POST GAME NEW YORK KNICKS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Knicks Outlast Celtics In Dramatic Regular Season Finale
Who's ready for a play-in tournament?


NESN by Dakota Randall

The Boston Celtics, for all their alleged talent, finished their season with a .500 record thanks to Sunday’s 96-92 loss to the New York Knicks.

Brad Stevens’s team, without Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown, among others, tried their best but ultimately came up short against one of the better teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

It wasn’t all bad, however — far from it. Boston trailed by 20-plus points multiple times but fought back in the fourth quarter, and even had a chance to take a lead. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Jabari Parker enjoyed an impressive game, leading the Celtics with 18 points. Tremont Waters also showed out, scoring 17 points while providing energy off the bench. Romeo Langford and Grant Williams scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.

RJ Barrett paced New York with 22 points while MVP hopeful Julius Randle scored 20 in a rather underwhelming performance.

The Celtics finished their regular season at 36-36 with the loss, while the Knicks improved to 41-31 with the victory, clinching the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 seed in the process.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Payton Pritchard
SG: Romeo Langford
SF: Semi Ojeleye
PF: Grant Williams
C: Luke Kornet

3-POINT CONTEST
An impressively boring quarter saw a makeshift Celtics lineup actually earn a one-point lead by the end of the quarter.

New York hit a trio of threes in the opening minutes to take a 9-3 advantage, but Boston was the better team over the rest of the quarter. Pritchard led the Celtics in scoring with six points while Williams chipped in with five. Langford and Parker both scored four points.


Tacko Fall got fouled with under a second remaining and knocked down one of two free throws to give Boston the lead.

Boston converted on three of 12 3-point attempts in the opening quarter, while the Knicks attempted six, knocking down four.



NATURE HEALS
New York is better than Boston when the Celtics are at full strength, let alone when they’re missing seven key players.



So, it felt like only a matter of time until the Knicks took a big lead (that they almost blew).

Boston only scored 15 points in the second quarter, allowing New York to enter halftime with a 54-39 lead. The Celtics played hard, but ultimately their lack of talent was obvious.

Randle had a strong first half, entering the locker room with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Reggie Bullock chipped in with nine points while Barrett scored eight. Alec Burks also had a strong first half for New York, scoring 11 points on 3-of-3 3-point shooting.



As for the Celtics, Langford impressed in scoring a team-high nine points while playing hard on both ends of the floor. Carsen Edwards also knocked down a pair of threes for the visitors.


Boston chucked up 23 3-point attempts in the first half, only converting on five. It was neither good basketball nor particularly fun to watch.

CELTICS HANG AROUND
To the Celtics’ credit, they weren’t going to just let the Knicks just run them out of Madison Square Garden.

Largely thanks to Parker and Williams, Boston outscored New York in the third frame, entering the fourth quarter trailing by only 12 points. Parker scored nine points in the quarter, while Williams poured in six.



Boston also continued to get strong defense from Luke Kornet.


The Knicks were led by Barrett, who scored a whopping 14 points in the quarter. Randle added five to his total.


FOURTH QUARTER
Unbelievably, this was fun.

With Waters (11 points in the quarter), Langford and Parker leading the way, the Celtics used a 20-4 run to make it a one-point with 2:13 left. They even had multiple chances at tying the game or taking the lead.


But New York held Boston off, and in doing so locked up home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Plays like this made Knicks fans awfully nervous down the stretch:


UP NEXT
The Celtics will play the Washington Wizards in their play-in tournament opener Tuesday night.

If Boston wins, it will clinch the seventh seed in the playoffs, whereas a loss would force the Celtics to play again Thursday night.

112288

A FITTING END TO WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST DISAPPOINTING SEASON IN RECENT MEMORY!

NOW WITH THE 15TH PICK IN THE 2021 NBA DRAFT THE BOSTON CELTICS SELECT____________?

112288

Brad has had all season to figure out who got game. 

I do not buy into the narrative that games like these have any signifant meaning interns of playoff rotation minutes for guys who have not logged a lot of rotation minutes all year.  

All of the starters should be rested and I hope a good hard practice will help to get them ready.

Kornet having the arrogance as a .298 three point average shooter to attempt a three with 1:30 left in the game cost us our best chance to win.

The very end of our bench with nothing to play for gave the 4th seed fighting for home court a very tough battle. I see no cause for cynicism.

atcross wrote:The very end of our bench with nothing to play for gave the 4th seed fighting for home court a very tough battle. I see no cause for cynicism.

True, there were bright spots.

As mentioned in the wrap up, our bench put up a good challenge to a team that's better than us when we're at full strength.

A couple of our bench guys looked like they may have some value for next year's bench too.

A few positive take aways at least.

worcester wrote:Kornet having the arrogance as a .298 three point average shooter to attempt a three with 1:30 left in the game cost us our best chance to win.

Good point. Actually, three point shooting and perimeter defense are the weakest parts of Kornett's game. He has good timing rolling to the basket, sets decent picks and guards the rim reasonably well.

Again, there are easier ways to win games than coming from 21 points behind and hoping a 3 pointer from the corner will put us ahead literally at the last minute. We lost this game long before the last minute.  

36-36.  Couldn't be a more fitting record, precisely describing our season in a nutshell.  Win some, lose some.  Comme si, comme sa.  Easy come, easy go.  Let the wind blow you around.  Perfect. We got what we paid for.

We may stand some kind of chance against PHI if we win the second game of the play-in.  I am giving us no chance against WAS.  They have earned 7th.  We will roll over and give that to them on a silver platter.  Us winning that game really doesn't fit the narrative. Let's set that game at WAS-11.5.  We may stand a chance against CHA or IND.

I like WAS chances against BKN.  I hope that series goes 7 and Kyrie is wide open behind the 3 point line with less than 2 seconds left, BKN down by 2 and he launches it only to see it clank off the rim with brick-like tendencies.  No time on the clock for a rebound/put back. That would begin to make up for our showing this season.  

db

2 glimmers, best game I’ve ever seen from Tremont Waters, he needs a dead eye 3 point stroke, every player does, but especially him, if he has that it will obviously open up the rest of his game. He also had some really nice steals. Best game of the year for Romeo, had some incredible finishes, some off his defense. It took Marcus Smart years to get a semblance of a jumper, maybe there is some hope for these guys.

Kornet with some surprising active defense, he is 7’2”, at least he’s better than Tacko. Tacko besides being really slow is soft, don’t see any fire, bad combination; at least be a guy people are afraid to bounce off of, like Mark Eaton. Players are going in there to dunk on him, because he’s soft.....

If Kornet shies away from his 3 pointer he cvan bring value next year. Tremont, some show yesterday. Who knows. He may be an asset if he develops a very quick and accurate 3.
Romeo, has he decided to join the NBA? I sure hope he wrks of his shooting this summer. He can slash and go to the rim, and play very good D. Now he just needs that shot.

We should be very proud of the effort and desire our bench displayed yesterday. Too bad about Tacko. Well, he will have a good life outside of the NBA. He's one very smart man.

I didn't watch the game because I had tickets to the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in San Fran.  I had to book them in January to get a weekend date in the middle of May, that's how popular it is.

Just looking at the boxscore, however, I'm not seeing why all the gloomy faces.  Did anybody really expect us to win this, with this decapitated squad?  If someone told you on Saturday we'd lose on Sunday by 4 with these players would you be shocked, angered or disheartened?  C'mon.

The Knicks played with a full and healthy roster.  Their top 2 players, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, both played.  Randle, who is having an All-Star season, played 37 minutes and Barrett 33.  Thibs didn't match bench with bench, he went with the hammer and tried to beat down the anvil.  Whether we went down big early or not the game is 48 minutes long.  If it's demoralizing to watch us go up big and then have them peck away at us until they work it down to a one possession game, but rewarding to the other fans to see their team rally like that, then why shouldn't we feel good about our guys rallying to get back to a 1 possession game, ESPECIALLY when our roster was 8-17.  Thibs played all his starters and went a total of 10 deep (Ntilikina played < 1 minute and he was #11).  4 out of his 5 starters played > 30 minutes.  That's a playoff roster.  Thibs went hard, with his iron, and Brad had...?

Grant with 13 points on 6-8, 2-2 from 3 and 6 rebounds in 26 minutes.  He was probably guarding Randle the whole time, right?

Pritchard 2-10, 2-8 from 3.  Awful shooting, to say the least, but should we take this outing as evidence he can't play?  I think we know he's further along for a rookie than any of us should expect, so why should we overweight this performance?  If he shot 4-10, 3-8 from 3, still shitty, we're right there.  The margin was 3 until final fritos by NYK.

Romeo with his best game, I guess.  Not that it matters, he won't be playing in the playoffs unless there are injuries or a very specific matchup.




Parker with 18 on 6-10, 7 rebounds in 27 minutes.  I have watched enough of him to wonder about his defense during those 27 minutes, but he couldn't have given up > 18 points, right?

Tacko with 8 boards in 17 minutes.  3 blocks.  

Waters with a nice boxscore.  His defense is always the question, because of his size, but he filled the boxscore up and ended up with a team high +20.  How many points did he score in the 4th quarter to bring the team back to within spitting distance?  Will he be on the team next year?  My gut says 'no', but that's because he'll be part of a trade package.  I think NBA scouts value him more than we here on this board do, and I'm good with that.  Make us a nice offer.  If I thought we could get this production /minute out of Waters regularly he'd be a keeper, but we haven't seen that yet.  




If there were players whose boxscores look bad it's Kornet and Edwards.  Nesmith, with 1-6 and 3 boards in 19 minutes not so hot neither.  

This was a meaningless game.  Meaningless.  The only players whose individual play had meaning to the team (as opposed to having meaning for their continued employment in the NBA) were Pritchard, Nesmith and Grant Ojelaye.  That's because those are the only players of the 10 active players who played the Knicks who are likely to get rotation minutes from this morning on for the rest of the season.  Maybe Parker, spottily, in an emergency.  The rest, all of it, is noise.  

We have a tough road ahead of us now.  The red hot Washington Wizards first and, if we get past them, the Brooklyn Nets next.  Without Jaylen we need to be as absolutely healthy and rested as we can possibly be.  'Rest' doesn't just mean legs, it also means mentally.  Mental fatigue will kill your performance faster and more completely than physical fatigue.  You can play off your man if your legs are tired, surrender the outside shot so he won't blow past you off the dribble.  If you're mentally tired it won't matter what you do, you'll be late for all of it.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307887


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:I didn't watch the game because I had tickets to the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in San Fran.  I had to book them in January to get a weekend date in the middle of May, that's how popular it is.

Just looking at the boxscore, however, I'm not seeing why all the gloomy faces.  Did anybody really expect us to win this, with this decapitated squad?  If someone told you on Saturday we'd lose on Sunday by 4 with these players would you be shocked, angered or disheartened?  C'mon.

The Knicks played with a full and healthy roster.  Their top 2 players, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, both played.  Randle, who is having an All-Star season, played 37 minutes and Barrett 33.  Thibs didn't match bench with bench, he went with the hammer and tried to beat down the anvil.  Whether we went down big early or not the game is 48 minutes long.  If it's demoralizing to watch us go up big and then have them peck away at us until they work it down to a one possession game, but rewarding to the other fans to see their team rally like that, then why shouldn't we feel good about our guys rallying to get back to a 1 possession game, ESPECIALLY when our roster was 8-17.  Thibs played all his starters and went a total of 10 deep (Ntilikina played < 1 minute and he was #11).  4 out of his 5 starters played > 30 minutes.  That's a playoff roster.  Thibs went hard, with his iron, and Brad had...?

Grant with 13 points on 6-8, 2-2 from 3 and 6 rebounds in 26 minutes.  He was probably guarding Randle the whole time, right?

Pritchard 2-10, 2-8 from 3.  Awful shooting, to say the least, but should we take this outing as evidence he can't play?  I think we know he's further along for a rookie than any of us should expect, so why should we overweight this performance?  If he shot 4-10, 3-8 from 3, still shitty, we're right there.  The margin was 3 until final fritos by NYK.

Romeo with his best game, I guess.  Not that it matters, he won't be playing in the playoffs unless there are injuries or a very specific matchup.




Parker with 18 on 6-10, 7 rebounds in 27 minutes.  I have watched enough of him to wonder about his defense during those 27 minutes, but he couldn't have given up > 18 points, right?

Tacko with 8 boards in 17 minutes.  3 blocks.  

Waters with a nice boxscore.  His defense is always the question, because of his size, but he filled the boxscore up and ended up with a team high +20.  How many points did he score in the 4th quarter to bring the team back to within spitting distance?  Will he be on the team next year?  My gut says 'no', but that's because he'll be part of a trade package.  I think NBA scouts value him more than we here on this board do, and I'm good with that.  Make us a nice offer.  If I thought we could get this production /minute out of Waters regularly he'd be a keeper, but we haven't seen that yet.  




If there were players whose boxscores look bad it's Kornet and Edwards.  Nesmith, with 1-6 and 3 boards in 19 minutes not so hot neither.  

This was a meaningless game.  Meaningless.  The only players whose individual play had meaning to the team (as opposed to having meaning for their continued employment in the NBA) were Pritchard, Nesmith and Grant Ojelaye.  That's because those are the only players of the 10 active players who played the Knicks who are likely to get rotation minutes from this morning on for the rest of the season.  Maybe Parker, spottily, in an emergency.  The rest, all of it, is noise.  

We have a tough road ahead of us now.  The red hot Washington Wizards first and, if we get past them, the Brooklyn Nets next.  Without Jaylen we need to be as absolutely healthy and rested as we can possibly be.  'Rest' doesn't just mean legs, it also means mentally.  Mental fatigue will kill your performance faster and more completely than physical fatigue.  You can play off your man if your legs are tired, surrender the outside shot so he won't blow past you off the dribble.  If you're mentally tired it won't matter what you do, you'll be late for all of it.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307887


Bob


.

m

Bob I’m really rooting hard that Romeo comes back with a jumper, my question is if he only has a marginal jumper like say Smart, do you think he brings enough that he can still help us?

Danny may trade him before we can find out.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

bobheckler wrote:I didn't watch the game because I had tickets to the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in San Fran.  I had to book them in January to get a weekend date in the middle of May, that's how popular it is.

Just looking at the boxscore, however, I'm not seeing why all the gloomy faces.  Did anybody really expect us to win this, with this decapitated squad?  If someone told you on Saturday we'd lose on Sunday by 4 with these players would you be shocked, angered or disheartened?  C'mon.

The Knicks played with a full and healthy roster.  Their top 2 players, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett, both played.  Randle, who is having an All-Star season, played 37 minutes and Barrett 33.  Thibs didn't match bench with bench, he went with the hammer and tried to beat down the anvil.  Whether we went down big early or not the game is 48 minutes long.  If it's demoralizing to watch us go up big and then have them peck away at us until they work it down to a one possession game, but rewarding to the other fans to see their team rally like that, then why shouldn't we feel good about our guys rallying to get back to a 1 possession game, ESPECIALLY when our roster was 8-17.  Thibs played all his starters and went a total of 10 deep (Ntilikina played < 1 minute and he was #11).  4 out of his 5 starters played > 30 minutes.  That's a playoff roster.  Thibs went hard, with his iron, and Brad had...?

Grant with 13 points on 6-8, 2-2 from 3 and 6 rebounds in 26 minutes.  He was probably guarding Randle the whole time, right?

Pritchard 2-10, 2-8 from 3.  Awful shooting, to say the least, but should we take this outing as evidence he can't play?  I think we know he's further along for a rookie than any of us should expect, so why should we overweight this performance?  If he shot 4-10, 3-8 from 3, still shitty, we're right there.  The margin was 3 until final fritos by NYK.

Romeo with his best game, I guess.  Not that it matters, he won't be playing in the playoffs unless there are injuries or a very specific matchup.




Parker with 18 on 6-10, 7 rebounds in 27 minutes.  I have watched enough of him to wonder about his defense during those 27 minutes, but he couldn't have given up > 18 points, right?

Tacko with 8 boards in 17 minutes.  3 blocks.  

Waters with a nice boxscore.  His defense is always the question, because of his size, but he filled the boxscore up and ended up with a team high +20.  How many points did he score in the 4th quarter to bring the team back to within spitting distance?  Will he be on the team next year?  My gut says 'no', but that's because he'll be part of a trade package.  I think NBA scouts value him more than we here on this board do, and I'm good with that.  Make us a nice offer.  If I thought we could get this production /minute out of Waters regularly he'd be a keeper, but we haven't seen that yet.  




If there were players whose boxscores look bad it's Kornet and Edwards.  Nesmith, with 1-6 and 3 boards in 19 minutes not so hot neither.  

This was a meaningless game.  Meaningless.  The only players whose individual play had meaning to the team (as opposed to having meaning for their continued employment in the NBA) were Pritchard, Nesmith and Grant Ojelaye.  That's because those are the only players of the 10 active players who played the Knicks who are likely to get rotation minutes from this morning on for the rest of the season.  Maybe Parker, spottily, in an emergency.  The rest, all of it, is noise.  

We have a tough road ahead of us now.  The red hot Washington Wizards first and, if we get past them, the Brooklyn Nets next.  Without Jaylen we need to be as absolutely healthy and rested as we can possibly be.  'Rest' doesn't just mean legs, it also means mentally.  Mental fatigue will kill your performance faster and more completely than physical fatigue.  You can play off your man if your legs are tired, surrender the outside shot so he won't blow past you off the dribble.  If you're mentally tired it won't matter what you do, you'll be late for all of it.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401307887


Bob


.

m

Bob I’m really rooting hard that Romeo comes back with a jumper, my question is if he only has a marginal jumper like say Smart, do you think he brings enough that he can still help us?

Cow,

In a shooter's league a marginal shooter is a marginal player unless you are elite at some other part of the game.  If Smart was just a good defender, and a good passer, he'd be a marginal player but he isn't a good defender, he's elite.  He also brings a fiery edge to the team.  Romeo is a good defender.  It's a little early to say if he could become elite, but he's good.  He's not a floor general, he's not a shooter and Nesmith is already a better rebounder.  I hate to ring the bell on kids as young as these guys but I think he needs to be able to do more than just slash, especially in Brad's drive-and-kick offense.

It would be really helpful if Romeo could stay healthy long enough to figure this out.


Bob


.

I turned on Game On yesterday for a few minutes. The few who were on there were routing hard for this young team to shock the Knicks. There is not much negative I can say about a bunch of guys who have hardly (if at all) played together and still put the Knicks in the position to have to fight hard to win this game. We were within one point and had even taken the lead at one point.

My thoughts are, a pat on the back to them all. This had to be tough, some of them may not hit the floor again for the rest of the season. As much as I have criticized Waters, he played a heck of a game. Jabari Parker showed that there is still something there, I hope we can tap into it next year and he finds his way, I always like to root for the underdog. Grant played excellent for the most part, another guy who is now sitting on pins and needles, hoping that Semi goes and they keep him. Edwards hit a couple of big shots, but, when they needed him, he could not deliver. Tacko played very well for the time he was in, and Kornet, well he was serviceable and I found myself impressed by a couple of his plays.

I know they are the end of the bench, but they are still Celtics, I will root for them and if they go, I will follow to see how they do. I refuse to be cynical, this has been a year from hell. I won't throw any under the bus. Let's just hope (?) that maybe they catch fire and beat Washington, they all should be rested enough to do it. I am realistic, this is not a championship team, especially without Jaylen, but I want them to go down fighting. If they do that, I can ask for nothing more except for them to come back healthy next year and start a new seasson.

See you Tuesday

Bob agree with everything you said, I’ll add Romeo can be a much better slasher/finisher than Smart. When I saw Smart in college, I thought we were getting a pitbull poor mans version of Dwayne Wade, who also was not a great shooter. Smart has never developed his finishing skills as good as I thought he would get. Call me nuts I could see Romeo develop into a poor mans Caris Lavert and would hate to see him get to that level elsewhere. Jumper, jumper, jumper Romeo, you have a lot of homework.

Cowens.....I agree with you, there is something there that has made them hold on to him. Unfortunately, I am afraid he may be the victim of pressure from above to be included in a trade. We really do not have too much to offer, although I am sure, now that he has shown Danny was not crazy drafting him, Nesmith may be a hot commodity. I just hope DA does not trade him It is almost like when Jaylen came, everyone second guessed DA, and he showed us that he had skill. Then everyone wanted him included in a trade and Danny would not give him up. THANK GOD!! I feel this way about Nesmith, there is so much talent there

dbrown4 wrote:
36-36.  Couldn't be a more fitting record, precisely describing our season in a nutshell.  Win some, lose some.  Comme si, comme sa.  Easy come, easy go.  Let the wind blow you around.  Perfect.  We got what we paid for.
db

This deserves special recognition.

Quote of the day, by quoting several other quotes/traditional sayings.

That's a Sam's Forum First.

?

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Cowens.....I agree with you, there is something there that has made them hold on to him. Unfortunately, I am afraid he may be the victim of pressure from above to be included in a trade. We really do not have too much to offer, although I am sure, now that he has shown Danny was not crazy drafting him, Nesmith may be a hot commodity.  I just hope DA does not trade him  It is almost like when Jaylen came, everyone second guessed DA, and he showed us that he had skill. Then everyone wanted him included in a trade and Danny would not give him up.  THANK GOD!! I feel this way about Nesmith, there is so much talent there

I think there is something there with both Romeo and Nesmith. Can we be the beneficiaries, can they get their games together fast enough? The extreme case being Chauncey Billups.

God, I remember cursing when Billups got traded, never had the chance to prove himself here under you know who. Well, I guess time will tell, pressure from all sides here. I am willing to wait, but who am I. I think moves have to be made and we are not going to be happy somewhere down the line. Look, right now everyone is cursing trading Theis. He could have helped, but....then he would have walked because he is going to look for more $$$ than the Celtics would have been willing to give him. As they say, No room at the inn. Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Most of the bench -players competed well. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Vehemently disagree that this Knicks team is better than our team when we are at full strength.

I agree with your vehement disagreement.