Celtics 2023 - 2024 Discussion

[jimnance]

Very satisfying win.
Rest of the games won't be this easy. Mavs will win one. Or 2. Maybe.
But if KP can stay healthy- nobody on the planet is beating the C's in a 7 game series.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Doncic and Irving: 45 shot attempts, 3 assists

 

[jimnance]

Mavs have 7 assists before pulling starters. 7.

That's all the Boston D

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

That's all the Boston D

They’re playing smart. They’d rather concede shots to those two rather than over-pursue and leave space for alley oops and easy layups.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Jaylen Brown: Just 12 shot attempts, arguably best player on court tonight. This is exactly the player he needed to be on this team and he’s doing it.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Well you can't get much better than that. My instant reactions:

The good: There's plenty to love. I did not expect Porzingis to be that effective after being gone a month and a half. The team defense went to another level today, even by Celtics standards. Donkey got his points, but he was inefficient, as was FlatEarth. They played into Boston's hands. Dallas shot 42% from the field and 25% from the arc. Absolutely stifling defense from Boston.

It won't show up on the scoreboard, but I thought Holliday was fantastic tonight. He made it difficult for Doncic all night, and got big buckets when it mattered. He has brought so much more to this team than I expected. I'm grateful he's on our team and not floundering in Portland.

The bad: This is a bit nitpicky in such a dominant win. I wasn't surprised that Dallas made a run, but the Celtics contributed to it by losing some of their offensive tenacity. They started settling for 3s and were nowhere to be found on the offensive glass during this stretch. We've seen this before. Like I said, this one is really digging for a complaint as they still shot 40% from 3 pt land and outrebounded Dallas overall.

The questions:
How is Porzingis feeling? Is he fully recovered from his injury? As I expected, he only played 21 minutes tonight. Obviously he looked fantastic, but I'll be paying close attention to how he recovers. Getting 3 days off will help.

I will be curious to see how Dallas responds. I always say no team is as good as their best game or as bad as their worst. Dallas showed a glimpse of what got them here in the third quarter. I expect a more competitive game (and more contributions from the rest of the team) on Sunday.

 

[IcyPatriot]

As I predicted ... they shut down Irving ... good strategy IMO.
Nobody is going to shut down Luka ... slowed a bit .... he was gassed trying to shoulder the load.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Jaylen Brown: Just 12 shot attempts, arguably best player on court tonight. This is exactly the player he needed to be on this team and he’s doing it.

You could make an argument for Porzingis in this spot but I can't disagree. Brown has been the real eye-opener for me this season. He has completely changed his game.

 

[jimnance]

Jaylen Brown: Just 12 shot attempts, arguably best player on court tonight. This is exactly the player he needed to be on this team and he’s doing it.

His transformation this year has been remarkable. Really proud of this young man.
Tatum,too. The growth of both is gratifying to watch.
I think White, Holliday and KP have all had a huge influence on both the Jays. Those 3 guys almost always do the right thing on the court, both offensively and defensively.

 

[Keep Up With The Joneses]

Doncic and Irving: 45 shot attempts, 3 assists

And only 42 points to show for it. That's beautiful.

I'm not a huge +/- guy but sometimes it's hard to ignore. Kyrie (-19) is a huge liability defensively. They need to post him up every single time down the floor.

 

[ausbacker]

JB needs to fix his FT shooting woes and Tatum's scoring game needs to show up for the rest of the series. Outside of that, hard to fault punching Dallas that hard in the face first up.

Boston must protect home court. Do that, and the job is half done.

 

[aluminum seats]

Porzingis was great as expected, but what's really fantastic about this game is that everyone stayed within themselves. Brown was the best version of himself, and Tatum is focused only on winning. That's a great freaking win.

 

[Vindicate]

As I predicted ... they shut down Irving ... good strategy IMO.
Nobody is going to shut down Luka ... slowed a bit .... he was gassed trying to shoulder the load.

The old Belichick approach when your greatest strength is a single unstoppable offensive player. Let 'em eat. We'll starve the rest of your team.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Dallas showed a glimpse of what got them here in the third quarter.

Kidd told the ABC crew they needed to ay less iso ball and move the ball around. In the 3rd quarter, they simply cleared out the offense to allow Luka to isolate, which wasn’t much of an adjustment. Predictably, it was unsustainable unless they planned to win by him scoring 60 points. They still didn’t even try to move the ball. The Celtics made some counter adjustments, Luka got tired, Kyrie got cold, and Dallas again had no answers.

 

[Kdo5]

Great team win, especially from both KP and Jaylen Brown! Wow what a return for KP.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Doris Burke gushing over Kyrie’s shoes and ball-handling as he slips like 6 times.

 

[Kdo5]

When the Mavs went on that run it was way more about us than them. Our energy level inexplicably dropped and I don't think they really did much differently. Once we cut it out and started playing Celtics basketball again it was over.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Great team win, especially from both KP and Jaylen Brown! Wow what a return for KP.

Were you at the game?

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

 

[Kdo5]

Were you at the game?

No, my girlfriend was somewhat annoying and distracting me at home. Wish I was though mustve been electric.