Thunder (6-7) at Celtics (10-3) Game #14 11/14/22

[Celtics Mike]

Just checked the score from work. Glad to see Celtics get the win. Looked a tough game.

[SHAQATTACK]

Hawks beat Bucks , gonna be a tuf one down in Atlanta Wednesday

[nickagneta]

I thought it interesting that Mazzula started the game with Grant guarding SGA and when it obviously wasn't working switched to put Brown on SGA for pretty much the rest of the night.

Why wasn't Smart, the best guard defender in the league on SGA, the OKC best offensive player who plays guard? That wasn't making any sense to me.

[Phantom255x]

I’ll give SGA props though

That dude is a BEAST. OKC should be happy to have him

[Goldstar88]

I’ll give SGA props though

That dude is a BEAST. OKC should be happy to have him

He really is. What’s crazy is that there’s talk that they might trade him since he’s several years older than the other starters. Like what the Spurs did with Murray.

[RockinRyA]

I’ll give SGA props though

That dude is a BEAST. OKC should be happy to have him

Ive really liked SGA for a while now.

[BringToughnessBack]

Shhh, who has the best record in the NBA? Wait til our center returns.

[liam]

The refs were really bad in this one:


https://www.yahoo.com/sports/kevin-durant-jayson-tatum-technical-034900133.html

[Atzar]

I thought it interesting that Mazzula started the game with Grant guarding SGA and when it obviously wasn't working switched to put Brown on SGA for pretty much the rest of the night.

Why wasn't Smart, the best guard defender in the league on SGA, the OKC best offensive player who plays guard? That wasn't making any sense to me.

Two thoughts:

One is that Jaylen is a good on-ball defender and a spotty off-ball defender.  Putting him on the ball maximizes his impact at that end.

The second, and this may be an unpopular opinion:  I think Smart is quietly starting to lose a step defensively.  He’s still as strong and intelligent as he ever was, but guards can blow by him now and that used to be rare. 

Ultimately I don’t think it’s a major issue yet.  Missing Rob means that our perimeter defenders are exposed more than they usually would be, so it sticks out more now than it will when we’re healthy.  And he’s still a hell of a defender otherwise.  Just something I’ve noticed when I’ve been able to watch the team this year.

[RockinRyA]

I thought it interesting that Mazzula started the game with Grant guarding SGA and when it obviously wasn't working switched to put Brown on SGA for pretty much the rest of the night.

Why wasn't Smart, the best guard defender in the league on SGA, the OKC best offensive player who plays guard? That wasn't making any sense to me.

Two thoughts:

One is that Jaylen is a good on-ball defender and a spotty off-ball defender.  Putting him on the ball maximizes his impact at that end.

The second, and this may be an unpopular opinion:  I think Smart is quietly starting to lose a step defensively.  He’s still as strong and intelligent as he ever was, but guards can blow by him now and that used to be rare. 

Ultimately I don’t think it’s a major issue yet.  Missing Rob means that our perimeter defenders are exposed more than they usually would be, so it sticks out more now than it will when we’re healthy.  And he’s still a hell of a defender otherwise.  Just something I’ve noticed when I’ve been able to watch the team this year.

Disagree. Smart has always been worse vs soeedy guards. Remember when we fought washington, AB was terrible against beal and smart vs wall. Brad switched it up and both of them did a lot better.

I think the gameplan was to put smart away from sga so he can act as a free safety like rob was last year.

[ozgod]

I thought it interesting that Mazzula started the game with Grant guarding SGA and when it obviously wasn't working switched to put Brown on SGA for pretty much the rest of the night.

Why wasn't Smart, the best guard defender in the league on SGA, the OKC best offensive player who plays guard? That wasn't making any sense to me.

Two thoughts:

One is that Jaylen is a good on-ball defender and a spotty off-ball defender.  Putting him on the ball maximizes his impact at that end.

The second, and this may be an unpopular opinion:  I think Smart is quietly starting to lose a step defensively.  He’s still as strong and intelligent as he ever was, but guards can blow by him now and that used to be rare. 

Ultimately I don’t think it’s a major issue yet.  Missing Rob means that our perimeter defenders are exposed more than they usually would be, so it sticks out more now than it will when we’re healthy.  And he’s still a hell of a defender otherwise.  Just something I’ve noticed when I’ve been able to watch the team this year.

Disagree. Smart has always been worse vs soeedy guards. Remember when we fought washington, AB was terrible against beal and smart vs wall. Brad switched it up and both of them did a lot better.

I think the gameplan was to put smart away from sga so he can act as a free safety like rob was last year.

I looked at NBA.com matchup stats and it looks like Smartacus was on Giddey more often than SGA (he still had the 2nd most minutes defending SGA after JB though).

As you say it may be that SGA is the primary ballhandler and they wanted Smart to play the free safety/rim protector (for 6-4) role to jump into driving lanes when we were playing small having Tatum or Gwill as our 5. So they had Brown on SGA knowing he was going to get screened off in pick and roll anyway.

[Vermont Green]

Didn't see the whole game and these points may have been made elsewhere but the Celtics' starters were 4-24 from 3 (16.7%) and the bench was 6-13 from 3.   There are going to be nights like this but that is really poor shooting for the starters.

My other point is that OKC is better than I thought.  They have some pieces to work with.  The process seems to be working for them.  They just need one of these picks to emerge as a true star.  Shai might be that guy, not sure.  Finding the star is always going to be the hardest part.  Look how many picks the Sixers went through before they finally found a star in Embiid.

[Chief]

The lady referee was really bad.

Almost middle school level bad.