Well.
The Celtics evidently held a players only meeting that did not go well.
https://www.celticsblog.com/2021/11/3/22762566/woj-boston-celtics-players-only-meeting-orlando-ime-udoka-marcus-smart-jaylen-brown-jayson-tatum
According to ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, members of the Celtics — specifically Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown — discussed a myriad of topics related to the team’s early-season performance and chemistry.
The meeting focused primarily on the Celtics'
collapse against the Chicago Bulls on Monday, a game in which they blew a 19-point lead and allowed 128 points in regulation, as well as Smart’s comments following that game.
according to Wojnarowski, the meeting was “emotional at times,” and “in the end, perhaps not a terribly productive meeting. Maybe not even beneficial.”
He continued: “These are issues with this team and this group that have been going on for a while. They changed the president in Boston. They changed the head coach. These issues remain. Now at 2-5 and playing the Magic tonight… this is a situation that [head coach Ime Udoka] has to address and help this team work through. It haunted [Brad Stevens’] regime, especially near the end, last season.”
But the game did go well! Not so much the first half, when the team looked out of sorts and briefly saw the Magic jump out to an 8 point lead courtesy of missed defensive assignments. But they closed out the half with a 5-0 run and followed that with a 31-10 third quarter to, maybe not put the game away, but at least jump out to a bigger lead than the one they blew in Chicago.
Jaylen continues to look on fire (led team with 28 on 10-17 shooting anf 5-7 from three) while Jayson continues to not be able to throw it in the ocean (14 on 4-16 shooting, 1-6 from three). In the mid 4th, Magic cut the lead down to 14, helped by Tatum bricking 2 free throws (he was 5-8 from the line on the night).
Every starter except Smart got double figures, and Smart would have if he didn't also brick 2 free throws late.
Williams had a nice game - 14 points on 6-8 shooting. Brown and Smart often finding him for dunks. At one point Brown had a Larry Bird type of past where he threw it back over his shoulder.
I called for Ime to try not splitting Tatum and Brown as much, instead trying to buld a bench unit around former Hawks Schoder and Al. He tried this for the end of the first quarter and not much happened. He also gave Pritchard an extended look in the second quarter, but Pritchard did not do much of anything.
The whole first half the team looked out of sorts. Marcus was in pass mode (only took 8 shots all game) and he was fired quick passes to Tatum and Brown that each of them.
The end of the first half and into the third quarer is where they broke the game open, opening the quarter with an 11-0 run. Midway through, Jaylen picked up foul number 4 and Ime sat him and Tatum for an extened stretch. This time, a lineup of Schroder-Smart-Richardson-Langford-Al worked great, continued to add to the lead.
Al was the best Celtic in the game after Jaylen. Didn't shoot well (12 points on 3 of 9, 2-5 from three) but he led the team in rebounds (12), assists (7), and blocks (3). During the third quarter he rounded, blocked shots, hit a three, brought the ball up on the break. Maybe we found something here with Horford leading a bench lineup. But maybe that is more of an Orlando-specific thing. Scal later mentioned that Orlando had been playing a zone and Al has been picking the zone apart. In the 4th, when Rob came in for Al, the Celtics struggled on offense. At the same time, Orlando scored only 10 in the whole quarter, so this was a lockdown defensive unit.
Grant and Pritchard played in the first half, but Grant did not get in again and Pritchard did not come back until garbage time.
In terms of minutes, they were a touch lower than they have been recently but lower still would have been better: Tatum 34, Smart 33, Brown 32, Rob 30, Al 28, Schroder 26, everyone else under 20.
~2 minutes of garbage time. Fernando came in, passed the ball out to Nesmith for his first 3 points of the year, and then almost immediately got hit with a tech, then an offensive foul on the Ce's next trip down. Then another foul.