This New Look Celtics Team End Their Road Trip In Style With A Nice Win In Minnesota

Brad Stevens talked about how he wanted his team to come out of the break with much more energy and focus. He talked about hitting that extra gear and how important that would be if they wanted to be the kind of team he thought they could be. Well, after winning 6 of their first 7, with that one loss being a total collapse in HOU, the knock on how well they had been playing was it wasn’t coming against the best competition. Well after seeing how they played HOU, and then this win over a good MIN team, we’re seeing the same sort of production from the Celtics no matter who the opponent is. The fact that these performances are coming on the road is even better.

At some point we have to believe in this new style right? While I think 7 games is still juuuuuuusssst a little too small of a sample size to declare this version of the Celtics is who we will see from here on out, it is encouraging that they haven’t taken a step back offensively, or from an energy and effort standpoint since the games started back up again. To me that makes sense to some degree, guys like Kyrie, Al and Brad know that we are no longer in fucking around time. It’s time to get serious and play your best basketball. So far, that’s what we’ve got.

It’s Friday, you don’t want to work, so let’s kill some time together and talk about last night. Cool?

The Good

–

We obviously are starting here. I honestly have no idea how Jaylen walked away from that fall basically OK. I’m sure he has a concussion and will miss some games, but that’s about 10000000000x better than the potential alternative. I’m not even talking about that in terms of his basketball season, I’m talking about his life. He could have snapped his neck with a fall like that, and seeing how his body tensed up still makes me nauseous. Much like when Gordon Hayward went down, every time I closed by eyes last night I saw that fall. It was a feeling I don’t wish on any person, even Lakers fans.

So thank God Jaylen is not seriously hurt. Now please don’t scare us like that again and keep doing things like you were last night

– In terms of the actual basketball that was played, how about that Al Horford fella. Here he was, playing in a game against a good team on the road in what was a big game for the Celts, going up against a really good young talent in KAT. It sure looked to me like Horford is busting out of his slump, and yes the line was nice (20/8/6 on 8-14 shooting), but if we say the box scores don’t matter when he plays poorly, then the box score to me at least doesn’t matter now that he’s played well. To me, what I care about in terms of Horford’s night was how aggressive he was on both ends. The approach with him is always more important than the production. When he is playing with this level of energy and this level of confidence, he’s a different player

His 14 FGA were the second most of all starters, and what’s the easiest way to get Horford back to his old self? You get him in spots he can succeed in. That was the story last night, with Horford doing the majority of his work from the circle and below

The offense is all well and good, but Horford real impact was on the defensive end. This brought me the most joy because it’s where this team TRULY needs Horford to be dominant. I would say the work he did on that end was the best we’ve seen Horford defend in weeks. His work on KAT was the best individual defense by far, and was a huge reason why the Celtics won this game. He defended KAT on 55 possessions and held him to 2-7 shooting. On the night, opponents were 3-11 against Horford as the closest defender, and he led the team with 18 total contested shots. He was a defensive monster at a time when they really needed him to be. Love that.

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– I will say this, at this time of the season, it is on your best players to flip a switch and get to another level while bringing the rest of his teammates along with him. That is exactly what Kyrie Irving has done. Since the break he’s been a different player, whether you want to use the actual metrics or just go by the eye test, he looks different. He looks engaged, and his play is benefitting

Ending the night with 23/7/8 on 9-15 shooting, this was another complete effort Kyrie and something that he has made a habit of doing over the last week or so. He’s rebounding more, he’s getting others involved more than he ever has, and the results of this offense are speaking for themselves. Kyrie has done a great job of not forcing his offense now that we are in a crucial part of the season. He has just one 20+ FGA game since the break, while never having a game under 5 assists. I think this has helped in two ways

1) He’s more efficient offensively

2) Other guys are getting some much needed confidence as we approach the playoffs

That’s what I want from Kyrie The Leader. It doesn’t always have to be Kyrie dropping 40 points and taking every shot for him to make a real impact on this team. I actually prefer this version of him much better even if he’s not scoring as much. His defense still has a way to go to catch up to how well his offense has been, but overall Kyrie has been the exact player this team needed coming out of the break. He’s leading by example and it’s working.

– You know who doesn’t make much sense? Marcus Morris and his outrageous hot streak right now

For a guy that LOVES to take what is usually statistically the worst type of shot you can take, he’s somehow figured out how to never miss. You know earlier in the season I would see he was about to get the ball and would be mad because I knew he wasn’t going to pass it. Now? I say don’t ever pass it again. Just grip it and rip it because this guy has been lights out, especially from deep (9-17) over his last three games. I also respect him for not even hitting the rim either, shit is nothing but net and while I won’t try to explain how he’s averaging 47/52% in March I most certainly will enjoy it before it runs out.

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– It feels great to have my Marcus Smart back. You know the one I’m talking about, the one where he goes 2-7 (0-4), missed 4 FTs, and finishes with 9/2/6 and is a +15. Watching Marcus Smart in this game was basically a blueprint as to why he’s so important to this team and why Ainge is going to have a tough decision this summer (depending on the market). You need stuff like this

I mean Taj Gibson is a PF. Marcus Smart is a PG (by name only), and he completely bodied him. Then you have him skying in for putback dunks and diving on the floor just to knock a ball out of bounds. His play is contagious and is the tone setter for this group that much is clear. Smart was 2nd on the team in deflections and 3rd in total contested shots. The man is an animal and if you care about his shooting from last night you are simply choosing to ignore the real point. Marcus Smart is winning, and winning is Marcus Smart.

– We can’t talk about the bench guys like Mook and Smart and not mention Rozier, who had another 13/4 on 5-10 shooting

You want to talk about guys like Kyrie who maybe have flipped a switch, well I’m putting Rozier in that same category. Look at this run and you’ll see why the bench has been so good lately

The #1 thing with Terry has always been his consistency. His lack of it was what made him such a frustrating player. I don’t want to jinx things, but it appears that he’s figured that part out.

– Look this offense is starting to get stupid. Another 110+ point effort with 49/34% splits, 10+ 3PM, 27 FTA and just 11 TOs. I fully understand this won’t last once the playoffs start as teams try harder and defenses lock in more, but give credit to this run post AS Break. This is an level offensively that not only did I not think the Celtics could get to, let alone sustain for any period of time. I guess the takeaway is they are not as bad as they looked at their worst, and they probably aren’t as good as what we’re seeing right now.

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– This was a switch in style in some ways, where instead of focusing primarily on points in the paint, the Celtics got out and ran. They lost PITP 54-32, but won the fast break point battle 14-2 and the second chance battle 18-11. They kept rebounding within 1 because it was a team effort with 7 players netting at least 4 rebounds, which just tells me the Celts played with the right amount of effort.

– Just another 12/5 on 4-8 or Jayson Tatum

Can we get this dude some more shots please? Pretty please?

The Bad

– I’m noticing a trend, the Celtics get up huge (18 last night) and relax defensively. Personally I cannot stand this because I hate when teams step off the gas and stop doing what got them that lead in the first place. This wasn’t a back to back or anything like that, and for the second game in a row they gave up a giant fourth quarter (35 points), despite the game being over. Play 48 minutes of defense please.

– I know this isn’t a MIN blog, but Andrew Wiggins…..WOOF. He seemed pretty disinterested last night and his 6-21 sure didn’t help

– I’m not crazy, Rozier is getting a little trigger happy from deep right? He took 6 last night and it feels like he’s putting more of his focus on making threes than attacking the basket and finishing at the rim. It hasn’t hurt them, but something I have my eye on. Need him to stay aggressive and not settle just because he’s started to shoot better from the outside. Use your drives to open up your jumper and you’re good.

– Guys on this roster are known for different things. The ones with defensive reputations like Semi, Baynes, Tatum, and Theis did not play great defense last night. 

This isn’t really fair because three of those dudes didn’t play a whole lot, but in the time they did play their defense was pretty painful.

The Ugly

– Cool Nemanja Bjelica is a top 5 NBA player? Who knew! If you’d never seen an NBA game and you saw his performance last night you’d think he was one of the best players in the league. Love when the Celtics make average players look incredible. That’s always fun to watch

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The Celtics now return home for a quick homestand against IND/WSH which will not be walks in the park. The days of playing mostly poor competition is taking a break for a little bit until we get to around my birthday (March 25th, not sayin but sayin) so I’m excited to see how this team responds. TOR is showing no signs of slowing down so the Celtics need to keep up this level of play if they want to regain that top spot in the East. So far so good though.

46 down 8 to go.