POST GAME CROOKLYN - AWAY

Celtics romp to 126-91 win, star-less Nets drop 9th straight


ESPN BOSTON

NEW YORK -- — Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart each scored 22 points and the Boston Celtics rolled to their sixth straight win, beating the star-less Brooklyn Nets 126-91 on Tuesday night.

Without Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, the Nets weren't competitive in their ninth straight loss. Boston jumped to a 28-2 lead in a game that was never in doubt.

Harden missed his third straight game with left hamstring tightness. Durant remains out with a sprained knee ligament and Irving is still ineligible to play home games because he isn't vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Jayson Tatum scored 19 points as the Celtics continued their strong stretch and moved past the Nets into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets were considered the favorites to win the East with their Big Three, but they have lost 10 of 12 since Durant was hurt in the middle of January.

They just returned from a winless five-game trip to the West that ended with back-to-back blowouts in Utah and Denver without Harden.

Minutes into this one, it was clear they were headed toward another.

The Nets missed their first eight shots while Boston raced to a 14-0 lead on Brown's 3-pointer. Blake Griffin's jumper got the Nets on the board but the Celtics answered with another 14-0 run that made it 28-2 on Tatum's second straight layup.

The first-half lead peaked at 67-39 on Smart's 3-pointer and it was 69-43 at the break.

Boston's starters played less than 30 minutes but piled up good stats anyway. Smart made six 3-pointers and Brown had nine assists and seven rebounds.

Jevon Carter scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers in Brooklyn's worst loss of the season.

TIP-INS

Celtics: Robert Williams had 12 points and 11 rebounds. ... Boston snapped a four-game skid against Brooklyn.

Nets: Cs LaMarcus Aldridge (sprained left ankle) and Nic Claxton (left hamstring tightness) remained out. ... Brooklyn is 5-13 without Durant.

NEW YORK -- — Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart each scored 22 points and the Boston Celtics rolled to their sixth straight win, beating the star-less Brooklyn Nets 126-91 on Tuesday night.

Without Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving, the Nets weren't competitive in their ninth straight loss. Boston jumped to a 28-2 lead in a game that was never in doubt.

Harden missed his third straight game with left hamstring tightness. Durant remains out with a sprained knee ligament and Irving is still ineligible to play home games because he isn't vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Jayson Tatum scored 19 points as the Celtics continued their strong stretch and moved past the Nets into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets were considered the favorites to win the East with their Big Three, but they have lost 10 of 12 since Durant was hurt in the middle of January.

They just returned from a winless five-game trip to the West that ended with back-to-back blowouts in Utah and Denver without Harden.

Minutes into this one, it was clear they were headed toward another.

The Nets missed their first eight shots while Boston raced to a 14-0 lead on Brown's 3-pointer. Blake Griffin's jumper got the Nets on the board but the Celtics answered with another 14-0 run that made it 28-2 on Tatum's second straight layup.

The first-half lead peaked at 67-39 on Smart's 3-pointer and it was 69-43 at the break.

Boston's starters played less than 30 minutes but piled up good stats anyway. Smart made six 3-pointers and Brown had nine assists and seven rebounds.

Jevon Carter scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers in Brooklyn's worst loss of the season.

TIP-INS

Celtics: Robert Williams had 12 points and 11 rebounds. ... Boston snapped a four-game skid against Brooklyn.

Nets: Cs LaMarcus Aldridge (sprained left ankle) and Nic Claxton (left hamstring tightness) remained out. ... Brooklyn is 5-13 without Durant.

TRADE TALK

Two days after saying the Nets wouldn't trade Harden before Thursday's deadline, coach Steve Nash made it sound as if they wouldn't make any deals at all.

"Honestly, I think we'll be exactly the same. I think the chances of trades or deals happening before the deadline are so slim, especially for our group," Nash said. "So my mind and attention is on this group and putting this thing together as guys become healthy again and trying to build it for the stretch run."

UP NEXT

Celtics: Host Denver on Friday.Two days after saying the Nets wouldn't trade Harden before Thursday's deadline, coach Steve Nash made it sound as if they wouldn't make any deals at all.

"Honestly, I think we'll be exactly the same. I think the chances of trades or deals happening before the deadline are so slim, especially for our group," Nash said. "So my mind and attention is on this group and putting this thing together as guys become healthy again and trying to build it for the stretch run."

UP NEXT

Celtics: Host Denver on Friday.

Steve Nash is so clueless.  "What a maroon!!" as Bugs would say.  I'm going to enjoy watching his stab at coaching come to a merciless end after this season.  So will all the rest of the coaches.  No breaking in line, even when you couldn't screw a team like this up if you tried...I'll let dboss do the talking from here on out on everything BKN and their future.  But I digress.

What a great night of basketball last night.  Two teams beginning to look solid for the playoffs and two precipitously headed for the trash heap.  The media is still hanging on to their desperate hopes of a BKN vs. LAL Finals.  I was about to heave my sofa through the TV if I saw one more close up of the bearded idiot. Hmm.  Just like last year up to when the Lakers bowed out unceremoniously in the first round.

I think Westbrook has some version of the Yips.  I'm just sayin'.  He looks and plays like I would if LAL hired me to be one of their starting 5 for about 30 seconds and quickly realized putting my fatass out on the court was a serious mistake.

Most players no matter what their status at some point have to come to a stark realization in their professional basketball careers that they will not be winning the chip, regardless of how hard they try.  Russell Westbrook will be one of those.  It will clearly be one of the most baffling.  He's a 3D machine, yet he somehow plays like he's the only one out there.  Kind of like Allen Iverson.  A one-man show.  But I digress.  I can talk about train wrecks all day.    

As fans, we clearly can't complain about last night as it was a Celtics dream night come true.  Celtics returned the favor BKN dished out to us in the playoffs.  And of course the hapless Lakers were publicly humiliated in LA for all to see by the re-rising Bucks. 

What can I say about the Celtics?  Keep doing what you're doing.  Please don't change a thing.  Maybe tweak a thing or two, but please don't relapse.  Keep giving the bench run by blowing out everyone in sight.  Again, my new word phrase is cringe basketball.  It describes very well what the Celtics are doing to opponents.  We're taking it to teams and making them look like players 10-15 on the worst G-League team.

Again, I know.  Maybe Friday we can get a good read as we will be playing a team that has about the same record as us and looks relatively healthy. And Sunday. ATL, we've got a present for you. Payback.  

Just one comment.  Our bench.  I believe they actually added to the lead when all was said and done.  At worst they were even.  I think they will get much more play the more the starters keep blowing everyone out.  They looked much more confident even when the lead got down to 22.  Great work. PP and Menace. The starters got the whole 4th quarter off I presume since there were some technical difficulties from the end of the 3rd and 3 minutes into the 4th with TNT.  Maybe it was a mercy call by TNT.  We got to see PHI give up a game to PHX.  How the bookies gave PHI(-1) in that game I'll never know.  Embiid ain't that good.

Other than that, I have nothing to say but WOW!  Ime may begin to hear talk of top Rookie coach award if he pulls all this off.  Still the media is sleeping on us.  We're just a passing (no pun intended) fancy, trying not to upset the apple cart and get in the way of the pre-determined script of everything BKN and LAL.  What would really be great is if neither of those teams made the playoffs  It's a growing possibility now and must be considered.  

The Celtics will need to put down the newspapers headlines and literally keep plowing ahead, keep administering cringe basketball and steamrolling everyone in sight.

Amen!!

db

The Nets defensive strategy made sense until it made no sense.  How long do you try to double team the Jays before you realize that they have turned the corner and are now almost fixated with moving the ball when more than one defender comes into their space.

Let the record show that the Jays combined for 11 assists.  It was beautiful basketball.

Our first rotation did not work very well.  They cut the lead to 12 (37-25)   and then Jaylen, Marcus and Rob rotated back into the game.  They proceeded to push the lead back to a comfortable 26 point spread at the half (69-43)

At the end of 3 Boston still had a 26 point lead (97-71) I missed half of the 3rd because some Nets fan pulled the plug on the TNT broadcast truck.

The Celtics have turned into a pack of wolves.  They surround their prey and attack.

Before the past 7 games I said a 7-0 or 6-1 run would impact the decision making at the trade deadline.

We are now just 3 games behind in the loss column from 3rd and 4th place.

Getting out of the play in round is not the goal of this team.

Nice scrimmage, one of my favorite positives is the fast starts we have been doing every game recently and it starts with our defense. I remember bob heckler analyzing the Warriors defense in a thread a few months ago and they had the no 1 defense in the league. I was thinking to myself, they really only have one outstanding defender in Draymond Green, that we have as much if not more defensive talent. Well it took awhile, but our top 6 are really good. I can’t think of a better group of perimeter defenders than Smart JRich Brown and Tatum. Al is still fundamentally very good and we know how talented the Timelord is. GWill despite being undersized throws his weight/bulk around and is fundamentally sound. Since Christmas we are the best defensive team in the league.

dboss wrote:The Nets defensive strategy made sense until it made no sense.  How long do you try to double team the Jays before you realize that they have turned the corner and are now almost fixated with moving the ball when more than one defender comes into their space.

Let the record show that the Jays combined for 11 assists.  It was beautiful basketball.

Our first rotation did not work very well.  They cut the lead to 12 (37-25)   and then Jaylen, Marcus and Rob rotated back into the game.  They proceeded to push the lead back to a comfortable 26 point spread at the half (69-43)

At the end of 3 Boston still had a 26 point lead (97-71) I missed half of the 3rd because some Nets fan pulled the plug on the TNT broadcast truck.

The Celtics have turned into a pack of wolves.  They surround their prey and attack.

Before the past 7 games I said a 7-0 or 6-1 run would impact the decision making at the trade deadline.

We are now just 3 games behind in the loss column from 3rd and 4th place.

Getting out of the play in round is not the goal of this team.

Dboss I like that, pack of wolves!!!

Pack of Wolves

and bunch of attack dogs!!!

I don't think we can take much away from this game other than that it's better to win than lose.  We were playing a team that was playing the bottom half of their bench.  I don't feel sorry for them, we went through such times too, but as a measuring stick it doesn't tell us much about us when we're playing a good team at full strength.  Hell, they shot < 39% from the line for Pete's Sake.

Horford was 1-5 from 3.  For a guy who does a set shot from 3 you can't blame it on his aging legs.  He's shooting 29.3% from 3 this year.  What I didn't understand is that without Durant and Claxton they basically had no front court, and Al did well playing bully-ball with them.  Why keep chucking up 3s and you're killing them down low because they had virtually no bigs?

Smart with a great shooting night.  We get those every so often.  it's pure bonus, as far as I'm concerned, but it's nice when they do.  He tied for game high 22 points with Jaylen.  He was 6-13 from 3 but his defense on Patty Mills is what really grabbed my eyes.  He was glued to him.  Mills was doing a pretty decent John Havlicek imitation of being a non-stop motion machine and Smart was always right there with him.

What's left to talk about a game that never was, and never should have been, even close?  Our deep bench.  They almost blew a huge lead 2 games ago, redeemed themselves last game.  How'd they do vs Brooklyn?  With the exception of Bruno, who only played 5 minutes, they mostly played 12-15 minutes.  Nesmith and Pritchard came in for Jaylen and Smart @ 1:59 left in the 3rd.  The score was 95-62, a 33 point lead.  At the end of the 3rd the score was 97-71, a 26 point lead.  The Nets went on a 9-2 run in the last 2 minutes of the 3rd.  NOT good.  If you're going to give up 7 points in 2 minutes you cannot be in at the end of a game unless the game is already Hell-and-gone.  Freedom and Romeo played the entire 4th.  At the end the score was 126-91, a 29-20 quarter for us, running the final lead back up to 35.  That's more like it.  The highlight was Bruno's dunk, at about 1:08 of this highlight film.  I liked his 10' fallaway, earlier in the film, too.

When was the last time we've even had a "bench highlight film"?




A 6 game winning streak, clearly the longest of the season by far. We are in 7th place, tied with Toronto in 6th. Unfortunately they are playing OKC today, so that should be a win for them (although, it is in OKC. So cross your fingers). We are a completely different team when we are healthy. Earlier this season, when we were losing, both games and our minds, we were neither healthy nor did we have an easy schedule. IF we can stay healthy, we have an easy schedule the rest of the way and can maybe make some noise.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360636


Bob


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Well put dboss. Cringe Defense. Like when you walk up on a crime scene or a fatal car accident. That's what the Celtics are doing to the opposition. It looks awful if you are on the receiving end of it. Scare the bejesus out of everyone in the NBA. Don't worry. We're still not on anyone's radar yet. Beat DEN, ATL and PHI handily coming up? That will about do it for trying to slide through unnoticed.

db

Bob

We went on a very similar run last year.  We were sitting at 25-26 and then went on a 7-1 run including a 6 game streak.  After that we went 4-9 to end the regular season.  The thing that stands out was our inability to defend.  In those 9 losses we gave up:

109, 125, 119, 129, 121, 130, 129, 102 and 96 points in those 9 losses.

I must have pushed those losses into the back of my mind.  As you can see, we were horrendous on defense.

This year I do not expect to see a complete and total defensive collapse like we had last year.

OK. So going into Friday we're back to the glass ceiling from last year. Nice catch, dboss. Let's see if I can drop Herman's Hermits Henry the VIII from my team monikers finally!

db

I agree with a lot of what you are saying bobh. However, in winning these games we are stomping the competition. Granted is is bottom fishing, but we are are a team that is really and truly a .500 team, the teams we are beating would still at least give us a game and the game would still be pretty close or not in doubt until late in the game. That hasn't been the case.

These recent games have been over by the end of the 3rd period. These next three games will again tell us a lot. These three teams, DEN (30-24), ATL (26-28) and PHI (32-22) are a step up, more middle, middle-upper tier. If we are for real, we'll steamroll these three as well. Maybe not run up an 28-2 lead right out of the gate and win by 30, but the results should be the same.

These three game before Detroit will shed a lot of light on us and exactly where we are. Should be a real hoot!

db