Post Game - Celtics vs. Atlanta Hawks - Tuesday, November 12 (L)

Not much to say.  Not keeping your head up and turning the ball over 20 times will not win you few if any games.  Voila.  Good thing there isn't much time to cry over split milk.  Here comes BKN.  Joe better have had a productive flight to NYC late last night.  Our defense wasn't very elite.  DW and JB faithful to the cause.  Not much help from Pritch or the bench for that matter.  Might be looking at one of those 2-game losing streaks if Joe's message doesn't get through.  

db

Hi,
I got a feeling that the whole team didn't have much interest in winning this game. I hope it's just an isolated incident.
But from a fan's perspective it looked disgusting.

AK

Another example of a team giving their all against the champs and we were not ready for them. The defensive rebounding was an absolute disgrace. Maybe I am old, but whatever happened to boxing out? CJ said it best, we were outplayed and out hustled, The Hawks deserved to win. When Larry Nance hits 5-6 from three and JT takes a perfect 3 point shot that goes half way down and comes out you have to know the basketball gods are not on your side.

On the bright side, JB looked great. He certainly looked like his hip wasn't a problem. D White was just fantastic. He hit every big shot and I thought he was going to pull us out of the fire. I like Queta, he brings a lot of athleticism and energy, but he got beat on getting rebounds. He was out of position a few times and didn't box out. Luke in his limited minutes seemed to be doing a better job on the boards.

CJ has to wake up the troops and remind them we are going to get everyone's best shot. Let's see if we bounce back tonight.

Well we will still be alright. It could be worse, imagine if our franchise players were Embid or Zion Williamson?

A classic trap game.  They were down just about everybody and we were looking past them to Brooklyn.  A perfect teaching opportunity for Joe.


And, to add insult to injury, that court is absolutely fugly.  Have we EVER won with that court?  I think Red is throwing lightning bolts from on high and Wyc's too damn slow to realize it.

But, to me, it is palpably clear that we don't have the same hunger as last year.  We had a chip on our shoulder last year, we had something we felt we needed to prove that went clear to the center of our marrow.  I'm not sensing that this year.  I'm getting the vibes that they think they are the pinnacle of NBA basketball, and the rest of the league may approach and make obeisance.  Big Baby Davis should have ridden behind the Celtics in the DUKW boats and whispered in their ears "remember, thou art mortal" (assuming they would let him out of prison into the Celtics' custody on a single-day work-release permit).

20 turnovers, 11 by the Js, 13 if you include Jrue.  I lost count of how many of those turnovers were due to cross court passes that were intercepted.  

Tatum 5-16, 2-9 from 3, 5 turnovers.  Didn't shoot well, didn't ball handle well.

Pritchard 2-8, all from 3.

Jaylen with a solid 37 points on 14-22, 3-6 from 3, but his 6 turnovers and 6-10 from the line hurt us in a 1 point loss.  

We had one of the best defenses last year.  I'm going to look into how we're doing this year, but I suspect I am not going to like the answer.  We lost despite shooting 50% and 40%, but our sloppiness (20 turnovers and 16 steals for them) and porous defense (they shot 50% and 31%) doomed us.  They took 100 fgas, in a 48 minute regulation game.  That is abysmal.

They had 68 paint points vs 32 for us.  They had 14 fast break points vs 10 for us.  They had 20 offensive rebounds vs 6 for us.  We only took 75 fgas.  Yeah, well, when you have 36 changes of possession...We gave up 19 points on turnovers vs only 12 for them.  There's the game right there.  


We are now, already, 3 games behind Cleveland.


Bob


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A lot of truth there, bobh.  As much as we hope from season to season that our team, much less any other in a similar position, will play at their own level of competition and not at that of the other team, it never ceases to amaze me (us) that Boston does this year after year.  It's like a bad rash.  It just won't go away!

Not many teams win with 20 TO's.  It's not a lock but it's pretty darn close.  And yet we had the shot to win it.  That has to be the distinguishing factor.  Of all 12 games, we've been in all of them right down to the last play if need be.  Next up is luck.  How do we fare in those tight situations?  So far, not to impressive.  Joe has to be concerned about that.  CLE ain't having those problems and as you so astutely point out, we're 3 games back now already and counting...

Need to show up tonight and straighten all this crapola out.  Unfortunately, it's on the road.  Vegas still likes us at BOS (-8.5).  That's rich IMHBAO.  I'd take the other side given what I've seen so far.  But this is their business, not mine.

db

Ok, looked up our defensive stats.  As far as I am concerned anything 10th place or higher is acceptable.  5th or better would be elite.  Below 10th place is mediocrity and mediocrity does not win Championships.

A lot of numbers here.  I tried to separate them into similar metrics.  General numbers, then shooting distance numbers.


1st in opposition ftas allowed (18.4pg).  We give up the fewest in the league.  Elite.
5th in opposition 3pt fg% allowed (33.4%).  That's elite.
8th in opposition 3pt fgas allowed.  That's also pretty good.
9th in opposition ppg (104.3).   Under 10th is good.
9th in opposition assists allowed (24.5pg) - Pretty good.
15th in opposition turnovers (15.0pg) - meh
17th in fg% allowed.  Not good.
23rd in opposition fgas allowed (90.8pg).  - shite.  This probably correlates to the poor turnovers created stats.

21st in opposition fg% < 5' (65.2%) - shite
21st in opposition fgas < 5' (30.7pg) - shite

12th in opposition fg% 5-9' (39.2%) - meh
16th in opposition fgas 5-9' (10.0pg) - meh

23rd in opposition fg% 10-14' (45.6%).  Shite.  This is the key area, mid-range.
28th in opposition fgas 10-14' (8.6pg).  Complete shite.  We are awful defending the mid-range.

26th in opposition fg% 20-24' (41%).  Complete shite.  
1st in opposition fgas allowed 20-24' (9.8pg).  We are elite at preventing 3 pt fgas.

3rd in opposition fg% 25'-29' (32%).  We are elite at LONG 3s defense (or maybe the league just sucks at it)


Overall, it looks like our 3pt defense is the only impressive part of our defense.  I can understand our interior defense being weak with Porzingis out, but that doesn't explain or excuse our awful mid-range defense.  That's our guards and wings staying in front of their man and keeping them out of the paint, or not doing that. The restricted area is 4' and in from the rim, so 5' out to 15' is the paint or the blocks.


Bob


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Bob


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