Celtics Wrap: Heat Overwhelm Boston In Most Important Game Of Season Boston now trails Miami by two games for sixth place

Celtics Wrap: Heat Overwhelm Boston In Most Important Game Of Season
Boston now trails Miami by two games for sixth place


NESN by Dakota Randall


The Heat still are better than the Celtics, and they proved it Sunday afternoon at TD Garden.

Miami earned a 130-24 win over Boston in the most important game of the season for both teams. As a result, the Celtics now are two games behind the Heat for sixth place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Boston will participate in the play-in tournament if it finishes between seventh and 10th place.

The Celtics, who did not have Jaylen Brown in the lineup, were led by Evan Fournier, who had his best game in a Boston uniform, scoring 30 points on 7-for-11 3-point shooting. Jayson Tatum scored 29 points, with Kemba Walker adding 18.

Rookie Aaron Nesmith also had another strong game, scoring 16 points.

Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Duncan Robinson all scored 20-plus points for the Heat. Robinson knocked down six of 10 3-point attempts.

The team stats largely were even, as this game really was a tale of two halves.

The Celtics dropped to 35-33 with the loss while the Heat improved to 37-31 with the victory.

Here’s how it went down:

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

NOT GOOD
The Celtics in the first quarter neither executed at a high enough level nor played with the urgency necessary for a game of this magnitude.

The Heat surged to an early 11-point lead and eventually finished the frame with a 13-point cushion. Miami got strong performances from Robinson, who scored seven points in the quarter, and Adebayo, who scored six. Goran Dragic also came off the bench and quickly knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.

Basically, it was all downhill from this point:


Nesmith paced the Celtics with nine high-energy points, while Tatum chipped in with four.

But forget the stats. The Heat simply played like the better team who wanted this game more than the Celtics did. Not having Brown in the lineup was not an acceptable excuse for Boston.


EVEN WORSE
Miami doubled its lead in the second quarter and deserved it. In fact, the 79 points the Celtics gave up were the franchise’s most first-half points surrendered since 2000, and the most at home in organization history.

And sure, some of the Heat’s 79-53 halftime lead can be attributed to red-hot shooting from 3-point range. Robinson, Dragic, Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn and Trevor Ariza combined to go 11-for-20 from long distance. But, again, the reality is Miami played like the more desperate team, one far less interested in participating in a play-in tournament.


Ariza led all scorers with 17 first-half points. Adebayo, Nunn, Robinson and Herro also scored in double figures. Tatum and Marcus Smart both led the Celtics with 13 points.

It was so bad that Boston’s Twitter team actually felt this worthy of posting:


As a team, the Celtics had just 12 assists to go along with eight turnovers in the first half. Miami also held a 19-14 advantage in rebounds.

To make matters worse, Robert Williams (turf toe) was ruled out of returning for the second half.

BETTER
…Until the Heat started trying.



The Celtics opened the second half on a 15-4 run to cut Miami’s lead to 83-68. A 3-pointer from Fournier later brought Boston to within 12 points.

The game then went back and forth a bit until the Heat, behind Butler, caught fire and out-executed the Celtics over the final four minutes. Miami finished the third quarter with a 21-point lead.

Butler was quiet in the first half but was a different player in the third, scoring 11 points in the frame. Robinson continued playing well, knocking down a pair of threes.

The Celtics’ comeback attempt was made possible by Fournier, who scored 14 points in the quarter. He played hard and showed that, when he’s shooting well, the Celtics offense is capable of great things.

BUT NOT ENOUGH
The Celtics deserve some credit for making this a close game. We can’t deny them that.

However, when you get down by 26 points, you get what you ask for.

Boston started the quarter hot, narrowing Miami’s lead to 11 points. The Heat then extended their lead before a 3-pointer from Fournier again made it a 10-point game with seven minutes left.

But the Celtics weren’t done. Back-to-back layups from Tatum and Smart brought Boston within six points before a three-pointer from Butler upped Miami’s advantage to nine points. The Celtics again narrowed the deficit to six points with three minutes remaining, but a three from Robinson and ensuing Boston turnover essentially ended the game.


The Celtics were the better team in the second half (71-51). But, when it mattered most, the Heat executed and made big shots to secure the victory.

PLAY OF THE GAME
When this happened, it started to feel as if the Celtics had a chance of completing the comeback:


But alas.

UP NEXT
The Celtics and Heat will do battle again Tuesday night. Tip off at TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Maybe they should get booed off the court at every halftime.  It seems to be the only thing that motivates them and that is a problem.  When Brad is playing Carsen Edwards you know he has a personnel problem.

Mark Murphy @Murf56
3 hours ago
Evan Fournier on a weakness these slow starts have exposed: "When you fix things just by being more aggressive and turning it up, it shows a lack of physicality in my opinion. And that’s something we can’t have."


The HEAT played a great motion offense.  We, on the other hand, didn't stay in front of them in the first half.  That forced us to collapse our defense which allowed them kick out to their shooters who did not miss, and they were getting a lot of open shots.  They shot 56% after 1 and 64% at the half.  52% from 3 at the half.  That is smoking hot shooting.  Of their 43 first half fgas, 20 of them were 3.  Just like against Chicago we were following our men around instead of trying to anticipate where they're going.  At times we just completely forgot about our men.  Butler would have the ball and Tatum or Kemba or someone would just get mesmerized and forget their man can move, and they would move every time.  There is no reason why 35 year old Trevor Ariza should score 19 points on 8-13, and only be 2-7 from 3.  That makes him 6-6 from 2.  That happens only when you're asleep on defense and that was mostly Tatum's man.

On offense we didn't hit our 3 pt shots.  At the half we were 4-18 from 3.  Tatum hit 1, Smart hit 1, Fournier hit 1 and Nesmith hit 1 (of 4).  That's it.  Kemba 0-2, Pritchard 0-2.  Defensively, they swarmed Tatum and forced someone else in green beat them.  Because we've got a bunch of non-shooters that is a great strategy.

Some was made about Smart's shooting today.  He ended up with 16 points on 7-14 and 1-4 from 3, but he was 1-3 from 3 at the half.  So, he only took 1 3pt fga in the 2nd half, that's not bad.  What is bad were his 6 turnovers.

Bottom line, we looked as cooked as a Thanksgiving Turkey at the half.  Then something happened.  We woke up.

Evan Fournier had 7 points at the half.  He had 23 after 3, a 16 point quarter.  1-3 from 3 at the half, 4-8 from 3 after 3 and 7-11 for the game.  8 assists and zero turnovers.  I have never been aware of his defense before, but he played good defense today.  He ended up with 30 points on 11-16.  A great game by Evan.

Tatum was icy cold in the beginning but he heated up after the half too.  He had an 11 point 4th.

Robert Williams only played 11 minutes because of his turf toe.  Turf toe hurts, but professional athletes are expected to play through pain.  I'm willing to cut him a little slack here, but if he sits out with turf toe in the playoffs I will not be so forgiving.  This might not be fair, but life isn't fair and it's not easy wearing the green.  Kevin McHale broke the navicular bone in his right foot on 3/27/87 and played the rest of the season and the entire 1987 playoffs on it.  That's a bit worse than "turf toe".

Their bench outscored ours 31-27.  Herro with 12 and Dragic with 9 were their guys.  For us it was Nesmith with 16 and that's pretty much it.  Carsen Edwards, of all people, was the next highest Celtic bench scorer with 5.  Pritchard an embarrassing 0-4, 1 rebound in 8 minutes.  Thompson with only 2 points, but he had 12 rebounds, 4 offensive, so I'll give him his due, rebounding and defense are why he's on the team.  9-23 isn't too bad, that's what our bench shot, but that was on the strength of Nesmith's 5-9.  Take him out and we're 4-14 and that sucks.  Their bench was 13-26.  Dragic's 3-10 is the only thing that didn't make their bench destroy ours.

Continuing on with a discussion of benches, look at theirs.  Defensive stopper Iggy, Dwayne Dedmon as backup center, Dragic and Herro are both runners and gunners.  Now, look at ours.  Grant Williams.  Whether you like him or not he's a half court player who struggles to play with pace.  Thompson is also a half court player.  Kornet is a half court player.  The only bench players we have that play with pace are the rookies, Pritchard and Nesmith and that's not enough.

We made a great rally in the 2nd half to get a 26 point deficit down to 6.  It was our awful first half that got us down 26 in the first place.  Some say that's Brad's fault, for not psyching them up for the game.  First of all, they're professionals, they're expected to show up to work.  Secondly, if Brad isn't kicking their asses then how do you explain the 2nd halves of the San Antonio game and now this one?  There's something about our locker room that is just too laid back.

Jimmy Butler was magnificent.  26 points, 8 rebounds and 11 assists.  He ran their offense and their defense.

The Knicks beat the Clippers.  4th place is now unreachable for us.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307826


Bob


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If you had a choice between a 23 year old Jason Tatum and a 23 year old Jimmy Butler who would you choose? I’m choosing Butler.

Evan Fournier must be feeling better this is his 4th good game in a row. I really like his game, and he seems overjoyed to be out of Orlando and playing for a team that could go deep in the playoffs. He has said so a few times now. However, with the Celtics underperforming and the prevailing team attitude seems to be “who cares,” I wonder if he will want to come back here? I doubt it.

bobc33 wrote:If you had a choice between a 23 year old Jason Tatum and a 23 year old Jimmy Butler who would you choose?  I’m choosing Butler.  

Evan Fournier must be feeling better this is his 4th good game in a row.  I really like his game, and he seems overjoyed to be out of Orlando and playing for a team that could go deep in the playoffs.  He has said so a few times now.  However, with the Celtics underperforming and the prevailing team attitude seems to be “who cares,” I wonder if he will want to come back here?  I doubt it.

Bob,

Keep in mind that Tatum just turned 23 March 3rd.  These stats are for this year, most of which he was only 22.  Jimmy Butler's birthday is in September, so he was 23 for his entire 23 year season.  This is all from basketball-reference.com

Per Game, at age 23:
Player...................mpg.......fgas......fg%......3pt fg%....ft%......reb......asts......TOs......stls.......blks.......ppg
Jimmy Butler-------26-------6.2------46.7-----38.1-------80.3----4.0----1.4------.8-------1.0------.4--------8.6
Jayson Tatum------35.8-----20.6-----45.6-----38.5-------87.3----7.3----4.4-----2.7-------1.2------.4-------26.3


/36mpg stats are helpful in determining production/minute of play.  One must be careful using them, since a 18mpg player might look better than a 36mpg player on paper, but cannot sustain that effectiveness over double the minutes.  Furthermore, 36mpg players are usually starters and play against starters.  18mpg players are bench players who usually play against lesser talent.  Butler averaged 26mpg.  A minute-to-minute comparison to 36mpg Tatum is ok, but not optimum, since it takes a fair amount of extrapolation to assume a 26mpg player could produce as well with another 2 1/2 minutes per quarter, which is what 10 more mpg comes out to.

Per 36mpg:
Player...................mpg.......fgas......fg%......3pt fg%....ft%......reb......asts......TOs......stls.......blks.......ppg
Jimmy Butler-------36-------8.6------46.7-----38.1-------80.3----5.5-----1.9------1.0-----1.3-----.5--------11.9
Jayson Tatum------36-------20.7-----45.6-----38.5-------87.3----7.4-----4.4------2.7-----1.2-----.4--------26.4


Bob


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I think Players peak at different times in their careers.
Trying to compare what a 23 yr old Jim was  (or whoever) to what  a 23 yr old Jayson is (or whoever) in my opinion is not only unfair to both players but a pretty inaccurate way of measuring ability. So, even if Butler was better than Tatum when he was 23 or vise versa its not an indication of who ends up being the better player, its only an indication of where each player was at that age.

My bad, I wasn’t really trying to compare the players at that age stat wise. In my mind I was thinking of Tatum having the stats but not the burning desire to win vs Butler with the lesser stats but a fierce determination to win.

So throw out the age reference. Do you want Tatum’s game and demeanor or Butler’s?

bobc33 wrote:My bad, I wasn’t really trying to compare the players at that age stat wise.  In my mind I was thinking of Tatum having the stats but not the burning desire to win vs Butler with the lesser stats but a fierce determination to win.

So throw out the age reference. Do you want Tatum’s game and demeanor or Butler’s?

I understand what you’re saying. Butler today is a much better and more fearless than he was earlier in his career though,
I remember that Chicago series when we went down 0-2 and Rondo got hurt and we won the next 4 games. Butler was on the team and my impression of him after that was that he was not an elite player and that he didn’t take over when Rondo went down. Maybe that was a bit unfair because he was of course much younger but today he is totally different as we saw last year and today. I get what you’re saying though. I don’t care that much for Tatum’s demeanor right now. He doesn’t appear to hate losing as much as I think he should but he is still young and hopefully like Butler, that will change.

Forget who is better Tatum or Butler. Brown and whoever. Brad Stevens continues to employ a fakakta game strategy for both Tatum and Brown and the rest of the Celtic team. He is clueless on how to properly use his star players that produce meaningful results.

Ya Tatum or Brown may go off and bang 40 + points or more in a game, but are the wins real in the sense that we played a great team game and won, or was it the single players scoring effort that won the game because we out scored the other team and masked the crap performance by the rest of the team.

If you showed me the Celtic scoring box of todays game without the score, I would say we won big WITH TATUM, NESSMITH, WALKER, FOURNIER SCORING TOTALS! WRONG!

We got beat bad. The game was over at half time (26 down).

Stevens offensive and defensive strategies out and out SUCK! He does not know how to use his talent in a more balanced two way approach - offense and defense.

Stick a fork in them! And while you are at it, stick a fork in management as well, they are done as well. PLEASE BLOW THIS MESS UP! IT IS SO DISHEARTENING FOR CELTIC FANS TO WATCH!

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PS Did you see the great 2 point effort by Thompson with 12 rebounds. What a signing!!!

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I just never could get my head around what was the change factor this year. If you go back the last 2-3 year the defense NEVER looked so borderline disinterested.

We can only speculate what the reasons are this season, but no one can dispute the results - a team with no heart and no desire to WORK.

In an office environment that would most probably mean a real mess of a mishandling by management.

Brad Stevens and some of us have tried sometimes to offer health as the issue, but I do not buy it. The Celtics have been more or less cursed with health issues for the last 4-5 seasons already. Same problems of continuity before, never the same issue of the team just not showing up for games.

We have been guessing at what changes, but who knows what the problem is. For me coming back next year with the same management and team is borderline insane to quote Einstein:

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results."

That's kinda what I'm afraid of, Vankisa. That lack of a sense of urgency takes much longer to filter its way up to the top in management. Red tape, justification(s) of over-bloated salaries, not asking those doing the work how to make things better, pride, etc. all come into play and very little changes.

In my book, my eyes are on Wyc this summer, which IMHBAO cannot get here fast enough. I'm really leaning toward us just folding up like a cheap suit in the play-in so we can get to what should and will be the real show (or possibly no-show) this year. I just want to see where ownership's head is at. They've tried things that didn't move the needle for one reason or another. The real question that will determine how much of a reaction we get will depend upon how much weight they (owners/management) place on all the missteps of the season. Noise or real road blocks? It really is hard to say and it will be a difficult process to weed through to reach a decision and how dire (or not) things really are and react accordingly.

As you can probably tell, I'm reaching the Baby With The Bathwater stage. But, as my wife likes to say, I tend to exaggerate just a smidgen!!

db

A little sunshine here.




Bob

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