Post-game Thread: Celtics-Kings at Sacramento

[Sam]

This will be brief, as I have to go out for a while.

With only two practices under new coach George Karl, the Kings could have been expected to be somewhat discombobulated last night.  And they were, committing 8 turnovers as the Celtics went out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter on the strength of nice teamwork (8 assists on 12 baskets) and a great quarter by Tyler Zeller (13 points and two assists).  But it didn't take longer than half of that quarter for the Kings (largely in the form of Cousins) to realize that their key to success lay in attacking the hoop and varying their attack with inside-out passes.  They had 16 points in the paint and 3-6 three-ball shooting for the quarter, which would expand to 54 points in the paint and 8-22 three-point shooting for the game.  By the end of the first quarter, the Kings led by a point, and the Kings didn't lose a quarter to the Celtics during the entire game.

Despite the fact that the Celtics hung around and actually took a brief one-point lead in the final stanza, the momentum was pretty much with the Kings for most of the game.  And it wasn't just about Cousins, although he did score 31.  In the second half alone, Rudy Gay had 16 points and Omri Caaspi had 8 rebounds (as did Cousins).  Brad made a point of mentioning that, when Sacto made their first-quarter 17-0 run, Cousins wasn't in the game.

Despite the fact that, during this game, they scored 38% of their points off Kings turnovers, the anemic Celtics offense couldn't create
their own offense for much of the evening.  The Celtics' best offensive play during the game consisted of scoring off Kings turnovers.  Thirty-eight percent of their points were off Kings miscues.  But, after the great start, they pretty much fizzled offensively, demonstrating once again that volume shooting can't compensate for poor shooting (37% after the initial quarter).  To their credit, the Celts once again came back from behind in the last few minutes, primarily on the shooting of Bass, Smart and Bradley, but this was definitely a "too little too late" situation.

This game definitely underscored the Celtics' need for rebounding and an offensive catalyst who thrives on penetration.  The Celtics' two best rebounders (Sully and Kelly) were out, and two other players who might have helped the cause (Jerebko and Thomas) are not yet in.  So I don't believe in using this game as a true measurement of the current status of the Celtics as a team.

The game demonstrated to me that Zeller can play at a high level on offense for 31 minutes but gets worn down on defense by a guy like Cousins, who did his most serious damage in the second half.  For me, it also demonstrated that the shooting skills of Bradley are pretty much a very good (albeit streaky) one trick pony that is the cornerstone of a "live by the jumper, die by the jumper" mentality. It also made my hair stand on end to see Sully come up with the sort of foot injury that has to be exacerbated by too much weight.

I'm abbreviating this as I have to go out for a while.  Perhaps, though, there's not a lot else to be said about this one.  On to Laker Land.

Sam

[wide clyde]

Sam,

Definiely do not use last night's game as a barometer of this team for the rest of the season.

Thomas is going to make a large contribution because he does exactly what Ainge was mentioning as a team weakness the other day - penetrate to the lane. Zerebko may or may not blossom out any further than what he has shown in is career, but will be a couple of steps above whatever the rest of the team can do at the power forward spot at least until Sullenger and/or Olynyk (Wallace at center last night????) can return from their injuries.

I can see both Thomas and Zerebko making significant contributions tomorrow against the Lakers. Like Thomas with 15 points and six assists and Zerebko with 11 points and seven rebounds. So, with another good game from Bradley, Bass and Zeller as well as some upgrade from Turner (9 points and 6 assists), Smart (15 points but on fewer shots), Young (9 points and 5 boards), etc the Cs will beat the Lakers.

[k_j_88]

Wide Clyde,

I think this game can serve as a reasonable barometer with respect to at least one aspect: 3-point shooting.

The Celtics are not a great 3-point shooting team at this moment, nor have they been for the majority of this season thus far. Going 6-22 (27%) is not going to win you many games. In fact, it probably won't win you any unless the other team was just as ineffective from that range.

I'm questioning the prudence on the heavy reliance of taking three-point shots. I find an offense centered around that to be very lazy. You aren't making the other team work as hard if you aren't forcing their defense to shift more.



KJ

[bobheckler]

My first Celtic game watched since November 3rd and it was this one.  Sheesh.  Still, a nice, large and active crowd on the Game On Thread last night.  That was nice to come home to.

We started out great.  Great spacing, great passing and movement, GREAT pick-and-roll execution between Zeller and everybody from Brandon Bass (who made a nice drive into the lane, going RIGHT for a change, for a nice interior laydown to Zeller on the baseline) to the ball boys.  Zeller set the pick and got a good shot 6' and in on the roll.  Every time.  In fact, he was getting SO excited by the success he was having he began setting Vitor screens, where he created more wind in passing than contact, he was in such a rush to roll to the hoop.  The only points being scored by Sacto were by Cousins, as neither one of the starting centers could stop the other.  The other scorer, for us, was Bradley who was on to a hot night.  Our defense was sharp, giving up points to Cousins but that's it as Rudy Gay got off to a horrible start because he wasn't getting open looks.  We were up 13-2 at one point.

Then we stopped doing it.  Playing with just 10 players in uniform, Brad sat his starters with a few minutes left in the first and put in the bench and the lead disappeared and we ended up being down by a point after one.  The bench stayed in for a few minutes into the 2nd as Brad wanted to continue to rest his starters so they could finish the 2nd strong and we got deeper in the hole despite Sacto having 15 turnovers at the half.

1.  We shot 40% for the game, but take Zeller (9-16), Steady Eddie Bass (5-10) and Bradley's (12-22) shooting out of the numbers and we were 14-52 (26.9%) out of a total of 100fgas.  Phil Pressey somehow got into his head that he was now, suddenly, a shooter and proceeded to go 1-5.  Marcus Smart was 5-15 (which actually dragged the average UP) and Jae Crowder was a, if only it could be, forgettable 3-11.  Evan Turner, not to be outdone, shot 3-14.  We shot 27% on over half our fgas and the game was still winnable.  Why?  We missed a ton of free throws.  We make our gimmes and we were in good shape.

2.  Our defense, especially in the first quarter or more, was quite good.  Bradley (4 steals) and Smart's (5 steals) defense were very disruptive.  Bradley played pretty good perimeter defense (although he got beat on spin moves from the post a few times) and Smart was just everywhere.  That was good and bad.  He was in the middle of everything.  If he was only 8" taller we'd have our new KG.  Every time the ball got in the post or lane he was there swiping at it or stepping up to short-circuit a spin to the middle.  The bad news is that when he was down near the elbow helping out our overwhelmed interior defense (our two bigs this game were Zeller and Shav, who got steamrolled by the much stronger, heavier Cousins) we were vulnerable to the kick out pass to the 3pt line and Rudy Gay, who wasn't getting good looks early because Zeller and Cousins were allowed to trade baskets while our other defenders stayed home with their men, was now getting good looks and started knocking them down.

3.  If Isaiah Thomas can make good pick-and-roll passes, Zeller (and probably Sully and Kelly) are going to love playing with him.  Zeller made a living last night off of them.  He was getting bullshot by Cousins but he really revealed Cousins' poor pnr defense at the other end of the court.  We need an intimidator though.  There were a couple of walks down the lane that should not have happened and would not have happened even if we had even a stone-handed intimidator like Nerlens Noel.

4.  This was the first game in which I've been able to actually watch Jae Crowder.  I'll try not to hold it against him.  He was a beat slow on both ends of the court all night.  He was a step slow on defense, a beat too late on his interior passes (he screwed up a fast break because he held onto the ball for too long and, by the time he got it to Bass it was a bad pass that Bass had to chase instead of just slam in) or passed too long.  Just not what I thought I'd see from him after following the games via ESPN in Asia.  Sam has said enough good things about him that I'm willing to withhold judgement at this time but this game did not make a good first impression.

5.  We shot 15-26, for 58%, from the line.  Smart was a DeAndre Jordan-esque 4-9.  James Young, whom you would expect to shoot well if he did nothing else, was 2-5.  There's 14 of your total 26 right there.  They shoot 10-14 and it is a different game.

6.  We got 38 points off of their 24 turnovers.  We should not have lost this game.  100 fgas, 24 turnovers by them turning into 38 of our 101 points and only 11 turnovers by us.  Our execrable bench performance and missed free throws are what killed us.

7.  Evan Turner's ballhandling skills were learned and developed at the Tony Allen School of Dribbling.  He dribbles high and not really surely either.  Some very poor decision-making too.  8 assists but 5 of our 11 turnovers.  Evan Turnover.  I see it now.  I don't like it, but I see it.  His shooting mechanics are poor also.  When he is taking set jump shots it is ok but most of his shots are on the move, driving to the hoop or doing a stupid turnaround jumpshot along the base line, and his moving shots are all floaters or push shots.  Bradley has turned into a very credible shooter because he stops-and-pops.  He moves to an open area and goes straight up for his shot and that creates repetition of mechanics.  He may be a one-trick pony but it's the same trick every time and until they stop it he should keep doing it.  Every shot Evan Turner takes is different since he is moving at different speeds and in different directions and, as a result, he makes each shot a new experiment and adventure.

8.  Helluva time to get your number called for Shavlik Randolph.  He's really a PF but because of his length and our short bench last night, got his number called to try and stop Mt. St. Cousins and got his ticket punched a few times for his troubles.  Tough matchup for him, to say the least.  He got called for a blocking foul that was Cousins' all-star bonus check (Cousins complained about how he was getting fouled all night but he was pounding Celtics into paste all night himself and committed a technical foul on Smart as he "accidentally, on purpose" stuck his arm into his face and then fouled him after Smart stole the ball and was almost at the rim but didn't get called for it).  He did get 4 rebounds, 2 of them offensive, in just 6 minutes though.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Jerebko clears his physical.  Will Shav keep getting minutes, with Sully out indefinitely and Kelly still maybe a game or two away, or will Jerebko get them?

9.  Phil Pressey played 6 minutes and was a -15.  Normally I don't put much weight in +/- but it so happened that the Celtics went on a 0-15 swoon during those 6 minutes Pressey, Wallace and Young were on the floor.  Wallace was a -18, as was Young.  Pressey's strength is his speed, ballhandling and passing.  We saw none of them last night, as he woke up yesterday morning thinking "what did Thornton have that I don't have?".  Well, for one thing Phil, Thornton has a well-documented track record of being a superior shooter and you don't.  Phil let us down last night by going away from his game.  Do what you do, Phil, not what you don't.

10.  Bass started off a little slow but came on in the 2nd half.  5-10 for 13 points, including 1-1 on a corner 3 and 10 rebounds (4 offensive).  I've made it no secret that I didn't want Bass to be traded (unless it was for a key piece, like an intimidator) and he proved me prescient last night.  Another solid outing by Steady Eddie.

11.  We let down on Omri Casspi.  12 rebounds, including 5 offensive, for a finesse SF?  Bleh.

12.  Just to let some air out of Cousins' balloon he was close to a dubious triple-double.  He had 9 turnovers.


Not a good post all-star game start but there were bits and pieces to like.  Our free throw shooting isn't normally that bad, we should be able to count on better, but we did get 26 ftas.  Bradley may be a one-trick pony on offense like Sam said, but it's a good trick.  He's not the penetrator we need but I WANT the kickout pass to go to him with Thornton gone.  Zeller is finding his place.  Smart is a human detonator cap on defense, he just blows plays up.

No Sully, no Kelly.  No newbies.  No reason to read too much into this loss because we were caught in the switches and that doesn't happen with this many players at the same time except at the trade deadline (and this was a VERY busy deadline).  Time to take it out on the Lakers.

I'd say it's good to be back, but that wouldn't be the complete truth.  I did miss watching the Celtics, so I got my fix last night.  I started watching it at the Starbucks and then, when they closed at 8pm, went down the street and sat at the sushi bar and watched the rest of it.  It isn't normal to see a guy at a sushi bar with a laptop open in front of him, typing furiously, but they're used to me there.  They just kept the sake coming and as the night wore on I needed it.


bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

bob that was a refreshing post, you and Sam and Outside are such great writers, each with your own style....you guys are the board.

Great insight on the problems on Evan Turner. I thought this kid showed great flashes of potential in Philly. He used to give us problems and thought Larry Bird made a great move acquiring him, then when he had such a terrible stay in Indiana, I thought Vogel didn't know how to use him. When we got him, thought it was a steal.....butt seeing how up and mostly down his game is, well you nailed it, his fundamentals are always off. Last night I couldn't believe his garbage, how many times did he dribble all the way under the basket with no shot and jump and throw the ball away? and this guy is bringing up the ball initiating the offense? Can't believe he was picked ahead of Cousins in that draft and whos gonna give him another shot? hes gonna be out of the league soon, faster than you can say Ricky Davis.

Best part of our team last night was the defensive buzz created by AB and Smart, that was what kept us in the game. In a league full of fast young talented scoring points, we have 2 great defenders in place.

[kdp59]

I think Turner has played well for us for the most part this year, didn't see this game, so maybe he stunk the place up.

But Turner has been a solid player for us and will continue to be for the next couple of years, IMO.

Best Point forward on our team, and will Smart at the point it's a good duo. Turner may not be on the floor much with Thomas as Crowder will be a better player to have at SF with him.

Turner will NEVER live up to being the second pick in the draft and he certainly has his warts, but he is a solid NBA player and he'll be in the league a while.

[gyso]

I didn't see the game.

However, we were without two of our best bigs and without two of our veteran glue guys (due to the trade).  Half of our bench started and the other half of our bench played with the splinter squad.  Did Wallace play center?

A lot of crappy things happened, but a lot of good things happened as well.  It could have been a wipeout, but our guys actually had a lead during the 4th quarter.  They never quit, did they?  Swimming upstream for that long, to go along with playing with unfamiliar combinations and unfamiliar roles?

On to LA.

Open a new deck. Shuffle. Deal. Play. No time to practice with the new deck.

Just open a new deck. Shuffle. Deal. Play.

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