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Celtics Wrap: Boston Booed In Home Opener After Brutal Loss To Raptors
The C's are struggling to start the season


NESN by Scott Edwards Jr.


The Toronto Raptors had no problems with the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Friday night, defeating them by a lopsided 115-83 score.

With the loss, the Celtics move to 0-2 on the season and the Raptors go to 1-1 with their first win of the year.



ONE KEY TAKEAWAY

The Celtics look as if there hasn’t been any change from the 2020-21 season despite a new head coach taking over and a roster overhaul. Boston still is playing the same version of basketball that left them at .500 last season, barely making the playoffs. The inconsistencies in play that led to continuous bad shots and 25 turnovers have not gone away. Ime Udoka’s style is more reminiscent of a Brad Stevens-led team than his very own. New additions in Al Horford and Josh Richardson played well in their respective first games but didn’t make the difference that the Celtics needed when they were eliminated by the Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs.

At the end of the day, it’s losing basketball that the team was supposed to move on from this offseason.

STARS OF THE GAME

— Al Horford reminded everyone why his departure hurt so much as he was a notable presence on both sides of the ball. He finished the night with 11 points, 11 rebounds, and a game-high four blocks.

— Josh Richardson shot the lights out of the ball from three, a pleasant surprise for the Celtics as the new wing shot a career-low from three-point last season. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, and one steal while going a perfect 4-for-4 beyond the arc.

— Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes had himself a night, leaving the C’s looking for answers. The 2021 fourth overall selection scored a career-high 25 points and added 13 rebounds to his efforts.


WAGER WATCH

Jaylen Brown’s record-setting performance in the season opener likely excited many fans to place a wager on the Celtics forward to have another big scoring performance. Unfortunately for those who felt he’d hit the over of 22.5 points were left wanting more while those who bet on the under will be celebrating their success tonight. Brown finished with nine points, meaning that if you put $100 down on the under, you would be walking away with a $140 profit. Not a bad night if you were expecting a cool down for the 24-year-old.

More Betting: NFL Odds: Why Patriots Remain Smart Week 7 Bet Vs. Jets Despite Skid

UP NEXT

The Celtics head to the Toyota Center to face off with the Houston Rockets on Sunday. Tip is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET.

112288

Well one stat pops out as a real negative. Out rebounded 60 - 42. Wow! Second shots taken. Out shot 100 - 82.

As I said the other day, it will take 20 games to understand the new coaches style of play. This could be a true transition year where we may get into the lottery. I did not think so, but perhaps the Ime's strategy for this team may be either more complex then first realized, OR the players cannot execute.

The flush out may begin at the trading deadline where we may see some shake ups with some noted players.

I am still of the belief that the ball goes through the center and works its way around the court to create less contested shots and opens up the defense.

Hey we can still win 80 games!

112288

I was only able to watch the first quarter and a half before my eyelids started to fall.

They completely out-worked us on the boards.  They got SO many offensive rebounds it's embarrassing.  6'7" Rookie Scottie Barnes alone had 6 offensive rebounds.  We had 10 total as a team.  Whose man was he?

Horford with a great game, that I saw.  He had 4 blocks in the 18 minutes or so that I watched.  That's all he got, 4, and they were all before halftime.

Our starting back court was a combined 3-18.  Smart was 0-6 and Brown was 3-13.  Brown also had 5 turnovers.  When I saw the box score this morning (7:30am here is 12:30am EDT) I got a nose bleed from Jaylen's fall from his Olympic height vs NYK.

We're supposed to be uptempo, but they really are.  They'd outlet pass out to half court.  We outlet passed to the top of the key extended.  They'd already have a shooter in the corner when the outlet receiver turned up court, which put the lone defender in a tough spot.  Does he defend the lane or does he cover his man in the corner?  

We took 82 fgas.  It is hard to win only taking that many shots.

We had 25 turnovers.  it is almost impossible to win with that many turnovers, and our turnovers seem to usually be live turnovers which means they can catch us flat-footed and turn it into an immediate fast break.  They had 22 fast break points and we only had 9.  Ime wants us to play uptempo.  This has to be a major disappointment for him.

Tatum with 5 turnovers.  Brown with 5 turnovers.  Schroder with 4 turnovers.  There's an entire team's worth of turnovers in just 3 guys.

16 steals vs 6.  So we had 25 turnovers and gave up 16 steals.  That's 41 empty possession.  I don't know what our pace is but I'll bet that 41 represents close to 40-45% of our total possessions.

Toronto really doesn't have a center, but they do have some very active PFs.  Ime didn't play any of ours in any significant minutes.

And they did this with us being 100% healthy and them without Pascal Siakam.  This is embarrassing.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401359846


Listen to Ime talk about their offensive rebounding, and how they talked about how Toronto does that BEFORE the game and talked more about it at halftime, and it didn't sink in.





Bob


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Saw the game on replay, got off to a good start, defense looked good, but we were cold only Tatum was hitting shots. Team may have been tired from double overtime, but that didn’t effect the Knicks tonite. Jaylen obviously looked fatigued after a super human effort last game, but I feel confident he will come around, not so sure about Marcus Smart though. I wish I was wrong, but he can’t seem to hit a shot and didn’t, was as bad as I’ve ever seen him. I know only 2 games, but right now this team has a lot of flaws. Seems like whenever GWill is on the floor we are too small and can’t rebound and he tries, but gets scored on pretty easily. Toronto has plethora of 6’10” active 4’s that exposed us underneath, embarrassed us. None of them are even all stars, but they were a bad match up for us.

Tatum keeps on complaining to the refs, wish he or someone could develop into a double digit rebounder. Tatum was outplayed by Randle opening night and a rookie Barnes tonight, we need a lot more from
him. I’m wondering about our depth, Knicks have Robinson, Noel, Randle and high flying 2nd year player Toppin at 4-5. We got destroyed on the boards and their best big Siakim was out? Maybe we need to figure out how to give Bruno a few minutes like Raptors do with some of their hustling active unknown bigs. I’m not very confident in games of Smart and GWill right now, even though GWill can do lay ups better now. Highlight of game was actually hearing Barkley and Shaq rein compliments on Paul Pierce’s scoring ability, saying how he carried the Celtics for years. Okay I got to vent, 80 games to straighten this out.

Mark Murphy @Murf56
yesterday
Udoksa on tonight: "One thing I can’t stand as a coach is to get punked out there."



John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Al Horford says the Celtics felt like they were on the verge of breaking through offensively but never did... and the Celtics ended up getting discouraged by that. He says that is something that needs to be addressed



Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
Josh Richardson on the booing: "The people in Boston know basketball. They were being honest."



Bob


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Yeah, this looks far worse than what we had last year, not no change.  

When you go long stretches with your tallest guy on the court is GW on defense AND you keep the one guy on your team glued to your bench that can offensively rebound and who would vacuum in all the misfired bricks, it leaves no room for misunderstanding anything that happened.  We got what we earned and deserved last night.  

I'm not going to blame this one on the players.  Most if not all goes on the coach.  I smashed the panic button last night with a sledge hammer.  I'm going to need a new one.  At least with Horford and RWIII out there we were keeping it close.  But this game had a knockout punch/rope-a-dope feel to it from the start and the rope-a-doped dope turned out to be our coach.  The long awaited knockout punch came in the 3rd quarter.  Of course TOR coach has a championship under his belt and he let Ime know it by welcoming him to the NBA.  Ours has two games as a head coach.  If Ime's going to be the next pro version of Duke's coach Mike K., we've got two more years of what we just saw.  That will just about take care of the 2 J's time in Boston along with any title hopes.  

For all the excitement about the 2 J's being a tandem, so far it's one night on, one night off for each of them.  That ain't gonna scare anybody.  That's half a Kyrie.  

I may be mistaken, but Al Horford looks and acts 10 years younger, running the floor, leading fast breaks.  We would have lost by 50 if he hadn't been out there.  I don't remember him being this good while he was here.  At least visibly.  Richardson looked good as well.  Congratulations to him as well.    

With n=2, we're going the opposite direction very quickly.  Please don't kid yourself and expect Sunday and Monday night to be any different just because it's the Rockets and Hornets, who are an actual surprising 2-0.  0-4 by Monday night here we come and no end in sight.  

The turnovers are inexplicable except I'm quite sure you shouldn't dribble right into a double team all the time and think you can get out of it with fancy off-your-foot and out-of-bounds razzle-dazzle.  Doing the math, somebody on your team is wide open.  The two J's are marked men.  They should expect to be double-teamed EVERY possession and must give up the ball to the guy standing wide open underneath the basket until the other team surrenders and goes back to man coverage.  Our two leaders need to lead by example.  So far, everyone thinks TO's are cool.  That's not the coach's fault.  

Horribly coached game.  Taken to the wood shed.  Punked? You deserved it. I hope elephants can remember.  Get ready for a full season of this plus two more unless he's a quick study.  So far, nothing to indicate otherwise.  

Amen and God Bless.

db

I've known of farts that didn't stink as much as this game.

Who’s worse right now, us or the Lakers?

A few short years ago (18-19) this team had 2Js, Al, Irving, Hayward, Smart, Morris, Baynes, Rozier, Theis. The talent level is way down from starting five to the first subs.

cowens/oldschool,

I forgot to mention that in my rant. Now by the transitive law/principle, we and the Lakers are now Finals favorites!!

Follow the logic. The Lakers are still favored to get to the Finals. They have 17 titles. They have an 0-2 record. We have an 0-2 record and 17 titles. Therefore, by transitive property, we are also Finals favorites. Forget all the other 0-2 teams!! Maybe it's the reflective property. Whatever. We're going to the Finals!!

db

It’s inductive reasoning. Appreciate the irony!

Disappointing, that is the only word I can use for that debacle last night. They let Toronto walk all over them, even laugh at them, and they walked off with a huge win. I really could not believe what I was watching.

Three players came to play, Horford, Williams II, Richardson. The rest looked like they were playing the 5th game in 6 nights, absolutely exhausted. Tatum better wake up, stop reading his accolades, and start showing up for games and shutting his big mouth. I would have benched him last night, he just could not help himself from whining. I expected Jaylen to come down and have a tough game, but where was everyone else?

Dennis Schroeder has shown me nothing, Smart is thinking too much and maybe this role is not made for him. All the rest, UGH, that is all I can say

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Disappointing, that is the only word I can use for that debacle last night. They let Toronto walk all over them, even laugh at them, and they walked off with a huge win.  I really could not believe what I was watching.  

Three players came to play, Horford, Williams II, Richardson.  The rest looked like they were playing the 5th game in 6 nights, absolutely exhausted.  Tatum better wake up, stop reading his accolades, and start showing up for games and shutting his big mouth.  I would have benched him last night, he just could not help himself from whining. I expected Jaylen to come down and have a tough game, but where was everyone else?

Dennis Schroeder has shown me nothing, Smart is thinking too much and maybe this role is not made for him. All the rest, UGH, that is all I can say

Smart is confused and it’s effecting his shooting, part time point. Might be time to start Schroder so he can get in rhythm. Marcus was good coming off the bench for years. If his inefficiency continues after 2-3 more games, have to do it….

Had to give it some time before I posted.

The Celts looked like a group that had no clue. And they probably did not. The coach has to figure out what role he will ask each player to play. Brown probably read his press clips and lost his shooting touch, hopefully for just one game. Tatum is struggling to figure out exactly how he should play. The double big lineup is slow at both ends. Perhaps we should not play Smart at 1 if we want to play double big. Just too complex a jumble for me to even attempt to understand.

Waiting to see what happens in the next game.

The only positive that I took was that RW3 looks like a much more mature player this year. That was the only exciting takeaway for me.

To me, when I see a team turn the ball over that much and give up that many offensive rebounds, it screams lack-of-focus. To make matters worse, I have a sneaking suspicion that for this team, lack of focus comes from thinking they are better than they are. So far, not impressed with Ime's offense or defense. On offense we are still chucking 3s with no penetration. There are times when they share (even over share) but they are still just whipping the ball around the 3 point arc. On D, our perimeter defenders (some of whom are supposedly junkyard dog all nba caliber defenders) can't deal with a basic pick. DBrown articulated my thoughts regarding giving up offensive boards, including our coach's bewildering decision not to use a guy who just Hoovers up rebounds (and who is a gifted scorer inside). Maybe Enes blows on D, - but I don't see how Enes could have made things worse. That decision reeks of lack of imagination or inability to think outside preconceived notions.

On the plus side: Brown and Tatum will eventually be on at the same time; Richardson looks like he can contribute; Al looks spry; Romeo is beginning to contribute; although Schroeder has  missed some easy shots its seems to that the reason is that he is trying too hard - once he settles down, he is going to help this team (related - like others, I am not sure Marcus is actually a starting level point guard).

Nesmith with 4 minutes. I watched the game and heard no explaation.Was he hurt ?

We sucked last night!

The Celtics played hard in the first half but it seems their lack of defense was too heavily impacted by the offense.  They let their offensive struggles dictate their defensive engagement.

The frequency of turning the ball was appalling.  The inability to control our defensive glass was appalling.  

We are 2 games in and both were games that we should have won.

Coach Udoka must be at the beginning of his check list in determining who and when guys should play.

The 2 big starting lineup is definitely not going to work if you  stick with the absurd notion that Grant William is your backup center.   Are you freakin kidding me?  The most productive rebounding big on this team is Enes Kanter and all he got from the coach was garbage time.

I know it is just game #2 and in all fairness we have to give this team a lot more time to figure some things out.  I guess what disturbs me the most is that many of the same bad habits that manifested itself last year are still with us like a set of old luggage that you cannot get rid of.

This is just one fan's opinion but coach needs to make some changes to the starting lineup.

First, we need a quality big in our rotation and if Ime is not going to play Kanter or even give Bruno 5 minutes, then Al Horford or RW will need to go to the bench.  My preference would be to send Al to the bench.  He had a pretty solid game last night but I refuse to use his production in that game as s barometer of what to expect from him this season.  So I am bringing him off the bench.  I would move Josh Richardson into the lineup.

The other big disappointment has been Marcus Smart at the point.  He wanted the ball in his hands and sooner or later, coach Udoka will have to take the ball out of his hands.  In two games Marcus is 5-15 from deep.  I had hoped that he would refrain from chucking so many 3 point shots but no. Offensively he cannot get into the paint off the bounce except in rare occasions and he cannot get to the rim off the bounce.  I have watched Marcus for 7 years plus the first 2 games and I really do not need to see more that would convince me that he is an ideal fit as our staring PG.  If things do not improve we need to give Schroder the job.

Romeo Langford has been the big surprise for me.  Yes he found himself in the middle of Grand Central Station and the pick pockets took advantage of him but he now has high confidence to take and make shots and we desperately need that from him.  

After a strong preseason showing Aaron Nesmith has been exiled to Siberia.  I can live with him making some mistakes but my goodness, you should not bench him at a time when he is just getting to feel comfortable.  Don't do that to this kid.  Funny but last night the Raptors seemed to win every f-----g 50/50 ball.  I would bet money that Aaron would have won some of those battles.

If you want to pair two point guards together it will not work if that pairing is Smart and Schroder.  I say use PP with either one of those guys and you at least you have one guy that can actually make shots from the outside.  This is not rocket science.

The offensive scheme of playing with pace is an excellent strategy however this team still lacks the fortitude to stay the course.  One missed shot and this team losses focus.  Mentality this team is weak and that is why they turn the ball over so much and do not get back on defense.

The defensive switch everything scheme will not work.  Let me tell you why.  Too often RW or Al find themselves up top defending the perimeter and in the meantime we do not have enough rebounding in the post.  The further our centers play away from the basket, the less effective they will be as rim protectors and rebounders off the defensive glass.

Jayson Tatum is getting on my last nerve.  All the yapping and complaining and poor decision making is tiresome.  He needs to focus on playing quality, fundamentally sound  basketball.  

Ime had better nip this sh*t in the bud right now.  If that means you have to bench guys then bench guys.

This early part of the season can set the tone for how this team plays throughout the year.

Good analogy dboss, the switching defense can work, but not all the time, have to mix in some different defenses. The Pierce-KG defenses just stayed on their man straight up with Perk and KG clogging the lane. Keep our bigs in the lane and perimeter guys on their man on the perimeter. Smalls and wings go over/top to stay on your man, let the big stay closer to the rim.

I had my doubts about Smart before the season, then in preseason he didn’t show me anything to this working offensively. He has no burst, shooting has never been his strength, he is a part time point at best. I’ve hardly ever seen him beat the defense down the floor, not the right point to run an uptempo offense. There are so many young points that can play with more quickness and savy. We have to get Schroder going, get him in rhythm or make a trade….

Right now I'd say we're quality back court and wing-heavy and quality PF-light.  I know we all sorta knew that going in but this game highlighted it.

Smart, Schroder, Pritchard.  All 3 of them are good for at least 20mpg.  Can't happen, that's 60+mpg (and that's assuming Smart only gets 20, we know he's getting closer to 30).

Brown, Richardson, Nesmith.  Brown is good for 30+, Richardson is good for at least 20+ and Nesmith is good for at least 15#.  Can't happen, that's 65+mpg.

There are 240 player minutes in a regulation game.  I just allocated 125 of those 240 and that's just the back court.

Tatum, Hernangomez, Fernando.  Tatum with 30+ and the other two with diddly.  Fernando is raw and, based upon admittedly limited observations, Gomez is slow of foot on defense and that won't sit well with Ime.

Horford can play 4 but he's actually a tweener, and I hate tweeners.  I know they're all the fad now, every coach wants players who can play multiple positions, but I like players who own their space.  Give me Anthony Davis at 4 and let someone else play 5.  AD will murder anybody and everybody guarding him at the 4-spot.  Give me Bradley Beal at 2 and let someone else run the offense and/or body up players 4" taller and 15# heavier.  Beal will destroy every small PG or SF that tries to stop him and he'll own the 2s as well.

Kanter=slow.  He's a great rebounder but he's not going to contribute in an uptempo game other than securing the rebound.  He's not beating anybody down court.  RWill is important, really important, but his durability is still a question mark until proven otherwise, like Joel Embiid's was for his first couple of years.

We're only 2 games into a full 82-game season.  There's still plenty of time to panic, there's no need to rush to reserve your deck chair on the Titanic quite yet, but our lack of quality depth at 4 was revealed vs Toronto.  We're being told by coaches that the old nomenclature of 1-5 is no longer appropriate.  I say Nick Nurse shortcircuited those conclusions.  His 4s killed us, showing that not all 'bigs' are equal and bigger isn't necessarily better in a 'big'.  Ime needs to give Gomez and/or Fernando some minutes so Brad can see what he has, or doesn't have.

And Tatum has to work harder, on both ends. Period.


Bob


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