POST GAME - NO PELICANS

Celtics Wrap: Boston Can’t Comeback, Falls To Pelicans 115-109
A tough loss for the Celtics


NESN by Lauren Campbell

Fans seeing their first Boston Celtics game at TD Garden in 386 days did not get to see a win.

The Celtics dropped their Monday night game against Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans 115-109.

Boston kept it close for the first half, but began to fall apart in the third and was unable to come back in the fourth.

Jayson Tatum (34), Kemba Walker (23), Marcus Smart (15), Payton Pritchard (11) and Luke Kornet (10) all had double-figure points for Boston. But Williamson’s 28 points coupled with Brandon Ingram’s 25 proved to be too much for the Celtics.

With the loss, the Celtics dipped back below .500, 23-34, while the Pelicans improved to 21-25.

Jayson Tatum Passes Avery Bradley On Celtics’ All-Time 3-Point List

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kemba Walker
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Grant Williams
C: Robert Williams

TATUM STAYS HOT
The opening minutes of the first were close with Tatum hitting a pair of triples and Robert Williams, as he did in Friday’s win, providing both offense and defense for the Celtics.

Tatum had 11 of Boston’s 13 points in the first four minutes of the game to help keep the Celtics ahead 13-12.

A Walker trey extended the lead to four, but New Orleans stayed in it and kept it close before Boston pulled out to a six-point lead with just over five minutes to go in the opening quarter.

But a 14-2 run by the Pelicans put the visiting team up 32-27 after one.


Tatum paced all shooters with 16 points.

PELICANS CAN’T MISS FROM DEEP
New Orleans extended its lead to as much as nine in the opening minutes of the second, but a quick 5-0 Boston run capped by Pritchard’s second one from deep but the C’s within four and forced the Pelicans to call a timeout.

The Pelicans just couldn’t seem to miss, though, and went back up by seven, but a 3-pointer from newcomer Kornet made it a two-point game.

But each time the Celtics made it a one-possession game, New Orleans found a way to make its lead bigger with help from Kira Lewis Jr. and Josh Hart seemingly sinking everything they shot from deep.


The Celtics continued to fight back and kept the game close throughout the quarter, but Brad Stevens called a timeout with 3:53 left in the half to help the team group.

It didn’t seem to work, though, as the Pelicans took a 64-55 lead into the break.

Tatum, once again, led the way with 18 points. Hart led New Orleans with 15, while the Pelicans shot 61.1% from downtown.

YIKES
Boston made it a one-possession game in the first two minutes of the third, and took back the lead briefly before New Orleans tied things up at 70-70.


Some back-and-forth action continued before New Orleans went up by six.

Smart, for whatever, decided to chuck the ball with a fresh shot clock, essentially wasting a possession and helping the Pelicans’ lead get back up to nine.

It wasn’t the best quarter for Smart, who bricked a 3-point shot and gave up a dunk.


Pritchard played some nice defense to stop the Pels from going up by seven, but they were able to get a final bucket before the third ended for the 88-81 edge.

Tatum, despite cooling down since the first quarter, led Boston with 20 points at the end of three.

PELICANS NEARLY BLOW IT
Boston appeared to run out of gas and couldn’t score consistently. A bunch of missed layups and some costly fouls allowed New Orleans to go up 100-84 with just over minutes left.


Pritchard sank a 3-pointer to try to get something going, but the Pelicans were too much and pulled out to a 17-point lead at one point.


The Celtics tried to come back, and made an 8-0 run in the final two minutes to make it a bit interesting.


Tatum hit a clutch 3-point shot to make it a three-point game.


But in the end, the Celtics just couldn’t get it done.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Kornet certainly made Celtics fans happy Monday night.


UP NEXT
The Celtics are back in action Wednesday when they welcome the Dallas Mavericks to Boston. Tip-off from TD Garden is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Celtics stayed close to a tough NO offense. Pels don’t always defend well, but the offensive talent level on that team is tough for Boston to keep up with. NO is tougher than their record would lead you to expect. Both teams had rotation players out.

Officials had a couple of bad calls each way, but mostly let them play. Good and bad calls pretty much balanced for each team so really didn’t determine the outcome.

Zion on his way to becoming one of the top 2 or 3 players in the league (possibly the best), with a talented supporting cast. The way they’re developing I’m glad they’re over in the West.

Henry VIII from Ghost. 2nd verse, same of the 1st. Another 2-game win streak halted at home no less. Not a good start for the 10-game stint. Injuries, COVID protocol,players out, new team members fitting in, sun rising in the West, etc. for excuses. I'll withhold judgment until after the 10th game, but you can't move up in the standings if you aren't winning. Mathematically impossible. We'll see! This we can count on. It will all unfold right before our eyes!

db

As Brad goes, so does the Celtics!

112288

More Luke, please, and a side of Pritchard.

worcester wrote:More Luke, please, and a side of Pritchard.

You mean the Green Kornet?  

I agree. Having a mobile 7-footer (+) guy is refreshing. With Time Lord starting to click and add a little bit of Wagner, pick and rolls can get us some easy baskets.

Plus two out of those three players can shoot the 3-ball.

I have to disagree with NYCelt on one issue, I don't think the bad calls were both ways.  I think they clearly favored the visitors.  We were getting hammered, even down to the floor, and not getting whistles.  I make comments about the refs on the Game On! thread, but those are real-time observations and don't reflect the game as a whole, I'm saying them as I see them without necessarily compiling them into a total perspective.  Today, thinking about the game as a whole, I don't think it was both ways.  Just my 2c on this.  They had 30 ftas vs 19 for us.  There were a total of 25 fouls called on us vs 20 for them, so a much higher percentage of their whistles resulted in fritos than us.  Sometimes that happens when you just bomb away from outside but we were attacking the rim too.

Zion is an absolute beast.  Remember when we'd talk about what a tough cover Charles Barkley was because he was 6'6", 260# and moved like a SF?  Zion is about the same height and 285# and glides like a guard.  Float like a big ol' dragonfly and sting like a murder hornet.  Kornet played decent defense on him in the first half with his length but Zion just shouldered him, and everybody else, aside in the 2nd half.  Fournier defended him for a while.  He actually got his hands on the ball a few times and stripped Zion, but Zion was able to get it back and put it in both times.  Something like 92% of Zion's shots are in the paint.  That's truly amazing.  I have no idea how long a body that big can take the pounding but he's going to be a great one if he lasts.

The bench, overall, did ok I thought.  21 points of our 109.  The big downer, of course, was Fournier's 0-10 debut.  But if you look at his shots, they were mostly good shots, maybe one or two were questionable.  The rest were at the rim or open 3s, exactly the type of shots we want him to take and he normally would hit.  In other words, play this game again tomorrow with Evan Fournier taking the exact same shots and I'm betting he'll hit at least 4 or 5 out of 10, if not more.  He was obviously playing very tight.  Of his 10 fgas 5 were 3s, 5 weren't.  No NBA player consistently misses 2s.  I'm not worried about Fournier's scoring any more than I am about Nesmith's.  That's the last part of their games I'm looking at.

So we've now seen all 3 of the incoming traded players:  Fournier, Wagner and Kornet.  They were ranked, in terms of best players to worst, as I listed them above.  Evan Fournier is an NBA starting guard, admittedly on a lousy team, who is a proven NBA player and would be a positive addition to any bench.  Moritz Wagner was billed as a sturdy, high energy banger, a Plumlee-class battle cruiser, and Luke Kornet was the marginal NBA player who was in the league mainly because you can't teach 7'2".  It was predicted by pundits, and myself, that Kornet would be waived by the Celtics.  Well, it's all upside down...so far.  Kornet has been the fan darling with his 3s and defense, Wagner is the bulldog but Fournier floundered in the area of his greatest value.  Overall, I'm quite satisfied.  I'm satisfied because Fournier is a shooter, that's who he is and what he does.  Does anybody think he's going to continue to shoot like that?  Of course not, he had "new team jitters".  When he settles in he's going to be that great addition to our bench.  Wagner gives us another physical presence down low.  To be honest, I'm not totally convinced of his skill sets, but he brings energy and size and sometimes that's a game changer.  And now we're going to have to start calling Luke Kornet Luke Score-net, because he's scoring inside and outside.  10 points on 4-6, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in 13 minutes is productive time for a "marginal" player.  In fact, his play over these last 2 games he's been in might be making Danny reconsider who to look at on the buyout market.  He might be changing from "let's sign a big" (e.g. Drummond, who he took a run at, or Dieng?) to "let's sign a ball handler". To say that Kornet is a pleasant surprise is an understatement.

Our defense, once again, failed at the perimeter.  They got too many open 3s, which they hit.  We, on the other hand, didn't hit ours.  Kemba 2-9, Fournier 0-5, Smart 0-6.  2-20 right there out of our 43 total 3pt fgas.

Speaking of Smart, he was right there in the middle of our collapses and also right there in the middle of our rallies, so both good and bad.  He had one of the dumbest plays I have ever seen from him, a true brain fart by any standards.  With .3 seconds left on the Pelicans' shot clock there was a jump ball between Brandon Ingram and scrappy PP who earned a Tommy Point by going to the floor and tying him up for the jump.  Ingram didn't want to touch the ball, because the shot clock would expire.  Pritchard, on the 2nd toss by the ref because both of them let the ball hit the floor, tipped it back to Smart who did a 3/4 court heave at their basket as if there was .3 seconds left on the game clock and not on the shot clock.  Pelicans ball after his heave went out of bounds.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401307497


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:I have to disagree with NYCelt on one issue, I don't think the bad calls were both ways.  I think they clearly favored the visitors.  We were getting hammered, even down to the floor, and not getting whistles.  I make comments about the refs on the Game On! thread, but those are real-time observations and don't reflect the game as a whole, I'm saying them as I see them without necessarily compiling them into a total perspective.  Today, thinking about the game as a whole, I don't think it was both ways.  Just my 2c on this.  They had 30 ftas vs 19 for us.  There were a total of 25 fouls called on us vs 20 for them, so a much higher percentage of their whistles resulted in fritos than us.  Sometimes that happens when you just bomb away from outside but we were attacking the rim too.

Zion is an absolute beast.  Remember when we'd talk about what a tough cover Charles Barkley was because he was 6'6", 260# and moved like a SF?  Zion is about the same height and 285# and glides like a guard.  Float like a big ol' dragonfly and sting like a murder hornet.  Kornet played decent defense on him in the first half with his length but Zion just shouldered him, and everybody else, aside in the 2nd half.  Fournier defended him for a while.  He actually got his hands on the ball a few times and stripped Zion, but Zion was able to get it back and put it in both times.  Something like 92% of Zion's shots are in the paint.  That's truly amazing.  I have no idea how long a body that big can take the pounding but he's going to be a great one if he lasts.

The bench, overall, did ok I thought.  21 points of our 109.  The big downer, of course, was Fournier's 0-10 debut.  But if you look at his shots, they were mostly good shots, maybe one or two were questionable.  The rest were at the rim or open 3s, exactly the type of shots we want him to take and he normally would hit.  In other words, play this game again tomorrow with Evan Fournier taking the exact same shots and I'm betting he'll hit at least 4 or 5 out of 10, if not more.  He was obviously playing very tight.  Of his 10 fgas 5 were 3s, 5 weren't.  No NBA player consistently misses 2s.  I'm not worried about Fournier's scoring any more than I am about Nesmith's.  That's the last part of their games I'm looking at.

So we've now seen all 3 of the incoming traded players:  Fournier, Wagner and Kornet.  They were ranked, in terms of best players to worst, as I listed them above.  Evan Fournier is an NBA starting guard, admittedly on a lousy team, who is a proven NBA player and would be a positive addition to any bench.  Moritz Wagner was billed as a sturdy, high energy banger, a Plumlee-class battle cruiser, and Luke Kornet was the marginal NBA player who was in the league mainly because you can't teach 7'2".  It was predicted by pundits, and myself, that Kornet would be waived by the Celtics.  Well, it's all upside down...so far.  Kornet has been the fan darling with his 3s and defense, Wagner is the bulldog but Fournier floundered in the area of his greatest value.  Overall, I'm quite satisfied.  I'm satisfied because Fournier is a shooter, that's who he is and what he does.  Does anybody think he's going to continue to shoot like that?  Of course not, he had "new team jitters".  When he settles in he's going to be that great addition to our bench.  Wagner gives us another physical presence down low.  To be honest, I'm not totally convinced of his skill sets, but he brings energy and size and sometimes that's a game changer.  And now we're going to have to start calling Luke Kornet Luke Score-net, because he's scoring inside and outside.  10 points on 4-6, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and a block in 13 minutes is productive time for a "marginal" player.  In fact, his play over these last 2 games he's been in might be making Danny reconsider who to look at on the buyout market.  He might be changing from "let's sign a big" (e.g. Drummond, who he took a run at, or Dieng?) to "let's sign a ball handler".  To say that Kornet is a pleasant surprise is an understatement.

Our defense, once again, failed at the perimeter.  They got too many open 3s, which they hit.  We, on the other hand, didn't hit ours.  Kemba 2-9, Fournier 0-5, Smart 0-6.  2-20 right there out of our 43 total 3pt fgas.

Speaking of Smart, he was right there in the middle of our collapses and also right there in the middle of our rallies, so both good and bad.  He had one of the dumbest plays I have ever seen from him, a true brain fart by any standards.  With .3 seconds left on the Pelicans' shot clock there was a jump ball between Brandon Ingram and scrappy PP who earned a Tommy Point by going to the floor and tying him up for the jump.  Ingram didn't want to touch the ball, because the shot clock would expire.  Pritchard, on the 2nd toss by the ref because both of them let the ball hit the floor, tipped it back to Smart who did a 3/4 court heave at their basket as if there was .3 seconds left on the game clock and not on the shot clock.  Pelicans ball after his heave went out of bounds.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401307497


Bob


.

If you look at how many times a Boston player was on the floor vs. how many times a New Orleans player was on the floor, yes, the higher amount was definitely for Boston.
That is almost exclusively because of Marcus Smart's theatrics.
He is a master of taking charges and drawing offensive fouls.
But, the referees are aware that he is probably the biggest flopper in the league.
Scal, as he often is, was wrong about the non-foul against Adams when Marcus flopped backwards looking for an offensive charge call near the end of the game.

The patterns are not great for the Celtics but they deserve patience to get Fournier acclimated.
Wagner and Kornet were not rotation players with their previous teams.
I don't expect them to be rotation players toward the end of the season, especially when Jaylen is playing 35 mpg.

NBA reffing is a like box of chocolates, so I’ve learned to complain less. That said, NO was getting physical with Jason which is fine except a couple times they were dirty/could injure him; in particular there was a moving pick with the NO players’s knee extended that impacted Tatum’s thigh but easily could have wiped out his knee. THAT to me is a real flagrant foul. The refs as often happens called the retaliation foul; when Tatum swiped a NO player in the face; not the far more serious prior NO foul I cited. The foul on Jason led to a 6 point swing (-2 wiped out on the foul, NO 2 foul shots, NO 2 point field goal) for NO that blew open the game at that time up until the comeback.

I also feel NBA has a real problem and I can’t believe how bad the officiating has gotten, you could say it was always bad, still pissed at that ref who let Rondo get raked in the face on a crucial lay up in that 12 playoff game, with no call....??? The way Theis constantly got blatant calls and non calls has me questioning is there reverse racism going on? There’s always incidental contact on every play, never saw anyone get more bad calls for guys hitting him/shouldering him first when he was just standing there than Theis, it was so out of control. We constantly have been getting key ticky tack calls against us, the kind that turn a 6 point  deficit into a 9 point deficit, when it should have went down to 4 or 3, those kind of calls always effect the game.

We would have won if Jaylen played, no doubt. If Smart or Frenchy just hit a couple 3’s we win too. Great stand late during 15-0 run. These refs are blind half the time, they are so bad.

Mark Murphy @Murf56
about 1 hour ago
About the Celtics’ (and every other team’s) trouble with Zion. Semi Ojeleye (out with oblique strain) would have been a big help last night. He’s the Celtics’ best swing defender against mobile power forwards.

Not that I'm defending every call made by the officials, even though I maintain last night's calls went equally good and bad both ways...

Calling a basketball game at at the NBA level may be the most difficult ref job in pro sports. One of my original business mentors, Tom Ward, was an NBA ref. It was enlightening to hear him talk about it. The speed of play and close movement often can screen all three officials. Judgement calls on the fly are not easy. Replay helps, but you can't stop the game on every single call.

In most sports, basketball included, a win or loss shouldn't and doesn't usually hinge on an official's call. If it does, there is probably something somewhere in the game that you could have done to prevent it. You know, like score more points or play better defense...

Evan had an inauspicious baptism in a Celtics uniform. If he ever goes 0-10 again, he may be referred to as Evan The Terrible.

I like Kornet because he looks agile out there and has some good overall skills. His 3 point shooting can be appreciated in the context of his past performances. He shot 35.4% with the Knicks in his rookie year and followed that up with 36.3% in his second year. That was on 4 attempts per game. His experience 117 games is virtually the same as Wagnor 116 games. I think Boston has found their stretch 5.

While this first game at home, with fans periodically chanting refs you suck, was not the best start of some home cooking, 3 teams directly above us also lost their last game. No loss and no gain.

Mavs up Wed. Let's go get this one.

dboss wrote:Evan had an inauspicious baptism in a Celtics uniform.  If he ever goes 0-10 again, he may be referred to as Evan The Terrible.

I like Kornet  because he looks agile out there and has some good overall skills.  His 3 point shooting can be appreciated in the context of his past performances.  He shot 35.4% with the Knicks in his rookie year and followed that up with 36.3% in his second year.   That was on 4 attempts per game.  His experience 117 games is virtually the same as Wagnor 116 games.  I think Boston has found their stretch 5.

While this first game at home, with fans periodically chanting refs you suck, was not the best start of some home cooking, 3 teams directly above us also lost their last game.    No loss and no gain.  

Mavs up Wed.  Let's go get this one.

For what we could afford without blowing up the core of the team, Danny did a great job finding 2 ascending young bigs. Never heard of Kornet or saw him play, he definitely has enough size to clog the lane and a 3 point shot. Wagner looks more like a stretch 4 to me. Now if we want to go big we have a lot of promising options, including Tacko who looks a lot better playing with 2 J’s and Smart.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

dboss wrote:Evan had an inauspicious baptism in a Celtics uniform.  If he ever goes 0-10 again, he may be referred to as Evan The Terrible.

I like Kornet  because he looks agile out there and has some good overall skills.  His 3 point shooting can be appreciated in the context of his past performances.  He shot 35.4% with the Knicks in his rookie year and followed that up with 36.3% in his second year.   That was on 4 attempts per game.  His experience 117 games is virtually the same as Wagnor 116 games.  I think Boston has found their stretch 5.

While this first game at home, with fans periodically chanting refs you suck, was not the best start of some home cooking, 3 teams directly above us also lost their last game.    No loss and no gain.  

Mavs up Wed.  Let's go get this one.

For what we could afford without blowing up the core of the team, Danny did a great job finding 2 ascending young bigs. Never heard of Kornet or saw him play, he definitely has enough size to clog the lane and a 3 point shot. Wagner looks more like a stretch 4 to me. Now if we want to go big we have a lot of promising options, including Tacko who looks a lot better playing with 2 J’s and Smart.

Cow,

I'd say the opposite.  Wagner looks like the banger underneath while Kornet is the long range shooter.  Neither are great from 3 but Kornet has shown a willingness to shoot them.

I agree with your overall opinion of the trade deadline moves by Danny.  He didn't do something stupid like trading one of the Js or Smart or even RWill just to stop the bleeding this year (In the offseason, that's something else.  I would not be fall down shocked if we see a Jaylen-for-Beal trade).

28 year old Evan Fournier for useless, almost 33 year old Jeff Teague and a pair of second rounders?  That's a no brainer, Fournier's awful debut notwithstanding.

Theis was going to be gone next year.  He has been a good NBA player for years now, he played for less than what I considered his fair market value, but next year he will be getting his and I'm happy for him.  I've been a big Daniel Theis fan from the beginning and have seen no reason to jump off that bandwagon.  That put Danny in a tough spot though.

Wagner is a high energy big.  I described him as a "Plumlee-class battle cruiser".  We'll see.  I don't see him as a "stretch" player, his 3pt fg% is around 30%.

Kornet's 7'2".  His wingspan is "only" 7'2", so he's not a knuckledragger but he's already taller than most.  If he moves his feet on defense, he could be very versatile.  That might be asking a lot from a 250# man, but that's what I want.  Be mobile.

Wagner is listed at 245# and Kornet is at 250#.  Neither are toothpicks.  Whether they play like toothpicks is another matter.  Wagner comes across like a bulldog and Kornet more like a finesse player but, once again, we'll see if I'm right.

Our bench has been weak.  Danny thought he fixed that with Teague, and maybe Tristan.  Didn't happen, so he fixed it last week and it only cost us 2 second round picks, a very unreliable player on a one-year contract and a player who was probably leaving in 2 months anyway.


Bob


.

Bob exactly, for what our limitations were, Danny did an amazing job, getting some key additions that I see helping us....

cowens/oldschool wrote:Bob exactly, for what our limitations were, Danny did an amazing job, getting some key additions that I see helping us....

Cow,

We went from being one of, if not the, shortest teams in the league to one of the tallest.

Tacko Fall - 7'6", 311#
Luke Kornet - 7'2", 250#
Moe Wagner - 6'11", 245#
Tristan Thompson - 6'9", 245#
Robert Williams - 6'8", 237#

That's a lot of height and beef on the hoof right there (no 'Cow' pun intended).


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Bob exactly, for what our limitations were, Danny did an amazing job, getting some key additions that I see helping us....

Cow,

We went from being one of, if not the, shortest teams in the league to one of the tallest.

Tacko Fall - 7'6", 311#
Luke Kornet - 7'2", 250#
Moe Wagner - 6'11", 245#
Tristan Thompson - 6'9", 245#
Robert Williams - 6'8", 237#

That's a lot of height and beef on the hoof right there (no 'Cow' pun intended).


Bob


.

And the shortest among them is our starting center at this point.

OK by me though. Leaping ability and wingspan can cover it. Guys like Wes Unseld made the HOF as center-forwards with abilities that compensated for being a couple inches below the ideal height.

NYCelt wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Bob exactly, for what our limitations were, Danny did an amazing job, getting some key additions that I see helping us....

Cow,

We went from being one of, if not the, shortest teams in the league to one of the tallest.

Tacko Fall - 7'6", 311#
Luke Kornet - 7'2", 250#
Moe Wagner - 6'11", 245#
Tristan Thompson - 6'9", 245#
Robert Williams - 6'8", 237#

That's a lot of height and beef on the hoof right there (no 'Cow' pun intended).


Bob


.

And the shortest among them is our starting center at this point.

OK by me though. Leaping ability and wingspan can cover it. Guys like Wes Unseld made the HOF as center-forwards with abilities that compensated for being a couple inches below the ideal height.

NYCelt,

Big Wes was another era, and when he set a screen he was so wide you needed to take a taxi to get around him. I agree, overall, though. Human pogo sticks are very much in vogue nowadays at the center position and bully-ball centers are now "role players".


Bob


.

Robert Williams is easily 6’10” just sayin.....