Pelicans (8-31) at Celtics (27-11) Game #39 1/12/25

[keevsnick]

This was a very strange Tatum game.

Scored 38 points on 35 shooting possessions (55.2 TS%). Only had one assist. -9 on the night in a game you win by 1. Didn't love the way he was playing offensively, but nobody else really had much going either.

[blink]

Picked up a game on the Cavs....

 

hahaha nice!

Memes/GIFs are my specialty 

will give you another TP after the time limit expires haha

[Phantom255x]

Picked up a game on the Cavs....

 

hahaha nice!

Memes/GIFs are my specialty 

will give you another TP after the time limit expires haha

And I gave you one as well 

[Phantom255x]

Meanwhile Philly is blowing it against the Magic. Banchero is definitely back.

Orlando is another team to watch. When fully healthy I viewed them as like our 2nd biggest threat in the East behind Cleveland.

[Vermont Green]

I am glad they won. But they are making mistakes like rookies and they look like they have never played together. That end of game was straight out of middle school.

The most concerning win I can recall. Someone comment in another thread that the issue could be that the starters have not played enough together.   Porzingis was -8.  It is not like last season for Porzingis so far. Not really an excuse for the overall bad play.

[Redz]

Just finished watching.  Good lord what a horrendous close out.

[Billz401]

Time to put DWhites face on the milk cartons.. What the hell is wrong with him? Hes constantly the one getting lost on defense to the point where Joe actually benched him the other night. And his shot and shot selection has been terrible and honestly somewhat selfish lately. Ive seen him ignore the JB/JT post up to chuck up an off balanced 3 multiple times when hes in a terrible slump the past couple weeks. He needs to wake up

[Goldstar88]

Zion had 5 steals. Think 4 of them were against JB. Yeesh

[Phantom255x]

It really does feel like this team is just coasting and not taking the "meh" teams seriously. I mean... they actually looked like they turned things around during most of the West Coast trip against great teams and looked really good. Only that 2nd half vs. OKC was awful, but otherwise they beat MEM, HOU and DEN and were also up 10 at halftime against OKC where they looked great in the 1st half.

Then they come back to a soft spot of the schedule at home and they've looked lost again.

Maybe we're just a road team and TD Garden is our house of horrors 

[tenn_smoothie]

Zion had 5 steals. Think 4 of them were against JB. Yeesh

It's not real difficult to get steals off Brown.
How can a player continue making the same exact bad turnovers season after season and how can a coach keep allowing it to happen ?

[Neurotic Guy]

At ay ay.  I missed the game opting for a movie with my wife.  I expected a comfortable win. Looks like it was anything but.  The box score doesn?t explain it to me - most looked to have statistically solid games.  DW and Jrue the exceptions.  Cs need to get it together and go on a run. 

Looks like Cavs are human at least.

[Surferdad]

At ay ay.  I missed the game opting for a movie with my wife.  I expected a comfortable win. Looks like it was anything but.  The box score doesn?t explain it to me - most looked to have statistically solid games.  DW and Jrue the exceptions.  Cs need to get it together and go on a run. 

Looks like Cavs are human at least.

The box score does not indicate how bad their perimeter defense was. I thought Joe believed in guarding the 3-pt line even at the expense of giving up an easy 2-pt shot. I swear I heard him say this once recently. They have gotten away from this.

[Atzar]

Better to do soul-searching after a win than a loss.  But this team needs it nonetheless. 

Jaylen was the heartbeat of the playoff run.  Now he goes for long stretches where he's just completely checked out and unaggressive.  He's always been streaky but this is something else.  The three ball has taken another step back, and he's not automatic from midrange anymore either. 

White looks injured.  I think that foot is really bothering him.  That explains the inability to guard the perimeter in the last month or two.  It does not explain the brain farts that are suddenly so common from him.

Jrue looks old.  He can't create offense anymore and the three-point shot that was so key to our offense last season has abandoned him this season. 

And the whole defense just looks confused.  They help when they don't need to; they leave guys on islands when they shouldn't.  They continually let hot shooters just walk into open threes with very little resistance.  I haven't seen the Celtics look this out-of-sorts defensively since the last Brad Stevens season.

[SparzWizard]

Time to start trading people...when's the deadline? These home L's and barely W's are very concerning nonetheless.

Shots not falling and defense not there? Offer up White and Jrue, see what's out there.

[Who]

I'd really like to know how many "potential assists" Tatum has every night that are not actually counted as assists due to guys missing open shots. He just got KP and Jrue two wide open threes on two of the last three possessions, and they bricked them both.

Feels like a running theme during this slump - lots of missed opportunities due to the shooting slump, leading to it being much easier to load up on JT.

NBA.com has Tatum with 5.5 assists per game and 11.3 potential assists. So double the amount.

Not too different for other players. Jaylen has 4.7 assists and 8.7 potential assists. D White 4.4 assists and 8.1 potential assists. Jrue 3.9 assists and 7.4 potential assists. So nearly double but slightly less for all those guys. Pritchard 3.3 assists and 6.3 potential assists.

Looking at some of the top guys across the league.

Trae = 12 assists 21 potential assists
Jokic = 10 assists 16.7 potential assists
Cade = 9.3 assists 15.7 potential assists
Haliburton = 8.7 assists 14.9 potential assists
LeBron = 8.8 assists 16.1 potential assists

Harden = 7.9 assists 13.2 potential assists
Luka = 7.8 assists 12.9 potential assists
Morant = 7.7 assists 13 potential assists

No guys getting double potential assists against assists.

I will go further down to see guys with lower assist numbers.

S Barnes = 6.5 assists 13 potential assists
Fox = 6.2 assists 11.9 potential assists
Giannis = 6.1 assists 11.3 potential assists

A lot of guys around 6 assists / 10 potential assists.

Schroder = 5.9 assists 12 potential assists
Shai = 5.9 assists 12.4 potential assists

F Wagner = 5.7 assists 11.2 potential assists
Draymond = 5.6 assists 10.4 potential assists
Sengun = 5.0 assists 10.1 potential assists

Franz almost identical to Tatum.

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/passing?TeamID=0&dir=D&sort=AST