Hawks (12-16) at Celtics (14-14) Game #29 2/19/21

[ozgod]

According to Brad Stevens Nesmith is ok

[hpantazo]

Any news on Nesmith's injury?

Brad said he’s fine in the post game interview. Could have gone back into the game.

That's great!

[ozgod]

Kemba only scored 3 points in 2nd half ?

8 pts, 6 in the last few mins when he was sent back out to save the game when he should have been taking a rest.

[knuckleballer]

Just watching the game now.  Robert Williams is getting so much better.  He still makes some dumb plays, but he makes a huge impact.

Kemba looks like he’s just about back.  The team is so much better when he’s playing well.

We still need to add another player, ideally a power forward. But I don’t think Collins is that guy.  He’s not very active and doesn’t seem to do the little things.

[SparzWizard]

Seemed like our Big 3 played well tonight.

[Tr1boy]

Seemed like our Big 3 played well tonight.

They did

Kemba best game of this season

[liam]

Green was -9 in 4 minutes....

He belongs in the G-League, along with Grant Williams(healthy scratch tonight?), Edwards, Waters, Tacko. Too many players on this team just don’t contribute and it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the starters.

Yeah, too much dead weight.

[liam]

Wouldn't be better to rest Kemba on the 1st night of the back to back so that he's fresh when the other guys are tired?

This is a fascinating idea. Never thought of it before but makes a lot of sense. They should do that

Right. I'm surprised if I'm the first one to think of it because it's so obvious.

[colincb]

Starters      NBA EFF
K. WalkerPG    34
J. TatumSF    26
D. TheisC    26
T. ThompsonPF    22
J. BrownSG    17
Bench   
R. Williams IIIC    23
S. OjeleyePF    5
A. NesmithSF    4
J. GreenSG    -   
P. PritchardPG    (7)

Kemba clearly won the NBA EFFaward for the game DT second as JT wasn't especially efficient and TL for 4th in limited minutes over TT who had a very good game too. Won the game shooting, had an edge on the boards, was sloppy again and got killed at the FT line.

Now we know that Kemba can play at a level we need him to play and that TL deserves more minutes. Add Smart and a TPE forward and you have a very solid 8. With plenty of candidates for the 9th - 11th men in the rotation. With a healthy team we can beat anyone in the playoffs with BKN and the Lakers being the biggest hurdles.

[Tr1boy]

Celts need to keep playing the two big starting lineup.  Small sample size but the team wins with this roster setup

Theis + TL also was very good off the bench. Hawks had all kinds of issues trying to finish downlow.  Capela was neutralized

Celts bigs are mobile enough not to get burnt by the 3

[colincb]

Celts need to keep playing the two big starting lineup.  Small sample size but the team wins with this roster setup

Theis + TL also was very good off the bench. Hawks had all kinds of issues trying to finish downlow.  Capela was neutralized

Celts bigs are mobile enough not to get burnt by the 3

TL was intimidating some players to my eye. He has some rare hops.

[colincb]

Kemba last 4 games: 23 points per game on 49% field goal shooting, 55% from beyond the arc, and 94% from the line for a TS% of 68%. Only three players shooting better than that TS% level for the season as a frame of reference.

[ChillyWilly]

Kemba finally was putting his drives in the basket. Was getting frustrated watching him drive and just getting swallowed by bigs.

[jambr380]

Loved Kemba tonight. He was putting on a show at the end of the 1st half. That was the burst that separates him from other good PGs, as he totally took over the game and created all kinds of separation.

The bigs were great tonight, too, while Jayson/Jaylen were just fine. Felt like Jaylen was getting frozen out a bit at times (12 FGA in 34 minutes), but it was nice to see him assert himself when he started knocking down those 3s.

[footey]

Kemba's resurgence last night confirms what has been missing:  A strong point guard who can lead the offensive set ups.

The Jason Tatum as the set up ball handler just doesn't work. He takes too long to bring the ball up, he takes too many dribbles, and eats too much time, to set up a play, and he is not  a good caretaker of the ball (6 turnovers last night). Tatum is a great player, but he needs to go back to playing off the ball. Turn the play making set up duties over to Kemba, Pritchard and, when he returns, Smart.