POST GAME PORTLAND - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Can’t Overcome Slow Start, Falls 100-94 Vs. Blazers

NESN by Joshua Schrock on Sun, Nov 11, 2018 at 11:21PM

If you keep digging yourself a hole, sooner or later you’ll get buried. The Boston Celtics found that out Sunday at Moda Center, as they fell into a 19-point hole against the Portland Trail Blazers in the first half. As they’ve been known to do, the C’s mounted a furious comeback but were unable to come all the way back, falling 100-94. Jayson Tatum (27 points) and Kyrie Irving (21) led the Celtics, but Al Horford (10) was the only other player to score in double figures for Boston. Damian Lillard led Portland with 19 points and 12 assists. With the loss, the Celtics fall to 7-6, while the Trail Blazers improve to 10-3. Here’s how it all went down:

FIVE PG: Kyrie Irving SG: Jaylen Brown F: Jayson Tatum F: Gordon Hayward C:

Al Horford NURK ALERT The Blazers jumped on the Celtics early in the first quarter, attacking Boston’s defense with a lethal pick-and-roll game that got Jusuf Nurkic involved early and often. The talented big man scored 10 of the Blazers’ first 17 points, helping Portland take a 17-10 lead halfway through the first. Portland extended its lead in the second half of the opening stanza. Lillard continued to terrorize the C’s on the pick-and-roll, using the screen to either feed a wide-open Nurkic or get to the cup himself and finish. The Blazers led by double digits for the majority of the quarter, but a 5-0 run by Tatum to end the frame cut Portland’s lead to 26-21 after one. Nurkic led all scorers with 12, while Tatum paced the Celtics with seven.

CELTICS GO COLD Despite Tatum’s late first-quarter flurry, the Celtics were unable to overtake Portland in the second quarter. After a layup by Tatum cut the Blazers lead to three at the 8:29 mark, Portland exploded for a 20-4 run to grab a 52-33 lead with 2:55 to play in the half. Boston’s once top-rated defense was abused by the Blazers no matter what Brad Stevens threw at them. Portland got contributions from Seth Curry, Zach Collins, Nik Stauskas and Meyers Leonard during the run, as well as Nurkic and Lillard. Boston also struggled offensively in the second, going 4:53 without a bucket until a Tatum jumper with nine seconds to play snapped the skid. The C’s trailed 54-37 at the break. Nurkic was the high man with 14, while Tatum poured in 13 for Boston. Nurkic and Leonard combined for 22 points and 15 boards in the half.

NOT WITHOUT A FIGHT After struggling in the first half, Boston’s offense came to life in the third quarter. With the Blazers leading by 19, Irving drilled a 3-pointer to spark a 10-0 Celtics run that cut the lead to 58-49 and forced Terry Stotts to take a timeout. Boston continued to trim Portland’s lead throughout the third, but each time the C’s got within striking distance Lillard or CJ McCollum made a play to push the Blazers’ lead back out. After a Horford dunk cut the lead to six, Lillard drove into the paint and found Evan Turner for an easy dunk. On the ensuing Blazers possession, Stauskas missed a layup but Collins was able to secure the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Curry for a wide-open triple, swelling the lead back to 11. The Blazers finished the third quarter up 83-70. Tatum led all scorers with 25 points through three, while Lillard was the high man for Portland with 16.

NO COMEBACK THIS TIME Down 13 heading into the fourth, Boston made its usual fourth-quarter run. Marcus Morris scored five quick points to cut the lead to 10 and Brown followed with a 3-pointer and layup to trim it to five. After a Stauskas miss, Terry Rozier canned a triple to cap an 11-0 run and make it 85-83. Then Morris drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game at 86 with just over seven to play. The Blazers clung to a three-point lead with 1:21 to play when Lillard went around a screen and found Al-Farouq Aminu open on the wing. The veteran forward splashed the triple to make it 100-94 and end Boston’s comeback bid.

UP NEXT The Celtics will return home to face the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday. Tip-off from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET.
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Celtics Notes: Brad Stevens Takes Blame For Boston’s ‘Disappointing’ Road Trip

NESN by Joshua Schrock on Mon, Nov 12, 2018

The Boston Celtics couldn’t be happier to be headed home Sunday night, but their problems go way beyond your typical road woes. Boston finished its five-game road trip with a 100-94 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center, falling to 1-4 on the eight-day journey and 7-6 overall.

During the trip, the Celtics’ defense was uncharacteristically pedestrian, giving up an average of 109.8 points per game. Meanwhile, on offense, Boston struggled to find consistency, starting slow in Phoenix and Portland to fall into giant holes. As the C’s prepare to return to TD Garden on Wednesday, the preseason Eastern Conference favorites are searching for a way to unlock the team’s potential. Is a lineup change needed? Perhaps.

The C’s starting five has failed to jell to this point, and the insertion of either Marcus Smart or Aron Baynes into the starting lineup could inject some much-needed life at the start of games. Moving either Jaylen Brown of Gordon Hayward to the bench would be a tough decision to make, but it’s one of the many issues facing Brad Stevens after 13 games.

As all good coaches do, Stevens shouldered the blame for Boston’s slow start and poor performance on the trip. “Just thoroughly outplayed. I don’t know what else to say,” Stevens said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston. “When we’re desperate and urgent we’re pretty good. We’ve got to do a better job, and I’ve got to do a better job of making sure we start games that way.” Boston found itself in a hole a lot during the road trip, which normally led to its offense kicking into high gear late in the game

knows he needs to find a way to get the Celtics to play with more purpose on offense from the start. “We just don’t hunt great on offense until its desperation time,” Stevens said. “And we spent a lot of time in desperation time on this trip, it’s been a disappointing trip. You find your flow by making the next right play, that’s it. When you’re in the game you have a job to do on that possession, you do it.

And then, if you do it over and over again, you have a good team. “And we’re not there yet, so that to me is well-coached teams are there and we’re not a well-coached team right now. It’s pretty obvious.” If not for Kyrie Irving’s heroics in Phoenix, the Celtics would be headed home with a goose egg on their five-game road trip. Stevens likely will need to make some tweaks both to the lineup and strategy in order to get the C’s humming like the finely-tuned machine they can be. But the putrid showing on the trip shows the Celtics aren’t even close to the team they are supposed to be.

Here are more notes from Celtics-Trail Blazers: — Kyrie Irving was blunt about the Celtics’ performance through 13 games. “We needed this (poor road trip). We’re not as good as we think we are. That’s really what it comes down to,” Irving said, as seen on NBC Sports Boston.

“Right now I think it would be nice if we had someone that was a 15-year vet, a 14-year vet that could kind of help us race along the regular season and understand it’s a long marathon rather than just a full-on sprint.” The star guard called out the collective team effort, noting the time for hype was over, but also indicated that he wasn’t frazzled.

— Smart addressed the team after the loss, sending a clear message it’s time to pick it up.

— Gordon Hayward logged 31:04 of on-court time Sunday, his highest of the season.


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REOCCURRING THEME FROM LAST YEAR

FALL BEHIND ............BY BIG NUMBERS AND TRY TO COMEBACK.

NOT GOOD!

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Hayward to the bench?

works for me!

You are what your record says you are. The celtics right now are a very average team. The defensive numbers on this road trip haven't been particularly good. But there's something missing from this team this year.

Kj

You are what your record says you are. The celtics right now are a very average team. The defensive numbers on this road trip haven't been particularly good. But there's something missing from this team this year.

Kj

Good teams win close games and bad teams lose close game. The Celtics are not a good team. The defense slipped a bit going up against some high scoring teams but they are still a top defensive team (#3 at 103.5)

The Celtics offense has been sporadic. The quantity and accuracy of their 3 point shooting has been a killer to the offense. A few more guys need to start hitting those open shots. We need a balanced attack. I see a glimmer with Irving, Tatum, Rozier and Morris making shots now.

EFFORT. You cannot always control making shots. You cannot always control the way the ball bounces. You cannot always control how the refs are calling a game. But you can always control your effort.

Some of these Celtics have the false belief that they are better than they actually are. They think they can show up, go through the motions and then turn it on when they need to and get back in the game. Unfortunately for them, that isnt how it works.

IMO Jaylen is one of the main culprits, as he lets his current level of offensive success, rub off on his overall effort. There is nowhere on gods green earth that Al-Farouq Aminu, TJ Warren, or Joe Ingles are better than Jaylen Brown when he plays hard and with purpose. But when he runs around in a fog, any NBA Player will make you look bad.

Not to pile on Brown as lots of players are playing with uneven effort. Tatum has been shooting better lately, but his defensive effort is spotty. Same with Rozier and Horford.

They will still be fine, they are far too talented for this to be more than a blip. BUT changes need to be made in the rotations and just overall way the game is being approached.

Would like to see Rozier or Smart in the starting line up and Hayward to the bench. Would like to see more Baynes and more of Daniel Theis as soon as he is able.

Patience.

Maybe Boston should just go back to their primary starting lineup that they had last year.

Baynes started 67 games last year out of the 81 he played in the regular season.  Sometimes Brad started Morris (21 starts) if the matchups were favorable.

Last year Hayward played 5 minutes and this year he has started all 12 games.

Do we know if the 3 wing lineup with KI and AH is the right configuration for this team?  We will not know this until Hayward is really back to being Hayward.  But it is not really working now.  

Marcus Smart is an option if defense is the main issue but given the proliferation of offensive output, defense does not appear to be the main issue.  Terry is shooting well from deep and I guess if you want to go with a small backcourt he would be an option.

These are all viable options but I really think you have to go back to what has worked in the past.  That  means Baynes in at center and Al shifts over to PF with Irving, Tatum and Brown.  

Brad may spend half the season getting the right mix in place.  So he can and should experiment.  We do not know when he will make any lineup and rotational changes.  He should do it if and when he thinks it needs to be done.

The biggest casualty of getting Hayward back in terms of playing less minutes is Marcus Smart.  He has been a 30 MPG guy the last two years and he is only playing 24.3 MPG.

3 of our starters are just not making shots now so it is the main reason why we fall behind early in games.  But they may only be part of the problem.  I do not particularly endorse the ides of having Baynes stretch the floor.  His value on offense is setting great screen.  His MPG are down to 13.5 from 18.3 last year.  Al has to bang with bigger centers right out the box.  Last year he did not have to do that in most games because of Baynes.  So Baynes is the 2nd casualty in terms of fewer minutes.

MELO ANYONE!

NEED A SHOOTER AND BETTER GET HIM NOW THEN LOOK FOR A SHOOTER COME THE TRADE DEADLINE.

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