Post Game Thread - vs Rockets, Home 2/29/20

[bobheckler]

They are better at small ball than we are because they are built, 100%, for it.

We took 100fgas. Jayson Tatum took 27. If you're going to take 27% of your team's fgas you have to shoot better than 33% on them. He took 14 of our total 25 ftas. He hit 10. That's 71%. He had 2 ftas at the end of regulation, we were down 3 and he missed the first. He intentionally bricked the second, Jaylen Brown ended up with the ball and hit the buzzerbeater to get us into OT, BUT, if Tatum had hit the first frito and bricked the 2nd the same way Jaylen's shot would have won it for us in regulation. Hayward shot 8-16, Smart was 9-22 (41%) and Brown was 9-23, but we kept feeding Tatum, who struggled all night. You're supposed to feed the hot hand, not the superstar. Feeding the superstaar was the "Kyrie Way". The superstar is usually the hot hand, that's why they're the superstar, but when they are having off nights you should find who isn't off and feed them.

Westrbrook was 16-27 (vs Tatum's 9-27) but only 1-2 from 3. In other words, Westbrook killed us from close and there was nothing we could do about it. Brad put the entire squad on him; Tatum, Brown, Hayward, Smart, Wanny, everybody and it didn't matter.

Houston took 98 fgas. 55 were 3pt fgas. Welcome to the new NBA. I hate it.

On the other hand it's looking a little like Brad doesn't know what to do with size any more than Danny does.

Having said all this we missed a lot of shots at or near the rim. Some of that was bad finishing by us and some of it was extremely quick, crisp defensive rotations by Houston. I have to give it to them, they swarmed. One of the things Theis has been lauded for is how he seals his man to create a driving lane for Tatum, Brown etal. That didn't work well last night because Theis' man wasn't bigger and slower than him, for a change, they were shorter and quicker and worked around his seal to confront our drivers before they got all the way to the rim. Why we didn't do more pnrs, where Theis forced his man to stay with him (or have the driver's man trailing the bigger Theis to the rim on the roll) I have no idea.

Another problem we had was we were constantly getting out-worked on the boards. I think they had 4 offensive rebounds in just the 4th quarter alone, and nobody on the floor for Houston was over 6'7". They did an excellent job of boxing us out from their defensive boards and we did a poor job of boxing them out of ours.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 9 hours ago
Celtics did not score in the final 2:49 of OT. Missed six straight shots with a couple turnovers mixed in.

We had a chance to tie Toronto last night and we couldn't close the deal. One unanswered question is "how would we have fared if Kemba had played?" Good question. Wouldn't have hurt to have another scorer on the floor, especially during our 22 point 3rd quarter and OT. On the other hand the Houston Rockets are built like a team of linebackers only, Kemba might have struggled against their physicality too.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401161534






bob


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[wideclyde]

Another game against a good team that easily could have been a win if not for so many poor second half turnovers. Got to play cleaner to beat the better teams.

[cowens/oldschool]

Bob great post, but those other guys also have to be more aggressive getting the ball and doing something with it when they have it. Jaylen and Jayson battled, but a lot of times the ball would swing back to them because other guys looked tentative to me. Could 2 J’s have been more efficient? Ofcourse, but they battled and carried the team as hard as they could. Rockets don’t have a traditional center, but all their players contest penetration and can get into you. I don’t know the best way to attack this defense and apparently either does BS, at least not good enough to get better looks and the win.

[RosalieTCeltics]

At one point in the game Sean Grande noted on the radio that the Celtics had missed 30 of 40 shots they had taken. You cannot win a game when your offense is that bad. This falls on all of them. Bad shots going up constantly, lack of passing the ball until the open guy was free, I could not stand watching that game last night. It almost came down to "me" ball. I love Smart, but he took some unwarranted 3's last night. Hayward scored 14 in the first half, never saw the ball in the second half. This is partially on him, he has to start looking for his shot more. How can you get into a good rhythm if you are not shooting. I do not want to dump on the two J's, but I have no idea how Tatum ended up with 36 pts. He missed a ton of shots, forcing alot of the time.

Time to put this behind them and move on but I hope they learned something from the loss.
Houston forced the Celtics to play "their" ball, it should have been the other way around. They are a talented team. No "if only's" from me, Kemba hasn't been there for other games and they have won. Look in the mirror guys, there is your answer. Did you do all that you could? NO

On to the Nets and, it will not be an easy game. The Nets can be dangerous if taken lightly

[sinus007]

Hi,
A few points.
First, answering Bob's question about Kemba. IMO, we would've won had he played. On defensive side KW is fast enough to at least bother Westbrook who's scored at least 10-12 points feasting on Romeo, Theis and GWill. On offense he's fast and skilled enough to get 20-25 points even against such small-ball team as Rockets. Also, a simple math of adding a few net points would be in our favor.
Second, I was wondering why Brad didn't put Kanter for, say 10-12 minutes. Sure, he'd be a weak link on defense, but on offense he could feast in the post.
Third, I think GH is in a slump: maybe an injury, maybe something else.
Fourth, I didn't see high level of aggressiveness on our side. Against Rockets it should've been cranked up past 100% and stay there.
On the positive side, there are no such team as Rockets in EC and, if we get into the Finals 95% probability (my very un-scientific estimate) we won't play against them.

AK

[BingBang!]

In the first quarter Jaylen had it going and Jayson deferred to him but then that inexplicably reversed and voila - the Rockets began to dominate. There were a couple plays in the first half in which I felt Jayson embarrassed himself with ball hogging leading to ugly chucks with no chance as the 24 second clock expired. Not Celtics basketball, and I trust Danny, Brad and Jayson will have a meeting of the minds and sort that out. Jason and his team should end up the better by learning from this game of mistakes.

[cowens/oldschool]

At one point in the game Sean Grande noted on the radio that the Celtics had missed 30 of 40 shots they had taken.  You cannot win a game when your offense is that bad.  This falls on all of them. Bad shots going up constantly, lack of passing the ball until the open guy was free, I could not stand watching that game last night.  It almost came down to "me" ball.  I love Smart, but he took some unwarranted 3's last night.  Hayward scored 14 in the first half, never saw the ball in the second half.  This is partially on him, he has to start looking for his shot more. How can you get into a good rhythm if you are not shooting.  I do not want to dump on the two J's, but I have no idea how Tatum ended up with 36 pts.  He missed a ton of shots, forcing alot of the time.  

Time to put this behind them and move on but I hope they learned something from the loss.
Houston forced the Celtics to play "their" ball, it should have been the other way around. They are a talented team.  No "if only's" from me, Kemba hasn't been there for other games and they have won.  Look in the mirror guys, there is your answer. Did you do all that you could? NO

On to the Nets and, it will not be an easy game. The Nets can be dangerous if taken lightly

GH has to take charge, he plays off the 2 J’s, but otherwise disappears, there are times in iso 2 J’s will attack, when they have it going, it’s great, they are fearless and will battle. GH seems to do well only in the right match up, where’s the pull up jumper against a playoff caliber defense, can he only score when there are openings for him because of all the attention to the 2 J’s? This playoff there’s gonna be times he has to carry us and get his shot off, 2 J’s have a lot of fight in them, but they can’t do it every game, time for GH to carry more of a load, he’s gotta be way more aggressive....

[dbrown4]

Despite all the above, we had a chance to win at the end on JB's shot. This was a horse race 50/50 game and we lost. This falls under the Kemba Walker effect. He's been out for 5 games now. We went 3-2. Probably kept him out too long. We can't go very long without him otherwise we see these 3-2 results that should be 4-1 or 5-0. Didn't really need him to play a full game last night. Just dress out and be ready to go in for a few minutes ala Willis Reed.

Now we just have to make sure we don't blow the home game against sub .500 Brooklyn next. TOR has two WC games against DEN and PHX. Good chance they will lose one of them, probably tonight @ DEN, maybe both. I fully expect us to be tied in the loss column or solely in 2nd after Tuesday.

db

[mrkleen09]

Much ado about nothing. Losses happen. Next.

[cowens/oldschool]

Getting punched in the face by a short team does concern me

[cowens/oldschool]

The D’Antoni Suns never defended, this Rocket team does defend and bang, they have multiple players that chase and get to spots and play frenetic defense.....

[dbrown4]

That was the biggest shocker to me...a Houston team playing defense!  Has that ever occurred since 80's with Twin Towers?!!

db

[cowens/oldschool]

That was the biggest shocker to me...a Houston team playing defense!  Has that ever occurred since 80's with Twin Towers?!!

db

When they initially got rid of Capella, I thought what a mistake, but they actually defend, switch, swarm, get to spots, they defend remarkably well with very little length/size....if more teams figure out how to defend without a center, bad news for all the bigs

[dbrown4]

Yep. They will tire very easily with the picked up pace running baseline to baseline. Both EC and WC Final Fours are going to be VERY interesting.

db

[dboss]

I missed the game on Saturday attending a birthday celebration for a family member.  I see we lost in OT by a single point

Our bench only scored 4 points and noted that Walker missed his 5th game in a row.  Kanter also was a DNP.

Not much to say.  We need a full deck to compete with the better quality teams.  But a one point loss is a slim margin to lose by so I can only assume we played below our capabilities even with the missing bodies.

So we move on to the next game.

[dbrown4]

Seriously, dboss, we should have won even short handed with all that went wrong. Sign of a championship team if you are still in it with a chance to win at the end. HOU was lucky the team we had sans Kanter and Walker didn't clobber them. The 1st half started off that way. Not impressed with HOU but I'll watch them through their 2nd Round exit.

db

[hawksnestbeach]

IMO, a few minutes of Robert Williams spelling Theis would have given the C's the win by slowing down Westbrook in the paint. Alternatively, since Westbrook was making layups with abandon all second half, a little Kanter-time might not have hurt defensively as much as we would have gained in rebounds and points on offense.
This isn't meant to knock Theis, who has played well. I still think this team can go all the way. Hawk

[dboss]

IMO, a few minutes of Robert Williams spelling Theis would have given the C's the win by slowing down Westbrook in the paint. Alternatively, since Westbrook was making layups with abandon all second half, a little Kanter-time might not have hurt defensively as much as we would have gained in rebounds and points on offense.
This isn't meant to knock Theis, who has played well. I still think this team can go all the way. Hawk

Theis has never been and will never be a guy that can ball for 39 minutes.  Please.

I agree 100% that a little Kanter or a little Robert Williams would have made a difference.

Covington had 16 rebounds.  How the hell did that happen?

Well I'm going to watch the game now so my perspective may change after I actually see what happened.

[jrleftfoot]

Tatum's points were like Carmelo Anthony points.Throw up enough shite and some of it will stick to the wall.We need somebody that can come of the bench and provide instant scoring. Whatever happened to Carsen Edwards?

[hawksnestbeach]

I think the team would be stronger with Hayward coming off the bench routinely. As was mentioned above, too often he disappears when playing with the Js. He could run the second unit. With fewer scorers in, he'd been looking for his shot more. Hawk

[dbrown4]

All stuff for Brad to figure out.  Get on it, Brad!! Gold has been laid at you feet!!  

db

[dboss]

Okay i just finished watching the game.

That was a fantastic game.

One or two possessions and we win.  There were some early shots and we missed several 50/50 rebounds but our guys were fully engaged.  I think a rotation of more size in the middle would not have hurt but again our guys fought all the way

Not the least bit concerned.

Houston did not impress me.

[cowens/oldschool]

Agreed we should have went big instead of staying small, maybe BS thought RWill needs some more reps first, but just saw Knicks beat/upset Rockets with Knicks bigs going off destroying little Rockets on the boards and Knicks bigs are not high caliber, but they all did enough dirty work to control the game....

[cowens/oldschool]

I think the team would be stronger with Hayward coming off the bench routinely. As was mentioned above, too often he disappears when playing with the Js. He could run the second unit. With fewer scorers in, he'd been looking for his shot more. Hawk

GH is also good at getting points playing off all the defensive attention given to 2 J’s, quite frankly I’ve been disappointed in Gordon lately, when he was playing with GWill, Wanamaker, Smart, etc he couldn’t do enough things as the first option in scoring or initiating to carry us.

[kdp59]

my 2 cents

I'm not all that worried about a one point loss with one of our all stars not playing, even at home.

I do hope we see less of the pound the ball type offense from Tatum (that we saw in the second half too much), reminds me of Irving way too much. Pass the ball around the offense, you'll get your shots young man and BETTER ones that way.

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