Celtics (43-28) at Nuggets (42-29) Game #72 3/20/22

[86MaxwellSmart]

Pritchard: 6-6 from the field and 5-5 from 3pt. Absolute sniper.

He’s a bad man. Just a great draft pick. Add in the Williams brothers and man, we got a dope young squad !

Thank you Danny Ainge...and 4/5 of our starters, maybe he wasn't so bad as a drafter.

Will Brad draft as well as Ainge? We'll see

Trader Brad is doing good, though, in my opinion. Al Horford for Kemba so we don't waste another of the Jay's years. Some people hate D-White - I like.

Agreed, Brad cleaned up the bad Danny picks and kept the good ones. Dunno if I could have lasted another season of Carsen Edwards.

Oh you're right, Brad is so cutthroat

Danny can do no wrong, though, in my books. That team with Kyrie/Hayward/Jays and Rozier + Morris twin was video game-esque. Felt like Ainge was teeing up for something big had he not gotten burned out.

So far Brad seems to be living up to Ainge's standards (but in a different way). What a treat to have two good GM's back to back.

You can blame Hayward's busted leg for that.

[colincb]

Globe:

In the 11 games since the All-Star break, Pritchard’s shot 50 percent from the field on six attempts per game and 44.7 percent from 3-point range on 4.3 attempts per game. By mostly shooting 3-pointers and making them at a very efficient rate, Pritchard’s true shooting percentage during that stretch is an impressive 66.5 percent, which would rank first among all guards in the league this season.

[Ed Monix]

Payton Pritchard just became the 4th player in NBA history (and 1st Celtic) to make at least four 3-pointers without a miss in consecutive games.

4-4 @ Sacramento
5-5 @ Denver

The other three players who made four-plus threes on 100% shooting in back-to-back games were Brent Price, Rodney Rogers, and Dylan Windler.

—————————

Source: Taylor Snow - celtics.com

[nickagneta]

Not sure who follows the ESPN BPI(Basketball Power Index) but Boston is #1 by a good margin. The Celtics at 8.2 are around 10% higher than the 2nd place Suns at 7.5.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Basketball-Power-Index/espn-nba-basketball-power-index

[pokeKingCurtis]

Pritchard: 6-6 from the field and 5-5 from 3pt. Absolute sniper.

He’s a bad man. Just a great draft pick. Add in the Williams brothers and man, we got a dope young squad !

Thank you Danny Ainge...and 4/5 of our starters, maybe he wasn't so bad as a drafter.

Will Brad draft as well as Ainge? We'll see

Trader Brad is doing good, though, in my opinion. Al Horford for Kemba so we don't waste another of the Jay's years. Some people hate D-White - I like.

Agreed, Brad cleaned up the bad Danny picks and kept the good ones. Dunno if I could have lasted another season of Carsen Edwards.

Oh you're right, Brad is so cutthroat

Danny can do no wrong, though, in my books. That team with Kyrie/Hayward/Jays and Rozier + Morris twin was video game-esque. Felt like Ainge was teeing up for something big had he not gotten burned out.

So far Brad seems to be living up to Ainge's standards (but in a different way). What a treat to have two good GM's back to back.

You can blame Hayward's busted leg for that.

Kyrie's ego and stupidity was worse I think. Ugh.

Kyrie plus the Jays would be amazing right now. Even with injured broken Hayward as a fourth banana.

[Celtics2021]

Payton Pritchard just became the 4th player in NBA history (and 1st Celtic) to make at least four 3-pointers without a miss in consecutive games.

4-4 @ Sacramento
5-5 @ Denver

The other three players who made four-plus threes on 100% shooting in back-to-back games were Brent Price, Rodney Rogers, and Dylan Windler.

—————————

Source: Taylor Snow - celtics.com

Not exactly a who’s who list..

[Roy H.]

Brent Price, Rodney Rogers, and Dylan Windler

Immortals.

[Celtics2021]

Brent Price, Rodney Rogers, and Dylan Windler

Immortals.

Yep.  I'll always remember the Dylan Windler- Ja Morant duel in the Ohio Valley Conference finals from 2019.  (Granted, I mostly remember it for Ja, but it was the first time I saw either of those players, and I watched that game for both of them).

[Donoghus]

Has there been this good of a stretch of Celtics basketball since maybe the pre-KG injury '08-09 season?

[footey]

Not sure who follows the ESPN BPI(Basketball Power Index) but Boston is #1 by a good margin. The Celtics at 8.2 are around 10% higher than the 2nd place Suns at 7.5.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Basketball-Power-Index/espn-nba-basketball-power-index

and yet we only move up to 5th in latest ESPN power rankings, behind Suns, Heat, Grizzles and Bucks. 

I can see why the Suns remain 1, but frankly Boston has played itself into the 2nd best power ranking by now.    I actually love the disrespect, and bet the players do too.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33557212/nba-power-rankings-week-23-lebron-james-adds-another-milestone-lakers-continue-falter

[slamtheking]

Not sure who follows the ESPN BPI(Basketball Power Index) but Boston is #1 by a good margin. The Celtics at 8.2 are around 10% higher than the 2nd place Suns at 7.5.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Basketball-Power-Index/espn-nba-basketball-power-index

and yet we only move up to 5th in latest ESPN power rankings, behind Suns, Heat, Grizzles and Bucks. 

I can see why the Suns remain 1, but frankly Boston has played itself into the 2nd best power ranking by now.    I actually love the disrespect, and bet the players do too.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33557212/nba-power-rankings-week-23-lebron-james-adds-another-milestone-lakers-continue-falter

saw that this morning.  I know that ESPN has traditionally had low regard for every Celtics team and continues to do so though it's become fairly blatant with the lack of recognition of how they've played the last couple of months and little movement up their "power" rankings.  Then again, the 'writers' that put that poll together have always disregarded the Celtics -- must have been a qualification for getting hired there.

[Celtics2021]

Not sure who follows the ESPN BPI(Basketball Power Index) but Boston is #1 by a good margin. The Celtics at 8.2 are around 10% higher than the 2nd place Suns at 7.5.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Basketball-Power-Index/espn-nba-basketball-power-index

and yet we only move up to 5th in latest ESPN power rankings, behind Suns, Heat, Grizzles and Bucks. 

I can see why the Suns remain 1, but frankly Boston has played itself into the 2nd best power ranking by now.    I actually love the disrespect, and bet the players do too.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33557212/nba-power-rankings-week-23-lebron-james-adds-another-milestone-lakers-continue-falter

Yeah, I've always preferred NBA.com's power rankings.  They weigh recent performance a bit more and also consider net rating and home/road a lot more than ESPN.  Even ESPN's own description shows how silly their power rankings are:

Boston remains an absolute juggernaut after routing Denver on Sunday night. The Celtics are now 21-4 since Jan. 23, have the league's best defense by nearly five points per 100 possessions and are outscoring teams by 16 points per 100 possessions over that stretch.

That's not the 5th-best team right now in the NBA.

[Donoghus]

Not sure who follows the ESPN BPI(Basketball Power Index) but Boston is #1 by a good margin. The Celtics at 8.2 are around 10% higher than the 2nd place Suns at 7.5.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/Basketball-Power-Index/espn-nba-basketball-power-index

and yet we only move up to 5th in latest ESPN power rankings, behind Suns, Heat, Grizzles and Bucks. 

I can see why the Suns remain 1, but frankly Boston has played itself into the 2nd best power ranking by now.    I actually love the disrespect, and bet the players do too.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33557212/nba-power-rankings-week-23-lebron-james-adds-another-milestone-lakers-continue-falter

Yeah, I've always preferred NBA.com's power rankings.  They weigh recent performance a bit more and also consider net rating and home/road a lot more than ESPN.  Even ESPN's own description shows how silly their power rankings are:

Boston remains an absolute juggernaut after routing Denver on Sunday night. The Celtics are now 21-4 since Jan. 23, have the league's best defense by nearly five points per 100 possessions and are outscoring teams by 16 points per 100 possessions over that stretch.

That's not the 5th-best team right now in the NBA.

Absolutely not.

[Ed Monix]

This was the Denver game…so much for home advantage haha

[wikkid1]

Blew my mind when the fans started chanting, “Let’s go Celtics.”  I had to rewind to make sure I heard it right.