Celtics (21-6) at Clippers (15-13) Game #28 12/12/22

[Yuckabuck33]

A 3 on 1 fast break and we only get 1 point out of it? Lame.

[SHAQATTACK]

Will we have Al tomorrow? Blake's trying his best but its kinda hard without Al or Rob vs good teams.

Covid still killing the Celtics what three years running ?

[tenn_smoothie]

Is Mazzula on total brain lock ?? This is insane.
What could he possibly be thinking with the starters still on the court ?
And this garbage time is getting ragged, prime time for an injury to occur.

[jpotter33]

Will we have Al tomorrow? Blake's trying his best but its kinda hard without Al or Rob vs good teams.

No. Apparently last game and this back-to-back he's off for personal reasons after several games off for Covid. I'm guessing a death in the family or something.

We may get Timelord back tomorrow for 15 minutes or so.

[RockinRyA]

First the Splash Bros, now it’s PG/Kawhi. They all have something to say about JT/JB being the best duo in the NBA. Tomorrow its AD and Lebron. The Celtics are a marked team. Joe needs to adjust. This is now 2 games where our offense has sputtered terribly.

Luckily Joe's insistence on the drop coverage won't kill us against an awful shooting Lakers team tomorrow.

We'd have to play Tatum at center with the centers we have to not play drop coverage.

Yeah. Blake and Luke are only playable if we play drop. Given Al's age and Rob's injury history is why I really feel another good C is warranted. I think the main problem is convincing that guy that he will get enough minutes and sign, whoever it is.

[jpotter33]

Joe must be trying to let the guys get into a rhythm before tomorrow.

Problem is it isn't working. We still look awful out there and everything is short. Seems like fatigue is playing a factor in this mini-slump - which is all the more reason to not play the guys futile extended minutes tonight for no reason.

[jpotter33]

First the Splash Bros, now it’s PG/Kawhi. They all have something to say about JT/JB being the best duo in the NBA. Tomorrow its AD and Lebron. The Celtics are a marked team. Joe needs to adjust. This is now 2 games where our offense has sputtered terribly.

Luckily Joe's insistence on the drop coverage won't kill us against an awful shooting Lakers team tomorrow.

We'd have to play Tatum at center with the centers we have to not play drop coverage.

Yeah. Blake and Luke are only playable if we play drop. Given Al's age and Rob's injury history is why I really feel another good C is warranted. I think the main problem is convincing that guy that he will get enough minutes and sign, whoever it is.

Kornet we have to play drop coverage for sure, but not with Blake. We've stopped the drop coverage for several periods in this game and Blake held his own at stopping the PnR ball handler. He can definitely manage it, especially against two bigger wings like PG and Kawhi and in his limited minutes.

And given that with Kornet, I just don't think he's playable against these kinds of teams with high level perimeter PnR scorers that will abuse him in the PnR. I'd rather go small with Griffin, GWill, and Tatum at C than going with Kornet.

[SparzWizard]

Coach Joe getting outcoached by Tyronn Lue.

We def need a more vet and experienced coach. Is Coach Snyder still available?

[SparzWizard]

Just no heart the last few games. Look like we're playing scared.

Better hope we pull our heads out of our butts tomorrow to try and salvage the road trip. It'd be disastrous to go 2-3 after how we started.

We are 3-1 so far...

3-2 now. 3-3 not far behind if we don't have Horford back for tomorrow 

[RockinRyA]

First the Splash Bros, now it’s PG/Kawhi. They all have something to say about JT/JB being the best duo in the NBA. Tomorrow its AD and Lebron. The Celtics are a marked team. Joe needs to adjust. This is now 2 games where our offense has sputtered terribly.

Luckily Joe's insistence on the drop coverage won't kill us against an awful shooting Lakers team tomorrow.

We'd have to play Tatum at center with the centers we have to not play drop coverage.

Yeah. Blake and Luke are only playable if we play drop. Given Al's age and Rob's injury history is why I really feel another good C is warranted. I think the main problem is convincing that guy that he will get enough minutes and sign, whoever it is.

Kornet we have to play drop coverage for sure, but not with Blake. We've stopped the drop coverage for several periods in this game and Blake held his own at stopping the PnR ball handler. He can definitely manage it, especially against two bigger wings like PG and Kawhi and in his limited minutes.

And given that with Kornet, I just don't think he's playable against these kinds of teams with high level perimeter PnR scorers that will abuse him in the PnR. I'd rather go small with Griffin, GWill, and Tatum at C than going with Kornet.

Blake vs the Clippers sure. What I meant is in general. Against teams like the Warriors I dont think you want Blake covering Steph.

Blake and Luke are more one dimensional on defense than Rob and Al, those guys handle switches well in general and also provide rim protection threat.

[Birdman]

Just an good old butt whipping..it happens,, need Al back

[Csfan1984]

This game was way too late to watch for me. Apparently it was way too late to take seriously by the C's as well.

[slamtheking]

was only able to catch the first quarter last night but looked like they were having a GSW hangover.

based on the last 7 pages of comments and looking at the box score, seems the game could be summed up as:
- over reliance on 3 pointers yet again on a night when they were ice cold from outside because we have no diversity on offense.  9-39 for 3's is inexcusable.  when they're not falling, find something better.
- shooting was bad enough that even FTs were an issue --  18-26 with Jaylen the worst offender going 2-6.
- lazy defense that only got 9 TOs from the Clips.  add in 48.9% shooting by the Clips with 10-25 from 3, it suggests the effort to defend shots and prevent drives to the basket was once again lacking.
- all the starters well in the '-' in the +/- column.  strongly suggests they came out weak (saw that) and didn't adjust in game as Joe likes to do. 

need to see how they come out against the Lakers but if there's another buttkicking,  I can seriously see the luster coming off the Joe Mazz wagon.  Not having Al and Timelord obviously makes a difference but there should always be effort and we should have been able to carry over last year's defense to this year for the most part.  The D this year has been a real disappointment.  We've been a "live by the 3, die by the 3" since the Brad years but been able to hang with teams thanks to defensive effort when we're dying from bad shooting.  With the current style of play not focussing on defense, we're not able to hang with other good teams when the shots aren't falling.

[RockinRyA]

was only able to catch the first quarter last night but looked like they were having a GSW hangover.

based on the last 7 pages of comments and looking at the box score, seems the game could be summed up as:
- over reliance on 3 pointers yet again on a night when they were ice cold from outside because we have no diversity on offense.  9-39 for 3's is inexcusable.  when they're not falling, find something better.
- shooting was bad enough that even FTs were an issue --  18-26 with Jaylen the worst offender going 2-6.
- lazy defense that only got 9 TOs from the Clips.  add in 48.9% shooting by the Clips with 10-25 from 3, it suggests the effort to defend shots and prevent drives to the basket was once again lacking.
- all the starters well in the '-' in the +/- column.  strongly suggests they came out weak (saw that) and didn't adjust in game as Joe likes to do. 

need to see how they come out against the Lakers but if there's another buttkicking,  I can seriously see the luster coming off the Joe Mazz wagon.  Not having Al and Timelord obviously makes a difference but there should always be effort and we should have been able to carry over last year's defense to this year for the most part.  The D this year has been a real disappointment.  We've been a "live by the 3, die by the 3" since the Brad years but been able to hang with teams thanks to defensive effort when we're dying from bad shooting.  With the current style of play not focussing on defense, we're not able to hang with other good teams when the shots aren't falling.

As always drawing conclusions from raw stats without the eye test is bad.

They actually did not settle for 3s except for both Brown and Tatum at times. They tried moving the ball around and even have basket cuts. Problem is the clippers were playing the passing lanes very well. The D has actually been coming along fine prior to the Warriors game, we were up to 9th in drtg for the season, which means we actually climbed a lot because we started out really bad. Is it a coincidence that two straight games of poor D coincides with games vs good teams with championship coaches and players with no Al? I think not.

Its not a whole game of lazy D. We actually played good D for a good part of the game (majority of the fourth excluded). The Clippers were hitting tough contested shots (Kawhi in particular) and getting long rebounds. We also allowed a couple of fastbreaks due to complaints and live ball turnovers. They let the calls pressure them and the clips basically pulled away with hot shooting from their bench. After the Blake call the clippers got on a minirun and the Cs basically looked rattled. Brown in particular played so bad he mightve had a shaqtin moment or two.

[LilRip]

When it’s not your night, it’s not your night. C’s looked unfocused most of the night and they tried to will themselves back into the game with energy but they just got stomped by a team that was already clicking and in rhythm.

The team has definitely missed Al on both ends of the floor. Blake plays in drop (vs Al switching) and Blake doesn’t shoot as fearlessly as Al either.