Post Game - Celtics vs. New York Knicks - Saturday, February 24 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585444

A frustrating first half, because we couldn't maintain any separation, and the start of the 3rd was bad because we let those undermanned Knicks tie us at 64, but then we opened it up.

Zinger with a slow start, it even looked like Hartenstein was outplaying him, but he ended up with a quieet 22 on 7-11 and 3-4 from 3. Hartenstein with 7 rebounds, 5 offensive. That's embarrassing.

In fact, 15 of the Knicks' 39 rebounds were offensive. Achiuwa also had 4. There's 9 right there, the entire Celtic team had 10. I was talking about how undermanned their front court is but they out worked us on the boards when they had no right to be that successful.

Great game by Brunson. 34 on 12-25, 4-9 from 3, 9 assists.

Jaylen with 30 on 13-24, 8 rebounds. He was 3-9 from 3. That means he was 10-15 from 2. Modern day players just have no conscience and it's all the fault of those damn metrics. 3-9 from 3 is an eFG% of 45% and shooting 45% is good even if it is painful to watch those 6 misses.

We shot 57.5% from the field and 43% from 3. It is hard to beat us when we're shooting that well.

One thing, though, was we only took 80 fgas. NY only took 82, so it was just a complete mudfest, but 80 fgas is not something we want to have again.

Two shout-outs to our bench. Sam was being given some tough defensive assignments and playing well on them. Who would have thought this last year, that Joe would be putting Sam Hauser on tougher defensive assignments? He's come a long way. He's also shooting 41.9% from 3 now. Another shout-out goes to Pritchard for 2 very aggressive and rugged offensive rebounds. He is NOT afraid to stick his nose in. The last shout-out goes to Al. 10 points on 5-7, 7 rebounds with 4 offensive in 26 minutes. Al went 3-5 for 7 points in the 4th. Also, 5 of his 7 rebounds, and all 4 of his offensive ones, came in the 4th as did his single block. Helluva 4th quarter by Al.


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Kristaps Porzingis: "Man D White, he’s so good. Man, he’s like so good. I don’t think you guys know how good he is. The way he plays basketball, this man is like so good."


I turned them off fairly quickly, but Doris and JJ Redick mentioned how they haven't seen Porzingis smile this much since his rookie year. Being on the best team in the NBA will do that for you, especially after laboring in the 4th level of James Dolan's inferno, then Dallas that never went anywhere, and then on a Wizards team that never went anywhere, in part due to Beal's poor health, and then getting shipped out in a complete roster tear down. He has a nice long extension, he's winning. If that doesn't make him happy he needs therapy.


Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Joe Mazzulla on Jayson Tatum: "I thought today was a beautiful display of basketball from Jayson. It will go overlooked and it won’t go in the most valuable category….My hat’s off to him for knowing that’s a way for us to win."


Bob


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Bob


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After the game they interviewed Jrue, asked him about the booing of KP, he said he loved it and KP did too!!! Their loss

A nice W.

Games this time of year point out who your true rivals for a title are and what areas of the game you should address.

The Knicks will be among the opponents in the way. Sitting two starters it was basically the Celtics vs Brunson. We knew we couldn’t defend him and let him shoot from distance. Not a workable strategy when they’re at full strength.

The push story has been that we’re the top rebounding team but when you separate out OREB, the story is not so clear. We’re often edged out on the offensive glass and need to improve second chance points.

Overall the starting five continues to shine. If Tatum and Brown keep driving to the rim more, to balance out their shooting from distance, rival defenses are going to get set further back. Add to that the hope that 75-year old Al Horford continues to play like a 30-year old Al Horford and you have to like Celtic odds of securing that top spot in the conference.

Nice win, but the Knicks were down Randle and Annouby. There was no way Brunson was going to beat us single handed last night. Other than giving up too many rebounds on the defensive end, I thought we played great.

Holiday is so underrated, he does so many little things on both ends of the floor.

The J's were both tremendous. They did whatever was needed and the Knicks had no answers for either J.

It will be interesting if we have to play the Knicks with both teams at full strength. I think we will handle them, but it will be a good test.

The good things first

The Celtics won their 8th straight game and also their 8th straight on the road.

Al Horford played a solid 26 minutes going 5-7 from the field and had 7 rebounds with 4 of them on the offensive glass.  

The Celtics only had 7 TOV and 27 assists.

The Celtics shot 56.8% from the field and 42.9% from deep.

At 45-12 they have matched the 2007-2008 team through 57 games.

This was not an easy game to win but what I saw was an inner strength by the Celtics and the resilience to complete the task at hand.  A game at MSG on a Saturday night is no small potatoes.  The Celtics are immune to all the hype and prognostications.  It was a very close game for a while but the Celtics executed their game plan at a very high level.  The Knicks were missing 3 starters and can only dream about a matchup with a full compliment of healthy bodies.  Well, they get one more crack at it. The best that they can do is to finish the regular season at 1-4 vs the Celtics.  The Knicks could  slip into the play-in round.

Not great but not that bad

Boston scored 116 points which is below their season average and it really comes down to FGA.  In particular they only took 35 three point shots.  Can you believe I am saying that?  Boston did not push the ball throughout the game.  This was a halfcourt masterpiece as the Celtics scored just 10 fast break points and the Knicks only had 5.  

KP did not do a good job on the glass.  He was being manhandle all night.  But there are two side to every coin.  He scored 22 points on an efficient 7-11 and 3-4 from behind the arc.  The knicks had 39 total rebounds to 36 for us.  They were more effective on the offensive glass 15-11 but that is only a -4.  The game was probably closer than it needed to be because the Celtics did not play with enough pace.  

Aside from all the blowing smoke and carnival mirrors, the Celtics came away with a W in a very hostile environment.

With 3 games coming up at home before an extended road trip, look for the Celtics to sweep all 3 games.

Cow

Wow.. how did you managed to gets tickets?

I am very happy for you.

Lucky you, I would have to sell my husband to get tickets here in Boston, might have to throw something else in for tickets, they are pricing the little fan out of the game. My days of knowing season ticket holders are over, that's what happens when you retire!!!!!!!! Great that you were there, I will, to the day I die, always say "being there is twice the fun" or more. Knicks are going to be a handful in the playoffs