Analysis of Celtics Games, '21-'22 Season

DeJesus Built My Hotrod said:

As a side note, if sports fans want to see what an emotional hedge looks like in online print form, mosey on over to today's KOC piece from The Ringer. In short, he is pretty adamant that TLs injury kills the Cs finals chances. I suspect I am on an island but I simply don't agree with him.

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It's an absurdly pessimistic take:

But you can’t rule out the Celtics winning a round because as elite as their defense has been, they’ll still be good without Williams.

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"Can't rule out"? One round?

Boston should be able to win a first-round matchup against Atlanta, Charlotte, or Cleveland without Williams.

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That's it? No chance against Toronto, Chicago or Brooklyn?

Then, he twice mentions the possibility of a first-round matchup with Brooklyn as though it's (a) likely and (b) doomsday.

I don't think KOC is dumb— I think he wants to avoid taking a wishy-washy "well, it depends" stance and so is instead going on all-in on the under for the Celts finals chances— which is clearly the right choice— and then engaging in some motivated reasoning to support his stance. But it definitely feels that this is still in the "well, it depends" zone. A team that has been posting near-historic point differential the last 3 months— you don't think this team can possibly get through the first round and then beat, say, Philly in the second without TL? Really? From that point, as others have said, who knows? Maybe we get TL back at 75-80% for two series, and it's just enough. Or maybe our opponents run into their own crushing injuries or bad luck.

In general, it feels like people are having a hard time differentiating between the massive disappointment of losing TL— that we don't get to see him and the C's at full strength— vs the reality that the future is still highly uncertain and stuffed full of variables.

reggiecleveland said:

Timelord is the Walton of this team. Id he is ever healthy they win it all.
Maybe they need to dind a starter and have the best center in the league play 20-25 minutes all year.

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Brad was trying to throttle back the TimeLord/Horford minutes by adding Theis at the trade deadline. This year's anti 2BIGz stance was always rooted in concern with TL's health/Al's age by bubble wrapping them (limiting their minutes) all season. Not blaming IME here, he was doing just that, he was ramping up Theis minutes, giving Horford days off, and he got some crappy non-contact injury to TL. BUT no one here is all that shocked that this happened. Adding a cheap/springy/defense first Center/PF is job #1, for Brad, this offseason.

That's the first time I've heard the Walton/TimeLord analogy and it may be pretty apt going forward (playing TL 20-25mpg)

m0ckduck said:

It's an absurdly pessimistic take:

"Can't rule out"? One round?

That's it? No chance against Toronto, Chicago or Brooklyn?

Then, he twice mentions the possibility of a first-round matchup with Brooklyn as though it's (a) likely and (b) doomsday.

I don't think KOC is dumb— I think he wants to avoid taking a wishy-washy "well, it depends" stance and so is instead going on all-in on the under for the Celts finals chances— which is clearly the right choice— and then engaging in some motivated reasoning to support his stance. But it definitely feels that this is still the "well, it depends" zone. A team that has been posting near-historic point differential the last 3 months— you don't think this team can possibly get through the first round and then beat, say, Philly in the second without TL? Really? From that point, as others have said, who knows? Maybe we get TL back at 75-80% for two series, and it's just enough. Or maybe our opponents run into their own crushing injuries or bad luck.

In general, it feels like people are having a hard time differentiating between the massive disappointment of losing TL— that we don't get to see him and the C's at full strength— vs the reality that the future is still highly uncertain and stuffed full of variables.

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Jays+Smart+Horford is a really, really good top 4. If you think Tatum is a top-5 player now (I do, if he shoots over ~37% from 3), then that's maybe the best core around any of the top-10 guys right now.

Maybe I'm being a fanboy, but I think there's enough talent to play a smaller style without TL and still be really good.

Most of this comes down to how good you think Tatum is. Imo people have not yet adjusted to the reality in which he's a superstar, even though that seems to be the reality we live in.

benhogan said:

Adding a cheap/springy/defense first Center/PF is job #1, for Brad, this offseason.

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Not sure they go there, but there are theoretically a number of options in FA this year:

Claxton, Bryant, Bamba, etc.

I mean, none of those guys is Timelord or even close…

tbb345 said:

This is because Windhorst (falsely based off of Ime’s press conference) that some Celtics players weren’t vaccinated based off of the injury report for the Raptor game. Seems to be much ado about nothing

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It was really bad reporting--he also said Tatum, Brown, and Horford weren't on injury report for the previous game and all played, when of course all 3 were on the report (Tatum and Brown as PROBABLE) and Horford did NOT play.

They could make a deep run without RW. Now they just need to get past a round or two without him. Parade back on.

TL out not at KG-09 level DEFCON, but close. Still hoping they go deep enough and he’s able to return.

mikeot said:

TL out not at KG-09 level DEFCON, but close. Still hoping they go deep enough and he’s able to return.

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KP in the Finals.

benhogan said:

That's the first time I've heard the Walton/TimeLord analogy and it may be pretty apt going forward (playing TL 20-25mpg)

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Nope. It is extraordinarily and unreasonably pessimistic. Walton's feet were trash. Have you ever read David Halberstam's "The Breaks of the Game"? One of the great basketball books, ostensibly covering one post-Walton season in the life of the Portland Trail Blazers, but really digging much deeper than that, including having a lot of say about Walton and his feet (or lack thereof).

I just had a weird realization about the team. Every player in Ime’s rotation has now had multiple years of experience with the Celtics, with the exception of White, who comes from Ime/Pop’s system in San Antonio. Nesmith and Pritchard are the relative newcomers who are wrapping up their second seasons.

Eddie Jurak said:

Nope. It is extraordinarily and unreasonably pessimistic. Walton's feet were trash. Have you ever read David Halberstam's "The Breaks of the Game"? One of the great basketball books, ostensibly covering one post-Walton season in the life of the Portland Trail Blazers, but really digging much deeper than that, including having a lot of say about Walton and his feet (or lack thereof).

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I never read the book. I'd just point out that Bill Walton played 4 seasons at UCLA (didn't miss much time there) and averaged 33.5mpg over his first 4 NBA seasons. Then was never the same again

@reggiecleveland is basically saying Rob Williams is fragile, injury-prone, & should be handled carefully (by using a Walton analogy) all of which seems obvious IMO

I'd rather not see TL play 30mpg next season and used judiciously during the long NBA regular season. It's the same stance I had to start this season. I'm not sure what caused the injury and I'm not blaming IME. BUT I'd rather not witness big minutes out of Rob when the team is pounding opponents by historic margins

RorschachsMask said:

View: https://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1509275241503150087?s=20&t=S2gnfdK_HGK4GY85bP5dyw

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Or they could be playing mind games with Toronto. Why reveal a full roster until you have to?

Cesar Crespo said:

Or they could be playing mind games with Toronto. Why reveal a full roster until you have to?

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I take Ime at his word, and I believe Jaylen and Al’s covid cases were described as breakthrough.

More than anything else, I’m annoyed that it’s becoming a thing.

benhogan said:

I never read the book. I'd just point out that Bill Walton played 4 seasons at UCLA (didn't miss much time there) and averaged 33.5mpg over his first 4 NBA seasons. Then was never the same again

@reggiecleveland is basically saying Rob Williams is fragile, injury-prone, & should be handled carefully (by using a Walton analogy) all of which seems obvious IMO

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I get why someone would make the comp. But Timelord has not dealt with any injuries that are remotely comparable to what Walton went through - not even this latest. And Walton was no iron man during his first 4 years in the league. He might have averaged 34 minutes per game, but look at the games played totals.

1974-75: 35 GP
1975-76: 51 GP
1976-77: 65 GP in reg season, plus 19 (of 19) GP in playoffs
1977-78: 58 GP in reg season, plus 2 (of 6) GP in playoffs

In the regular season, he played 209 of a possible 328 games. On top of that, he was healthy for one playoff run, mostly injured for another one. (He didn't play in the playoffs again until he was a Celtic). After that he played 14 games over the next 4 years, before savaging a few decent parts of seasons. In terms of games played, his 1985-86 season was his healthiest - he played in 80 of 82 reg season games and 16 of 18 playoff games. If you add his regular season and playoff minutes, his Celtic year was the third highest total minutes year of his career.

Anyway, no reason to think this meniscus injury is going to mean that we barely ever see TL play again as happened with Walton.

Eddie Jurak said:

I get why someone would make the comp. But Timelord has not dealt with any injuries that are remotely comparable to what Walton went through - not even this latest. And Walton was no iron man during his first 4 years in the league. He might have averaged 34 minutes per game, but look at the games played totals.

1974-75: 35 GP
1975-76: 51 GP
1976-77: 65 GP in reg season, plus 19 (of 19) GP in playoffs
1977-78: 58 GP in reg season, plus 2 (of 6) GP in playoffs

In the regular season, he played 209 of a possible 328 games. On top of that, he was healthy for one playoff run, mostly injured for another one. (He didn't play in the playoffs again until he was a Celtic). After that he played 14 games over the next 4 years, before savaging a few decent parts of seasons. In terms of games played, his 1985-86 season was his healthiest - he played in 80 of 82 reg season games and 16 of 18 playoff games. If you add his regular season and playoff minutes, his Celtic year was the third highest total minutes year of his career.

Anyway, no reason to think this meniscus injury is going to mean that we barely ever see TL play again as happened with Walton.

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I didn't take his Walton comp as literally as you have. The Meniscus injury is just the latest injury Rob has sustained. No one is calling it a career ender. Medical procedures and the science behind them have advanced over the last 50yrs since Walton played

Let's' forget Walton for a second here, there is no way to sugarcoat Rob's injury history. It's why they got him at 27 in the First Round (considered a lottery talent the prior season) and how Brad signed him on the cheap.

Being careful with Rob's regular-season minutes is a no-brainer. 30mpg is probably too much. RC suggested 20-25mpg which is very conservative, but fine if Brad makes acquiring depth there a priority this offseason (which I'd like)

Walton fucked up his bones by eating that insane macrobiotic diet. He was completely deficient in nutrients (manganese especially) that even regular vegetarians would have had no problem sustaining. Really hard to compare anyone with him.

Analyze this?

View: https://twitter.com/mattwclark3/status/1509360381441069059?s=21

So, I wasn't able to watch the game. Just looking at the box score, what was Smart doing going 3-15? I know he had to take 26 shots the night before with no Jays or Horford or Williams, but we didn't let some bad genie out of the bottle, did we?

Last night's game was very reminiscent of what the Celtics were like before their turnaround. Impatient, yapping at refs, Smart heaving up 10 threes in the first 3 quarters (making 3), lots of turnovers, and, for the second game in a row, not able to hold it together down the stretch.

Were some people (Hi Marcus) affected by the prior game with 4 starters out and Smart trying to do everything? Is this an indication that the Heat are just the better team, especially without Rob? Is it just a one-off and a learning experience?

This was only the second time the Celtics have dropped 2 in a row since they started playing well.

The Celtics are now 2 games back and unlikely to catch the Heat with just 5 games left. Milwaukee is one game back, while Philly is 2 games back but has played 2 fewer games so has a little more control of its own destiny. So it is looking like a 3 or 4 seed for the Celtics, depending on whether Philly finishes out strong or weak.

The Celtics remaining games are against 2 losing teams - Washington and Indy - and then 3 good teams: Chicago, Milwaukee, Memphis. But by the time they get to those last 3, teams may be resting guys and not worried about seeding.

Things to note from the game:

• Marcus had a split personality game. He shot 3 for 15, including 3 of 10 from 3, turned the ball over 6 times. But he did have 8 assists, including some spectacular ones, and 3 steals.
• In general the Celtics were loose with the ball throughout. Various guys tried to hit cutters and passed to Miami players instead.
• Daniel Theis played only 17 minutes but had a great game. Only one rebound, which was knd of weird, but he shot a perfect 6 for 6 from the field and scored 15 points. He and White were the only "plus" Celtics on the night.
• Brown led the Celtics with 28 points, largely on the strength of shooting 5 of 9 from three. He shot 4 of 13 from 2, which gives a good sense of how effective Miami's defense was. Brown added 10 points and 6 assists, ut also had 3 tunrovers.
• Tatum had an OK 23 points, on 9 of 17 shooting, but went 0 for 5 from 3. He added 6 assists and 2 steals but also had 4 turnovers.
• Al had 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block, but only 6 points on 2 of 6 shooting from the field. But Miami attacked him defensively with some success. Optimistically, the Celtics need to figures some things out without Rob.
• Grant was a mess, bordering on unplayable. 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 turovers in 26 minutes.
• White was decent but didn't shoot well.
• The Heat kept Pritchard bottled up.

The Celtics shooting in the 4th quarter this season is not pretty lol.

Marcus shot so much because the Heat were collapsing defensively and leaving him open. For the most part his shots were good looks. Heat were one of the few teams we've seen be successful at forcing the ball out of Tatum's hands but not letting other guys kill them.

Van Gundy was right to say that 3 point shooting in the playoffs will make or break the C's.

The Heat's defense is very good, they have size/length and rotate, collapse, and recover. They generally made the C's work for their points and forced a bunch of turnovers. When the C's got open threes or got the rim they missed far too many and the Heat were out pushing the pace in transition. On the other end, the C's had no answer for the high p&r action with Adebayo and Lowry. Lowry was nails, as he so frequently has been against the C's.

We all knew their margin of error would be diminished with TL out and it was. When playing a top tier team, it was obvious their spacing on offense and rotations on defense are not as strong without him. To make matters worse, Grant stank up the joint and was stapled to the bench. I think the Heat pose matchup challenges for the C's, particularly with TL out. Luckily, they won't have to play them in the first round.

chilidawg said:

Marcus shot so much because the Heat were collapsing defensively and leaving him open. For the most part his shots were good looks. Heat were one of the few teams we've seen be successful at forcing the ball out of Tatum's hands but not letting other guys kill them.

Van Gundy was right to say that 3 point shooting in the playoffs will make or break the C's.

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This and the post above by @jasail are spot on. All the complaints about play are because Miami dictated those shots etc. This isn't on one or even multiple players imho. Miami is very good, very well coached and their mostly veteran rotation is the type that Boston might struggle with because of the difference in experience.

That said, the Celtics can beat this team. But not playing like they did on Wednesday.

So right now who would we rather face in the second round - Bucks, 76er's, Heat, or Nets?

I'm leaning towards 76er's at this point, since they are so dependent now on Harden being vintage Harden every game.

Beale13 said:

So right now who would we rather face in the second round - Bucks, 76er's, Heat, or Nets?

I'm leaning towards 76er's at this point, since they are so dependent now on Harden being vintage Harden every game.

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Of that group, I would want the Sixers, too.

Beale13 said:

So right now who would we rather face in the second round - Bucks, 76er's, Heat, or Nets?

I'm leaning towards 76er's at this point, since they are so dependent now on Harden being vintage Harden every game.

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I honestly think the Heat still. They’re a tough team but their best player can’t hit a 3 to save his life and I think we can match up pretty well with Bam.
In order to get shooting on the court for the spacing they need they always have to play at least one player whos bad defensively and can be hunted out for a mismatch (Duncan Robinson, Herro, Strus).

IMO, the Heat played pretty close to their A game last night and the Celtics were around a C and it was still a very close game..

Of course, the flip side of all of this is that the way that both teams defend every game should be close and the Celtics have been dogshit in close games

Don't know if people listen to Celtics Beat regularly but Mike Gorman was on the last episode and Gorman is always a must listen: https://www.clnsmedia.com/podcasts/celtics-beat/.

I post this, however, because Gorman talks about how TL is the "third star" that the Cs are perceived to need. Gorman is so adamant about this, he poses this question: assuming good health, in five years, how would people rank JT, JB, and TL?

Gorman doesn't come right out and say it (probably because he doesn't want to seem to have dementia), but he thinks TL will be the best of the three as once he develops his jump shot, he's going to be a lock for 20/10/etc plus he's a perennial DPOY candidate. (Question posed at about 22:25)

Gorman also tells his anecdote about Mitchell telling Wade that UT couldn't figure out what the Cs were doing defensively (see 18:40).

Fun listen IMO.

I'm going to give the C's a bit of a mulligan on last night and assume they'll be much better-prepared for the Heat if they were to face them in a playoff series, even if Rob isn't ready, rather than their second game without Rob and their first game without him and with Tatum/Horford/Brown playing. They're going to watch video and figure out how to stop the pick and roll that the Heat went to over and over again last night.

The 6ers and Nets may be reliant on their best players being their best players, but...I kinda feel like you can rely on that happening, that's why they are elite superstars. In the playoffs it's often going to come down to the best players making shots and unless Durant / Kyrie / Embiid / Harden are hurt (definitely possible) they're going to be problems for the defense. I love Butler but as mentioned above it's way easier to defend a guy who isn't a 3-pt threat.

wade boggs chicken dinner said:

Don't know if people listen to Celtics Beat regularly but Mike Gorman was on the last episode and Gorman is always a must listen: https://www.clnsmedia.com/podcasts/celtics-beat/.

I post this, however, because Gorman talks about how TL is the "third star" that the Cs are perceived to need. Gorman is so adamant about this, he poses this question: assuming good health, in five years, how would people rank JT, JB, and TL?

Gorman doesn't come right out and say it (probably because he doesn't want to seem to have dementia), but he thinks TL will be the best of the three as once he develops his jump shot, he's going to be a lock for 20/10/etc plus he's a perennial DPOY candidate. (Question posed at about 22:25)

Gorman also tells his anecdote about Mitchell telling Wade that UT couldn't figure out what the Cs were doing defensively (see 18:40).

Fun listen IMO.

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This is fascinating because watching them at full strength and full speed—the weird comp that I have been thinking of is not another NBA defense but rather when an NFL defense runs some kind of man/zone hybrid scheme with seamless hand-offs, disguised blitzes, etc. I'm sure this is a dumb analogy for a number of reasons but watching them at work is like watching a team constantly forcing a QB to run through his entire progression multiple times before throwing up a duck to a guy in double coverage.

Devizier said:

Walton fucked up his bones by eating that insane macrobiotic diet. He was completely deficient in nutrients (manganese especially) that even regular vegetarians would have had no problem sustaining. Really hard to compare anyone with him.

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This is not usually what people mean when they say "ate himself out of the league."

wade boggs chicken dinner said:

Don't know if people listen to Celtics Beat regularly but Mike Gorman was on the last episode and Gorman is always a must listen: https://www.clnsmedia.com/podcasts/celtics-beat/.

I post this, however, because Gorman talks about how TL is the "third star" that the Cs are perceived to need. Gorman is so adamant about this, he poses this question: assuming good health, in five years, how would people rank JT, JB, and TL?

Gorman doesn't come right out and say it (probably because he doesn't want to seem to have dementia), but he thinks TL will be the best of the three as once he develops his jump shot, he's going to be a lock for 20/10/etc plus he's a perennial DPOY candidate. (Question posed at about 22:25)

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Color me VERY skeptical about "best of the three." Much less so about "third star."

I could see from a winning perspective where Rob might be more valuable the Jaylen. But cant see him as more important as Tatum.

Jaylen will always be "Paid more" for a variety of reasons (Wing,3pt,Health).

wade boggs chicken dinner said:

Don't know if people listen to Celtics Beat regularly but Mike Gorman was on the last episode and Gorman is always a must listen: https://www.clnsmedia.com/podcasts/celtics-beat/.

I post this, however, because Gorman talks about how TL is the "third star" that the Cs are perceived to need. Gorman is so adamant about this, he poses this question: assuming good health, in five years, how would people rank JT, JB, and TL?

Gorman doesn't come right out and say it (probably because he doesn't want to seem to have dementia), but he thinks TL will be the best of the three as once he develops his jump shot, he's going to be a lock for 20/10/etc plus he's a perennial DPOY candidate. (Question posed at about 22:25)

Gorman also tells his anecdote about Mitchell telling Wade that UT couldn't figure out what the Cs were doing defensively (see 18:40).

Fun listen IMO.

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thanks for posting Wade.

My 5-year tea leaves say Tatum will be the best player in the NBA, Brown will be top20 and

Rob will be an injury in waiting/handled with kid gloves his entire career. His size, body composition and jumping ability are both a blessing and a curse. The Celtics will balance it by limiting TL's regular-season minutes/games and turn him loose during the playoffs. He just won't play enough in the regular season to get put on many lists.

The recent TL injury isn't shading my perspective either. My tea leaves said the exact same thing to start the season.

Eddie Jurak said:

This is not usually what people mean when they say "ate himself out of the league."
Color me VERY skeptical about "best of the three." Much less so about "third star."

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There is literally no way he becomes the best of the three, unless something catastrophic happens to both Tatum and Brown. His absolute ceiling is what, a slightly better version of Bam Adebayo? That's an excellent player (The Ringer midseason ranking had Bam at #23, and the Athletic has Bam in their 5th tier, ranked 17-21) but Tatum is far better than Bam, and injury concerns will pretty much always keep TL below Brown as well.

Euclis20 said:

There is literally no way he becomes the best of the three, unless something catastrophic happens to both Tatum and Brown. His absolute ceiling is what, a slightly better version of Bam Adebayo? That's an excellent player (The Ringer midseason ranking had Bam at #23, and the Athletic has Bam in their 5th tier, ranked 17-21) but Tatum is far better than Bam, and injury concerns will pretty much always keep TL below Brown as well.

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Ya for TL to be better than Tatum he would have to basically become prime KG, which would require a leap on defense, multiple leaps on offense, and probably become a 32-34mpg guy. Would love for it to happen, but obviously seems highly, highly unlikely.

Euclis20 said:

There is literally no way he becomes the best of the three, unless something catastrophic happens to both Tatum and Brown. His absolute ceiling is what, a slightly better version of Bam Adebayo? That's an excellent player (The Ringer midseason ranking had Bam at #23, and the Athletic has Bam in their 5th tier, ranked 17-21) but Tatum is far better than Bam, and injury concerns will pretty much always keep TL below Brown as well.

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Soul-crushing block on Tatum in 2020 aside, Bam isn't a great rim protector. TL's upside is something more like Bam + Gobert, which is a really, really good player.

Tatum will always be ahead of TL, just because elite offense is the most valuable thing in the NBA.

Euclis20 said:

There is literally no way he becomes the best of the three, unless something catastrophic happens to both Tatum and Brown. His absolute ceiling is what, a slightly better version of Bam Adebayo? That's an excellent player (The Ringer midseason ranking had Bam at #23, and the Athletic has Bam in their 5th tier, ranked 17-21) but Tatum is far better than Bam, and injury concerns will pretty much always keep TL below Brown as well.

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Yes. What Rob is is an excellent guy to ride shotgun with 2 ball dominant stars. Smart, too.

Eddie Jurak said:

Yes. What Rob is is an excellent guy to ride shotgun with 2 ball dominant stars. Smart, too.

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Yup. He’s playing the Rodman role for the Jay’s and he’s done it quite well this year. This injury still bums me out.

BigSoxFan said:

Yup. He’s playing the Rodman role for the Jay’s and he’s done it quite well this year. This injury still bums me out.

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Of course there are some people out there who have Rodman as the best player of all time.

Jakarta said:

Ya for TL to be better than Tatum he would have to basically become prime KG, which would require a leap on defense, multiple leaps on offense, and probably become a 32-34mpg guy. Would love for it to happen, but obviously seems highly, highly unlikely.

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This is really well put, and it describes the 1% projection for TL. It's also extremely unlikely that he makes that many leaps. He's already a positive player on offense, but oops can only take you so far. Until he's a danger to score with the ball in his hands, he's not passing Jaylen, let alone Jayson. I say this as a cardholding member of the Defense Wins Championships club.

I can see him developing some touch around the rim and elevating his defense one more leap, which could make him a top 30 player.

Another not great game for the C's, especally defensively, but they pulled out a win this time.

They are 48-30, 1.5 games back, with 4 games left: Washington, then at Chicago, Milwaukee, and Memphis. They are probably looking at the 2 or 3 seed.

Like the last couple of games there were some worrying trends: the defense was off, both in covering the pick and roll and in leaving a ton of wide open 3-point shooters; there was a lot of sloppiness with the ball: 15 turnovers in this game, including 5 in the first 5 minutes; and there were a lot of possessions where instead of an offense they Celtics just chcuked up the first 3 they could.

Tatum and Brown both scored 30+ points, something they have done several times during this second half hot streak.

Brown (32 in the game) had an incredible first half, scoring 21 points on an incredible mix of athletic plays. His highlights for this game are something to see. He is on an 8 game streak of scoring 25+. He cooled off in the second half but made a few key plays late. Overall, 12 of 18 from the field, 2 of 5 from 3, 6 for 6 from the line. Added 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 7 assists, with the only blemish on his game being 5 turnovers. The 7 assists were reflective of some strong playmaking - he's not and will never be a 'playmaker' per se, he doesn't see the whole floor and feast on double teams the way Tatum is starting to, but he's able to drive and look for the big or cutter and that adds a lot to his game. Brown highlights:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSskUV783oM


Tatum had a bad shooting night but came on in the second half and down the stretch. At one point he was 4-15 from the field, but he improved to 10 of 24 by the end of the game. Also 3 of 9 from three and 8 of 10 from the line for 31 points. Added 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover.

Horford had a big game, with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. Shot 7-8 from the field including 2-2 on threes. Theis did some nice work - he was getting avaiable for drivers like Brown and Tatum to get him the ball. 10 points on 5-8 shooting plus 8 rebounds in 29 minutes. He got the start instead of Grant. Smart had 3 tunrovers in the opening 5 minutes, but didn't turn the ball over again. He again took too many threes (2 of 7 from the field). He was OK outside of that and the turnovers.

White led the bench with 13 points, driven mostly by his agressive drives to the hoop to draw fouls. He shot 2-4 from the field (1-2 from three) but was a perfect 8-8 from the line. Grant countined to be in his funk for most of the game but hit a couple of key baskets late. Prtichard was OK (hit a pair of 3s and added 4 rebounds and 2 assists) in 13 minutes.

Nesmith didn't play but I would have liked to have seen him get a look given how off the defense looked.

IND hit a bunch of 3Ps late in the clock and a lot of them IIRC were a step (or more) off the line. The problem to me wasn't that they made them - I mean teams shoot well every so often - but it was that they were taking them with confidence, which was different Pre-Injury.

Also, it seemed to me that the Cs played a lot more drop coverage with Al defending the high PnRs (as Scal noted) and apparently did so against MIA (I've not finished that game yet). My guess the theory is that without TL on the floor, they don't want Al out guarding the perimeter. I don't think the drop coverage worked all that well but I'm sure there are stats to confirm.

wade boggs chicken dinner said:

IND hit a bunch of 3Ps late in the clock and a lot of them IIRC were a step (or more) off the line. The problem to me wasn't that they made them - I mean teams shoot well every so often - but it was that they were taking them with confidence, which was different Pre-Injury.

Also, it seemed to me that the Cs played a lot more drop coverage with Al defending the high PnRs (as Scal noted) and apparently did so against MIA (I've not finished that game yet). My guess the theory is that without TL on the floor, they don't want Al out guarding the perimeter. I don't think the drop coverage worked all that well but I'm sure there are stats to confirm.

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It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Ime has told them to pull their foot off the gas a bit as the playoffs approach. Maybe a different story if they pulled out the Toronto and Miami games, and at this point probably thinking about seeding as well.

great shooting night from Haliburton (refs are the only ones that could stop him)

and the Pacers 52%/47%/96%

Survive and advance

Haliburton will be an All-Star next season, great trade moving Sabonis for him

benhogan said:

great shooting night from Haliburton (refs are the only ones that could stop him)

and the Pacers 52%/47%/96%

Survive and advance

Haliburton will be an All-Star next season, great trade moving Sabonis for him

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I'm thrilled with the C's roster as currently constructed, assuming Time Lord is healthy, but a Jaylen-for-Haliburton deal, had Boston received an additional piece or two, could have been intriguing.

128 said:

I'm thrilled with the C's roster as currently constructed, assuming Time Lord is healthy, but a Jaylen-for-Haliburton deal, had Boston received an additional piece or two, could have been intrigued

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Agreed, the DW addition lessens our Haliburton pining

but the Brown for Hali + Barnes was the most intriguing of all the JB Fake trade ideas

Jed Zeppelin said:

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Ime has told them to pull their foot off the gas a bit as the playoffs approach. Maybe a different story if they pulled out the Toronto and Miami games, and at this point probably thinking about seeding as well.

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I can't imagine Ime saying that. If he wants to rest guys he needs to staple them to the bench.

benhogan said:

Agreed, the DW addition lessens our Haliburton pining

but the Brown for Hali + Barnes was the most intriguing of all the JB Fake trade ideas

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Only one I would have done, but I think I'm the one who originally proposed it anyway.

The Murray/Vassell and Murray/Johnson FTI were interesting but I'm not a huge fan of Murray and I'm not sold on Johnson or Vassell becoming stars, never mind better than Jaylen.. I think it's all but a given Haliburton will be in JB's tier, with the possibility of being better. Some posters read my Haliburton love as JB hate, but I like JB. I'm just insanely high on Haliburton. I thought he'd be averaging closer to 20/10 with Indiana but 17.2/9.5 isn't far off. Shooting .493/.426/.836 in that time.

Johnson and Vassell aren't as well rounded. They are 22 and 21 respectively, so they still have plenty of time to take a leap. Haliburton just turned 22 himself, so same holds true for him.

Maybe someone can sell me on Murray but I think he's sort of like Marcus Smart with Russell Westbrooks stat padding ability. I'd be fine with him on the team if he were replacing Marcus, not Jaylen.

League average TS% is .565.

TL: .745
DT: .678
GW: .634
JT: .577
JB: .573
PP: .567
AH: .563
MS: .534
DW: .515
AN: .487

JRich: .570
DS: .543
RL: .520


Cut off was 150+ FGA.

Crazy how balanced it is.