Celtics (20-6) at Kings (16-9) Game #27 12/20/23

[SCeltic34]

JB has been passing the ball well lately.  I really hope he has truly taken that next step in his development.  Making other players better is what makes a player truly great.  And it's one of the hardest things to do consistently.

Very efficient game from him.  All of our starters were very efficient actually.  I'm glad we have two days of rest to prepare for LAC.

[SCeltic34]

Interesting by Joe to play both Brown and KP the entire quarter.

We're going to have an interesting 4th quarter lineup/rotation it seems.

If porzginas is shut down for like 8 games after this I am gonna post a ton in the fire Joe thread which I don’t normally do

Did Joe play him when he was already injured and aggravated it?

Please, can't we just enjoy the win.

Sorry it was actually a serious question, I haven't seen the game yet so wasn't sure of the correlation between the Fire Joe thread and the injury  Going to watch it tomorrow, at least it will be a more fun watch than the Dubs one was 

He kept playing because it wasn't a serious injury.  Grazed Sabonis' foot while landing on a jump shot.  Looked minor but it was assessed as a flagrant foul.  KP didn't seem hobbled and kept playing through it.  Didn't have to play in the 4th quarter at all.

[Atzar]

Interesting by Joe to play both Brown and KP the entire quarter.

We're going to have an interesting 4th quarter lineup/rotation it seems.

If porzginas is shut down for like 8 games after this I am gonna post a ton in the fire Joe thread which I don’t normally do

Did Joe play him when he was already injured and aggravated it?

Please, can't we just enjoy the win.

Sorry it was actually a serious question, I haven't seen the game yet so wasn't sure of the correlation between the Fire Joe thread and the injury  Going to watch it tomorrow, at least it will be a more fun watch than the Dubs one was 

He landed on Sabonis’ foot on a jumpshot and tweaked his ankle.  Flagrant 1 was called on the play.  Played through it (and played well, to boot) and appeared to be moving around okay, so hopefully it’s nothing too serious. 

[libermaniac]

Just tuned in...so we're winning? Is that why the thread is only 14 pages? No wrist slitting tonight at least 

And Joe gets to keep his job for another night 

 

Somebody should analyze the difference in posters on winning threads versus losing threads.  I assume the naysayers mostly crawl back in their holes for games like this.

Ya. I’m confused. I thought they were guaranteed to lose tonight and they didn’t have what it takes. 🤔

[SCeltic34]

Also, like I said in the GS game thread, we would have beaten the Warriors 8 or 9 times out of 10 with the quality of shots we were getting against them.  We were getting anything we wanted.  Golden State couldn't defend us.  Sacramento couldn't defend us.  The different against Sacramento is that we made shots we normally make.  Golden State just lucked out that we missed a ton of wide open looks.  On any normal night we blow those chumps out.  We can be frustrated by the outcome and the way it happened, but the loss itself isn't concerning.  Just an off shooting night which happens to every team in the NBA.

[ozgod]

He landed on Sabonis’ foot on a jumpshot and tweaked his ankle.  Flagrant 1 was called on the play.  Played through it (and played well, to boot) and appeared to be moving around okay, so hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

He kept playing because it wasn't a serious injury.  Grazed Sabonis' foot while landing on a jump shot.  Looked minor but it was assessed as a flagrant foul.  KP didn't seem hobbled and kept playing through it.  Didn't have to play in the 4th quarter at all.

I figured it was something like that...TP to both of you (once it allows me to give them to you again )

[tenn_smoothie]

Really nice half, offensively. Hate to say it but I sense a real cooling-off coming in the 3d quarter and nothing to fall back on.

Go Figure. Happy to be wrong.

[celticsclay]

He landed on Sabonis’ foot on a jumpshot and tweaked his ankle.  Flagrant 1 was called on the play.  Played through it (and played well, to boot) and appeared to be moving around okay, so hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

He kept playing because it wasn't a serious injury.  Grazed Sabonis' foot while landing on a jump shot.  Looked minor but it was assessed as a flagrant foul.  KP didn't seem hobbled and kept playing through it.  Didn't have to play in the 4th quarter at all.

I figured it was something like that...TP to both of you (once it allows me to give them to you again )

Also sorry if it came off I was being negative. I immensely enjoyed the win. I do think these two are underselling it a little bit. He did play dominant after the foul but he was also clearly grimacing and hobbling at times during the rest of the quarter. Odds are he will be great, but I didn’t love seeing him with his injury history playing the whole 3rd after the cameras caught him grimacing multiple times. Again, I think he will be ok it just seemed a little
Unnecessary and wreckless by Joe when we were up 24 and the kings had already put Fox to the bench. Fingers crossed it is much ado about nothing and I am a worry wart.

[tenn_smoothie]

Yeah, while the Jays are the two individual best players on the team, I'm definitely won over on the argument that both KP and White are actually are most important. We just play so much different when both of them are available, because they each provide a unique aspect to our offense and defense that we don't have otherwise.

It's literal insanity to think Tatum isn't the most important player on this team.

Not saying that. But there might be a case to be made that we are better offensively with only one of either Tatum or Brown.

They simply don't complement each other despite the big numbers they often put up together. When that happens, the rest of the team is not as involved and we become one-dimensional offensively. It is such a pleasure to watch when the ball is moving and different guys are scoring in different ways. Much more difficult to defend for the opponent, especially come playoff time.

[ozgod]

He landed on Sabonis’ foot on a jumpshot and tweaked his ankle.  Flagrant 1 was called on the play.  Played through it (and played well, to boot) and appeared to be moving around okay, so hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

He kept playing because it wasn't a serious injury.  Grazed Sabonis' foot while landing on a jump shot.  Looked minor but it was assessed as a flagrant foul.  KP didn't seem hobbled and kept playing through it.  Didn't have to play in the 4th quarter at all.

I figured it was something like that...TP to both of you (once it allows me to give them to you again )

Also sorry if it came off I was being negative. I immensely enjoyed the win. I do think these two are underselling it a little bit. He did play dominant after the foul but he was also clearly grimacing and hobbling at times during the rest of the quarter. Odds are he will be great, but I didn’t love seeing him with his injury history playing the whole 3rd after the cameras caught him grimacing multiple times. Again, I think he will be ok it just seemed a little
Unnecessary and wreckless by Joe when we were up 24 and the kings had already put Fox to the bench. Fingers crossed it is much ado about nothing and I am a worry wart.

He probably did it on adrenaline...hopefully it doesn't swell up too much like I'm sure JT's foot did after he played the whole game 

[blink]

It sure feels like there aren't very many elite defensive teams anymore.  I felt like Sac really played poor def a lot of the game.  We got anything we wanted on offense, and they didn't seem to make any adjustments that helped slow us down either.  I am not complaining.  I loved the victory.

I decided to look at the scoring stats for this year.  Only 3 teams are holding teams to 110 points or below.
Boston, Minn, and Houston.   We might end the year with every team giving up more than 110 points a game.  Has that happened before recently?
Are offenses just getting more hard to stop?   I mean we looked almost impossible to stop tonight.

[blink]

Yeah, while the Jays are the two individual best players on the team, I'm definitely won over on the argument that both KP and White are actually are most important. We just play so much different when both of them are available, because they each provide a unique aspect to our offense and defense that we don't have otherwise.

It's literal insanity to think Tatum isn't the most important player on this team.

Not saying that. But there might be a case to be made that we are better offensively with only one of either Tatum or Brown.

They simply don't complement each other despite the big numbers they often put up together. When that happens, the rest of the team is not as involved and we become one-dimensional offensively. It is such a pleasure to watch when the ball is moving and different guys are scoring in different ways. Much more difficult to defend for the opponent, especially come playoff time.

The other option is JB and JT just become more team oriented players.  JB seems to be making the adjustment these last 8-10 games.  I know JT has moved in that direction as well.   But as the anointed superstar JT needs to make a bigger adjustment.   Both of them just need to be more content being decoys more often.   If they will attack the rim, defenses move to adjust and someone is always open, always.  Both just need to learn to play the cat and mouse game, get the other guys going as much as possible, then def are in a tough spot of knowing what to do.  With White, PP, and Jrue all shooting like they did tonight, if we play unselfishly we are pretty much impossible to stop.   

[Kuberski33]

Nice bounce back win tonight. Lost in the outrage of the GS game by many (or maybe most) is that they were coming of winning 5 in a row vs very good teams - including 2 back to backs (one of which was against a team that had beaten them I think 3x in a row).  They had a great week+ of basketball, travelled all the way across the country and had a bad quarter vs Curry.

You aren't winning 82 games in season - that's impossible. So a little perspective would be good. Porzingis and his smarts help take this team to another level (great on Brad for seeing it), Jaylen has taken his game to a different level (mildly surprising) as has White, and the bench is stepping up when given a chance.

There's a lot to like here.  The team is in a much better place than at any time in 2023. The coaching is a lot better. It's time to stop the complaining and just enjoy this club a bit. Newsflash - they're good.

[SparzWizard]

Thanks for staying up late posting this FL.

Sour taste from losing in the Bay Area in overtime. C's are fatigued, they're getting blown out in Sacramento who are well-rested. Take the money on Sactown -2.5.

Every time I say they'll win this game, they lose this game. On the other hand, every time I say they'll get blown out, they actually blow out the other team.

This rides with the opposition effect. 

[SparzWizard]

KP is the key. He's really the KG of that era. We need him bubble-wrapped too.