Suns burn Celtics 111-103

I don't know...with this performance coming off a brief rest, I don't see us getting out of 4-5 place slot for the playoffs. I do know one of the Celtics teams from the 60's won the title from 4th place. That's what we are looking at.

Really inexcusable. Way too many OR's giving up and to add insult to injury they defaulted to the always losing strategy of firing up 3's first, ask questions later theory. And that's what you got. Another Loss.

MAYBE one of either TOR, PHI, IND or MIL will fall out of one of the top 4 spots by season end and gift us 4th place, but it's going to take a huge amount of effort on the Celtics part (several double digit win streaks) to move up and not drop games to the worst teams in the league on home ice.

4th or 5th in the East. That's it. Those 4 teams are just better than us.

db

P.S. And yes, I'm pissed!!

Expect the GF to go off for about 70 points as he will school Williams and Thayes to no end. 0-2 streak starts now.

db

We won the first quarter, bigly, and then lost the next 3.  Kyrie was the offense.  Tatum scored too, and had 4 blocks, but he also played matador defense.  

The rebounding issue was created by the absence of Horford, Morris, Yabusele and the loss of Baynes due to a broken hand.  We were doing QUITE well before tonight.  When the only bigs you have are 6'9" 3rd string center Daniel Theis and 6'9" rookie Robert Williams you are going to have problems on the boards.  I don't know when Al will be back, I think Morris' issues are not an issue past last night, but someone better get back because we are extremely thin up front right now.

Jaylen started off hot and then went icy cold when he fell in love, again, with outside shooting.  This is becoming an issue.  It's not just that he's missing shots, it's that he's not seeing what's working for him and doing that.

10 points for Hayward in 29 minutes.  He took only 8fgas.  Very unproductive.

I like Theis but I am really starting to see him as a 3rd string center in the NBA.  He's good, he has skills but he does not seem to be able to stop any legit NBA center.

The Time Lord (tough shit, Danny) did his part.  8 points on 4-4, 8 rebounds with 5 of them offensive and 5 blocks.  Unfortunately he is NOT a good frito shooter, he shot 54% @ Texas A&M and 47% in his sophomore year.  If he wants to be a crunch time player he needs to fix this.  The final score doesn't show it but he missed 2 ftas with 3:32 left and the Celtics down only 6.  He hits just one and it's only 5 and that's only 2 possessions to win @ home with 3 1/2 left.  That's big.  He's a little weak on positioning, but he's a rook.  He's working hard, he's learning, he just isn't there yet.  His shot blocking instincts and the quickness he leaves his feet (and can jump a 2nd time if the first one is a fake) with cannot be taught and they are impressive.  He is going to be getting 15-20+mpg for the next month with Baynes out.  Brad is not going to risk Al's knee by playing him MORE minutes than usual, so it will be Theis and Williams.  Which one gets the lion share of Baynes' minutes will depend upon matchups.

Kelly Oubre came off the Suns bench and scored 13 points.  Most of them came off of Tatum and his abovementioned matador defense.  Ole!  and get out of the way.

Rozier hit some big shots, was 4-8 from 3, but he ended up 4-11.  Simple math, that means he was 0-3 from 2.  He's forgotten how to attack the rim.  Both he and Jaylen are going for Hero Ball to redeem themselves and that's not the way to do it.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071139


bob


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