Post Game - Celtics vs. Charlotte Hornets - Monday, April 01 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585715

Hope you had a great time, being there is twice the fun!!!!!!

Some of the images were a bit fuzzy.  That last one was Tatum and Grant talking at the top.  Grant spent a lot of the pregame distracted by the team in green.  He really didn't participate in the pregame shooting with his own team.  At least that is what it looked like to me.

What a great experience.  I counted 30 in our group, I could have missed one or two.  Four generations of my wife's side of the family plus a few friends.  Most of us sat in section 101, behind the Hornet's basket.  We were sitting in four nearby groups and I was in the biggest group with twelve of us in the same row.  Both of her parents were sitting three rows up from the floor, near half court, across from the benches.  Awesome seats.  My SIL and her DIL were a few rows behind them, across the aisle, just in case they needed anything.  Dang, my wife and I could have helped them out!?!  Did I say they had awesome seats?

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Hope you had a great time, being there is twice the fun!!!!!!

We had a blast. I even posted on the Game On thread using my phone. I've never used my phone to post on the board before, it is not easy.

I couldn't figure out how to refresh the page in order to see new posts. Once the thread got to the second page, I could go back to the first page, switch back to the second one, which would refresh the page, and then scroll down.

There's gotta be a better way.

Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Hauser catches fire from 3 in C's win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-hornets-takeaways-hauser-catches-012714588.html

Justin Leger
Mon, Apr 1, 2024, 10:02 PM EDT·3 min read





Celtics-Hornets takeaways: Hauser catches fire from 3 in C's win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics capped off their six-game road trip with a Monday night victory over the Charlotte Hornets

It was a competitive first half between two teams on the opposite ends of the Eastern Conference standings. After trailing throughout the first quarter, the C's buckled down defensively in the second to take a six-point lead. They stayed on top for the remainder of the game, pulling away to earn a decisive 118-104 win.

With Jaylen Brown (hand injury) out, Jayson Tatum and Sam Hauser led the way with 25 points apiece. Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White added 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Miles Bridges (26 points) paced Charlotte in the scoring column. Ex-Celtic Grant Williams chipped in 23.

The Celtics (59-16) will return home to face the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (52-22) in a potential NBA Finals preview on Wednesday night. First, here are three takeaways from Monday's game.

Jayson Tatum's dominance in Charlotte continues

For Tatum, there's just something about playing in Charlotte. The Duke product has taken his game to another level over his last five appearances at Spectrum Center.

Tatum notched 41, 44, 33, 51, and 45 points in those games. He entered Monday averaging 41.5 points in his last six games against the Hornets.

Early on, it was clear he planned to continue the trend. Tatum tallied 16 of his 25 points in the first half, drilling three 3-pointers through the first two frames.



He put the exclamation point on another dominant outing with this thunderous jam in the third:



Tatum ended up with a double-double, bringing down 10 boards to go with his 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting (4-10 3PT). He also had four assists, two steals, and a block.

While this wasn't quite the Tatum takeover we've seen in past Charlotte games, the Hornets again didn't have much of an answer for the five-time All-Star. Plus, Tatum wasn't asked to do as much in the second half with Hauser and Porzingis helping out offensively.

Tatum will have a chance to torch the Hornets again in the penultimate game of the regular season on April 12.

Sam Hauser emphatically snaps shooting slump

Hauser entered Monday shooting an uncharacteristic 6-for-19 (31.5 percent) from beyond the arc over his last three games, including a 2-for-10 performance in Atlanta. It's safe to say that mini slump is over.

The Celtics sharpshooter drilled his first two 3-pointers of the night and he was only getting warmed up. He caught fire in the second half and finished 7-for-11 from deep (9-for-13 overall).



Hauser tied Tatum for a team-high 25 points in just 24 minutes.

The 26-year-old had a brief cold streak, but he's mostly been lights out for Boston this season. His best performances have come over the last month including a 6-for-10 3-point shooting night in Portland, a historic 10-for-13 game at Washington, and an 8-for-9 showing in Chicago.

Hauser now has 10 games with at least five made 3s off the bench That matches Payton Prichard for the most in Celtics history.

Grant Williams finds success against former team

Tatum and the C's faced off against old friend Grant Williams, who was sent to Charlotte by the Dallas Mavericks before this year's NBA trade deadline.



Against his former team, Williams enjoyed one of his best performances of the season. The 25-year-old formerly known as "Batman" put up 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting (2-4 3-PT), his highest scoring output since Feb. 22 when he dropped 24 in Utah.

Williams added seven rebounds and two assists as Charlotte's starting center. While he didn't leave with a win against his ex-teammates, he can take pride in a rock-solid all-around performance.

Our domination of 3rd quarters continue.  If we can continue to do this against high-quality teams in the playoffs we're in good shape.  We come out after halftime and just play good offense and our defense steps up too.

Jrue was 1-11, 0-8 from 3.  Weird.

Why can't Porzingis just shoot over Grant Williams and other players that aren't even as stout as Grant?  This disturbs me, perhaps more than it should.  Alligator-armed Kelly Olynyk was mostly on the outside but when he was able to get a mismatch down low against a guard or SF he called for the ball.  7'3" Z can't post up midgets?  Sadly, low post moves like we used to see from Hakeem etal are forgotten arts.  To his credit Grant played great defense on a significantly taller player (7'3" vs 6'6".  That's 9"), I just don't think anybody should have been able to do that.  I remember how Marcus Smart used to frustrate the Hell outta Z when he was in NY.  Shouldn't even be possible, sorry.

Payton didn't have a great scoring game but I have become really impressed with his defense.  He is always into his man's body.  The man is an absolute pest, like Danny used to be.  He's still 7th in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

11 offensive rebounds, 3 by Al.  To be fair, when you've got Grant Williams starting at center you really have no center, but Al saw that as an opportunity.  15 points on 6-11, 3-6 from 3 and as I pointed out he had 3 offensive boards out of his total 5.  

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
7 hours ago
In the first 15 years of the 3-point shot, only one Celtic (Danny Ainge, 1988) made 100 3's in a single-season. Monday in Charlotte, Al Horford became the 8th Celtic to do it this year.









Sean Grande
@SeanGrandePBP
Four 3's for Derrick White Monday (including his 500K moneyball).  With seven games left, he's cracked the Celtics' top 10 single-season list.

Jayson Tatum now just 24 behind Isaiah Thomas' franchise record.

(Tatum is also 94 points shy of his 3rd straight 2,000 point season.)

MY NOTE:  Look at dark horse Derrick White! What's the over/under he passes Ray Allen and ends up in 8th by the end? Here's another eye-opener, Sam Howitzer currently has 179 3pt fgm. That puts him just 9 3s away from making this list despite Derrick having already played 700 more minutes than Sam. Sam's averaging 2.5 3pt fgm/game, which would mean he'd need 4 games out of our remaining 7 to get on the list. Think about that! Our 7th or 8th man is going to make the top single season top 10 list for 3pt fgm. Amazing. At 2.5/game for 7 games he'd replace JT at 9th and just behind Ray for 8th.




Sam the Show has done a great job of working on his game.  Remember when all he did was stand at the arc and wait for a pass?  Now he's in motion a lot.  He's coming off of weak-side screens, receiving the pass and going right up into his shooting motion.  This is what made Duncan Robinson so damn dangerous, it was his ability to shoot right off motion.  The difference between Sam and Duncan, aside from their contracts ($2M vs $18M), is that Sam also has turned into a pretty good defender.  To be honest I wasn't a fan of Sam's defense last night, he seemed a step or two slow on everything, but over the course of the season he has been a more than adequate defender.  Sam is under contract for one more year at ridiculous rates.  He has to be the best contract in the NBA, from a GM's perspective.  Enjoy him while you can, he won't be here for the 2025-2026 season.  Some GM will pay him, I just don't see how it can be us, not with Jaylen and Payton's contracts going into effect, and they want to sign Jrue too?  Sam had 25 points last night on 9-13, 7-11 from 3.  He's shooting a career high 43.9% from 3 this year, good for 3rd in the NBA.  3rd, in a league that treasures 3pt shooters.  Oh yeah, someone's gonna pay him...


Bobby Manning @RealBobManning
yesterday
White-Pritchard-Hauser-Brissett-Kornet to begin the 4th.

This unit played 4 minutes of the 4th.  We started up 16 (95-79) and, when Al came in for Oshae with 8:05 left, we were up 16 (103-87).  The Charlotte unit against them was Bridges, Micic, Miller, Bertans and Grant.  Bertans is the only Hornet non-starter.  That unit did well for us (Sam with 2 3s).  Charlotte stinks but any NBA team, when you play down to them, can beat you.  Joe, tinkering around with matchups, found one.  I don't know how well it would do against Milwaukee etal but if Sam's hitting it really doesn't matter who, does it?



Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 7 hours ago
After playing 12 of their last 15 on the road, the Celtics return to TD Garden Wednesday night. Since losing to the Lakers two months ago, the Celtics have won 10 straight at home... ...by 24.3 points per game.


OKC is playing tonight against the Sixers and then get us in their SEGABABA.  I don't expect Philly to beat them, but if they just make them work that's an edge for us.  If we beat OKC on Wednesday we clinch our final Magic Number and we can rest EVERYBODY.

Six of our remaining seven games are in Boston.  Our one road game is in Milwaukee.


Bob


.

gyso wrote:Some of the images were a bit fuzzy.  That last one was Tatum and Grant talking at the top.  Grant spent a lot of the pregame distracted by the team in green.  He really didn't participate in the pregame shooting with his own team.  At least that is what it looked like to me.

What a great experience.  I counted 30 in our group, I could have missed one or two.  Four generations of my wife's side of the family plus a few friends.  Most of us sat in section 101, behind the Hornet's basket.  We were sitting in four nearby groups and I was in the biggest group with twelve of us in the same row.  Both of her parents were sitting three rows up from the floor, near half court, across from the benches.  Awesome seats.  My SIL and her DIL were a few rows behind them, across the aisle, just in case they needed anything.  Dang, my wife and I could have helped them out!?!  Did I say they had awesome seats?

Gyso

Nice pics.

From watching on TV it sounded a Celtics home game. Looked like lots of Green were there.

Gyso,

GREAT SEATS!! Lucky you.


Bob


.

Celtics17 wrote:

gyso wrote:Some of the images were a bit fuzzy.  That last one was Tatum and Grant talking at the top.  Grant spent a lot of the pregame distracted by the team in green.  He really didn't participate in the pregame shooting with his own team.  At least that is what it looked like to me.

What a great experience.  I counted 30 in our group, I could have missed one or two.  Four generations of my wife's side of the family plus a few friends.  Most of us sat in section 101, behind the Hornet's basket.  We were sitting in four nearby groups and I was in the biggest group with twelve of us in the same row.  Both of her parents were sitting three rows up from the floor, near half court, across from the benches.  Awesome seats.  My SIL and her DIL were a few rows behind them, across the aisle, just in case they needed anything.  Dang, my wife and I could have helped them out!?!  Did I say they had awesome seats?

Gyso

Nice pics.

From watching on TV it sounded a Celtics home game. Looked like lots of Green were there.

There was green everywhere. Multiple times we got a Celtics chant going. I don't think Tatum got any "MVP" chants at the charity stripe. By the end of the game, it was mostly Celtics fans left, and we gave the team a standing ovation as time ran out. Just like a home game.

Over to the right of us, there was a valiant group of 6-8 Hornets fans that tried to get a Charlotte chant going, but they failed to get any traction each and every time.

bobheckler wrote:Gyso,

GREAT SEATS!!  Lucky you.


Bob


.

Indeed. My nephew paid for all of it, food included. I did hear today that his brother also pitched in. All in tribute to their grandparents. Incredible.

The food prices were crazy. I was with my nephew when he paid for four large buckets of popcorn, four beers and a soda. $153 plus change. The popcorn was in "Souvenir Buckets", so of course, $15 USD each.

With 59 wins, this Celtics team has the best record since the 62 win 2008-09 team .  15 years ago.  With 7 games remaining and 6 of them at home, this team is sure to add to their win total.

Sam Hauser is no different than any other player in the NBA.   He will have games where his shot is just not falling but things always average out and he is a fantastic shooter.  He's ranked 3rd in the NBA in 3P percentage at 43.6 and this is not funny money.  He takes 5.7 per game.

The shot he made in the corner has been described as Curry like.

If you watch how he spaces and adjusts, sets his feet and shoots the ball you can see how much better he is.

I hope he will be able to shoot well in the playoffs.  That will be dependent on his coach having faith in him and his teammates recognizing that when he is open, it's a bucket just waiting for him to shoot.

We have a game at home vs the Hornets.