POST GAME BROOKLYN - AWAY

WEEI NEWS FLASH By Scott McLaughlin

Celtics legend K.C. Jones dies at age 88

Celtics legend and Basketball Hall of Famer K.C. Jones has died at age 88, the team announced Friday afternoon.

Jones won 11 NBA championships with the Celtics -- eight straight as a player from 1959-66, one as an assistant coach in 1981, and two as head coach in 1984 and 1986. He won another championship as an assistant coach with the Lakers in 1972.

Jones was drafted by the Celtics in 1956 out of the University of San Francisco, where he won two national championships playing alongside future Celtics teammate Bill Russell. Jones, Russell and Tommy Heinsohn were all selected by the Celtics in the same draft.

Jones also joined Russell in helping the United States win Olympic gold in 1956, making him one of seven players in history to win an NCAA championship, NBA championship and Olympic gold medal.

Jones began his coaching career as the head coach at Brandeis University after retiring from the NBA in 1967. He also spent one year as an assistant at Harvard before joining former Celtics teammate Bill Sharman's staff with the Lakers.

He became head coach of the ABA's San Diego Conquistadors in 1972 before landing his first NBA head coaching job the following year with the Washington Bullets, whom he took to the NBA Finals in 1975.

Jones returned to Boston as an assistant coach from 1978-83 before taking over the Larry Bird-lead team as head coach. The Celtics won the title in his first season and then again in 1986, as he guided arguably the greatest team in NBA history.

Jones remains one of two Black head coaches to win multiple NBA titles along with Russell.
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POST GAME BROOKLYN

Celtics Wrap: Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving Lead Nets Past Boston In Blowout Loss
The Celtics fall to 1-1 on the season


NESN by Sean T. McGuire

The Boston Celtics saw again just how good a healthy Brooklyn Nets team will be this season.

The Celtics suffered their first loss of the season at TD Garden on Friday, falling to the Nets 123-95 in their Christmas Day clash.

It was a second straight game that Kevin Durant showed just how good he can still be, taking over the third quarter when the game got away from Boston. Durant finished with 29 points on just 16 shots while Kyrie Irving posted a game-high 37 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Boston was led by its usual suspects in Jayson Tatum (20 points) and Jaylen Brown (27 points), however, the C’s clearly missed an offensive playmaker when those two were not on the floor.

Brooklyn completely dominated the second half, overcoming a three-point lead before outscoring Boston by 31 points in the second half.

Here’s how it went down:

STARTING FIVE

PG: Marcus Smart
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Tristan Thompson
C: Daniel Theis

TIGHT AT THE START

Marcus Smart hit a pair of 3-pointers while Tristan Thompson committed three first-quarter fouls as the Celtics closed the opening 12 minutes with a modest 26-22 deficit.

No team led by more than six as Brooklyn took a 10-4 lead four minutes in. Tatum was held scoreless in the first quarter as Boston shot 3-for-8 from long range with rookie Payton Pritchard knocking one down from behind the arc.

Durant went 2-for-5 from the field in the opening frame, scoring a team-high six points for the Nets. Irving made just one of his four shots to close the quarter with just three points.

TAKING A LEAD

Tatum helped Boston put together a strong second quarter as the Celtics erased their deficit and took a five-point lead three different times. Boston closed the quarter with a 54-51 advantage.

Tatum and Irving each came alive in the quarter. The Celtics star scored all 12 of his first-half points in the second with the Nets guard compiling 14 of his 17 first-half points in the frame. Tatum nearly tallied a first-half double-double with nine rebounds to go along with his scoring output.

Boston received additional contributions from Brown, who scored a team-high 13 points. Semi Ojeleye (eight points), Smart (six points, one steal) and Pritchard (five points, two steals) also provided a lift on both ends.

BROOKLYN STARS TAKE OVER

Durant took the game over at the onset of the third quarter while Irving added a nice complement as the Nets took a 86-77 lead into the fourth quarter.

Durant and Irving combine to score 25 points in the third quarter while the Celtics team tallied 23. Durant hit his first four shots of the second half, doubling his previous nine-point total on his way to 16 third-quarter points. Brooklyn led by as many as 12 points in the period after an extending 20-9 run over the first eight minutes.

Boston was dealt some frustrating misses, including a string of three straight missed layups just before Brooklyn took a 12-point lead on the other end.

Tatum scored six points in the third quarter.

NETS PULL AWAY

The Celtics ran out of gas down the stretch, struggling to score without players like Brown, Tatum and Smart on the floor all while Irving and Durant led the Brooklyn charge.

Aaron Nesmith checked in for his first NBA minutes midway through the quarter with the Celtics trailing by double digits.


UP NEXT

The 1-0 Celtics will travel to Indiana for two consecutive games against the Pacers starting Sunday.

112288

You cannot ask Jaylen Brown to play any better, he is becoming a superstar before our eyes.
So the Boston media have to stop the drum beat to get Harden.  It is a bad trade from various angles.  Here is why:

1) He can become a disruption within the Celtic dressing room and on the floor.  We are looking at another Kyrie Irving.
2) It now appears he is not better by a wide margin then Brown, in fact Brown may be better at this point in time.
3) 31 verses 22 years of age.  Are you kidding, Brown is in his prime of life!
4) A boat load of talent swings away from us to Houston.  I do not mind starting to peel off some talent only if it fits positional areas we are deficient in, like a legit big man.  This proposed trade is an equal swap of talent for the same position, and Boston looses more talent unnecessarily for an equal swap.  Makes no sense!
5) Brown has a very attractive contract - 4 years beginning this year - and by the time its over, he will not be in the top 50 in salaries in the NBA.  Harden has 2 more years at a lot of money $41 and $44 million.
6) Use the exemption from the Hayward trade and get a real 6th man off the bench please or a great defensive rim protector at center.  They are saying LaMarcus Aldridge is available. He could be a great piece off the bench to sure up the paint and add some rebounding and scoring. Or a great scoring wing.

Also, how do we get blown out by Brooklyn.   If the team was not prepared I blame the coaches especially Stevens. I am starting to get a pain in my stomach thinking that Stevens may just be a bridesmaid and never a bride.  He has yet to break through on many opportunities to reach the finals.  He had similar results in college.

I also do not like his style of just playing perimeter offense. The opposing teams just press on the outside and the Celts just cannot get off a good look shot, nor do they know how to penetrate the paint by passing to cutting teammates and not stupid iso plays that go usually no where. There is no rotational movement by guys on the court. They just stand around watching and not trying to get open. The Celtics also seem to be poor pick setters and screens.

112288

Not much if anything to disagree with there, 112288.

We did hold with them for at least a half this time. Not sure why the wheels came off in the 2nd half though. 3-bombing I'll guess and MS not on Durant all the time.

The Brad Stevens pit in your stomach is legit. What we have to consider is how long will it take Brad as assembled to get us past the ECF. Then we would have to consider how long it will take us to keep getting to the finals and finally win again. Can you wait another 7-8 years for that? That's the question.

I don't think there is one person on this site or one Boston Celtic fan who can wait another 7-8 years for Boston to dick around, finally get over the ECF hump and then land in the Finals trying to win maybe one game given the horses we currently have in the barn. There's always going to be a Milwaukee or a PHI or BKN or MIA in one's way. Heck, even Larry Bird had to come from down 3-1 to knock off PHI in the '81 ECF. But there was no waiting around for Larry to figure his game out or have a bad game. They gave Bill Fitch the ax shortly thereafter.

The good news is we should be 0-2. We all pretty much agreed to that before the season started. We're 1-1. Hallelujah!!

Brad, and Danny will take care of themselves this season. I can assure you if we back up this season, i.e. hard loss in ECF or go out in an earlier round, head or heads will roll.

Arguments can/will be made either way if it would be one or the other or a two-fer house cleaning. But the air is very thin in the East this year. Only room for one team at the top, and they are going to have to show up EVERY night. No games off. No "Time/Minutes Management" or whatever they call it. And since we had gold laid at our feet in the bubble and now taking a solid look at the East this year, we have clearly chosen the more difficult route to a championship or at least a trip to the Finals. We won't have a lot of time to make up for taking the 2nd half off or laying bricks from 3-ville.

Nothing in life is easy. Remember Danny has a get out of jail free card if he play it right via a TPE. Brad just needs to coach and get the monkey off his back because it is getting bigger and far heavier with every passing day and game and the monkey will resemble a truck pull with the weight up against the engine/back of the tractor if things go awry this season or come playoff time. Getting the right player (or not) will probably determine Danny's future. Sad but true that it would all come down to that trump card.

I hate to even suggest this and I expect to be jumped on for saying it, but this isn't the 60's or the 80's. I know every team's expectation going into every season is to win a championship. And Boston fans expect it far more than any other team except the Lakers simply because of who we are and where we have been, but there are just too many permutations and possibilities and things that have to go right for that to happen with any regularity the way the league is structured.

We will be lucky to do what KG, PP and RA did 12 years ago. They should have won 2 but got 1. And now we're 12 years and counting.

GSW is another example. They are now seeing the result of their "dynasty". Three championships in close succession and now they can't get the band back together. Too many teams (and injuries) nipping at their heels. The best team in the league yesterday did to GS what BKN just did to us....Twice.

It is all wrapped up in the veil of equity. The CBA, owners, everyone wanted equity years ago. Ourselves and the Lakers can probably be to blame for its uprising. It can't be the Celtics and Lakers...and then everybody else gets the scraps. We call it around here, "Everybody gets a trophy" mentality. Let's level the playing field so everybody has a chance to win. (Or in the case of my Elementary School tale, so everybody can have a chance to play.)

I just missed all of the Celtic glory days of the 60's. Not that the events are connected in any way, but we paid a huge price along the way since then. Twice. Some may say we are still crawling out of those two events.

The Rosalie Approach is what we should adopt. And I believe we do as we recognize what has evolved over the last 60 years in the league. Enjoy the season. Enjoy the team we love. No matter how many teams are in the league, 8 or 32 (since Silver is talking about expansion now!) playoff teams are there for a reason. They earned it. And if you are one of the current 16, you have a chance.

As has been pointed out, we are 10 games short this season. That's about 12-13% cut. Doesn't leave a lot of time to be figuring things out or try this an that. Plus there was not much of an off season. But we're all in the same boat. Someone will still win a championship this season. Will it be us?

db

I didn't watch the game last night, so I cannot comment on it.  Well, ok, maybe one or two...

What I did get was a phone call from Steve3344, who did a play-by-play radio commentary for me for the entire 2nd half.  He's no Mike Gorman, but who is?  Still, thanks Steve.  You got my green blood moving.

No RWill.  I was hearing that the refs were blowing BS calls on Theis (no surprise there.  The War on Theis continues...) and Thompson, putting them into foul trouble early.  Without RWill, and Tacko out with an eye injury, that left us with GWill and Semi playing center.  That's not even micro-ball, that's nano-ball.

They shot 54%.  That's how many games, including preseason, where our opponents shot close to, or over, 50%?

We shot 38%, but we took 98 fgas.  If our fg% goes up to where it should be, even if that's just middle-of-the-pack, we're going to be fearsome.  Shooting 44% or so and taking 95 fgas or so with anything more than matador defense will produce wins.  We have to get our fg% up, though.

We'd be halfway there if Tatum wasn't missing shots.  40.9% last night on 9-22.  Through 2 games he's shooting 42% from the field.  If he wants to make the All-Star game again he might want to finish better.


John Karalis
@RedsArmy_John
This is Tatum's shot chart. It's a bit unusual for a guy to get 8 shots in the restricted area and no free throws


But Jaylen can take his spot.  11-25 is 44%, which is what I was asking for.  5 of my beloved offensive rebounds.  He's averaging, get this, 30ppg on 49% shooting so far.  If Danny trades the next Kawhi to Houston for 31 year old Bloater Boy there will be a crowd of very disgruntled Celtic fans outside his house (this is just me taking lyrical liberties, please don't go to Danny's house).

Despite having no bigs to speak of, Thompson and Theis played a combined 44 minutes, we still outrebounded them.  They have DeAndre Jordan and Jerome Allen and we not only outrebounded them we killed them on the offensive glass.  20 offensive boards for us vs just 9 for them.  Thompson, in just 21 minutes, had 5 and Jaylen had 5 too.  Those two Celtics had more offensive rebounds than the entire Nets team.  Semi had 3 and GWill had 2 to really add insult to injury.

Once again, without having watched the game, I'm looking at the boxscore and seeing a problem.  The Nets played 5 players > 10 minutes each (Green, Prince, Allen, LeVert and Shamet).  Allen, LeVert and Shamet played 19-21 minutes.  All 5 of those players have been NBA starters in their career.  Who played legit minutes off the bench for Brad?  GWill played 19 (2-4, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and zero turnovers), Teague played 21 (0-5, 2 assists, 2 turnovers) and Pritchard played 25 (3-5, 2 steals, 2 turnovers), Semi with 14 (2-7, 9 points, 4-6 from the line).  Are you seeing the problem I'm seeing?  We had one legit veteran off the bench (I don't consider Semi a "legit veteran" despite this being his 4th year in the league because of his limited total minutes of play) and he stunk.  We're playing a 2nd year player out of position (understandable, perhaps, given the injury and foul problems we had at big) and a late 1st round rookie.  Teague has more experience than the other 3 combined X 2.  31 points from those 5 Nets bench players vs 20 from our 4.  I didn't watch the game but I'm not seeing what Brad could do about this.  He got T'd up arguing the whistles on Theis and Thompson.  He can't play players who are unavailable, like RWill and Tacko, you have to play the cards you are dealt.  The culprit for this is Danny.  Danny is the dealer who handed Brad these cards.  I know his thinking, he's trying to make lightning strike the same way twice.  He wants to accumulate valuable young (cheap!) assets and trade them for a killer piece and then backfill like he did in 2008 with Posey, House and PJ.  Ok, but in the meanwhile you're putting tremendous pressure on players who are being thrown into the fire prematurely.

Marc D'Amico @celtics
yesterday
Marcus Smart: "The benefit of playing these two games against two other great teams is that it forces you to be better. It tests you to see where you’re at, it sets the bar, and now you know what you have to strive for."


Chris Grenham
Chris Grenham @chrisgrenham
yesterday
Marcus Smart: "Even though we didn't win, I like the way my guys fought."
MY NOTE:  They outscored us 50-25 in the last 16 1/2 minutes of the game.  What fight is Smart talking about?


Marc D'Amico @celtics
yesterday
Jaylen Brown: "We still got a lot of growth, a lot of learning in front of us, but I'm looking forward to it. I think we've got a good group and I like how we competed for about three-and-a-half quarters. We've got to build on that and keep it rolling."
MY NOTE:  Looks like you competed for 2 1/2 quarters, Jaylen, not 3 1/2.


Chris Grenham @chrisgrenham
yesterday
Jaylen Brown: "Celtics fans, we're looking forward to this journey. It's an uphill battle, every single day getting better. And that's what leads to the best results. ... We got a lot of work ahead of us, and we're looking forward to doing it. ... I'm excited."


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401266798


Bob


.

Nets best players were Irving, Durant, Allen (4 blocks), LeVert. Very balanced between top 10 stars and depth into the bench rotation.

Not much to analyze. The Nets were the better team yesterday.

A 1 - 1 start against two of the best teams in the conference is not bad.

Indiana up next.

I didn’t think we were going to go 72-0.