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Celtics Wrap: Jayson Tatum’s First Triple-Double Not Enough Vs. Bulls
Boston's six-game win streak comes to an end

NESN by Alexandra Francisco

Jaylen Brown started things off, and Jayson Tatum tried to finish them for the shorthanded Boston Celtics in a sloppy grind of a game against the Chicago Bulls.

Understandably, without Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Evan Fournier and Robert Williams, the effort wasn’t enough and Boston fell to Chicago, 102-96.

Tatum recorded the first triple-double of his career, and it came down to the last possession, but ultimately the Celtics fell just shy of their seventh straight win thanks to a concentration of costly turnovers down the stretch.

Tatum had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists after really heating up in the fourth quarter, while Brown had a team-high 23 points with four rebounds, one assist and a steal. Tremont Waters, coming into the game in the fourth, added a real spark to make it game with nine points and a great defensive effort.

Nikola Vucevic dropped a game-high 29 points and nine rebounds, and against his old squad, Daniel Theis received a warm welcome back to TD Garden before dropping six points with six rebounds and four assists.


With the loss, the Celtics fall to 31-26 on the season.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Semi Ojeleye
C: Tristan Thompson
SG: Jaylen Brown
PG: Payton Pritchard

NO RUST ON JAYLEN
Despite being severely shorthanded, Brown and Tatum led things off right for the Celtics offense in the opening quarter.

Brown scored a game-high 13 points to start on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting that helped Boston get out to an early 11-2 run, while Tatum had four first frame assists and four rebounds.


And Luke Kornet did this on his first touch of the game against his former squad:


With contributions like that off the bench, including a 3-pointer from Grant Williams, the Celtics got a solid stretch out of their reserves that carried into the second.

The closed out the first quarter up 30-24.

RESERVES ARE RALLYING
Romeo Langford had a strong showing early, serving as the de facto ballhandler of the game by nature of their injury report. And Jabari Parker followed up a pleasant debut with more great energy, driving hard to the hoop to generate more scoring off the bench.

Parker had six points off the bench in the first half, including this beauty.

Tatum got up to seven rebounds and five assists by the half to go with three points, and Pritchard had nine early points as Boston shot 51.3% from the field in the first half.

Vucevic got going in the second quarter with 17 points total, but the Bulls entered the break down 48-42.

BULLS BUILD A LEAD
The Celtics offense frankly became a bit stagnant out of the half, showing off their lack of ballhandler depth. And Vucevic kept doing Vucevic things, and the Bulls closed their gap to just one point.


But Boston started running the ball through Tatum and Brown again to maintain the lead, but couldn’t keep much separation.

And as irony would have it, a double-big lineup with Theis at the 4 ended up hurting the Celtics, even with him now on the Bulls. Boston went almost three minutes without a point as the quarter came towards close.

A 13-2 run by Chicago helped the Bulls enter the final frame with a 74-66 lead.

TATUM AND TREMONT TAKEOVER
Tatum hit a big 3 to start the fourth quarter, and then assisted Parker on a fun alley oop that got them going on a little run.

Starting the quarter, Tremont Waters scored on back-to-back possessions for a quick five points and Tristan Thompson made it a five-point game, assisted by Tatum.

Then, the star forward really locked in, recording his first career triple-double. He worked hard for it, too.


Pritchard hit a big shot to bring the Celtics within three points, and Brown woke back up to close that gap with an even bigger triple to tie it at 90-90.

But Chicago stripped Boston on a few possessions down the stretch, and the Bulls managed to pull it out.

PLAY OF THE GAME
So nice we’re showing it twice. Hopefully this is the first of many.


UP NEXT
Boston gets a few days off to hopefully get that bug out of the locker room and return to some semblance of health. They remain home for a few days to practice and play the Phoenix Suns on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET at TD Garden.

112288

A team we should have beat even without our starting guards on PTO and we didn’t. This one stings. We have the Suns and Brooklyn coming up so lets hope these 2 days off and the PTO’s work for us. Jason (I’m sure he doesn’t really consider this a real triple double. Stop) did look a little tired but gave what he could.
Disappointing loss that didn’t have to happen IMO. This may come back to haunt us. Geez I wonder what that non COVID illness could have been...???????

Too many players out. Again.

That and a bench of 1. Parker was it. After Jabari, we could have brought in a high school team and done as well.

RWIII, Walker, Smart and Fournier. We need those guys on the floor.

Although Tatum had a bad night shooting, he played in MO a pretty good game. He's still doing his best to involve his teamates (i.e. 10 assists) and he ddidn't take many bad shots, he just had a bad shooting night. My respect for him is increasing. Too bad we lost, but we just didn't have enough fire power.

Berlin-T

Agreed, he’s running like the wind indicating he’s over Covid. His first triple double ever!. Some of his passes were things of beauty particularly in the first half. In the first half I had the thought that he’s getting it (and he has it to get); that an exquisite pass to set up a teammate is in many ways better basketball than pure scoring. I also liked his compete factor. First time I ever compared him to Larry or LeBron in my mind (still well behind them but the brilliant passing shows there’s a way). Dominique could score at will but he’s not thought of the way Tatum could be if he shows more of last night’s overall game and approach.

Too many players out, and Tatum looked tired, possibly battling the flu, but decided to play. With Tatum ice cold and team making so many turnovers that are killing us- Danny Ainge, just wasn’t enough firepower. Actually was fun hearing Danny do the game, he was great at that job years ago on TNT....

Some glimmers Tatum has been on a rebounding tear as of late, he’s fearless mixing it up. PP with a very efficient night, maybe he should have put up more shots. Jaylen looked all NBA, then in 2nd half didn’t put up enough shots, sometimes stars have to be selfish and take over....

Yep.  Of the Big 4 for 4th, we blinked first.  Not I can't make my bold prediction because the other team lived up to what I was expecting...we did not.  

Folks, MIL has earned and deserves 4th place or worse and a subsequent firing of the coach in the off season.  And as ESPN's Legler and SVP said late night, MIL hasn't learned jack this season.  In close playoff games late, it's give the ball to Giannis and watch him screw it up, hope he gets fouled. All playoff teams are far smarter than that.  

So doing the math, that leaves 3rd place open but you can't get to 3rd place if you and the current 3rd place team lose at the same time or you lose and they win.  Mathematically impossible. Had a small window of opportunity last night but can't get past a sub-par team at home.  

And the rest of our week looks, well, it could go either way but it definitely has to go the way of two more wins now by Friday or we're back to the play-in game.  I'm more worried about the Suns than the geriatric ward, big hat no cattle Nets.  I still want to see them fold up like a cheap suit in the 1st round.  That will come down to who's on the court if they can even field their Big 3 and mainly who's on the sidelines with Steve Nash.  BKN is about to see this all unravel.  Well, it's already begun.  Can't win championships without defense.  You could have the greatest 5 NBA players of all time on the court.  But if you're going to be a turnstile on defense, somebody in the playoffs will smoke you.  Those teams are there for a host of reason of which one of them is solid defense.  Also, we learned the hard way last year that juggling the line up with injuries and lack of consistently playing together all season long will eventually catch up with you sooner rather than later.  They aren't going to make it.  Wife's paycheck.  That's what I was hoping for/going to predict was a 2nd round match up against those idiots where we obliterate them in 4 games.  

Oh well...still a remote chance.  Just not as likely now.    

db

I don't believe Tatum's over covid yet. I haven't seen anything that would indicate otherwise. I agree with Cowens, he looked tired. I'll bet he is still using the inhaler before the game and maybe at halftime as well.

He has tried to force his way through it, looking to involve others when his game is off is a good sign, IMO.

It was odd seeing Romeo out there playing point.

Listening to Danny Ainge for an entire game was interesting. It kind of forced Scal to move over to be the play-by-play guy later in the game.

Crap just read Jaylen injured his left shoulder during the game, maybe why he didn’t take over the game in 2nd half? Damn if this team could ever get healthy....

Scal and Danny were the announcing crew last night.  As a result there really was no play-by-play guy.  I can't decide if I liked it or not.  After all, I'm watching the game, do I really need someone to tell me what I'm seeing for myself?  An upgrade over Scal would be good, how about Mannix?  I'd say Perk but he speaks with such a Texas drawl it'd be the next quarter by the time he finished his point.

I am not impressed with triple doubles that include 3-17 shooting and 5 turnovers.  You've proven you can do other things than score, Jayson, now prove you know when to stop shooting.  He shot us out of this game, in my opinion.  I understand he wanted to fill the scoring hole created by Smart and Kemba's absence but last night's way didn't work.

Brown with 13 points on 6-6 shooting in the 1st.  At the half he had 13 points on 6-9 shooting.  Ok, so he went 0-3 in a quarter.  So what?  He's still on track.  He had 20 points on 9-12 after 3, so a 7 point, 3-3 3rd.  Excellent.  Then he disappeared.  He ended up with 23 points on 10-15.  3 points on 1-3.  Not enough fgas.  Ice-cold Jayson Tatum on the other hand went 2-7 in the 4th.  We should feed the hot hand, not the cold one.

Fast PP got his first NBA start and, I think, did well.  14 points on 5-8, 2-3 from 3.  He started out tentative, deferred too much to Tatum as a ball handler imo, but came on stronger.  We've had games from Kemba where he didn't score 14 on shooting that efficient.  



Parker with another good outing.  I don't know what his high end might be, but he's the best scoring big off the bench we have, certainly with RWill out and Tristan starting.  He only had 1 rebound in 16 minutes though.  That sucks, especially for a player whose entire game is near the basket.  He's not a stretch-5, he doesn't live at the arc, he should be rebounding.  Please don't be another Jeff Green, Jabari.

When Grant Williams plays within himself he's effective and productive.  A solid positional defender, a high IQ defensive switcher who can defend multiple positions.  On offense I'm comfortable with him taking catch-and-shoot 3s.  He's down to 36.6% this season, but that's not cringeworthy, it's just average.  When he tries to play more than his ability things go south real fast and that's what I think happened last night.  He knew we were very short-handed and he tried to play outside himself and his abilities to offset it and he can't.  He might have a decent career, because he has a high BBIQ, is a good locker room guy and an improving outside shooter but he's not starter and never will be a starter and we just need to recognize who he is and what are reasonable expectations for him.  You know who Grant is starting to remind me a bit of?  Curtis Rowe.  Rowe was an excellent college player at UCLA, as was Sidney Wicks, but neither of them were high quality NBA players and neither of them should have started.  Not their fault, of course, they played their hardest, it was the front office's fault for fielding a team so weak they were the de facto starters, but there it is.  That's Grant.  A great college player, not a bad NBA player but should never start except as "next man up".  He tried to take fouls on Vuc last night.  Stacey King, the Chicago color announcer, was deriding Grant for flopping, claiming "he's 250# and he's falling all over the place".  Uh, he's 235#, Stacey, and Vuc's 260#.  

Nesmith with 2 rebounds in 4 minutes because that's the best part of his game at this point of his development.  He works, he sticks his nose in there and contributes by boarding.  One of his rebounds was a real muscle-tussle, sandwiched between a couple of Bulls.  I'm still confident in his shot.  He's only 21.

Danny's nickname for Luke Kornet is "Big Bird".

Romeo played point for a while last night.  This surprised me but that's because I'm not Brad Stevens.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
about 7 minutes ago
Brad Stevens says Romeo Langford needs to get the primary ballhandling role "in his wheelhouse" eventually, but he's nowhere close to being where he needs to be yet. Said he will eventually get into an Evan Turner type mode but that's down the line

Evan Turner had an absolutely money mid-range turnaround jumpshot.  Turner and Romeo are about the same size.  Who knows?  On the other hand everybody, including Brad, tried to turn Avery Bradley into a point guard and everybody failed.  If, however, we could have a 6'6" point guard with an almost 7' wingspan and who is one of the best wing defenders on the roster that would be a significant skill upgrade and make Romeo a key cog on Brad Stevens' depth chart and we know how much Brad loves versatile multi-positional, if not completely position-less, players.  Last night he was ok, not great, which is what you'd expect at this point.  3 assists, 2 turnovers.  This is actually right on target for his season-to-date, he has a 1.5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.  He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals last night.  His shooting, however, must come along to bring the defender up into him so he can blow past him.

Tremont Waters might have saved his career last night.  9 points on 3-3 in 8 minutes.  1 assist, no turnovers and 2 steals, one that gave us a chance in the final seconds.  I'm still not saying he should be on the team next year but I'm a little more willing to cut him a little slack for the Laker game now (especially since we ended up winning that game anyway).

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Funny how Tremont Waters is better when he plays with better players

Can we say the same thing about Carsen?  I think not, not so far anyway because his "welcome to the NBA" skillset is shooting and he still hasn't shown that.  Waters at least has shown quickness, ball handling and shooting, albeit inconsistently.

The question about our short-handedness last night came up on the Game On! thread.  The argument that Smart and Kemba had "fake sicknesses" doesn't make sense to me.  Here's why:

1.  Having Smart AND Kemba out forced Brad to start a rookie.  That's not a strategy Brad would embrace.

2.  Our only other point guard on the depth chart behind Pritchard was Waters.  Another position Brad wouldn't willingly put himself into.

3.  We were already down RWill and Fournier.  Deliberately keeping TWO starters out for no reason other than "rest" would mean we'd be down 3 starters out of 5 and 4 of our top 7 players.  No coach would deliberately do that to themselves.

4.  "Arrogant" and "over confident" are not words I would apply to Brad Stevens.

5.  Even IF there was a consensus that Smart and Kemba needed the night off to rest, why declare them to be "Out" due to sickness?  Why not list them as "Questionable" or a "Game Time Decision"?  That way they could be at the game, suited up, but not necessarily play.  If we are struggling at halftime Brad could insert one or both of them claiming that the "stomach virus", or whatever, was expelled in the locker room over halftime (e.g. vomiting and/or crapping it out) and was available for service in the 3rd quarter.  There was no need, even if it is all a sham, to have them stay home.  Jaylen has had recurring "knee soreness", but still played in some of those games.  There was no need to declare him "Out" when he might be able to play.  "Questionable" or "Probable" was good enough to provide an excuse for not playing him if we're winning but have him be ready for insertion if we're not.

Viruses and bacteria run through locker rooms like the way pinkeye goes through a kindergarten class.  It's impossible to isolate people who live in such close, and non-sterile, quarters to the point where they are 100% safe and contagion-proof.  

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307666

not only did Jaylen hurt his shoulder, Tristen Thompson was holding his shoulder during the second half. He pushed his way thru, but it definitely affected his game.

They were bigger and more efficient in the middle. Vucevic was a monster when it counted. Theis looks like he is still finding his way and Markenen is a threat. The Celtics just could not match up with them or even come close. The fact that Tatum had a rough night shooting did not help. He missed so many easy shots.

This, in no way, was a game Brad chose to sit three of his major players as was insinuated last night. Why, with a 6 game winning streak going, would he do that? A tired "Brad" taunt. They still could have won this game if the bench had come through a little more. But this is the way this season has gone.

I look forward to am empty injury report list someday, with all players on deck. Then i will sit back and if they fail, accept all the crap you want to throw at me and them. Until them, I am
RosalieTCELTICS, a die hard fan who does not give up on the team that has brought me so much joy

RosalieTCeltics wrote:This, in no way, was a game Brad chose to sit three of his major players as was insinuated last night. Why, with a 6 game winning streak going, would he do that?  A tired "Brad" taunt. They still could have won this game if the bench had come through a  little more. But this is the way this season has gone.  

I look forward to am empty injury report list someday, with all players on deck. Then i will sit back and if they fail, accept all the crap you want to throw at me and them.  Until them, I am
RosalieTCELTICS, a die hard fan who does not give up on the team that has brought me so much joy

Rosalie,

I too cannot wait for an empty injury report. Meanwhile, we have to put up with empty illogical conspiracy theories.

bobheckler wrote:Scal and Danny were the announcing crew last night.  As a result there really was no play-by-play guy.  I can't decide if I liked it or not.  After all, I'm watching the game, do I really need someone to tell me what I'm seeing for myself?  An upgrade over Scal would be good, how about Mannix?  I'd say Perk but he speaks with such a Texas drawl it'd be the next quarter by the time he finished his point.

I am not impressed with triple doubles that include 3-17 shooting and 5 turnovers.  You've proven you can do other things than score, Jayson, now prove you know when to stop shooting.  He shot us out of this game, in my opinion.  I understand he wanted to fill the scoring hole created by Smart and Kemba's absence but last night's way didn't work.

Brown with 13 points on 6-6 shooting in the 1st.  At the half he had 13 points on 6-9 shooting.  Ok, so he went 0-3 in a quarter.  So what?  He's still on track.  He had 20 points on 9-12 after 3, so a 7 point, 3-3 3rd.  Excellent.  Then he disappeared.  He ended up with 23 points on 10-15.  3 points on 1-3.  Not enough fgas.  Ice-cold Jayson Tatum on the other hand went 2-7 in the 4th.  We should feed the hot hand, not the cold one.

Fast PP got his first NBA start and, I think, did well.  14 points on 5-8, 2-3 from 3.  He started out tentative, deferred too much to Tatum as a ball handler imo, but came on stronger.  We've had games from Kemba where he didn't score 14 on shooting that efficient.  



Parker with another good outing.  I don't know what his high end might be, but he's the best scoring big off the bench we have, certainly with RWill out and Tristan starting.  He only had 1 rebound in 16 minutes though.  That sucks, especially for a player whose entire game is near the basket.  He's not a stretch-5, he doesn't live at the arc, he should be rebounding.  Please don't be another Jeff Green, Jabari.

When Grant Williams plays within himself he's effective and productive.  A solid positional defender, a high IQ defensive switcher who can defend multiple positions.  On offense I'm comfortable with him taking catch-and-shoot 3s.  He's down to 36.6% this season, but that's not cringeworthy, it's just average.  When he tries to play more than his ability things go south real fast and that's what I think happened last night.  He knew we were very short-handed and he tried to play outside himself and his abilities to offset it and he can't.  He might have a decent career, because he has a high BBIQ, is a good locker room guy and an improving outside shooter but he's not starter and never will be a starter and we just need to recognize who he is and what are reasonable expectations for him.  You know who Grant is starting to remind me a bit of?  Curtis Rowe.  Rowe was an excellent college player at UCLA, as was Sidney Wicks, but neither of them were high quality NBA players and neither of them should have started.  Not their fault, of course, they played their hardest, it was the front office's fault for fielding a team so weak they were the de facto starters, but there it is.  That's Grant.  A great college player, not a bad NBA player but should never start except as "next man up".  He tried to take fouls on Vuc last night.  Stacey King, the Chicago color announcer, was deriding Grant for flopping, claiming "he's 250# and he's falling all over the place".  Uh, he's 235#, Stacey, and Vuc's 260#.  

Nesmith with 2 rebounds in 4 minutes because that's the best part of his game at this point of his development.  He works, he sticks his nose in there and contributes by boarding.  One of his rebounds was a real muscle-tussle, sandwiched between a couple of Bulls.  I'm still confident in his shot.  He's only 21.

Danny's nickname for Luke Kornet is "Big Bird".

Romeo played point for a while last night.  This surprised me but that's because I'm not Brad Stevens.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
about 7 minutes ago
Brad Stevens says Romeo Langford needs to get the primary ballhandling role "in his wheelhouse" eventually, but he's nowhere close to being where he needs to be yet. Said he will eventually get into an Evan Turner type mode but that's down the line

Evan Turner had an absolutely money mid-range turnaround jumpshot.  Turner and Romeo are about the same size.  Who knows?  On the other hand everybody, including Brad, tried to turn Avery Bradley into a point guard and everybody failed.  If, however, we could have a 6'6" point guard with an almost 7' wingspan and who is one of the best wing defenders on the roster that would be a significant skill upgrade and make Romeo a key cog on Brad Stevens' depth chart and we know how much Brad loves versatile multi-positional, if not completely position-less, players.  Last night he was ok, not great, which is what you'd expect at this point.  3 assists, 2 turnovers.  This is actually right on target for his season-to-date, he has a 1.5:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.  He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals last night.  His shooting, however, must come along to bring the defender up into him so he can blow past him.

Tremont Waters might have saved his career last night.  9 points on 3-3 in 8 minutes.  1 assist, no turnovers and 2 steals, one that gave us a chance in the final seconds.  I'm still not saying he should be on the team next year but I'm a little more willing to cut him a little slack for the Laker game now (especially since we ended up winning that game anyway).

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Funny how Tremont Waters is better when he plays with better players

Can we say the same thing about Carsen?  I think not, not so far anyway because his "welcome to the NBA" skillset is shooting and he still hasn't shown that.  Waters at least has shown quickness, ball handling and shooting, albeit inconsistently.

The question about our short-handedness last night came up on the Game On! thread.  The argument that Smart and Kemba had "fake sicknesses" doesn't make sense to me.  Here's why:

1.  Having Smart AND Kemba out forced Brad to start a rookie.  That's not a strategy Brad would embrace.

2.  Our only other point guard on the depth chart behind Pritchard was Waters.  Another position Brad wouldn't willingly put himself into.

3.  We were already down RWill and Fournier.  Deliberately keeping TWO starters out for no reason other than "rest" would mean we'd be down 3 starters out of 5 and 4 of our top 7 players.  No coach would deliberately do that to themselves.

4.  "Arrogant" and "over confident" are not words I would apply to Brad Stevens.

5.  Even IF there was a consensus that Smart and Kemba needed the night off to rest, why declare them to be "Out" due to sickness?  Why not list them as "Questionable" or a "Game Time Decision"?  That way they could be at the game, suited up, but not necessarily play.  If we are struggling at halftime Brad could insert one or both of them claiming that the "stomach virus", or whatever, was expelled in the locker room over halftime (e.g. vomiting and/or crapping it out) and was available for service in the 3rd quarter.  There was no need, even if it is all a sham, to have them stay home.  Jaylen has had recurring "knee soreness", but still played in some of those games.  There was no need to declare him "Out" when he might be able to play.  "Questionable" or "Probable" was good enough to provide an excuse for not playing him if we're winning but have him be ready for insertion if we're not.

Viruses and bacteria run through locker rooms like the way pinkeye goes through a kindergarten class.  It's impossible to isolate people who live in such close, and non-sterile, quarters to the point where they are 100% safe and contagion-proof.  

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307666

I put this to bed last night but since you brought it back up-
You made your argument and obviously you’ve convinced yourself and perhaps some others but I still believe that they were being rested. Your whole diatribe sounds as though you either have inside knowledge or actually were in on some meetings which we know didn’t happen. I admit, it doesn’t make sense to you and it doesn’t make sense to a lot of fans especially when seeding 7-3 is at stake. Yes it is to us. How important is it to Brad and management? How many times have I heard them say, “its more important to be heathy and rested going into the playoffs” How many times have you heard that? Are they lying? Is it smoke and mirrors? Maybe. When I see this happening consistently around the league and I hear coaches and FO folks saying the same thing and they ain’t telling us what this non COVID illness is then something is up.
You have a number of reasons why this is all on the up and up and its not bad reasoning. I just don’t believe its true.
We wont agree on this one because I’m certainly convinced that these teams a sitting players. And I’m certainly convinced that this is what happened last night.

We can all love the Celts and be objective. I’m certainly not objective with Celtic haters. As a matter of fact, I’m irrational as hell. Ive thrown friends out of my house for NOT rooting for the Celts in the past.
But amongst true Celts fans, I think we can be objective and point out our teams flaws and be positive about their accomplishments.
We are all die hards. Nobody here can claim sole ownership to that title. But lets be objective die hards amongst ourselves and call it like it is. Cool?

The Ktron bomb drops!

This game was lost because we had 4 of our top 7 guys out. However this was still a very winnable game except for the obvious which no one seems to want to talk about.

TT got freakin smoked all night by Vucevic....all night!

dboss wrote:This game was lost because we had 4 of our top 7 guys out.  However this was still a very winnable game except for the obvious which no one seems to want to talk about.

TT got freakin smoked all night by Vucevic....all night!

Oh yeah. That too. LOl

(Check your IM)

worcester wrote:The Ktron bomb drops!

Resting both Kemba and Smart (aka: load management) during the same game when we are fighting for playoff position is a stupid strategy and our team management is not stupid.  I can see the C's resting these two players during different games, but both during the same game?  No.  

Coming up with this kind of theory without a single fact to back it up is not objective, not by any definition of the word.  I cannot take this kind or reasoning seriously.

But . . .

Whatever.

gyso wrote:Resting both Kemba and Smart (aka: load management) during the same game when we are fighting for playoff position is a stupid strategy and our team management is not stupid.  I can see the C's resting these two players during different games, but both during the same game?  No.  

Coming up with this kind of theory without a single fact to back it up is not objective, not by any definition of the word.  I cannot take this kind or reasoning seriously.

But . . .

Whatever.

It’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. Relax

Ktron wrote:

gyso wrote:Resting both Kemba and Smart (aka: load management) during the same game when we are fighting for playoff position is a stupid strategy and our team management is not stupid.  I can see the C's resting these two players during different games, but both during the same game?  No.  

Coming up with this kind of theory without a single fact to back it up is not objective, not by any definition of the word.  I cannot take this kind or reasoning seriously.

But . . .

Whatever.

It’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. Relax

Like I said,

Whatever.

PS: You relax.  You seem on edge.  Me?  I'm chillin'  

I am not sure I even want to watch this game but I probably will just to see how Jason and Jaylen are dealing with adversity again, because that is the most telling thing about the direction of the team to me.

4 out of top 7 players out? yeah that is more or less game over for the Celtics. Not for the top 3 teams in the east, but we are paper thin behind our top dogs and that is why we all pretty much agree by now there is 0 chance of a title run this year.

If they can keep up the intensity on the defensive end (and by they I mean Jason and Jaylen because it starts with them and Smart and we all know he is never an issue in that regard.) I think they will be fine... to enter the playoffs. Now depending on injuries again they might as well play in the play-in which for me is pretty much bye bye in round 1.

But still some games left so there is time for them to show us they can win against the elite teams... Kinda sucks that I would not have had to use that sentence just 8-9 months ago... We were one of the elite teams then... They can still do it, but realistically we have to prepare ourselves for an early playoff exit.

gyso wrote:

Ktron wrote:

gyso wrote:Resting both Kemba and Smart (aka: load management) during the same game when we are fighting for playoff position is a stupid strategy and our team management is not stupid.  I can see the C's resting these two players during different games, but both during the same game?  No.  

Coming up with this kind of theory without a single fact to back it up is not objective, not by any definition of the word.  I cannot take this kind or reasoning seriously.

But . . .

Whatever.

It’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. Relax

Like I said,

Whatever.

PS: You relax.  You seem on edge.  Me?  I'm chillin'  

Yeah man... It’s like a jungle sometime, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.

This year has produced the most condensed schedule ever!

On top of that the world is still in the grips of a once in a century pandemic.

The Celtics have been particularly hit had. That combined with playing more games in a shorter time frame has led to fatigue and injuries.  

Load management makes sense.  Also the Celtics are very unlikely to move up beyond the 4th seed so while all games are important they may not be as critical to this team.  We are well positioned to be in 4th or 5th place even with loss man hours.

dboss wrote:This year has produced the most condensed schedule ever!

On top of that the world is still in the grips of a once in a century pandemic.

The Celtics have been particularly hit had. That combined with playing more games in a shorter time frame has led to fatigue and injuries.  

Load management makes sense.  Also the Celtics are very unlikely to move up beyond the 4th seed so while all games are important they may not be as critical to this team.  We are well positioned to be in 4th or 5th place even with loss man hours.

I should prefix this by saying that a virus has been making it's way around the locker room or maybe on a plane heading back from LA. My comments in regards to load management is more of a general comment about the NBA and this season's impact on players. In the past guys have experienced flu bugs and other things and still played so it could be a combination of things that led to Smart and Walker being absent. It could have been a combination of a stomach virus and a need for some load management. We will never really know what the reason (s) was. I would tend to lean on the side of caution and keep sick guys away from healthy ones. The last thing the Celtics want is more guys missing more games but holding them out because of a stomach virus is necessary.