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Celtics Wrap: Nets Prevail At TD Garden Despite Marcus Smart’s Best Effort
Boston falls to 10-9


NESN by Alexandra Francisco

It’s not easy to host the Brooklyn Nets, never mind shorthanded, and Boston’s win streak ended with a 123-104 loss on Wednesday night at home.

The Celtics fall to 10-9 on the season while the Nets improve to 13-5.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
It was a tall task for the Celtics to finish off the four-game homestand strong with their erratic start and the way they’ve shot all season. And without Robert Williams and Josh Richardson out, Jaylen Brown clearly laboring and the best team in the Eastern Conference in town, the defense we’ve seen flashes of didn’t come out hard enough.

Despite some life in the fourth quarter spark plugged by Jabari Parker, a 17-0 run and some late no-calls erupting the crowd at TD Garden, Brooklyn had this in the bag quite early and never looked back.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Marcus Smart kept trying to spark anything from the Celtics to no avail. But he had 20 points, three rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block in the loss — earning every bite of his Thanksgiving meal. He was excelent.



— James Harden flirted with a triple double and led the Nets with 20 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists and two steals.

UP NEXT
Boston gets a day off for Thanksgiving before heading to San Antonio on Friday. Tip off between the Celtics and Spurs is at 8:30 p.m. ET.

JUST WANT TO WISH EVERYONE ON THE FORUM AND THEIR FAMILIES A HAPPY AND SAFE THANKSGIVING!

Now to business!

THANKSGIVING CAME A DAY EARLY TO CELTIC FANS WHERE THE ATTENDEES AND VIEWERS AT HOME WERE GIVEN A HEALTHY SERVING OF TURKEY AND STUFFING...........ENOUGH TO MAKE EVERYONE SICK!

112288

We need more quality shooters.  Been saying that for a while.  Too bad we did not go after Patty Mills.  $5.89 mill just like Schroder.

We shot 11-48 from 3. 23%. You aren't going to win games in this NBA shooting that %. Furthermore, 48 fgas was 52.7% of our 91 fgas. Most of our fgas were 3s, and we shot like shite from 3. And there you go.

Tatum 1-9 from 3. 5 turnovers. I think it was BobC who said it on the Game On! thread, "Tatum is a frontrunner". When the shots are dropping, when he's getting the whistles he thinks he's entitled to, he's great. When he's struggling? Not so great. In my opinion Ime needs to figure out how to bring him down to earth a bit without crashing him. Professional athletes need strong egos (we all do, really, but especially people in hyper-competitive efforts), but not big egos because big egos get in the team's way.

The Js were 9-31, 1-17 from 3. I doubt Brooklyn would have won if Durant and Harden both shot like that (Harden/Durant combined for 12-29).

Thank God for Marcus Smart. I love this guy, absolutely freaking love him. As far as I am concerned he is pure, distilled essence of Boston Celtic. The deeper in the hole we went the harder he played, the harder he fought. Celtic high scorer with 23 and I don't know how many charges taken. If his heart was any bigger it'd be outside his body. It really was amazing watching him put on a defensive clinic. Unfortunately, this highlight film doesn't show what I think showed the complete incompetence of Tony Brothers and his officiating crew. Harden just tried to walk through Smart, who had both his hands up, and they called a block on Smart. It was SO obviously wrong. Smart lives rent free in Harden's head.




Schroder 3-10, 1-5 from 3.

Parker, in a surprise 16 minutes, grabbed 7 boards.

It was clear to me last night that when we went inside we did well, and when we passively played for the shot from outside we didn't. Kanter and Smart, just to name two, were very effective inside.

In his post-game presser Ime said that we "had a good homestand. It could have been a great homestand but it was still good". True, if you look at the W-Ls, but last night's game was a preview.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360094


Bob


.

I thought this was a really bad coached game by Ime too, the team came out flat defensively and why not attack the basket more, when we were so cold from 3 and they have no shot blockers and we can drive? Speaking of I would have went with Smart Schroder 2 J’s and Al starting. I like GWill, but the Menace brings more to the table. Difference in the game was 1-17 from 2 J’s in their worst performance together ever, hopefully will use this as motivation for the next Nets meeting, we can still play with these guys.

Without a set position 5 tandem, we are going nowhere.  I am getting sick and tired of not having a complete team playing for a decent amount of games so they can get some rhythm.  

I am also getting sick of a bunch of players labeled a shooter, a sniper, and then they fail to even hit the ocean with the ball.

Without Smart no one sets the chemistry for the team.  Smart is like a junk yard dog - a real pit bull who will not back down from anyone. Just once I would love for Smart to give Harden a little pop to send him on his ass.  He is a great shooter, but also a punk who needs his clock cleaned!

112288

After cooling down a bit from losing it during the game, I believe that the next step in Celts evolution is that JB gets healthy and figured out how to get integrated. That means paying attention on defense and moving without the ball, cutting and scoring on offense.

I heard Smart and Kanter mentioned. I want to add Romeo’s name. He too played well and played within himself.

JB’s introduction to the lineup has coincided with reduced ball movement and the ability to penetrate. Perhaps Schroeder should start instead of Smart, although Smart has been playing very well.

prakash wrote:After cooling down a bit from losing it during the game, I believe that the next step in Celts evolution is that JB gets healthy and figured out how to get integrated. That means paying attention on defense and moving without the ball, cutting and scoring on offense.

I heard Smart and Kanter mentioned. I want to add Romeo’s name. He too played well and played within himself.

JB’s introduction to the lineup has coincided with reduced ball movement and the ability to penetrate. Perhaps Schroeder should start instead of Smart, although Smart has been playing very well.

Really he is clearly not highest level JB, still literally getting his legs under him. We still have to get RWill back, Jaylen will figure things out….

cowens/oldschool wrote:

prakash wrote:After cooling down a bit from losing it during the game, I believe that the next step in Celts evolution is that JB gets healthy and figured out how to get integrated. That means paying attention on defense and moving without the ball, cutting and scoring on offense.

I heard Smart and Kanter mentioned. I want to add Romeo’s name. He too played well and played within himself.

JB’s introduction to the lineup has coincided with reduced ball movement and the ability to penetrate. Perhaps Schroeder should start instead of Smart, although Smart has been playing very well.

Really he is clearly not highest level JB, still literally getting his legs under him. We still have to get RWill back, Jaylen will figure things out….

True. I am just stating that replacing Schroeder with JB has affected our ability to penetrate and get the initial breakdown in defense. Not an ability comment but a chemistry comment.

It will be great as Jaylen figures things out.

Sounding like a broken record here but Schroder, not Smart, should start at PG. I know this irritates the rabid Smart lovers. And I am not by any stretch saying he is not a key part of the team. But I checked and our record with Smart starting at the point is 3 wins and 5 losses. Schroder is 7 and 4. (And for the Smart fans one of Schroder's losses was with Smart out. We need them both.) And those Schroder wins were typically without Brown. The availability of players at the 5 is too unreliable to start two bigs all of the time. Start Al or RWIII, the two Js, Marcus at the 2, and Schroder at the 1.

Without Marcus Smart this team would be in no mans land. He took his own advise when he called out Brown and Tatum. Since that fiasco, he has shown up every game, played his heart out, and worked his tail off. Tatum’s immaturity is still an issue. He needs to stop reading about himself and show up ever single night, ready to play. Last night was a debacle. His love of the three shot is sickening at time.s When it isn’t going down, drive to the damn basket. Stop complaining and get back on defense. Five games of good ball does not make.a season. I would have thought, in front of a full house, with Durant on the opposing team, that he would have shown that he wanted to win that game. BobH was right, bu the second quarter, his body language was terrible. I don’t care if you want to bring Smart off the bench, he is still going to get the bulk of the minutes in the end. If starting is a way to jump start Schroeder, start him. But I am not so sure that is the answer.

Get ready, because Brad will blow this thing up if it does not work this year. And some of us may not be happy with who goes

Smart is all heart, but Schröder is our best guard IMO and should start.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Without Marcus Smart this team would be in no mans land.  He took his own advise when he called out Brown and Tatum. Since that fiasco,  he has shown up every game, played his heart out, and worked his tail off. Tatum’s immaturity is still an issue.  He needs to stop reading about himself and show up ever single night, ready to play.  Last night was a debacle.  His love of the three shot is sickening at time.s When it isn’t going down, drive to the damn basket.  Stop complaining and get back on defense.   Five games of good ball does not make.a season. I would have thought, in front of a full house, with Durant on the opposing team, that he would have shown that he wanted to win that game.  BobH was right, bu the second quarter, his body language was terrible.  I don’t care if you want to bring Smart off the bench, he is still going to get the bulk of the minutes in the end. If starting is a way to jump start Schroeder, start him. But I am not so sure that is the answer.

Get ready, because Brad will blow this thing up if it does not work this year.  And some of us may not be happy with who goes

And again, I did not say Marcus should be off the team. He just should not be the PG. Smart absolutely needs to be on this team. But he should not be the center and he should not be the PG. Just because someone has a big heart, works hard, and is a terrific defender does not mean that their skill set is well suited to a specific role.

dboss wrote:We need more quality shooters.  Been saying that for a while.  Too bad we did not go after Patty Mills.  $5.89 mill just like Schroder.

You would rather we signed Patti over Dennis or an addition to Dennis?

atcross wrote:Sounding like a broken record here but Schroder, not Smart, should start at PG. I know this irritates the rabid Smart lovers. And I am not by any stretch saying he is not a key part of the team. But I checked and our record with Smart starting at the point is 3 wins and 5 losses. Schroder is 7 and 4. (And for the Smart fans one of Schroder's losses was with Smart out. We need them both.) And those Schroder wins were typically without Brown. The availability of players at the 5 is too unreliable to start two bigs all of the time. Start Al or RWIII, the two Js, Marcus at the 2, and Schroder at the 1.  

+1
Exactly

Ktron wrote:

dboss wrote:We need more quality shooters.  Been saying that for a while.  Too bad we did not go after Patty Mills.  $5.89 mill just like Schroder.

You would rather we signed Patti over Dennis or an addition to Dennis?

Ktron

Really good question. I would have liked to have both of them. Both signed using the smaller MLE but Mills signed for 2 years. We would have needed a sign and trade for one of them and the MLE on the other. Brad made the deal to get Josh Richardson and I am unimpressed with him especially his horrid 3 point shooting.

If I had a choice between using the MLE on Schroder or Mills, I would have used it on Mills. That would be an easy choice. Did you know that Mills is shooting.....50% from deep on 6.3 attempts per game? Did you know that he is a career 39% 3 point shooter? I am just putting this out there. I like Schroder but he is like a 12 month lease and he cannot shoot worth a crap.

Our lack of 3 point shooting accuracy puts this team in the .500 group.

Cant say i disagree with much of what you’re saying cept i like what josh has given to us lately,
I wanted them to sign Mills too. Wish they had gotten both. Don’t know how long Mills will put up those kind of numbers but at least He’d be here next year and i liked him before he was shooting 50%