POST GAME PHILLY

Hummmmmmm...Doc should have stayed home instead of going to Europe. Nothing positive for me to comment on.

NEXT GAME TUESDAY - 7:30 - AT HOME - BROOKLYN NETS - NBATV

POST GAME RECAP - ESPNBOSTON.COM

Rapid reaction: Sixers 107, Celtics 75

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Paul Pierce drives to the basket Monday night against the 76ers.
Rapid reaction after the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Boston Celtics 107-75 during exhibition play Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Playing without Kevin Garnett -- or any of his trademark intensity -- the Celtics slogged their way to their third preseason loss in four outings. Paul Pierce scored a team-high 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, but also had four turnovers (as did Rajon Rondo) as Boston gave the ball away early and often. Brandon Bass chipped in 11 points and six rebounds off the bench (Jared Sullinger and Darko Milicic formed the starting frontcourt) for Boston. Spencer Hawes put up 17 points and eight rebounds in 17:36 off the pine, while the Youngs -- Thaddeus (15 points, 6 rebounds) and Nick (14 points) -- had solid nights for the 76ers.

TURNING TURNOVER POINT
The Celtics turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and those giveaways were enough to allow the 76ers to build a 14-point lead (56-42) at the intermission. Without Garnett -- and playing with the fourth starting lineup iteration in as many preseason games -- the Celtics had no continuity at either end of the floor and it showed as Philadelphia dominated the second quarter while building the double-digit cushion (and sucking out any life that Boston had previously). The Celtics came out of halftime strong, cutting their deficit in half in 90 seconds, but turnovers returned later in the frame and Philadelphia was up 21 after three frames. Boston finished with 21 turnovers overall.

LOOSE BALLS
Rajon Rondo made his first 11 free throws of the preseason before missing his only two attempts in Monday's game ... Milicic, who has had his right wrist taped since tweaking it last week in a practice session, appeared to aggravate the injury falling to the floor early in the third quarter. After a timeout, he stayed in the game and actually produced a left-handed dunk on the first play out of the break. He finished with six points and three rebounds over 16:19... Philly native Dionte Christmas connected on 1-of-4 shots for two points over 13:28 in his homecoming.

WHAT IT MEANS
Celtics coach Doc Rivers will have to dig deep to find any sort of redeeming quality to this one. Hey, at least no one got injured (Milicic's quick return bodes well for him). The good news: The Celtics are one game closer to the regular season and half the exhibition slate is behind them. The bad news: There's still plenty to clean up. Boston invades TD Garden for the first time this season on Tuesday night to host the Brooklyn Nets.

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I was out and didn't get to watch the game until about 2:00 in the morning. One advantage of doing so was that I knew how the game was going to turn out and therefore was able to focus on glimmers.

One glimmer: With almost every game, Sully shows me something new. I knew he could hit the three, but I was impressed with his ability to play a productive two-man game on more than one occasion.

A second glimmer: Darko's offense isn't as bad as advertised. While he'll never come close to leading the team in scoring, he took (and made) that nice half-hook shot, suggesting that he has some confidence in it. He also collected some tough boards—not a cinch with a right wrist hurting as much as his obviously was—and had an authoritative putback.

A third glimmer: I thought Courtney Lee had a pretty solid defensive game. He is very good at tracking down breakaways (of which Philly had far too many) and bothering the shot without fouling.

A fourth glimmer: Collins, in short minutes (actually an upgrade for him) looked pretty strong on the defensive end.

I'm sure everyone else will write about all the negatives. I've come to accept that, while Doc's still experimenting with lineups and at least half the team has no idea what their ultimate roles will be, we're going to have to endure lots of turnovers; and that factor even more than sub par shooting was what created much of the scoring differential last night.

Also, I mentioned the following once before, and it seems to be holding true. With the exception of a child's handful of very nicely executed plays last night, the chemistry still sucked; and only because their defense sucked more didn't the dysfunctional offensive chemistry get bigger headlines. The Celts were out-assisted 32 to 20, and their 20 dimes were exactly equal to the number of turnovers they committed.

One thing we need to keep in mind. Most of us have felt pretty good about the potential of this team to go up-tempo. But having potential is different from being able to capitalize on it. The faster the tempo last night, the worse the Celtics looked.

By the way, so long, Jamar. You'll have to pull a Jeremy Lin in the remaining four exhibition games to stick with the club. I wouldn't be at all unhappy to see Smith, Kurz and Downs cut now (and hopefully offered a chance to hook on to the Lobsters as free agents). Doc needs to maximize the floor time (in both practices and games) for the final 15 in an attempt to improve the defense and offensive chemistry.

Go Celtics!

Sam

After last night - first time I've seen an exhibition game this year - I'm all for cutting Smith, Kurz and Downs now, rather than later. It almost seemed Doc was leaving them in as an excuse for the lopsided score. I'm all for experimenting, but with guys likely to be there in December. Hawk

I have to agree with Sam on a few of his points that he raised.

First I liked Collins and his play. He is more agile then Darko and can run the floor well.

Second, I like Lee's overall play especially on the defensive side of the ball. He has good aggression and has a nice overall game.

Third, Sullinger will be a good player but not the superstar some may be hoping for. He is aggressive especially in the paint, has nice foot work, good hands, and has shown that he can shoot the ball. Problem like Big Baby...he cannot jump and at 6'9" is undersized at his position of power forward.

I know that we are all supposed to be positive in these ex games but I am concerned about lack of jelling by the team and the really poor coordination by the 2nd unit and by some of the rooks. They have had time in the gym together, they have learned plays, yet they are unable to execute. Case in point on Saturday on last play of the game with Christmas.

We'll see how tonight begins and ends.

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Ugly is as ugly does.

No Bynum, no KG, no reality. Having said that, we still looked like crap. What bothers me here is the lack of consistency from game to game.

1. Last game the culprit was pick-and-roll defense. This game it was inbounding defense. I counted 3 easy baskets off of inbounds. That's just poor focus. Do we really need KG on the floor to have intensity?

2. Pierce started off ugly, with his 4 TOs coming early, and then started to heat up. Still not vintage performances by the Captain this pre-season but at least he warmed to the task later in this one. Bluntly, he's looking old and slow.

3. Sully has an excellent basketball IQ (how many times have I mentioned how much I LOVE coach's kids!) which makes him an asset in almost any lineup. Still needs to learn to use his height (or lack thereof) better, but he's not backing off and that's good. Sam was absolutely right pointing out his two-man game. I sorta kinda knew he could shoot 3s, intellectually, but it was exciting to see him shoot one. How many of those does he have to hit in the regular season before he draws the defense out to him? Not a great stat line for him today, but a good game. The kid is working his Rick Mahorn-sized ass off night-in-and-night-out.

4. Darko doing his thing. Playing D and displaying a very nice passing game. Doc and Pierce have mentioned that underrated and undermentioned part of his game and I'm starting to notice it. Bill Walton he's not, but Celtic players on the floor with him should look to make cuts to the hoop when he has the ball in the high or low post. He fell on his taped right hand, and that obviously pained him, but I've noticed how often he makes lefty shots. With the clock running down and him out near the corner, he put the ball on the floor, did a behind the back dribble to get where he could throw up a left babyhook that was within his range. He missed, Lee cleaned up for him, but I was impressed with his dribbling. Is Darko the Second Coming? No, but I don't see why he's been such a bust so far either. Keep it up Darko, keep it up. You're doing good.

5. Smith is completely snake-bit. I think he's a bit freaked, actually. The reports on him during the informal pre-camp workouts were that he was a dead-eye shooter who hadn't missed yet. Maybe he's overwhelmed with the idea of actually playing on the big stage and that he's being asked to play point, and he's not comfortable doing that, in order to keep his job. He's gone. Xmas, once again, looked marginally better, but only marginally so. The game hasn't slowed down for Xmas yet. He's running around like a crazy man. He had a nice drive to the basket, but that was it for aggression from Xmas. Colonel Kurz showed limited ability. I have no idea why he was invited to camp in the first place. Melo is showing mobility, constantly trying to take charges, but he is just sooooo raw in every other part of his game. So raw. Micah Downs didn't have the game he had on Saturday, but I thought he did better than everybody else seems to be willing to give him credit for. He attacked the basket repeatedly, and that's worth something. At 6'8", and the ability to play 2/3, he's worth more looks. Lord Knows Kris Joseph isn't sealing the deal. One nice slide to the elbow for the jumper for Joseph and that was the sum total of my memory of him. The Kris Joseph I saw in summer league hasn't showed up yet. He's giving Downs his shot. If I could add a caveat here it would be that we don't know what Doc is seeing in practice. For me, the make/cut list as of today would be Xmas makes (not because he's looking good but because Smith is sucking) and Downs (Kris Joseph looks like he needs Portland and to hit the weight room. I can't believe I'm saying that considering that if Downs turns sideways he disappears, but Joseph is just looking physically overmatched while Downs is figuring out how to use what he has). Downs is showing some aggression, he rebounded well his last game. Joseph hasn't showed me much of anything. A little bit of something is better than a whole lot of nothing. Sadly that, for me, is an accurate summation of the bottom third of the bench that I had such high hopes and was very excited about a month ago. We've got Xmas and Downs showing us a little bit of something and Smith and Joseph showing us a whole lot of nothing. Melo and Kurz are cannon fodder.

6. There are 240 total minutes available for play in an NBA game. The Celtic bench played 143 of those 240, for 60%. They shot a collective 15-45 for 33% and only scored 36 points. The good news is that Brandon Bass, a starter or solid rotation player, was 5-9. The bad news is that JET was 1-4 and Jeff Green was 3-9. Can't blame the scrubs here. The wheels came off Jeff Green last night, his first bad game, so I'm willing to let it go. The same is true with JET. He's been playing well, had 5 assists last night, but he didn't play well overall last night.

7. A glimmer, to use Sam's favorite expression, was Jason Collins. Good, solid positional defense by the rarely used veteran. Both of his blocks happened because he was in the right place to make them happen. Spencer Hawes abused him a bit, but overall Collins made his defensive presence felt and that's what he's here for.

8. If Doc's focus in the pre-season was to get our turnovers down to 14 a game, he must be ready to commit homicide now. We had 20 last night, producing 20 points for Philly. Sloppiness, telegraphed passes, not coming to the ball, yuck. The starters owned 13 of those 20 so, unlike the NY game, we can't blame the scrubs for this. Like I said, lack of consistency from game to game. Can we get a pre-season game on national TV so Rondo can play like it matters?

Good thing we have 8 straight days of practice between the last pre-season game and opening night. Doc needs every single one of them. We are NOT ready now.


bob



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http://bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view/20221016not_a_lot_to_like_in_philly/


PHILADELPHIA — In a preseason game
largely devoid of any socially redeeming value — and only minimal
benefit on the basketball side — the Celtics [team stats] suffered a 107-75 preseason loss to the 76ers last night.

Playing before a frightfully small gathering, the Celts fell to 1-3. They got 16 points in 21 minutes from Paul Pierce [stats], who exited for the night midway through the third quarter. The C’s had pretty much exited contention well before.

“We just kind of showed up,” coach Doc Rivers
said after watching his club commit 14 of its 20 turnovers in the first
half and shoot 38 percent overall. “I thought we had poor intensity
throughout, and that’s obviously unacceptable.





“I get upset, but listen, I’m not going to use any bullets or
whatever you want to call it now. You kind of wait. But I think it’s a
good lesson for us. Some of our guys got frustrated early because other
guys forgot plays or didn’t know things. I think that’s a lesson, too.
You have to be able to grind a game.

“We’re going to play 82 regular-season games, and I guarantee you
we’re not going to be great in all of them. But you can still win the
game if you have mental toughness. But today things went wrong, and we
kind of caved in quick — and I told them that’s not a good sign.”

The Celts went without Kevin Garnett, who was given the night
off with another preseason test tonight at home against the Nets. Rivers
wants to keep the 36-year-old out of exhibition back-to-backs, of which
there is another set Saturday in Albany, N.Y., against the Knicks and
home to Philadelphia on Sunday.

The 76ers were also without their starting center, as Andrew Bynum continued to nurse a bruised right knee.

“Our communication with Kevin missing was way down today,” Rajon Rondo [stats] said. “And Kevin’s not going to always be there for us, so somebody has to pick it up, including myself.”

Wilcox watches

Chris Wilcox came on the trip, but he’s still unable to play
because of back spasms. The 6-foot-10 forward/center says he’s feeling
better, but there is no timetable for his return.

“The way I look at it, if Eddie’s talking to me about Wilcox, that means he’s close,” Rivers said of trainer Ed Lacerte. “The fact that he hasn’t mentioned Wilcox’ name over the last four days means he’s not close.

“We would love to have him. We would love to have an extra body. But the other bigs are playing great. Jared (Sullinger) is playing phenomenal. Jason (Collins) has been fantastic; we just haven’t played him a lot. You know, I don’t want to overuse him. Darko (Milicic)
has been better than advertised. So maybe that’s a blessing because
it’s getting some of the guys that may not have played a chance to play
more.” . . .


bob



.

Sam-Listening to Tommy Heinsohn last night, he feels the same way that you and I have expressed. Enough with this experimenting, get these units together, first, second. Let's stop playing these kids who have NO chance of winning a spot on the team. Before we know it, the season will be on us and it is time to get the chemistry right on this team.

Rosalie

Bob and Rosalie,

The Celtics (especially, but not limited to the younger Celtics) seemed intent on taking the ball inside. But no one was spacing the floor, so most of the forays to the hoop were met with a scrum—an unhappy result of trapping by the 76ers and the Celtics literally getting in one another's way. Time after time after time, they had to try three-inch inside passes that took teammates completely by surprise—even bouncing off various body parts at times.

Moreover, everything was happening at such warp speed that I couldn't even detect a lot of the turnovers. (Maybe I was just bleary-eyed by the time I watched the game at 2:00 in the morning.) The "new, up-tempo" Celtics got obliterated in the up-tempo game. So then they started settling for long jumpers (or, more correctly, "clangers") that usually produced long rebounds, igniting Philly fast break after fast break.

I would support the following personnel strategy:

Keep Christmas, Joseph, Melo on the roster but send them to Maine

Cut Smith, Kurz and Downs but try to get them to sign with Portland as free agents.

Hope for the quickest possible returns of Wilcox, Milicic and Bradley.

I had previously wanted Christmas, Joseph and Melo to stay and practice with the team core because the Developmental League doesn't start for well over a month and I thought the critique and instruction they'd get in Celtics practices would be preferable to their trying to stay in shape on their own. But who knows? I assume the DL has a training season, so maybe it won't be very long before Dionte, Kris and Fab would be active in Maine.

The thing is that, right now, I believe the minutes allotted to Smith, Kurz, Downs, Christmas, Joseph and Melo (60 minutes combined last night—exactly one-quarter of the 240 available minutes) would be much better spent getting the core of the team in synch. Ironically, Doc (who's wrongly castigated for never wanting to play young guys) seems to feel compelled to play them in preseason if they're still with the team.

Perhaps it would be prudent to keep Fab around (but hopefully mainly on the bench) as an emergency measure until Milicic returns. At least, along with many defects, Melo has one skill (blocking shots) that could contribute in the short term.

This strategy would leave what I would consider the "core rotation" of nine players to gain some chemistry during the rest of the preseason and come together in the early part of the season:

KG
Collins
Bass
Sullinger
Pierce
Green
Lee
Terry
Rondo

Frankly, in the absence of Milicic, Wilcox and Bradley, this would very likely be the rotation for the first portion of the season anyway. Why not fine-tune them rather than spending a quarter of every game trying in vain to integrate kids who are unlikely to play when the season starts?

Until the three wounded warriors return, the depth of the Celtics must be thought of as referring to the quality and versatility, rather than the quantity, of the active roster. When they do return, the other nine will hopefully be in much better synch and better able to accommodate the three additions (a nice "problem" for Doc to have).

Hey Rosalie, aside from the Celtics, how are you feeling these days?

Sam

Hi Sam - Doing pretty well, I am finally going to Mass General to see my cardiologist on Thursday. Hopefully he will be able to calm my nerves about everything I went thru this year. Besides my Lupus doctor, I have all new doctors now. My primary care went into concierge medicine, $1800.00 a year for each of us just to walk in the door. That would not be counting what he would make from insurance, co-pays, etc. So it has be trying at times. This doctor knows me well and I am hoping the news will be good? Bill is doing well, he has had no real side effects since the stroke, his speech has come back to almost normal. God was on our side, as he has been before.

In 2008 we were visiting his niece in Scituate, she has a house right on the water. We had gone to watch my nephew play football one Friday night. She insisted that we stay at the beach house, as she and her family had moved into a house away from the water and she used this house only in the summer. Anyway, early in the morning I tried to get up and had trouble walking. (I will always say, thank God for getting older and having weak bladders!!), I somehow got myself down to the first floor and sat there, not
being able to walk. Then I heard a loud thump, then another one, and another. It was Bill. I yelled up to him to ask him if he was alright, and he yelled down that he couldn't walk either. Somehow he managed to get himself down the stairs, get outside and called Scituate 911. Anyway, we had carbon monoxide poisoning, and they took us to Mass General. We both ended up going thru the hyperberic chamber for 2 1/2 hours each.

Both of us have really put our children thru hell these last few years!!!!
But, there is a reason why we are both still here, I think!

Thanks for asking Sam, and being such a good friend. I tell everyone I know about all of you and they think you are all great!!

Love
Rosalie

Rosalie, you and Bill have both been particularly heroic during the past year or so. And the only way I can think of to express it correctly is that you've both come through like Celtics.

Isn't it nice to have children whom you've nurtured for long to turn the tables and give you needed support? I've always said, you sow, you reap.

Sam