The Hospital Celtics Come Up Huge, Win Their 6th In A Row
When the news came out that Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Aron Baynes, and Yabu were all going to miss last night’s game against the Pelicans, it filled me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I have spent many, many hours watching the Hospital Celtics and knew that despite making no sense whatsoever, that they would probably play better under those circumstances. With almost any team in the league, you take away that many important players and a team usually gets smoked, but for the Celtics, it’s the exact opposite. So while I was excited to see guys like Semi and Robert Williams get more of an opportunity, I was also terrified because it’s hard enough trying to stop Anthony Davis with your normal players, now the Celts were going to have to do it with guys that barely play.
And yeah, he ended the night with 41 points, but he had to take 34 shots to get it, so I’m going to chalk that up as a win. At the end of the day we’re seeing a team that is on a big time roll, and while their previous wins against NYK/CHI were expected, this win is a little different given AD and all the guys that were out. To think they still put up 113 points just goes to show you how far this offense has come over the last few weeks, and why the Celtics are very much in the thick of things in the East. A team many wanted to leave for dead after their first 20 games has continued to show us that they are in the process of turning a corner, and winning a game like this with your reserves is a great stepping stone.
All I’m going to say is don’t let these Celtics injuries last a long time, because the Hospital Celtics do not know how to lose no matter what generational talent they are playing. It was a fun night last night and we have a lot to get to, so let’s get started.
The Good
– Just like he has all season, on a night where the Celtics needed this player to carry them, he was more than up for the challenge. He didn’t get the 40 he talked about pregame, but I would say 31/4/4 on 10-15 shooting (5-8 from deep) was more than enough
It’s hard to really explain how huge Marcus Morris has been this season for the Boston Celtics. He’s been their most consistent player from Day 1, he’s having a career year 62.8% TS% which is by far the best of his career, and every time they have needed him to step up this season he has risen to the occasion. I’m at the point now where I almost get mad when he DOESN’T shoot, which for anyone that watched him last season you know what a weird feeling that is. He’s so locked in offensively right now and is so versatile, he’s playing his way into so much goddamn money this summer.
Obviously you love the offense, but Mook also had the tough assignment of staying with Julius Randle, and for the most part he did a decent job, holding him to 9 points and forcing 4 TOs. On a night where the Celtics definitely needed veteran leadership to carry them, Morris was fantastic
– OK, I can’t hold back any longer. How about Robert fucking Williams?!?!?!?!
As fans all we’ve wanted was for Brad to throw Williams out there and see what happens. Well he was forced to last night and how could you walk away anything other than extremely impressed. His rebounding, his shot blocking, his defense, and even his passing were all so great you have to figure he’s earned at least another look even once Baynes comes back. Maybe they allow Horford to take even more time to recover until the MIL game and just give the people more Timelord.
The two blocks on AD were nice of course, but let’s talk about his entire night on Davis. On 32 possessions Williams held AD to 7-17 shooting. I’m sorry, excuse me? Top 5 player in the NBA Anthony Davis? Yes, that one. Remember when everyone got all mad that he was late a few times after being drafted? That was fun. I don’t want to overreact and tell you that Williams might finally be the next Russell, but I’m saying he is what would happen if Bill Russell played today.
– Jayson Tatum’s early struggles are so far in the rear view mirror for me, I’m just sitting here enjoying yet another awesome performance.
21/6 on 10-16 shooting, Tatum got things kicked off early with 9 first quarter points and he never looked back. We got the full bag from Tatum here, with some aggressive drives, some dagger threes, some isolation pull ups, there was not a Pelican on this roster that could stop him.
But we know the kid can score. The other part of his slow start was his inconsistency on defense, and that has really turned around as well. Last night opponents were a combined 4-9 against him, and the two players he guarded most (Jrue Holiday 16 possessions and Solomon Hill 19) had just 5 combined points. You get this type of consistent effort on both ends from Tatum like we have been over the last month, it makes this team so much harder to beat.
– One more time, what do I always stress is the formula for this team. Defense and rebounding. Well, the Celtics won the rebounding battle 51-39, they held NO to 44/30% splits and the starters accounted for 12 of their 13 turnovers. This Celtics defense was SWARMING, which is pretty crazy considering all the plus defenders that were out
– Guess what showed up again? Brad’s favorite play
He cannot stop calling this play and why should he? It rules and nobody has been able to stop it.
– Jaylen Brown had an interesting evening. To start, he displayed the aggressiveness we all crave, only he had a really hard time finishing around the rim. He started like 2-10 or something which is bad, but he wasn’t playing poorly so it was confusing. Rightfully those who are still anti Jaylen for whatever reason based on his first few weeks were foaming at the mouth, but over the course of the second half Jaylen settled down and ended the night as the bench’s highest scorer
Like are we really going to kill a guy for putting up 19/7/3? I suppose some will. For me, all I really care about with Jaylen is his approach, which we can see
is the right one, he just had trouble with some second and third chances among the trees. I’ll take this shot distribution from Jaylen any day of the week. The other thing I care about is how he looks defensively. A player and athlete like Jaylen should be a lockdown defender, and opponents were just 1-4 against him. Of all the players he guarded last night, he gave up a total of 4 points. I don’t know how you could be mad at that.
– While the 113 points is nice and certainly what I’ll take given who was out, I was sad to see the 30 assist streak end as the Celtics only had 23 on 44 FGM. That’s because a lot of their offense was either isolation or offensive rebounds in which they had 14 which led to 17 second chance points.
– Remember back to Summer League where Semi looked awesome, and then the season started and he couldn’t buy a bucket? Well I don’t know what he’s doing, but I am going to need him to keep it up because he was such a monster in this game on both ends
To think Brad can get this sort of production from his like 13th man is pretty incredible. The three was nice but we know Semi can do that. What stood out to me was his little midrange pull up and then how he finished around the basket. No surprise that on the defensive end opponents shot just 2-6 against him, and he even matched up with AD/Randle a combined 12 possessions and gave up just 2 points. As a small forward!!!
– I want to give credit to Terry Rozier for playing in control in the spot start and even hitting the roll man a few times in P&R, which we know is a struggle for him. He finished with a solid 10/7/6 on 4-7 shooting in his 31 minutes, and he’s been pretty consistent over his last handful
I do not find it a coincidence that the Celtics are going through this streak at the same time where Terry has improved his level of play. Those always feel related to me.
– Just so you know, since the second Marcus Smart has been inserted into the starting lineup the Celtics have the best offense and best net rating in the NBA. Thought that was pretty important.
The Bad
– Up by as many as 22, I suppose the Celtics had to dick around and bring this down to just a 13 point win. Too many 20+ point wins would be bad for their psyche, everyone knows that. Now Brad has something to yell at them about.
– I don’t know why, but the Celtics play at the end of these quarters was pretty dogshit. Lookin at you Jaylen my friend. He butchered the shit out of the last two possessions of the first half and his teammates were NOT happy with him, and then the Celts turned it over again at the end of the third quarter and immediately gave up a last second layup to bring the lead to 11. That’s the type of sloppy play that you cannot have, and the Celts were fortunate enough where that it didn’t come back to bite them.
Even with guys out, I expect this team to execute better in those situations.
– 12-39 from three is pretty gross. It actually got better as the game went along, but they started 2-14 and because they are addicted, even when they couldn’t buy one the Celts didn’t stop jacking them.
– Tatum really didn’t take a FTA? That’s the one area of his game I really want to see him develop. If he wants to take a leap as a scorer in this league, he needs to find way to consistently get to the line, but then again nobody on this team does so it’s not just a Tatum problem.
The Ugly
– You know the rules! We’re skipping this section until they lose again. That’s the beauty of reaching the 5 game win streak level. Congratulations!
Alright, a quick look at the Celtics schedule tells us that this was one of their hard games during this stretch, and they now go WSH/ATL/DET/PHX before the date with MIL. I will note that it looks like John Wall is hurt and the Pistons had everyone hurt last night against PHI, so those may not be as hard as we think as long as this team shows up. Is it possible to be riding a 10 game winning streak into that 12/21 date with Giannis? Absolutely, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This team is back to playing great basketball no matter who is in the lineup, so I say we just enjoy that while we can before we start looking too far ahead.
16 down 46 to go.