The Celtics Should Be Both Relieved And Embarrassed With What Happened In Phoenix
Well, that certainly was something last night wasn’t it. While we all should have known that just because the Suns are one of the worst teams in the league, that doesn’t mean the rested Celtics were going to just walk all over them. I mean common sense says they should given the talent they have, but since when has this team ever made things easy? Never. So while it’s fair to be excited at the 22 point comeback on the road since those are pretty rare, it’s also fair to be pretty angry and embarrassed with how this team played for 95% of this game. It’s not even one of those “well it’s early, they’ll figure it out” things either. I don’t care when you play the Suns, it could be in November, it could be in May, I have to expect that as an ECF and Finals contender, you can handle them with relative ease when you are at full health. I don’t think that’s such a crazy expectation for this team. Just don’t suck against the worst in the league, seems fair. This isn’t the scrappy underdogs who play above their level, this is a team many picked to win over 60 games and make the Finals.
Now let’s be fair, they were much, much better in the second half and OT, but that still doesn’t excuse the first 24 minutes of this game in which they scored 35 points. They looked lifeless, they looked disinterested, they looked like a team that walked into the arena and thought they could just show up and win. Part of me puts that on Brad, but also it’s not on him when they can’t stop missing wide open shots like they did to start. And look, you love the resiliency and you love the clutch execution down the stretch, but I don’t exactly walk out of last night feeling better than I did heading in. I know that if they pull this shit against a team with a pulse, they are going to lose by 30. So don’t go thinking things are fixed and all peachy just because they came back and beat the Suns. They aren’t. Far from it. If anything the win was a relief more than anything else, because they did get the W and Brad still has things to politely yell at them about.
The Celtics were fortunate enough to avoid a huge disaster and walked away with only a mini disaster, I can handle that. Let’s dive in.
The Good
– It would be illegal for me to start any other place than with the play of Kyrie Irving. In a word? Incredible
There’s putting your team on your back, and then there’s whatever Kyrie did last night. A total of 39/6/7/3 on 13-28 shooting including 6-13 from deep, Kyrie was the savior this team needed last night and he was more than willing to rise to the challenge. He had 12 points in the fourth quarter on 4-8 shooting and then another 6 on 3-5 shooting in the OT. It was a great combination of Fuck You Threes and attacking the basket as it was clear PHX had no player on the roster who could prevent him from getting to the rim whenever he wanted. This is why they traded for him, this is why they are going to give him all that money this summer, because when this team was facing a disaster ending, he willed them to victory. He was the leader they needed and it wasn’t just through his scoring. His playmaking down the stretch was great, he trusted his teammates and put them in positions they could succeed.
While part of me is angry they even needed this type of performance from Kyrie, the other part is thankful that he rose to the challenge and came through, especially with him getting the night off tonight in UTA.
– I can’t explain it, so I won’t even try. I have no idea what has gotten into Marcus Morris but I am not going to question it. Have to love his 17/8 off the bench on 7-13 shooting, and this is yet another example of him not being afraid of the moment when the pressure was highest
The one thing I would say about Morris this season is he’s playing so much smarter. Last year it felt like he came in and just jacked shot after shot after shot. This year, while he still has that same green light, he’s being smarter about it. Getting to better spots, not being afraid to move the ball, and now that he’s in great shape he is able to come through late in games. I think it’s fair that through the first 11 games, he’s been your best and most complete player from the jump. He is one of the few players on this roster that hasn’t endured a slump, and it’s made all the difference in the world.
– Man, it seems like just days ago Celtics fans were all upset about how Jaylen Brown stinks and how he needs to be moved to the bench. Well, I’m not sure if they’ve been paying attention over the last 5-6 games, but you can see how silly it is to overreact so early in the year. This goes for everyone that is currently struggling, but definitely with Jaylen. People LOVE to peg him as the problem with this team, and it makes no sense. He was their second or third best player last night and it was all about his approach. When he puts his head down and attacks like this, it makes all the difference in the world
Look at how he uses his size and quickness to gain a step on his defender and then just body him out of the way. It’s not rocket science with Jaylen honestly, when he has a shot chart that looks like this
Good things happen. Over his last five games Jaylen is averaging 15.45/4.8/1.0 on 44.8/30% splits with 1.4 3PM a night. His three point shooting still leaves more to be desired at the moment, but everything else is pretty much what we all expected heading into the year. People freaked out because he had a slow start and a bad three game stretch, but he is not the problem. If anything, he’s been one of their most consistent players for the last week or so.
You know what I love most though? His defense on Devin Booker. On a night where nobody could stop the man, Jaylen help him to just 7 points on 3-12 shooting while guarding him for 41 possessions. I also thought his quotes in the post game were rather interesting
– I thought Semi was fantastic in his 7 minutes. He had just three points, but that monster block was awesome and it just shows he’s always ready for whatever Brad asks him to do.
– After such a horrific start, I was very much relieved to see the Celtics look more like themselves over the second half. They shot 54.8/47.4% and scored 65 points, and then another 66/50% in the OT. I think they made something crazy like 13 straight shots. It just goes to show that when this team does not shoot like COMPLETE DICKHEADS, they can be pretty good. I don’t even need crazy percentages like this, just shoot like 41% and see what happens, I bet you’ll like it.
– They took 31 FTs. That has to be a season high
The Bad
– This may be the first time I ever do this, but we’re skipping the bad section. Making light of the horrible things that happened in this game by not putting it in the Ugly just doesn’t feel right. Please scroll and continue reading below.
The Ugly
– OK, where do I fucking start. I suppose a good place would be how the Celtics started this game. You see, I didn’t hate the shots they were taking in the first quarter, in fact they are the exact shots I want this team to take. But shit can we make some open looks please? How are you going to be rested and start 0-10 or whatever bullshit it was? They scored 13 points on 18/12% shooting. What even is that?!?!? I mean it was everything, missing bunnies at the rim, missing wide open threes, I honestly have never seen anything like it and I watch this team miss 10 straight shots all the time. What bothered me wasn’t so much the cold offense, that’s standard procedure, what bothered me was how lifeless this Celtics team was on the defensive end.
The Suns came out and dropped 32 points on 59/57% shooting in those opening 12 minutes. That can’t happen, and it especially can’t happen when you had 2 days rest. I can’t even think of a spinzone for how that opening quarter looked because it doesn’t exist. Once things started to go south the body language changed and the defensive effort went away. Not exactly ideal.
It got to the point where the Celtics were so embarrassing, that in the second quarter when they put up 25/33% splits, it actually felt good. Those numbers suck!
– The result of that first half gave us something I don’t think we’ll ever seen again, and has to be rare in NBA history. Kyrie Irving was the only starter to score a point in the first 24 minutes of this game. I’m serious
Again, how is this even possible? How do you not score by accident on a prayer layup or something? It’s almost so poor you kind of have to laugh at it. We may never see anything like this ever again so while you should cherish this moment forever, it’s also something that makes me want to vomit.
– It’s never a good thing when 60% of your starters combine to go 7-22 for a total of 19 points. We’ll start with Horford, who wasn’t terrible and hit a big shot late, but also wasn’t all that good either. I wouldn’t exactly say he won the battle against DeAndre Ayton, in fact he sort of got cooked on both ends. Couldn’t buy a bucket on one end, and then in the 40 possessions he was matched up with Ayton on the defensive end he gave up 10 points on 5-7 shooting. Not his best performance that’s for sure.
Then there’s Hayward. People are getting on him pretty hard right now because he hasn’t looked great. Patience is hard for this fanbase, but his 8/4 in 24 minutes wasn’t awful. It wasn’t great, but it’s all still a process with Hayward. Many people want him out of the starting lineup, and I disagree. Look at what we just saw with Jaylen? Give these guys time to play together and figure it out. We want to talk about their comfort playing together, well taking away minutes on the floor as a starting unit doesn’t exactly accomplish that.
The real problem though, is whatever is happening with Jayson Tatum. While he was good on the boards with 8, this had to be one of the worst games of his young career. The 1-7 shooting was not great, and neither was his shot selection
at this point he cannot stop taking these contested midrange step back threes. It’s pretty simple. He gets you in isolation, makes a behind the back dribble to get to his spot that doesn’t fool the defender, and then he just tries to pull up over a contested shot. It’s not working, and it hasn’t been working all year. The biggest thing heading into the year for Tatum was how he would adjust now that teams know he’s legit and actually try to stop him. The early results have been pretty piss poor.
– For the second time this season, they had problems with a Kentucky guard. I thought all the switching they were doing was essentially ineffective against Booker, and it wasn’t until Jaylen said fuck that and played honest defense on him that his scoring stopped. For a team that is supposed to be the best defense in the league, this team has a really hard problem holding people to not insane offensive performances. It’s weird.
– The Celtics were lucky to win because outside of Morris, their bench really gave them nothing. Everyone else went a combined 8-21 and I don’t know what Baynes was doing but his 1-6 certainly didn’t help. I thought Terry pressed a little too much, so although he had 10 points it came off 3-8 shooting and at times he looked like Young Terry that played 10000 MPH and is out of control. I thought he was past that to be honest.
– FTs. How could I not mention the FTs. I can tell you I would be in a much different mood had the Celtics lost this game while missing all those fourth quarter FTs, ultimately ending the night 24-31. I’m not saying they have to be perfect, but when you are making a comeback and it gets to the fourth quarter and you are a good FT shooter, I need you to make them. Period.
Like I said, the Celtics were lucky to win this game, and that’s not exactly something you want to be saying when playing a team like PHX. But you know what’s better than losing to a bad team? Beating a bad team no matter how it ended up happening. The vultures out there are happy because they can still rip this team for their performance, the homers are happy because at least they came back from 22 and Kyrie was awesome, so in reality everybody wins. The real test is now tonight in UTA, where the Jazz have struggled at home but are a much different beast. Win that game and I’ll forget everything that happened last night, but I just wonder how much will be left in the tank because it had to be wasted on the goddamn Suns.
Whatever, a wins a win.
7 down 55 to go.