2022-2023 Post Game Nets

Our defense especially our defense in crunch time on their best player Durant, was the key to this victory. Our 2 elite wings pressed and keyed on Durant and made the lanky guy look just a little too slow to attempt any fancy dribbling on the perimeter. Masterful job of taking the ball away from Durant after he had his moments on us with a big 3rd quarter. In a game with 2 of the best players in the league in Durant and Tatum, the best player on the floor was Jaylen, with get this zero turnovers!! Tatum actually had a sub par game for him, he missed a lot of bunnies that he is totally capable of finishing and was making stupid turnovers all over the place; but once he hit one shot, he got on a quick roll, scoring in bunches to close out, take over the game in crunch time. He and Jaylen are so talented from all 3 levels, they can score in bunches, and hit a team fast, bam like Jaylen did in 1st. Even Durant was acknowledging this in his post game interview. Durant gave a very accurate assessment of our team.

Styles make fights, we are a match up nightmare for Nets, ask Durant, he knows. Even with White and Al very off on shooting, didn’t matter. Brogden was huge and his scoring very timely, the defense wore on the Nets as the game got longer. Even without Smart, we shutdown Kyrie, Pritch with some good minutes getting right in Kyrie; then at closing time, we put Jaylen on Kyrie and he totally disappeared. Love both J’s ability to defend/shutdown points, very reminiscent of Jordan and Pippen.

Dbrown...Cubs fans were remarkably loyal for a century.


Cow - we are blessed with an excess of riches when when consider a 29 point and 11 rb game from JT to be subpar -and ironically it was! JB with his second super stellar game in a row.

I give Brad loads of credit for reconstructing this team into its present configuration. Ime, bless him, brought a tough-mindedness to this team, and Joe - whoever expected Joe to be this capable from the jump? Extraordinary coaching, exceptional play from the guys on the floor from the top to the almost the bottom of the roster. What a year.

worcester wrote:Dbrown...Cubs fans were remarkably loyal for a century.


Cow - we are blessed with an excess of riches when when consider a 29 point and 11 rb game from JT to be subpar -and ironically it was! JB with his second super stellar game in a row.

I give Brad loads of credit for reconstructing this team into its present configuration. Ime, bless him, brought a tough-mindedness to this team, and Joe - whoever expected Joe to be this capable from the jump? Extraordinary coaching, exceptional play from the guys on the floor from the top to the almost the bottom of the roster. What a year.

Exactly, very up and down game for him, 9 turnovers, many so stupid like touching guys with his hands without even the ball? Why Jayson…??? He finished strong, his defense on Durant in 4th was total lockdown.

"If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to travel far, go together."
- African proverb


Nets vs. Celts in a nutshell

Yeah, KD just ran out of steam like he did in the first game of the playoffs. Our defense was relentless throughout that game. Now our defense has changed to selective, focused bouts of terror which in the new league is currently enough. In this day and age, your opponent scoring 100-110 is a very good defensive night. Last night was an anomaly score-wise and was like the old NBA of a great defensive effort where your opponent scores in the 80's.

What is left to be seen is to have a high powered offense combined with all the time, 48 minute stifling defense so the scores would look more like 130-85. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for the rest of the league, Boston is going to be the beta test market for All The Time Offense/All The Time Defense or ATO/ATD here in just a couple of weeks. No pressure RWIII but hit the ground running. As a matter of fact, all I want to see him doing for the next couple of months is easy back door slam dunks from MS, MB, DW feeds/lobs and simply staying in the middle lane swatting all the flies to Kingdom Come on defense. Come off the bench if you have to initially. It's not gong to get any better of an opportunity than this for Boston. With all that just to this point, we're still only 2 games better than PHX and 1 game better than MIL in the loss columns.

If the Fully Operational Death Star is indeed fully operational, RWIII is full-on and everyone is contributing just slightly above expectations, I'd expect the major separation from PHX and MIL to show up in the standings toward the middle-end of January, IMHBAO.

db

A few years back, I came to the conclusion that Jaylen Brown could become a high end scorer in the 25 PPG level if he could crack the 80% mark from the line.

After last night's game Jaylen has moved into 12th place in scoring.  He is averaging 27 PPG and he is shooting 83.5% from the charity stripe.  He is also averaging 7 rebounds per game.  These are all career numbers.

Last night Jayson was struggling yet after the game you look at the box score and you have to feel pretty good about his 29 points on an efficient 10-19 shooting night.  He also collected 11 rebounds and had 4 steals.  He had way too many turnovers (9)  I guess Durant was trying to match his turnover total as he had 8.

The Celtics have the two best players on any team in the NBA.  Both of them are the focus of opponents defense but they have become increasingly unstoppable.  Nobody can check them!

The Celtics 8-3 road record is the best in the NBA.  Last night they bounced back from a loss to the Heat.  It was not a pretty game but our defense went up a notch or 2 and that is very relevant as we look ahead.  

There is no singular reason at work.  The Jays are both having career years and most of the roster has improved (Smart, Grant, White)  Our deeper rotation guys like Hauser and Pritchard are finding ways to help us win even with limited opportunities.  The addition of Malcolm Brogdon greatly enhances everything that the Celtics like to do and has to be the most significant offseason acquisition in the NBA.

The RW return is coming real soon!

dboss,

I'm very interested in the RWIII return not only in when it will actually happen but how quickly he assimilates into what he's been watching from the sidelines and how it reflects on our total game performance and full separation from the last straws, which at this point are MIL and PHX, as far as I'm concerned. There are some wannabees out there but not enough evidence and history to include them in this discussion.

If this is going to be one of those deals where it takes RWIII weeks or months to get on board, then just keep him out for the rest of the season. This team as currently constructed has enough to capture the last two games needed from last year's playoffs.

However, if you are looking for TOTAL domination, ala recent GSW teams that won championships, then RWIII is the last key to that success. We would see something that I can't say I have seen before in the NBA for quite some time. Total Offense & Total Defense All The Time. No time off. 48 minutes of Hell like UNLV/Tark the Shark or Loyola Marymount/Paul Westhead used to administer over 40 minutes. Exciting times!! But everybody needs to be on the court, alive and well.

db

Definitely at the very least everyone needs to be on the court alive.

dbrown4 wrote:dboss,

I'm very interested in the RWIII return not only in when it will actually happen but how quickly he assimilates into what he's been watching from the sidelines and how it reflects on our total game performance and full separation from the last straws, which at this point are MIL and PHX, as far as I'm concerned.  There are some wannabees out there but not enough evidence and history to include them in this discussion.

If this is going to be one of those deals where it takes RWIII weeks or months to get on board, then just keep him out for the rest of the season.  This team as currently constructed has enough to capture the last two games needed from last year's playoffs.  

However, if you are looking for TOTAL domination, ala recent GSW teams that won championships, then RWIII is the last key to that success.  We would see something that I can't say I have seen before in the NBA for quite some time.  Total Offense & Total Defense All The Time.  No time off.  48 minutes of Hell like UNLV/Tark the Shark or Loyola Marymount/Paul Westhead used to administer over 40 minutes.  Exciting times!!  But everybody needs to be on the court, alive and well.  

db

db

The only thing that Boston is doing this year on offense that they did not do last year is related to better pace and spacing. Our shooting efficiency is partly related to those factors as well as extraordinary improvements from players on the team. Our guys are producing career numbers.

RW will have very little problem fitting back in. He always played with pace on offense and is a dynamic screener and passer. He has been playing with all of our core guys for a number of years with the exception of Brogdon.

There is nothing for him to assimilate to.

Rob has to get back into game shape. That is his biggest challenge right now.

The Celtics as currently constructed can beat every team in a playoff series if Robert Williams is healthy. Without him we are simply not good enough defensively to win. The notion of him sitting out the entire season and us still winning is fool's gold. Al Horford and Kornet are not enough.

I expect Rob to return and maybe play 7 +7 and as he build his stamina he should be ready to start playing extended minutes. Right now AH is logging over 31 MPG. He will not be playing in B2B games (is out tonight vs Raptors due to lower back stiffness) The Celtics will Never win a championship if Al is our best big.

dbrown4 wrote:Yeah, KD just ran out of steam like he did in the first game of the playoffs.  Our defense was relentless throughout that game.  Now our defense has changed to selective, focused bouts of terror which in the new league is currently enough.  In this day and age, your opponent scoring 100-110 is a very good defensive night.  Last night was an anomaly score-wise and was like the old NBA of a great defensive effort where your opponent scores in the 80's.  

What is left to be seen is to have a high powered offense combined with all the time, 48 minute stifling defense so the scores would look more like 130-85.  Fortunately for us and unfortunately for the rest of the league, Boston is going to be the beta test market for All The Time Offense/All The Time Defense or ATO/ATD here in just a couple of weeks.  No pressure RWIII but hit the ground running.  As a matter of fact, all I want to see him doing for the next couple of months is easy back door slam dunks from MS, MB, DW feeds/lobs and simply staying in the middle lane swatting all the flies to Kingdom Come on defense.  Come off the bench if you have to initially.  It's not gong to get any better of an opportunity than this for Boston.  With all that just to this point, we're still only 2 games better than PHX and 1 game better than MIL in the loss columns.  

If the Fully Operational Death Star is indeed fully operational, RWIII is full-on and everyone is contributing just slightly above expectations, I'd expect the major separation from PHX and MIL to show up in the standings toward the middle-end of January, IMHBAO.  

db      

I’ve noticed that too, he can make some great shots during the game, but in the 4th the same shots he’s making don’t seem to fall. Plus he has to defend, he can’t rest on that end….

worcester wrote:Definitely at the very least everyone needs to be on the court alive.

An often overlooked basketball fundamental.