POST GAME BROOKLYN - HOME

I was wondering if they brought out Gino. KG used to enjoy Gino when he was wearing kelly green, I guess not so much anymore.

He didn't much like green Kelly either!!

A few observations

The Celtics are relying on their on the ball defenders to handle assignments as we did not see a lot of double teaming.  They gave up multiple drives in the lane individually.  As this defense matures  we will see more schemes.

KO scored 19 points but he could have went for 25-30.  He is such an unselfish player.  He passed up open shots all night.  

Zeller only played 6 minutes.  Rajon hit him with a few outstanding passes that he finished easily.  Zeller could be a double point scorer with Rondo feeding him.

I thought Jeff Green played really well.  His defense was very effective.

Marcus Smart led the team with a +20.  He does not play like a rookie.

Overall there was great balance in the offense.  

This was a good first win by the Celtics but their tempo can still be a lot quicker.    The Celtics used a 10 man rotation.  

Next up is Houston and the big challenge will be containing Howard in the post.

dboss

Beat

I did notice several times where we did not push the ball.  I paid special attention to the guys without the ball and I did not see that they were prepared to accept a pass.  Overall the tempo was good but not great.

I thought that Turner was involved in a few mindless dribbling exercises that resulted in a turnover.  Overall the offense was very balanced as evidenced by putting 8 players in double figures.

Defensive still needs work as the Nets shot 48.8%.  

Houston will present a real challenge as will the Mavs.  Those are two big teams with very good big men.  Zeller should get more minutes and we could use some defensive support from Gerald Wallace.

Pressey did not play because it is a numbers game.  But if we want a quicker pace Pressey has to be considered.  I do not know how you play 12 guys but all 12 of the Celtics have something to contribute.

Perhaps Brad will use Wallace and Pressey as specialty players.  Last night there really was no need to use them.  I can see a situation where Green gets in foul trouble and we need Wallace to come in or if the offense is stagnant they could inject some energy with Pressey.

dboss

Man, that's a ton of points.  Three 30+ point quarters in a row.  Our last quarter was 20 points, and we gave up 33, but when you have three 30+ quarters in a row you usually have enough of a pad to get the W, and that's what happened last night.

First, let me apologize to gyso for not seeing his request on the Game On thread for a link.  For future reference here's the one I use.  www.sportstream.tv  Click on 'basketball', open the event and then pick a specific link.  The real pain is that, when I take it off of fullscreen to post something on the thread and I go back to the game there are ads that I have to click through to delete and get back to full screen.  When you are in fullscreen mode there are no ads (other than the ones from the network.  None from sportstream.  The sportstream ads come when you are not in fullscreen).

We really spread the floor well last night.  We also did a good job of taking advantage of that.  62 points in the paint.  That's the type of number I have been yearning to see for years now.

1.  That had to be one helluva power nap.  Rondo played 30 minutes less than 4 weeks after breaking his hand.  I hope there's no swelling or setbacks today.  He had 5 assists in the 1st quarter and 9 at the half.  It seems like he's a little more uptempo than last year, not as much as Pressey or as much as I might like but more, but the half court sets are just SO much more coherent when he's in.  He really does find angles that others don't.  I'd be just fine if he plays 30-32mpg, especially if we continue to get these results.

2.  I thought Jeff Green had a good game.  17 points on 4-10 but 9ftas.  That's roughly 40% of the team's total ftas.  He was creating contact and that's all I really want him to do.  He's a skilled shooter, he just needs to be aggressive with it consistently.  Also, his man, Joe Johnson had 19 points on 7-19.  That's a tough matchup for anybody and I thought Green did well defending him.  I'd like him to play fewer minutes too.

3.  In order to do that, though, Evan Turner has to step up.  I am not a fan of his game last night.  He over dribbled a lot, repeatedly dribbling himself into trouble and turnovers and just does not seem comfortable without the ball.  He's not a strong defender either, he just didn't show the instinctive feel for defensive angles to ensure he's where he will need to be.  Rookie and #6 pick Marcus Smart is way ahead of #2 pick and 4 year veteran Evan Turner on defense.  Johnson and Bogdanovic took turns tormenting him.  I did like his rebounding, 7 in 24 minutes, but that's about it.  It's hard to find much to harp on today but this might be one of them.

4.  Kelly started out strong, shooting and playing defense, but picked up two fouls and that hampered him.  At one point he set a hard screen on a Net and KG came up to him and shoved him, in defense of his teammate.  Kelly stood right there while KG pointed his finger and told him to behave himself.  Good on ya Kelly, good on ya.  I love KG, I want to have his love child, but he's not in green anymore so don't back down from him.  Kelly's individual defense is still suspect but he's turning into an adequate team defender.  He had a difficult assignment last night, guarding KG.  He was Celtics high scorer last night with 19 points on 8-14.  There was also a couple of nice hustle plays in which the Nets thought they had the loose ball but he beat them to the 50/50 ball.  He wasn't able to finish, but his efforts blew them up.  4 offensive rebounds by Kelly.  4.  I like that a lot, especially when we're shooting 56% as a team (61% at the half), so it's not just cleaning up after lousy shots.  Half of Kelly's rebounds, including his offensive ones, came in the first half.  He hit, I think Bradley, with an absolutely beautiful pass from the top of the key right underneath for a layup.  Then, he faked his man and did a nice easy cruise down the lane for the layup.  

5.  Tyler Zeller thinks he died and went to heaven.  He is a pick-and-roll machine and now he's playing with one of the best PnR PGs in the game.  Rondo fed him to perfection.  If that doesn't make him work even harder then I just don't know what it will take.  He only played 6 minutes but was 3-4 for 6 points.  I don't understand why he only played 6 minutes, you'd think that Plumlee would be a good matchup for him.  They're both limited offensively beyond the short jumper, both run the court exceedingly well and are both bangers (more Plumlee than Zeller).  On the other hand, Plumlee only played 11 minutes too.  Hmm.  Plumlee had 2 blocks in his 11 minutes.  Zeller should watch the film from this game and see what Plumlee's doing.  Plumlee isn't exactly known as a great shotblocker either, but he did well last night. Nevertheless, a good game in limited minutes by Zeller. I thought his defensive rotations were pretty good too.

6.  Deron Williams struggled in the first half but lit Avery Bradley up in the 2nd half.  Everything went Williams' way.  Too little too late.

7.  I guess if you want a stretch 4 you have to go to Europe to get them.  Mirza Teletovic can bomb away from anywhere but only 3 of his 11 fgas came from anywhere near the paint.  Game high scorer with 20, 4-6 from 3, even Bass had trouble with him.

8.  Jarrett Jack's competitiveness came out too.  Not much of a passer but he's a steadier version of Bayless.

9.  We had 28 assists on 49fgm.  Nice.  88 fgas.  Very nice.  Only 12 TOs.  If we are able to maintain that (I don't think that's realistic but if...) we are going to surprise a lot of teams and pundits this year.  Those are excellent stats.  On the other side, the Nets shot 49% as a result of their back-to-back 30+ point quarters in the 2nd half after shooting only 39% in the first half.  Williams, Jack and Teletovic, in particular, really went off on us in the 2nd half.  They had 20 assists on 39fgm but, once you get past Williams' 8 it thins out.  For the Celtics, only Avery Bradley and designated gunner Marcus Thornton didn't have at least one assist.  Our ball movement was quite good last night, not just around the perimeter but drive-and-dish.  LOVE the "drive" part.

10.  The other Marcus, the pit bull one, had a nice first NBA game too.  4 steals.  He has a nose for the ball.  10 points on 3-7 but only 1-4 from 3.  So, that means he was 2-3 from inside the arc.  I'm ok with that.  One of those fgm was off a steal of an inbounds play.  His instincts are just astonishing for a player as new and young as him.  The Nets announcers last night (I don't know who the play-by-play guy was but the color man was Dave Spanarkle.  Rondo's nemesis, Donny Marshall, now works in the Nets studio at halftime.  Thanks for taking him off our hands) remarked how Avery Bradley is one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the league but that the Celtics are talking about how Mahcus Smaht might even be better.  One game, it's just one game, but he sure is looking tougher than nails.  No rookie stars-in-his-eyes for him.

11.  Speaking of "the other Marcus" (it's like a computer hot-button.  I can just tab back and forth between them), Microwave had 10 points in 14 minutes on 4-6.  The Nets announcers would remark how he scored "like we wished he would have last year".  Yeah, well, maybe that's because you had Jason Kidd coaching him.  Thornton's defense was meh.  There was one play where he got beaten really, really badly on because he just was completely out of position, not in a defensive stance and his man just blew past him like he was standing still, which he was, but he had a few decent moments too.  Oh well, I can live with mediocre defense with moments of good defense if he continues to light them up like he has been.  All his shots last nights were good ones, including the ones that didn't go in.  In fact, his 3 non-3pt fgas were all in the paint, with 2 of them at the rim.


I wasn't really sure what we had after pre-season.  We beat Brooklyn without KG, so what does that tell us?  Not much.  We beat the Knicks.  So what, they'd beat themselves if they played 5-on-0.  We devastated the Sixers, so could the local YMCA team but we lost two to the pretty good Toronto Drakes.  Last night, though, the ball dropped for real and the game counted and, with the exception of our 20 point 4th quarter (and giving up 64 points in the 2nd half) all indicators were pointing towards...wait for it....the green.

Now, it gets harder.  We travel to Houston to play the 2-0 Rockets (ok, those wins were against the Lakers and the Jazz, but they still count as Ws). Kelly and Zeller vs Howard? Oy. Harden vs Bradley and Smart. I like that better. No Chandler Parsons anymore. I like that MUCH better.




bob




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Berlin-T wrote:Thank's for all the info and opinion guys. I just returned from Spain and am getting NBA League Pass tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the game.
Berlin-T

Hey Berlin!! Long time no speak. Where in Spain were you?

I think you deserve more credit than most people on this board because of the time of night/morning you have to be awake to watch the games. Same with swede, when he was still in Estonia.

I'll look forward to reading your opinions on the post game threads while I'm gone.



bob



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Kelly Olynyk highlights from last night.







bob



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The pre-game video from the Gahden. Marcus' is better, to be honest, but this is what the peons got to watch.






bob



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bob


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