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Celtics Wrap: Jayson Tatum In All-Star Form As Boston Beats Pistons
The Celtics go into the break on a high note


NESN by Greg Dudek

The Boston Celtics took care of business in their final game before the All-Star break by dispatching the Detroit Pistons, 127-109, on Wednesday night at TD Garden.

The Celtics improved their NBA-best record to 42-17 while the lowly Pistons dropped to 15-44.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
Most members of the Celtics probably already their bags packed and destinations picked out for how they will spend their upcoming break.

It could have served as a distraction with the inferior Pistons in town, but Boston stayed focused on the task at hand, especially superstar Jayson Tatum.

Behind the stellar play of Tatum, the Celtics never trailed against the Pistons and for the most part looked as if they were on cruise control while keeping Detroit at bay. It wasn’t all positive for the Celtics, though. They had to respond after the Pistons scored 38 points in the third quarter to trim a 19-point deficit down to five.

But the Celtics answered in the final frame, shooing away any dark cloud that would have lingered if they suffered a loss to the Pistons.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Tatum already looked like he was at the All-Star Game. He poured in 24 of his game-high 38 points in the third quarter, and he also drained 6-of-10 3-pointers in the win. He also registered nine rebounds and seven assists.


— Malcolm Brogdon continued to make his case to be the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. Brogdon provided steady play off the bench yet again, scoring 25 points on an efficient 10-for-14 shooting.

— Marcus Smart didn’t look like he needed to shake off rust in his return after missing 11 straight games due to a right ankle sprain. The veteran guard stuffed the stat sheet by recording nine points, seven rebounds, six assists and six steals in 29 minutes.


WAGER WATCH
Derrick White continued his steady play, surpassing the assists over/under DraftKings Sportsbook set at 4.5 with +100 odds. White finished with six helpers, and a $100 wager on the prop bet would have netted a total of $200.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will have over a week off due to the All-Star festivities as they won’t play again until Feb. 23 against the Indiana Pacers. Tipoff from Gainbridge Fieldhouse is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

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I do not want to hear about All Star performances about anyone on the Celtics tonight! What the Pistons?   One of the worst tomato can teams in the league. So you beat them up, Big Deal!

The All Star performance was last night by our B team players in Milwaukee!  And if Coach Joe did not mishandle the coaching last night we would have won.  It was bad enough that he went small towards the end of the 3rd period and into the 4th period.  They got a gift from Sam Houser to tie it up to go into overtime. Then what the F did you not put Willams III in for the 5 minute of overtime. It would not have had any affect on Williams playing tonight, which he did not. And if he did, what! Against one of the worst teams in the league! NONE!

What does matter now, was who would have home court advantage come playoff time with Milwaukee if the Celtic play them! How near sighted was Joe on that point!

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We won.

So that’s good.

Started to look iffy for a while.  Then we put on an 11-0 run and broke their hearts.

Smart is back!!!  That makes me very happy.  7 rebounds, 6 assists and only 2 turnovers and 6 steals.  When was the last time you can remember a player with 6 steals?

Tatum with a beaut.  15-24, 38 points.  You know how those idiotic Bucks fans, in the Comments From The Other Side thread, said that if the Js played they'd be turnover machines?  How about this stat line, morons?  7 assists and 4 turnovers is still ok, and he killed Detroit in every other way.

The Big Smooth is an absolute joy to watch.  He doesn't do anything particularly fast or athletic.  He's not prime John Wall coming up court with the ball, he doesn't have Kyrie's handles (who does?) but he consistently takes his man off the dribble and gets his shoulders past him to create a driving lane to the rim.  Consistently.  I love players who excel at the game without needing uber-athleticism to do it because that reveals what the game is really about.  It's about being in the right place at the right time, making the right decisions and executing calmly under pressure.  It's about creating angles to gain an advantage on offense and defense.  It's not about jumping over people.  25 points on 10-14, 5-8 from 3, 6 assists and zero turnovers.  I don't know what the field looks like for Sixth Man this year but Malcolm Brogdon is clearly on the short list.  I especially love the way he has embraced his role.  He could have legitimately expected Joe to start him instead of Derrick when Smart was out, but he just came in and kept playing at a high level off the bench.

As opposed to Sam.  We've all been impressed with how well Sam responded in his recent starts but today, with the return of Smart and Tatum, he returned to his normal role as a bench player and he also returned to his underperforming self.  5 points on 2-4, 1-3 from 3 and 2 rebounds in 22 minutes.  You have to excel in your role for the team to succeed and his role is to come off the bench and shoot lights out.  Getting starts is career gravy for Sam, not the meat-and-potatoes.  Find us a veteran wing with a track record of solid performance off the bench, Brad.

Grant with 20 minutes, Muscala with "right ankle injury management" (yeah, playing a career high 44 minutes without ramping up can do that) and Pritchard with a Coaches-DNP.  WTF?   I understand why these players are out, they played heavy minutes heroically 24 hours earlier, but I don't understand how it is that Smart, Tatum and Al all sat out against the #2 seed Bucks but they were all available 24 hours later against bottom-feeder Detroit.  If you don't want to play Al b2b that makes sense, but why sit him against Milwaukee and not against Detroit?  And, if Williams was healthy enough to play 13 minutes vs Milwaukee and the reason why he only played 13 minutes, according to RWill himself, is because they're being extra careful with his health, then why couldn't he play at all tonight vs Detroit?  Is he soooo fragile that 13 minutes in 11 days (there are no more Celtic games until after the All-Star Game.  We played Memphis on the 13th and don't play again until 2/24) is considered "overuse"?  I guess Joe "didn't feel like it" again.

A short bit about Blake.  He fouled out in 29 minutes.  In my opinion a lot of those calls were BS.  I enjoyed watching him play.  He sets some of the best picks on the Celtics (another is Grant) and, when the ball goes up and he's underneath, he finds a body he can box out.  Beautiful fundamentals.  Once again, a player who doesn't have uber-athleticism (anymore) who plays the game the way it should be played.  A shot goes up, you put a body on somebody to box them out, and then you get the ball or let a teammate get it but YOUR guy isn't going to be the one to get it because he's on your back.  Smart, fundamentally sound basketball by Blake Griffin and that gives me a little hope for this 3-ball crazy league.  Nah, who am I kidding?  He's a throwback, not an influencer, and that's a damn shame.  I don't remember him being this way 10 years ago, when he could jump through the cloud cover.  With age comes wisdom, starting with a realization of your present shortcomings?

42-17.  1 full game ahead of Milwaukee in the east.  Unfortunately our lead is based upon 2 games in hand, both wins, and not on the loss column.  The Bucks have an 11-game winning streak going.  I'm not counting on them losing, which means when they eventually play an equal number of games as us we will likely be tied and the tiebreaker will come down to our 3rd game against them, to be played in Milwaukee.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401469032


Bob


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All win streaks come to an end and so will MIL's. And they will go on a losing streak of about 3-4 games, maybe two streaks. Clearly, they're not that good if they can barely beat our scrubs at home. I'd be very concerned. We're due for another winning streak. Especially the way we are playing.

While it's pure Hell climbing up Everest, it's the last 200-300 feet that are the worst. (And Everest is cake compared to the lesser known and infinitely more dangerous K2.) That's where we are. We've made all (some will still say most) of the adjustments needed to get to and over the top but there are no guarantees. Only one team hoists the O'Brien Trophy. I love all these teams that think they have a chance and make all these late season adjustments to take a swing. But alas they are idiots. Just ask Mark Cuban. Buyers remorse? Come on, Kyrie just took his first of many days off in DAL. His back? I say Come on, Man!! PHX seems to be delaying their rollout. At least DAL jumped right in. They have the biggest adjustment to make with Luka.

But the weight of series basketball (or in some cases crapola off the court) drains all but 2 or 3. It's those teams to lose or win it all. These playoffs are probably going to be the best we've seen in a while, maybe in some of our lifetimes. Remember one of our many illustrious titles took a Game 7 Finals and 2OT's. That's how tight this is going to be. Not for the faint of heart.

db

It is not easy to sweep a team 4 straight during the regular season. I recall the broadcasters mentioning that the Celtics have not swept the Piston since the 1991-92 season.

The team sure looks different with Marcus on the floor.

Our OT loss to the Bucks was actually an enormous achievement by our bench players, especially considering that Milwaukee was at full strength. Don't fear the deer. Respect them, but don't fear them.

worcester wrote:Our OT loss to the Bucks was actually an enormous achievement by our bench players, especially considering that Milwaukee was at full strength. Don't fear the deer. Respect them, but don't fear them.

worcester,

+1


Bob


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