Official Boston Celtics Thread

[tonybologna]

After winning 8 games in a row & making you think we have things on track & where they should be what do we do? We lose 2 in a row to teams that we really shouldn't be losing games to regardless of whether it's home or away games. First the Pistons who seem to have our number this season & tonight to the lowly Suns. The 1st time we played the Suns in Arizona we were down by 20 points & came back to win in OT. This time tonight we lead pretty much the 1st half but blew the game in the 2nd half. On another negative note, tonight we lost Baynes to injury with a broken hand.

We are already down Horford in the frontcourt & now Baynes. This will mean increased & important minutes for both Theis & Williams. Both guys have played well recently in their limited minutes on the floor. Horford is feeling better with his knee but Stevens said even after tonight's loss & Baynes breaking his hand that he wasn't going to hurry Horford back into the lineup.

Again tonight just as it has been in just about all of our 12 losses it was our defense. We are still in the top 10 in the NBA in team defense but it sure doesn't seem like it. It's still a stepdown from the defense we've played the past 2-3 seasons before in which we have been either #1 or #2 in the NBA.

Kyrie is doing his part & much more with this group of guys. This has me really concerned now that Kyrie just might jump ship after this season & join another team. He's said that he wants to stay in Boston. However, that talk came before this season started. With him playing as well as he is & the team not winning it makes me wonder if he wants to be a part of a team that's clearly underachieving this season.

We haven't had a 100% fully healthy roster 2/3 of the season so far. That has to be in his thought process but I mean Kyrie has been lights out for us but we still stand @ 18-12. No way this team should be worse than like 22-8 & should really be more like 23-7 or 24-6 with the talent & team that we have. Something just isn't right & most of it points to lacking on defense. We are putting up plenty of points just about every game so it's got to be mostly the defense at fault.

Kyrie, Tatum, Hayward, Brown, & Morris have ALL been playing well on offense lately. I don't know what we need to do in order to fix our defense but something has got to change or we're not going to even be a top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. That would mean no home court advantage at least in the opening round of the playoffs.

I'm not panicking just yet because we don't have Horford in the lineup right now plus Baynes is now going to be out for a good while too. This is a bigtime chance for both Theis & Williams to step up & show their worth for this team.

[tonybologna]

What a performance today by Kyrie. Just awesome! He's truly showing that he's both the on court & off the court leader for this team. We have got to get him to stay in Boston regardless of how this season ends up going. We have also got to pay the guy to keep him in which I don't think that will be a problem. GO CELTICS!

[tonybologna]

Good to see Hayward have his best game of the season(35 points) thus far tonight. His 2 best games this season have come in our 2 games vs the T'Wolves(30 pts. & 35 pts.). Maybe we need to ask the NBA for an extra game or 2 vs Minnesota for the rest of this season. LOL!

Hopefully Hayward can stay hot. We really need him to step up since Kyrie could be out a few games with that injured eye. Brown & Rozier will also need to pick it up. Rozier starting tonight just like in the playoffs last season showed how good of a player he is starting instead of coming off the bench.

He had a solid all around floor game tonight including 11 points in the 1st quarter. We have been starting Smart but in my opinion when Kyrie comes back I would stick Rozier in there @ PG with Kyrie starting @ SG. Let Smart come off the bench just as he had been & allow for his skillset to help with our bench play. Smart has started off & on all season long but it appears to me that he is just better suited coming off the bench to give us 18-22 minutes per game.

[tonybologna]

We are terrible on the 2nd night/game of back-to-backs. We come out almost every 2nd game when on a back-to-back & look like we're an old team when we're not at all. The Heat took it to us tonight from the game's tip. The defense looked like a bunch of lost puppies. The offense was sluggish & nobody other than Kyrie & Morris had any offensive game.

Kyrie started out hitting shots in the 1st quarter but then became passive the rest of the game. He hit like 5 of his first 6 shots in the 1st quarter but still only ended up with 22 points. Morris was 7-13 from the floor but he should have taken more shots too. Tatum was off bad going 4-12 & his body language was terrible. Brown after having 2 straight solid games off the bench was MIA tonight with only 2 points & taking only 5 shots in the game.

Horford really is playing @ like 60% at best right now. He can hardly move around on the court with the knee pain he's been suffering from for a while now. He's on a 20-25 minute per game restriction right now but I have watched him play the last 3 games & he probably shouldn't even be playing. However, we have Baynes out so we're playing him. Williams is slowly improving as a rookie & is getting a few more minutes each game.

Theis is playing OK in his minutes but he's not going to be able to provide what Horford can & this can be said for anybody we use in his place too. You can absolutely tell when Horford takes a shot that he doesn't have any lift at all even though he shoots a set 3-pt shot. He can't jump in the paint to shoot over defenders nor can he defend because of it.

I feel Horford will be heading for surgery on that knee but I sure hope it will hang on for the rest of this season & it can be done in the offseason. We need him out there & to be 80+%. A 50%-60% Horford isn't going to cut it for us. We really have no other consistent scorer on the inside from our big men. This team has shown at times they are putting things together then they come out & look like they did tonight.

Getting their butts whipped pretty good by a Miami Heat team that's under .500 on the season even though they're not a bad team. We still should beat teams like this regardless of whether it's a home or away game. It's just frustrating to watch. Hayward has also at times seemed to be getting his game back but then he will have a couple of games where he can't hit much of anything.

I still think he's trying to figure out how to fit into this team's offense. It's up to Coach Stevens to figure this all out but so far he hasn't punched the right buttons & I can't see us being any higher than a #3 or #4 seed for the playoffs unless we just go on a blazing hot streak of like 10 straight wins.

The Raptors & Bucks are without a doubt the 2 best teams in the East right now. I just don't see us passing either one of them. The 76ers & Pacers who are 3rd & 4th as of right now we're capable of passing if we can get things together & play like we should be playing & hopefully get Baynes back & Horford more healthy.

[tonybologna]

Kyrie lets go on the Celtics failures thus far this season: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...n-celtics-loss

I can't believe we lost that game last night @ Orlando. We were up by double digits in the 4th quarter & just flat out blew another game. The Heat the game before took us to the woodshed & then we follow up with that performance with a loss to a Magic team 6 games below the .500 mark?

There is definitely chemistry problems going on with this 2018-19 team. I think the defense is the main problem though. Yes, certain players like Brown, Rozier, & Hayward are not performing up to their standards on the offensive end of the court but our defense is nothing like it has been the past 2-3 seasons before this season.

We're still top 10 overall in defense but we've been a top 3 defense in recent seasons. I have watched several of our games so far this season & we are giving up just way too many easy baskets. Some totally uncontested shots & layups/dunks. I think Hayward is hesitate to try & take over a game for some reason. He did take over one game a couple of weeks ago & scored 35 points in doing so. He has got to be more aggressive scoring the ball. He's far too passive.

I think the entire team is relying on Kyrie to take us through every game. Kyrie has stated numerous times while he feels that he can be that guy but he wants others to take over games too to make this team more dangerous down the stretches of games. Morris has really been the only other player that we've been able to depend on to finish off games.

In my opinion though even if we get all of our players clicking on offense if we don't address the defensive end of the court it's not going to help us much than what's happened already this season. Getting Horford back to 100% healthy & also getting Baynes back in the lineup will help us but if we don't do something differently on defense then we're not going to score 115-120+ points per game consistently enough to be able to win a lot more games & jump up in the Eastern Conference standings. I feel like we are going to need to go at least 30-10 in these last 40 games of the regular season in order to even have a chance to get up to the #2 or #3 seed.

Toronto & Milwaukee are probably going to be the #1 & #2 seeds. I just don't know which one is going to win the East for the regular season. We should get up to #3 but we keep playing the way that we are then it's going to be a #4 or #5 seed in which this team shouldn't be. We should be no worse than a #3 seed but I say if we're playing like we're capable then no worse than a #2 seed.

[tonybologna]

We just lost to the Nets for our 3rd straight loss to teams that we absolutely should not be losing against. We didn't have Kyrie tonight due to a quad injury but we still should beat teams like the Nets without Kyrie. Rozier starting in his place only had 7 points & was 3-12 from the floor.

Tatum did have one of his best games of the season with 34 points & was 12-19 from the floor. Hayward again tonight was totally a non-factor in the game. He played 25 minutes & had only 3 points. Took only 6 shots & made 1 of those which was a 3-pointer. Jaylen Brown had his 3rd straight solid game with 22 points on 9-18 shooting & 6 rebounds.

Brad Wannamaker who backed up Rozier @ PG tonight outplayed Rozier. He had 13 points in 26 minutes & was 4-11 from the floor & 3-7 from 3-pt. range. Morris played tonight(8 points) but he's played the last 2 games with an illness. Smart was out of tonight's game due to what's called a similar type illness.

I have NO CONFIDENCE whatsoever in this team anymore. I really thought when we went on that 8 game winning streak a while back that we had things together but it's obvious that we don't. I don't trust us beating ANY team in the league now. Again tonight, we gave up 109 points to a team that averages below 100 pts./game. Our defense just has no clue as to how to guard teams. We have no real scheme to stop others. I think that might be the problem.

We think that we have so many talented offensive players that we don't need to focus of defense & stopping other teams. Well, if that's the case then this team had better start rethinking that mindset because it ain't working. As with ANY other major sport, defense is what in the end that wins Championships. We don't have any defense so we can forget it with the defense that we're playing this season.

It's not going to get it done. The expectations for this team I think has either gone to some of the player's heads or we're not being coached right one. I have always liked Brad Stevens but with the talent of this team & the underachieving right now makes it look like he's in over his head. It's hard to say that because Stevens took us to the Eastern Conference Finals last season without Kyrie & Hayward. Geez!

[tonybologna]

Well, we've now won 5 games in a row after that 3 game stretch of losing to teams that we really shouldn't be losing games to regardless of the venue. We won tonight over the lowly Cavs though. We did do it though with Kyrie out with an illness & Horford out with rest. Rozier had his best game of the season to date starting in place of Kyrie. He had 26 points, 8 rebs, 6 asts, & was 4-5 from 3-pt. range.

It just seems that unless Rozier starts a game he just can't get his game going coming off the bench. He's just not that player model that performs better coming off the bench. He's certainly not starting in place of Kyrie. I say why not let Rozier get a few games starting in place of Smart? Rozier could be PG & Kyrie be SG. That way I personally think both Rozier & Kyrie in the game together could get going.

Smart is strictly a role player for this team anyhow. He does a lot of things good but nothing great. He is our best defender but I think he's still best suited coming off the bench. Smart doesn't need to start to get himself going. When Rozier doesn't start then he's not much of a factor for us to be honest. Stevens has to see that & get him some starts if nothing else but to give him some confidence.

Maybe after having such a solid game tonight this will boost his confidence now. I just wish or hope Stevens will consider starting Rozier a few games in place of Smart to allow him to feel like he's contributing more & therefore providing him much more confidence in his game. We're now up to 30-18. Only 1/2 game back of the 76ers for 2nd in the Atlantic.

We're still 5 games back of the Raptors though & I think it's going to be really hard for us to catch them for 1st place in the division. We've shown that we can not only play with the Raptors but beat them too. We've taken 2 of 3 from them so far this season.

[tonybologna]

https://clutchpoints.com/celtics-new...s-uncertainty/

I knew this type of rumor would blow up once this team after 40-50 games has still not gotten things going to where they thought they would be. Kyrie did say he would resign with the C's before the season started. However, I think in his mind he was thinking this Celtics team would be dominating the Eastern Conference by now & that hasn't happened.

I still personally think we can make it happen when push comes to shove during playoff time. I do think we are going to need home court advantage at least in the 1st Round of the playoffs so that means a #4 seed or better.

Right now we are setting @ #5 seed but only 1 GB of the 76ers for 4th place. I really think the highest seed that we can get is #3 seed because the Bucks & Raptors are the class of the Eastern Conference. It's going to be between them 2 teams for the #1 seed for sure in the Eastern Conference. With the Warriors now playing like they thought & everybody was expecting looks to clearly be the #1 seed in the Western Conference.

Spots #2-#7 in the West could go a number of ways. In the East, I think the Top 5 are locks in the Bucks, Raptors, Pacers, Celtics, & 76ers but order of finish after 1-2 could certainly change. Spots #6-#8 will be a dog fight in the East but not as big of a dog fight as #2-#7 spots in the West where nearly all teams still have a chance to make the playoffs except for the Suns. The Cavs, Knicks, & Bulls from the East are out of contention for a playoff spot.