Post Game - Indy

A Tale of Two Halves.  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  That was an amazingly beautiful half of basketball by the Celtics.  Too bad games have two halves.  We had 8 points in the 3rd quarter.  8.  On 3-13 shooting.  Don't ask me to choose which is worse, the horrible fg% or the ridiculously few fgas.  I'll freeze up and you'll have to hit Cntl-Alt Delete on my brain and reboot me.

1.  Rosalie mentioned on the Game On thread about what a good job Jeff Green had done on Paul George.  Then I looked at the boxscore, and I saw that George had 27.  So easy, so effortless.  This is not to run down Green, who also had a good game, with 20 points on 8-13, it's just that you didn't even realize George was killing you.

2.  As opposed to Luis Scola.  There was no doubt about his impact.  He is, probably, my favorite non-Celtic player in the league.  Why?  Because he proves my hypothesis that basketball is not about running fast and jumping high, it's about fundamentals and anticipation and being in the right place at the right time and executing.  People talk about how fast Ray Allen's release is.  Did you see how fast the ball left Scola's hands?  The man makes Larry Bird look like a jumping jack and you still can't block his shot because it's gone so fast.  His agent calls him "the best player under the rim in the NBA".  Uh, yep.  Last night, Mike Gorman said that "Luis Scola hasn't done much wrong tonight" and Tommy replied "he hasn't done much wrong since he came in the league".  That's pretty darn high praise from the ultimate homie.  Scola ended up with 17 points, on 7-9 shooting, 3-4 from the line and 4 rebounds in a very efficient 25 minutes.  The entire Celtic bench scored 17 points, on 7-19 shooting, was 3-4 from the line and had 12 rebounds.  Hooray!  Celtics players 6-11 outrebounded Luis Scola!  Yeah, I know that isn't just his greatness, it's also our ineptness, but still, it's pretty freaking impressive by him.  And pretty freaking inept by us.

3.  I've been talking about how Wallace's box score this year is not indicative of the value he brings to the floor.  Unfortunately, last night, it does.  He had 5 TOs, making a number of bad decisions and made little effort to score despite the fact that we were staring down the barrel of an 8-point 3rd quarter.  I did feel a little sorry for him for a bit, though.  He had to guard Scola, a mismatch made in Hell.  All that was necessary was a good entry pass to Scola and the outcome was pre-ordained. Nevertheless, a hopefully quickly forgotten game by Wallace.

4.  Open Letter to Brad Stevens:  PLEASE do NOT make Avery Bradley the ballhandler.  He gave up two turnovers in a row last night strictly because he just doesn't have the ball on enough of a string that he can take his mind off it and his man to look around.  Mark West, of all people, stole the ball from Avery because Avery couldn't chew gum and call a play at the same time.  He's shooting well, he's driving well and he certainly is defending well, just don't put him in a position he is just not good at.  I will say one thing for Bradley, Stevens was exhorting our guards to rebound, saying that "our bigs were working their butts off and we need our guards to go get the ball".  Bradley was the team high rebounder, with 7.

5.  Crawford Giveth and Crawford Taketh Away.  With all due respect to Paul Pierce, Jordan Crawford had about as good a half of basketball as we have seen by a player in green in quite a while.  His first half was flawless.  He had 19 points on 8-8 shooting, 2-2 from 3. 3 assists, 0 TOs.  He was definitely in "the zone".  That was the first half.  In the 2nd half he was still in the zone, but it was "The Twilight Zone".  He wouldn't give up the ball, pounding it into the floor, trying to do it all himself and turning it over, turning it over, turning it over.  He ended up with only 2 more points in the 2nd half and had 6 TOs.  As phenomenal as he was, and put us in a position to win the game almost single-handedly, in the 1st half, that's how bad and how much he killed us in the 2nd.  It was Jekyll and Hyde, it was amazing.  Amazing, as in watching an 11-car pile up on the Interstate is "amazing" to watch too.  Stevens was interviewed, coming out for the 2nd half, what he thought Crawford could/should do in the 2nd and "boy, wasn't he locked in?".  Stevens said "Jordan is always "locked in".  Now, he just needs to keep things simple and not complicate them".  Unfortunately, Crawford was already out on the floor warming up and didn't hear him say that because it was absolutely prophetic.  I'm coming around on Crawford.  I'm starting to appreciate what he's bring to the floor and recognizing that he's playing out of position, but last night?  SMDH.

6.  I did enjoy watching the Dinosaur Ballet last night.  For someone who gives up a mile of inches to Hibbert, Sully did a good job of bodying him up and scoring against him.  I think Sully won the battle, and that's pretty damn impressive too.  Love Sully.  Love.  Sorry, GMs, he's not available.

7.  We shot 50% for the game.  That should have done it.  We had 21 TOs, 14 in the 2nd half.  That did do it.  They had 15 offensive rebounds.  They had 18 ftas.  They overpowered us and ran our butts off in the 2nd half.  One time, there was a turnover in the 2nd half and there were 3 Pacers down at our basket, two of them trailers, and not one green jersey in sight.  They had 6 fast break points at the half.  They had 21 for the game.  They had 16 points in the paint at the half.  They had 44 for the game.  They played the 2nd half. We watched them play the 2nd half.

8.  Lance Stephenson, Larry Bird's pet project, had a triple-double (10-11-10).

9.  Feeling like you're in a little pain today?  Well, here's some salt to rub into the wound:  Kelly sprained his right ankle, might not play tonight against Atlanta.


The good news is that our first half was actually really, really good.  The bad news is that we lack the mental toughness to do it for 48.  If we were "in the hunt" this year, I'd be furious, but we're not.  Mental toughness is something you can develop and learn, and we will.  Right now, though, we have to get used to getting schooled.



bob


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Last night we witnessed that classic horror story, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Crawford.

And it seemed everyone was sipping on the potion.

The turnovers are mind boggling not just in their frequency but the type of TO's blew me away.  It was not like the Pacer's defense was causing them.  

Bob mentioned mental toughness and that is something that I mentioned during the on game thread.  That is now front and center in terms of where this team needs improvement.  Yes we want them to play better defense, rebound better, push the ball on offense, share the ball on offense but none of those traits can manifest themselves until this team gets better from the neck up.

dboss

btw, I've just been reading that Sully was suffering from the flu and needed to get his fluids replaced via IV before the game.

He's a tough hombre. He said he was playing last night "no matter what".

Love Sully. Love his ganas. Love.


bob


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Hi,
Just to add to a great summary above. KO needs to take a few lessons in KG's "be an asshole" school. Last night he tried to make 2 cute layups instead of dunking or at least showing some force. Hope his ankle is not serious.

Speaking about the "Two Halves". Out of 14 games at least 9 or 10 could be headlined with it. I wonder why? It's not like we have an old team as in the previous few years. There's something else... Any ideas?

AK

Love Sully too, hes a 6'9" bull, he can dish out whatever force is needed in that paint and has great hands and positioning and scoring skills. Now that his rookie year is behind him, with refs allowing him to play, hes a real fockin force. His defense on Duncan and Hibbert, 2 of the best big men in the league was great, really great, he really showed me something and will not back down. Hes got a Silas/Cowens toughness about him, and already has a talent to carve out space in the paint. I hope we can get a real serviceable center by next season so Sully can further develop and dominate the opposing 4's. I see a future 20-10 player developing, love his mid range game, he needs some help, KO is lacking on the defensive end and maybe Vitor will figure it out. We have a legit force in the paint at the 4.