Jaylen not looking forward to seeing Grant either.
View: https://twitter.com/taylorcsnow/status/1749289703268921608?s=20
2023-24 Celtics
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View: https://twitter.com/taylorcsnow/status/1749289703268921608?s=20
I wonder if KP will lobby to play against his former team. He has played in two B2Bs, a home one early in the year when’re he played only 24 in the first game,and a home/road one where he came out of the Indy game after six minutes when he got his eye scratched
Guessing Grant was one of those "practice like you perform" guys who go balls-to-the-wall in practice and Jaylen isn't always about that intensity.
I think that it's playful big/little brother stuff. Grant never stops yapping, and JB probably glad to give him some shit about it.
Yeah, some of the Cs were joking back and forth with Grant via the socials earlier in the season. Jaylen was deliberate with the term "annoying" though because that's Williams' game but I think its all in good fun.
I'm a fan of aggressively load-managing the TOP6, esp KP/Al
I also enjoy the "next man up" mentality. The HC should be confident that his bench can come in/execute.
We may as well see what PP, Hauser, Luke & Brissett can do with sizeable minutes & shots, they may shock the MAVs (who will be let down in not facing the C's TOP6).
3 games in 4 days, B2B, WC road game against a well-rested, playoff-contending Mavs team is the classic scheduled loss.
We saw the results of running out the starters the last time we faced this situation.
Go with Al, DW, Jrue & the bench as far as I'm concerned.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see KP play and us be at full strength tonight. Last night was not a very taxing game, physically or emotionally, so we should be fine tonight. There are no similarities to the Milwaukee game aside from being on a B2B. That Wolves game is not remotely close to comparable to last nights, play the first half and crawl to the finish line effort.
We’ve got tix tonight in the lower bowl (cheaper to fly to Dallas and get 100-level seats than to just drive to the Garden and do the same). My kid is going to be rocking his bicentennial Maine-flag Tatum jersey, so be on the lookout. I’m managing expectations, but we’d be super bummed if there are many guys resting. I’m thinking it’s just KP. We’re psyched yesterday was Al’s rest day. Can’t wait to watch the shootaround, etc.
ESPN shows Al and Jrue as GTD. No one else appears on the Boston injury list. Of course that could change as we get closer to game time.
I'm hoping KP plays. I want to see the Celtics beat Kyrie and the Mavs and make @MyDaughterLovesTomGordon 's kid smile.
I'm hoping KP plays. I want to see the Celtics beat Kyrie and the Mavs and make @MyDaughterLovesTomGordon 's kid smile.
You are the NBA schedule maestro, with decades of work, so I'll defer to you on this mid-January game.
BUT I see a MAVs team on 4 days' rest, watching vid, with a motivated Kyrie, Grant, and Luka looking to take down Tatum. Every NBA team gets up for the C's these days but these guys want this signature scalp in the worst way.
I'll be interested in seeing how the spread starts/moves here as we get the Celtics injury list pre-game.
Scheduling issues aside, the Celtics have generally gotten up for Mavs games, probably because Luka is a marquee player. Add Kyrie and Grant in to the mix....I think there is going to be energy on both sides.
Sit him. This game is absolutely meaningless (except for one of our own who is attending - but they will still get to see some great hoops). This is the KP experience.
This reminds me---I was at the game Friday and he had the knee wrapped on breaks and when he checked in the game he was clearly trying to loosen it up (stretching against the basket backstop) in a way that suggested something at least a little bit real there.
Yeah if they prioritize rest / load management in favor of the game in Miami on Thursday, I will not be upset. To the extent that any of these games matter, that one matters a lot more.
the Pro's far outweigh the Con's of Load Mgmt when it comes to January basketball.
Tom Gordon & Family apologies aside, a healthy dose of Luke, in lieu of KP, may lead to some on-floor entertainment
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QaOQVpw13Mc
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_-CNbBj8bSw
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jERM05hugP4
Here’s the thing…..having the extra rest can throw a team out of sync. Look at the Clippers on Sunday with 4 days rest….they were down 16-0 five min into the game and down 15 after 3Q prior to the 41-16 4Q for the win.
So the scheduling kinda offsets considering we didn’t overly exert ourselves last night. Not having KP hurts our cause though.
That's cool, you have a really good read on this timing/calendar performance stuff.
I'm a shrink-wrap wimp. The C's TOP6 is much better than anything out there, so it's all about getting them to the finish line healthy.
ALSO Load Managing as many of our stars tonight is a passive-aggressive FU to Kyrie, Cuban, Kidd, & the Mavs. We don't think this is an "important" match-up, we'll try and beat you with our bench.
KP/Al Load Mgmt side benefit: Luke is making all that 3rd string Center trade talk go away.
Hey like I always say, it is one iteration of a game. Even if I’m “right” and it plays out this way 60% of the time….I’m still “wrong” 40% of the time because of the variance that comes with the result of one singular game. Like Georgetown/Villanova in ‘85…..how many times do that win that game if they play it 100x? The smaller the sample the larger the variance…..”ain’t nothing smaller than one game.”
Normally I’d look for reasons to play against the B2B team with travel but the Celtics expended so little energy last night, both physical and emotional, I expect them to come out and play a high energy focused game….especially Tatum.
I love in the postgame someone asked Tatum about being down "one key guy" and he corrects the question to "two key guys," sticking up for Brissett, then immediately pivots to ribbing KP for being out with "mysterious injuries"
edit this was meant for the gamethread but it speaks to the closeness of the team so I'll leave it
edit this was meant for the gamethread but it speaks to the closeness of the team so I'll leave it
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The Celtics went to JB down the stretch, after going to KP last night when it was close late in the 4th quarter. It's a huge step that the team continues to attack mismatches (JB on Luka tonight, KP on everyone yesterday) in clutch situations, rather than just hoping Tatum is on his game. The Celtics have 3 guys capable of piling up points in mismatches, it's fine to pick and choose which one to go to when it gets close based on matchups.
*edit - Tatum and Brown combined for 73 points and 0 turnovers. Wow.
*edit - Tatum and Brown combined for 73 points and 0 turnovers. Wow.
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The game story in two charts. AKA how Jaylen and Jayson annihilated Luka and Kyrie on defense.
Jaylen:
Jaylen+Jayson
Jaylen:
Jaylen+Jayson
That was actually Oshae who asked the question (referring to himself) and after Tatum said “two key players” (adding Porzingis), Oshae clarified he meant himself. Tatum made the mysterious injury comment after that making fun of Oshae.
It works. We haven't done it yet for Celtics games, but we have priced it. If you can get $200 round-trip flights and an AirBNB for $100 bucks, that can be much smaller than the delta between comparable tickets here and elsewhere. We were looking at Washington and Atlanta IIRC.That’s crazy
Have done it for Red Sox games over the years, usually Chicago. AirBNB always reasonable and $200 flights come up a lot.
I will always admit to being wrong(hell I love to admit when I am), yet even with that I still love the team's vibes even with how you reframed them
Haha, definitely. Just didn’t want it to seem like Tatum was taking a shot at KP. The vibes are immaculate.
back in 2000-2004 time frame, we took many weekend trips to Baltimore for Sox games. Fenway South
Oh God no I'd never think that I'm with you haha. The vibes of this team are off the charts, 1-14. Lamar Stevens, who barely plays, recently talked about his favorite part of being on the team is how the fans travel. The Luke postgame interview and his "rap group." Everyone on the bench always seems to be talking and smiling. Everyone is thoughtful and team oriented when they speak. I couldn't ask for a better group of humans in the NBA to root for
Yeah, we have family in Dallas, so had a place to stay and it was a no-brainer.
Yea, they may have lost or won a January regular season game...I guess you feel the load managing of KP was DUMB
Not at all! But “Go with Al, DW, Jrue & the bench as far as I'm concerned” sure is.
Boston is 10-2 when KP sits, and 6-2 when AL sits. The load managing is perfectly fine.
Maybe there was some context on why I posted that.
Two other regular posters were expecting KP to play last night. I thought they would load-manage KP.
I guess I'm an idiot for suggesting that before the announcement.
Plus I'm happy they load-managed Jrue & Horford in Houston the night before, both played pretty well last night hitting 8/18 from 3, while the rest of the team was 7/28.
I did go further that if the JAYs wanted to take the night off it shouldn't be a problem. BUT clearly, those two wanted to play and were hungry to throw down on Dallas (which was HRB's point and I congratulated him on that call during the game since he is a Schedule Ninja).
I'm also not entirely unsure, Jrue wouldn't have been able to rinse Kyrie & Luka at will, they are epicly dreadful defenders.
Now this I can get behind. Always knew Luka was a shit defender but holy smokes last night was another level. Trae Young would have been embarrassed by that “effort”. And it is entirely effort with Luka from my eyes.
Luka is a foul machine, he can't stay with or in front of anyone.
First he fouls PP, then puts his hands on Brown and Jaylen still breaks his ankles
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWDV7cBjsJw
This quote by Kidd is incredibly damning lol
View: https://twitter.com/NoaDalzellNBA/status/1749809439924953243
View: https://twitter.com/NoaDalzellNBA/status/1749809439924953243
Effort is a major part of it with Luka, but the difference between him and Young is about half a foot and 60 pounds. An engaged Luka is reasonably difficult to push around and he's an excellent rebounder (I'm a big believer in the idea that rebounding is a part of defense), but still a lousy defender in every other aspect. His feet are slow, he gambles, and even when he is trying, it's clear his energy is being saved for the other end of the floor. You could get away with it most of the time if he was their one below average defender, but he's not, so it's not gonna work.
I am still confused by how Luka fell. It seems like he was moving laterally, and then his feet stopped moving while his momentum made him topple over. Very odd play, it seems to me.
Luka has been a terrible defender since entering the league. Some of it is effort, sure. Some of it is that his doughy body lacks the athleticism needed to play NBA defense. He moves fine offensively because he knows where he wants to go. And he has good size. But the man cannot stay in front of NBA players. It's the opposite problem of Trae, who has that athleticism but lacks size and girth.
My FB joke was that Luka fell over in astonishment that Jaylen successfully executed a behind the back dribble.
He tripped his over own feet trying to change direction is what it looks like to me....and yes, there was not much agility on showcase there for Luka
Agreed--Luka has (in the playoffs, at least for one year) showed he's a playable big-game defender given his top-of-the-league skills at other end. Trae has not, and I suspect simply is not...there's literally not a top 50 NBA player Trae can competently defend without help, is there? That's who you are playing against when it matters in the NBA.
The cynicism many of us had about the Kyrie-Luka fit on offense has been largely disproven, I give them credit for making it largely work on that even with some my turn/your trn in there. But on defense it is at least as bad and as destructive for the team as we expected. I simply don't know how you build a playoff-caliber defense around those two. I guess you just hope that best he can be on defense Kyrie was (a few years ago) acceptable defensively in the playoffs, and best he can be Doncic has been acceptable, and you hope you outscore the other team? We really don't even know if the former acceptable when he tries Kyrie exists defensively anymore. And as you note, having two of those weak links is massively different than only one.