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Celtics Wrap: Porous Defense Sinks Boston In OT Loss To Cavaliers
Mitchell and LeVert combined for 82 points


NESN by Greg Dudek

The Boston Celtics lost their second straight game, this time in overtime as they fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 132-123, at TD Garden on Friday night.

The Celtics fell to 3-2 while the Cavaliers fell to 4-1.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Boston’s offense continues to be leaps and bounds ahead of its defense, quite the contrast from last season when the Celtics’ identity was built on the defensive end.

And that’s proved to be a problem with the Celtics not being able to put away the Cavaliers in second half and overtime due to their defensive shortcomings.

The defense hasn’t been anywhere close to being up to par as the Celtics allowed at least 120 points for the third straight game. The pesky Cavaliers had very little issue generating offense as Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert combined for 82 points.

NESN 360 in-article asset
With a porous defense, the Celtics saw their 75-62 halftime advantage slip away, and couldn’t get a stop when they needed to most in the fourth quarter and overtime. Boston talked all week about refocusing on defense, but it sure likes their focus still isn’t there.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Mitchell led the way for the Cavaliers, scoring a 41 points points on 15-for-26 shooting. The three-time All-Star also recorded four rebounds and three assists.

— Jaylen Brown netted 32 points — Jayson Tatum produced the same amount but only scored two points after the third quarter — including throwing down an emphatic slam dunk over Mitchell in overtime. He also corralled eight rebounds.


— LeVert matched Mitchell, torching the Celtics for 41 points as well. He shot 12-for-21 from the floor, including hitting a clutch 3-pointer off an offensive rebound with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter.

WAGER WATCH
Marcus Smart had a rough shooting night (3-for-15), but contributed to the offensive effort by setting up his teammates. DraftKings Sportsbook set Smart’s assists over/under at 5.5 with +105 odds. Smart collected seven helpers, so a $100 bet would have totaled $205.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will have one day off before hosting the Washington Wizards on Sunday. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

112288

I’ll say it again-

Brogden played 22 minutes. F that! He needs to be closer to 30. Insane! Big or no big Kornet (25 ) should never get more minutes than Malcolm- or anyone else for that matter.

Well the team has comeback to earth.  I really think Brad did a poor job in getting a temporary fix at center.  Bringing in Griffin was ok, but he is not a center and at 6'9" a power forward.  Could have used Melo when we needed a third option at 3 ball.   They are all keying in on Brown and Tatum and Melo would have been a great 3rd option.

Tatum really has poor decision making skills especially in closing seconds of regulation. Why do you wait for just one shot. Basketball 101 says, give yourself enough time so if you miss, a rebound and second shot or a tip is possible!  Then in overtime he dribbles into the paint and makes a poor pass into the corner only to get picked off!

One thing with IME he did break the Celtic poor defense by Christmas 2021 and lead the league in defense.  We are 28 in the league as of tonights game.

Not impressed, starting to regress, what a mess......WOW I am rapping right now!

LOL

112288

112288 wrote:Well the team has comeback to earth.  I really think Brad did a poor job in getting a temporary fix at center.  Bringing in Griffin was ok, but he is not a center and at 6'9" a power forward.  Could have used Melo when we needed a third option at 3 ball.   They are all keying in on Brown and Tatum and Melo would have been a great 3rd option.

Tatum really has poor decision making skills especially in closing seconds of regulation. Why do you wait for just one shot. Basketball 101 says, give yourself enough time so if you miss, a rebound and second shot or a tip is possible!  Then in overtime he dribbles into the paint and makes a poor pass into the corner only to get picked off!

One thing with IME he did break the Celtic poor defense by Christmas 2021 and lead the league in defense.  We are 28 in the league as of tonights game.

Not impressed, starting to regress, what a mess......WOW I am rapping right now!

LOL

112288

Keep up that rapping 112288!

The Kornet experiment did not work. Back to Vonleh and Griffin, please.

Perimeter defense also needs to tighten up.

Cleveland is improving and on the rise. Mitchell and LeVert are a dynamic combo.

Hate to keep singing the same tune, but Luke Kornet is not the answer under any circumstances. If he has to play meaningful minutes we are in trouble. I rather see Griffin, Vonileh or give Kabengele a shot or bring in a legit 5. The defense as a whole looked vulnerable. What happened to switching everything? I know its early but this loss was frustrating. I love Al, but he was slow to a couple rebounds and it cost us big time. Levert beat him to a rebound, then went behind the 3 point line and drained a big three. That may have been the biggest play of the game.

Teams are loading up on Tatum and Brown. I totally agree Brogdan has to play 30 minutes. He makes good decisions and winning plays.

On another subject, I continue to hate Scalabrine's commentary. I would love a young fresh view, but he just bugs me. Guess we were spoiled with Tommy for all those years. I know Tommy was a homer, but he also made a lot of good points. He knew the game.

Lavert and Mitchell really went off, Tatum cooled off in the 4th quarter. Smart was terrible both sides of the floor, why is he jacking up so many shots and White isn’t? Also why is Smart getting so many minutes and Brogden not getting enough? Joe has a lot of stuff to further figure out, at 106-100 in our favor, we blew a very winnable game. We know the roster/bigs are flawed, but this was a very winnable game with better coaching, rotations and execution. Ever hear of feeding the hot hand? How about limiting shots and minutes to a player ice cold? Udoka would have sit Smart or got in his face and said “Stop jacking up so many shots, pass the damn ball more”

Joe in the heat of the battle your not there to make friends, your there to win games….figure it out.

Celtics17 wrote:
Hate to keep singing the same tune, but Luke Kornet is not the answer under any circumstances. If he has to play meaningful minutes we are in trouble. I rather see Griffin, Vonileh or give Kabengele a shot or bring in a legit 5. The defense as a whole looked vulnerable. What happened to switching everything? I know its early but this loss was frustrating. I love Al, but he was slow to a couple rebounds and it cost us big time. Levert beat him to a rebound, then went behind the 3 point line and drained a big three. That may have been the biggest play of the game.

Teams are loading up on Tatum and Brown. I totally agree Brogdan has to play 30 minutes. He makes good decisions and winning plays.

On another subject, I continue to hate Scalabrine's commentary. I would love a young fresh view, but he just bugs me. Guess we were spoiled with Tommy for all those years. I know Tommy was a homer, but he also made a lot of good points. He knew the game.

I too love Al, but rebounding has never been his strength and Scal is an idiot, on a play Jaylen got run over and got the call, he said he didn’t think there was a foul….really what a dumb blind f@(k he is!!!

Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone. He cannot be traded until 12/15. If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

Celtics17 wrote:
Hate to keep singing the same tune, but Luke Kornet is not the answer under any circumstances. If he has to play meaningful minutes we are in trouble. I rather see Griffin, Vonileh or give Kabengele a shot or bring in a legit 5. The defense as a whole looked vulnerable. What happened to switching everything? I know its early but this loss was frustrating. I love Al, but he was slow to a couple rebounds and it cost us big time. Levert beat him to a rebound, then went behind the 3 point line and drained a big three. That may have been the biggest play of the game.

Teams are loading up on Tatum and Brown. I totally agree Brogdan has to play 30 minutes. He makes good decisions and winning plays.

On another subject, I continue to hate Scalabrine's commentary. I would love a young fresh view, but he just bugs me. Guess we were spoiled with Tommy for all those years. I know Tommy was a homer, but he also made a lot of good points. He knew the game.

I’m really trying to be fair here. But-
For an ex-player who undoubtedly knows the game, Scal continues to provide poorly and not well thought out content and analysis. If I hear him say to Mike “I didn’t see that because I was ball watching” one more time I’m going to make a call to the front office and then follow it up with a letter suggesting that Scal be sidelined.
Sure I’m probably wasting my time but I’m going to do it anyway.
I have clients fresh out of school or just getting started that I coach and they are better than Scal.
One of the main reasons for that is preparation. That is one of the emphasis that I pound home to everyone. Scal doesn’t appear to do much prepping which results in resorting to “D level” content.

Scal could provide much more if he’d prepare, and watch the game through the eyes of an analyst and not so much as a broadcaster. Mike is the “Broadcaster”. His job is to let the viewer know through his play by play.
Scal is supposed to be dive deeper and let us know why things are happening.
I hear him say numerous times during a game “ What’s going on?”,  well U Dodo you’re supposed be telling us what’s going on but you’re not because you’re not watching the game through the proper lens. He duplicates this inept performance on the radio as well. He asks too many questions and thats the opposite of what he’s supposed to be doing and providing.
I honestly thought Scal had gotten a little better but it appears that he has not. He’s regressed.
He’s annoying. His so-called “insider info” is more often than not totally wrong so he can’t be trusted there either.
It is my opinion that Eddie House would better fit in with Mike or whomever. He analyzes the game at a high level and has personality to go with it.
Don’t read me wrong here. I would never allow a persons style of performance get in the way of judging whether that person belongs. i.e. I don’t have to like him if he/she is good at what they do and prepares well. Style is so often linked to taste. They don’t have to taste good to be good. Prepare and put the effort in to getting better is all we need.
Scal does None of this and it’s glaring.
Soapbox back in the closet/ for now.

bobheckler wrote:Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone.  He cannot be traded until 12/15.  If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

I watched the game. Griffin had four fouls before he broke a sweat. A good Cavs defense keyed on the Js and left Smart open to jack up 3s. Smart could not stop Mitchell. Smart was a -26. Kornet was +7. Kornet didn't lose the game. Our starters did.

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone.  He cannot be traded until 12/15.  If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

I watched the game. Griffin had four fouls before he broke a sweat. A good Cavs defense keyed on the Js and left Smart open to jack up 3s. Smart could not stop Mitchell. Smart was a -26. Kornet was +7. Kornet didn't lose the game. Our starters did.

I agree, Kornet was a net positive. His unique defense on the two three point misses sort of makes sense. If the shooter cannot see the hoop, he cannot properly aim. Contest the sightlines and not actually contest the shot. Color me interested to see more.

I was surprised as to how Griffin quickly got into foul trouble. I was like, "Seriously dude!?!". We were down Grant and then Griffin acts like he's never played D before?

Here's the play.

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone.  He cannot be traded until 12/15.  If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

I watched the game. Griffin had four fouls before he broke a sweat. A good Cavs defense keyed on the Js and left Smart open to jack up 3s. Smart could not stop Mitchell. Smart was a -26. Kornet was +7. Kornet didn't lose the game. Our starters did.

Good strategy, same thing Heat did in crunch time, leave Smart wide open. Watched the game again, we made Mitchell look like Charles Barkley/Karl Malone as he had a bunch of monster dunks in the teeth of our defense. Right now I’m not sure if Mazullo knows how to handle the defense, especially without the Timelord. As an assistant Udoka was in charge of the defense all the time at his previous stops, the stats say Joe has not got the team close to getting it done.

Leaving Marcus open goes back to the days when we all screamed NO whenever he took a shot. Teams have dared him to shoot for years. It is time to face the music, Marcus. A shooter you are not. Will you listen or is it going to come down to DW or Brogden in crunch time, I have more faith in them right now. I absolutely love Marcus, he just has to realize that instead of shooting when he is open, he has to find a teammate who can make the shot.

As far as Griffin is concerned he was in foul trouble early in the game and that led to Joe turning to Kornet. ???? Why ?

I said it in the Toronto game, in the Heat game and last night. Brad, we need help in the rebounding dept,. Find someone please before we are looking like last years team

As CJ continues his lab rat experiments,  I am reminded that in his introductory presser he stated that he was not looking to change a lot of things but just try to improve on areas where improvement is needed.

His defensive schemes are not the same.  It is not just Rob being absent.  You cannot effectively challenge the PNR in drop coverage.  

Our perimeter defense has been very inconsistent.  For short stretches we see full engagement followed by a lackadaisical attention to detail.

The Celtics had a big time 1st half after being down double digits in the 1st QTR.  75 points at halftime set us up to get a win.  

CJ starts Kornet to begin the 3rd QTR.  

CJ needs to play Malcoln Brogdon more minutes.  Once again he played only 22 minutes.  The times when he took him out of the game and put he back was simply asinine.  Malcolm did not want to come to Boston to be a 22 MPG 6th man.  

CJ started Kornet in the 3rd and in OT while Brogdon was riding the bench.

Somethings defy logic.  The Celtics went and got MB because he has been a baller ever since he came into the league.  He's a ball handler and a scorer and he makes great decisions.  At a time when your offense is fluttering and you are struggling to defend the perimeter why on God's green earth would you lean on Kornet to be a closeout guy in an OT game?

There we were down 4 with a minute 43 remaining in OT  and then you bring Malcolm in for Kornet.  

Kornet is a chump.  He damn sure did not play well enough to earn 26 minutes.  The lab rat was DOA.

gyso wrote:

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone.  He cannot be traded until 12/15.  If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

I watched the game. Griffin had four fouls before he broke a sweat. A good Cavs defense keyed on the Js and left Smart open to jack up 3s. Smart could not stop Mitchell. Smart was a -26. Kornet was +7. Kornet didn't lose the game. Our starters did.

I agree, Kornet was a net positive.  His unique defense on the two three point misses sort of makes sense.  If the shooter cannot see the hoop, he cannot properly aim.  Contest the sightlines and not actually contest the shot.  Color me interested to see more.

I was surprised as to how Griffin quickly got into foul trouble.  I was like, "Seriously dude!?!".  We were down Grant and then Griffin acts like he's never played D before?  

Oh so you fell for the okey doke too my brother? What is that called, Trampoline defense?
That bunk from Scal about Kornet jumping with his arms raised up is a dumb reach (pun intended).  No BB camp or coach would teach players to play defense like that. Does anyone actually think that it works? This is good defense? How come he is the only one I ever see do it. If it worked others would be employing that ground breaking technique.
If anyone here has seen another player do it raise your hand or just post a video of it.

Some folks will find any reason for keeping Kornet on this squad.
The fact that Kornet was a +7 should tell you how analytics are misconceived. Analytics are real and they're great when you merge it with reality. Yo eyes!
No, Kornet didn't lose the game for us. Dude is not even good enough to do that. He certainly will never help us win.
The fact that he is getting paid big bucks and still lives with his mother tells me he ain’t confident in sticking around either.
You can have him.

gyso wrote:Here's the play.

https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1586162610843840512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1586162610843840512%7Ctwgr%5E042824c875fe7e8db8f05f04a1cc6be18eeb0531%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsbnation.coral.coralproject.net%2Fapi%2Foembed%3Ftype%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FESPNNBA2Fstatus2F1586162610843840512siteID%3D112aa377-e27f-4b58-9156-5e5df25f39a2frameID%3Dframe-id-64753fe3-4aed-486b-abd4-f5df6be1958c-47c8d520-57b3-11ed-99f5-83e8b7e63b85

OMG!! First team all NBA Defensive techniques. Miss me with that. LOL

cowens/oldschool wrote:

atcross wrote:

bobheckler wrote:Couldn't watch the game.

How TF did Luke Kornet get 26 minutes and Blake got 12?!  5 rebounds for a 7'2" center who plays close to the basket (as opposed to a 7'0" center named Kelly Olynyk who plays away from it) sucks.  Brad is starting to look like an idiot and, quite frankly, playing Luke that many minutes against a team that was 3-1 coming into the game doesn't make Joe look that great either.  I understand that Allen and Love give them a big front court but Luke Kornet is a human traffic cone.  He cannot be traded until 12/15.  If he is cut by 1/10/23 the remaining $1M or so on his contract is non-guaranteed, as is next year.

OT was 18-9.  That is both horrible offense and extremely horrible defense for a 5 minute period.


Bob


.

I watched the game. Griffin had four fouls before he broke a sweat. A good Cavs defense keyed on the Js and left Smart open to jack up 3s. Smart could not stop Mitchell. Smart was a -26. Kornet was +7. Kornet didn't lose the game. Our starters did.

Good strategy, same thing Heat did in crunch time, leave Smart wide open. Watched the game again, we made Mitchell look like Charles Barkley/Karl Malone as he had a bunch of monster dunks in the teeth of our defense. Right now I’m not sure if Mazullo knows how to handle the defense, especially without the Timelord. As an assistant Udoka was in charge of the defense all the time at his previous stops, the stats say Joe has not got the team close to getting it done.

Word is is that Joe played an integral role in helping Ime design the defense we employed last. Hard to tell right now. I wanna give him more time before I come to any conclusions. We certainly need to get to fixin’ this!

dboss wrote:As CJ continues his lab rat experiments,  I am reminded that in his introductory presser he stated that he was not looking to change a lot of things but just try to improve on areas where improvement is needed.

His defensive schemes are not the same.  It is not just Rob being absent.  You cannot effectively challenge the PNR in drop coverage.  

Our perimeter defense has been very inconsistent.  For short stretches we see full engagement followed by a lackadaisical attention to detail.

The Celtics had a big time 1st half after being down double digits in the 1st QTR.  75 points at halftime set us up to get a win.  

CJ starts Kornet to begin the 3rd QTR.  

CJ needs to play Malcoln Brogdon more minutes.  Once again he played only 22 minutes.  The times when he took him out of the game and put he back was simply asinine.  Malcolm did not want to come to Boston to be a 22 MPG 6th man.  

CJ started Kornet in the 3rd and in OT while Brogdon was riding the bench.

Somethings defy logic.  The Celtics went and got MB because he has been a baller ever since he came into the league.  He's a ball handler and a scorer and he makes great decisions.  At a time when your offense is fluttering and you are struggling to defend the perimeter why on God's green earth would you lean on Kornet to be a closeout guy in an OT game?

There we were down 4 with a minute 43 remaining in OT  and then you bring Malcolm in for Kornet.  

Kornet is a chump.  He damn sure did not play well enough to earn 26 minutes.  The lab rat was DOA.

Brogden was instrumental with getting us back in the game at 22-9 deficit, he makes great non flashy efficient basketball plays, can obviously score and pass. I like his offensive game and decision making better than Smart and Joe you can play both of them together!!! Less offensive responsibility for Smart is good, let Brogden and White initiate the offense more. Less is more

cowens/oldschool wrote:

dboss wrote:As CJ continues his lab rat experiments,  I am reminded that in his introductory presser he stated that he was not looking to change a lot of things but just try to improve on areas where improvement is needed.

His defensive schemes are not the same.  It is not just Rob being absent.  You cannot effectively challenge the PNR in drop coverage.  

Our perimeter defense has been very inconsistent.  For short stretches we see full engagement followed by a lackadaisical attention to detail.

The Celtics had a big time 1st half after being down double digits in the 1st QTR.  75 points at halftime set us up to get a win.  

CJ starts Kornet to begin the 3rd QTR.  

CJ needs to play Malcoln Brogdon more minutes.  Once again he played only 22 minutes.  The times when he took him out of the game and put he back was simply asinine.  Malcolm did not want to come to Boston to be a 22 MPG 6th man.  

CJ started Kornet in the 3rd and in OT while Brogdon was riding the bench.

Somethings defy logic.  The Celtics went and got MB because he has been a baller ever since he came into the league.  He's a ball handler and a scorer and he makes great decisions.  At a time when your offense is fluttering and you are struggling to defend the perimeter why on God's green earth would you lean on Kornet to be a closeout guy in an OT game?

There we were down 4 with a minute 43 remaining in OT  and then you bring Malcolm in for Kornet.  

Kornet is a chump.  He damn sure did not play well enough to earn 26 minutes.  The lab rat was DOA.

Brogden was instrumental with getting us back in the game at 22-9 deficit, he makes great non flashy efficient basketball plays, can obviously score and pass. I like his offensive game and decision making better than Smart and Joe you can play both of them together!!! Less offensive responsibility for Smart is good, let Brogden and White initiate the offense more. Less is more

I think that the offense looks fine. But the defense-these guys just aren't playing defense at a level that is going to get them anywhere. The effort is not there like last year. I know Williams is not in the lineup and won't be for some time, but the defensive intensity has to greatly increase.

Pumpsie good point, agreed. When J’s get it going they can put up points fast in bunches. The defense has to do a perimeter job, a 1 and 2 may never both score 40 each at the same time the rest of the season. We have to be better than that.

Offense is fine but our defense sucks.

Not all on CJ just some of the schemes.

Did Brad beef up our frontline?  No.

Are the players 100% committed to playing defense?  No.  

Can they turn things around?  Yes and no.  Somethings are already baked into the cake.

They will have take their lumps now and hopefully learn a few things along the way.