Well that was gross.
This game was gross because of how the Celts played.
That stuff was there.
The issue was that Celts had an execution problem on both ends of the floor.
The Celts have literally done it on several occasions earlier in this very season.
The second loss vs CHI was on the road at the end of a 3 game trip.
The Warriors/Clippers losses were the last two of that West Coast trip.
The January loss to the Heat….last game of a 3 game trip.
It’s not the end of the world nor does it mean this is how they will always play.
The focus shouldn’t be on having an off night, it should be on how you respond.
At the same time, I think multiple things can be true.
To be honest, this wasn’t all that different from the February 3rd loss to the Suns.
Remember how everyone was freaking out after that?
There is a lot of basketball left in this season.
The Celtics and Bucks essentially have the same strength of schedule remaining (Cs 14th / MIL 15th).
They play each other head to head one more time.
But you have to execute.
If you don’t, nothing else really matters.
If we want the best version of Brogdon when it matters most, having this approach is smart.
Let him go nuts in his minutes and be aggressive offensively, but keep the overall total down.
He responded with 7-15 which was good, but just 2-7 from three which wasn’t so hot.
Mainly because of the punch in of 3PA he had to take to try and find scoring.
Less catch & shoot, more off the dribble/stepback.
That’s not the way for him.
His (and the team’s) issue was more defensively which was a disaster.
- Honestly, that’s really it.
I think we can move on.
Go back to the 3 game skid of ORL/MIA/NYK.
In each of those games it was the same thing.
Take last night for example.
How many times did we see plays like this on the perimeter?
That key in of shit isn’t going to cut it.
We know this because this is how the Celts offense thrives.
Dribble drives and drive and kicks.
This was easily the biggest factor in the game for me, even more than the shooting.
Because every time the Celts tried to make a run, they couldn’t get that all important stop.
Because they couldn’t stop dribble penetration.
This is where the Knicks deserve credit.
Give the Knicks credit, they played a full 48.
- I would best describe this performance as a shit sandwich.
Everywhere you look, the Celts were outplayed.
They lost it 44-35.
- About the fouls/FTs, I think it’s a combination of a few things.
For starters, the defense hasn’t been good enough.
This is not to say the Celts are not fouling.
But it doesn’t feel like things are consistent when it comes to the contact that’s being allowed.
I think that’s the frustrating part.
They had 31 to the Celts 42.
Just like against the Sixers, they took 27 to the Celts 35.
Yet in both of those games each team took 30+ FTA to the Cels being in the low teens.
That just doesn’t pass the eye test.
Especially since so many of his 3PA were simple wide open catch and shoot looks.
Those were tough to miss.
- I’ve said it before, and it applies to this game as well.
Depth is only good if it actually shows up.
Brogdon did, the rest of the bench?
A total of 7 points from non-Brogdon second unit players and a brutal 2-11 shooting.
Especially since Moose actually made one of his 3s one he hit the floor.
With Grant, he can’t keep having these zero impact or negative impact games.
Making 0 FGM, committing 4 fouls and having 2 TOs is simply not going to cut it.
Julius Randle ate this man up for lunch with relative ease, and that’s an issue.
If Grant doesn’t want to shoot, fine.
But then you have to defend at a high level.
When neither of those things happen and he does more harm than good, that’s a problem.
The Celts played the Knicks pretty even the rest of the way, but the damage was done early.
The Celts HAVE to find a way to get off to better starts.
Tatum plays a huge part in that, but it was an everyone issue last night.
The bigger issue is they had basically the same execution in the 4th quarter as well.
So basically, a shitty start and a shitty close.
That’s going to be an L pretty much every time.
The Ugly
- I don’t really know where else you could possibly put the Tatum performance.
That was too much to overcome given that nobody else could make a shot either.
When it comes to Tatum’s February, things are weird.
Since the break, Tatum is shooting just 36/24% from the floor.
He has 22 FGM and 13 TOs over that span.
If you look at his last two games, it’s 13 FGM and 9 TOs.
Not only that, he’s taken just 3 FTA in his last 2 games.
In fact, he’s taken under 3 FTA in 3 of his last 4.
The 3PA numbers are the same as ever.
In terms of his ejection, whatever.
- Finally, the shooting.
The Knicks went down and scored 5 points off those two plays for an 11 point swing.
Could have been 7 or under, and instead, it was 14.
This wasn’t bad offense, it was poor execution.
In the end, an offense generating that many open/wide open looks is good.
Guys just have to make shots.
Oh well, I can live with that.
The process was right, the execution wasn’t.
A look at the schedule tells you things aren’t about to get easier.
Nothing we saw in this game isn’t correctable, the players just have to do it.
The easiest way to forget about this performance is to win the next one.
