POST GAME HOUSTON - HOME

Phil Pressey wrote:Rozier and Smart are solid for backup guards. I thought Horford looked gassed, but then after a timeout he made a nice block. The box score doesn't say much for Baynes, but it felt with him and Smart- Tatum was also very active, that Brad had a nice combo out there.

It took a while to snap out of ineffective hero ball.

Morris hit some clutch shots after starting with bricks. Yes, Smart had a great finish, but he didn't look anything special in the first half. I'm done with overthinking Smart's situation. Danny's a crafty guy making it difficult to get too cozy picking favorites. I'll just stop speculating.

I'll take Smart, Rozier, Kyrie and Jaylen for guards with Larkin in the Pressey spark plug reserve role.

We are missing Haywood at small forward? Just kidding. No one has the guts to tell him he's got the name wrong. Or it is an inside joke I missed.

The game thread got very intense, but I'll leave that at that.

I felt very level headed and joked Horford would cry great emotion. I'm pretty sure the game after he said that, it was a bad loss. I was just kidding. That was an NBA FANtastic overhyped but great game.

I think it's obvious Danny has to do something. But I am probably being impatient. Houston was missing some guys. Golden State is all of a sudden making some separation. Morris has to stay healthy and guys like Brown and Semi need to come back to hold any hope for top seeding, imho. We really need another big if it isn't Yabusele and Morris cannot be relied on.

Stevens coached miracles at Butler, so who knows.

Berlin-T wrote:The game started to turn around when Stevens finally woke up and put Baynes in. From then on there was a complete change in defense and rebounding. No Baynes , no win last night. Good to see Morris knocking off some rust and coming through with some timely jumpers. The game ball however goes to Marcus Smart. I wish people would just get off his back. The guy has the clutch gene, he's a winner.

Berlin-T

fierce wrote:I think Smart is a keeper.

Celts can afford to keep both Rozier and Smart.

If the Celts want more championships then paying luxury tax should not be an issue.

fierce wrote:I think Smart is a keeper.

Celts can afford to keep both Rozier and Smart.

If the Celts want more championships then paying luxury tax should not be an issue.

jrleftfoot wrote:
I know you loved Pressey, and I`m not trying to mess with you , but Larkinis 10 x better. BTW, apropos of nothing , Marv Albert is completely oblivious. He can`t tell a foul , from a travel from a kicked ball from a 24 second violation. I`m with you on the emotional roller coaster this team has become. If only we had Spencer Haywood!!!

Phil Pressey wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:
I know you loved Pressey, and I`m not trying to mess with you , but Larkinis 10 x better. BTW, apropos of nothing , Marv Albert is completely oblivious. He can`t tell a foul , from a travel from a kicked ball from a 24 second violation. I`m with you on the emotional roller coaster this team has become. If only we had Spencer Haywood!!!

Thanks for the reply. They seem to have very similar bodies but with completely different roles on offense. Larkin reminds me of a short version of Delonte without the assists. If Shane can add pg skills to his game, then he should have a long career as a backup pg. But right now he is a shooting guard in a small man's body. Although with the trend towards position-less basketball, it's tough to predict.

I agree with Rosalie that Pressey just couldn't shoot and that was his downfall. I think he was as good as one can be on defense for a little guy, better than Isaiah and probably as good as Larkin. I think ten times better is a stretch.

Thanks for explaining the Spencer Haywood connection. I thought the name sounded familiar but kept thinking of the silly cartoon, movie run of Dagwood.

I am not the best with spelling names. Stiemsma was very difficult and I was grateful when that became the much easier Steamer.

I am definitely a glass half full, Tommy Heinsohn green goggled fan. Dallas upset LeBron and Wade. The Pistons won it one year without the so-called superstar system. I think the original Cinderella team might have been Portland against Philly, but that is going back quite a ways. I love how Brad Stevens took Butler teams to Final Fours. I loved the Red Sox winning four straight against the Yankees. I remember do you believe in miracles U.S. over Russia in Olympic hockey.

I love underdogs and Pressey fell into that category. Isaiah, too. This could be a perfect storm. Horford has never been respected as a top NBA player or I missed it. Smart is the ultimate downgraded, polarizing player who hits miracle shots in the clutch. Kyrie has been dissed over the years by many despite having so much talent and hitting clutch shots in Finals.

This type of win could help in the playoffs. It's better to get bloody noses during the season, so when it happens in the playoffs, the team can work through it. The Celtics are becoming Rocky Balboa or Joe Frazier taking hits but always picking itself up off the floor.

beat wrote:Seems Al and KI both had really ugly first half......terrible shooting and carless turnovers that lead to easy Houston hoops yet some choose to pick on Smart. His misses seem to be harped on much more than anything else.  

There isn't a player on the team that can cause more havoc with the other team than him NOT A ONE.

I think I can live with ugly shots.  

No way he caused us to be down 25 in the beginning....it was a total team effort.  

Heck look at the terrible shooting by the Houston starting backcourt  16 for 50  32%  that was 62.5% of Houston's total attempts......tend to believe a bit of that was caused by Mr Smart. I do hope DA finds a way to keep him.


As for Harden.......geesh 15 foul shots isn't enough.  Complains later that 2 refs caused it to happen. Seems to me the NBA did pretty good for a whole lot of years with just 2.  And in the playoffs there is always an alternative ref on the sidelines for this very reason.

Heard a line that said Harden has more elbows than a bag of macaroni.

He was bitching that Smart was grabbing him yet in the replays Smarts hands were not even close to him.  That said read a Houston fan was bitching Smart traveled before the feed to Tatum just before the charge call  and sure enough you watch Marcus's feet he did shuffle them some. Breaks go both ways and we got some when we needed them.  We've been down 12 times by at least 15 points and are 8-4 in those games.



We have played many more games than anyone else so far.  Big part of that reason is the game in London vs Philly on Jan 11, 4 days off before that and 4 after. Now we get many more days off and many 2 day breaks which bode well for our health and for a few practices too. Heard we have not had anything more than walk thru since mid November.   

This team has bunker mode mentality.  

3 games to go to get to the half way point and we got 29 wins.  I don't really care how we got them either.  Now lets finish of the 2017 year with 30 !!

And if I'm a little late hope everyone had a nice Christmas and has a great New Years.

Christmas here was a bit different as Marcus headed back to Boston on Christmas eve due to the weather forecast.  We got pounded pretty good with 3-4 feet of snow over 2 +days. That said a few miles to the south of us they got 6 feet.   Now we have freezing temps to boot -45 yesterday morning  and never got above 0 today a little bit warmer gonna get to the single numbers so they say.


beat

bobc33 wrote:Holy smoke Beat!  6 feet of snow and -45 temps???  I knew upstate NY was cold but that makes the Boston area seem downright tropical.  Scout is fine down to zero degrees or so but not below zero which we’ve seldom seen in the Berkshires or Boston areas.  What do you do when your dog wants to go out at 2 am?

beat wrote:Seems Al and KI both had really ugly first half......terrible shooting and carless turnovers that lead to easy Houston hoops yet some choose to pick on Smart. His misses seem to be harped on much more than anything else.  

There isn't a player on the team that can cause more havoc with the other team than him NOT A ONE.

I think I can live with ugly shots.  

No way he caused us to be down 25 in the beginning....it was a total team effort.  

Heck look at the terrible shooting by the Houston starting backcourt  16 for 50  32%  that was 62.5% of Houston's total attempts......tend to believe a bit of that was caused by Mr Smart. I do hope DA finds a way to keep him.


As for Harden.......geesh 15 foul shots isn't enough.  Complains later that 2 refs caused it to happen. Seems to me the NBA did pretty good for a whole lot of years with just 2.  And in the playoffs there is always an alternative ref on the sidelines for this very reason.

Heard a line that said Harden has more elbows than a bag of macaroni.

He was bitching that Smart was grabbing him yet in the replays Smarts hands were not even close to him.  That said read a Houston fan was bitching Smart traveled before the feed to Tatum just before the charge call  and sure enough you watch Marcus's feet he did shuffle them some. Breaks go both ways and we got some when we needed them.  We've been down 12 times by at least 15 points and are 8-4 in those games.



We have played many more games than anyone else so far.  Big part of that reason is the game in London vs Philly on Jan 11, 4 days off before that and 4 after. Now we get many more days off and many 2 day breaks which bode well for our health and for a few practices too. Heard we have not had anything more than walk thru since mid November.   

This team has bunker mode mentality.  

3 games to go to get to the half way point and we got 29 wins.  I don't really care how we got them either.  Now lets finish of the 2017 year with 30 !!

And if I'm a little late hope everyone had a nice Christmas and has a great New Years.

Christmas here was a bit different as Marcus headed back to Boston on Christmas eve due to the weather forecast.  We got pounded pretty good with 3-4 feet of snow over 2 +days. That said a few miles to the south of us they got 6 feet.   Now we have freezing temps to boot -45 yesterday morning  and never got above 0 today a little bit warmer gonna get to the single numbers so they say.


beat

jrleftfoot wrote:Tatum`s man defense is good and getting better. He is sometimes slow to help, but I think it`s just rookie indecision.