The Celtics Served Up A Gigantic Shit Sandwich In What Was An Extremely Embarrassing Loss To The Knicks
Adam Glanzman. Getty Images.
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Over the years we've seen a lot of bad basketball from this team. Frustrating losses, losses to teams they have no business losing to, that shit happens all the time in the NBA. Well, I'm not sure they look quite like what we all witnessed yesterday. Something that can only be described as one of the worst and most pathetic efforts we've seen from a Celtics team in recent memory. I'm not being dramatic or using hyperbole for effect. Yesterday was literally one of the worst performances in Celtics franchise history
They haven't done this shit since the dark days. Some of you reading this blog may not have even been alive for some of these dates! I truly remarkable display in futility. Call it the 1pm start, call it looking ahead to PHI this week, I don't care how you want to justify it, I just know that the energy, effort, and overall quality of basketball that I watched this team "play" yesterday was complete and utter shit. A poop sandwich for everyone from the coach to every player that saw the floor. Nobody, and I mean nobody played well.
So you should know by not, we do not run from these performances. We blog through it. Both the good times like a 5 game winning streak, and the bad times where they barely look like they could compete in a JCC men's league. Let's begin.
The Good
- Let me be clear, I had every intention of skipping this section. What could possibly be good about getting 30 pieced at home by the goddamn Knicks? Really there's only one thing that fits, and it's how Kemba looked. I don't mean his actual basketball production. That shit was bad. Like really bad. He couldn't buy a bucket or stop turning it over, but I'm talking more about how he looked on the floor. How he was cutting, making moves, changing pace and direction, all that stuff looked amazing. The basketball part will come, he's Kemba Walker, but in order for that to happen, I needed to see the same quickness he had pre injury. I would say that might be the only positive from last night, but we'll see how he recovers.
The Bad
- It's almost hard to pick where to start. I suppose we can start at the beginning and something that was maybe the biggest negative of the whole disaster. This team played with no life. No balls. No energy. They looked like they were still sleeping, like a lifeless corpse that couldn't care less about actually playing hard. I'm talking about everyone on the roster. Right from the jump the Knicks were quicker to every 50/50 ball, they had 6 OREB in the first 12 minutes. They were aggressive and got to the line. The Celtics? I don't know what happened but it's always so evident when they are not playing with the right energy and effort.
I know shooting will be streaky. Welcome to the NBA. But you know what you can control? Energy and effort. Where was the ball pressure? Where was the perimeter defense actually showing some resistance and not letting everyone into the paint? Where was the effort to box out? Simply inexcusable and rather embarrassing if you ask me.
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- I also don't really want to hear the "they were missing guys" bullshit. So? Did they have Kemba? Did they have Jaylen? Did they have Smart? Did they have their bench that just put up 66 points the game before? They had enough to beat the goddamn Knicks. Let other fanbases use that excuse. I'm not going to tolerate it simply because half of this team's identity is winning while shorthanded. Not having Jayson Tatum or Rob available does not explain the lack of effort and then whatever bullshit we watched on both ends.
- You want to know what kind of game this was? This play basically summed it up
- When I say this was an ass whooping, I mean it. The largest deficit was 37 points, the Celts NEVER had a lead at any point in this game and it was tied a total of 1 time. A wire to wire beatdown like you read about.
- It's going to take some time, but I didn't really love how they integrated Kemba back. Most notably, it felt like Jaylen was taking a back seat. Something felt off there. I know his usage rate and final line doesn't really tell that story, but if you watched the game it felt like there were long stretches where he was simply disengaged. That's a problem. Jaylen under no circumstances should be taking a back seat now that guys are coming back. Those days are over, but that's exactly what it felt like for long stretches.
Teams are starting to do a much job of cutting off the midrange for Jaylen, especially with Tatum not out there and nobody able to hit an outside shot. We saw the Magic do it, and we just saw the Knicks do it. Now it's time to see how Brad and Jaylen can counter it. The book is out about letting Jaylen get into that zone, so they need to find ways around it.
The Ugly
- I hope everyone enjoyed that one game off from the section because boy is it back with a vengeance. Let's start with perhaps the most embarrassing part, the team's shooting. I was waiting all game for water to find its level, I mean we've seen this team start games shooting the ball like shit a million times before, only for them to eventually figure it out. Well that did NOT happen in this game
1st quarter: 17 points on 38/27% splits
2nd quarter: 18 points on 30/11% splits
3rd quarter: 15 points on 27/13% splits
4th quarter: 25 points on 28/9% splits
Congratulations you finally scored over 20 points and it was once the game was already over! I mean those numbers don't even seem possible. But when you have guys that put up lines like this
Jaylen Brown: 9-20 (3-9)
Marcus Smart: 4-15 (0-7)
Kemba Walker: 3-13 (1-8)
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Grant Willians: 1-5
Jeff Teague: 0-4 (0-2)
Semi Ojeleye: 0-6 (0-6)
Aaron Nesmith: 0-4 (0-2)
Payton Pritchard: 1-3 (1-3)
How the fuck do you even expect to score? I'm legit shocked they even broke 70. They finished at 29/15%. A total of 7-46 from three. Not only that, you can add a pathetic 18-29 from the FT line. I mean it was coming at all angles yesterday. Just a title wave of never ending shit.
- Just how bad was that shoot? Well it wasn't because the Knicks were contesting everything.
They call it a make or miss league for a reason folks. I'm not sure where any of the "makes" were, but christ you need to hit your wide open threes at a little bit of a higher clip if you want to compete. I guess this is why many are chalking it up to just an off night which I get. Chances are this team won't go 3-26 on wide open threes all that often, but that still doesn't make it OK. You know what you can do when your shots aren't falling? Attack the rim. Instead we saw this team take homerun three after homerun three in an effort to close to the gap and the reality was it only made things worse! Love when that happens.
Really the only one that gets a pass from this disaster is Kemba. Everyone else? You should be embarrassed.
- You really know when the Celts are laying an egg not just because of their inability to put the ball in the basket even when they are around the rim, but also because they can't stop turning it over. Another 17 in this one, they nearly had the same number of TOs as FGM. Think about that for a second.
- Killed on the boards, killed in points in the paint, killed in 2nd chance points, barely won fast break points, there really wasn't an area of this game where I would say the Celts looked even remotely decent. Maybe the few nice dimes Kemba threw but he also had 5 TOs so who the hell cares.
So where do you go from here? You burn the tape and forget this ever happened. Maybe they were looking past the Knicks and for that they were served a gigantic slice of humble pie. Maybe they were feeling themselves after that winning streak. Maybe it was wearing the alternates at home and not the home whites. I don't fucking know. I just know that was the worst I've seen this team play since I was in high school and I am now 33 years old.
I would appreciate if they never did this shit again.