The Celtics Lose Another Game In The Final Moments And I'm Now Officially Worried About Kyrie Irving's Knee
It makes some sense, things had been going so well for the Celtics since the All Star break they were due for a game that would make me want to pull my hair out. Obviously it’s no surprise that a game in which they did not have Horford, Jaylen, and then no Kyrie for half of it caused the Celtics to struggle some. You could argue those are the three most important players on this roster. If you want to give them a pass for this loss last night then I can’t blame you, but I also can’t fully agree with you. At the end of the day the Celtics still blew a 12 point lead at home, and their defensive effort in the second half is something we can’t ever deem as acceptable.
But at least now we know. Take away their best players and they will have a tough time winning. The loss makes catching TOR that much harder because they refuse to lose again, but given how the seeding might shake out that’s not really the worst thing either. That’s really how I feel this morning after watching this game. It’s not the worst thing to ever happen, but it’s still frustrating to see the Celtics lose a game which they had no business losing, even with the guys missing. Poor late game execution reared it’s ugly head like it has probably 5 times at least this season, and I’m sorry but there are still veteran players on this team that I expect to be able to close out games at home against an inferior opponent.
With that said, let’s get started
The Good
– Despite him spraining his thumb which is just another thing for me to worry about at 2:30 in the morning, Marcus Smart’s fingerprints were all over this game. I mean ALL OVER it.
Right from the opening tip Smart was inserting his will on the Pacers and the Celtics were feeding off it. His defense was outstanding whether he was facing Myles Turner or someone that actually plays his position. He was active on the extra glass creating additional opportunities that led to baskets, he was the Marcus Smart that this team needs him to be. He finished with 20/7/7/4 on 6-13 shooting which was nice, and he actually went 6-12 from behind the arc which is a little outrageous. It’s outrageous that 12 of his 13 shots were 3PA, and it’s outrageous that he actually made 6 of them.
The funny thing is we can all agree that Smart played well, yet at the end of the day he was a -4. Plus/mins amirite?!?! This isn’t all that uncommon either, anytime Smart has one of these games where he scores 20+, the Celtics tend to lose. I’m not kidding. This was the 3rd time this season Marcus Smart has had at least 20 points and shot the ball well. The Celtics are 0-3 in those games.
GM1 vs DET: 23 points on 8-13 shooting (6-9 from deep)
GM2 vs LAL: 22 points 7-13 shooting (4-10 from deep)
GM3 vs IND: 20 points on 6-13 shooting (6-12 drom deep)
It’s almost as if this team would rather have him go 2-9 with 7/4/4 and be a +15 than what we got last night. It makes little to no sense.
– With guys out I was also interested to see how Jayson Tatum would step up. He’s usually done pretty well when Jaylen has been out of the lineup, and last night really was no different
I think we all would take 19/5/3 on 5-11 shooting (2-4) in 34 minutes. Tatum also led all Celtics scorers with 9 in the fourth quarter on 2-4 shooting, proving yet again that he is one of the best fourth quarter players on this team. Him and Kyrie have been so solid in those final 12 minutes so far this season. What I liked about Tatum was his aggressiveness. He worked his pull up game, he knocked down his outside shots, and when the team needed to attack the basket late, there he was drawing fouls in the fourth quarter.
The best news is that his shooting is starting to get back to normal. He’s up to 47/43% splits so far in March and honestly has been shooting the ball much better from deep since the AS Break. Since February 22nd Tatum is making 1.4 3PM a night while shooting 47.8% from deep. So much for his shooting slump. With Jaylen slated to miss some time, the Celtics are going to need this version of Tatum moving forward, and the good news is he seems up for the challenge.
– If Kyrie is also going to miss serious time (more on this in a minute), then Brad is going to have to unleash Starting Terry, and if last night was any indication, he’s ready
Here’s a serious question. At what point do we shift away form “Rozier is having a hot streak” to “this is who Rozier is”? As fans we were always waiting for Terry to figure out his consistency, well, isn’t this consistent?
I would call that not only consistent, but fucking awesome. Who on this planet thought that over a 6 week span that Terry would shoot 44+% from three while making nearly 3 a game? Nobody. Not me, not you, hell probably not even Terry. His play on the second unit has been everything I ever wanted for him, and we already know that when he starts he’s basically a top 3 guard in the NBA so I for one am excited for what’s about to come.
When you watched Terry play last night, he didn’t shoot the ball all that well, but he was everywhere. Hitting the glass like a big he was 2nd on the team in rebounds. While he is falling in love with his three point shot, I’ve learned to live with it. As long as he mixes in a few floaters like he did last night, I can give him a pass for this.
– Even with taking two bench guys and throwing them into the starting lineup, the bench still did produce 35 points so we’ve certainly seen worse efforts. Monroe was solid in his 17 minutes even if he couldn’t buy a foul, and this was encouraging because as we know the bench is pretty important for this team.
– It’s hard to not be impressed with how the Celtics defended for the first half of this game given who was not in the lineup. They held IND to 40 points on 37/36% splits and caused 8 TOs. While no one is saying they are a better defensive team without Horford/Jaylen and then later Kyrie, they certainly looked adequate to start this game. That’s what made me so mad about how this game ended. The Celtics got up double digits and changed their defensive intensity. So goddamn annoying. But those first 24 minutes were a defensive clinic.
– I also can’t be mad at how the Celtics moved the ball. Ending the night with 26 assists on 34 baskets for an assist% of 76% is not something that usually results in a loss. In fact it almost always guarantees a win. Not having their three best scorers meant that the Celtics had to do this as a collective unit and actually share the ball. Marcus set the tone with 8 assists but then everyone outside of Kyrie and Nader had more than 1 assist. That’s teamwork that makes the dream work, only it didn’t this one time but usually does.
The Bad
– I mean where should we start. Operating under the knowledge that this was like 40% of the actual Celtics team everything in these sections has to be taken with a grain of salt. But that doesn’t mean they should be excused for their poor play. For example the Pacers owned the points in the paint 46-26, had more second chance points at 12-9, and ended the night shooting 48/54% while making 12 3PM while scoring 59 second half points.
I’m sorry, but I don’t care WHO is in the lineup, the Celtics cannot give up 59 points on 61/72% splits in the second half. Last time I checked they still had good defenders like Smart, Rozier, Tatum, and Morris still available right? Did I expect them to maintain their level of defensive dominance like they showed in the first half, of course not. But I most certainly expected them to you know, actually play defense. I had just seen them do it in the first 24 minutes, and yet it was nowhere to be found for the final 24. That’s infuriating.
– It doesn’t surprise me that the Celtics struggled with both Oladipo and Myles Turner, but I will say it was rather annoying to be burned by Turner multiple times from behind the line. I’m not sure if they didn’t read the scouting report on him, but he’s shooting 38% from three this year and was coming off a game in which he went 3-5 from deep. Maybe you know, go out and challenge him there because he has proven he can make it.
Then with Oladipo the Celts did a good job containing him in the first half. He had just 7 points on 3-9 shooting. What changed? Well the Celtics decided to not stop him from getting to the rim, and wouldn’t you know that made a little bit of his difference. Here’s how his second half looked
This is what happens when your perimeter defense decides to not try and you allow a great scorer like Oladipo to live in the paint/rim. It usually doesn’t work out for you.
– The biggest thing that changed with the guys out is something that is totally understandable. Their approach changed. Coming out of the break one of the main reasons the Celtics have looked so good on offense was their approach. They were making a conscious effort to get into the paint and put their scorers in a position to succeed. Well last night without the slashers like Jaylen and Kyrie, and without the presence of Horford, we saw the Celtics revert back to their approach which has caused them to look like shit. This looked like the bottom of the league offense that was taking nothing but threes, whether it was a good shot or not. Look for yourself, it’s almost like going into the paint would give you AIDS or something because the Celtics that did play wanted no part of it
So while I am going to give the players a pass because they didn’t have the talent on the floor, I’m not sure I can give Brad that same pass. There was no adjustment it seemed like, and if this was the actual adjustment then I think it’s fair to say it failed.
– I have to say it. You miss 2 fourth quarter FTs in a game you lose by 2, where else am I supposed to put it? Go all night making your FTs and miss them when it matters most was not ideal.
The Ugly
– Look when you told me Kyrie was going to miss the CHI game because of “knee maintenance” I bought it. Why waste him against that dogshit team. But now you’re telling me that Kyrie had to pull himself out of this game due to knee soreness issues and I’m not supposed to be freaking the fuck out? Now we’re talking about shutting him down for a little bit?
Yeah, it’s no longer something that is just a sneaky way for him to avoid the bad teams. This is an issue and to me, a gigantic one. Jaylen will be back, Horford will overcome his head cold, but chronic reoccurring knee issues scare the absolute hell out of me. Now if this were the playoffs, would Kyrie play? I’m leaning towards yes, but this was the first time we’ve seen Kyrie start a game and then have to remove himself due to injury. Given his history I don’t know how this wouldn’t scare you.
If you look at things from the Celtics point of view, even if he plays and they go on to win 57+ games, they’re probably still the 2 seed. If he sits and they win 54, same thing, probably the two seed. So in that aspect it really doesn’t make a difference and that helps calm me down a little bit, but I hate the words “knee” and “injury” when we’re talking about a player who sort of relies on his quickness and jerky motion to be successful.
– It doesn’t help that when you look at the Celtics immediate schedule it’s loaded with guard talent. WSH/NO/POR/UTA/TOR are all on the horizon. In fact, something like 7 of the next 10 Celts games are against playoff opponents so this isn’t exactly the best time for our entire team to be at Mass General.
– Let’s talk about the last play. Late game execution has plagued this team a bunch this season, and this last shot by Terry wasn’t the best thing we’ve ever seen.
First off, no clock awareness whatsoever. The Celtics had the final shot, no need to rush, and definitely no need to give IND any sort of time if in fact Rozier made the layup. Once he catches it there’s about 17 seconds left, and it’s him vs Turner with all kinds of space
I don’t think Terry wanted to drive, but he saw that lane to the rim and he went for it. Where it got tricky was the Oladipo reach (foul)
Now we have a problem. Not only does this mess up Rozier’s momentum, but it also allowed Turner to recover after the initial blow by. Now Rozier is a little off balance and has to take this sort of running contested finger roll from the block which isn’t that high percentage of a shot. Remember this team refuses to make layups anyway, never mind a contested one.
He shot the ball with 16 seconds left and from there IND got the rebound and that was a wrap. This is where not having Kyrie really hurt you not just for the finishing ability, but the calmness and presence of mind of score and situation. The play wasn’t a bad call, it just was poorly executed.
So we turn the page to WSH Wednesday night to close out this homestand before another West Coast trip for 4 games which you know by now is going to be filled with something wacky. Who knows the availability of the guys that are out, but I’m just going to assume the team we saw last night is the one we’re moving forward with for the time being. Plus Yabu, I think we as fans deserve some Yabu.