the half on 3-7 shooting (0-4 from 3) in 13 minutes and 10 points after 3 on 3-7 shooting in 19 minutes.  His two points came from ftm.  If you want to blame Kelly for not shooting more in the 3rd you might have a point, but you can't blame his poor shooting in the 3rd for the debacle because he only shot fritos.  He ended the game with 14 points on 5-9 shooting (still 0-3 from 3) in 23 minutes.  So, he played 4 minutes in the 4th and was 2-2.  He ended up with 2 blocks.  No other Celtic player had 2 blocks.

This is why I copy-and-paste the boxscore after each quarter, when I can (and would appreciate someone else doing it for the games where I am not active on the Game On thread).  It is to back up, or refute, confirmation bias.

Do "soft points" count for less than "hard points"?



Cowens,

After a couple of games where scoring has been a problem Kelly scored over his average points, on over his average fg% and had over his average blocks and he did it while getting booed every time he touched the ball.  Yes, I absolutely, positively, unquestionably call that 'showing heart'.

Let's boil our offensive problems down.  We shot 44% for the game.  If you shot under 44% you are part of our offensive problem and if you shot over 44% you are part of our offensive solution.  This is simplistic, it doesn't take into account assists and turnovers, but it's a start.

Part of the Solution:

Kelly - 5-9, 55.5%, 23 minutes
Rozier - 5-10, 50%, 22 minutes
IT - 7-14, 50%, 31 minutes
Horford - 5-10, 50%, 32 minutes
Amir - 2-3, 66.7%, 12 minutes
Green - 2-3, 66.7%, 10 minutes
Zeller - 2-3, 66.7%, 5 minutes
Brown - 1-2, 50%, 7 minutes

Total - 29-53, 54.7%, 142 minutes.  82.8% of fgm, 67% of fga, 59% of total player minutes

Green, Zeller and Brown were garbage time minutes.  The real load-bearers were the heavier-minute, prime-time players Kelly, Rozier, Horford and IT and they shot a combined 22-43, 51.1% in 108 minutes.  60 points in 108 minutes is .555 points/minute.  That includes ftm.


Part of the Problem:

Crowder - 2-9, 22.2%, 31 minutes
Bradley - 2-9, 22.2%, 33 minutes
Smart - 2-7, 28.6%, 27 minutes

Total - 6-25, 24%, 91 minutes.  17% of fgm, 31.6% of fga, 38% of total player minutes.  20 points total, including ftm, in 91 minutes is .22 points/minute.  A large chunk of the total shots taken, a large chunk of total player minutes but an almost insignificant amount of scoring.

Who is the problem here?  Not Kelly.  Nope, sorry, but I give you an 'A' for effort.  Not Rozier.  IT scored 2 points in the entire 2nd half and took 0 ftas all game.  Bradley can't play through a hip pointer?!  Hip pointers are annoying but they are hardly a debilitating injury.  He took 0 fgas in the 3rd quarter, where we were getting obliterated.  Zero.  Crowder is shooting 41.7% in the playoffs after, 33% from 3 after shooting 38% during the season (0-3 last night).  Jae was 0-2 in the 3rd.  I'm not sure which is worse, the measly 2 fgas or that he didn't hit anything.  Smart played 8 minutes out of 12 in that horrendous 3rd quarter.  In fact, the entire team was 5-16 in the 3rd quarter.  The Wizards were 13-20 in the 3rd quarter.  They had almost as many fgm as we had fgas.  Who is to blame for that?  Who is the problem?  I'd point the finger at the starters who started the 3rd and played most of those minutes instead of picking on a player who was the #3 Celtic scorer last night after IT (who did 90% of his scoring in the 1st half and pulled a David Blaine disappearing act in the 2nd) and Rozier.

Kelly and Rozier were probably the only glimmers in the whole freaking game that wasn't garbage time and the entire 4th quarter was garbage time because of Bradley, Crowder and Smart and the disappearance of IT.  Yeah, I call that 'heart' and 'Pride' by Kelly and Rozier.


It is starting to become clear to me that we are not going to win this series by shutting their offense down.  I have seen zero evidence of us being able to stop their pnrs.  I have seen zero evidence of us stopping Wall and, when he is going he gets Beal and Gortat and Porter involved.  We are going to have to win it by outscoring them and to do that you need offensive players on the court.


bob


.

Rozier and Jaylen rebound and score better than Avery and Marcus, at least in these playoffs. Give them more minutes. Kelly has played better than Amir. Give him more minutes. As Johnny Mercer sang, "Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. And don't settle for Mr. In Between."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBNMJwr1mzM

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob great work, all legit points, but one of our biggest weaknesses is rebounding and KO is a big part of that problem. He is a girlie man, a very soft 7 footer, not a big by any means.

Cow,

He does some things well, but not all things.  That's why he's not a starter.  And I agree, Kelly plays smaller than his size. And yet, when teams put smaller players on him (e.g. Kelly Oubre) he tortures them in the low post. It's against players his size he has problems down low.

Marcus Smart can't throw the ball in the ocean from the edge of the pier.  That's why he's not a starter.  He does some things well, but not all things.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't appreciate the things he does do well, right?  Same with Kelly.  Appreciate what he does well and understand there's a reason why he plays 22mpg.  He also plays a lot more minutes than Kelly, so whatever his weaknesses are on the offensive end are magnified because of that and when he is off there we are in deep kimchi.  He had 8 TOs in Game 3.  That's the most TOs for a player off the bench in a playoff game since Anthony Mason of the Knicks, per his Knick teammate Greg Anthony last night.  Mason was with the Knicks from '91-'96.  That's breaking an old record and it's not the type of record you want to break.  But we bite down hard and hope he doesn't shoot too much or turn the ball over too much in order to gain his defensive skills and ganas.  I do the same with Kelly.  The defense cannot collapse on him the way they can with Amir or Zeller.  He is also the 2nd best ball-handling and passing big on the team after Horford.  Do I wish he became the 2nd coming of Truck Robinson?  Sure, but Truck couldn't shoot 3s or pass the ball or dribble penetrate like Kelly does either and Truck was a starter.  If Kelly could rebound he'd be a starter since he does the other stuff better than players his size.  

Gerald Green can score in bunches but his defense is questionable and that makes him a liability if his offense isn't clicking.  That's why he isn't a starter.  He still has a role to play.  22mpg, like Kelly?  Only if he is so hot the sprinkler systems are about to come on.

All of these players have weaknesses that require them to be paired up with other players when they are on the floor.  Kelly needs good rebounding players on the floor with him.  Unfortunately, we don't have those.  Yes, that includes Kelly, but we really don't have any board monsters.  Smart needs to be surrounded by shooters.  Put Smart on the floor with a bunch of non-shooters and we can't buy a basket despite everybody on the team being millionaires.  Green needs a defensive-minded swing or wing to cover their top wing/swing instead of him.

I expect starters to play, and deliver, like starters and I expect bench players to play like the flawed bench players they are.  The exception is when a bench player plays starter minutes, like Smart.  If you get starter minutes you have to play like a starter.


bob


.

Rmbone wrote:

112288 wrote:Bob,

KO missed 2 KEY 3 pt shots in the second quarter that could have stopped their come back of 12 points.   He got soft buckets.

Crowder could not hit a barn when he needed to.  Outside of IT - Green is the only guy on the team that can light it up..........but they never run plays through him!   I just do not understand.

112288

Confirmation bias at its worst. You don't like KO, so you place extreme importance on his few small mistakes. KO was the least of our problems. He played a great game and he's been great the whole playoffs.

As if the second quarter had anything to do with the loss. It was the blowout 3rd quarter, and Brad's refusal to put guys like KO and Rozier and Jaylen in earlier that f#cked us.

Rabone,

The game was decided in the 2nd period. I turned on with the Celtics up 12 and possession. KO missed 2 wide open 3's, Crowder a few 3's, Bradley a few missed shots and before you knew it we ended tied. If we came out up 10 - 12 pts, the third period would not have turned out as it did.

Scal made a great observation. The Celtics look to their offense first to begin their defense instead of looking to get stops when their offense begins to suck. They are not playing playoff basketball and we have been exposed in a big way to all our short comings.

Further Steven's finally said he should have used all their timeouts in the third. DAAAAAAAA! What a revelation. I posted that he allowed the game to get out of reach in game #3 when Stevens failed to slow the pace and the onslaught of Washington. In a way Stevens is being exposed for his coaching flaws as well by Scott who sucks as a coach.

112288