Post Game Thread - vs Pistons, Away 1/1/20

[bobheckler]

We weren't ready to play basketball.  We came on in the 2nd half but we dug ourselves into a hole against the worst team in basketball, playing without Blake Griffin, and the basketball gods made us pay.  This team thinks that one good game against an extremely depleted Memphis Grizzlies means "they're back!".  Nope, not even close.

We lost not just because of our slow start, but because of our failure to execute in the final 3 1/2 - 4 minutes, and fritos.

We were 7-14 from the line.  If we had just shot for our average, 71.4%, we'd have been 10-14 and be tied.

Detroit had 8 offensive rebounds in the last quarter.  Plumlee had 5 of them, ALL of his offensive rebounds coming in the 4th.  The man assigned to keep him off the glass was Tristan Thompson, and he did a terrible job.

Smart said his focus this year was on improving his shot selection.  He needs to watch film of this game, because his shot selection was not good.  His final shot, in particular, was poorly thought out.

We didn't score in the last 4:15.  Tatum hit a 3 with 4:15 left and that was it.  We took 11 fgas after that.  Smart took 3 of them, but his last shot was a 3 with 27 seconds left and we're only down 2.  What was particularly egregious about this is that Theis got the rebound with 35.2 seconds left, got it to Jaylen who passed it to Smart with about 28 seconds left.  So, when the ball got to Smart's hands he still had about 17 seconds left on the shot clock.  He took the shot from straightaway, so the clock was right there in front of him.  We needed a 2, we had plenty of time to run a play to get us 2 but our floor general made a mental mistake.

Tatum made similar mistakes. He's trying to hit 3s to up 8 and his 2 3pt misses cost us. They cost us by not getting us points, they cost us because our offense stood around watching him do his one-on-one thing, it cost us because we stopped executing.

Another great game by Jaylen, except for his 3pt shooting. 1-7 there. The Js were a combined 4-18 from 3. Poor shot discipline is a trait of the young and this game revealed that what our core still is.

Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and Killian Hayes all looked really good, in part because we looked really bad but credit to them. They did their jobs in yeomanlike fashion.

I hope this hurts. We went down 21 for no good reason other than they wanted it more than us, we fought to come back and go up by 5 with those 4:15 minutes left to play and we fell apart.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267230


Bob


.

[atcross]

Sorry to keep repeating myself, but it seems clear to me that they need a point guard on the floor, especially at the end of games. Smart and Tatum are terrific players but they are not good decision makers in these circumstances. The offense is more effective with a true PG on the floor. Teague and Pritchard still have to learn the system and tendencies, but neither seems prone to hero ball.

[cowens/oldschool]

We weren't ready to play basketball.  We came on in the 2nd half but we dug ourselves into a hole against the worst team in basketball, playing without Blake Griffin, and the basketball gods made us pay.  This team thinks that one good game against an extremely depleted Memphis Grizzlies means "they're back!".  Nope, not even close.

We lost not just because of our slow start, but because of our failure to execute in the final 3 1/2 - 4 minutes, and fritos.

We were 7-14 from the line.  If we had just shot for our average, 71.4%, we'd have been 10-14 and be tied.

Detroit had 8 offensive rebounds in the last quarter.  Plumlee had 5 of them, ALL of his offensive rebounds coming in the 4th.  The man assigned to keep him off the glass was Tristan Thompson, and he did a terrible job.

Smart said his focus this year was on improving his shot selection.  He needs to watch film of this game, because his shot selection was not good.  His final shot, in particular, was poorly thought out.

We didn't score in the last 4:15.  Tatum hit a 3 with 4:15 left and that was it.  We took 11 fgas after that.  Smart took 3 of them, but his last shot was a 3 with 27 seconds left and we're only down 2.  What was particularly egregious about this is that Theis got the rebound with 35.2 seconds left, got it to Jaylen who passed it to Smart with about 28 seconds left.  So, when the ball got to Smart's hands he still had about 17 seconds left on the shot clock.  He took the shot from straightaway, so the clock was right there in front of him.  We needed a 2, we had plenty of time to run a play to get us 2 but our floor general made a mental mistake.

Tatum made similar mistakes.  He's trying to hit 3s to up 8 and his 2 3pt misses cost us.  They cost us by not getting us points, they cost us because our offense stood around watching him do his one-on-one thing, it cost us because we stopped executing.

Another great game by Jaylen, except for his 3pt shooting.  1-7 there.  The Js were a combined 4-18 from 3.  Poor shot discipline is a trait of the young and this game revealed that what our core still is.

Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Stewart and Killian Hayes all looked really good, in part because we looked really bad but credit to them.  They did their jobs in yeomanlike fashion.

I hope this hurts.  We went down 21 for no good reason other than they wanted it more than us, we fought to come back and go up by 5 with those 4:15 minutes left to play and we fell apart.  

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267230


Bob


.

Agree with everything you said Bob, just wanted to add the 4-18 from 3 was biggest factor in the loss IMHO. In this era of 3 ball, you can’t win with your 2 best players that inefficient from 3. Right now this team lacks depth, too bad Nesmith is not ready, Bey looked really good and we passed up on him. Too early to make any final judgements, but we could have had both, I really wanted Stewart. I really hope RWill is okay, was bad collision right on knee as he was hustling, we need his effort and impact.

[dbrown4]

Here's what I'm seeing and sensing after 5 games in.

1) We have two REALLY good go-to, reliable scoring starters.

2) We have a decent bench that until last night scores over 30 points/game. This will only improve upon KW's return and one of those 5 starters moves to the bench. Hopefully that will be one of the bigs. If BS doesn't do this, I'm thinking he's an idiot and his days are numbered.

3) MS is hard to put in a box. He scores when he has to, but he's not a really consistent scorer but he brings so many other things to the table that he has to be a starter. He's a great 4th starting scorer plus all his intangibles and defense. Kemba coming back will straighten all this out. We need 3 guys starting that can light it up and the other two can benefit from the holes in the defense the Big 3 will generate. Right now it looks like 2 1/2 Men at best for consistent scoring.

4) This team and the way they play splitting the first 6 games leads me to believe as of right now, we are a mid-level team at best. No one is scared of us. We're a team where a Detroit who clearly suck, can come along and knock us off any night. And DET can be any team. Clearly BKN isn't scared of us. We are finding ourselves digging out of holes again. To me, that is what a mid-tier team spends most of their time doing. Trying to claw our way back into games they shouldn't even be behind in in the first place. We will have a MEM game every once in a while when someone gets hot and all the stars align, but that will be about it. Whoever said we'd be playing .500 ball until about mid-season is about right. That may be giving us a couple of games in the win column as well. I'll go out on a limb and say when KW comes back, we will be below .500 and barely in the top 8.

5) Waiting for KW to come back and solve all of our problems on a bum knee ain't the answer.

6) Except for last night for PP and RWIII, plus JeT have been the silver lining for the 2nd tier players. Maybe more than that.
More like manna from heaven. Everyone has a chance to prove themselves here and their is no timeline at the present in waiting for more to show up.

7) I know this isn't a statistic but 2 of these 6 games we should have won/had a chance to win but didn't. IND is a legit team in the East and possible contender. DET is not. Except for the BKN game, we've been in all of them. But the two chances to win and being 0-2 on those is a little disturbing. Since the sample space is too small, I'm going to ignore it for now but will reserve the right to bring it back up as a huge problem if this persists.

Other things equal, I'm very interested to see who goes to the bench upon KW's return. This will give us all we need to see inside of Brad's mind and whether anything creative is churning up top or not.

db

[bobheckler]

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 3 hours ago
A concerning number in a limited sample size: Marcus Smart is now shooting 25 percent from 2-point range this season (6-of-24). 33 percent at the rim.


Bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 3 hours ago
A concerning number in a limited sample size: Marcus Smart is now shooting 25 percent from 2-point range this season (6-of-24). 33 percent at the rim.


Bob


.

Is it only me? I’ve been cringing everytime he’s about to shoot🥶

[bobheckler]

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 3 hours ago
A concerning number in a limited sample size: Marcus Smart is now shooting 25 percent from 2-point range this season (6-of-24). 33 percent at the rim.


Bob


.

Is it only me? I’ve been cringing everytime he’s about to shoot🥶

Cow,

Nope, it's not just you. Your eyeballs are now backed up by stats.


Bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 3 hours ago
A concerning number in a limited sample size: Marcus Smart is now shooting 25 percent from 2-point range this season (6-of-24). 33 percent at the rim.


Bob


.

Is it only me? I’ve been cringing everytime he’s about to shoot🥶

Cow,

Nope, it's not just you.  Your eyeballs are now backed up by stats.


Bob


.

Lol, well since were venting how does a team with stud defenders like 2 J’s, Theis, TT and RWill let Grant, a good decent limited starter, go off like that...??? That’s got to be on the coaches, and our defense has been pretty impudent compared to last years, any clues bob why our defense sucks now?

[bobheckler]

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 3 hours ago
A concerning number in a limited sample size: Marcus Smart is now shooting 25 percent from 2-point range this season (6-of-24). 33 percent at the rim.


Bob


.

Is it only me? I’ve been cringing everytime he’s about to shoot🥶

Cow,

Nope, it's not just you.  Your eyeballs are now backed up by stats.


Bob


.

Lol, well since were venting how does a team with stud defenders like 2 J’s, Theis, TT and RWill let Grant, a good decent limited starter, go off like that...??? That’s got to be on the coaches, and our defense has been pretty impudent compared to last years, any clues bob why our defense sucks now?

Cow,

I wouldn't want to be impudent about our Celtics' impotent defense, but here goes nothing:

I think it's a combination of the integration of newbies (JeT, TT and P-Rabbit mostly) and that we're trailing our guys over screens instead of moving our feet to beat them to the screen.  Also, because of our slow on-the-ball pnr defense, our big has to step up and drive back the ball, which frees his man up for the roll; or he stays with his man and that's why we're getting so many penetrations, and penetrations demand our other defenders collapse which frees up a shooter for a kick out pass by the penetrator.  It puts our bigs, all 3 of them (4 if you include GWill at smallball 5, but his height makes this even worse), in a difficult position.  Does he stop the ball after he's curled around the screen, does he go with his man or does he get caught in no-man's land between the two and hoping he can get a fingernail on the pass?  This isn't the '80s anymore.  PnR defense begins outside the arc, not in the lane (or even in the key) and we're not doing a good job of it.

I'll make one exception to this observation, and that's Pritchard.  He tries to beat his man to the screen and, when he can't do it because of an effective pick, he keeps fighting to catch up before his man can turn the corner.  Watch him, Cow, watch him.  If the rest of our players fought through screens, or recouped after being screened, like him we'd be looking a lot better.  We'll see how much is left of him by the playoffs.  Fighting through screens hurts.  Every time you do it you're catching a little hip, a little elbow and/or a little shoulder and it's a long season when you're getting a little more dinged up every game.  That's even more true this season when there are fewer days off.  He might be so black-and-blue by the playoffs he'll look less like P-Rabbit and more like P-Diddy.

Jaylen's relying upon his speed and length more than his feet.  Tatum, even more so.  Smart is very intelligently trying to funnel them towards help but that's not the same thing as staying in front of them and close enough to challenge a pull up.  Teague is absolutely following his guys over screens.

My 2c.


Bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Bob you described all that great!!! I might have mentioned it in the past that you and the late Sam and dboss are the very best writers, definitely all stars, I’m just glad to be a decent role player lol.

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