Post Game Washington - Away, 10/30/21

It was a midnight start for me, which helped offset the 2OT. I'm flying back November 9th, so that should get easier.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
six games, five overtimes for the Celtics so far this season


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
Celtics double-overtime games... 2021-22: 2 in 6 games 2016-21: 2 in 390 games


No Smart (ongiong stomach issues), no Time Lord (non-COVID related flu).  Down 2 starters, just to start.  Didn't matter, our 3pt shooting sucked even worse than it probably would have with Smart (think about that!) and our rim defense was exemplary by Al Horford who got the start in replacement of Williams.

We shot 2-26, 7.7%, from 3.  I am struggling to wrap my mind around just how poor that is.  Wow.  Our top 3 3pt fg attempters were Tatum (0-5), Brown (0-5) and Richardson (1-4).  There's 14 fgas out of 26 total and we were 1-14.  Pritchard got our other 3pt fgm.  To use a word that's been floating around the last week this is "mind-boggling".  With shooting like that we should have been blown out, but we showed heart, we showed Pride and I'll take that for now.  We competed and damn near pulled it out anyway.

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
yesterday
Celtics are 0 for 19 on threes and just took the lead.


Marc D'Amico @celtics
yesterday
Coach Udoka says of our defensive improvements, “It was night and day effort-wise from the other day.” It was just an unlucky night shooting-wise.

Gary Washburn @GwashburnGlobe
yesterday
#Celtics were 1-for-13 FG in the final 8:28 for 3 points. Another tough loss. #Wizards

I try not to bash the officials too much but this game was terribly officiated.  Very one-sided.  Set aside the 36-25 fta advantage they had, the refs were just not blowing them equally.  Extremely inconsistent, not just from half-to-half but within the same quarter.  Ime has told his players "shut up and play, let me work the refs".  Well, get on it, man, because this was wrong.  He's absolutely right when he gets down on Grant and Tatum when they don't get back on defense because they're bitching at the refs but there has to be some push back from someone.

John Karalis @RedsArmy_John
yesterday
Washington challenging the call on the floor. They are certainly going to lose this challenge

The call was a foul by Washington on Tatum going baseline.  It was overturned, so they didn't lose the challenge even though replay showed it was a foul across the arm.  This is what I am talking about.  Even after a review they still screwed it up.

Jaylen saved us from getting blown out...again.  14-24, 0-5 from 3.  That means he was 14-19 from 2.  He did have 3 turnovers because he's overdribbling.  Still, an amazing performance from someone who says he is still struggling in his recovery from COVID.  He responded well to Ime's criticism.

Chris Forsberg @ChrisForsberg_
yesterday
Our @Webex newsroom number of the night: 59.5 percent of Jaylen Brown's drives generating points. That's best on C's + top 10 in the NBA among players with at least 10 drives per game (ahead of Giannis, LeBron). Jaylen proves the value of his drives immediately after pic.twitter.com/0qdEc7TNmS

Tatum, on the other hand, pretty much made it hard for us to win.  He ended up 10-32, 0-5 from 3.  That means he was 10-27 from 2, which sucks at any level of basketball competition.  At the end of regulation Jayson was 8-25, which makes him 2-7 in both OTs.  4 turnovers, including a killer in 2OT.  I don't understand why Ime, who says "less iso" allowed Tatum to go full iso in the OTs when it was Brown who was the hot hand.  Jaylen was 14-21 after regulation, meaning he was 0-3 in two OTs.  3fgas in 10 minutes of OT, and Jaylen played in all 10.  Jaylen played every minute of both OTs and he only got 3 fgas while Jayson played all 10 minutes of both OTs and took 7 fgas despite the fact that Jayson Tatum couldn't throw the ball into the Potomac from the edge of a pier all game.

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
yesterday
Celtics were scoreless for the final 3:28 of overtime. Felt like Jaylen should've been the guy.
MY NOTE:  Thanks for the corroboration.


Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
yesterday
Isolation sets have made up 22 percent of Jayson Tatum's offense through six games, and he's averaging 0.68 points per possession if you were wondering how that is going.


Schroder with just 6 points on 1-7 BUT 9 assists and only 1 turnover.  I can live with that.  He also had 3 steals.
 
Horford had a great, great game.  A real throwback.  He didn't score much but he had 10 rebounds, 5 assists and no turnovers and had 6 blocks.  Six.  I have no idea what kind of minutes he can play this year, at his age and all, but if we can get games like this in the ones he does play in we're doing ok.

Richardson with a solid game too.  7-15 is good shooting and we got his now-usual in-your-face defense.

Why we didn't foul Montrezl Harrell out sooner I have no idea.  He cannot defend the pnr.  He makes Kanter look good on pnr defense and we all know what I'm saying there.  We should have run pnrs against him all game.

Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Josh Richardson said he feels like the Celtics are “almost there.” He thinks the players all “know that we’re close.”


https://www.espn.in/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401359902




Bob


.

Ime needs to take his share of the blame too. Maybe Brad accepted blame too easily but there's enough to go around to pin some on the the coach this year. Brad did two things well that I don't see in Ime: he ran good plays coming out of time outs late in the game, and late in the shot clock; and he also always tried and mostly succeeded using his bench and newer players in matchups with opponents that complemented their skills. In other words he waited for opponents' rotations to suit his subs skill sets.

It's been a painful season to watch for me so far. Striving for constructive criticism I am pleased to see Grant's off season work. He improved his shooting a lot, especially in the paint, and his defense has been quite good. On someone like NY's Randle, he needs his teammates, all of them to help out, not just double teaming, but talking, protecting the rim etc.

I miss seeing players cutting. Standing in the corners waiting to launch a three has its place, but... Richardson looked great last night, he was always running without the ball, and Jaylen did OK, but he often cut when the paint was well defended. Tatum as has been noted here needs to make adjustments. Schroder played well; no one shot well.

Play what the defense gives you, and when your shots aren't dropping, everyone needs to keep moving and passing. Easy for me to say.

Kanter had his best year ever in Portland last year. Use this guy. I know his one on one defense is not top notch, but his defensive positioning in the paint is excellent, he has great hands and his offensive rebounding is superb. Surely there are spots he can get more minutes.

Horford has been great. His play has been a gift, it's sad to see his teammates not match his intensity.

Where is Nesmith? Undisclosed injury? He needs some minutes.

I'm just a fan, not a hoops strategist. I strongly feel this team can be better than what we've seen. Keep your chins up Cs. Smile more and defend harder, longer.

Great points, bygone.  Good to have you on board!  Yes, this is very hard to watch.  Most of it comes from the long tradition of winning and constant expectations of each season is championship or bust for Celtics, which I've never really understood what that means in the grand scheme of things. In the real world, this is our jobs. We don't just show up for the parties or at the closing. We work everyday, win and/or lose.

Al has been the best silver lining I've seen in quite a while.  GW and Menace as well.  The J's have been far too sporadic at best to date to pass judgment.  I dig deep like you do bygone to see more than that on the positive side.  Free throws are much better this season so far.  Those will become more glaring as we drive to the hoop more and get fouled.  All the games we have been in sans the TOR game.  That one got away from us.  But that's the #1 thing you absolutely have to have to even be in the conversation for a run at the title....being in all the games at the end of the 4th quarter.  We're in a position to win every game, despite whatever issues we are seeing unfold on the court in the first 6 games.  If your score is not close at or near the end of the game, your record ain't going to get you to the playoffs.  Period.  Doesn't matter if you have Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Larry Bird and Lebron James as your starting 5.  It won't matter if you're down 40 with 2 minutes left in the game.  You're not winning.      

I think there maybe a far more important silver lining to all the analytic 3-ball drug dealers that rightfully so have shown a different way to play this game against the 3-point line backdrop.  Last night's game was finally the blaring counterexample all of us old timers have been waiting for.  First of all, I don't recall a team ever going 0-20 and finishing up 2-26 for 7%.  Ever.  If you have an example please share but you're going to have to dig I'm pretty sure.  

Notice one thing that finally happened.  We didn't keep launching beyond 26 attempts to try to shoot ourselves out of it.  As painful as it is to watch these guys brick up skyscraper after skyscraper at times we finally made a big adjustment to realize something ain't working and still proceeded to keep ourselves in the game.  Usually we launch about 40 a game if I'm not mistaken.  So something happened on the sidelines to the effect of someone pulled the plug and said, "OK, Plan B.  No more crack for anyone.  Quit shooting the GD 3-balls."  We finally had to play 2-point ball or "And 1" ball.  And guess what?!  It worked!!  It still worked.  So much so that we were competitive throughout.  Us old-timers should be elated!!  We were in the game for 58 minutes this time only to see Tatum go out of control at the very last seconds...and we did this with practically ZERO help from behind the arc.  Only PP and Richardson got one apiece.  It wasn't the end of the world as our analytical 3-point crack dealers would have led us to believe.  

My point?  This doesn't imply that the 3-point analytics are wrong.  It was just a glaringly bad night for the 3-ball.  Those are going to happen.  Hopefully not this bad ever again but nights like these are going to happen!!  It also doesn't imply that going back to the 80's and dumping it into the Kevin McHale black hole is the sole right answer either.  It shows two things:

1)  You have to be able to adjust mid-game.  If part of your plan ain't working, for the love of Jesus, stop it and try the other option!!

2)  It's the coach's and the player's responsibilities to determine from what the game is delivering to them how to blend/mix the plays to get into/remain in a position to be able to win the game at the end.  We did that.  Think about it.  Would we have been in a position to win this game if all we did was keep shooting 3-balls at the same clip that got us to 0-20?  Maybe, maybe not.  Probably not.

This game showed that no matter what the analytics say about the 3-ball, which has some merit because the expected value of a 3-point shot is slightly greater than any 2-point shot other than a pair of free throws or a lay-up/dunk, you have to reach a point where you change course and abandon Plan A.  Or at least mix things up a bit more.  Now we had to go from one extreme to the other but in the end we were still right in it for 57 3/4 minutes.  

The answer lies somewhere in between these two extremes.  That's where Ime makes his money.  He is putting us in a position to win all of these games at the end.  That is huge.  He made his money last night.  He's VERY, VERY GOOD at it.  Did we win?  No, as that will come with time but this game was a virtual tie anyway.  And all done by a coach with only 6 NBA games as a head coach under his belt.

The 3-ball is a weapon.  But it comes with a price.  Bigger Risk, Bigger Reward.  But you can still be very competitive with the old school down in the paint game when current results on the court force you to abandon "the numbers".      

db

bygone wrote:Ime needs to take his share of the blame too. Maybe Brad accepted blame too easily but there's enough to go around to pin some on the the coach this year. Brad did two things well that I don't see in Ime: he ran good plays coming out of time outs late in the game, and late in the shot clock; and he also always tried and mostly succeeded using his bench and newer players in matchups with opponents that complemented their skills. In other words he waited for opponents' rotations to suit his subs skill sets.

It's been a painful season to watch for me so far. Striving for constructive criticism I am pleased to see Grant's off season work. He improved his shooting a lot, especially in the paint, and his defense has been quite good. On someone like NY's Randle, he needs his teammates, all of them to help out, not just double teaming, but talking, protecting the rim etc.

I miss seeing players cutting. Standing in the corners waiting to launch a three has its place, but... Richardson looked great last night, he was always running without the ball, and Jaylen did OK, but he often cut when the paint was well defended. Tatum as has been noted here needs to make adjustments. Schroder played well; no one shot well.

Play what the defense gives you, and when your shots aren't dropping, everyone needs to keep moving and passing. Easy for me to say.

Kanter had his best year ever in Portland last year. Use this guy. I know his one on one defense is not top notch, but his defensive positioning in the paint is excellent, he has great hands and his offensive rebounding is superb. Surely there are spots he can get more minutes.

Horford has been great. His play has been a gift, it's sad to see his teammates not match his intensity.

Where is Nesmith? Undisclosed injury? He needs some minutes.

I'm just a fan, not a hoops strategist. I strongly feel this team can be better than what we've seen. Keep your chins up Cs. Smile more and defend harder, longer.

bygone,

Hi.  I see you've got 13 posts, I just don't remember seeing you around.  Welcome.

Nesmith has been out with an undisclosed non-COVID illness.  He has been missing practices.  He was supposedly going to try and make the trip to Washington but I don't know if he did.

I agree with everything you said.  How often does that happen?  This might be the shortest post I've ever written.


Bob


.

Might have been worse officiated game I’ve ever seen. Never should have went overtime. They drive hard make contact and a foul, we drive hard and it’s the new rule…??? On the last drive in regulation, Dinwiddie didn’t get touched, then twisted his body on landing trying to make contact, what happened to make them earn it? How did the wimp Udoka not challenge that?

Jaylen is clearly our best player by my eye test, he’s stronger and gets his shot off easier than Tatum, might have the best mid range game in the league right now. Tatum is trying to play thru/into contact too much and isn’t that strong and is not getting calls, he’s pissing me off, all these boneheaded plays he’s making are starting to remind me too much of Antoine Walker. Refs have given him nothing this year, they have it out for him. He had a few clean blocks, all ball, got fouls called and didn’t see anything from Udoka, how does the league continue to let refs make bad wrong calls over and over? The worst play was after a spirited block by Al, where he retrieved the ball and brought it end to end on a break, Al dished it to Tatum; Tatum had the perfect angle for a finish and dunk, but got too cute and passed it back to Al, who was in perfect position for a putback if Tatum missed, Al missed the pass. Tatum’s instincts suck. All the great players figure out a way to help their team when their shot is off, don’t see that at all with Tatum.

I know it’s still early, but Udoka has been terrible, he refuses to work the refs, has no offensive strategy that I see that is near innovative, He was in charge of Nets defense, which last year was surprisingly good, maybe he doesn’t know offense? After we got 6 point lead in first OT, all he did was have Jaylen stand in corner like a statue and had Schroder and Tatum work a 2 man game or Tatum go iso, well Tatum was inefficient almost the whole game and could barely buy a bucket and Schroder ice cold with one FG the whole game. Some of the most inept play calling I have ever seen at the worst time, how a head coach blows a game like that shows me he’s in over his head. When is he ever going to get in a refs face over a call? Guy is a wimp.

bobheckler wrote:

bygone wrote:Ime needs to take his share of the blame too. Maybe Brad accepted blame too easily but there's enough to go around to pin some on the the coach this year. Brad did two things well that I don't see in Ime: he ran good plays coming out of time outs late in the game, and late in the shot clock; and he also always tried and mostly succeeded using his bench and newer players in matchups with opponents that complemented their skills. In other words he waited for opponents' rotations to suit his subs skill sets.

It's been a painful season to watch for me so far. Striving for constructive criticism I am pleased to see Grant's off season work. He improved his shooting a lot, especially in the paint, and his defense has been quite good. On someone like NY's Randle, he needs his teammates, all of them to help out, not just double teaming, but talking, protecting the rim etc.

I miss seeing players cutting. Standing in the corners waiting to launch a three has its place, but... Richardson looked great last night, he was always running without the ball, and Jaylen did OK, but he often cut when the paint was well defended. Tatum as has been noted here needs to make adjustments. Schroder played well; no one shot well.

Play what the defense gives you, and when your shots aren't dropping, everyone needs to keep moving and passing. Easy for me to say.

Kanter had his best year ever in Portland last year. Use this guy. I know his one on one defense is not top notch, but his defensive positioning in the paint is excellent, he has great hands and his offensive rebounding is superb. Surely there are spots he can get more minutes.

Horford has been great. His play has been a gift, it's sad to see his teammates not match his intensity.

Where is Nesmith? Undisclosed injury? He needs some minutes.

I'm just a fan, not a hoops strategist. I strongly feel this team can be better than what we've seen. Keep your chins up Cs. Smile more and defend harder, longer.

bygone,

Hi.  I see you've got 13 posts, I just don't remember seeing you around.  Welcome.

Nesmith has been out with an undisclosed non-COVID illness.  He has been missing practices.  He was supposedly going to try and make the trip to Washington but I don't know if he did.

I agree with everything you said.  How often does that happen?  This might be the shortest post I've ever written.


Bob


.

I agree with bygone this offense sucks, everything about it, Udoka has brought nothing to this team on offense. Under Udoka Tatum is regressing and even forcing more things than last year….

But as bad as Udoka and Tatum were and our 3 point shooting, we still had this game, but the refs were the biggest factor, they made bad call after bad call against us the whole night. It’s getting to the point, it’s so lopsided it’s almost unbearable to watch.

I was at a Halloween party last night, but my son-in-law put the game on for me.  I couldn't really watch it because the grand-kids and their friends were having so much fun and you know what that means; lots of screeching and running around and just having fun.  It's always a joy to be a part of that.

I did notice that JRich was having his best game as a Celtics player.  That was a step in the right direction.  We played behind the Bullets for most of the game but managed to keep it close.



Anyway, we left the party and caught the last 2 minutes of regulation and the two OTs.  My biggest complaint was the obvious foul on Tatem and the failure of the refs to get it right, even on a review.  There were plenty of other missed calls.  Sure, they were "letting them play", but when push comes to shove, the calls that were made seemed always to go the other way.

I agree with Cowens, it’s almost unbearable to watch.

Two takeaways:

1. It sucks when your new coach has to learn his craft on the job.  If he wants to be the anti-Brad and stick up for his players, he better start soon.  It also seems like he has no awareness of who is hot and who is not when it counts.

2. We will probably never shoot the 3-ball as poorly as we did last night.  Still, it counts as a loss.

Good tune GYSO!

Hi,
Here's an interesting piece that I can't disagree with: https://sports.yahoo.com/open-letter-ime-udoka-cut-134938154.html

AK

So far this season looks like what I expected; it’s a construction project. I think things will gradually improve on both ends of the floor.

Just like a young player, a new head coach needs to develop. It will be June before we can say if Ime is the guy for the job. Hopefully, he will be.

I think if Tatum and Brown can find consistency (and I firmly believe it’s a matter of building better mental toughness for those two), Smart can find and be assigned his true position (2-guard), and Rob Williams can stay healthy and keep contributing big minutes, we’re off to a better start than the record shows.

The team is not very deep or talented this season, and that’s just where we are in the process. The important thing is to build around the 4 key players and coach. We may have a couple of keepers after the first 4 and we’ll confirm that as the season goes on. The team will be in decent enough financial shape to build around the core 4 in the coming off-season.  I think there is enough skill that the goal can and should be grabbing that 8th playoff spot.

If we focus on watching the core 4 gain momentum, the coach build his game management chops, and a good scramble for a playoff spot, this can be a fun season.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Might have been worse officiated game I’ve ever seen. Never should have went overtime. They drive hard make contact and a foul, we drive hard and it’s the new rule…??? On the last drive in regulation, Dinwiddie didn’t get touched, then twisted his body on landing trying to make contact, what happened to make them earn it? How did the wimp Udoka not challenge that?

Jaylen is clearly our best player by my eye test, he’s stronger and gets his shot off easier than Tatum, might have the best mid range game in the league right now. Tatum is trying to play thru/into contact too much and isn’t that strong and is not getting calls, he’s pissing me off, all these boneheaded plays he’s making are starting to remind me too much of Antoine Walker. Refs have given him nothing this year, they have it out for him. He had a few clean blocks, all ball, got fouls called and didn’t see anything from Udoka, how does the league continue to let refs make bad wrong calls over and over? The worst play was after a spirited block by Al, where he retrieved the ball and brought it end to end on a break, Al dished it to Tatum; Tatum had the perfect angle for a finish and dunk, but got too cute and passed it back to Al, who was in perfect position for a putback if Tatum missed, Al missed the pass. Tatum’s instincts suck. All the great players figure out a way to help their team when their shot is off, don’t see that at all with Tatum.

I know it’s still early, but Udoka has been terrible, he refuses to work the refs, has no offensive strategy that I see that is near innovative, He was in charge of Nets defense, which last year was surprisingly good, maybe he doesn’t know offense? After we got 6 point lead in first OT, all he did was have Jaylen stand in corner like a statue and had Schroder and Tatum work a 2 man game or Tatum go iso, well Tatum was inefficient almost the whole game and could barely buy a bucket and Schroder ice cold with one FG the whole game. Some of the most inept play calling I have ever seen at the worst time, how a head coach blows a game like that shows me he’s in over his head. When is he ever going to get in a refs face over a call? Guy is a wimp.

You and I both agree that Udoka needs to work the refs. He got on them a few times but not nearly enough given the way this game was being called.
Im pretty sure why he didn’t challenge that play you were referring to but on every possible challenge head coaches always look to their assistants because there are some that are designated to watch the calls more closely. Last night on at least 2 occasions Udoka did just that and they obviously didn’t see anything and they should have so i put the blame on them. The one that we ended up challenging was iffy at best. They encouraged him to challenge and they were wrong so again I put the blame on them.
Tatum sucking is not Udoka’s fault either. It’s convenient to blame the coach but Tatum sucking is because this damn near 5 year vet has been sucking on his own.
He’s the one turning the ball over and making bad decisions like the one you brought up on the dumb pass to Al. Udoka had nothing to do with his bad decisions. They are his and he needs to own them and get better. It’s too easy to blame the coach. I’ve said it before. We have 2 stars that cant get us over the hump in tight games. Brown hardly touched the ball in both overtime’s. Ive heard folks say Caldwell Pope had him tied up and he couldn’t get free. Bull! Caldwell Pope>>>Jaylen Brown. Which one is the better player? Which one is the Allstar? Brown needs to figure a way to get free and demand the ball. Maybe his personality wont allow it but its not Udoka’s fault that Brown and Tatum wreak of passivity. Brown was Great. Brown was hot and should have found a way to finish.
I disagree that Udoka is a wimp and is in over his head. It’s been 6 games with key players out of the lineup and we have been in every one of them except one. Yes he’s made mistakes and he’s entitled to them. In fact he’s entitled to several. Vet coaches and very successful vet coaches make mistakes and get questioned. Our coach is a rookie. He is going to make mistakes. We all need to relax on. He’ll get better and so won’t this team.

NYCelt wrote:So far this season looks like what I expected; it’s a construction project. I think things will gradually improve on both ends of the floor.

Just like a young player, a new head coach needs to develop. It will be June before we can say if Ime is the guy for the job. Hopefully, he will be.

I think if Tatum and Brown can find consistency (and I firmly believe it’s a matter of building better mental toughness for those two), Smart can find and be assigned his true position (2-guard), and Rob Williams can stay healthy and keep contributing big minutes, we’re off to a better start than the record shows.

The team is not very deep or talented this season, and that’s just where we are in the process. The important thing is to build around the 4 key players and coach. We may have a couple of keepers after the first 4 and we’ll confirm that as the season goes on. The team will  be in decent enough financial shape to build around the core 4 in the coming off-season.  I think there is enough skill that the goal can and should be grabbing that 8th playoff spot.

If we focus on watching the core 4 gain momentum, the coach build his game management chops, and a good scramble for a playoff spot, this can be a fun season.

100%

Another disappointing night, another night of a shortened bench when a search for someone, anyone to get hot may have helped. My biggest frustration is with the play calling at the end of the second OT, and really throughout the game. The coached seemed convinced that Tatum was going to shoot himself out of his slump. Letting Tatum bring the ball up the court, where he is not a good ball handler, losing his dribble, or missing his shot but a mile. This was Jaylen's game, he should have been the one taking the shot..not jason

bobc33 wrote:Good tune GYSO!

I'm finishing up some work today and that video lead to listening to the entire London Calling LP. That lead to Sandinista!, which after 41 years is just as relevant now as it was when it came out. Sandinista! is sort of the Clash's White Album, with lots of weird tracks, but over time I came to like most of them. I always have to listen to The Guns of Brixton twice.

Ktron I never said this team can’t get better, but I’m seeing a coach not challenge or work the refs. I agree it’s on Tatum, but it’s also on the coach, his offense ignored JB pretty much in OT. I don’t see any putting players in the best position to succeed or any difference in the offense. It’s early, but he has not exceeded my expectations, when you lose to teams that you have more talent than and weak disjointed strategy, that’s on the coach too.

On Jaylen, I wish he had more of the Mamba mentality, there are times he could demand the ball more and just take over. There is no reason Caldwell Pope should be locking him up at such a crucial stage of the game. Kobe wouldn’t let that happen and would be foaming at the mouth to go at KCP. Jaylen needs more fire to get to the next level. Tatum has that, but he’s not that good and makes too many dumb
plays. Jaylen has everything physically at 6’7” 225, even bigger and stronger than Kobe, he has to take it more personal.

There is really a lot of great commentary here.  

Winning or losing a close game is like that thin line between love and hate.

There are so may things that could have put this game into the win  column.

The positive aspect of this contest begins with the level of energy and intensity that the Celtics played with.  They really played hard so we cannot fault them for that.

I never thought it would be possible for a team to shoot 2-26 from deep and still have multiple mulligans to win this game.

Close games are about execution and I saw none of that.  I was perplexed that Jaylen went through multiple possessions where he did not touch the ball (in both OT sessions)

We had them on the ropes but we ended up getting hung out to dry.  

The play calling was horrible.  I thought coach Udoka had a Britannica sized play book.  He must have left it in SA as part of his nondisclosure agreement.

Jayson Tatum had the ball in his hands a lot and he launched more than his share of shot attempts (10-32)  He is still forcing things when they are not there.  Ever play that does not go his way is followed by the hands going up in the air like a baby's legs getting their shitty diapers changed.  Please stop it Jayson.

We had a brief Enes kanter encounter for 5 minutes resulting in 3 rebounds and 2 points followed by a quick trip back to the bench.  I note that we were out rebounded again.  Enes finally has a double 5 + 5 minutes played in total.

Langford is back and PP.  Both logged 18 minutes.  Richardson played 37  minutes and scored 18 points.

You expect some whistles to go the other way but really?  The refs were shameful.  Ime should call up coach Nurse to get educated in the art of 'working the refs'

Nesmith is buried beneath the bench.  I read that maybe he was not feeling well.  Okay, whatever.  My theory is that he has been flirting with Nia and coach caught him. lol

The Celtics play the Bulls tomorrow.  They are yet another up and coming team looking to make their bones.  The celtics need to watch out or they will become a W on every team's schedule.

Who fears the Celtics?   Nobody fears them.

cowens/oldschool wrote:Ktron I never said this team can’t get better, but I’m seeing a coach not challenge or work the refs. I agree it’s on Tatum, but it’s also on the coach, his offense ignored JB pretty much in OT. I don’t see any putting players in the best position to succeed or any difference in the offense. It’s early, but he has not exceeded my expectations, when you lose to teams that you have more talent than and weak disjointed strategy, that’s on the coach too.

On Jaylen, I wish he had more of the Mamba mentality, there are times he could demand the ball more and just take over. There is no reason Caldwell Pope should be locking him up at such a crucial stage of the game. Kobe wouldn’t let that happen and would be foaming at the mouth to go at KCP. Jaylen needs more fire to get to the next level. Tatum has that, but he’s not that good and makes too many dumb
plays. Jaylen has everything physically at 6’7” 225, even bigger and stronger than Kobe, he has to take it more personal.

Certainly is aggravating losing to teams we should beat. Last year it became a trend for us to lose to bottom feeders. Let’s hope this trend doesn’t continue.