Hornets (24-20) at Celtics (23-22) Game #46 1/19/22

[Kuberski33]

According to Brown, just attacking the hoop is apparently easier said than done:

Jaylen Brown — who struggled as well, finishing 2-for-11 from three — noted that getting to the rim isn’t as easy as many suggest.

“It’s the NBA, it doesn’t really work like that,” Brown said. “You have 7-footers down there. You’ve got to make the right play.

“At times we tried to be overly aggressive and get to the basket anyway, but sometimes that leads to turnovers and even worse basketball, so we have to keep taking the open shots.”

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2022/01/20/celtics-hornets-takeaways-jayson-tatum/?p1=hp_featurestack

Excuses or legit?

Little of both. 

Teams don't fear the Celtics' ability to beat them from the outside, so the lane is more congested for us than it is for many other teams in the league.  And until we're able to punish teams for sagging into the paint consistently, that's going to keep being a problem for us. 

The best short-term solution is to RUN.  Attack defenses before they can set up and take the paint away.  We have a young, athletic team.  Get Jaylen out on the break, where he's one of the most dangerous players in the league.  Instead we play this slow, grind-it-out style that does not play to our best players' strengths.  Tatum CAN iso when it's needed, but he's not actually efficient at it.  That should be our play when our other options bust.  Instead it's what we seek out. 

I think an offseason goal of ours should be to turn Rob Williams into one of the best outlet passers in the league.  He has the tools for it.  Use his rebounding and vision and GO.

You need a guard who can push and distribute the ball in order to run. Currently the closest thing they have to that on the roster is Pritchard and he's not really good enough to log major minutes. Add that and a reliable shooter and things should open up quite a bit. I agree that Jaylen on the break is an absolute force. They just don't have a guard who can facilitate that right now - at least on a consistent basis.

[pokeKingCurtis]

If Tatum and Brown can’t hit 3s we’re pretty doomed. Because they refuse to adjust and attack the hoop and create opportunities for others.

Disappointing loss. Hornets are a lot more cohesive and fun to watch.

According to Brown, just attacking the hoop is apparently easier said than done:

Jaylen Brown — who struggled as well, finishing 2-for-11 from three — noted that getting to the rim isn’t as easy as many suggest.

“It’s the NBA, it doesn’t really work like that,” Brown said. “You have 7-footers down there. You’ve got to make the right play.

“At times we tried to be overly aggressive and get to the basket anyway, but sometimes that leads to turnovers and even worse basketball, so we have to keep taking the open shots.”

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2022/01/20/celtics-hornets-takeaways-jayson-tatum/?p1=hp_featurestack

Excuses or legit?

It is easier to get to the basket in today's league than it ever has been in the history of the NBA.

Never has the court been so spaced out and so few interior defenders ready on hand to dissuade a shot attempt.

It has never been easier.

That's when you have legitimate shooting. A blogger highlighted just how garbage our spacing is a week ago:
https://twitter.com/StoolGreenie/status/1482392747759652864?t=-LX-CXi_ZAKD-mi7MEo1-Q&s=19

The way I see it, shooting comes and goes. Clearly Wyc is not going all in this year. Some okay shooters, but all having a down year.

But when we finally go all in, we'll have good shooters - and even if they're off, the Jays will be used to fighting against bad shooting nights.

[Celtics2021]

Man, I like the Hornets. LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward are a lot of fun to watch. Then they got Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier in supporting roles supplying lots of three point shooting (14 3s per game) and good scoring (38ppg).

You look at them and compare those guys in those roles to our Celtics:

(1) Their two stars actually pass the ball and make their teammates better. Both among the best ball-handlers and passers at their positions. Also good shooters.

(2) Genuine scoring and shooting support for their star players. 38ppg from their 3rd and 4th best players. Compare that to Boston - who is it even? Schroder is the 3rd best scorer, then who? Smart? Horford? Josh Richardson? Such a lack of genuine quality offensive support for Tatum and Jaylen.

And they play small!

Miles Bridges a combo forward plays PF. They play two combo guards and a ball-handling SF. They play with speed and skill. Push the ball. Out-skill opponents.

We don't. We don't try to out-skill anyone except for the worst of the worst. We don't play with pace. We don't try to out-run everyone. Everything is so slow and stodgy. Mucky halfcourt offense. Ugly team to watch.

It is only when you watch some of these other teams in the league that you realize how far behind the Celtics are in terms of their roster composition and skill levels.

And yet the Celtics are 2 points per game better, because for all their scoring, the Hornets give up the second-most points in the NBA.  Basketball is played at both ends of the court.  The Celtics have chosen to emphasize defense at the expense of offense, while the Hornets have chosen the opposite extreme.  It does not mean that the Celtics are less skilled or less talented than the Hornets.

No doubt about it, the Celtics have more real and unrealized potential. The J's score points individually, and the C's defend better as a team too. Unfortunately it doesn't reflect in the record. Wouldn't it be great if we could blend the two?

I'm looking forward to the Celtics having no worse than a 32-24 record by the trade deadline and starting a climb up in the standings.  We're 10th, but only 5.5 games out of first.  A good month of basketball and our record and standing can look a lot more like the collection of talent that's on the roster.

Didn't quite get up to 32-24 by the deadline, but 31-25 is solid, and we've climbed from 10th to a tie for 6th.