Post-game Thread - Hornets at Boston

[Sam]

Here's most of what you need to know about the Hornets game.  Brandon Bass was tied for the team lead in assists, with 4.

This team has been habituated to a ball-sharing attack.  But now, although they're gathering a reasonable number of assist (62% of their field goals were assisted tonight), many of those assists come through accidental offense rather than planned plays.  They have some decent passers (including Smart, Pressey, Turner, and even a couple of bigs (Sully and Kelly).  But too much of their offense is serendipitous.  As someone said the other day, they don't have a strategist on the floor.  Even Pressey, with his feel for pace and good passing, isn't really what I'd call a floor general.  Guys like Jeff Green, Avery Bradley, Tyler Zeller, and Kelly Olynyk are not showing to best advantage because they depend on being set up a lot.

I didn't see the first half, but I surmise (from every report I've read, seen or heard) the Celts were pretty lifeless.  I've read a lot of pleas to give the young guys like Smart and Young more minutes in order to help them develop.  While I don't subscribe to the rationale behind those opinions (I believe it's important to try to gain chemistry and that's not easily by creating discontinuity in the rotation), perhaps they need to give young players more minutes because they'll expend more energy in attempting to make names for themselves.

Certainly, Young (especially), Smart, Crowder and Pressey combined to demonstrate that kind of effort as they made (sometimes with Bass and sometimes with Sully) huge inroads in the Hornets' 20+ point fourth quarter lead.  Young was indisputably the central figure in the comeback, sinking big bucket after big bucket while sometimes shooting while being closely guarded; and he also made a great defensive play that ultimatedly resulted in points for the Celts.  The guy's an agile, fast wing with a sweet shooting stroke from outside.  But what most impresses me about him is his poise—a commodity in short supply for the Celtics in clutch situations lately.

Smart, Crowder and Pressey showed what kind of killer defense the Celtics can mount when they press and scramble.  The best rim protector on the team involves keeping the opponents from penetrating; and that trio consistently did that in the 4th quarter. They were trapping and Double-teaming all over the floor.  I don't know how many turnovers the Hornets wound up in the 4th; but, at one point, the number was 7.  And most of those turnovers were forced by the Celtics.  It was very rewarding to watch these youngsters experience the kinds of rewards that can be generated by passion and teamwork.

So, while I can't yet justify calling this young energy a full-fledged glimmer, it's certainly headed in the right direction.  Clearly, Brad has some deep thinking to do in the next few days.

Jeff Green played only 26 minutes.  Only two other games of the previous eight played without Rondo had Jeff played the little.  Three other Celtic starters (Zeller, Brady and Turner) played well under half the game.  Sully was the only starter with double-digit scoring (22), while Crowder (I really like him) and Young went for 13 apiece in 26 and 18 minutes respectively. Were we seeing indications of things to come...signs that Brad has had enough with the collective performance of the alleged core of this team?  How is Danny feeling about all of this?  Stay tuned,  Fireworks at 11:00.

Sam

[cowens/oldschool]

At this point with the trading of Rondo, and taking away his unique offensive instincts that manned the position, were gonna be really bad as now we have no rim protector or ball distributor, and we lost our go to guy Pierce too....so I want to see growth in the young players, but don't mind the losses if it puts us in ideal position to get Mr Intimidator.

As far as I'm concerned nobody on this roster is a legit building block going forward, not one player doesn't have flaws. I used to think were ahead of the Lakers cause we had better young players, but thats not the case the more I'm seeing of this team. What happened to Avery Bradley? he used to be a pit bull, now hes making Kemba Walker look like an all star? Its too easy to pick apart any player on this roster, so I won't do it, but things don't look good.

[Sam]

Cow, as far as offense goes, I believe Avery (like Green) is a catch and shoot guy who misses someone who can set him up advantageously. He's just not getting the clean looks he used to get. I think he's trying to compensate by going to the hoop more often, and he's doing a better job of it than I expected and definitely finishing better at the rim than I expected.

But, if you're talking about what happened to his pit bull defensive tendencies, I said two years ago (maybe three) that someone who has to depend that greatly on athleticism and stamina to defend well is susceptible to losing that edge with the passage of time and/or injuries. And I believe that happened with Avery well before this season (and maybe last season) started. Right now, I believe Smart and Crowder are the two defensive disrupters most trusted in that role by Brad.

Things change, Cow. Then is not now.

Sam

[cowens/oldschool]

I'm shocked it changed so fast Sam, I still remember him shutting down Stephon Curry and D Wade and even Harden, now nobody.

[worcester]

Cow, Don't underestimate Young's value. In a couple of years he'll be the next Ray Allen - and that's when Ray was a youngster.

We sure miss Rondo and desperately need a rim protector, but Danny's playing the long game and I trust it'll work out fine.

Sam was quite prescient about Avery's defensive prowess, wasn't he?

[cowens/oldschool]

worse

Tony Allen and Tim Duncan are 2 defenders that seem to defend as good as ever, Paul Pierce actually improved as he got older as a defender. Guess Avery couldn't take that abuse on his body anymore as that double shoulder surgery was probably a result of him playing too tough for his own good, so much for athletes that peak at 27-28. I'm thinking we might need a new training staff, if they can't devise ways, routines, exercises to get these guys to maintain and improve themselves as they are in their peak years....as an acupuncturist you might know more about this than most.

cow

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