Yup just like when things went wrong the past 2 years.
I knew Ant was good, but he's taking things to another level. He has MVP upside. Ridiculous player.
Edwards picked up his 4th foul fairly early in the third quarter, and the Celtics basically let him be at the defensive end. Tatum posted him up once, early in the fourth, and Edwards fould him for #5. He killed them late and "get this guy out of the game" was not on their mind at all.
This was like a throwback to last year, in several ways.
There aren't a lot of players that don't have trouble against Gobert. He had some warts, but it's a small few guys in history who have won multiple DPOYs.
This also isn't your older brother's NBA following the last large expansion era between 1988-1995. As I am also seeing in MLB, the steady-state of franchises is now resulting in a higher level of talent throughout the leagues than existed 30 years ago. That is, for those that actually spend money (sorry Oakland A's) and/or have effective front offices (sorry Washington Wizards).
Totally agreed on post-expansion era (I think the NBA could add 2 more teams and not really suffer much, personally). I also think the G-League has finally matured a bit and the path to the NBA is more stable and fewer young guys are getting spit out of the league before they have a time to develop. They say 50% of the NBA has played in the G League now, which should introduce more professionalism and less variance in the 9-15 guys on everyone's bench. When injuries happen, the back-ups are better.
To the bolded, isnt that how most good teams lose close games? Guys forcing up bad shots and bad possessions...the question that this team will need to answer IMO is will this happen less often with this current iteration of the team than the last few years? Early returns say yes.
Seems like a very low percentage bet that the NBA refs would foul out a superstar, even one that's only 22, in a close game at home after already fouling out KAT. He also showed the smarts to not foul Jaylen on the breakaway. The C's had a chance to put their foot down when Ant was cold but they had two shotless possessions and then the kid went off. Ballgame.
I agree with this. NBA is different than college/HS where you can effectively target fouls on a star whereas doing so in this league can often get you out of what you normally run.
Someone else mentioned it but Holliday missed a lot of shots close in. His instinct to get to the hoop was solid, they just weren’t falling.
Couldn't agree more. I want to see them lose a couple of games this year because they played Kornet, PP, or Hauser too much. Let's stay away from nagging hammy and foot soreness due to the top6 getting 40+ minutes on the regular.
Agree generally, but barring injury I’ll be very surprised if they aren’t the top seed. They have a 64-68 win roster.
We also apparently think Tatum is a superstar but do not trust him to make a play against Edwards in crunch time? Is a 22 year old star with 5 fouls going to play his ordinary game and trust the refs to let him foul a bit?
You don’t need to reach even outside the franchise, just look at the 08-09 Celtics. With a modern coaching/resting regime that team probably retains the title.
Actually I'd expect him to be more positionally and fundamentally sound under those circumstances along with the refs recognizing the 5 fouls. We have many ways to attack matchups down the stretch this year and I'd expect less of Tatum ISO's every time down the floor when we are at full strength.
Wasn't McDaniels guarding JT?
I watched the highlights from last night and I completely agree with the bolded.
McDaniels was but Edwards put the clamps on Tatum for one play down the stretch (a play that looked particularly bad for Tatum because he basically fell over trying to make a move, lost the ball and got tied up)
I must have missed the rule that says a player in an iso situation must always shoot.
Considering Edwards said post-game that his thought process late was that the refs didn't want to foul him out so he should stay agressive... yes? Stars know as early as college that refs don't want to foul them out, particularly at home and get MORE handsy not less usually.
I'm not sure what that has to do with the post you replied to? They don't have to shoot but the ISO clear out play is generally done so that the player calling the clear-out will be able to shoot. Especially when it's Tatum, a player who generally relies on the step-back vs. driving into the teeth of the defense
I was watching on mute on a 2nd screen and I am not a lipreader so I may be way off base but I was almost certain in realtime that when Ant checked back into the game for the last time, he took the ball from the ref to inbound it and said something about having 5 fouls (i.e. "Remember, I've got 5 fouls wink wink").
As noted above, JT tried to go at him and Ant locked him up. Most of the other times McDaniels did a credible job on JT
Not necessary to put words in people's mouths as nobody is saying that it is "bad" only that in the NBA it isn't really effective, especially during the regular season, to run your offense based off opponents foul trouble. Forcing action takes away from flow. We saw the one time Tatum got that matchup called it took him out of his natural rhythm and he forced a bad play.
I think people are just saying that going at Edwards doesn't guarantee he's going to foul someone. It's not a bad idea but it's also not a foolproof plan
He was half a step behind the line, a perfectly makable shot given the circumstances and the fact that he had just created a ton of space (if he took that shot from a step or two closer, McDaniels can recover and contest better). There were about 4 seconds left when he put the move on McDaniels to create space and just under 3 seconds when he took the shot. If he drives there and the the defense collapses, there's no time to kick it out to an open shooter, he'd have to force a tough shot up, likely in the face of the best rim protector in the league. Perfect is the enemy of good in these last second shots with the clock ticking down, the look he got was just fine.
Last night in OT we also got Brown ISOs, Holiday ISOs, Porzingis ISOs, and an ATO Hauser air ball.
Assuming BRef is accurate, there are only seven 5-man lineups that have a negative rating, and actually four of those have JT, so these three constitute the input for the above-chart:It’s obviously incredibly early, but I’m pretty surprised that the team is still falling off a cliff without Tatum. Obviously it will get better as the players get more comfortable with each other, but the team has way too much talent for it to be to this extent, their net rating is -9.0 without him.
Also, White is very important. They really felt his absence last night.
Bball reference net rating and on/off numbers aren’t too accurate, FWIW.
Well, I just disagree that a 3P is our highest percentage shot in that situation, when all we need is 2 points (or even 1 point) to win.
As we know it's always been like that.It’s obviously incredibly early, but I’m pretty surprised that the team is still falling off a cliff without Tatum. Obviously it will get better as the players get more comfortable with each other, but the team has way too much talent for it to be to this extent, their net rating is -9.0 without him.
Also, White is very important. They really felt his absence last night.
I don't have Clearing the Glass and while BRef numbers aren't very accurate, it looks like the J. Brown | S. Hauser | J. Holiday | A. Horford | K. Porziņģi lineup was smoked in some game which I presume would really skew the numbers.
I don't have CTG anymore either but I seem to recall that their output isn't worth much until about a month or so of games in. That may not be accurate but I definitely think they need a decent sized sample of game (~>10) before you can look at their stuff.
What is the higher pct....a clean look from 3 or a contested 2? Of course it depends on the player, the defender and the players comfort against said defender but a clean 3 is never not a legitimate/good option.
