2022 - 2023 POST GAME ATLANTA - AWAY

This was, in my opinion, a most impressive victory by the Celtics.  Atlanta had just returned from Milwaukee, where they decisively beat a depleted Bucks team on their home floor 121-106.  The Bucks were without Holiday, Middleton and Connaughton (who hasn't played a game yet this season) but Giannis and the rest played.  The Hawks must have been feeling pretty damn good about themselves.  That was then and this is now, and this morning the Hawks fans have a raging hangover.  If the Bucks were without those 3 players we were without 3 of our top 6 players (would Pat Connaughton be one of the Bucks' top 6?  I doubt it.  I think Portis would be ahead of him, minimum).  The Comments From The Other Side will probably be pretty funny today, reflecting the high coming into the game and the low by the end when it sinks in that we're a different team offensively and defensively with RWill, Smart and The Big Smooth and we still crushed them.

With 11:17 to go in the 3rd, so soon after halftime, our lead was down to 4.  So it wasn't an end-to-end blowout.  They were within spitting distance with tons of time to go and at home.  A 9 point halftime lead was an imposing, Hawks-discouraging 19 after 3, and then it really started to get ugly for them.  With 4:41 left in the game Pritchard hit a 2 that put our lead at 31.

The Js shot a combined 41 points on 16-36 (44.4%) but an eye-bleeding 4-16 from 3, and that's with a strong 2nd half.  At halftime they were 7-24 for 16 points and 1-13 from 3 (thanks, as usual, to Steve3344 who emails me quarterly boxscores so I can do this analysis).  Despite that abysmal performance we lead at halftime by 9 after leading after 1 by 12.  How?

Remember when we had no bench last year?  Well, Brad sure fixed that problem.  Our bench was phenomenal last night.  FEE-nominal.  Holy Crapoly!!  If the Js were putting up those lousy numbers at the half the bench were doing the opposite.  At the half our bench had scored 24 points on 9-10 shooting and was 6-7 from 3.  Hauser and Pritchard were perfect 3-3 from 3 and "wtf did you come from?!" Luke Kornet was a perfect 3-3.  Only splinter-ridden Justin Jackson was 0-1.  And that was just halftime.  By game end our bench had scored 44 points on 17-25, 10-16 from 3.  The Js had a decent 2nd half, ok, but everybody else carried the team.  Our 12 point lead after 1 was fueled by 13 bench points out of 30 total.

Grant:  18 points on 6-10, 4-7 from 3.  Defended everybody.  Above average game.
Al:  Only 7 points but 11 rebounds (3 offensive) and 4 assists.  Above average rebounding.
Derrick:  16 points on 6-11, 2-4 from 3 and 10 assists and only 2 turnovers in replacement of Smart.  WAY above average game.




Blake only played 7 minutes, and Jackson was a non-factor so no comments but...

Sam with 15 on 5-6 from 3.  He also had 6 rebounds.  Sam is now shooting 48.5% from 3 and that's good enough for #11 in the NBA.  My goodness, that was a short shooting slump.




Payton with 14 on 5-8, 4-6 from 3.  He also had 4 assists and only 1 turnover, which are important stats for his growth as a player.  Malcolm who?  Ok, Brogdon is definitely better than Pritchard but Payton has reallys seized this opportunity.  There are rumors (probably not worth much, but they exist) that Jakob Poeltl of San Antonio is a Celtic trade target.  If true then Pritchard will almost certainly be part of Brad's package.  As much as I love Payton Pritchard he's being wasted on the bench, is coming up for a contract and 27 year old Poeltl would be one helluva long-term replacement for now 36 year old Al Horford.  It would also take the question of our depth at big this year off the table.




But our depth at big seems to not be as bad as thought.  The Green Kornet has been looking more and more comfortable as he has gotten playing time.  Pritchard + Kornet for Poeltl?  Hmmm.  A quality upgrade, for sure, but Poeltl is in the last year of his contract, so a luxury tax decision by Brad and Wyc would have to be made before any such trade.  I believe we have enough TPE to offset any salary issues for this trade.   This was, in my opinion, the best game I have ever seen by Luke.  15 points on 7-7 and even 1-1 from a corner 3.  8 rebounds.  4 blocks.  4.  I've been as down on Luke as anybody but man he looked good last night.  He actually looked like a legit backup 2nd center on an NBA roster.  Don't you agree, Pop?



When was the last time I had more highlight film of our bench and not our starters?  Ever?  It was that kind of game.

Trey Young with a solid game.  10-23 and 9 assists, but 2-7 from 3.  Not that it would have mattered.  I also liked their Okongwu.  He's a beast.  A #6 pick in his 3rd year but only averaging 19.8mpg this year.  I don't mean to throw cold water on his game but a 6th pick that isn't starting by year 3 is an underachiever.  He's never played 1000 minutes in either of his first 2 full seasons.  I remember he had an injury to start his rookie year, but he still played in 50 games that year and played 48 games the next.  Injury-saddled?  A bit of a head-scratcher to me.  Can any of our Atlanta-based posters fill in this blank?

Obviously our #1 record is still #1.  Milwaukee beat Cleveland last night, to stay only 1/2 game behind us but Cleveland, who has already a 2-0 record against us H2H, is now 3 games back in the loss column to us.  Even if 2-0 is enough to own any tiebreaker we still now have a 2 loss cushion vs them.  Our 120.4ppg is #1, edging out Portland's 119.5ppg.  Our 113.4ppg given up is tied for 15th, so not great, but our defense over the past week has been pretty good.  Imagine when RWill comes back and gets his game rhythm back!  Penetrating the paint will be very, very different for our opponents.  And the best news is that our +7.1 Margin of Victory (MoV) is #1.  As you go deeper into the season a high MoV is evidence of dominance and not just "pulling out wins in the clutch", which is good too but I'd rather win in a laugher than a nail-biter.


Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 10 hours ago
While the Celtics to this point have the best offense in NBA history (1.192 points/possession), that's overshadowing this developing story.... BOSTON CELTICS DEFENSE - NBA RANK First 9 games: 23rd (1.14 points/possession) Last 6 games: 4th (1.08 points/possession)


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468369


Bob


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cowens/oldschool wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:

worcester wrote:Luke was a HUGE (7'2") surprise.

                                                                                            I agree.The guy actually can play some. I think I was too focused on his lack of athleticism.

Now I want to see more of Luke, if he can do this again Heckler is gonna have a new favorite big, Luke replacing Kelly O

For the record my favorite bigs are, not necessarily in exact order:

Larry Bird
Bill Russell
Arvydas Sabonis
Bill Walton
Hakeem Olajuwon
Tim Duncan
Kevin McHale

Honorary Mentions to Elvin Hayes, Bernard King, Kareem and, of course, Dave Cowens.

Kelly O does what he does, and he's doing it well.  He's shooting 49% from 3, on a lot of attempts and has a 118 Offensive rating and a 110 Defensive rating.  His Defensive Rating has never been higher than 112 in his 10 years in the league and, in fact, has been below 110 for 7 of those 10 years.  Part of his problem is that he was mis-positioned when he was here.  Brad played him at center even though Danny stated on his draft night that he was drafted to play 4, not 5.  It's like Brad playing Grant at smallball 5, he was out of position.  If there was one major flaw in Brad's coaching style it was that he asked players to play bigger than they actually were. Now that Grant is playing smaller he's much more effective because he can dominate instead of just trying to hold his own against bigger, stronger players.  Grant wasn't a bad defender early on, he was being called upon to defend players he shouldn't have been defending in the first place.  Will Hardy has Utah playing way above their heads, given how Danny gutted them of talent, and Kelly is looking good (but lose the man bun. It makes you look soft, kid)


Bob


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