Celtics Crush Sixers by 50 139-89 PS game #3

A 50 point blow out vs Philly.  Completely unrealistic.  They didn't play any of their rotation players.  No Embiid, PG13, Maxey, Drummond, nobody we're going to see in the regular season.  If we DIDN'T blow them out by some ungodly number that would be more telling than our doing it.

Jaylen Brown looks MUCH bigger. He pushed around a lot of iron this summer.


Yabu told Scal this was a "revenge game".  I don't know why, he was given every opportunity when he was here, he just couldn't get the job done, but...anyway, he started at center and was a snack for The Green Kornet (French pastry?).  There's been talk about starting Luke for the regular season instead of Al until Z comes back.  Abusing Guerschon Yabusele doesn't tell us much but, nevertheless, Luke looked really good.  Not only did he work really hard and create a lot of opportunities for himself he moved very, very well without the ball.  We're treading water at the center position until Z comes back but if we can get this Luke Kornet on a regular basis we could be ok.  He won't dominate like he did last night but he won't make that spot a complete liability either.  There was just too much good stuff there for it to be just inferior competition.









No starter played more than 23 minutes.  Enough for them to get into game shape, not enough to wear them down.  Furthermore it's been a while since their last game in Dubai.  They needed some work regardless of Nick Nurse's substitution plans.

How about the players who are further down the bench but will get minutes in the season?  

Tillman with 11 points and 7 rebounds, 3 offensive, a steal and a block in 16 minutes.  He was 3-3 from 3.  In a post-game interview with Abby Chin he said he has put a TON of time into his 3p shot over the summer.  He was a team high +38.  Between tonight's Luke and tonight's X I'm feeling a little better about us with Tingus Pingus out.

Jordan Walsh looking more comfortable with every game.  11 points in just 12 minutes on 3-4, 3-3 from 3.  One was a pull up 3.  





Lonnie Walker IV (aka "4".  Why didn't he choose #4?  It's one of the few unretired single digit jersey numbers left) with 9 points on 4-7, only 1-4 from 3, but 7 assists and only 1 turnover.  2 steals and a block.  Some nice defensive disruptions.  Got his chance last night and didn't waste it.  My gut says he's still going to Maine, I'm still sold on the idea that Brad wants flexibility by leaving that 15th spot unfilled until the 2nd half of the season and injuries tell their tale, but I would not be surprised if Z comes back and we're good on bigs if 4 gets a regular contract.  Only one game, but he looked good.  LOVED the 7 assists and only 1 turnover.




Queta looked 'meh'.  He needs to step up more.  We can't live with just Luke, X and Al until Z comes back.  We NEED Neemias Queta.


Scheierman still doesn't have his shooting touch.  Hope you enjoy America's Winter Wonderland, you're going to spend a lot of time there.


38 assists on 53 fgm.  That's really nice.  23 of those 38 assists were by the bench.

13 turnovers as a team.  Not bad considering how many minutes end-of-benchers played.  5 of those 13 were by the bench.  In the end the bench's assist-to-turnover ratio was 4.6:1 (23/5 = 4.6).  15 of those 23 were courtesy of Pritchard's 8 and 4's 7.  4.6:1 is really, really, really good.  I don't care what the level of competition is, that's really good and that's especially true for bench players playing against bench players.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401716988


Bob