The Celtics Drop Another Winnable Game At Home In Excruciating Fashion
2016 has not been kind to our Boston Celtics, or anyone else who has watched them thus far. The latest chapter in this depressing story came last night. A 99-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons. On the surface maybe that doesn’t look so bad. The Pistons are pretty good, have legit talent and they’ve beaten the Celts before. However, last night’s disaster is much deeper than a 5 point loss.
See last night was simply a game of two halves. A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde if you will. Through the first 24 minutes the Celtics played like the team we know and love. They played with high energy, were taking great shots, and more importantly they were aggressive. Well, after halftime things took drastic turn for the worse. The Celts died a slow painful death, showed signs of life right at the end, but could not pull it off.
No sugarcoating, let’s get right into it.
The Good
– You literally cannot ask for a better that than what the Celts gave us. That first quarter was some of the best basketball I’ve seen them play all season. They were aggressive, they shot 60% and had 10 assists on 14 basket. They were active on the glass. It was exactly the effort that was lacking in the previous Lakers/Nets games. They came out angry and finally the starters dominated .
– Speaking of starters, this new lineup Brad has thrown out the last two games really intrigues me. Thomas/Turner (I could live without this)/Olynyk/Crowder/Johnson is an interesting concept. On paper I’m not sure why it would work, with Turner being terrible, but it’s been pretty effective in the two games we’ve seen it. Amir has been on a roll, easily turning in his best performance as a Celtic last night, and credit to Brad for knowing some shit was up and making some moves. I’m sure Sully and Marcus aren’t happy about it, but we’ll get to them a little later.
– Aggressive Kelly Olynyk is rapidly rising up my man crush charts. He is a different player when we don’t have Hesitant Olynyk. Shocking I know. Consistency will always be his achilles heel, but did you see him last night? And really by last night I mean in the first half. It was Dirk-Lite city! At 7 ft and slow as a snail, he somehow was getting to his spot with ease. I loved the end of the first quarter three, just showed his willingness to grip it and rip it which is when Kelly is at his best.
– Yeah yeah, Turner put in an other solid effort. I’d be happy about this but I’ve seen it before. We are abut to enter a brutal valley with him, just watch. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Won’t let it happen.
– I actually liked how the Celts contained Drummond. In the precious two meetings he basically put up like 20/20 so his 13/5 last night is pretty shocking. Yeah, this is pretty much due to him being in foul trouble the whole night, but that’s how the cookie crumbles.
– It was good to see Isaiah snap out of whatever the hell was up with him for the first like 43 minutes of this game. That 4th quarter stretch was electric, and it’s just a shame he shot the ball so poorly before that. Weird off night for him with as well as he has been playing.
See it’ll never make sense to me, but I don’t get why Isaiah is the only player on our team that is willing to take it to the basket. Jae was a bit better about that last night, but overall it seems as though Isaiah is the only player willing to challenge the trees. At 5’9.
– Another solid game from our boy Crowder, who really has been on a tear over the last month plus. To me he is developing exactly into the player Trader Danny was banking on when they signed him to that 5/35M extension. He plays hard, is shooting the ball at a great percentage, and he well in fact may be our best player at the moment. It will never seize to amaze me what great value that contract is.
The Bad
– Where to fucking begin. How about the entire second half? What a god damn disaster this was for the final 24 minutes. It was as if a completely different team took the court. Their shot selection was maybe the worst I’ve seen all year in that third quarter, I mean look at this shit!
The Celtics shot 5-22 (22%) in the frame, and only Amir Johnson was able to put the ball in the basket for the starting unit. Just pathetic. I will never understand why the Celtics shoot like this AT HOME. It’s as if they don’t practice shooting or something. It’s indescribable.
– On the flip side, they couldn’t stop Caldwell-Pope or Reggie Jackson from scoring the ball, especially down the stretch. If it always seems like these two kill the Celtics whenever they play, it’s because they do. Jackson has never lost in his career against the Celts (5-0) and the guy has some gigantic testicles with the shots he takes. Whether it was getting to the line, or hitting that DAGGER three, the Celtics had no answer for him on the defensive end. Marcus couldn’t do it, and with no Bradley, our options were limited. Once the Celts started missing shots their aggressiveness changed, and both of these dudes took advantage. Gross stuff.
– Let’s talk about blowing a 13 point lead, and 9 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Celts just CANNOT do this if they want to be a legitimate team this year. This is a game you HAVE to close out. But as I said, they let their bad offense impact their defense, which is shit middle school teams do.
The Ugly
– If you ask me, the Celtics deserved to lose this game. When you miss 7 FTs, four of which come from Isaiah Thomas, you get what you deserve. This is probably what makes this loss so infuriating for me. They blew it. It’s not as if the Pistons were doing anything special, the Celts had their chance to win this game from the FT line, and they fucking choked. I’ve been wary of this trend for a while, and it really hadn’t cost the Celts a game yet, and now here we are. When your best players are missing FTs, when they normally shoot like 80%, you get thrown into the ugly section.
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– Isaiah and Marcus’s shooting was purely pathetic. At one point they were a combined 2-22 or something like that. Almost impossible to comprehend how that happens. Isaiah was missing bunnies and layups, Marcus couldn’t hit shit, just overall a disaster of an offensive performance.
– That 4th quarter turnover by Isaiah. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pile on, but that was absolutely the worst possible time for his first turnover of the game. It lead to the Tolliver three which made it a 4 point lead, and after that it was pretty much a wrap.
– In a game where you could not shoot, it’s a bit surprising so me that RJ Hunter and James Young got only 8 and 7 minutes respectively. You know, since they are the Celtics best shooters.
Look, all I want from this Celts team is consistency. I want them to play like themselves, which is not what we saw last night. Hell, if the Celtics could just shoot like 42% we’d probably have the most wins in the Eastern Conference. And that isn’t even an outrageous number! It’d be below their average still! Man it’s frustrating.
Things get no easier as the Celts are in Chicago tonight for a second night of a back to back on the road. Although now that I think about it, this may be just what the Celtics need to get right back on track.