Los Angeles Clippers - Boston Celtics, analysis second half (70-38)

[Csfan1984]

TP, this is basically what I saw out their. Been seeing the same habits (not just errors in one game). A lot of guys seem to be up and down with their focus/feel for the game.

[Silky]

Basically this is what some of us have been stating for a while.

Morris should have been moved when value was at its peak.

Rozier is not a smart player at all.

Brown should be in the starting lineup.

We need a proper center.

[LilRip]

I’ve been advocating Wanamaker to get minutes for a while now. He’s a decent player but sometimes that’s all you need from your bench. A guy who can stabilize the team, not get beat on D, and can make the occasional shot.

Wanamaker > Rozier, IMO

[Celtics4ever]

I would tweak your grades.   None of our players should have got an A, after that game unless your scaling the grades to the guy who played best.   But Gordon was only a +3 on Plus Minus.  Also Smart should have been a F, because he was minus 21.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071502

Read this is a great analysis of our defensive woes.

    When the Celtics’ defense has been gashed this season, it is usually related to some combination of Horford, Hayward, and Morris being on the court together. Of the team’s 16 worst defensive ratings among two-man groups with at least 250 minutes played together, 15 have Hayward, Horford or Morris in them.

    Hayward and Morris have been Boston’s worst defensive pairing among regulars, with a 111.3 defensive rating over 446 minutes together. Hayward and Horford have been the second worst, with a 108.3 defensive rating over 528 minutes. Meanwhile, Horford and Morris have been the fourth-worst defensive group on the team, with a 107.6 rating over 762 minutes together.

    When isolated to the troubling second quarters, the defensive numbers are even more grisly: Hayward/Horford (125.1), Hayward/Morris (116.7), and Horford/Morris (114.9) have been the team’s three worst pairings with at least 50 second-quarter minutes together. In third quarters, Horford and Morris have a team-worst 118.7 defensive rating, followed by Morris/Terry Rozier and Horford/Smart.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2019/02/10/why-has-celtics-defense-been-poor-second-and-third-quarters/8a5tfshtv75ZuM5ERqIHMJ/story.html

[Fierce1]

You mention Rozier being in the paint to rebound  so he's out of position on defense. This is something that's  bothered me a out his game. He's a gets a lot of rebounds for a guard but i wonder if that's actually a bad thing to. Doesn't that  generally means he's either playing off his man in the perimeter or his man penetrated into the paint and missed a shot at the rim?

Rozier is getting most of his rebounds on the defensive end.
He's only averaging 0.5 offensive rebounds.
So he's not out of position on defense because most of his rebounds are from when the Celts are playing defense.

[BlackCeltic]

Morris is the WEAKEST link.

Last 13 games:

FG% .405

3P% .288

Lack of effort on D as pointed out in OP takes the cake. To call out anyone publicly is disgraceful on Morris' part.

[Silky]

I would tweak your grades.   None of our players should have got an A, after that game unless your scaling the grades to the guy who played best.   But Gordon was only a +3 on Plus Minus.  Also Smart should have been a F, because he was minus 21.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071502

Read this is a great analysis of our defensive woes.

    When the Celtics’ defense has been gashed this season, it is usually related to some combination of Horford, Hayward, and Morris being on the court together. Of the team’s 16 worst defensive ratings among two-man groups with at least 250 minutes played together, 15 have Hayward, Horford or Morris in them.

    Hayward and Morris have been Boston’s worst defensive pairing among regulars, with a 111.3 defensive rating over 446 minutes together. Hayward and Horford have been the second worst, with a 108.3 defensive rating over 528 minutes. Meanwhile, Horford and Morris have been the fourth-worst defensive group on the team, with a 107.6 rating over 762 minutes together.

    When isolated to the troubling second quarters, the defensive numbers are even more grisly: Hayward/Horford (125.1), Hayward/Morris (116.7), and Horford/Morris (114.9) have been the team’s three worst pairings with at least 50 second-quarter minutes together. In third quarters, Horford and Morris have a team-worst 118.7 defensive rating, followed by Morris/Terry Rozier and Horford/Smart.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/celtics/2019/02/10/why-has-celtics-defense-been-poor-second-and-third-quarters/8a5tfshtv75ZuM5ERqIHMJ/story.html

AS a Hayward detractor, I would look at this article with a little asterisk beside it, as alot of those terrible awful defensive lineups had a brain dead Hayward on them. Mentally broken Hayward was an incredible offensive and defensive liability.

He has been improving though, so fingers crossed.

[RodyTur10]

Thanks everybody for the responses. And double thanks for the TP's. We all love TP's .

My grading probably was a little soft, but there definitely was a clear difference between players.
And Hayward (apart from losing Shamet a few times) played decent positional defense and showed great offensive awareness with some well timed passes into the post. I'm starting to like him more and more. His playmaking ability is miles ahead of Rozier, Brown or Tatum.

As mentioned Smart, Morris and Horford were atrocious. I don't understand why Horford didn't show any kind of leadership.

A lot of plays by Morris bothered me, but especially the sequence from 8:52 to 8:38 in the 4th quarter.
With that kind of lack of effort he has no right to call out Brown. And Brown showed that he was one of our best defenders and he played the right way, but he missed too many makeable shots.

I hope the Celtics are going to play better against the 76ers, because otherwise that could get ugly as well and I don't want to spend so much time again on re-watching a game  . The 76ers will be highly motivated to beat us, we've had their number too many times.

[Wretch]

You mention Rozier being in the paint to rebound  so he's out of position on defense. This is something that's  bothered me a out his game. He's a gets a lot of rebounds for a guard but i wonder if that's actually a bad thing to. Doesn't that  generally means he's either playing off his man in the perimeter or his man penetrated into the paint and missed a shot at the rim?

Rozier is getting most of his rebounds on the defensive end.
He's only averaging 0.5 offensive rebounds.
So he's not out of position on defense because most of his rebounds are from when the Celts are playing defense.

That's kind of my point. Is Rozier sagging into the paint to get rebounds rather than contest shots or play closer to his man on the perimeter, where guards typically play, or is he getting beat by dribble penetration and ending up in the paint?

[Monkhouse]

I've said from the jump that Morris was going to be a problem. We only tolerated his iso shooting, and scoring, because he was hot, but now that he's no longer smoking, he's already pointing fingers..

Definitely an immature move from a 9 year vet.

I still don't understand Steven's infatuation with putting Horford, Morris, and Hayward on the same lineup defensively.

[nickagneta]

You mention Rozier being in the paint to rebound  so he's out of position on defense. This is something that's  bothered me a out his game. He's a gets a lot of rebounds for a guard but i wonder if that's actually a bad thing to. Doesn't that  generally means he's either playing off his man in the perimeter or his man penetrated into the paint and missed a shot at the rim?

Rozier is getting most of his rebounds on the defensive end.
He's only averaging 0.5 offensive rebounds.
So he's not out of position on defense because most of his rebounds are from when the Celts are playing defense.

That's kind of my point. Is Rozier sagging into the paint to get rebounds rather than contest shots or play closer to his man on the perimeter, where guards typically play, or is he getting beat by dribble penetration and ending up in the paint?

Most teams, knowing the Celtics all switching defense prefer to get Rozier switched off the ball handler and onto a big. The same thing is done to Kyrie an awful lot. The opposition wants to have the possibility of going inside with Rozier on a big or have their ball handler create with our big on them. For these reasons, Rozier and Kyrie find themselves close to our basket to get rebounds.

Also, Brad doesn't have the guards break on misses hoping to get the rebound and a good outlet pass for a fast break. The Celtics tend to have everyone crash the boards, even the guards, so when not guarding a shooter, if the shot goes up they are crashing for rebounds and to box out.

For these reasons, Rozier, Brown and Kyrie all have over 4 rebounds per game. They are all really good defensive rebounders, where they get the majority of their rebounds.