2022 - 2023 POST GAME DENVER - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Nuggets Win, Nikola Jokic Makes Statement In MVP Race
Jokic recorded his 91st career triple-double


NESN by Keagan Stiefel


The Boston Celtics fell to the Denver Nuggets, 123-111, on Sunday at Ball Arena.

The C’s fell to 26-11 while the Nuggets improved to 24-12.

Check out the full box score here.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
It seemed as though neither one of these teams had any interest in playing defense on New Year’s Day. That was a winning formula for the Nuggets, who unlike the Celtics, were able to hit a few open shots to pull away in this one.

Boston put together one of its worst shooting nights of the season Sunday, connecting on just 6-of-26 shots from beyond the arc through three quarters. That afforded Denver an opportunity to score 98 points and open a 13-point lead headed into the final stanza. That just wasn’t surmountable for a team who couldn’t knock down open shots.

The Celtics were able to do just enough with Nikola Jokic off the floor to work down a couple of large Nuggets leads, but as soon as the two-time MVP checked back into the game Denver would go on another run to keep Boston at bay.

That was all before a 40-minute delay caused by a monstrous Robert Williams dunk.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jokic showed why he’s the back-to-back defending MVP on Sunday. The superstar center finished with 30 points, 12 assists, 12 rebounds and a steal — putting 20 of his 23 total shots in the hoop.

— Bones Hyland exploded in the fourth quarter, eventually finishing the game with 17 points and four assists. He was Denver’s go-to guy with Jokic on the bench.

— Jaylen Brown was the Celtics’ most consistent scoring threat, finishing the game with 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting. He also had three assists to go along with eight rebounds.

WAGER WATCH
DraftKings Sportsbook set the odds of Jokic recording a triple-double at +225. He secured the 91st of his career Sunday, meaning a $100 bet would have netted a total payout of $325.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will continue a four-game road trip against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. Tipoff from Paycom Center is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

112288

I am talking about todays game but it has been a trend of late.

If Houser is our 3 point shooter off the bench, why is he only getting 11 minutes playing time and only taking 3 shots!

Why is Brogden only getting 20 minutes playing time and only getting 6 shots?

The bulk of the scoring is Tatum and Brown game in and game out like tonight, this does not make for a well balaced team scoring approach! Go look at Denvers starting and off the bench scoring which is spread out over 5 players - Gordon - 18, Brown - 21, Porter - 19, Jokic - 30, Hayalnd - 17.

Taum - 25, Brown - 30, White - 13. The rest of the players were in single digits.

112288

112288 wrote:I am talking about todays game but it has been a trend of late.

If Houser is our 3 point shooter off the bench, why is he only getting 11 minutes playing time and only taking 3 shots!

Why is Brogden only getting 20 minutes playing time and only getting 6 shots?

The bulk of the scoring is Tatum and Brown game in and game out like tonight, this does not make for a well balaced team scoring approach! Go look at Denvers starting and off the bench scoring which is spread out over 5 players - Gordon - 18, Brown - 21, Porter - 19, Jokic - 30, Hayalnd - 17.

Taum - 25, Brown - 30, White - 13. The rest of the players were in single digits.  

112288

The rest of the players, except RWill and Grant, who also often doesn’t get enough shots were ice cold. I think I heard we had won 6 in a row against this team, guess we were due for a loss. This team can be a tough match up, they have 2 good wings in Gordon and Porter that are not as great as our guys, but if their on and either of our guys are off, with Jokic having a big game….we can be in trouble, which is exactly what happened tonight. Tatum 0-4, Smart 0-4 and Brogdon 0-3 from 3 certainly put us in a hole that we could not recover from.

112288 wrote:I am talking about todays game but it has been a trend of late.

If Houser is our 3 point shooter off the bench, why is he only getting 11 minutes playing time and only taking 3 shots!

Why is Brogden only getting 20 minutes playing time and only getting 6 shots?

The bulk of the scoring is Tatum and Brown game in and game out like tonight, this does not make for a well balaced team scoring approach! Go look at Denvers starting and off the bench scoring which is spread out over 5 players - Gordon - 18, Brown - 21, Porter - 19, Jokic - 30, Hayalnd - 17.

Taum - 25, Brown - 30, White - 13. The rest of the players were in single digits.  

112288

Hauser is our non-shooting shooter. When somebody is a shooter, defense should be scared of giving him an inch. Hauser is not making shots even when he has adequate space. I don't know if that is on Hauser or on our ball handlers getting the ball to him in an unpredictable manner (he is not prepared).

Brogdon's shot was completely off. Then Jocic totally exploited our small line up by getting White switched on to him and then carving us out.

I have been talking about the need for another scorer on this roster.

Chalk this one up to New Year hangover, travel and such. On to the next game.

Hi,
You can beat Jokic, you can beat Giannis, but you can't beat math. When you shoot 27% from 3pt and your opponent shoots 56% you will lose.
JT and JB tried but Denver's defense was good enough to limit them to 25+30 points and others to single digits. Plus, Denver focused on inner defense after seeing that miserable 3pt shooting.
I guess the whole team needs a few session with a shrink...

AK

Doc Rivers old adage that it is a make or miss league was never truer then last nights game. We couldn't buy a three. Both Marcus and Brogdon had wide open looks that could have cut the lead to 5 or 6 and missed. Then the Nuggets came down and drained a three. The Nuggets shooting was phenomenal. I really didn't think we played bad D. They just kept making shots and Jokic is very very good. I chalk this one up to we ran into a bit of a buzzsaw last night.

Unfortunately that’s this era, a great majority of games are all won because of which team is hotter/better from 3.

Not surprised that we looked off in the 1st quarter. All the experts will tell you that is caused by the altitude thang.
We didn’t play bad, we just couldn’t make shots- and couldn’t stop Jokic.

On another note: This is not the same Denver team of 3 years ago and neither are the C’s so even though I think Sean Grande is one of the best RADIO PBP announcers, he’s a bit overbearing on TV.
He must’ve repeated that “Denver has lost 6 straight to the C’s over 3 years” at least 10 times. (I lost count). I get the repetitiveness but its irrelevant when neither are the same team as 2-3 years ago.
Also, Sean, quit making up stats to fill time. “The best offensive performance against the Celtics in 2 decades” is ridiculous, irrelevant and nobody cares.
I will give both Sean and Scal credit for filling that 40 minute delay. Cept’ at the end where Scal said the Rim was not straight when the closeup of the level clearly indicated that it was. Thanks Scal.
On to OKC and then here in Dallas where I have pretty good seats.

Without actually watching the game yet, I'm going to guess we started the game by firing the 3-ball, probably wasting a good 6 minutes or all of the first quarter figuring that wasn't going to work. When that didn't work, our only other option was to face Jokic by driving down the lane, which was DEN's game plan all along. Meanwhile DEN was already doing what we should have been doing by hitting shots, probably going into Jokic early and then firing the 3-ball to wide open, throw it in the ocean-type looks.

Seriously, I'm just guessing. OK, just watched the 1st quarter and a little of the 2nd. Right and wrong in my guessing. Did not expect the JB Show in the 1st. When you're hot you're hot. He was random in his play taking what the defense gave him. The rest of the team just kept firing from 3-ville. And magically we're down by 10-13 for the rest of the quarter.

Here's how you beat Denver. Put Jokic on the bench. How do you put Jokic on the bench? Drive at him first and get him in foul trouble. We never even tested him there from what I saw. He will foul you. It's impossible not to. No one is that good or that smart. And he was able to sit out at least 6 minutes between end of 1st and beginning of 2nd as we nibbled into their lead and then gave it right back before he even got back in the game.

This was also one of those games where if the other team is going to shoot 60% from 3-ville, you're not winning, try as you may. They punched us with our own medicine first. We should have done likewise to Jokic but we didn't. Second verse same as the first.

What did Patton say? "The beatings will continue until morale improves." Well for us, the losses will continue until we get back to random offensive basketball and stop leading with the 3-ball. At least against the better competition and in some cases lesser competition which all seem to have our routine down, have seen it before and are ready for us.

db

dbrown4 wrote:Without actually watching the game yet, I'm going to guess we started the game by firing the 3-ball, probably wasting a good 6 minutes or all of the first quarter figuring that wasn't going to work.  When that didn't work, our only other option was to face Jokic by driving down the lane, which was DEN's game plan all along.  Meanwhile DEN was already doing what we should have been doing by hitting shots, probably going into Jokic early and then firing the 3-ball to wide open, throw it in the ocean-type looks.  

Seriously, I'm just guessing. OK, just watched the 1st quarter and a little of the 2nd.  Right and wrong in my guessing.  Did not expect the JB Show in the 1st.  When you're hot you're hot.  He was random in his play taking what the defense gave him.  The rest of the team just kept firing from 3-ville.  And magically we're down by 10-13 for the rest of the quarter.  

Here's how you beat Denver.  Put Jokic on the bench.  How do you put Jokic on the bench?  Drive at him first and get him in foul trouble.  We never even tested him there from what I saw.  He will foul you.  It's impossible not to.  No one is that good or that smart.  And he was able to sit out at least 6 minutes between end of 1st and beginning of 2nd as we nibbled into their lead and then gave it right back before he even got back in the game.

This was also one of those games where if the other team is going to shoot 60% from 3-ville, you're not winning, try as you may.  They punched us with our own medicine first.  We should have done likewise to Jokic but we didn't.  Second verse same as the first.  

What did Patton say?  "The beatings will continue until morale improves."  Well for us, the losses will continue until we get back to random offensive basketball and stop leading with the 3-ball.  At least against the better competition and in some cases lesser competition which all seem to have our routine down, have seen it before and are ready for us.

db          

Totally agree we should have attacked Jokic from the start and challenged him at the rim. Guess what, he’s not an elite shot blocker; instead we went with the same 3 ball strategy, we were cold and got punched in the mouth first. Guys on this board can come up with better strategy than the coach. We limited our athletic advantage and should have had more guys going right at the rim and Jokic.

Prakash wrote:  "Hauser is our non-shooting shooter. When somebody is a shooter, defense should be scared of giving him an inch. Hauser is not making shots even when he has adequate space. I don't know if that is on Hauser or on our ball handlers getting the ball to him in an unpredictable manner (he is not prepared)."  In the month of December Sam Hauser shot 31.8% from 3 (21-66).  He's been "off" for a whole month.  He's still shooting 41.1% on the season from 3, so he's still dangerous, he's just reverting to his mean and his mean is still well above league average.  Nobody will shoot 45% from 3 for the season if they're taking a ton of them.

Cowens said:  "Unfortunately that’s this era, a great majority of games are all won because of which team is hotter/better from 3."  Yep.  33 3s for us vs 30 for them doesn't make up the difference between shooting 27% vs 57%.  Tatum and Smart a combined 0-8.  Brogdon 1-6 from the field and 0-3 from 3.  So that's a combined 0-11 from 3 of our top 6 players and a full third of our total 3pt fgas.  Maybe it's the thin air up there...?

But what do you do when your shots aren't dropping from downtown?  Well, most teams adjust.  They run pnrs, they set weakside screens to break a cutter free.  What's Joe's adjustment?  He starts running isos for the Js.  I am in the very, very strange place of looking at the coach of the #1 team in basketball and wondering if he's up to it.  I'm thinking this is all going to come down to our legs.  If our legs are fresh in the playoffs and our 3s drop we'll be watching #18 being raised to the rafters next year.  If they aren't then we're not, because the first things that go when your legs get tired are your jump shots from range.  If your 3s aren't dropping, and Plan B is isos by the Js (and we all saw how that went last year), I'm not feeling a lot of confidence our head coach has a Plan C.

Jokic and fill_in_the_blank had a beautiful two-man game going.  He looks like a giant sack of potatoes but man oh man can he play.  GREAT court vision.  A lot of people compare Luka to Bird but I think The Joker might be a more appropriate comparison because he's as completely unathletic as Larry was and yet knows where everybody on the floor is.  And, unlike Luka but like Larry, Jokic likes to play bullyball down low despite not being able to slip a piece of paper between his feet and the floor when he jumps.  He was backing our guys down at will.  Luka is a lot of peoples' favorite player to watch but, to be honest, Jokic might be mine the same way some people want their pet to win the "Ugliest Dog" contest.  His game is so ugly in its lack of athleticism he's gorgeous in his execution.  I'm not alone in thinking this, apparently, he's the b2b NBA MVP for the last two seasons.  

So now the Nuggets are 1-6 against us as opposed to 0-6.  BFD.


Bob


.

bobheckler wrote:Prakash wrote:  "Hauser is our non-shooting shooter. When somebody is a shooter, defense should be scared of giving him an inch. Hauser is not making shots even when he has adequate space. I don't know if that is on Hauser or on our ball handlers getting the ball to him in an unpredictable manner (he is not prepared)."  In the month of December Sam Hauser shot 31.8% from 3 (21-66).  He's been "off" for a whole month.  He's still shooting 41.1% on the season from 3, so he's still dangerous, he's just reverting to his mean and his mean is still well above league average.  Nobody will shoot 45% from 3 for the season if they're taking a ton of them.

Cowens said:  "Unfortunately that’s this era, a great majority of games are all won because of which team is hotter/better from 3."  Yep.  33 3s for us vs 30 for them doesn't make up the difference between shooting 27% vs 57%.  Tatum and Smart a combined 0-8.  Brogdon 1-6 from the field and 0-3 from 3.  So that's a combined 0-11 from 3 of our top 6 players and a full third of our total 3pt fgas.  Maybe it's the thin air up there...?

But what do you do when your shots aren't dropping from downtown?  Well, most teams adjust.  They run pnrs, they set weakside screens to break a cutter free.  What's Joe's adjustment?  He starts running isos for the Js.  I am in the very, very strange place of looking at the coach of the #1 team in basketball and wondering if he's up to it.  I'm thinking this is all going to come down to our legs.  If our legs are fresh in the playoffs and our 3s drop we'll be watching #18 being raised to the rafters next year.  If they aren't then we're not, because the first things that go when your legs get tired are your jump shots from range.  If your 3s aren't dropping, and Plan B is isos by the Js (and we all saw how that went last year), I'm not feeling a lot of confidence our head coach has a Plan C.

Jokic and fill_in_the_blank had a beautiful two-man game going.  He looks like a giant sack of potatoes but man oh man can he play.  GREAT court vision.  A lot of people compare Luka to Bird but I think The Joker might be a more appropriate comparison because he's as completely unathletic as Larry was and yet knows where everybody on the floor is.  And, unlike Luka but like Larry, Jokic likes to play bullyball down low despite not being able to slip a piece of paper between his feet and the floor when he jumps.  He was backing our guys down at will.  Luka is a lot of peoples' favorite player to watch but, to be honest, Jokic might be mine the same way some people want their pet to win the "Ugliest Dog" contest.  His game is so ugly in its lack of athleticism he's gorgeous in his execution.  I'm not alone in thinking this, apparently, he's the b2b NBA MVP for the last two seasons.  

So now the Nuggets are 1-6 against us as opposed to 0-6.  BFD.


Bob


.

Great points on Jokic, the guy is slower and more unathletic than Bird, but has Birds vision and an old school punishing post up game and enough ball handling skills to run a high post offense and get wherever he wants on the floor. Masterful the way the slowpoke controls the tempo of the game and sets up all the other players on the floor. Coach Joe has taken some of the passing responsibility away from the J’s, with more back cuts trying to make the game easier on them. We need a better plan C when the 3’s are not falling, J’s isos can be magnificent; but if the other team is shooting 56% from 3, so tough to keep up with any team.

bobh,

Agreed, it's just a regular season game on the road. DEN is the current top team in the West. We didn't win on their court. If this were the Finals, we'd be fine with losing it. It's just what seems to be our approach to solving the problems of losing that is a bit disconcerting. Our current solution is to just keep firing from 3-ville in hopes that the shots will start falling again. Unfortunately, we are learning there is a huge range of returns from shooting 3's, typically anywhere from 15%-65% game-to-game. If we look at the now forgotten and ignored ugly step-child, the 2-point shot, we went 31-54 vs. DEN. Without a calculator that's a smidge under 60%. Hmmm. Come on, CJ. This is 5-grade math here, not Calculus and String Theory.

I cannot emphasize enough the randomness and afterthought of the 3-ball. Hurling 3's and continuing to hurl 3's until they start falling again is not random. That is easily predictable. Then iso-ing to the 2 J's as Plan B, while it does pay off, the TO's and the no calls catch up with you and DEN showed us the results of failed Plan A and Plan B. At that point, it's too late for a Plan C. The randomness was Plan A and it was working to absolute, Globetrotter-like perfection. Now it is Plan C or may not even be on the docket. I still see it, but it's not #1 currently like it was a few weeks ago. 3-Ball is back to Plan A. The results from that are already in the record books for regular season and playoffs. Drive for show. Putt for dough. Shoot 3's for show. Random, Princeton-style offense for dough and Banner 18.

The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken.

db

P.S. Can CJ beat Kerr in 7 games? At this point, I'm going to say no. Jacque Cousteau? Yeah, but we'll need to see signs of that 1/12 this month @ BKN. Doc? Yeah. Bud? Yeah. Ty Lue? Not sure yet. I'm pointing the finger at the bench again right now. Get your crapola figured out for the love of God.

I missed the game the other night.

Denver is the #1 team out West and they had won 6 out of 7 going into the Celtics game.  They have been playing very well.

We lost the game because #1 we only shot 27.3% from deep while they went 56.7% and #2 we did not do a good job defending the perimeter.

Other than the three point deficit, the Celtics won pretty much across the board in other statistical categories.

That includes FT's, Rebounds, Steals, Fewer Turnovers, PITP, FB points and Fewer Personal fouls.  

Three point shooting and defending against 3 point shooting was the name of the game.

When I watched the highlight reel I did not see a lot of PNR /pop action but having not watched the game I do not know if that was a factor in our offense.  I will leave that conclusion to others.