Celtics (10-10) at Pelicans (10-10) Game #21 11/26/18

[ozgod]

Hayward didn’t have a great game but he hit that huge 3 when it was needed. How about Baynes’ defense? Fantastic.

He played better in the first half particularly on defense but he looked like he ran out of puff in the 2nd. I wonder if his ankle is still bothering him

[KGs Knee]

Hopefully Stevens sticks with this rotation for a while (sans occasionally swapping Baynes for Morris against really big front lines).  Smart and Morris just seem to compliment Kyire, Al, and Tatum well.

Meh...The Pels are an atrocious defensive team. I don't think it matters one iota who starts. It matters how much the team as a whole brings the effort and plays great two way ball. Each starting unit Stevens has gone with has had good and bad times. It's the groupings that matter not who starts. So the grouping that looked good tonight might be a grouping Brad wants to try more often. I just don't see they need to start.

We've struggled offensively so much. It makes sense to simplify the game to start by putting another guy out there who can read and react, and make the right play - whether it's for himself or creating for others.

Brown is a 'finisher', he's not a 'creator'.  Smart is also a better, more consistently tenacious defender.  Smart can be counted on to always do the little things that help win games, whereas I've seen Brown standing around a lot this year.

[nickagneta]

Hopefully Stevens sticks with this rotation for a while (sans occasionally swapping Baynes for Morris against really big front lines).  Smart and Morris just seem to compliment Kyire, Al, and Tatum well.

Meh...The Pels are an atrocious defensive team. I don't think it matters one iota who starts. It matters how much the team as a whole brings the effort and plays great two way ball. Each starting unit Stevens has gone with has had good and bad times. It's the groupings that matter not who starts. So the grouping that looked good tonight might be a grouping Brad wants to try more often. I just don't see they need to start.

We've struggled offensively so much. It makes sense to simplify the game to start by putting another guy out there who can read and react, and make the right play - whether it's for himself or creating for others.

We have struggled with all sorts of starters and all sorts of groupings. You can't make decisions about playing time, groupings and substitution patterns based on one game. Stevens is going to change the starting lineup depending on how we match up, that is obvious. What he needs to do is when he sees a grouping playing very well is play that group more. It doesn't matter if they are starting. If that grouping is going nuts at the start of the 2nd and 4th quarters, always make sure that grouping plays then. If a grouping is excellent to close close games, play it then. If the best grouping is the one that starts the game, play them a lot. But so far, there has not been one starting lineup that has shown any type of long term success.

[RJ87]

Hopefully Stevens sticks with this rotation for a while (sans occasionally swapping Baynes for Morris against really big front lines).  Smart and Morris just seem to compliment Kyire, Al, and Tatum well.

Meh...The Pels are an atrocious defensive team. I don't think it matters one iota who starts. It matters how much the team as a whole brings the effort and plays great two way ball. Each starting unit Stevens has gone with has had good and bad times. It's the groupings that matter not who starts. So the grouping that looked good tonight might be a grouping Brad wants to try more often. I just don't see they need to start.

We've struggled offensively so much. It makes sense to simplify the game to start by putting another guy out there who can read and react, and make the right play - whether it's for himself or creating for others.

Brown is a 'finisher', he's not a 'creator'.  Smart is also a better, more consistently tenacious defender.  Smart can be counted on to always do the little things that help win games, whereas I've seen Brown standing around a lot this year.

Yeah..... That was my point.

[ozgod]

Wow, Smart played 40 mins tonight, next was Tatum with 35, then Kyrie and Al with 32. Morris 30 Hayward 23 Baynes 20 rozier 19. Wonder if they’re worried about Gordon’s ankle at all after taking him off the minutes restriction previously

[trickybilly]

I have kinda been staying away from the blog with all the sky is falling chatter that has been going around, but nice to pop in and see everyone cheery.

Good win.

[nickagneta]

Well, Brown wasn't around tonight so obviously he is the problem and should not start and should be traded as soon as possible. 😀😂

[hwangjini_1]

Well, Brown wasn't around tonight so obviously he is the problem and should not start and should be traded as soon as possible. 😀😂

That’s the old Celtics strong spirit! 

[Ilikesports17]

Well, Brown wasn't around tonight so obviously he is the problem and should not start and should be traded as soon as possible. 😀😂

To be fair, I think having him out today, did actually help. He's played really bad basketball this season.

Trading him or completely relegating him to the bench is stupid, but he's been as big a part of the problem as anyone thus far.

[konkmv]

Brown is a player physically gifted who plays great defense and can score 20p each night.. he just happens to be in a team with many scorers.. he is a keeper... he just needs time to find his not leading role

[Somebody]

Brown is a player physically gifted who plays great defense and can score 20p each night.. he just happens to be in a team with many scorers.. he is a keeper... he just needs time to find his not leading role

^this

[10610786d]

Brown is a player physically gifted who plays great defense and can score 20p each night.. he just happens to be in a team with many scorers.. he is a keeper... he just needs time to find his not leading role

Maybe he should do what AB used to do. Absolutely hound the ball handler.

[Androslav]

Good road win!
19-39 from 3pt range won it for us.
Similar to the Milwaukee game (we exploited slow footed Lopez with Horford's 3pt shooting).
You can't expect that to repeat every game, but a win is a win.
We really need hot shooting to have a great offense, as we also lost the FTA battle 10 vs 29.
10 FTA is a rather poor number.

[GreenEnvy]

On the Hayward front, it was really good seeing him take the breakaway steal strong to the rack off his left foot. Looked like he got up pretty easy there. And his demoralizing trey with about six minutes to go was nice to see fall for him. I think he’s still not having fun and too hard on himself, probably expecting to just pick up where he left off pre-injury and the struggling out the gate and probably an awkward conversation with a brad asking him to come off the bench. I think he’s overthinking out there at this point. His body and conditioning seem much improved since the start of the season.

Definitely Al’s best game in quite some time (if not the whole season), and pretty balanced attack with four scoring between 19 and 26.

I’m almost ready to start seeing more of Williams.

Tough seeing a guy like Theis get a DNP even when we are down a starter. Too many guys that need minutes to be effective, I think some sort of consolidating trade is in the cards. Maybe some of Brown/Rozier/Theis/picks(we just don’t need 3+ firsts at this stage) for a really good player and then use MLE on a marquis buyout?

Davis didn’t even have a great game and still put up 27/16/5/3/3... guy is an absolute stud. If he can make it through this season in New Orleans, I think Danny should pounce, even if the price tag is Tatum, unfortunately.

[bopna]

Good road win!
19-39 from 3pt range won it for us.
Similar to the Milwaukee game (we exploited slow footed Lopez with Horford's 3pt shooting).
You can't expect that to repeat every game, but a win is a win.
We really need hot shooting to have a great offense, as we also lost the FTA battle 10 vs 29.
10 FTA is a rather poor number.

We rely too much on our threes to go in in order to win.. On nights it falls.. We win..

On nights we struggle we obviously lose... We are exactly like the Pelicans as their record Also shoows 10-10..we must prove we can easily beat the likes of NY, Dallas and the Jazz in order for us to be called elite... We cannot go 2 wins tgen lose the next 3...that is a typical 7-8th seed team which we are unfortunately ATM.