Post Game - Celtics vs. Sacramento Kings - Friday, April 05 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585746

Well this one was a lot closer than it needed to be!!  I told everyone it's DW.  He doesn't get a break or any time off.  Sorry. We were fortunate to hold on and win this one without him.  Another minute or two and we would have been toast.  But now everyone sees my point.  Game ball to Tillman.  Nice soft touch of a GW shot.
Another nice last minute pick up like your favorite candy bar in the check out line at the grocery store, Brad!!  Doogie better eat his Wheaties.  Didn't need him as Pritch stepped up and got the message.

POR up next.    

db

P.S.  2nd Women's NCAA game was a doozy! Couldn't say the same for NC State in the first one after the first half. SC just too much. Sunday's Final should be all it's being built up to be. Clash of the Titans. Some are comparing it to MSU (SC) vs. ISU (IOWA) in 1979. We all know how that game went and what happened after it!! The NBA was never the same! The same will be true for the WNBA. It's (about) time!

We didn't get to watch much of the game because three of our grandkids spent the night at our house. They wanted to watch a movie, so we did that. After the movie was over, I got to sneak in the last bit of the fourth quarter.

What I did see was painful to watch, but it gave our deep bench a chance to work through a stressful ending in a close game. Tillman got to be the hero and the rest of the team acknowledged it with enthusiasm.

Coach Mazzulla didn't bring in the starters to save the day, we won the game anyway, and in the process, added to the good vibe that surrounds this team.

Go Celtics!!!

I was happy CJ left in the reserves to figure it out. This can only help down the line. If he would have taken out some of those guys it could hurt their confidence. I think those guys could have done a better job, but next time they will.

I watched the 1st half but, because I was in a bar for Happy Hour, they changed the channel to the GSW game at our halftime.  So I missed the thrilling finish.  That's ok.  Even though it was a meaningless game I still would have had a heart attack.  Credit to Joe for sticking to the correct perspective without twitching:  "if the game doesn't matter then final score doesn't matter".  What matters is the process, the opportunities to learn, to experiment, to grow players.  He threw our deep bench into the blender and didn't blink any further than to insert Tillman when our lead shrank to 9.

Our rotation players, minus two starters (JB and DW) croaked the #8 team in the West.  Our bench, with no starters, played the entire 4th and hung on to win.  Ok, so their starters are better than our 6-11.  So what?  I can pretty much guarantee Joe wouldn't do this again if this was the playoffs.

I don't remember ever hearing of a player going 1-18 before.  I've certainly never heard of a player who averages > 40% from 3 going 1-13 like Sam did.

I stand/sit corrected...

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 10 hours ago
Defying logic, Sam Hauser missed 17 of 18 shots Friday. WORST CELTICS SHOOTING GAMES Frank Ramsey - 0-15 - Dec, 1960 Jayson Tatum - 1-18 - Nov, 2019 SAM HAUSER - 1-18 - APR, 2024 Sam Jones - 1-17 - Nov, 1964 Tom Heinsohn - 1-16 - Dec, 1957 Four Celtics went 1-15 including Bird.


Jay King @ByJayKing
about 8 hours ago
Jaylen Brown and Derrick White missed the game entirely. Jrue Holiday, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis sat out the whole fourth quarter. Jayson Tatum checked out for good with 9:24 left. The Celtics have nothing left to play for. Joe Mazzulla still wants them to win. And they…









Oshae played 7 minutes and was a -17.  Svi played 12 minutes and was a +6.

Having said all this it was one helluva game by De'Aaron Fox. Wow. The next Dame? He's only shot 36.7% from 3 this season but you wouldn't know that from last night's game.

Playing out the string.  We want our top 8-9 players to get enough playing time to maintain their rhythm and game conditioning, but not enough to fatigue them or risk an injury at this late juncture.  Let the bench play then.  We're already with 61 wins and have every milestone we need to achieve to make it easier in the playoffs, I've got to let go of "We gotta win!!" and just relax for 5 more games.  Nobody in the league can catch us, any changes to our playoff opponents are out of our hands, now is the time to smell the roses and let our bench get what they need.


Bob


.

The rules about resting healthy players should not effect the Celtics in their 4 remaining home games.

Throughout this season we have seen no B2B games where both KP and AH play.

Now the Celtics have implemented a strategy to split games between both the Jays and our starting backcourt of JH and DW.

The Sixers were recently fined 100K for an injury reporting violation.  

Per ESPN "Embiid, who had been listed as out for Tuesday's game for 24 hours, was suddenly upgraded to questionable just before 76ers coach Nick Nurse spoke around 5:45 p.m. before the home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Embiid then was declared available and placed into the starting lineup at 7 p.m."

If the Jays are both healthy they will not be able to sit both of them on Tuesday in Milwaukee.  

The Celtics have no pressing issue to play their top 6 guys the last 5 games.  

However, I suspect that they will cut back significantly on their playing time (i.e. Portland)  The last thing that we need is an injury in an absolutely meaningless game.  

More wins at this point is something for the record books.

I really want to see them rest Jrue because he will turn 34 in June and he plays with an intense level of physicality.  I think JB also falls into that category as well. Whatever the Celtics can get away with they should do.

i would continue to split our top 6 up the rest of the way AND even reduce their minutes when they do play.

This is the time to use your deep bench guys.  Even JD Davidson should be brought down from Maine.

Both Tillman and Kornet and even Queta should log the majority of minutes at center.  Portland, Charlotte and Washington are lotto bound teams.  The Bucks and the Knicks are in a serious funk as their playoff positioning has gone south.  I see no good reason to bang with them with our top guys.  This team has already accomplished all of their regular season goals.  

If the Celtics can do this and still maintain their edge, we should be well prepared to begin the second season in 14 days.  Remember we will have 6 days off after our last game.

Poor Sam, but he never stopped working out there. and without him whacking that ball into Tillman's hands, we would have lost that game. Poor guy, I felt bad for him. There were alot of clean, open looks too!! Oh well, even the best can have a bad day The one thing I will say is Fox is one heck of a ballplayer, that kid was wide open all night, no one decided it was time to play defense on him! Oh well, a win is a win is a win. Tomorrow is another day, another hungry team and I can almost guess we will be missing players again. These bench guys better enjoy their time on the floor, some will be lucky to get out there much once the playoffs start. Obviously the Bucks are just holding back for the playoffs, but they may not even make it out of the first round. Wil they make a run at Holiday if he makes it to free aageny??????