Don't Look Now, But The Celtics May Have Figured Things Out
Earlier this season when things weren’t all that great for this team many faithful fans went with the mentality that come January, a lot of the problems we were seeing wouldn’t exist once guys got healthy and comfortable with each other. We had nothing to base this on, since the product on the court was similar to what you see at your weekend Biddy Basketball program at your local JCC. It really looked like some players on this team had never even touched a basketball before. The results spoke for themselves, they were 27th in Ortg, 24th in points per game, 11th in assists, and were a pathetic 10-10. Since that moment? So basically the second half of their season so far over the last 20 games, this team is now 1st in Ortg, 1st in points per game. 1st in assists and is a very respectable 15-5. All while also having the 2nd best defense in the entire league. Essentially, as bad as they were to start the year, they’ve been that dominant since Thanksgiving.
I talked about it last night, but for me when I looked at this team I knew what I wanted them to be, but I hadn’t seen it. In my mind this team still needed to show us what it looks like when they are firing on all cylinders, have everyone play well at once, and turn in a complete 48 minute effort. A night like last night was something I think we all wanted and hoped was capable, but we hadn’t seen it. They had good wins here and there sure, but they hadn’t truly flexed on any opponent through the first 39 games of the year. Enter last night. Yes, the Pacers were without Myles Turner and were playing on a B2B, those are factors that have to be mentioned. At the same time they were one of the hottest teams in the league, a current 3 seed in the East and it’s not as if they were missing their entire roster or anything. Sabonis played, Oladipo played, Bogdanovic played, Evans played etc. This was another true test for the Celtics to see how they stack up against these top teams in the East. We know they own PHI, they’ve split with TOR/MIL, and they lost a heartbreaker earlier in the year to these Pacers. As of now they are still in that tier below MIL/TOR but there should be little question that the team we’re seeing over these last 20 games sure looks like one that can compete with anyone out East.
So here we are, in January, and almost every one of the problems that some didn’t think may be able to be fixed don’t really exist. Jaylen and Hayward look a billion times better, the team is playing unselfish high energy basketball, the defense is still as stout as ever. This is not to say they’ve accomplished anything, they still have a ton of work to do, but after a night like last night and after looking at their play over these last 20 games, at least now we know what they are truly capable of. Now that climb back up the standings doesn’t look as daunting. Just 1.5 games at the moment from the 3 seed, and just 3 games back in the loss column of TOR with 42 games to play. For a team like we saw last night? That’s nothing.
Put simply, this was the best performance of the entire season that was very much needed. It came against a quality opponent and frankly they had to show me that they could do this to someone other than the BKNs of the world. They passed their test with flying colors and now it’s time to talk about it. Let’s go.
The Good
– You could tell right from the opening tip, Jayson Tatum was on a mission. He came out firing, dropped 11 points in the first quarter and essentially he set the tone for how the team would play for the entire night
I hate to simplify his peformance like this, but really like it so often does, everything comes down to Tatum’s approach. We know he’s at his best when he is either attacking and finishing in the paint/at the rim, or stepping behind the line and taking open threes. It’s when he holds the ball and tries to iso into long contested twos that he makes us want to pull our hair out and put him in timeout. Well, how does this approach look to you?
Pretty damn good. He realized that without Turner they didn’t really have anyone to protect the rim, and everything was aggressive. Notice how you don’t see any long twos or anything of that nature? This tells me that Tatum is starting to figure things out But his offense was only half of the story. It was on Tatum to match up with Bojan Bogdanovic, who isn’t exactly an easy cover. The guy can score with the best of him, and yet over 20 possessions Tatum held him to just 3 points. Players like Oladipo, Evans, and Collison all went scoreless when Tatum defended them. This tells me that he brought the noise on both ends, which you could argue he didn’t always do to start the year. Tatum led the team with 15 FGA, but had only 5 in the second half so it wasn’t as if he was getting the ball and forcing it just because of his hot start. It was good to see him finally be efficient at 9-15, especially against a defensive unit like IND.
– If you ask me, one of the biggest reasons why the Celtics look so much better is because Jaylen Brown has pushed through his absolutely horrific start and looked a whole lot more like the Jaylen Brown of last season/playoffs. It’s no secret he was one of the biggest culprits of their slow start, and he absolutely has been a big time player in their recent success over these last 20 games. Last night was another great example
Over his last 20 games, Jaylen is up to 13.8/4.2/1.8 with 52/35% splits with 1.1 3PM a night. His advanced metrics are more than acceptable with a 111 Ortg/ 106 Drtg. Last night he was tied for the team lead with 22 points on 7-12 shooting and also chipped in 7 rebounds and 3 asssits. Maybe most importantly, he didn’t turn it over. On the defensive end he had his hiccups but overall wasn’t a gigantic negative like he has been at times in the past. Tyreke Evans did the most damage with 10 points on 21 possessions but he shot 4-10. Oladipo was the next guy Jaylen matched up with most, and he had just 5 points on 13 possessions. Just like with Tatum, Jaylen is at his best when he plays inside/out. Him seeing the ball go in early with easy looks is what gets his confidence going and opens up his outside shot. In this game, of his 12 FGA, 7 of them came from the FT line or closer.
Over his last 5 games, we’re seeing Jaylen put up 17/4.6/2.6 on 58/47% splits with 1.6 3PM a night. For those who still want to harp on his start, you’re missing some pretty good basketball from a fairly important player. This isn’t a small sample size, this is half the season, and I think we all agree if this team is going to get where we want them to go, this is the Jaylen they need.
– I’m no cap expert, but I’m inching closer and closer to the line of thinking that the Celtics need to pay whatever the penalty is in order to keep Mook on this team
I know this is the blatant “play really well in a contract year” situation, but I don’t care. Morris has been so awesome this entire season, there really hasn’t been a drop off like I think we all expected, and night in and night now he continues to show up. I mean 22/8 on 6-8 shooting in just 23 minutes? I would say you can’t expect that all that much moving forward but Mook continues to prove me wrong. He was great on Thad Young, just like in my preview he got the bulk of the work against him, matched up on 40 possessions and gave up just 8 points. Nasty.
– The one thing you knew heading into this game was that the Pacers were going to run a billion high P&Rs with Oladipo/Sabonis, and how the Celtics defended that was essentially going to decide this game. I knew things were going to be great when I saw this rotation to start the third quarter.
When the Celts are this precise, that’s how you know they are locked in. Let’s just break this down quickly. The second Horford shows and cuts off Oladipo there is a pretty big space in the middle. This is what the Pacers want, they kill teams with this hard roll from Sabonis right down the middle of the paint.
This is where Tatum comes in. In my mind he makes or breaks this entire defensive possession. he needs to time his rotation perfectly in order to cut off Sabonis, and he does that flawlessly.
So far the Celtics have done two things perfectly. They prevented penetration from Oladipo, and then cut off the roll man in Sabonis. This is only half the battle though. As you can see, due to Tatum’s rotation to the middle, his man is now open in the corner. This is now Morris’ job to close out hard and prevent the three, which he does flawlessly
Then, for the final rotation, you have Tatum coming down and switching onto Morris man combined with Horford reading the play perfectly and heading out to guard Sabonis. This is the type of communication and understanding of everyone’s roles that make this team so solid defensively
It may not seem like a huge deal, but the way the Celtics defended the IND P&R was a huge reason why they were able to be so effective on that end. It showed me that they were locked in and prepared for the Pacers biggest weapon.
– In all honesty though, the defense as a whole was rock fucking solid, not just in the P&R
– I certainly hope you are not one of those impatient Celtics fans that have given up on Gordon Hayward
Hayward continues to inch closer to being the player we need him to be, he did a little bit of everything last night with 14/5/4 on 5-7 shooting, he made both his threes which is a nice sign, and the facts are over his last 4 games, Hayward sure looks like the player we need him to be
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Defensively he matched up with McDermott/Bogdanovic the most, a combined 35 possessions and he gave up 5 points. While he’s not there yet, he’s certainly no longer at the point where he is hurting this team. Considering he’s just 40 games into his journey back, I think he’s currently playing at an acceptable level. He has a 116 Ortg over these last 20 games which is a welcomed sight, and maybe it’s a good idea to stay patient with him because as the season has gone on he’s looked better and better. Come the Spring, who knows how good he could look.
– The bench, my god. 73 points?!?!? Excuse me? That is not a typo, the bench had the best night of their season and this was an example of why their #depth can be so deadly
As a bonus, how fucking awesome was Timelord? I mean it’s comical at this point how ridiculous he is
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Add in some quality Yabu minutes as well
that sequence to end the game essentially made me cum my pants. I’m not ashamed, I will not apologize, I could barely keep up. While making every clip boom something else went down and it happened all at once. I feel confident in saying it was a top 25 sexual experience of my life.
– Another game with over 30 assists, the Celtics shot 56/44%, made 14 3PM and actually got to the line going 21-24. Where that came from I have no idea but I know I like it.
– IND shot 42/32%, got out rebounded 48-39 and destroyed in fast break points 33-10. What do I say, this comes down to defense and rebounding. Then in the preview blog I talked about playing fast and making IND run, they wanted no part of that. Add all that up and you get a blowout.
– Kyrie only had 12 points. The Celtics won by a billion. He played 23 minutes. Try to not smile reading that, you can’t.
– Still undefeated in 2019 for those paying attention
The Bad
– I don’t want to force these next two sections, but there were things that can certainly be better. For example, Hayward still has a turnover problem. He had another 4 last night and really that’s the only negative of his recent stretch of strong play. Some came from miscommunication, some came from forcing things, but ideally I’d like to see him bring that to like 1 or 2 a night, not 4.
– It was pretty annoying just watching Tyreke Evans put his head down and bully his way to the rim. Read a scouting report for me one time, that’s literally all he wants to do. Shame on me for calling him out earlier in the day, I felt 62% responsible for his production. My hand is up.
– How on earth is this a technical foul? Show the Timelord some goddamn respect. You don’t see LeBron get called for this
The Ugly
– We only got the Yabu/Timelord pairing for like 6 minutes last night. That was not nearly enough. You guys may think it’s just schtick, but I think we saw last night what that pairing is capable of when they get to play together in blowouts. They are both NBA caliber players and I need more of that pairing in my life. Please Brad, I beg of you.
I’m very curious to see how this team plays tonight in MIA. Show me this is for real and win that game too, because it certainly won’t be easy. Historically Brad’s teams are good on B2Bs, and with MIA/ORL/BKN on deck before a HUGE showdown against TOR, I need all the momentum I can get. The Celtics are having the exact January they needed, and frankly I’m more relieved than anything. This is the team I wanted and needed to see, and the rest of the NBA is officially put on notice.