2022 - 2023 POST GAME NEW YORK KNICKS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston’s Dominant Outside Shooting Leads Vs. Knicks
The Celtics set a new record on Saturday


NESN by Gio Rivera

The Boston Celtics notched their second straight victory, defeating the New York Knicks 133-118 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The Celtics improved to 5-3 on the season, while the Knicks fell to 4-4 on their campaign.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
While dominant on the frontcourt, the Celtics outside shooting was much too strong for the Knicks to answer to.

Jaylen Brown outshined everyone else on the floor, putting forth his strongest all-around showing in the early season.

After coming up short on one of the more underwhelming and ineffective nights of the year, Brown bounced back and more than doubled his scoring production against the Knicks. Brown wasted no time, out-scoring his previous point total (16 points) against the Chicago Bulls, scoring 21 points by halftime.

Like Brown, the Celtics delivered a phenomenal outside-shooting performance, connecting on 27-of-51 attempts from 3-point range while the Knicks only totaled 11-of-27. The Celtics set a new all-time franchise record in 3-pointers hit. All Celtics players contributed at least one 3-pointer.

Reggie Miller Rips NBA Players For Response To Kyrie Irving

The Celtics depth, which first-year guard Malcolm Brogdon referred to as a crucial component of the team on Friday, came through yet again. Forward Sam Hauser served as the highlight of the second unit, scoring 17 points with six 3-pointers. Brogdon added 14 with five rebounds and five assists while the Boston bench combined to contribute 50 points.

However, the frontcourt concerns for Boston reappeared which kept the Knicks within reach throughout the night. The Celtics were out-rebounded 44 to 34 while outscored completely in the paint (64 to 30).

STARS OF THE GAME
— Brown finished the leading scorer of the game, recording 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and a season-best 6-of-11 from 3-point territory along with five rebounds.


— Julius Randle led the way for the Knicks, scoring 29 points while connecting on 10-of-19 field goal attempts with nine rebounds.

— Jayson Tatum added 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field, including a 13-point third quarter. Like Brown, Tatum also connected on a season-high six 3-pointers to go along with four rebounds, five assists and two blocks.

WAGER WATCH
DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of Brown’s over/under 3-point field goal total at 2.5 with -105 odds on the Over. The 24-year-old veteran was phenomenal from the start, clearing the Over with ease, knocking down 5-of-9 shot attempts from beyond the arc in the first half. A $100 bet on Brown would’ve resulted in a $195.24 payout.

Reggie Miller Rips NBA Players For Response To Kyrie Irving

UP NEXT
The Celtics, winners of two straight, will remain on the road, facing off against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday. Tipoff from FedExForum is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.

112288

Any word or update on Skywalker Luke?

Only heard he left just before the game started.

They were without Mitchell Robinson, who is a game changer.  We were/are without Robert Williams.  A wash, in my opinion.

Joe has committed to playing small, at least while RWill is out.  That means more running and gunning and less pounding in the post.  Our 3pt fgas as a percentage of our total fgas is off the charts.  51 of our 88 fgas, 58%, last night were 3s.  That's crazy.  What's even crazier is that we hit a franchise record 27 of those 3s.  52.9% shooting on 3s will win you a lot of games.  Every Celtic who entered the game hit a 3.  When was the last time you heard that?  Ever?

Our bench mob has been great.  Say what you will about Brad's job on getting us bigs he did one helluva job with our bench, which was non-existent last year.  Last night our bench scored 50 points on 18-34, 52.9%, which is the exact same percentage as our team's 3pt fg% (not a typo).  They shot 10-18, 55.5% from 3.  They had 19 of our 34 rebounds.  8 assists and 4 turnovers, 4 steals.  Those are amazing bench numbers.

Brogdon was an amazing pickup by Brad.  I know, I'm stating the obvious, but I don't want to underappreciate him either.  He was only 5-14 last night, but his 5 assists and only 1 turnover made our offense coherent and effective.  We forget he's 6'5", 229# with a 6'11" wingspan.  That's one big, strong point guard.

Sam the Show stole the show again.  6-9, 5-8 from 3, for a career high 17 points.  3 rebounds.   2 assists and zero turnovers.  Sam wants to play, coach, and he's earning minutes.  


Sam Hauser, last night:
21 minutes, 6-9, 5-8 from 3, 17 points.  

Evan Fournier last night:  
11 minutes, 1-1, 1-1 from 3, 3 points.  


Sam Hauser season-to-date:
13.1mpg, 6.4ppg, 54.8% 3pt fg%, $1.6M/year

Evan Fournier season-to-date:
21.8mpg, 8.8ppg, 38.63pt fg%, $18M/year

Brad should be locked up, because Sam's a steal.




Grant was 2-4 from 3 and played with grit.  He's going to get a nice paycheck next year.  I hope it's with us.  We talk about Jaylen's year-over-year progress a lot.  Grant's has been impressive as well.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 4 hours ago
“Boom, motherfucker.” Sam Hauser and Grant Williams are both shooting better than 53 percent from deep. The Celtics bench as a whole has absurd shooting splits of 52.3/49/84.7 for the season.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 12 hours ago
The NBA 3-point shooting leader list is pretty awesome right now... 1. Kelly Olynyk, Utah .594 2. Sam Hauser, Bos .548 3. Grant Williams, Bos .538


Noah played well.  7 points and 7 rebounds in 16 minutes.  Blake also did well in his start in place of Al.  Blake is not afraid of floor burns.

Bobby Manning @RealBobManning
yesterday
Mazzulla said Kornet left midway through the 1st quarter and is expected to miss the rest of the road trip.

The explanation for Luke's departure is "personal reasons".  Must be serious if he's told something in the middle of a game and leaves in the 1st quarter.  


And Jaylen had, what I thought, was a very quiet 30 points on 10-19, 6-11 from 3.  3 assists and 1 turnover is pretty good but, I swear, his handle has gotten worse.  How does a player become a worse dribbler?  His turnovers/36mpg is actually down from last year.  My eyeballs are saying he's sloppier but apparently I'm blind.  He's shooting 85% from the line so far, his career high.




Smart with 11 assists and only 1 turnover.  13 points on 5-9, 11 assists, 1 turnover is a very nice boxscore for a point guard.

The Knicks shot 51%, 41% from 3, and lost.  Thibs must be out of his mind.  His opponents shot 53%, his team scored as well as any coach could ask for, and he lost.  Looking at this from the other side Joe must be wondering what will happen when the shots stop dropping.  We can't keep giving up 50%+ game after game after game.  We need to find some defensive religion.

Bobby Manning @RealBobManning
yesterday
Mazzulla: "Our offensive identity is set in stone." Said defensive identity changes based on personnel.

Not sure I'm liking this.  I prefer defensive DNA with flexible offense rather than the other way around.  We'll see how this works.  Easy to say this when we're hitting.  Let's see when we're not.


Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Joe Mazzulla has jokes: “I actually called a few timeouts today.”

He's hearing us.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
With the Celtics offense clicking at a ridiculous rate, their next opponents' defensive rank out of 30.... @ Memphis - 25th Vs. Detroit - 30th Vs. Denver- 24th @ Detroit - 30th


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468290



Bob


.

Sam "The Sniper"  is systematically carving out a rotation spot on this team.  When him and Grant are in the game together, we have a pair of knock down 3 point shooters that cannot be ignored.

As CJ continues his path along a learning curve arc, we can take some measure of satisfaction because he is actually starting to make coaching decisions that we have recognized earlier and discussed on this forum.

Our defense remains a work in progress because we are missing an essential element.  

We will continue to toil in our efforts to outscore our opponents.  Just hold down the fort for another 6-8 weeks.

I think Coach Joe is doing a phenomenal job and the team is doing very well and we can still play much better. If we didn’t get robbed in one of the Cav games, no call on Tatum’s breathtaking slam; and if Joe used Brogden at crunch time in either of those games, we could easily be 8-1. That’s pretty good considering our best defensive player/rebounder has been out. Tatum has gotten off to a stronger and faster start. Jaylen while not perfect is still a load of a wing, he’s overpowering as a 2 or 3 both ends.

The injury to Gallo might be a blessing, as it has forced the growth of Hauser and as been noted by Bob, the KO lover, that’s a lot of firepower/shooting off the bench. Having Brogden and Hauser gives this bench so much more firepower than last year. Brogden reminds me of a bulked up version of Michael Ray Richardson, one of my favorite players that had HoF ability. So even though we have a bigs issue, we have superstar wing talent and guard talent that is just starting to jell and can overpower/outclass other teams 1-3’s. Love Smart when he doesn’t try to shoot too much or do too much and gets his butt in the post.

Our guys love playing with each other, saw some real good stretches of ball movement last night. I see them making the game easier for each other and continuing to wear out teams with our depth, pace and tenacity.

gyso wrote:Cool Beans!!

https://twitter.com/NBCSCeltics/status/1589065140644741121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1589065140644741121%7Ctwgr%5E7bddb29eafd1c10b41f19d7ccd1c974703616ebf%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsbnation.coral.coralproject.net%2Fapi%2Foembed%3Ftype%3Dtwitterurl%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FNBCSCeltics2Fstatus2F1589065140644741121siteID%3D112aa377-e27f-4b58-9156-5e5df25f39a2frameID%3Dframe-id-9157bbc5-11c1-4f1c-89a2-8cea1bdb9726-1f787c10-5e39-11ed-8440-2fd52ab6ddd2

So now “Starks” hits a big 3. Knick fans are wondering where was that clutch shooting back in game seven of the 1994 finals against the Rockets when he went 2 for 18 from the field and 0 for 11 from 3!

Love the one with the fan winning a car!

Great to see Hauser coming alive in last night’s game. If he can do it consistently there is no doubt he will have carved a spot for himself. I was really upset when Gallinari got hurt, we had finally gotten a shooter to shore up the bench and when he went down I was totally concerned. Shooting was a major issue last year. Well…Sam may just be the answer. I love a story like this, an undrafted, hard working kid finding his place on a great team. Don’t see that too often.

Poor Pritchard, he has not gotten off the bench in the last few games. I am waiting to hear that he has asked for a trade. ???? Who would bite unless someone else is involved. Too bad, he seems to have regressed in the games he has played in.

The Celtics are 6-3 and in 3rd in the East. Two of those losses we should have won vs. CLE. CLE will come back to earth. LeBron James ain't coming through those doors. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still Cleveland.

The dark, security/investment company gone awry movie Boiler Room had a great scene where Ben Afleck comes into a room full of sleazy, rookie stockbrokers and basically chews them out for their recent sales-closing performances. There was a phrase that came from that tirade as Ben kept harping on them as he ranted..."Act Is If..."

The Celtics have been doing very well as cowens/oldschool points out. But the rebounding and defense have been getting the most "what's wrongs" so far. We need to Act As If we've got Kareem, Russ and Wilt in the lanes and around the basket. Act As If this season is about nothing but defense and make teams walk off the court because they can't get a dang play off from our defense disrupting everything and raking them over the coals. RWIII wasn't around for many stretches last season and we make to the Finals. The best I can see and tell that team is still there and then some. Maybe there's more to defense than meets the eye and it takes a little more time to get things coordinated and in gear on that side of the ball. And we're 6-3, in 3rd and should be at least 8-1....all sans RWIII and Galinari.

Our opponents are having the Grim Reaper show up at their doors in that they can't double anyone anymore as this shooting display vs. the Knicks shows. The 2 J's? Nope. They can pass off to Hauser or you can foul them down the lane for And 1's Hauser? He's like a Steph Curry in his catch, release and maybe better on the accuracy scale. Good luck there. Grant "Leave me alone for the 3-ball corner pocket shot?" Good luck with that as well. Nobody guards Al behind the 3-line. Idiots.

When your 3's are that wide open, I've said it before, it's like practice. You can hit those at a 75% clip. Heck I can hit at that clip.

Let's see what happens tonight in Memphis. But I'm with cowens/oldschool. This team has a chance to be a total nightmare for opponents long before RWIII comes back and probably needs to be this way given his injury history. Let's figure this out. Act As If!!!

Great movie, BTW.

db

I hit fritos at a 25% clip. What the NBA players do amazes me.