First game reactions...We are still here

[Walker Wiggle]

The main takeaway for me is that, with Kemba sitting out much of this season, the Celtics are going to win with toughness and defense. They are essentially going to grind out wins all year long. They absolutely wore down the Bucks in this game. I don't expect them to start Theis and Thompson every night, but any starting lineup with Smart, Brown, Tatum, and Thompson -- regardless of the 5th guy -- is going to have a chance on any given night simply because of its defense.

[knuckleballer]

Just like last season’s playoffs, they gave up a large fourth quarter lead.  Stevens needs to figure out how to prevent that.

I still feel we need another veteran wing.  I don’t expect both J’s to score 30 points every game or Jaylen to handle the ball without turning it over.  Although, I am impressed with the improvement in that part of his game. 

Despite Tatum’s 30, he didn’t play that well by his standards.  He seems to be a slow starter.  He’ll get going soon.

I loved that Smart took as many charges as shots and had more assists than shots.  That shows discipline that he sometimes lacks.

Thompson fit in well and Teague is clearly a huge and needed addition.

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

This is where I think the trade exception can come into play. I keep hearing Aaron Gordon as a possibility. Think he would be a solid fit here.

Both Gordon and Fournier had good games last night.  I think I’d prefer Fournier’s ball handling and shooting, but I’d be happy with Gordon too. 

[mef730]

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

Your pun is pardoned.

Mike

[keevsnick]

The bucks are almost universally considered the best team in the east and in the upper echelon of legit title contenders. And its not like they didn't throw their best shot, Giannis, Middleton, Holiday all player like 36+ minutes and had 25-35 points. So getting a win under those circumstances is impressive no matter how it happens. Every single analyst I've heard had the Celtics going 0-2 to start the year.

Now, there are certainly some things that are unsustainable. The Celtics aren't going to hit 45% of there threes every night for example. But there were cterianly encouraging things in this win.

Jaylen Brown looked confident, under control handling the ball. He might not be on fire in the mid range every night but he can certainly get that shot whenever he wants with his size, elevation and fade-away. I think you have to walk away feeling a little better about his ability to generate decent offense in the half court.

I was worried Teague may be washed after seeing him in ATL last year, but it seems like that may have just been him playing for a trash team. If he can generate good offense on the second unit that's a win. Thompson gave us a good option against Giannis and was generally solid, that's encouraging. Semi did actual basketball things like a eruo-step and sweet dump off pass, that would be huge if he can be a reliable rotation wing. And Smart displayed far better shot selection tonight than I can dare hope to expect.

So a lot to be encouraged about. But overall my take away is this, if you cut away minutes for guys like Water, Edwards, Tacko ect your rotation suddenly doesn't seem like trash and with Tatum/Brown as your focal point that might be enough. And Kemba will be back eventually to give us a lift. The TPE is also still in reserve for a deadline move.

[knuckleballer]

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

Your pun is pardoned.

Mike

Lol.  TP.

[Moranis]

It was a great win.  You beat the team that has been the best regular season team the last 2 years, that is better this year, and do it without your 2nd or 3rd best player, and the only conclusion you can really reach is that it is a great win.  It is 1 game, so you can't put a ton of stock in it win or lose, but that was a great win. Period.

[Sophomore]

Just like last season’s playoffs, they gave up a large fourth quarter lead.  Stevens needs to figure out how to prevent that.

I still feel we need another veteran wing.  I don’t expect both J’s to score 30 points every game or Jaylen to handle the ball without turning it over.  Although, I am impressed with the improvement in that part of his game. 

Despite Tatum’s 30, he didn’t play that well by his standards.  He seems to be a slow starter.  He’ll get going soon.

I loved that Smart took as many charges as shots and had more assists than shots.  That shows discipline that he sometimes lacks.

Thompson fit in well and Teague is clearly a huge and needed addition.

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

This is where I think the trade exception can come into play. I keep hearing Aaron Gordon as a possibility. Think he would be a solid fit here.

Both Gordon and Fournier had good games last night.  I think I’d prefer Fournier’s ball handling and shooting, but I’d be happy with Gordon too.

I’d be interested in one of them, especially Gordon. Get him for two years and he seems like a better fit. Problem is whether Orlando wants to part with either of them. I saw Karalis saying the magic would essentially dump those guys as part of a soft tank to get into the lottery for the ‘21 class. I dunno if I buy that.

[GreenFaith1819]

Yeah, we're still here - for now, LOOL.

Let BKN come into BOS here in 24 hours and give us a beat down and we'll be heading for the cliffs again

[knuckleballer]

Just like last season’s playoffs, they gave up a large fourth quarter lead.  Stevens needs to figure out how to prevent that.

I still feel we need another veteran wing.  I don’t expect both J’s to score 30 points every game or Jaylen to handle the ball without turning it over.  Although, I am impressed with the improvement in that part of his game. 

Despite Tatum’s 30, he didn’t play that well by his standards.  He seems to be a slow starter.  He’ll get going soon.

I loved that Smart took as many charges as shots and had more assists than shots.  That shows discipline that he sometimes lacks.

Thompson fit in well and Teague is clearly a huge and needed addition.

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

This is where I think the trade exception can come into play. I keep hearing Aaron Gordon as a possibility. Think he would be a solid fit here.

Both Gordon and Fournier had good games last night.  I think I’d prefer Fournier’s ball handling and shooting, but I’d be happy with Gordon too.

I’d be interested in one of them, especially Gordon. Get him for two years and he seems like a better fit. Problem is whether Orlando wants to part with either of them. I saw Karalis saying the magic would essentially dump those guys as part of a soft tank to get into the lottery for the ‘21 class. I dunno if I buy that.

They seem to be stuck in mediocrity and both ‘21 and ‘22 should be strong.

[slamtheking]

I will never understand how Celtic fans could have watched last night's game and came away with some of the negative takes found in this thread.

I guess pride, tenacity, toughness, resiliency and an ability to overcome adversity, like missing a top three player and integrating a new free agent that hadn't even practice 5v5 yet, counts for very little to some fans!

Exactly. Boston is a tough place to play for sure. Complain when we lose and complain when we win. I came away from the game ecstatic. Tatum would hit a game winner in the finals that was deemed a bad shot that he got lucky on and fans would complain it was a horrible shot.

fair points but there are definitely 2 very easy to spot negatives from the game.
1. the transition D in the first half was really bad.  Several easy breakaway buckets by the Bucks were inexcusable.  That can (and must) be fixed.
2. The game winning shot was not a good one.  no sugarcoating that regardless that it went in.  Fortunately it was a 3 which made a big difference when the refs bailed out Milwaukee at the buzzer with that bogus foul call to give Giannis a chance to tie.   Brad should have come up with something better than an iso-stepback-3 by Tatum since they just needed to make a bucket to take the lead.  This too, can (and must) be fixed.

the fourth quarter meltdown was disconcerting as well.  it'd be one thing if Mil didn't retake the lead but they did.  Another thing that Brad needs to figure out how to stop or mitigate.  It's expected that Mil would fight back but to really get to contender status, they need to nip those comebacks in the bud to prevent completely losing leads.

[RJ87]

Just like last season’s playoffs, they gave up a large fourth quarter lead.  Stevens needs to figure out how to prevent that.

I still feel we need another veteran wing.  I don’t expect both J’s to score 30 points every game or Jaylen to handle the ball without turning it over.  Although, I am impressed with the improvement in that part of his game. 

Despite Tatum’s 30, he didn’t play that well by his standards.  He seems to be a slow starter.  He’ll get going soon.

I loved that Smart took as many charges as shots and had more assists than shots.  That shows discipline that he sometimes lacks.

Thompson fit in well and Teague is clearly a huge and needed addition.

I thought Timelord played well.  The game keeps slowing down for him and he’s better understanding what he needs to do.

This is where I think the trade exception can come into play. I keep hearing Aaron Gordon as a possibility. Think he would be a solid fit here.

Both Gordon and Fournier had good games last night.  I think I’d prefer Fournier’s ball handling and shooting, but I’d be happy with Gordon too.

I’d be interested in one of them, especially Gordon. Get him for two years and he seems like a better fit. Problem is whether Orlando wants to part with either of them. I saw Karalis saying the magic would essentially dump those guys as part of a soft tank to get into the lottery for the ‘21 class. I dunno if I buy that.

They seem to be stuck in mediocrity and both ‘21 and ‘22 should be strong.

Orlando is an odd duck. They're payroll is absurdly high for the team that they have. They're only $2m below the luxury tax, one would think they'd be interested in shedding salary so our TPE would make us a good candidate for a trade since they could theoretically get assets back for one of their larger salaries without having to take back matching money. But it also seems like they're content being a low seeded playoff team.

[blink]

I completely forgot that the 1st game was last night!  DUH!   And I missed such a great one!!!! crap!
SO glad to see we played better, Jaylen going off, JeffT bringing it off the bench.  Gotta find a replay of the game.
Anyone know where I can get one?  haha

[GreenWarrior]

I just feel like I've seen how this story turns out. It's really a let down to see this team apparently not learn anything from last season and even previous seasons.

The worst thing about all this is the fool's gold aspect. The chucking 3's will win some games but it's not winning basketball.

So in order for change to occur we need the bad results of it. I know most will see this as I'm rooting against this team - I'm not. It shouldn't come to this our head coach should have at least learned by now that we play a losing style of offense.

[Ogaju]

My reaction to some of the takes expressed so far.

It is inconsequential that Cs played well without Hayward because Hayward is no longer a C and his absence cannot be written as a temporary loss for the team.

It is okay to rejoice at the step back go ahead three taken by Tatum whilst acknowledging that it was a terrible shot. T the poster that said Brad couold have come up with a better shot, I doubt that Brad told Tatum to go ISO and take a step b ack side-step bank shot for three.

To all the posters that are anticipating the return on Kemba, do you know what you are going to get?  Until then, can you just be cautiously optimistic rather than outright enthusiastic?

Happy for the win, but allowing the Bucks to erase a 17 point deficit is a problem, the offciating is a problem with Giannis getting superstar calls and Tatum not. Send the a memo to the Refs that Tatum has a max contract too. lol

[Somebody]

I will never understand how Celtic fans could have watched last night's game and came away with some of the negative takes found in this thread.

I guess pride, tenacity, toughness, resiliency and an ability to overcome adversity, like missing a top three player and integrating a new free agent that hadn't even practice 5v5 yet, counts for very little to some fans!

Only negative take I can come up with is Tatum's game winning shot - I love it, but it was poor shot selection imo.