2022-2023 POST GAME CLEVELAND CAVS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Grant Williams Crumbles With Game On Line Vs. Cavs
Williams probably shouldn't have ran his mouth, right?

NESN by Gio Rivera

The Boston Celtics failed to avaoid a third straight loss, falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in stunning fashion 118-114 Monday night in overtime at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Celtics dropped to 45-21 while the Cavaliers improved to 41-26 on their campaign.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
With three premier starters sidelined before game time, somehow, someway the Celtics found a way to escape a third straight loss, against the Cavaliers on the road. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla ran with the starting lineup of Blake Griffin, Mike Muscala, Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Jaylen Brown against a healthy Cavaliers team that’s taken the C’s to ovetime twice in three prior matchups.

And it worked… until the final seconds of regulation.

Williams’ fourth-quarter trash talk to Donovan Mitchell backfired at the free-throw line, resulting in an utter failure when the Celtics needed him the most. Williams had a golden opportunity to give the Celtics a lead with under a second remaining. But after insinutating that he’d hit them both, he missed them both, sending the game into overtime.

On the bright side, the night spoke volumes to Boston’s depth once again. The bench — which consisted of Malcolm Brogdon, Williams, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard — did it’s part in keeping the contest competitive and uplifitng the starters, combining to score 50 points with seven assists. On the defensive end, they racked up three blocks and a steal while limiting their turnover total to four. The reserves were also responsible for knocking down nine of the Celtics’ total 16 outside shots, which made a late four-quarter Cavaliers 11-2 run around the three-minute mark sustainable.

STARS OF THE GAME
— With Jayson Tatum out, Brown was tasked with leading the offensive charge, which he did. Brown scored a team-high 32 points and flirted with triple-double territory, collecting 13 rebounds and eight assits. Brown also delivered a clutch go-ahead shot in the games final minute, which proved to be critical in his 44-minute showing.

— Brogdon played reserve unit leader as he’s done on countless ocassions this season, scoring 24 points in 36 minutes played.

— Mitchell delievered an on-brand perfomance, finishing as the game-high scorer with 40 points alongside 11 rebounds and four assists.

WAGER WATCH
FanDuel Sportsbook set the over/under on Smart’s 3-pointers made total at 1.5 with -156 odds on the Over. By halftime Smart cleared those odds, knocking down three of his first seven shot attempts from beyond the arc. A $100 wager placed on last season’s Defensive Player of the Year would’ve resulted in a $164.10 total payout.

UP NEXT
The Celtics, still in the loss column, will get an off day to prepare for Wednesday’s home matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. Tip off from TD Garden is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Another game, another ugly loss, another choke.

We had a 14 point lead going into the 4th and ended up in OT.  Forget about Grant's two frito chokes for a moment, it should never have been that close to begin with.  We scored a grand total of 22 points in the 17 minutes of the 4th quarter and OT, 17 in the 4th and just 5 points in the 5 minutes of OT, and 3 of those 5 OT points were fritos from Jaylen being fouled on a 3.  That means we had ONE fgm in 5 minutes of OT, all 5 points were from Jaylen.  We shot 1-7 in OT.  

Smart was 0-2, all from 3, in OT.  He shot 4-17 on the game, 3-11 from 3.  He had 5 assists, 3 turnovers and, I'll tell you, there's something screwy about those numbers because I counted more than 3 turnovers by Smart.  He killed us.

We shot 16-48 from 3, 33.3%.  That is below the league average.  And Joe doesn't know how to coach anything else.  I said, early in this season, that Joe needed to develop the offense beyond the 3 because by the end of the season they won't be dropping the same way because of the just overall fatigue that sets in over a long season.  Jaylen played 45 minutes vs Cleveland and 47:23 vs NY yesterday.  Jaylen shot 1-7 from 3 this game and they looked like they were hitting the front of the rim a lot.  That's fatigue.  

Our ugly loss to Orlando on 1/23/23 (game #48) ended a 9 game winning streak.  Since then we have played 19 games and our record in those 19 is 10-9.  Our 3pt fg% in those 19?  39% (319/814), which is pretty good, but our 3pt fg% in the losses were horrendous while in the wins it was magnificent.  My point?  Live by the 3, die by the 3 and I have ZERO confidence in Joe now.  Zero.  As far as I am concerned he is a one-trick pony.  Coaching becomes more important in the playoffs and I don't think he's got it.  I hope I'm wrong.

And who did we beat in those 10 games?  The awful Lakers (and we needed OT to do it), Brooklyn with new personnel post-KD trade, Detroit (the 2nd worst team in the league), Philly, the terrible Charlotte Hornets, the struggling Memphis Grizzlies, another win over Detroit, Indiana in OT, Philly again and Cleveland in Boston.  Only Brooklyn, Philly Memphis and Cleveland have winning records out of those teams and we don't just rent, we own and are the property managers, the space in Philly's heads.  

I know, I know, you're saying "is this supposed to be a surprise to us, Bob?!  Are we supposed to be surprised that we're playing like shite?"  No, but I wanted to make a point that we are sucking against teams we should be beating handily.  We lost to the Knicks, TWICE, for Pete's Sake!

And where's Tatum's back up, Brad?  Tatum was out tonight, who took his place?  Nobody.  Hauser played 7 minutes.  Grant played 16.  That's 23 minutes given to the players that could be argued are behind Tatum on the depth chart.  Is that Joe's fault?  Not really, who else does he have?  Wyc told Brad that "this is the year, make it happen".  Well, Brad?  

Grant played a great game, until he choked those two fritos.  He hits just one and we win in regulation.  That wouldn't negate the 14 point 4th quarter collapse, but at least we'd have a win however ugly.  I'm sure he feels terrible right now but our problems began 12 minutes before he ever stepped to the line.

Adam Himmelsbach @AdamHimmelsbach
about 49 minutes ago
Donovan Mitchell said that when Grant Williams was at the line he told him that they had a Players Association call on Thursday, so he should miss one free throw so they could talk about it then. "And he gave us both."

Our back court of Smart and White shot a combined 9-31, 29%.  We took 101 fgas, they took 31% of them and shot 29%.  There is no freaking way your fg% should be lower than the % of the total fgas you take, not if you want to win.  We took a total of 48 3pt fgas, these two masons took 16 of them.  A full third, and they shot 5-16 with Smart taking 11 of them.  

Our replacement front court of Blake and Mike scored 9 points.  BobC said that he isn't loving Luke, and that I do.  Well, there's no denying I'm pleasantly surprised with what Luke has given us this year, the beneficiary of historically low expectations.  This game Luke played 19 minutes and had 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.  Otherwise our entire front court sucked.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 1 hour ago
Joe Mazzulla said the Celtics haven’t learned the importance of late game defensive rebounding. Said that pisses him off. Believes they’ve blown a number of games that way.

Our inability to secure defensive rebounds = offensive rebounds for them. I think my opinions on offensive rebounding have been sufficiently expounded upon. What I want to know is "if you know that's a problem and has been a problem, Joe, why are the players still not getting the memo?"

Muscala is now shooting 34% from 3 since coming to the Celtics.  With the exception of his rookie year in 2013-2014 in Atlanta his Net Rating (Offensive Rating - Defensive Rating) has always been positive, the team has always produced more points than they gave up /100 possessions when he was on the floor, until now.  Since coming to Boston his Offensive Rating is 103, the lowest since his rookie year, and his Defensive Rating is 113 for a Net Rating of -10.  Whose minutes has he been taking?  Grant's, and ever since Brad traded for Muscala Grant's productivity has plummeted.  Him and Payton.  They both expect more and, when they're not getting it, they have struggled.

Speaking of Pritchard he was 2-8 today, 1-6.  His season 3pt fg% is now 33%.

Mitchell got the ball every time down the floor and Joe never adjusted his defense to deny him the ball or to double him to get the ball out of his hands when he did get it.  

I understand we were without 3 starters, including our entire starting front court, but was our front court the reason why we lost?  I don't think so.

Credit to Jaylen.  What a warrior.  One assist short of a 32/13 triple double.

This team is mentally weak and the coach is too green, too one-dimensional and doesn't understand the value of strategic time outs to not just stop other team's runs but also to give players like Jaylen a chance to sit for a minute-and-15-seconds (that's the minimum amount of time in an NBA timeout, but the clock doesn't start until the last player from both teams exit the floor and the coaches returns to the huddle.  So, if Jaylen went quickly to the bench and another player (e.g. Smart?) took their time going to the bench and Joe walked out onto the court while the players are returning (like we've seen Doc do a million times) then it's longer than 1:15) when we're undermanned.  That's multi-dimensional thinking, the kind you have from having many years of experience, and we're not seeing it.  

Cameron Tabatabaie @CTabatabaie
about 2 hours ago
91 minutes of game play for Jaylen Brown across about 26.5 total hours

And, oh, btw, the refs sucked. Tony Brothers, in particular, was awful. He awarded Donovan Mitchell those two fritos to tie the game in regulation and there was zero contact. Zero. Nice challenge, Joe. Not. What's the matter, afraid you'd lose one of your time outs if you lost the challenge, with almost no time left in regulation? We know you didn't run out of them because we know you never use them.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401469126


Bob


.

Bob,

I feel your pain and you have correctly pointed out deficiency in Joe coaching. But there is a fundamental problem that Joe has not addressed - PLAIN, SIMPLE DEFENSE! We have gotten away with this and focused on taking 50 % of our shots per game by shooting 3 pointers.  We have a porous interior defense as Cowens pointed out. It also does not help that even with Rob Williams in the line up, we have a small team at power forward and center.  

Rob is at best 6'9" and Al about the same height. Throw in Grant Williams at 6'6" and we are really small.  Luke is 7'2" but really is not a good back-up center.  We need height and bulk at the forward positions so they cannot be pushed around defending, especially for rebounds.

One other thing about Rob, he is a one dementional player. He is a great rebounder and has a nice tounch around the rim, but he cannot space the floor and shoot the 3 ball! That causes a big problem for the Celtics offense  because it helps opposing defenses sag and clog the paint which causes more difficulty in penetrating if you want to run an iso play.

So Joe's complaining about not getting defensive rebounds, will he may be right but that problem we can hang on Brad for not getting a a size big who can both stand his ground in the paint and box out for rebounds and have the height to win those battles. In addition, everyone knows the MO on Rob. His left leg is fragile and he has been out every year on extended rehab. What, Brad did not see this or contemplate what would happen to the team if he got hurt again this year??? HE DID AGAIN!

BTW Tatum has done a nice job rebounding this year and trying to help the forwards out, however this then takes away from other things Tatum needs to do.

Brad should have swung a trade earlier in the year or brought a BIG in last summer as an insurence policy.  Is he that near sighted?????  

Bottom line, this team is still a long way from #18, let alone getting out of the East.  Ownership needs to tell Brad he must sign a free agent BIG this summer and scrap the marginal players and devote money to a starting center who can also stretch the floor and knock down 3's. Rob should be coming off the bench and provide defense and rebounding and 20 minutes of solid ball, therefore streching his career and getting him to play a 70+ games a season.

Tatum has done a nice job rebounding this year and trying to help the forwards out, this then takes away from other things Tatum needs to do.

One more point obout our offense, we at may times are stagnet in our offense. Players clear out and look for iso ball by either Tatum or Brown. What about players rotating in and out of the paint, keeping the defense moving and off balance. Wear the SOB's out with a constant motion offense and look to score more in the paint which then causes lesser defensive coverage of the arc.


112288

A perfect back up big for us was Theis, I’d welcome him back. Griffin also earned some minutes, but has been used very sporadically. I don’t know why Kornet has been here the whole season, is he really the best option out there? Dwight Howard could have been a more decent 10-15 minutes a game player. I knew Magic had too many bigs and Mo Bamba would have been an ideal young big to further develop, too late now….

Losing-especially the way we lost-sucks. Grant choked. But on the bright side our entire front court starting players didn't play, and we still gave a very good team all they could handle-and we should have won that game. I thought we would get blown out. We didn't. This bodes well for the playoffs as long as Tatum learns to pass the ball.

Pumpsie Green wrote:Losing-especially the way we lost-sucks. Grant choked. But on the bright side our entire front court starting players didn't play, and we still gave a very good team all they could handle-and we should have won that game. I thought we would get blown out. We didn't. This bodes well for the playoffs as long as Tatum learns to pass the ball.

+1

We've seen Jaylen do it last night, and before, we've seen Jayson do it a few times lately. What is 'it'? Losing FOCUS near the end of close games.
Coaching is important but it's on the players to show grit and energy.

Perkins said it well last night on the PreGame show, and what it amounted to was our best players taking a lackadaisical attitude against important rivals in the home stretch in close games. Guys, resting on your laurels won't win games. Perk was asked if he thought the team would respond, and IIRC he said, "I hope so." Me too.

Brad and Joe authored this loss. End of story.

If Grant had hit either of his fritos, the narrative would be what a tough bunch of players, who, without three starters, held on and edged out a scrappy team that has given us trouble all season.

Instead, we have doom, despair and calamity on me,
Deep dark depression, excessive misery.

Hee-haw!

We have honest observations of a team which has lost quite a few games since January. Not doom and gloom. Proper assessment by loyal fans.

You are both right, if only Grant hit his FT’s….Anyone concerned with Smart his inefficiency has also been killing us lately?

Glimmers Jaylen Brown putting up such great effort and numbers, after an exhausting double overtime going b2b to another OT. He definitely could be a 30 ppg scorer on any other team where he would be the primary option. Jaylen is a total stud and does it all.

Jaylen is the man, Period. What a great find by Danny.

Believe this or not, I'm not worried.  Perfect storm that happened during a regular season stretch with OT's, Injuries and B2B's.  Playoffs don't run like this.  I too thought this game was to be a blowout by CLE.  I also like GW stepping up and saying he's going to hit both.  He was in the moment.  He missed both.  But he's going in the right direction.  All we see are the ones where people say they are going to do something and they do it.  Most people say things and they miss.  We never see those but alas when a Celtic players says it on a contending team, it makes the international news. Please. Give me a break.  

Let's see how he reacts.  Does he cower and go into a deep rabbit hole never to return riding off into Bolivia or does he right his own ship, predicts something again and goes nuts from here on out and maybe hits the G7 winner (actually G6 in Boston would be better!!) in MIL that puts us in the Finals?  I'll push all-in on the latter every day and twice on Sunday.

Hang in there.  The playoffs are coming!! 

db

too much finger pointing going on here. There are issues on this team, there is no doubt. But, the inconsistency of the lineup is disturbing to me the most. Someone is always OUT. How do you gain trust, and I believe that is what might be going on here, if you do not play on a regular basis with guys you feel you can count on. When Grant started last year, we all laughed at how many threes he missed before he made one. Then, all of a sudden, he starting hitting them on a regular basis. It got to the point where, when there was a chance to pass to a wide open Grant, they would do it and he would hit those corner threes. It was trust by both Jaylen and Jaysosn that helped this team. Last year, White had a rough transition, but we could see the talent. This year, in place of Rob alot of the time, White has been a shining star. That is because his teammates trust him. It is a crap shoot every night when he turn on the game to see how many guys are out. I know, these guys are pros, they should adapt. But this is a team sport and we are not playing like a trusting team A good string of wins would do alot for these guys. Sure, Joe is green, they knew that coming in. I can only hope that this two week road trip will do alot for them, they truly see to like each other and this could be a make or break stretch for them. My hope and my believe is, they will get this straightened out. And yes Bob, Tony Brothers has always loved to stick it to the Celtics whenever he can, I have said this for years

dbrown4 wrote:Believe this or not, I'm not worried.  Perfect storm that happened during a regular season stretch with OT's, Injuries and B2B's.  Playoffs don't run like this.  I too thought this game was to be a blowout by CLE.  I also like GW stepping up and saying he's going to hit both.  He was in the moment.  He missed both.  But he's going in the right direction.  All we see are the ones where people say they are going to do something and they do it.  Most people say things and they miss.  We never see those but alas when a Celtic players says it on a contending team, it makes the international news.  Please.  Give me a break.    

Let's see how he reacts.  Does he cower and go into a deep rabbit hole never to return riding off into Bolivia or does he right his own ship, predicts something again and goes nuts from here on out and maybe hits the G7 winner (actually G6 in Boston would be better!!) in MIL that puts us in the Finals?  I'll push all-in on the latter every day and twice on Sunday.

Hang in there.  The playoffs are coming!! 

db

I don't like Grant chirping so much. Same with Tatum. Those two guys seem to think that they are always getting fouled and never commit any of their own. A bit of an exaggeration for sure, but the constant chirping on the court doesn't do much for their focus. I would prefer to see these guys just get back on defense quietly and quickly without talking to the refs if they miss a shot and think they got fouled. Just shut the hell up and play the game with focus. As for Williams guaranteeing made FTs....well....that didn't work out too well did it. Another example of lack of focus in part because he talks too much. Save the chirping for after the game.

The Celtics dropped another winnable game.

What really pissed me off was a trip to the home depot to purchase my favorite brand of fertilizer..Scotts Turf Builder Triple Action.  Last year I paid $68 bucks for the big bag.  Now they want $88 bucks for the same bag.  wtf..they are cutting into my beer money which is also being stretched.

Now that I got that off my chest, I will tell you how I felt after my beloved Celtics lost yet another game in OT.  This has to be some sort of a record.  This team has lost 7 of 11.  Like a late night trip for convenience.

Something not good is going on.  

Did you you know that the Celtics are ranked 3rd in the NBA in 1st QTR points scored.

Did you also know they rank 4th in 2nd QTR points.

Did you know they rank 10th in the 3rd.

drum roll.....and 28th in the 4th.

A double digit lead midway into the last stanza should be a safe bet with great coaching, not giving up 10 offensive rebounds, not turning the ball over and not launching another seeing eye 3 point shot..  Even if you do not accomplish all of those goals, one or two will earn a W.

Lastly, Grant big fat mouth Williams gets awarded the dummy trophy.  Not because he chocked on both free throw opportunities to win the damn game but because he talked smacked and did not back it up.  Most memorable moment was him on the sidelines looking like a kid who broke his mother's favorite vase while see was at work.

dboss,

That look on Grant's face will either drive him to greatness or send him off into the sunset. Let's see how he responds. I don't mind the bravado. All the other chirping to the refs can go. But with a big mouth goes big responsibility. The infamous Larry Bird 3-point story comes to mind. Say it but be ready to back it up. He'll figure it out.

db