Post Game Thread - vs Heat, Away 1/6/21

[bobheckler]

We blew a 17 point lead, but we didn't blow the game.  All's well that ends well.  I mean, c'mon, did we really think we're entitled to blow out the team that beat us in the playoffs last year and got better with Precious and Avery Bradley?  I was shocked when we went up that big, IN MIAMI, and we know they don't give up so...throw in that this was our 3rd game in 4 nights and we are very undermanned and we're doing splendidly imo.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
about 25 minutes ago
The undermanned #Celtics have won five of six despite playing more road games (6) than any team in the NBA in the opening two weeks of the season.

I don't normally talk about the refs but they were awful last night.  12 ftas for us vs 26 for them.  That doesn't necessarily mean they're blind, we could be all jump shots and all and not driving, but last night they just were awful.  They were not calling them both ways.

Tatum was flowing last night while it is looking like Jaylen is coming down from his heights a bit.  Water seeks its level.  Brown is still playing at an All-Star level, he's just not averaging 28ppg.  He's only averaging...wait for it...26.2ppg.  Boohoo.  Tatum, with his last few games, is now up to 26.3ppg.  Our dynamic duo are really killing it.  Here's a nice stat for you:  The Js combined for 48 points (45% of the team's total), 17 rebounds (Jaylen with 12).  That's 32% of the team's total rebounds.  They also combined for 9 assists (41%) but only 3 turnovers.  Those are impactful numbers.

Thompson with 9 points and 7 boards, but only 20 minutes of play.  I don't know why only that many minutes, but that's making his presence known in the minutes he played.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
C's rank 3rd in the NBA in offensive rebounding and have 2 of the top 7 individuals. Timelord leads the pack (which includes an old friend.) NBA OFF REBOUND PCT 1. R. WILLIAMS, BOS 2. Allen, Bkn 3. Capela, Atl 4. Drummond, Cle 5. Kanter, Por 6. Stewart, Det 7. THOMPSON, BOS

And the Legend of P-Rabbit grows.  He was 3-10 on the night, which means he was 2-9 before the final game winner, but he makes winning plays like Marcus Smart.  What I love about the final sequence in this video is that Smart drives to the rim, gets fouled (but no whistle, of course).  Pritchard was out on the wing, in the corner for a kick out but when he saw Smart was going into the paint he left the wing and started to get closer and that's why he was in a position to get that rebound.  Old School Basketball.  Crash the boards.  I don't know why everybody else was out at the arc, once the clock got under 2-3 seconds there was no time for a kick out pass and a 3pt fga.  And we didn't need 3, we didn't even need 2, we just needed a single point so any possession foul gets us to the line.  I love Pritchard's instincts.  He's not just technically sound, he's a hooper.  Watch this video and see what I'm talking about.  Smart was definitely fouled and Pritchard was inching IN from the wing even before Smart jumped (or, at least, tried to before he was driven down with an forearm to his shoulder).



FastPP did have 6 rebounds and 4 assists with zero turnovers.  A rookie point guard with NO turnovers in 20 minutes of play in just his 9th NBA game, with NO summer league and an abbreviated camp and preseason.  

Carsen Edwards with 10 minutes and a pretty decent game.  Nothing too amazing but he did ok.  Semi is turning into a player, but it has taken him 4 years.  Maybe Edwards is showing something in practice to Brad?

GWill with 6 rebounds and pretty good defense on Bam and Precious.  That's all I want.  D-up and rebound.  He also had 2 steals.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401267271




Bob


.

[dbrown4]

PP was 1/2 way to a 3D!! Nice! He's kind of like and Eddie House/Marcus Smart/Dave Cowens all wrapped up into one person.

As Rosalie brought up in the other thread, his response was priceless. Doesn't have to be JaT or JB. THAT's a huge problem for the other side(s) and now they can't cheat on JaT/JB anymore.

BobH, I'll spar with you knowing good and well what's coming!! But in the early stages of my fledgling And 1 stat, after the night before game where we had 6 opportunities for And 1's and made all of 6 subsequent free throws, last night we had zero. Zero opportunities that I saw. Reason why? We didn't drive to the basket consistently at all. Refs aren't going to call And 1's and then when you finally start driving to the basket at the end of the game looking for a foul, you sure as hell aren't going to get a whistle. While the number of free throws per team were whack, I don't think they aren't justified. If you aren't aggressively going to the rack, don't expect much help from the zebras. 4-point plays are very rare. Especially when you are launching 3's and bricking them like we were for a while after the start.

MIA is a far superior defensive team than the previous night's competition. Especially with their junk defenses. The defense is in much better position to challenge sans fouling unlike a less effective defensive team (like let's say Houston) where you can drive a truck down the center lane. Those guys are overreacting and more than likely will foul a guy after he makes the lay up or dunk when they try to close.

I'd be worried if we got a big lead and lost. We're not giving up and are remaining calm, cool and collected like our coach.

Yeah, not sure why Brad is holding up TT. But he nearly gave us what we expect in limited play.

Brad definitely needs to reduce the TT/DT tandem's time together on the court. Thought the 2X4 that belted him in the face after the game before was enough to wake him up. Evidently it knocked him out. But 3 quarters to 1 isn't bad.

db

[cowens/oldschool]

Good to see Jaylen still make contributions, rebounding, defense, passing when his shot was not falling. I don’t know why Brad likes Theis so much, RWill should be given even more minutes IMHO, his scoring ability and efficiency is so much better. Theis has more limitations both ends, guy goes on stretches where he bricks a lot of bunnies that RWill would be finishing. I like seeing the impact/havoc RWill can create playing with 2 J’s and Smart, that’s a lethal 4/5 of a defensive line up. Good win against a very good playoff contender.

[dboss]

I have just two comments.

Brad Stevens needs to play Robert Williams more minutes.  He led our bench in scoring with 8 points going 3-3 from the field and 2-2 from the line.  He only played 15 minutes and for the year he is shooting 77.4% from the field.  How do you not find minutes from a guy that is our most efficient shooter and scorer?

Congratulation to Peyton Pritchard for his game winning follow up basket.  He was so happy and we were too!

[bobheckler]

PP was 1/2 way to a 3D!!  Nice!  He's kind of like and Eddie House/Marcus Smart/Dave Cowens all wrapped up into one person.  

As Rosalie brought up in the other thread, his response was priceless.  Doesn't have to be JaT or JB.  THAT's a huge problem for the other side(s) and now they can't cheat on JaT/JB anymore.

BobH, I'll spar with you knowing good and well what's coming!!  But in the early stages of my fledgling And 1 stat, after the night before game where we had 6 opportunities for And 1's and made all of 6 subsequent free throws, last night we had zero.  Zero opportunities that I saw.  Reason why?  We didn't drive to the basket consistently at all.  Refs aren't going to call And 1's and then when you finally start driving to the basket at the end of the game looking for a foul, you sure as hell aren't going to get a whistle.  While the number of free throws per team were whack, I don't think they aren't justified.   If you aren't aggressively going to the rack, don't expect much help from the zebras.  4-point plays are very rare.  Especially when you are launching 3's and bricking them like we were for a while after the start.    

MIA is a far superior defensive team than the previous night's competition.  Especially with their junk defenses.  The defense is in much better position to challenge sans fouling unlike a less effective defensive team (like let's say Houston) where you can drive a truck down the center lane.  Those guys are overreacting and more than likely will foul a guy after he makes the lay up or dunk when they try to close.

I'd be worried if we got a big lead and lost.  We're not giving up and are remaining calm, cool and collected like our coach.  

Yeah, not sure why Brad is holding up TT.  But he nearly gave us what we expect in limited play.

Brad definitely needs to reduce the TT/DT tandem's time together on the court.  Thought the 2X4 that belted him in the face after the game before was enough to wake him up.  Evidently it knocked him out.  But 3 quarters to 1 isn't bad.  

db        

dbrown,

You needn't fear me.  I can kill you, but I can't eat you.  That's against the law!

Regarding your perspective on driving to create contact vs not driving and not earning fritos let me point out that we had 56 points in the paint, which is a lot!, vs only 40 for Miami.

On the following highlights video (which won't include all of our misses and non-calls precisely because it is a highlight film) you can look at Theis' bucket @ 2:00, Brown's rebound and attempted putback @ 2:34, Butler's shouldering Brown to the floor @ 2:50, Theis getting sandwiched and Tatum getting knocked off the court on the offensive board @ 3:14, a marginal "and 1" call for Butler on Smart @ 3:18, the flop by Robinson for the +1 on his 3pt fgm @ 8:45, the non-call on Smart's drive @ 9:18 that gave Pritchard his chance to win the game and, lest we forget, the foul call on Smart @ the half on Herro's buzzer beating 3/4 court heave with .1 seconds left in the half.  Was it a foul?  Marginally, but 9 times out of 10 refs won't blow it.  This was that one time out of ten and it put Herro on the line for 3, he made 2.  That's the difference between being up 10 at the half vs 8.   Those 2 ftm were why we needed Pritchard's heroics, without them we would have been up 2 and the ball and the game clock running down instead of tied and needing to run a play.




Bob

.

[sinus007]

Hi,
I also have two comments.
Why in the world Brad was keeping CE on the floor for so long, especially in the 4th quarter? Most of the time he was useless. Even when he's had perfect opportunity (2 completely open 3pt shots) he failed. I got worried that something happened with MS.

Our defense is starting to click (knock on wood). I hope they'll keep it clicking.

AK

[bobheckler]

Leave it to Evan Turner to provide the quote-du-jour via Twitter:



Taylor Snow
@taylorcsnow
·
Jan 6, 2021
Replying to @taylorcsnow
I really gotta know how @thekidet roasted PP's celly tho

Evan Turner
@thekidet
He cheered like he won a spelling bee
8:00 PM · Jan 6, 2021


Bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

I have just two comments.

Brad Stevens needs to play Robert Williams more minutes.  He led our bench in scoring with 8 points going 3-3 from the field and 2-2 from the line.  He only played 15 minutes and for the year he is shooting 77.4% from the field.  How do you not find minutes from a guy that is our most efficient shooter and scorer?

Congratulation to Peyton Pritchard for his game winning follow up basket.  He was so happy and we were too!

Great minds think alike

[dboss]

I have just two comments.

Brad Stevens needs to play Robert Williams more minutes.  He led our bench in scoring with 8 points going 3-3 from the field and 2-2 from the line.  He only played 15 minutes and for the year he is shooting 77.4% from the field.  How do you not find minutes from a guy that is our most efficient shooter and scorer?

Congratulation to Peyton Pritchard for his game winning follow up basket.  He was so happy and we were too!

Great minds think alike

Rob had at least 2 very loud rebounds where his pure jumping ability was on display.  I think several of our rotation guys are playing very well including Semi, Grant and RW.  RW has played the best of all 3.

[worcester]

But RWill gets the fewest minutes. Brad logic.

[worcester]

RWill outjumped Bam to tip the last 0.2 second inbound away from the basket - WITHOUT fouling him.

[bobheckler]

PP was 1/2 way to a 3D!!  Nice!  He's kind of like and Eddie House/Marcus Smart/Dave Cowens all wrapped up into one person.  

As Rosalie brought up in the other thread, his response was priceless.  Doesn't have to be JaT or JB.  THAT's a huge problem for the other side(s) and now they can't cheat on JaT/JB anymore.

BobH, I'll spar with you knowing good and well what's coming!!  But in the early stages of my fledgling And 1 stat, after the night before game where we had 6 opportunities for And 1's and made all of 6 subsequent free throws, last night we had zero.  Zero opportunities that I saw.  Reason why?  We didn't drive to the basket consistently at all.  Refs aren't going to call And 1's and then when you finally start driving to the basket at the end of the game looking for a foul, you sure as hell aren't going to get a whistle.  While the number of free throws per team were whack, I don't think they aren't justified.   If you aren't aggressively going to the rack, don't expect much help from the zebras.  4-point plays are very rare.  Especially when you are launching 3's and bricking them like we were for a while after the start.    

MIA is a far superior defensive team than the previous night's competition.  Especially with their junk defenses.  The defense is in much better position to challenge sans fouling unlike a less effective defensive team (like let's say Houston) where you can drive a truck down the center lane.  Those guys are overreacting and more than likely will foul a guy after he makes the lay up or dunk when they try to close.

I'd be worried if we got a big lead and lost.  We're not giving up and are remaining calm, cool and collected like our coach.  

Yeah, not sure why Brad is holding up TT.  But he nearly gave us what we expect in limited play.

Brad definitely needs to reduce the TT/DT tandem's time together on the court.  Thought the 2X4 that belted him in the face after the game before was enough to wake him up.  Evidently it knocked him out.  But 3 quarters to 1 isn't bad.  

db        

Dbrown,

The NBA's Last Two Minutes Report backs me up.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
1 hour ago
All in all, 4 missed calls in MIA-BOS L2M report, all in favor of Miami. --56.8 missed foul on Duncan Robinson --50.9 missed foul on Jimmy Butler --38.8 incorrect foul call on Tatum on Robinson 3 --1.8 missed foul call on Duncan Robinson (Smart's drive)


Bob


.

[dbrown4]

No fear, bobh. Just loads of respect because you bring your A game to this site every day!

For my And 1's analysis, I'm going to narrow my definition of in the paint to be from half way down the lane almost to the "charge" arc and from there to the rim. I probably need to determine where on the court the And 1's seem to be happening most. I'm guessing on the way to the basket with the intent of a layup or dunk. That's not to say they don't occur all over the court but my hypothesis is more And 1's are prevalent right around the rim. Shouldn't be too hard to prove, I'm thinking. Very narrow range, I know. We may have had considerably more points in the paint but they were more pull ups from the upper part of the lane and not full attempts ll the way down the lane for a lay up or dunk.

Glad we played well against the team that knocked us out of the playoffs. They come to Boston next week I believe.

db

[worcester]

Bob brings the receipts for all transactions!

[cowens/oldschool]

RWill outjumped Bam to tip the  last 0.2 second inbound away from the basket - WITHOUT fouling him.

This kid is an athletic freak with freakish reach, I was saying in preseason he’s our X factor. Was so looking forward to seeing how he would do against Bam and Precious and he more than held his own. Last game he got 15 boards it seemed in a blink of an eye. Play him Brad, this kid can lead the league in blocked shots and rebounding if he can stay healthy and he gets minutes. He’s leading the league in offensive rebounding, play him....

[worcester]

Yes, play him.

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