Post Game Thread: Celts v Heat

[k_j_88]

Wow.

I was honestly speechless when Green sealed the game with that corner 3 as time expired. THAT's the Green we were waiting to see. What's even sweeter? It was over LeBron James.

This was Boston's best game. They were in the game the whole way and kept within striking distance. And they STRUCK.


A few observations...


-Wade tried to get cute at the end and it backfired.

-Bradley was stunning. In the 4th, his scoring gave Boston enough life.

-Wallace came up huge with his defense.

-Olynyk had some solid stats; 7 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast, 1 blk. But down the stretch he was looking weak out there. Thank God for Humphries.

-Pressey was quite the speedster. He took advantage of MIA's lax transition D for some easy scores.

-Crawford nailed some huge shots when Boston was in trouble. They went from moving around to standing around on offense, allowing MIA a greater chance to stifle them. Crawford had a couple bad plays tonight but he really performed well.

-Boston's pace was feverish at times. They put up 89 shots and were running Miami off the floor so bad that Spoelstra had to call timeouts. I knew MIA couldn't take the heat. Boston also shot 51.7%.

-Despite the points they gave up, the defense came up big when they needed to.

-Only 12 TOs for the C's. Ball security.

-There was a huge discrepancy in FT attempts; MIA shot 34 FTs to Boston's 12. I think the pace made up for it.


Overall, incredible game. I had a weird feeling that tonight might just be their night.




KJ

[112288]

Rapid Reaction: Celtics 111, Heat 110

By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com

Rapid reaction after the Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 111-110 on Saturday night at AmericanAirlines Arena:

THE NITTY GRITTY
Wow. Jeff Green buried a game-winning 3-pointer from the corner over LeBron James as these young, scrappy Celtics won their third straight by taking down the two-time defending NBA champions on their home turf. Green scored a team-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting with five rebounds and two assists over 36 minutes. Gerald Wallace handed out a team-high seven assists off the bench, including a beautiful lob to find Green on a designed out-of-bounds play with 0.6 seconds remaining. Avery Bradley added 17 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter as Boston surged back from down seven with five minutes to play. James scored 11 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter and flirted with a triple-double (10 assists, 8 rebounds), but it wasn't enough for Miami.

TURNING POINT
The Celtics refused to go quietly. Miami pushed its lead as high as seven in the final frame after an old-fashioned three-point play by James. Bradley brought Boston back, hitting a 25-foot 3-pointer, then added a little running hook to make it 102-100 with 3:43 to play. The Celtics were still down two with 19 seconds to go with the ball when Olynyk missed a 16-foot bank shot while trying to lean in for a foul. Boston kept scrapping and two missed free throws by Dwyane Wade set up Boston's heroics.

OLYNYK'S FIRST START
Olynyk replaced fellow rookie Vitor Faverani in Boston's starting lineup and got off to a fast start. After stepping up to deter a Chris Bosh layup, Olynyk drilled his first NBA 3-pointer. He didn't have a great shooting night (3-of-9), but finished with seven points, eight rebounds and four assists over 22:45 and was on the floor for Boston's winner.

LOOSE BALLS
Brandon Bass picked up three fouls over the first 8 ½ minutes and that limited him to 15 minutes of floor time overall, a big loss for Boston considering his defensive abilities against the likes of James. ... Faverani, shuffled to a reserve role, played only a short shift early in the second quarter. He was plus-8 over 2:41. ... Kris Humphries took those frontcourt minutes and responded by putting up nine points and five rebounds over 18:34. ... Jordan Crawford added 15 points over 28 minutes for Boston.

WHAT IT MEANS
The Celtics have won three in a row, but none more impressive than this. Playing the second night of a back-to-back, and the fifth game in seven nights in five difference cities, Boston found a way to stun the champs, simply refusing to go away late in the game. Boston has essentially played seven close games this season and, after dropping the first four, has found a way to pull out the last three. The Celtics get a much-deserved day off Sunday before opening a three-game homestand with a visit from the Magic on Monday.
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112288

[cowens/oldschool]

AMAZING!!!!! I think we made a statement

[112288]

Let us not get too crazy. It was a nice win, Stevens has them playing with some fire, so in that regard he is building a team attitude. Sam always said about judging a team................see me in April....and so we will.

The process has to play out and some players are going to be weeded out and shipped at the trading deadline......but I am encouraged by KO and Pressey.

112288

[Sam]

First, I want to update the stat that I introduced on the Orlando post-game thread (turnovers divided by field goal attempts). The pattern I observed before still holds true. In the Celtics' four losses, the index was higher than .200 (meaning the celtics' turnovers were more than 20% as prevalent as their field goal attempts). In the Celtics' three wins, the index has been lower than .160.

Game 1: .333 (meaning the Celtics had 1/3 as many turnovers as FGA) Loss
Game 2: .224 Loss
Game 3: .311 Loss
Game 4: .243 Loss

Game 5: .157 Win
Game 6: .116 Win
Game 7: .135 Win

I am not advocating that this formula should be applied to teams other than the Celtics. The two variables (turnovers and FGA) were selected with specific reference to their influence on the Celtics. It could well be that other teams (or even the Celtics on occasion) might win despite a lousy index number because of some other extenuating influence (an abnormally high 3-point percentage, a substantial ree throw superiority, the unusually strong performance by a certain player, etc.).

Based on the data from the first seven games, it appears that the Celtics need an index below .15 to be very competitive; and an index of higher than .20 pretty much presents them with a mighty struggle on their hands. (More data will be required to clarify the implications of indices between .16 and .20.)

Anyway, going against one of the so-called "iron" in the league (at their home arena and on the second night of back-to-backs no less) certainly has done nothing to disprove the strong relationship between turnovers/FGA, and the chances of winning.

One could make an argument that there is a core of this roster that is giving the team a chance to win every game. I think this core consists of Green, Wallace, Sully, Bradley and (believe it or not) Crawford. Whether they are starters or bench players, and whether they are playing together or dispersed over a number of player combinations) these five are collectively driving and stabilizing the team. Other players (Olynyk, Bass, Humphries, Faverani, Lee, and Pressey) are filling in around them and contributing as best they can. And the matter of whether the team wins or loses can often depend on whether the contributions of one or more of these non-core players are sufficient to the task.

Theories notwithstanding, the important thing is that the Celtics may be making faster strides toward competitive consistency than any of us had probably expected. The ESPN pundits must once again be starting to sweat bullets because, for yet another season (of many), they may have sold the Celtics short. These buttwipes will never understand that, when a team's system of play is based so substantially on teamwork, it sometimes takes a while for the teamwork to come to fruition—particularly if the situation is complicated by key injuries.

Go Celtics!

Sam

[steve3344]

From the Miami Herald:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/10/3743535/jeff-greens-three-propels-boston.html

Last couple of sentences:

James said before the game that the Celtics were no longer one of the Heat’s rivals. After the game, he seemed to regret that dismissive attitude on some cosmic level.

“We messed with the game,” James said.

[steve3344]

The Lebron quote is from this piece:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/10/3743532/lebron-james-heat-celtics-rivalry.html#moreb

[k_j_88]

Sam,

It would be interesting though to see how that index correlates to another team.

I always thought Boston would be a competitive team this year, but I never expected things to materialize this quickly. I'm pleasantly surprised and they could very well be a 6-1 team right now lol. despite the relatively short time they've played together, this team has been in every game.

But I think we have to give Stevens a lot of credit here. He is essentially doing more with less, all the while making the transition from college coach to coaching men that make more than he does. He's earned the respect and trust of his players rather quickly and they've bought into his philosophies - perhaps we can also attribute this factor to the success we're seeing.

In addition, it hasn't taken him long to pick up the learning curve. He's very quick to make adjustments and is very open minded to taking some chances. I must say, I loved his reaction when Green finished the game. There wasn't any fanfare, just a guy that looked well prepared and confident that his team could compete against the league's best.

The problem with most prognosticators is the fact that they are not much different than the casual NBA fan; they only see what's on the surface, not that which is beyond it. That alone eliminates any credibility they claim to have. They should be analyzing the game in greater detail instead of spouting off nonsense.

From the start, I felt Bradley, Sully, Green, and eventually Rondo would be the core. It is sure shaping up that way.


KJ

[k_j_88]

Some tweets from the night.

via @celtics

Brad Stevens on his team’s consistent effort: “You have to earn your right to win the game with effort and togetherness.”

Brad Stevens on why he drew up the final play for Jeff Green: “He’s 6-foot-8 and he can get the shot off.”

Brad Stevens: “We’re going to be in a lot of close games. That should be our goal is to win those games.”

Brad Stevens says he had tonight’s game-winning play drawn up but had never used it. Nice timing to break it out.

Green on Stevens: “I thank him for drawing up the play. Without him I wouldn’t have been in that position. Great team win.”

Green to @tvabby on his game-winner: “Gerald made a great pass, Kelly set a great screen. I was able to get a great look. It went in.” via: @ESPNForsberg
--


KJ

[Matty]

This is twice now that Green has proven to be a thorn in Miami's side...

Mebbe what we need for green to do is be hypmotized before each game to be made to think he's playing the heat every night,

[beat]

Geesh

I'll sum up this win this way.

Just wait till we're real good !!


Can't wait to see what we are like in March !!

beat

[dbrown4]

Sam,

The "buttwipe" reference was hilarious! You and I are on the same page about ESPN. I'll love watching the change in tone and general crow eating. Thanks for the laugh and Go Celtics!!

I was preparing for a winless season and then the Celtic would mysteriously have their card drawn out first on lottery day, thus giving them the 14th pick, given their 99% chance of winning the lottery.

David

[beat]

Little bit of irony seeings as how the game ended....


Jeff Green was our only starter with a Plus ( the dreaded plus minus (+-) stat) and Wade was the only starter on Miami.....with a minus !!

beat

[dboss]

Everyone is talking about the shot.  The play was perhaps one of the best executed plays that I can recall.  The margin for error was razor thin.  Each player did exactly what they were suppose to do.  I not sure if the shot was better than the pass.

The Celtics are not to be toyed with.

There are still a lot of things to work on.  The defense had some slippage in the game particularly defending the back picks that provided the Heat will a ton of back door layup attempts.

I am sure that Stevens will coach the team up to handle those situations better.

I am still amazed that Stevens handled things so calmly.  As KJ mentioned.  If you looked at his reaction you would not have know that the Celtics just made a shot heard round the NBA.

Teams reflect the personality of their coach.

I have no idea where this team will end up.  There is way too much basketball to be played however the dire predictions of 30 wins seems more unlikely.

We still do not have a guy in the middle to anchor the defense but if Boston can continue to push the pace that may not be a decisive disadvantage.

The core group is coming together.  Wallace and Green appear to be respectfully on the same page.  Bradley is starting to transition into his 2 guard role.  The rotation has expanded to accommodate the PG skills of Pressey as well as the strength of Humprhies.  

Doc Rivers would never give these many guys a chance to play, make a mistake and play again.  

The clock is ticking for the return of Rajon Rondo.  His presence will have a profound effect on the efficiency on offense.  

This team is really fun to watch.

dboss

[mrkleen09]

This team is really fun to watch.
dboss

This says it all IMO. Win or lose - they are playing hard and doing their best. That is all anyone can ask of any team.

[bobheckler]

We were down by 4, 3 point something seconds left, and I decided it was time to get something to eat (it was dinner time out here).  Won't make that mistake again.  Never underestimate scrappers.  I would have loved to share that finish with the Game On thread members.

What a huge game to win, for a number of reasons.  Aside from the obvious, there shouldn't be even be slightest shred of doubt in the Celtic locker room about their ability to win games if they keep it close.  That mindset, that culture, is invaluable.  Taking a team of newbies and turning them into tigers is a big, big glimmer (if I understand what a glimmer is).  It is a tide that will lift all future boats.  Last night was pure, concentrated ganas by the Green Wave (respect and regrets to Tulane, but I'm not talking about you).

Miami's defensive rotations were unbelievably fast last night.  Man, do they rotate quickly, and they don't over rotate either.  They get there fast enough to contest any jumper but not so quickly as to over run the ball and let him drive past them.  I'm sure Stevens absorbed all that. Our roster is similar to theirs in that neither our teams are particularly big and tall.  Their defensive schemes could work for us too.  Our defense was undermined early when Bass got into early foul trouble.  Nevertheless, we persevered in fine Celtic style.

Stevens likes to look at "process", which is buzz for everything that happened before, that got you to that last shot.  First, though, let's look at that last shot.  I ran this video a few times, because it wasn't immediately obvious where Jeff Green came from.  He wasn't just sitting out there waiting for the ball.  Observe the complexities of the interior back-picking before the inbound pass.  That's a Brad Stevens play.  Compare this to what we saw from Doc over the years.  Doc preferred the pop out one-on-one iso by Pierce or an alley oop dunk from Rondo to KG (which can't be done now with Rondo out and LBJ guarding Green).  I especially love the look on Spoelstra and LBJ and DWade and Ray's faces on the sidelines.  "Stunned" doesn't quite cover it.  Heheheheh.





1.  Avery Bradley turned into a dagger in the 4th. 9 points, matching LeBron's.  This was the first game where you could just look at the boxscore and say "Bradley had a good shooting night".  Add to that the sheer clutch nature of those points and this was a big, big night for a guy who had to guard DWade too.  Basketball is driven a lot by confidence, and Bradley is feeling it now.

2.  Crawford had a good night too.  It drives me crazy that he appears to actually like taking buzzerbeating 25' contested 3s, but he's making them.  What's driving me really crazy is the time he takes off the clock so he can take those buzzerbeating 25' contested 3s.  He's putting up solid numbers, though, and played a key role last night.  I just have to keep remembering he's not the normal starter and he's playing out of position.

3.  I thought Hump played very well.  9 points and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes and 2 blocks.  He's a smart player, showed a smooth and confident elbow jump shot.  He's got the veteran smarts Vitor needs.  

4.  Pressey's shot still isn't dropping.  Other than that, though, he was a human rocket sled going up and down the court.  For a team that prides itself on speed, he was blowing past Heat players like they were national monuments.  His coast-to-coasters must have given Spoelstra serious agita (poor thing).  What's interesting is that, in just about every game, his counterpart wants to post him up low, but the ball never gets dumped in.  I wonder how Pressey would do when his size, or lack thereof, is directly attacked.  Last night, though, he created a lot of opportunities for his team by upping the pace.  21 impact minutes for the rook.  Stevens is starting to see what he brings to the table and is playing him more.  If he starts hitting shots, his job will get even easier because then they'll have to come out to him and he will just fly past them.  Wow, he is soooo quick.

5.  The pace was our friend.  15 fast break points for us vs 5 for them.  We had a very nice 89fgas while they only had 71.  This is the opposite of what we saw in the first 4 losses, when our fgas were way too low.  Whatever Stevens and his staff said to the team to turn that around, worked.  What really surprises me is that we had 54 points in the paint vs only 48 for them.  The way they were penetrating at will in the first half I would have thought it'd be the opposite.  Our perimeter defense, which was excellent the night before in Orlando, was not so good last night.  Easier said than done, when you have LBJ with the ball.  These stats are really quite impressive, given that we scored 31 points in the 4th, when we have been averaging 18.6 season-to-date.  Miami is averaging 74.1fgas per game, we held them below that.  We have averaged 79.9fgas, we blew that away with 89 last night.  The night before, against Orlando, we had 95.  We're averaging 17.7 TOs per game, last night we had 12.  Our average has been 18.4% of our possessions have resulted in turnovers to-date, last night was 14.7%.  Here's the link I'm citing.  It might make life easier for Sam, it does for me.  This is the "turnovers per possession" page, but you can get to every other page from here.  

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/opponent-turnovers-per-possession

6.  What's funny is that this game wouldn't have been even close if it hadn't been for retreads Birdman Anderson and Michael Beasley.  Beasley, in particular, hoisted a lot of shots in a short period of time.  20 points on 9-11, 4 rebounds and 2 blocks between the two of them.  They made up for the thoroughly useless Rashard Lewis.  What the hell did Washington ever see in him anyway?

7.  Another statistically underwhelming night for Wallace, but once again he was in the middle of just about everything good that happened (he was the one who threw that very difficult cross court pass to Green for the winner.  That ball had to get to the corner, nowhere else, at just the right time and height for Green to do something with it and before LBJ closed on him.  It was an almost picture perfect pass).  I am really appreciating his game.  If a true Celtic is supposed to forget about his individual performance and stats and do whatever the team needs him to do, then Gerald Wallace is a Celtic.  Another 7 assists and 6 rebounds for Crash, giving a team that needs a floor leader and improved rebounding what it needs.

Pretty much everybody played well, it truly was a team effort.  So much to like about this, including the fact that they didn't wilt in the 4th, not from newness nor from this being the 2nd game of a back-to-back.  No excuses by them, win or lose they fought like wildcats on almost every possession.

We are in the middle of the toughest part of our schedule, we are without Rondo, we have so much new stuff and personnel going on, and we're still 3-4 and coming home for a homestand against Orlando (3-4), Charlotte (3-3) and Portland (4-2).  How the hell do we get the "schedule from hell" with 19 games in November, 11 on the road, and Portland gets to play at home on Monday and then not play again until against us on Friday?

Forget about Wiggins.  Not gonna happen with these scrappers.


bob


.

[k_j_88]

Miami is not a "big" team. They too lack a legit center in the middle. So what does that mean? Miami's only absolute advantage is pure one-v-one talent, and even that can be overcome by speed. If Boston runs a lot, older teams will struggle to beat them even if Boston has a poor FG%. Now the younger teams may handle it better, but even young teams don't get out and run that much.

Pressey's speed opened holes in Miami's vaunted defense. Their guys aren't nimble enough to keep up with him, especially when he makes instant shifts in direction and pace. Spoelstra tried to slow the game down as much as possible for his team but Boston wouldn't relent.

Following the game, I went over to MIA's SB Nation blog to see what they had to say. They thought Miami's defense was bad because Boston scored 111 in regulation. But what they fail to realize, unlike people that actually understand the game, is that Miami's defense was good throughout the game, it's just that Boston was taking so many shots that many were bound to go in. They took 89 last night, which is an average of a little over 22 per quarter. Not bad, but I think Boston should try to average 100+ shots a game, which is 25+ per quarter. Instead of walking the ball up, try to get the drop on the defense and make an easy bucket while they're unprepared. They'll miss some shots, but they'll make a lot of them, too. Boston could easy average 100+ pts a game with mainly role players.




KJ

[beat]

Everyone is talking about the shot.  The play was perhaps one of the best executed plays that I can recall.  The margin for error was razor thin.  Each player did exactly what they were suppose to do.  I not sure if the shot was better than the pass.

dboss

As Bob mentioned too..... the margin for error on that pass was basically non existent. Throw it a fraction too soon Green isn't there. A fraction too late and Bron has him closed down, PLUS actually delivering the perfect pass with just the right touch to get it there.

To think that this was a designed play that had to be made in under 1 second is nothing short of impossible........... and it worked !!

As you all know Marcus is going to Syracuse, he's had chances to be with their teams and was with them a couple weeks ago during a practice. They were trying to run a a reverse option pass play and were screwing it up big time.......... so much so that they never got it quite right and went on to other things.

Well against Wake Forest 2 weeks ago they called it despite not doing it well in practice... result Touchdown !!
Here is that play.... starts at the 1:22 second point of the clip. QB sweeps to the left flips the ball to the receiver on the reverse and he can either run  or throw and he hit a wide open receiver in the end zone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFWck8gsuAU

If what we have seen is a small sample of what this coach can do with what he has............ what will it be like when he really knows them and has Rondo to help run his show?

beat

[bobheckler]

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4708126/breakdown-greens-buzzer-beater-vs-heat






Breakdown: Green's buzzer-beater vs. Heat
November, 9, 2013
NOV 9 10:55 PM ET
By Chris Forsberg | ESPNBoston.com



Three things to like about Boston's final play design (besides the obvious make by Jeff Green over LeBron James) that lifted the Celtics to a thrilling 111-110 triumph over the Miami Heat:

Wallace's patience: By my very unscientific clocking, Gerald Wallace used every last bit of the available five seconds to put that ball in play, waiting for the play to fully develop before sending the cross-court lob to Green. A more impatient inbounder would have settled for forcing the ball to Jordan Crawford, but Wallace had confidence Green would separate.

Crawford the decoy: Jordan Crawford, who had already hit three triples in the game, came off a double screen then sprinted towards the top of the arc. It's Crawford's tiny separation from a chasing Dwyane Wade that leaves LeBron James leaning that way with help and that's just enough for Green to sneak free (snapshot HERE).

Olynyk the screener: Rookie Kelly Olynyk made his first NBA start on Saturday night but, more importantly, he was on the court for the final play of the game. Olynyk did two nice things on the play, first he leaned on Bosh enough to let Crawford race around for the decoy action, then held up Bosh just long enough to ensure that Miami's big man couldn't deflect Wallace's lob.




bob


.

[Sam]

KJ,

You're talking about volume basketball, of which I've been extolling the virtues for years. Volume basketball—more than any other single factor—is what won the Celtics 11 championships in 13 years. All the idiots who are so concerned about their shooting percentages in those days miss the point entirely. Shooting early and often was more consistently successful than any form of deliberate basketball will ever be. They played volume basketball for most of the game and switched into high-percentage mode when the chips were down. And volume offense went hand-in-hand with up-tempo ball.

What made volume basketball work for the early Celtics team was the fact that they could sustain it without making a lot of turnovers. They protected the ball amazingly well. Lately, they've been playing volume basketball AND protecting the ball very well. That's an absolutely lethal combination. So lethal that, if they didn't have obvious vulnerabilities (rebounding, protecting the rim, etc.), the three most recent games wouldn't even have been close.

Sam

[k_j_88]

Sam,

Certainly looks to be a winning formula.

I just checked ESPN's statistics filter. Right now, Boston averages 1.16 points per shot. If 100 shots were taken per game at that average, it comes to 116 points.

Last night, they scored 111 on 89 shots. If they added another 11 FGs at their average points per possession, add another 12 points to get 123 ppg.

I'm thinking Boston's defense is solid enough to give their offense a chance to win virtually any game they enter.


KJ

[bobheckler]

Here's the Green 3 again.  

I usually have to listen to opposing commentators and don't get to hear Mike Gorman and Tommy (this time it was PJ Carlesimo).

Mike Gorman still has it.  He kept repeating about how Wallace was "holding it, holding it".  Really shows that Wallace was looking for something.  Very steady presence on the in bounds.

I also didn't see the reaction by Brad Stevens on the shot.  Man oh man oh man is he a different kind of beast from Doc.  In fact, he's a different beast from almost every competitive individual I've ever known or seen.  Even Larry Legend celebrated a little bit after a big shot.






bob



.

[bobheckler]

Some more videos:


NICE running the floor and finish by Hump






Bradley highlight reel.  Love the way he ran off LBJ on the breakaway.





Jelly Sullynyk Highlights






Steez's highlight reel










Love the look on DWade's face









bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Thanks bob, Sully and AB are just starting to scratch the surface, really great to see!!!

[sinus007]

Hi,
I just wanted to note one more play that nobody mentioned - DWade's FT. Last night JackieMac called it idiotic. Couldn't agree more.

AK

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