So now that the Celts return from their trip 3-1, everything’s good right?
Eh, sort of.
Big picture, yeah things are good.
At 11-3, the Celts still own the best record in the NBA.
Going 3-1 on a road trip with wins over PHI while missing two starters was nice.
But it’s how the Celts ended the trip that leaves you annoyed.
Sometimes it’s not always only about the result, but also how you looked.
The eerie part is we have literally been here before.
Just last season, two of the first 3 Celtics losses were in OT.
Two of the first three losses to start this season have come in OT.
This is a long way to say, deep breaths.
Things are going to be OK.
It’s a shitty loss at the end of a long road trip that shouldn’t have happened.
Even knowing all that, we still have a lot to get to.
For about 99.9% of the game, that’s exactly what Tatum did.
- Payton Pritchard is the other player last night that nobody should really have a problem with this morning.
In fact, this was easily the best performance of his season.
I know he broke out against IND, but that was in blowout minutes.
Brissett was high energy, rebounds and no mistakes.
Luke was solid defensively, rebounded well, and generally didn’t fuck up either.
This is partly what makes last night so annoying.
You got good performances from your bench.
- Alright that’s it, let’s move on.
The Bad
- Basketball isn’t a complicated game.
Once again, the Celtics OREB issues proved costly.
Sorry, but that’s losing basketball.
In their 3 losses this season, the Celts give up an average of 11.7 OREB a game.
That’s 23rd in the NBA.
In losses, the Celts give up 16.0 2nd chance points a game, which is 22nd.
In wins, that number gets trimmed down to 11.9.
Mark Williams had 8 OREB by himself last night!
In a huge spot in the 4th quarter, guess what happened?
That is not even close to an effective box out, especially in that situation.
A play here and there can completely swing things, which is exactly what happened in that OT.
Sadly, this wasn’t the only time this happened.
You know the collapse that started at the 2 minute mark?
How do we think that started?
It’s not rocket science to know that losing to bad teams usually consists of shit like this.
This is called playing with your food.
- Is there a chance that Sam Hauser loses his powers as a starter?
As a reserve, Hauser is shooting 51/50% on the season.
A cool 22/17% in his 2 starts.
The first big thing is of course taking Porzingis out for the final possession of regulation.
Let’s have a look
On some level, I understand being super switchable with Brissett out there.
At the same time, Porzingis had been awesome defensively in this game.
Sorry, but getting the ball to Tatum like this
is not a good ATO.
That does not set him up in a great position for success.
For starters, he’s basically trapped in the corner without a ton of space to operate.
The issue here is once he starts to do that, he’s basically welcoming the double.
I just hate the play overall.
Compare that with the pop in of inbounds play we just saw CHA run.
Things were moving, the play was designed to attack the rim.
Is that what we saw from Joe there?
These are the areas I care about when it comes to Joe.
That shit is so tired.
These are the things that truly matter in my opinion.
In the clutch, he’s shooting 37/0% with 3 TOs.
I thought we were done with not being able to trust point guards at the end of close games?
Yet with Jrue, we’re seeing a lot of the same shit we’ve had with previous PGs.
Last night, it was more of the same suspect late game decision making.
Take the final shot for example, what is this offensive possession?
Sorry, but let’s be honest and consistent here.
That’s why he’s here right?
Holiday also isn’t a rookie.
That’s more than half the season so far.
A tough 1-8 last night, he’s currently 1 for his last 14 from deep.
He’s falling asleep WAY too much on that end, and it continues to be costly.
It was like his controller froze or something.
This is what I mean when I say last night was on everyone.
- The Celtics were up 108-99 with 2:20 left in the game.
That has to be a win.
Tatum missed 2 including one that would have tied the game in OT.
Jrue missed 2 that would have iced the win in regulation.
Porzingis missed 4 (!!!).
I know I obsess over this, but this is why.
When a team gives you free points, you might’t throw 10 of them away.
- We finish of course with the play of Jaylen Brown.
But the point is, these are the plays Jaylen has to figure out.
There’s no need to make the game more difficult than it has to be.
KP gets that ball and shoots, there are probably 27-28 seconds left if he misses.
There’s simply no justifying this shot in my opinion.
A bad decision from another key player in a big spot late in a game.
It wasn’t like the Celts were down 3 and needed a prayer.
you’ve got the option to take your time and get the best shot possible.
Instead, Jaylen went for the knockout 3PM.
