Celtics (43-28) at 76ers (46-25) Game #72 3/20/19

[Somebody]

I know Kyrie scored a lot of points tonight, but he wasn't very efficient, and the ball doesn't seem like it moved very well if we only had 22 assists on 46 made buckets.  We made 11 more baskets than Philly, and Philly had more assists than us.

I don't think having Kyrie shoot 30 times a game and Brown and Smart combining for 7 shots  is likely to be good for our team as a whole.  That said, Embiid shooting 21 fts is probably what killed us tonight.  Too much fouling, not enough good def in the post?

Full disclosure, I didn't watch tonight's game, these observations are just from the stats.

Pretty much sums it up. Kyrie was good statistically, but not efficient in the final minutes of the 4th quarter

And was a sieve on defense that led the Sixers back into the game. Brad should've subbed in a defensive lineup to grind out the game.

Yes, Kyrie defense was bad tonight as well. Especially on those last 2 buckets by Butler.

He gave up at least ten points to Butler in the final five minutes of the game.

The other Q with that is why was Kyrie even guarding butler?

Sixers were exploiting our switch defense and we didn't exploit Redick enough with post ups.

[ozgod]

really disappointing game. 
- **** with Baynes.  the guy is more fragile than glass.  also as a general rule, done with him shooting 3's too.
- Smart - ****.  need to keep your head.  guy is too easy to rattle and it cost us on defense.
- Kyrie - numbers look nice but he was not the clutch player we need down the stretch.  poorly run offense the second half of the last quarter.  no reason for Kyrie to be taking 29 shots with 4 assists.  some really poor shot selection too.
- got beat on the glass at critical times in the game.
- **** with the FTs.  C's went to the rim a number of times and drew contact.  no excuse for that kind of disparity. 
- Morris was awful
- Brown should have gotten a lot more than 3 shots.
- Rozier - quite possibly his best game all year.  this is the level of play I expected this season.  if he plays like this through the rest of the season and playoffs, I'll take it.
- Semi was decent in his minutes. 
- 12-32 on 3's so another cold night with Kyrie going an extremely frosty 3-13.

Yeah, I'll never understand why Baynes takes those 3-pointers. He looks so dumb attempting them.

Also, memo to Danny Ainge: This is why our team needs a center!!! To combat guys like Embiid. Not rocket science.

It's because occasionally he makes them and that gives him hope for the next attempt 

[blink]

I know Kyrie scored a lot of points tonight, but he wasn't very efficient, and the ball doesn't seem like it moved very well if we only had 22 assists on 46 made buckets.  We made 11 more baskets than Philly, and Philly had more assists than us.

I don't think having Kyrie shoot 30 times a game and Brown and Smart combining for 7 shots  is likely to be good for our team as a whole.  That said, Embiid shooting 21 fts is probably what killed us tonight.  Too much fouling, not enough good def in the post?

Full disclosure, I didn't watch tonight's game, these observations are just from the stats.

Pretty much sums it up. Kyrie was good statistically, but not efficient in the final minutes of the 4th quarter

And was a sieve on defense that led the Sixers back into the game. Brad should've subbed in a defensive lineup to grind out the game.

Yes, Kyrie defense was bad tonight as well. Especially on those last 2 buckets by Butler.

He gave up at least ten points to Butler in the final five minutes of the game.

The other Q with that is why was Kyrie even guarding butler?

Sixers were exploiting our switch defense and we didn't exploit Redick enough with post ups.

Smart has been killing it this year posting up.  He seems to make the right play (shoot or pass) on almost every post up.
Against Redick this should have been a focus going in to tonight.  Teams force us into bad switches literally all the time, why can't we do that to the other team?  Rhetorical Q i know...

[liam]

I get a kick out of when your narrative isn't totally supported, "The haters are out." It's so 2019ish.

you mean your narrative? that we are better without kyrie or he sux? and we should keep terry instead?  LOL

Consider this - Instead of Kyrie - a brilliant offensive player and not much else - we add a starting playmaker deluxe point guard and a knock-down shooter off the bench - both guys team players and solid defenders. You telling me that would not be a better fit with the other players and their style, not to mention the Coach's system being better served ?

Who are these players and how are we getting them?

^this. We're stuck with Kyrie for better or worse, and we need to find a way to maximize the talent around him while retaining his individual excellence. That lies on the coaching imo, and so far it's been meh.

This idea of " find a way to get Irving and the youngsters to play better together is getting real old and is not going to happen - it's like beating your head against a wall. Kyrie is a square peg on this particular team, never mind his destructive moodiness, which will crop up again soon enough.

Man, for as much crap as you give me for being very pro-Kyrie, you really work your hardest to make everything his fault

Not really that hard, Gouk

Having said that, I do hate that there is such a division among Celtic fans about one player - I don't ever remember something like this - maybe Antoine Walker.

Vin Baker? Dino? Walter, sherman Douglas... Lots of times folks argued about Celtics players. I personally loved them all but Mark Blount. Even Rozier who drives me crazy will always have a soft spot in my heart due to last years playoffs.

[CptZoogs]

I get a kick out of when your narrative isn't totally supported, "The haters are out." It's so 2019ish.

you mean your narrative? that we are better without kyrie or he sux? and we should keep terry instead?  LOL

Consider this - Instead of Kyrie - a brilliant offensive player and not much else - we add a starting playmaker deluxe point guard and a knock-down shooter off the bench - both guys team players and solid defenders. You telling me that would not be a better fit with the other players and their style, not to mention the Coach's system being better served ?

Who are these players and how are we getting them?

^this. We're stuck with Kyrie for better or worse, and we need to find a way to maximize the talent around him while retaining his individual excellence. That lies on the coaching imo, and so far it's been meh.

This idea of " find a way to get Irving and the youngsters to play better together is getting real old and is not going to happen - it's like beating your head against a wall. Kyrie is a square peg on this particular team, never mind his destructive moodiness, which will crop up again soon enough.

Man, for as much crap as you give me for being very pro-Kyrie, you really work your hardest to make everything his fault

Not really that hard, Gouk

Having said that, I do hate that there is such a division among Celtic fans about one player - I don't ever remember something like this - maybe Antoine Walker.

Vin Baker? Dino? Walter, sherman Douglas... Lots of times folks argued about Celtics players. I personally loved them all but Mark Blount. Even Rozier who drives me crazy will always have a soft spot in my heart due to last years playoffs.

People got pretty split on Rondo.

[Boston Garden Leprechaun]

really disappointing game. 
- **** with Baynes.  the guy is more fragile than glass.  also as a general rule, done with him shooting 3's too.
- Smart - ****.  need to keep your head.  guy is too easy to rattle and it cost us on defense.
- Kyrie - numbers look nice but he was not the clutch player we need down the stretch.  poorly run offense the second half of the last quarter.  no reason for Kyrie to be taking 29 shots with 4 assists.  some really poor shot selection too.
- got beat on the glass at critical times in the game.
- **** with the FTs.  C's went to the rim a number of times and drew contact.  no excuse for that kind of disparity. 
- Morris was awful
- Brown should have gotten a lot more than 3 shots.
- Rozier - quite possibly his best game all year.  this is the level of play I expected this season.  if he plays like this through the rest of the season and playoffs, I'll take it.
- Semi was decent in his minutes. 
- 12-32 on 3's so another cold night with Kyrie going an extremely frosty 3-13.

Yeah, I'll never understand why Baynes takes those 3-pointers. He looks so dumb attempting them.

Also, memo to Danny Ainge: This is why our team needs a center!!! To combat guys like Embiid. Not rocket science.

It's because occasionally he makes them and that gives him hope for the next attempt 

you might be on to something hah

[blink]

I get a kick out of when your narrative isn't totally supported, "The haters are out." It's so 2019ish.

you mean your narrative? that we are better without kyrie or he sux? and we should keep terry instead?  LOL

Consider this - Instead of Kyrie - a brilliant offensive player and not much else - we add a starting playmaker deluxe point guard and a knock-down shooter off the bench - both guys team players and solid defenders. You telling me that would not be a better fit with the other players and their style, not to mention the Coach's system being better served ?

Who are these players and how are we getting them?

^this. We're stuck with Kyrie for better or worse, and we need to find a way to maximize the talent around him while retaining his individual excellence. That lies on the coaching imo, and so far it's been meh.

This idea of " find a way to get Irving and the youngsters to play better together is getting real old and is not going to happen - it's like beating your head against a wall. Kyrie is a square peg on this particular team, never mind his destructive moodiness, which will crop up again soon enough.

Man, for as much crap as you give me for being very pro-Kyrie, you really work your hardest to make everything his fault

Not really that hard, Gouk

Having said that, I do hate that there is such a division among Celtic fans about one player - I don't ever remember something like this - maybe Antoine Walker.

Vin Baker? Dino? Walter, sherman Douglas... Lots of times folks argued about Celtics players. I personally loved them all but Mark Blount. Even Rozier who drives me crazy will always have a soft spot in my heart due to last years playoffs.

People got pretty split on Rondo.

I was going to say Rondo too, you beat me to it.

The current Kyrie wars have nothing on the gigantic flame fests that were the Rondo years on this site.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

why are you guys complaining Cs were down 3 players.

Because they still could've won, and still SHOULD'VE won. Awful defense down the stretch, Irving missed two bunnies, and Butler suddenly got hot.

Yeah, here's the thing for all the excuses -- they were up 14 at multiple times in this game.

We've seen this all season.

A serious contending team doesn't lose this many games against quality opponents after holding double digit leads.

A serious contending team doesn't get down by double digits nearly so often as this team, either.


I'm not accepting any excuses -- but I'm also done feeling any kind of urgency or alarm.  The Celtics are what they are.  And that's a team that is less than the sum of their parts; a good not great playoff team; and overall -- a disappointment that I will not miss.

I agree with all of this. This team is just so ... bleh. So much to dislike about it. So much bad D and offensive droughts, and a coach who doesn't like to alter his approach to adjust to circumstances. Can it just be October and training camp for next season?

[blink]

I know this was brought up in another thread but Jaylen Brown is currently ranking around 11th in Points per Touch in the whole NBA right now.  He is averaging .405 points per touch.  Why are we not trying to get him the ball more?  He scores 20 points three straight games in a row, was looking like a stud again during the last few months and then these last few games ...(fizzle....)

Hard to know why someone only gets 3 shots when they are playing 28 minutes, but crap cmon Celtic coaches find a way to utilize him better.  The next highest Celtic seems to be Tatum at 0.350. 

[PhoSita]

Re: Baynes, he is injury prone and it is frustrating.

To be fair to him, I think he was injury prone in Detroit and San Antonio, so last year was more of an outlier in terms of being able to stay on the floor.

The fact that we're so reliant on Baynes is on Ainge.

[jambr380]

Tough game to watch. I know I said this before the game started:

I will watch, I will want our players to play well and be engaged, but I will be just fine with an unsustainable 3 point barrage from Philly this once. Don't stone me for feeling this way - I really am wanting what I think is best for this Cs team

But I definitely hate seeing Philly win this game (especially when it was really mostly Embiid). This should take us out of contention for the 3 seed and put us in the Indy/Milwaukee side of the bracket, which is much more promising to me than either BKN or DET and obviously Toronto. Not that we have much of a chance this year, but we can still remain hopeful. It's okay to feel that way after putting this much time into a season.

[Fierce1]

Sorry to say, but tonight's loss is on Kyrie and Morris.

I know Brown missed 2 key free throws in the 4th quarter but I expect 10 times more out of Ky than I do from Brown.

It seemed like Kyrie wasn't passing the ball at all in the final minutes game and kept missing 3s. Then, instead of looking to pass on the final play, he goes for a lay-up with a 7 foot Embiid waiting for him. Really???

For a very intelligent person, that was a dumb move!!

I just thought Kyrie was playing very selfishly towards the end of the game, as if he doesn't trust his teammates.

And Morris.....yuck!

I was noticing him towards the end of the game and his body language sucked. He either looked gassed or like he didn't want to be there. And that foul on Simmons was ridiculous. Like Scal mentioned, you've got to play better defense rather than getting to your man too late.

It seemed like the complexion of the game changed after Baynes went down. He's literally made of glass this year and can't make it through 5 games without getting injured. We are so desperate for a big man, I would seriously consider going after Dwight Howard this summer.

I know this is a bit picky but looking at the game chart, Brown missed one ft, the other one was a lane violation on Morris.  Either way, one missed free throw doesn't lose the game for the team esp when he was 3/3 from the field. 

I agree with what you wrote.  We only had 22 assists tonight on 45 made fgs.  That seems low for us.  It feels like we play better when shots are distributed better through the team.

Brown missed 2 FTs.

There was a lane violation on the 2nd FT attempt, but Brown still missed that 2nd FT attempt.

One or two missed FTs could determine the outcome of a close game.

If it's not a close game then 1 or 2 FTs don't matter.

But when the game is on the line and there is little time left, every FT counts!

[blink]

Sorry to say, but tonight's loss is on Kyrie and Morris.

I know Brown missed 2 key free throws in the 4th quarter but I expect 10 times more out of Ky than I do from Brown.

It seemed like Kyrie wasn't passing the ball at all in the final minutes game and kept missing 3s. Then, instead of looking to pass on the final play, he goes for a lay-up with a 7 foot Embiid waiting for him. Really???

For a very intelligent person, that was a dumb move!!

I just thought Kyrie was playing very selfishly towards the end of the game, as if he doesn't trust his teammates.

And Morris.....yuck!

I was noticing him towards the end of the game and his body language sucked. He either looked gassed or like he didn't want to be there. And that foul on Simmons was ridiculous. Like Scal mentioned, you've got to play better defense rather than getting to your man too late.

It seemed like the complexion of the game changed after Baynes went down. He's literally made of glass this year and can't make it through 5 games without getting injured. We are so desperate for a big man, I would seriously consider going after Dwight Howard this summer.

I know this is a bit picky but looking at the game chart, Brown missed one ft, the other one was a lane violation on Morris.  Either way, one missed free throw doesn't lose the game for the team esp when he was 3/3 from the field. 

I agree with what you wrote.  We only had 22 assists tonight on 45 made fgs.  That seems low for us.  It feels like we play better when shots are distributed better through the team.

Brown missed 2 FTs.

There was a lane violation on the 2nd FT attempt, but Brown still missed that 2nd FT attempt.

One or two missed FTs could determine the outcome of a close game.

If it's not a close game then 1 or 2 FTs don't matter.

But when the game is on the line and there is little time left, every FT counts!

I think we all know every ft counts.  So does every missed 3 point shot, so does every FT we gave up to Embiid.  If you are going to blame Brown for losing the game for us with that one FT gotta blame all the guys that gave up FTs to Embiid.  Gotta blame Kyrie for all those missed 3 point shots.  There were obviously other plays that lost us points as well.  Blaming the loss on 1 free throw by Brown is a Forest for the Trees thing.

Embiid's 20+ ft attempts probably had a lot more to do about who won the game than the 1 ft that Brown missed.

[tazzmaniac]

Tough game to watch. I know I said this before the game started:

I will watch, I will want our players to play well and be engaged, but I will be just fine with an unsustainable 3 point barrage from Philly this once. Don't stone me for feeling this way - I really am wanting what I think is best for this Cs team

But I definitely hate seeing Philly win this game (especially when it was really mostly Embiid). This should take us out of contention for the 3 seed and put us in the Indy/Milwaukee side of the bracket, which is much more promising to me than either BKN or DET and obviously Toronto. Not that we have much of a chance this year, but we can still remain hopeful. It's okay to feel that way after putting this much time into a season.

You're assuming that the Bucks finish with the #1 seed.  If the Raps win tonight, the Bucks lead will be down to 2 games.  The Bucks do hold the tiebreak.  However, six of their remaining opponents are .500 or above whereas the Raps will only have two .500 or above opponents left.   

[Fierce1]

Sorry to say, but tonight's loss is on Kyrie and Morris.

I know Brown missed 2 key free throws in the 4th quarter but I expect 10 times more out of Ky than I do from Brown.

It seemed like Kyrie wasn't passing the ball at all in the final minutes game and kept missing 3s. Then, instead of looking to pass on the final play, he goes for a lay-up with a 7 foot Embiid waiting for him. Really???

For a very intelligent person, that was a dumb move!!

I just thought Kyrie was playing very selfishly towards the end of the game, as if he doesn't trust his teammates.

And Morris.....yuck!

I was noticing him towards the end of the game and his body language sucked. He either looked gassed or like he didn't want to be there. And that foul on Simmons was ridiculous. Like Scal mentioned, you've got to play better defense rather than getting to your man too late.

It seemed like the complexion of the game changed after Baynes went down. He's literally made of glass this year and can't make it through 5 games without getting injured. We are so desperate for a big man, I would seriously consider going after Dwight Howard this summer.

I know this is a bit picky but looking at the game chart, Brown missed one ft, the other one was a lane violation on Morris.  Either way, one missed free throw doesn't lose the game for the team esp when he was 3/3 from the field. 

I agree with what you wrote.  We only had 22 assists tonight on 45 made fgs.  That seems low for us.  It feels like we play better when shots are distributed better through the team.

Brown missed 2 FTs.

There was a lane violation on the 2nd FT attempt, but Brown still missed that 2nd FT attempt.

One or two missed FTs could determine the outcome of a close game.

If it's not a close game then 1 or 2 FTs don't matter.

But when the game is on the line and there is little time left, every FT counts!

I think we all know every ft counts.  So does every missed 3 point shot, so does every FT we gave up to Embiid.  If you are going to blame Brown for losing the game for us with that one FT gotta blame all the guys that gave up FTs to Embiid.  Gotta blame Kyrie for all those missed 3 point shots.  There were obviously other plays that lost us points as well.  Blaming the loss on 1 free throw by Brown is a Forest for the Trees thing.

Embiid's 20+ ft attempts probably had a lot more to do about who won the game than the 1 ft that Brown missed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Jaylen Brown for the loss.

What I'm saying is some of the Celtic fans here said Brown's FT shooting is not a concern.

Some Celtic fans are even wondering why Brown doesn't play in crunch time.

Now we know how important FT shooting is to winning big games.