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Celtics Wrap: Boston Holds Off DeMar DeRozan, Bulls To Record Win
The bench came up big for the Celtics


NESN by Greg Dudek

The Boston Celtics exacted some revenge Friday night by earning an 123-119 win over the Chicago Bulls at TD Garden. The Bulls handed Boston its first loss of the season last week.

The Celtics now improve to 5-3 while the Bulls now stand at .500 with a 5-5 record.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Jayson Tatum was his usual superstar self, and the Celtics needed it as DeMar DeRozan erupted offensively for the Bulls with a 40-plus-point performance.

But besides for Tatum, the rest of the Celtics starters didn’t do much, leading to Boston’s bench coming up massive and being the biggest difference in holding off DeRozan and the Bulls.

Celtics interim head coach Joe Mazzulla gave more minutes to Malcolm Brogdon — he played a season-high in minutes and even was on the floor over Marcus Smart down the stretch — and he delivered by being a catalyst for the reserves. Grant Williams, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet also produced as Mazzulla has gone with those four primarily after going deeper into the bench in the first few games of the season. All four finished the night with a positive plus-minus.

Due largely to Brogdon’s sizable scoring contribution, the Celtics bench outscored Chicago’s reserves, 38-15.

Jaylen Brown Posts Cryptic Instagram Story About Ime Udoka Joining Nets

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum had his way with the Bulls, posting a double-double of 36 points and 12 rebounds. Tatum’s terrific performance was aided by his ability to get to the free-throw line, where he made 17-of-20 attempts. The 20 attempts were a career-high. He also recorded six assists in the win.

— Brogdon sparked the bench production with an incredibly efficient showing. Brogdon notched 25 points on 9-of-10 shooting to go along with four assists.

— DeRozan became the latest opponent to explode offensively against the Celtics. The veteran small forward tallied a game-high 46 points to led the way for the Bulls. He also made regular trips to the charity stripe, hitting 20-of-22 free throws.

WAGER WATCH
Bettors could have cashed in right away if they took Tatum to score the first basket of the game. Tatum opened the scoring with a reverse layup, and with +400 odds to register the first bucket, a $100 bet would have paid out $500.

UP NEXT
The Celtics play the second leg of a back-to-back Saturday when they travel to New York to take on the Knicks. Tipoff between the rivals from Madison Square Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Good to get the win, however why is our offense smoother when Brogdon is playing with the bench than with the regulars? The lineup with Cornet, Hauser, Grant, Brogdon and Tatum moved the ball beautifully. Later in the game with Brogdon playing with the starters the offense was again pretty static. Lot's of one on one. Why the difference? It can't be that our bench is more talented than our starters. Are they just smarter?

Berlin-T

The bench has more humilty and is willing to pass the ball around. Brogdon was simply superb with both the bench and the starters

Brogden was superb, I think we would have won the last 2 Cavs games had he been in the closing line up. Very good strong finisher, faster than he looks. Joe has to get him on the floor at crunch time and figure out who sits, Smart, Grant or White. Smart actually had a good game, he didn’t try to do too much, only took 4 3’s. He looks good in the post and can overpower most guards.

Jaylen was off, and off again with alot of his decision making. I had read earlier in day he was out with a non covid related illness, so I’ll give him a pass as he gutted it out. His efficiency numbers are off this early season and like to see him use more of his mid range game than driving into so many defenders head on. Considering DeRozen was in an unstoppable zone and both J’s were off, a big win. Kornet actually played well, the 2nd unit, led by Brogden definitely won this game for us. Good job by Coach Joe, getting his team to rebound better, and getting a lot out of the 2nd unit.

Sorry, still not impressed.  The Bulls were without Ball, Drummond and Coby White and we only won by 4.  We were up by 10 with 5:22 left.  The Bulls then went on a 22-17 run.  That's 39 points scored in 5 1/2 minutes.  Would we have won if those Bulls had played?  I'm not confident, especially considering how weak we looked in the last half of the 4th.

DeMar DeRozan might be the best mid-range shooter I've seen since George "Ice Man" Gervin.  Same physical stature, 6'8" with long arms but skinny.  He was making some phenomenal shots.  Part of me is pissed that we weren't overplaying him to get the ball out of his hands more but even when we doubled him he was still hitting ridiculous shots.

The Bulls took 25 ftas.  DeRozan took 22 of them.  Zach LaVine took the only fritos not awarded to DeRozan with only 2:32 left in the game.  More ridiculousness.

Tatum was 8-23, 3-10 from 3.  He took 20 ftas, so I like the aggressiveness, but not the "chuck'em no matter what" mentality.  DeRozan by comparison was 13-23.  He went 0-3 from 3.  That's it, 3 3pt fgas.  DeMar DeRozan knows which side of his bread the butter's on and sticks to it.  He's automatic from mid-range and he just kept hitting that button and pretty much ignored the rest of the bait being dangled.   13-20 from 2 is 65%.  You have to shoot > 40% from 3, with a lot of 3pt fgas, to have an eFG% as good as that.  This stupid NBA and its "metrics" that are telling head coaches that everything should be either a 3pt fga or a dunk are crap and DeMar DeRozan is living proof of that.  I don't usually post highlight film of our opponents but last night's performance by DeRozan is worthy.




Jaylen was off last night, but he entered with a "non-COVID illness", so he gets cut some slack.  He did have a 24 second violation, though, with 4:18 left and the score 109-100.  Vuc then hit a trey to make it 109-103.  That's not about illness, that's about lack of awareness of the shot clock even though there's this big digital one right over the basket he's looking at, and it's the 2nd game in a row where this has happened.

Malcolm Brogdon is "The Big Smooth".  His crossover and changes of pace get him whatever he wants.  Always under control.  Last night he had 25 points in 29 minutes on 9-10 shooting.  One play he slipped and fell, got right up and shot.  On one of his first plays of the game he gets hit by Vuc (no whistle) hits the layup falling down (:06 of the highlight film).  His face never changes.  He never smiles, never grimaces, never changes.  Maybe he should be called "Chief 2.0" or "Little Chief" or some such nonsense like that.  Absolutely stoic and absolutely one of, if not the, best 6th men we've had in a while.  I don't mean to slight Smart with this, I felt Smart came off the bench because that's what the bench needed, but Brogdon is a really excellent 6th man.  There's no doubt in my mind Joe's going to be playing him more, and that's how it should be.  Our offense becomes very coherent and efficient when he's running it.




And now for a little controversy.  Luke Kornet played a pretty good game.  Yeah, I'm talking about that Luke Kornet.  He was a +17 on a unit that was made up of Tatum, Brogdon, Hauser, Luke and Grant.  I've been as hard, and as down, on Luke as anybody but credit when and where credit is due and last night Luke deserves some credit.  It still blows my mind that he's Horford's back up and not Blake or even Vonleh, but last night he did pretty well.

Filed under "wtf do these stats tell us?" Young and awkward (like a 3 month old Great Dane) Jedi knight Luke has taken 4 ftas in 73 minutes of play while Al Horford has also taken 4 ftas, but in 220 minutes of play.  Both hit 3 of 4.  Why isn't Al going to the line more?

Grant is #5 in the league in 3pt fg%, 54.5%, 22 3pt fgas total.  Sam is #8 at 52.2% and 23 3pt fgas total.  #1 is Josh Green of Dallas @ 61.5%, but only 13 3pt fgas.  #2 is Yuta Watanabe of Brooklyn @ 60% but only 15 3pt fgas.  #3 is Cowens' favorite player, Kelly Olynyk @ 59.4%, but with 82 3pt fgas.  Green and Watanabe need just one cold game to get knocked off their perches but Kelly's legit.  Just sit down and keep your head below your knees for a while, Cow, and this feeling will pass.  

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468279


Bob


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For all the years that I have watched MB I must have missed his mastery of off the bounce offense. He played 29 minutes.

He is clearly a guy that should be in the lineup to close out games for us. CJ should not go against the grain of reality.

A couple of general observations.

On defense we cannot stop a minor nose bleed.

Sam Hauser once again shows why he deserves consistent playing time and shooting opportunities.

I do not think that a starting backcourt of Smart and White is good enough. Smart continues to launch too many 3 pointers as evidenced by his sub-thirty 24.4%. Marcus is 3rd on the team in 3 point attempts at 5.6 per game.

1. Start Malcolm and finish with Malcolm.
He’s not even being used as a 6th man. He’s coming in behind Grant with is absurd. I’ll say it again. Start Malcolm and finish with Malcolm.

2. Find another nickname for Sam. “Big Smooth” is and always will be Sam Perkins.

3. Miss me with the single game plus/minus on Luke. It’s irrelevant and deceiving. He’s a 7 footer not doing 7 footer things when we need a big to do big things. He sucks no matter how much we don't want him to. As my old boss and mentor used to say: “Admit your mistake and get him the hell outa here”.

Happy for the win despite our fake defense. We’re on to NY.

dboss wrote:For all the years that I have watched MB I must have missed his mastery of off the bounce offense. He played 29 minutes.

He is clearly a guy that should be in the lineup to close out games for us.  CJ should not go against the grain of reality.

A couple of general observations.

On defense we cannot stop a minor nose bleed.

Sam Hauser once again shows why he deserves consistent playing time and shooting opportunities.

I do not think that a starting backcourt of Smart and White is good enough. Smart continues to launch too many 3 pointers as evidenced by his sub-thirty 24.4%.  Marcus is 3rd on the team in 3 point attempts at 5.6 per game.

Dboss,

Your grandchild is ridiculously cute. I mean, really really really cute.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:
And now for a little controversy.  Luke Kornet played a pretty good game.  Yeah, I'm talking about that Luke Kornet.  He was a +17 on a unit that was made up of Tatum, Brogdon, Hauser, Luke and Grant.  I've been as hard, and as down, on Luke as anybody but credit when and where credit is due and last night Luke deserves some credit.  It still blows my mind that he's Horford's back up and not Blake or even Vonleh, but last night he did pretty well.
.

I was starting to think maybe there was an inside joke I was missing out on. Or did Kornet say something he shouldn't about someone's mother? I've been a member here for a few years and I've never seen so much vitriol hurled at one player as Kornet. I don't claim to be a basketball savant but I've been watching good ball for about sixty years (grew up on Indiana HS ball and been a Celts fan since Bird) and I don't think I'm totally clueless. He may not be the second coming of Moses (Malone) and obviously needs to be more assertive on the boards. But he does have some defensive chops and can pass the ball. He also has an NCAA record for 3s for 7'+ players. But with the rest of the bench gang on the floor he really is the fifth scoring option. He can pass out of the paint to open shooters like Houser, GWill, Tatum, or Brogdon. Works for me. He can run the floor and seems to know what he's doing in reading the off/def. It seems like much of the complaint comes back to he doesn't look like a stereotypical NBA center. But the players, coaches, and management get a whole lot more money than we do to decide what our third string center should look like. They seem to like his game. Based on what I've seen I'm inclined to go with them for now.

Thank you Bobh.

Prior to last night I had not seen Luke rebound, block out, pass, score or block shots. Yesterday he did all the above, and I was glad to see him produce something.

Yes, Malcolm should be in the middle of the Celtics action at the beginning, middle and end of games.

Sam Hauser played decent defense and scored some valuable points efficiently. He deserves minutes.

Malcolm Brogdon was the first player since 1980 to score 25+ points and shoot 90%.