Celtics Drop a Close one to The Lakers

For a game between the leagues biggest rivals and two of the better teams in the league, very little was learned about watching this 96-95 game.
We know Lebron and Walker had subpar games. The other three stars in the game played very well.
We still know that Boston needs more production from their bench.
We still know that Gasol maybe/probably is not the Lakers answer as a starting center.
No clear conculsions should be made for either team based on this game.
Keep moving on with the schedule.

kdp59 wrote:this

https://sports.yahoo.com/isaiah-thomas-rules-celtics-return-153824837.html


and please stop on the Pritchard is an NBA starter stuff.

Sorry kdp59, I tried to curb my enthusiasm but I couldn't. Can anybody come up with a reason why PP cannot start at PG? One reason is that KW is still here and has more experience. Danny might try again to trade him and it does not make a whole lot of sense to trade KW for another PG now that we know that Danny made a well above average selection with PP.

Boston will be in good shape with a PG who shoots the ball well and averages 12-15 PPG and 5-6 assists and can play a little defense. That profile fits a guy like PP.

I do not know how long KW will be on this team. I do not see him on this team for 2 and a half more years.

Danny Ainge is suffering from Buyer's Remorse. I am not wanting to blow up the team. As long as Jayson, Jaylen and Smart stay, the team is blowup proof.

tjmakz wrote:For a game between the leagues biggest rivals and two of the better teams in the league, very little was learned about watching this 96-95 game.
We know Lebron and Walker had subpar games. The other three stars in the game played very well.
We still know that Boston needs more production from their bench.
We still know that Gasol maybe/probably is not the Lakers answer as a starting center.
No clear conclusions should be made for either team based on this game.
Keep moving on with the schedule.

What the Celtics should have learned is that the talent gap between our two up and coming wings and our collection of centers is pretty wide.  Nevertheless, this came down to a one possession game that probably should have been won by Boston.  

Gasol at center is an ugly look for LA.  LA won the title last year with minimal contribution from their centers.  Every single game feature either James or Davis leading the team in points and rebounds.  The Lakers are at their best with Davis at center.

These teams do not play against each other enough to really get a sense of how they match up.  2 games a year separated by 3,000 plus miles has greatly diminished the rivalry.  At least back during the Bird/Magic era we played 4 times a year.  Further back to the Russell years they played 8 times.

dboss wrote:

tjmakz wrote:For a game between the leagues biggest rivals and two of the better teams in the league, very little was learned about watching this 96-95 game.
We know Lebron and Walker had subpar games. The other three stars in the game played very well.
We still know that Boston needs more production from their bench.
We still know that Gasol maybe/probably is not the Lakers answer as a starting center.
No clear conclusions should be made for either team based on this game.
Keep moving on with the schedule.

What the Celtics should have learned is that the talent gap between our two up and coming wings and our collection of centers is pretty wide.  Nevertheless, this came down to a one possession game that probably should have been won by Boston.  

Gasol at center is an ugly look for LA.  LA won the title last year with minimal contribution from their centers.  Every single game feature either James or Davis leading the team in points and rebounds.  The Lakers are at their best with Davis at center.

These teams do not play against each other enough to really get a sense of how they match up.  2 games a year separated by 3,000 plus miles has greatly diminished the rivalry.  At least back during the Bird/Magic era we played 4 times a year.  Further back to the Russell years they played 8 times.

Up by 7 with 1:40 left in the game, the Lakers should have closed it out, but didn't.
The Lakers will almost always play Davis at center at the end of games.
Their closing lineup often seems to be Davis, Lebron, Caruso, Schroeder and either KCP, Kuzma or Harrell.
LA does not want to play Davis at center all the time, for 72 games plus the playoffs.
I think the Lakers will look to acquire a center in the near future.
Hopefully soon after this Saturday which is the day when all players who signed as free agents this offseason can be traded.
Maybe someone to take over as starting center or share time with Gasol.
Playing against Jokic, Nurkic, Drummond, Gobert, Embiid, Adams, etc., you need a large center.
Harrell is just too small against those players.
Gasol is just too slow and ineffective.
I only remember LA and Boston playing twice per year.
It looks like it was during the 1979-80 season that the NBA changes the schedules so that east vs. west teams only meet two times per season.

In the Last two minute (L2M) report for the Lakers/Celtics game, every play in the last 2 minutes of the game is listed as a correct call or a correct no call.

https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport.html?gameId=0022000302

TJ

you are right about that

It looks like it was during the 1979-80 season that the NBA changes the schedules so that east vs. west teams only meet two times per season.[/quote]

I guess I have been a fan for so long that some of the years have been folded into each other.

The last year the Celtics played the Lakers 4 times in the regular season was the 1978-79 season.

Expansion changed things quite a bit.

kdp59 wrote:this

https://sports.yahoo.com/isaiah-thomas-rules-celtics-return-153824837.html


and please stop on the Pritchard is an NBA starter stuff.

Nice going Danny. Yeah Jeff Teague is working out just fine. If I.T. has given up then it must be dead and stinking. Thanks Danny. Thanks a lot.

dboss wrote:TJ

you are right about that

It looks like it was during the 1979-80 season that the NBA changes the schedules so that east vs. west teams only meet two times per season.

I guess I have been a fan for so long that some of the years have been folded into each other.

The last year the Celtics  played the Lakers  4 times in the regular season was the 1978-79 season.

Expansion changed things quite a bit.  [/quote]

Hopefully something happens to the Lakers plane and we will be down to playing them zero times per year.

dboss wrote:

BingBang! wrote:Much more likely Brad benching Jaylen made him great. Because Jaylen is great (almost) and Brad benched him. Your conjecture that Brad could have ruined him is supported by nothing but the near impossibility of proving a negative.

Bullshit!

If you listen to a relatively recent interview Jaylen talks about what happened.  He was in a bad place mentally.  Brad and Danny were totally disconnected to what was going on inside of Jaylen.  Jaylen did not share his feelings with them and maybe he did not trust them enough.  To me you did not have to ask.  You benched him.  The benching of Jaylen Brown did not make him great.  Jaylen is a gifted athlete that also happens to have a great work ethic and a great mind.  That is what has turned him into  a great player.  I think it is relevant not to alter the history of what actually transpired.  You have to examine Brown and Tatum taking us to game 7 of the ECF without the Great Kyrie Irving and Brad's favorite Gordon Hayward.  Jaylen's rise began in that playoffs and his reward was a diminished 25.9 MPG off the bench the following year.  Brad made that decision because Brad is at times an idiot of a coach.  The entire year was one where Brad had decisions to make and he blew most of them and lost control over the team.  

The other day a reporter was asking Jaylen about his role in having the ball and making plays.  basically about his usage.  His response was that he was getting more opportunities.   He never tied usage to his skills.  He said it was all about opportunities.  That tells me that in his mind he could have already been able to do the things that we see now.  Brad up until this season has in fact limited Jaylen Brown and he in some respects has been doing the same thing with Robert Williams.  So that is one reason why I stated that Brad pisses me off sometimes

Well I agree with half of what your saying in this post which offers reason rather than hyperbole and conjecture (after your greeting which was, well never mind).  Specifically the first paragraph seems spot on. The second paragraph again refers to state of mind or someone’s idea of their talent, skills, etc. versus reality. Jaylen until this year had a so so handle and he got to the hole on blow buys, transition points all exploiting his amazing athleticism. Now that he’s 24 and improved a lot as do most eventual great players who enter the NBA with only one year of college, this year he’s dribbling and feinting (body direction  fake) much much better than in the past and taking on guys one on one. In the past he couldn’t do that very well. RWill didn’t get important time because he was lost on defense too much of the time and now that he isn’t getting lost on defense he’s playing more. I disagree that Brad is sometimes an idiot, defined by Webster as a foolish or stupid person. Yes, Brad made a mistake starting Hayward over Jaylen. But he wasn't the first coach to start a veteran all star over a more deserving up and coming all star, and he won't be the last. You’ve heard of Havlicek and McHale. Moving on, what I wrote in an earlier post was that I opposed your writing that Brad "almost ruined Jaylen." I think that makes Jaylen seem extremely fragile, lacking in agency and frankly is unrealistic to the modern NBA in which the players have ultimate agency -- they pretty much play where they want; especially the really good ones. Lastly, I showed that in light of Jaylen signing a four year deal right around the time of your argument that he was almost being ruined by the idiot coach contradicted your assertion --- nearly absolutely. It’s still far more likely Brad (and I’ll add Danny per the reporting and interview) helped make Jaylen great, something for which there is ample evidence than they nearly ruined him something that is non-reality based.

bing bang

You just never know how a young guy is going to respond to adversity.  Brown has proved to be a strong and resilient young man.  Brad had nothing to do with that.  Brown had no ill will and resigned for what now looks like short money.  Brown was able to work through the low point and ascend to higher heights. But there is no doubt that his benching was hurtful.  It motivated him to be better and prove all the naysayers wrong.  But in the process he went through a lot of anxiety. It was very unfair and unnecessary.

I would not have reduced significantly the minutes for a guy who played 30 per game and was a key to getting us into a 7 game ECF opportunity.  So I fault Brad Stevens for not recognizing that the problem was not with Jaylen.  In some people's minds including my own, Jaylen had work to do mainly on his handle but this leap that we are seeing in his production may be more about opportunity than just skill improvement.  It is unlikely that his 27 PPG average is just built on skill.  He is getting the ball up top instead of being buried in the corner by coach Stevens.  He stated that his increased usage rate is more about opportunity and ability.  Opportunity = coaching decision.

To be clear I do not think Brad is an idiot coach.  However he did in fact make an idiot coaching decision when he benched our best SG at both ends of the floor just one year removed from an 18 PPG showing in the Playoffs against Lebron James and Company after having beaten both the Sixers and Bucks.  I really do not think Brad is an idiot coach but his decision to play Grant Williams at center and not give RW more playing time at CENTER was in fact an idiot coaching decision.  Only an idiot coaching decision could imagine a 6' 6" non athletic below the rim, Can't rebound, devoid of any real scoring ability as a better option at center than a real center.

This team needs to get better and that also means that coach Stevens has to be a better coach.

Here is a candid piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57kKl49l8s

Re: bullshit was not meant to offend you. if so i apologize. I just believe that the JB saga the year that he got benched was BS

I do think that Most of Brown’s development is because of the work that brown has put in. He does work with trainers and yes his coaches have helped but I don’t believe the benching did.
I also would not compare Havlicek and McHale’s coming off the bench to Brown going to the bench having his minutes cut and coming of the bench. McHales’s and Havlicek’s was strategic and by design. Brown’s was designed to get Gordon back on the floor and was clearly a mistake.