2023-24 Celtics
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It’s not hard to look at the February schedule and think the team could go 8-2 (or better) over that stretch and put a stranglehold on the 1 seed. That would go a long way toward giving the starters plenty of rest down the stretch and hopefully going into the playoffs at full health.
Yes. Hopefully the fact that its the Lakers and LBJ will be watching from the bench will motivate our guys to put on a show.
This specific Celtics team is pretty good about not playing down. They've rested guys heavily against lesser opponents, which is different. I also give a bit of a pass on the Detroit game, since it was the exhale after the toughest roadtrip of the year.
I'd buy that more if LeBron hadn't just played back to back a couple nights ago. It's insane though, 37, 36 minutes, coming after 48 minutes on Saturday. Seems to go right to the whole "availability" planning being crap.
The injuries to Davis and need to rest LeBron seems legit. After all, LAL are still in contention for the play-in at least, and play-in teams are best not dismissed as being viable to go deep. An out of conference game that would be difficult to win even at full strength is not the worst time to sit.
What is a shame is that LeBron likely has only 2-3 more regular season visits to Boston remaining, and so the remaining opportunities to see him practice his craft live in the Gahhhden are dwindling.
Will be interesting to see if he suits up at the MSG on Saturday.
What is a shame is that LeBron likely has only 2-3 more regular season visits to Boston remaining, and so the remaining opportunities to see him practice his craft live in the Gahhhden are dwindling.
Will be interesting to see if he suits up at the MSG on Saturday.
The only really dopey "how the fuck did that happen" loss this team has so far this year was @ Charlotte. Not only because Charlotte is awful, but because they were leading the entire 4th quarter until the the final 10 seconds, when Holiday went 0-2 from the line with a chance to put the game away. The Celtics have generally lost to good teams, on the road. The only other loss to a below .500 team was @ Golden State.
Yeah not to rain on a Lebron pigpile, but old men sometimes push through activity (like a B2B) and then the foot starts throbbing. Doubt it's anything deeper than that.
LeBron has also carried a heavy load this week and it’s their 5th game in 8 days with travel after each one including the 47 min 2OT game vs Golden State.
Understood, though I have no idea why they punted this game instead of the b2b, especially after that 47 minutes game.
Didn't Silver basically want them to rest players -around- those nationally televised games?
Although it'd probably help if they didn't put so many Lakers games on national television.
Welp, going tonight, was telling everyone I know to jump on the C's at -11.5 bc every time I go, the C's blow teams out. Last game I went to this year was the 51 point beatdown vs. the Pacers.
Oh well, will likely get home early tonight, I guess.
Oh well, will likely get home early tonight, I guess.
He's played the last 4 games, has made cryptic comments to the media about teammates and coaches, tweeted out an hourglass at at midnight just two days ago, this is a marquee matchup (and he gets up for Boston) and not part of a back to back. I'm sure he's hurt, but there's no way he isn't sending a message here.
I mean he has been ready to sit out a game since the Warriors but didn’t vs Atlanta on the B2B thinking AD was only going to miss one game from what we’re hearing. If AD was a go he was supppsed to sit vs Atl this much I know from a direct report which was the same that hinted him being out tonight an hour before it was announced
There really isn't much need to go conspiracy theory with a 39 year old, a balky ankle, and an NBA schedule.
It's like the Embiid ducking Jokic thing. How hard is it to believe Embiid is injured and that's why he didn't play? He's always fucking injured! And frankly, he typically owns Jokic.
It's like the Embiid ducking Jokic thing. How hard is it to believe Embiid is injured and that's why he didn't play? He's always fucking injured! And frankly, he typically owns Jokic.
This is the #1 reason why they will be more dangerous in the playoffs.
a game-changer for the Celtics, who ranked 26th in post-ups per game last year. This year, they are 8th, largely because Porzingis is averaging 1.48 points per direct post-up, the highest rate in the NBA among players to run 75 or more post-ups, and the highest since Second Spectrum began tracking such data in 2013-14
The Celtics have averaged 8.9 points per game directly from Porzingis' pick-and-pop plays when he is the screener, the most for any player this season.
KP should be the hub at the nail & their top option in the half-court late/tight. The Jay's ISO coma dribbles into early shot clock Pull-ups need to be a secondary option.
guys, I'm worried, what if we get to the playoffs and teams hit 53% of their 3s against us? /s
The effort was dog shit. 9 turnovers in the first quarter, everyone standing around because they knew if they just played 1.5 quarters they’d win. Except the Lakers shot >50% from 3 and the Celtics couldn’t sustain a run. In the end the team relaxed and got run over. Not much to take away except a reminder that you can’t always coast and win. One game closer to the playoffs without injury.
We’re onto the next one.
We’re onto the next one.
If opponents manage to do that on >30 attempts, sustainably over a series, the Cs are right and proper screwed.
That said, even if an outcome is a function of shooting variance gone wild, it always feels like we need to name suspects and a narrative. We don't because 82 games and whatever. But we'll get them.
Celtics next 7 are against the Grizzlies, Hawks, Wizards, Heat, Nets, and Bulls. Only one back to back, a home and home against the Nets. The schedule is finally calming down. They’ve been looking a bit worn down the last few weeks IMO. It was about time for an easier stretch to kick in.
I was driving home and was certain people on here would be writing it off as insane luck shooting, and that was true, but the first quarter was just sad mentally. 45 points in the first half vs that Lakers teams is sad. Sure the Lakers went off, but the Cs should have won that game. The 3s Reeves shot in the 1st Q were wide open. Generally when a team goes off they at least begin with great looks. It is dangerous to think you can turn it on when needed.
Chuck was able to make it a narrative about “toughness”, lol
Reaves was also shooting like 30’ from basket.
A random game in February is meaningless, even a shitty one. Don't try and make this game out to be more than it is
One of those shots was just ridiculous. It went in, so I guess he looks good - but I still find it incredulous sometimes that someone attempts a shot like that. I don't believe it was even late in the clock or anything.
some people can't accept shooting variance as an excuse for 1 game, let alone a series. it do be like that sometimes tho. not tn, however- 12 1h turnovers is disgusting.
To lose at home to a lousy team like the Lakers (sans AD and Lebron), lots of things have to go wrong. One of those things happened to be that LA hit an unreasonably high % of their 3's, but that's not everything, and it's not the reason they lost.
Shooting variance is not normally decisive over a playoff series, although it can tip the scales if things are close. Celtics executed poorly against the Heat and had obvious roster flaws that got exposed once Brogdon was hurt.
One game - different story. Celtics also weren't particularly sharp tonight; shooting variance ensured they wouldn't get away with less than stellar effort.
Two things can be true at once:
1) the Lakers needed ridiculous shooting luck to win that game tonight
2) we had a lot of terrible, focus-related live-ball turnovers, especially in Q1, and absent that we might've had a chance to steal this, shooting or no.
We appeared to not respect the opponent as being NBA players, just driving right into traffic and throwing it around and, wow, they got a hand to it and picked it off. Five times. That, I'll listen to some criticism of. But we did appear to pull our heads out of our asses by mid Q2, and only failed to make a game of it from there due to the Lakers' shooting.
1) the Lakers needed ridiculous shooting luck to win that game tonight
2) we had a lot of terrible, focus-related live-ball turnovers, especially in Q1, and absent that we might've had a chance to steal this, shooting or no.
We appeared to not respect the opponent as being NBA players, just driving right into traffic and throwing it around and, wow, they got a hand to it and picked it off. Five times. That, I'll listen to some criticism of. But we did appear to pull our heads out of our asses by mid Q2, and only failed to make a game of it from there due to the Lakers' shooting.
I do like the quotes coming out tonight, but regardless, we won't find out anything else about this team until April. Just stay healthy.
View: https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/1753265394440126816
View: https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/1753265394440126816
You like it?
Even he thinks that he shouldn't say it.Imagine Jordan or Bird or Kobe saying that?
I wish people would stop with the strawman that any criticism is "end of the world".
When you play poorly you own it and improve.
They lost a game they shouldn't have lost. That is not the end of the world, but it certainly isn't nothing.
It's not nothing, but it's probably not something.
(Except for the sad fact that these guys don't hate the Lakers as much as I do)
isn’t this a straw man in itself? Who’s saying this?
People disagree on how much a game like this matters in terms of a trend. There’s always going to be something to criticize. There’s always something for them to improve. When has anyone in these forums said otherwise?
celtics loss, nyk win, cleveland win, philly win. Blegh. Still 5 clear of second place.
Hopefully, with so many teams in the top 1/2 of the East floundering around them (tonight non-withstanding) they can go on a tear this month and get into a position where they can continue to get the top 6 appropriate rest (and less exposure to injury) throughout March-April. As of tn, certain Celtics ranks in total minutes played: Tatum 13th, Jaylen 30th, Jrue 33rd, White 49th, Al 150, Porzingis 162. Would love to be able to keep the miles off of the 2 bigs and Jrue (33 years old). and keep the J's + White fresh- Tatum's weardown in the 22 finals is still fresh in my mind.
Hopefully, with so many teams in the top 1/2 of the East floundering around them (tonight non-withstanding) they can go on a tear this month and get into a position where they can continue to get the top 6 appropriate rest (and less exposure to injury) throughout March-April. As of tn, certain Celtics ranks in total minutes played: Tatum 13th, Jaylen 30th, Jrue 33rd, White 49th, Al 150, Porzingis 162. Would love to be able to keep the miles off of the 2 bigs and Jrue (33 years old). and keep the J's + White fresh- Tatum's weardown in the 22 finals is still fresh in my mind.
Complete dogshit effort, basically from the jump. "Make/miss" is laughable when you casually turn it over every single possession. Should have just played the bench from 4 minutes in, if the starters were going to do that.
I'm not super-worried, since they've been run-down for awhile and have clearly needed some kind of break for over a week now.
I'm not super-worried, since they've been run-down for awhile and have clearly needed some kind of break for over a week now.
Yeah I watched the first half, and the first quarter ... man, they stunk. It wasn't just that they were turning the ball over, but those were BAD turnovers. Not like someone overshooting a cutter with a hard pass -- more like KP tossing a lazy "thread the needle" bounce pass into traffic, then doing the exact same thing two minutes later. The Lakers were insanely hot from three, but the Celtics didn't bother to show up either. Anyway, as someone said, on to the next game ...
To be fair, I think there's a reasonable middle ground between "it's the end of the world" and "don't worry, it's just one of those January/February stinkers we're going to see." I think it's legit to point out that the Celtics rebounding has been lazy for two games in a row. But it's also legit to point out (thanks NBA!) that the scheduling this year seems even worse than usual, piling too much on players with not enough rest time (because of the in-season tourney?), and thus making games like this more likely.
Also worth noting that contenders *can* redline for the whole season, or long portions of it. It just usually doesn't work out great.
Both the 15-16 Warriors and 21-22 Celtics kept the pedal to the metal, and both were beat to shit by the time even the conference finals rolled around, to say nothing of the Finals themselves.
Last year's Nuggets are a much more desirable model to follow, and they had a number of very bad losses as the regular season went on.
Didn’t the Nuggets lose like 6 of 7 in March too? There is nothing reasonable about there being a middle ground to the “end of the world” losing an exhale game in February when you have the best record and one of the best teams in the league. We do this every year and “all the negativity in this town sucks.” #ricky
+100, and I often think of that quote when reading Celtics Twitter
Fans in places like Denver do seem somewhat happier tbh.
Could be worse. The sloppy way they finished the previous two games could have been losses, so it's nice they ground out those wins. They're obviously super fatigued after this ridiculously packed schedule. Jrue, Jaylen, and Porzingis all look gassed.