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Celtics Wrap: Boston Can’t Complete Comeback, Fall To Pacers
The Celtics trailed by 30 points in the first half


NESN by Greg Dudek

BOSTON — The Celtics have lost three consecutive games for the first time all season as their comeback bid Wednesday night against the Pacers fell short with Indiana securing a 117-112 win at TD Garden.

The Celtics have slipped to 22-10 while the Pacers get back to the .500 mark with a 16-16 record.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
This should be the question top of mind for every Celtics fan: Where was that effort and intensity in the first half?

Boston trailed by as many as 30 points in the first half to a less-talented Indiana squad, which is just inexcusable. The Celtics didn’t have any sense of urgency to start despite coming into the matchup having lost four of their previous five games.

That changed in the second half with Boston getting as close as five points, but it was too little too late for the home team.

The Pacers did nothing flashy in the first half except outwork the Celtics on both ends of the floor. Boston looked completely disjointed offensively, a bizarre turn of events after their stellar production on that end of the floor not too long ago.

This felt like the Celtics of last season when they would sleepwalk against inferior opponents with uninspired performances before trying to play catch up.

That’s an extremely bad habit for Joe Mazzulla’s squad to start falling into.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tyrese Haliburton was the best player on the Pacers as he poured in 20 of his team-high 33 points in the first half. He dished out eight assists as well.

— Jayson Tatum tried to will the Celtics back in the second half as he netted a game-high 41 points, with two of those points coming on one monster, poster slam dunk.

— Aaron Nesmith had a point to prove against his former team despite talking highly of the Celtics after they traded him this offseason. The third-year pro brought his typical high energy to notch 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

WAGER WATCH
Al Horford went scoreless in the first half but just over a minute into the third quarter, he cleared the over/under of 1.5 threes made with back-to-back triples. DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of Horford hitting the Over at -145, meaning a $100 bet would a netted a total of $168.97.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will look to turn things around once again when the Minnesota Timberwolves come to town Friday. Tipoff from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

OUCH!

One glaring problem is at point guard.  You cannot have White play 26 minutes and score 0 field goals and only 2 points earned at the stripe and Pritchard 17 minutes and go 1-4 for 3 points.

I know that Pritcher has not played many minutes, but still lots of wasted minutes with little production at point guard position.  White seems to be a sreaky player where he will be hot for a number of games bunched up, but then goes cold for long streaks of games like he is in now.  He did that in the finals last year.

It would help if we can find an alternative to White.  I just do not see him as a value added to the team.

We need to get a true lock down 3 point specialist who can score evenly game in and game out from beyond the arc.  Still think Melo could help us as a guy off the bench.  Houser fills that role but he does not touch the ball enough to be truly effective.  Yesterday Houser was
- 20! Ouch again!

112288

Alright dboss.  The sky may not be falling but you are correct about a real crappy storm that has developed for sure.  As this article points out by reading between the lines, the "R" word is resurfaced.  We are Regressing.  Regressing to old bad habits of starting off crappy and uninterested, then having to play the whole game catching up when it would have been much easier and wiser just to start off playing better.  MS being out is no excuse as we've seen the interchangeable parts game plan work flawlessly and to perfection.  Plus we had two days off.  Plus we're still at home.  What the Hell else do you want, Boston?!!! We're the only team around us losing and losing badly.  Thank God the Cavs held on last night and beat the Bucks sans Middleton so we didn't lose any ground.  What's up with his knee now?  I just watched the last 6 minutes of the 4th of that game.  

As we've seen, the game goes a lot easier and flows a lot better when the effort is consistent vs. the Tale of Two Halves Game Plan.  That crap never works and expends WAY more energy than necessary.  

Maybe we'll go 1-6 on this home stretch with the only game we have a chance of winning is Friday, but the TWolves are playing .500 ball and if you follow the revised scouting report on us to a T, it allows any and every team to beat us.  All you have to do is simply show up.  We won't win Christmas Day.  That may become known as the Christmas Day Massacre.  Be prepared for and O-fer with this home stand.  5th Place here we come.  We're earning it.  

Oz has spoken.

db

P.S.  Sorry, 112288, Eddie House isn't walking through that door!!

Hi,
WTF is going on with this team!?
I can't find answers for this abysmal game.

AK

I wasn't too concerned about the Celtics till watching the first half of the game last night. They were bad in all phases of the game. The worst was getting beat to rebounds and loose balls and playing no defense.

I know Marcus didn't play, but that's no excuse. I like Coach Joe, but he has to stop with this play through adversity philosophy. I think he had called a time out down about 14-15, the Celtics continued to turn the ball over and the Pacers continued to score at will. He needed to take another time out, but he didn't and whammo the lead was 30.

Yes, they showed life in the second half and the Pacers hit some shots out of their ass, and long rebounds bounced to the Pacers, but that's what happens when you put yourself in a hole with no room for error. I don't know what's up with Jaylen, he continues to make ridiculous turnovers. Derrick White can't throw the ball in the ocean, and he made some horrendous passes. Hauser played ok and maybe he's coming out of his funk. Kornet, on the other hand, is reverting to the useless player we thought he was. PLAY BLAKE. JT and Timelord showed heart. I am hoping this is just a slump and that the second half was the beginning of the end of it.

Rebounding has been an issue, in every game we get a key stop and can’t control the key defensive board. Jaylen White GWill Brogdan Hauser have all regressed. Jaylen has been getting beat too much on defense and can’t even finish simple shots or plays lately. Coach Joe was pressing all the right buttons when we were winning, as of right now he can’t get the team to gel like it was 10 days ago.

Two weeks ago Jaylen was playing at an all NBA level, right now he doesn’t even look all star worthy. Wtf happened to White? GWill also not giving us anything.

db

Unlike CJ, I have to be honest.  I do not know what the hell is going on with this team.

If you believe in self-correction then the players have not been able to motivate themselves to play disciplined basketball at both ends of the court.  

Well, in my opinion self-correction is akin to an idle mind.  

As a coach, fans expect you to be the guy who gets the team up to play.  If you cannot motivate your team to play your ability to influence the outcome of a game comes into question.

Your team falls behind by 30 points and you still try to sell the notion of how good they played in the second half.

It was nice that PP had a chance to play although I have to question why he should get the start.  How about getting him fully integrated into your rotation first.  At this point you could give him some of Derrick White's minutes.

Speaking of Derrick White, I have reconciled the reality of his 27.8% shooting from the field over his last 10 games (all in December) The poor 3 point shooting should have been anticipated by me.

How about, No Marcus Smart, let's start Brogdon.  Against that team you could have started Brogdon and Brown in the backcourt and also stated G Will with Horford and Tatum.  Hey Joe, it is actually permissible to start your 6th man now and then (Brogdon zero starts for the year)

I'm ordering a Code Red

cowens/oldschool wrote:Rebounding has been an issue, in every game we get a key stop and can’t control the key defensive board. Jaylen White GWill Brogdan Hauser have all regressed. Jaylen has been getting beat too much on defense and can’t even finish simple shots or plays lately. Coach Joe was pressing all the right buttons when we were winning, as of right now he can’t get the team to gel like it was 10 days ago.

Two weeks ago Jaylen was playing at an all NBA level, right now he doesn’t even look all star worthy. Wtf happened to White? GWill also not giving us anything.

Cow

Rebounding was not an issue in this game. (62-47 Celtics)

Jaylen has been decidedly poor at both ends of the court.  Sloppy with the ball on offensive and losing his man on defense.  G Will has been rock solid this month 10.4 PPG and shooting 42.1% from deep.  White is back to who he really is.  I was temporarily bamboozled but I have regained my senses.  Hauser is still a pure shooter so I am not worried about him.  I would not be too worried about Brogdon either.  His shooting has been down a bit but he is still playing well in Dec. (38.1% from deep.  13.2 PPG 4.1 and 4.1 assists and rebounds)

In general the TEAM has been noticeably lackadaisical and CJ has displayed a lack of head coaching experience at the NBA level.

The Celts are not constituted to create a good package around RWill. RWill’s return has meant less GWill. That means that we lose a lot on offense while we have not gained that much on defense.

RWill only provides rim running and if your guards are not deadeye shooters, the spacing will get completely messed up. Our guards have not been able throw it into the ocean, forget the basket!

RWill means that the path to the basket is crowded and Tatum and Brown do not have lanes to the rim.

Would you have Sam Hauser or Galinari?

The Celts need some roster tweaking. Also, for RWill to get into better rhythm. He needs to integrate some scoring into his mindset as well.

We are seeing a lot of roster experimentation and perhaps showcasing of some players. I smell moves coming.

prakash wrote:The Celts are not constituted to create a good package around RWill. RWill’s return has meant less GWill. That means that we lose a lot on offense while we have not gained that much on defense.

RWill only provides rim running and if your guards are not deadeye shooters, the spacing will get completely messed up. Our guards have not been able throw it into the ocean, forget the basket!

RWill means that the path to the basket is crowded and Tatum and Brown do not have lanes to the rim.

Would you have Sam Hauser or Galinari?

The Celts need some roster tweaking.  Also, for RWill to get into better rhythm.  He needs to integrate some scoring into his mindset as well.

We are seeing a lot of roster experimentation and perhaps showcasing of some players.  I smell moves coming.

Park

Rob has played in 3 games after being out for 6 months.

Last night Boston shot 13 for 41 from deep (31.2%) Were those bad shots or is that result indicative of poor shooting? What does Rob have to do with that? I mentioned in my pregame that the Pacers also like to shoot the 3 ball. They went 18-39 or 46.2%.

I do not agree with your statement "RWill only provides rim running" How about his high post screening actions and passing? What about his 7 offensive rebounds that created extra shot opportunities?

The Celtics are just not shooting the ball very well from deep and that is the most obvious issue right now.

I see no evidence that Robs presence negatively impacts Brown and Tatum's or anyone else's path to the basket. Our scorers are getting wide open looks and off the bounce drives to the basket and they are just missing too many of those opportunities.

Hauser or Gallo? I would be happy if both of them were playing but Gallo is out. Hauser has struggled shooting the ball lately however I believe that Hauser is a pure shooter and should just keep firing away.

Definitely agree his rotations have been shaky, Brodgan and GWill should have been starting.

I was only able to watch the first half of the game before my link went kablooey.

Live by the 3, die by the 3.  31.7% sucks.  The Js were a combined 5-16 from 3.  Joe doesn't have them doing anything else besides drive-and-kick, which doesn't work if the shots aren't dropping.  And because Joe's offense is all about 3s when the 3s aren't dropping our team fg% sucks too.  Last night it was 38.6%, which is only slightly better than the 31.7% from 3.  I'm starting to wonder if Joe's inexperience as a coach is showing and he's a one-trick pony.

But our defense was excrement too.  They were taking us off the dribble just about every time.  It seemed like nobody stayed in front of their man.

Horford looked bad.  2-6 from the field on offense, 2-5 from 3.  C'mon, Al, you can't beat the Indiana Pacer's front court?!  Once you get past Myles Turner, who do they have?

Joe needs to have a team film session.  Not film of this game, or even of the previous game vs Orlando.  He needs a film session that is all about the Finals last year vs GSW.  He needs to get that awful taste back into their mouths, because they're playing like zombies now.


Bob


.

dboss,

Excellent selection! Quite possibly one of the best scenes in cinematic history. Two (three if you count Kevin Bacon) of Hollywood's iconic actors going head to head in one of the best movies of all time.

Fun factoid. Kevin Bacon was talking about this movie and what was going on while on set. Bacon was saying that usually actors know that there will be several "takes" and even the best actors/actresses don't bring their good stuff early. They ease into it in essence. Jack Nicholson on the other hand, brought his best EVERY take per Kevin Bacon. For Nicholson, there was only one scene and he had to nail it. If there were one hundred takes of that scene, his first take looked exactly like the final take.

This is one of those rare human beings that truly loved what they did for a living. It wasn't work at all. It was the proverbial labor of love. The big-ass paycheck didn't hurt his motivation either!

One of my favorite quotes from the courtroom scenes was the judge rebuffing Nicholson about how to address each other/the court and who's earned what with their respective military statuses.

Judge Randolph : Defense counsel will address the witness as "Colonel" or "Sir."

Col. Jessup : I don't know what the Hell kind of unit you're running here.

Judge Randolph : And the witness will address this court as "Judge" or "Your Honor." I'm quite certain I've earned it.

Classic! Thanks for the memories, dboss!

db