Shoutout To The Celtics For Actually Not Blowing A Game Against A Bad Team Missing All Their Good Players
Ned Dishman. Getty Images.
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Nothing makes you forget about blowing a game you really would have liked to win the night before like beating up on a very bad Pelicans team that was essentially missing all of their NBA talent. I suggest that for any fan who roots for a team that might have just had a frustrating loss. You guys gotta play the short-handed Pelicans. It won't really change anything in terms of your general season outlook or positioning, but it'll give you enough dopamine hits to get you through the days until a game where you actually play someone with a pulse. Highly recommend it.
On the second night of a B2B, that's what the Celts needed. They needed to ensure the bleeding didn't continue. Remember, this team found themselves in a similar position like a week ago after a let down loss against the Hornets. They compounded that shit by also losing to a pretty shitty Blazers team (no offense, not their fault). This time around it was a letdown loss against the Hawks, so it was a relief to see things didn't snowball. I cannot stress enough that this wasn't even the Pelicans team the Celts beat a few weeks ago. That at least had guys like Ingram and Valanciunas available. Given they were out and the Celts were all full strength, this is a game common sense says the Celts should have handled. The tricky part is this team in no way shape or form likes to follow common sense, so as a fan you had every reason to believe they would lay another egg. Such is life when you follow an inconsistent .500 team. They can get beat by anybody on any given night.
But they didn't. They took care of their business and didn't play with their food. That's all I really care about. Beating the depleted Pelicans doesn't really change anything. All it did was bring them a game over .500 and maybe got the bad taste of the ATL loss out of their mouth before two huge games next week against MIA and CHA. We also saw the players do a bunch of cool shit which is always entertaining.
The Good
- Against the Hawks, the Celts two best players were nowhere to be found. That proved to be a pretty big deal considering everything this team does is built around them. Sometimes, you get brutal nights like Friday. Other times, you experience what the other side of that coin looks like and Tatum and Brown look like some sort of demigod. Guess which one we got last night
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Remember this from earlier in the week?
Well, you'll never believe this but Tatum and Brown achieved this by the end of the week. Jaylen talked on Friday night about how he needed to be better and would be, and I'd say he immediately backed up that claim. The combined numbers are everything you would dream about seeing when it comes to these two
Jayson Tatum: 38/8/7/3 on 17-26 (4-13)
Jaylen Brown: 31/2/3 on 11-20 (4-9)
A total of 69 points on 28-46 (8-21) shooting is exactly what they need to be doing against a team that did not have a single player on the court that could guard them. Yes, they need to show up against good teams. Nobody is debating that claim. We all have brains. But they also need to make sure this team doesn't have bad losses, and making sure they show up like this to ensure that doesn't happen is also important. Don't act like you haven't seen a 3-18 performance from Tatum in a bad loss to a bad team before. Last night, they were great. I mean look at Tatum's shot chart!
Your eyes aren't tricking you. Tatum did not miss a 2pt FGA in this game. He went 13-13. He got his 38 points without a single goddamn FTA. How often do you see that? As you can see by the image above it's not like he wasn't aggressive. I'd say in terms of how we all want Tatum to play, this was pretty close to the ideal version. He was locked in as a scorer, took good shots, defended at a high level and also was a facilitator for others. Again, given who he is as a player and who they were playing, you should expect dominance like this.
With Jaylen, he once again got off to a great start (12 first quarter points) and his approach was pretty similar. Everything was in the paint first, and then came the threes. It's not like the Pelicans had any sort of legit rim protection, so it was nice to see that the two best players on this team had the same approach. Attack the paint, make them guard you, don't just settle for jumpers. Wild what can happen when your two best players don't miss all their wide open shots huh.
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- Even though watching this team can be one of the most frustrating and infuriating activities on the planet, the only person who is really exempt from that shit is Rob. Watching Rob play basketball and develop into an overall monster at the center position has absolutely been a bright spot of this season. It's every single game with this man
We're getting closer and closer to Rob having himself a 5x5 performance. Last night it was 8/16/4/4 in his 35 minutes. He finished tied with Smart for a team best +28. Much like Tatum/Brown, the Pelicans didn't really have a big to worry about. There was no excuse for Rob to not dominant this game and make a legit impact on both ends. We're at the point now defensively where guys don't even want to challenge him once they get into the paint. When it comes to these elite shot blocking centers like Gobert and Capela etc, it's that intimidating factor that is almost just as important as actually blocking a shot. Players think twice when they get into the paint because they know Rob is lurking and he's foaming at the mouth to do some outrageous shit and send their shot into the center of the earth.
You want to see what impact looks like? If that video wasn't enough, just look at Rob's on/off numbers. When he's on the floor the Celts have a 109 Ortg / 103 Drtg / +5.9 net rating. When he's off? That all drops to a 106 Ortg / 106 Drtg / +0.4 net rating.
They go from +5.9 to +0.4 the second he steps off the floor. I'd say that's pretty important!
The best thing about Rob isn't just the production, it's the availability. He's not missing games, he's playing 35 minutes a night and everything is holding up for the most part. That was always the biggest question mark with him, and it's been great that it hasn't been an issue this year.
- Another game, another example of Marcus Smart accepting and thriving in his role as the point guard of this basketball team. Sorry if that offends you. I know there are some that refuse to acknowledge what is happening in front of their faces, but that's fine. Pay those people no attention, they are scrambling. You see, now it's a "who cares, this was the Pelicans!" You can almost predict what people will say after every single good Smart performance. They are quick to discredit anything he does. It's weird.
In the meantime, all Smart did was run the point guard position to perfection last night
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All NBA Defense? Check
A pass first mentality and approach? Check
Kept his FGA in line? Check
Smart finished with 12 assists, 3 TOs, and tied with Rob for the team best +28 in his 29 minutes. Once again we saw him play with the right pace, something that might be the most important piece to the entire offensive puzzle. They are now 3-1 since he returned to the lineup, and he's been arguably their most consistent player during that stretch. Every single thing people demanded he do as a point guard for this team he's currently doing, yet people still think he has to be traded. It's one of the craziest things you'll ever see.
You'll hear a lot of "do it against a good team!" when it comes to Smart. OK, like he didn't just do this against the hottest offense in the NBA the night before?
Yet still we'll hear the same old people say the same old stuff. That he's not a good fit next to Tatum and Brown, despite every metric and eye ball test under the sun showing the contrary. If you look at the way he orchestrated the offense last night and then the next words out of your mouth are that he is not a point guard, I'm afraid this sport might not be for you. Because you're seeing solid two way point guard play right in front of your face and refuse to see it. That's unfortunate.
- He didn't play all that much, just 24 minutes, but we finally had ourselves a good Al performance. Nothing crazy, just 8/6/3 but he shot 3-6 (2-2) which is what I care about. Some big time threes from Al when the Pelicans started to make a mini run, and that's all I need from him right now. Defend at a high level and knock down your open looks. That's it. Feels like it's been a long time since Al had that type of shooting night in his limited opportunities, so it was a relief to see him knock those down. I'm sure he'll agree with that claim.
- All we ask as fans is that this team finds a way to shoot slightly below league average from three. That's it! That's all we need this team to do. How did that shake out? 34%! They did it! They were slightly below league average! Guess what happened? They won! To any other team, going 14-34 from three is probably considered a bad night. For us? For this team? It's the key to success.
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Is it extremely sad that we would be excited that the Celts were below average at something? You betcha! Do I give a shit? Fuuuuuuuuck no. Not when that's the bar. Just don't be completely pathetic and you can win games. Last night was proof.
- A 20 point lead at one point, only 1 lead change, no ties. That's the type of wire to wire stress free evening we all needed.
The Bad
- Listen, I want to believe in Aaron Nesmith. I want to believe that he's just a rhythm shooter and with more consistent run he'll find his shot. But I also need him to hold up his end of the bargain. I mean he's not even close right now shooting the ball. There are bricks, and then there are BRICKS. Everyone who has played this sport knows what I am talking about. Like, Nesmith misses HARD. It's not like when you see Tatum rim out threes and you can tell he's close. Right now Aaron isn't even fucking close. That's a pretty big deal no matter what you think his role should be. Whether that is on this team or in a potential trade. He has to show some sort of an ability to make jump shots, and that has not happened in any of his recent appearances.
- Tatum and Jaylen were great, but let's not act like only having one other player in double figures (JRich w/ 10), is going to cut it. Grant and Dennis had a combined 7 points off the bench. Sure it's tough for others to score when the Jays take 46 of the 81 FGA, but this is now the second game in a row where the supporting cast didn't really do much offensively. That's playing with fire in my opinion because there are times where the Jays do not have the most efficient offensive approach.
- Due to foul trouble, Smart only played 4 minutes in the 3rd quarter. It just so happens that this was the worst quarter of the night for the Celts. The Pelicans scored 36 points on 70/50% shooting. A 20 point lead was cut down to 8 points entering the final frame. The second unit was brutal, combining to be a -23. The Celts shot 55/50% and had 26 points in that quarter and they lost it by 10 points. Just goes to show how important defense is. Jose Alvarado got whatever he wanted in that quarter, so yeah, guard defense is even more important.
- It's still annoying that in these games with big leads, Pritchard is still only seeing mop up duty. Especially on a night where once again the second unit couldn't do shit. He played 2:07. Make that make sense.
The Ugly
- Honestly, the only thing that really deserves to be in this section was the Dennis performance. Pretty rough no matter how you slice it. He didn't play fast, he finished with just 4 points on 1-4 shooting, and had 4 TOs to go along with 0 assists in his 15 minutes. This is what I mean when I say it's frustrating we didn't see Pritchard at all. I get it if we're seeing Good Dennis. But that was not the case last night. In fact he did more harm than good whenever he steps foot on the floor.
This isn't to say Dennis sucks. He doesn't. But he's been brutal these past two games, that's just a fact. For a guy that almost won 6MOY, it's crazy how ineffective he suddenly becomes if he isn't starting. Maybe it's because he knows he'a about to be traded or something that his head is all fucked, I'm not sure. I just know that I'm not watching the same sort of aggressive player that we saw earlier in the year.
- Oh one more thing. It's probably not great that Romeo hurt his heel/achilles in just 1:05 of game action. I'd say that was a surprise but ya know….that's sort of how things go for Romeo.
So, the Celts didn't shit their pants and blow a game against a bad team. Thank heavens. But what really matters is what comes next week, starting tomorrow with a game against the Heat. They then get another shot at the Hornets, hopefully at full strength. Like I said yesterday, the Celts have failed their last 3 of these sort of "tests", so it would be a great time to turn that shit around. Can they? Sure. Will they? Who could confidently say yes to that question.