From the box score, not an impressive game

[Dennis_D]

When I saw the C's won by 20, I thought, "they must have played really well". When I dug into the box score, I realized that the main reason they won was that the 76ers were pathetic.

Philly won 19 games last year and had the second worst record in the NBA. They were missing their best player from last year, MCW. Two starters (Henry Sims, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute) were players who struggled to get minutes on bad teams. Their bench was a bunch of nobodies. They weren't much better than a D league team.

Against such weak competition, the C's were only able to shoot 34.1%. The 76ers actually shot better than the C's (40.3% to 34.1%) and shot better from 3 (35.7% to 33.3%). The 76ers only shot 42.3% on FT's. They turned the ball over 27 times. Still, the C's were only able to score 14 points off of turnovers and 9 fast break points. The C's barely outrebounded the 76ers, 52 to 51.

Tyler Zeller's poor play was a big red flag for me. It's looking like once again the C's will have Rondo, Bradley, Green as their starters for positions 1, 2 and 3, with Rondo missing the opening part of the season. They are once again playing a PF at the C position and there is no clear starter at PF. That formula won them 25 games last year.

[knuckleballer]

The best thing I took away from yesterday's game is that James Young looks like a player.  He was very confident for a 19 year old rookie in his first game.

[DarkAzcura]

Sooo..you didn't watch the game. Nice.

[Kadin]

Sooo..you didn't watch the game. Nice.

This is what I took away from it, as well.

[Asher77]

Hi Dennis,

I appreciate your post. From your first sentence I took it as you did not watch the game ( may be wrong ). I concur with all your red flags based on the numbers but I am one of those who feel in any game that numbers will only tell less than half the story. The story may not have been all good last night regardless of a win but there were positives.  Zeller was almost less than their. Also one who believes one game means absolutely nothing in context to a season.
Bass reminded me that he is still on the team and at one point had me recalling why I wanted him gone, still pondering that.
Smart can backpedal as fast as anyone I can recall seeing. Thinking I need to see a bit more of this then freshen up my mind to others I think are as skilled, curious just how good he is.
Also Smart is smart in that I think he is a player who has an awareness and IQ to integrate his way into the team, he is not going to push it on offense the first game, to him it is the most to earn trust and build your place by effort, to lead one must follow, if he proves good enough to his team mates they will want to give him touches, to trust him and to follow him. To be a scorer and also a point guard you must put your team on equal ground, if you take more shots than your fellow players you are not making friends until and unless you've earned those touches in the teams eyes. A scorer makes the tough shots and percentages may not be kind. This is what I see Smart is, he will earn the respective of the team so he can be a scorer ( not a shooter ) and they will rally behind that. Right now he is just effort and reliability to the team who is focused on getting the ball moving and spreading the wealth.
Sully may be chunky but that weight does have some positives in it based on his style. I never really see him as a high flyer. It may be that more imoveability alows him to rebound and defend at a higher level as he rely's on technique and positioning alot. He is a thinker and a large mass that uses bulk and what they call quick feet to isolate off other players.
Even Turner if nothing else did play a game with attitude and desire. It is so surprising at this level how many guys are not capable of demonstrating this. AB did shoot but then he stopped and that's ok. Last year he was amazing in the first half. I would love to see one of the local stat guys profile that in comparison to quarters 1 thru 4. He may have the teams trust to open up firing, someone always needs to be the ice breaker. He settles in and plays defense in the second half. It again is really a team game, his defense is what the team needs and we may want to give him the benefit that the team might value and support him shooting to open it up and then give him even more respect for clamping down on defense when they need it to close games and open up that green light to green ect..

[chambers]

It was a horrible game. The 76ers were horrible. I mean they had the waterboys from the worst team in the league on the court- it's pre season.

I thought Olynyk, Sully, Smart, Turner, Young all did well.

If I were you I wouldn't expect too much when Rondo doesn't play, even when Green doesn't play and Rondo does.

Can you imagine how bad this team would be without Rondo this season?
We'd be challenging last years 76ers and Bucks teams for worst in the league.

[greece66]

Tyler Zeller's poor play was a big red flag for me.

He is a big red flag in a green uniform. I sort of feel sorry for him, from his interviews he comes out as an intelligent and nice guy. But he can't play basketball. In theory, we chose him because he was one of the few young Centers available, but young or not, the choice makes no sense if the player is useless. And no, I do not think everything will be fine once he starts setting up pick n rolls with RR

[GreenWarrior]

I basically saw the 1st qrtr., some of the 3rd/4th. and what I saw of young and turner was encouraging. but overall I was highly unimpressed with the team.

we were supposedly going to be this attacking, aggressive team and all I saw was jumpshots. even when we pushed the ball we got jumpshots out of it. Sully is getting ruined.

maybe Green & Rondo will make some difference but i'm not expecting much.

[bballdog384]

I basically saw the 1st qrtr., some of the 3rd/4th. and what I saw of young and turner was encouraging. but overall I was highly unimpressed with the team.

we were supposedly going to be this attacking, aggressive team and all I saw was jumpshots. even when we pushed the ball we got jumpshots out of it. Sully is getting ruined.

maybe Green & Rondo will make some difference but i'm not expecting much.

It seemed like they took a lot of threes, but at least there was more ball movement than we saw last year. There was a lot of poor shooting though... Bradley had a bad game.

[Celtics4ever]

Our shooting was bad overall but there were some guys who shot a little better than others.   

I do not think Stevens is going to tolerate bad looks this year, Sully was  0-3 from downtown and yanked twice as a result of a missed three.  Now good looks that were missed were tolerated.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Our shooting was bad overall but there were some guys who shot a little better than others.   

I do not think Stevens is going to tolerate bad looks this year, Sully was  0-3 from downtown and yanked twice as a result of a missed three.  Now good looks that were missed were tolerated.

"Yanked for a missed three" <--- Yeah, 99.9999% that wasn't the case. Just because he's due to be subbed doesn't mean he was yanked from the game in the first PRE-SEASON game.

[Celtics4ever]

It happened twice, rewatch the game if you don't believe, both after missed threes.   You think that happened twice by coincidence?  The odds of that are really small.  Maybe less Budweiser during the game and you would notice?

Bradley sat for a while too, after shooting 0-7.

I think Stevens expects more this year.   Now Sully has one thing going for him in that we do not have a lot of bigs behind him.  I thought Sully was the best rebounder on the floor but Bass was definitely better at putting the ball in the hole.  In fact, when we got our lead it was BB on the floor.

[pearljammer10]

Sooo..you didn't watch the game. Nice.

This is what I took away from it, as well.

I took away that this was the first preseason game of the year with two starters not playing and two other starters not playing the 4th quarter.

Relax.

[pearljammer10]

It happened twice, rewatch the game if you don't believe, both after missed threes.   You think that happened twice by coincidence?  The odds of that are really small.  Maybe less Budweiser during the game and you would notice?

Bradley sat for a while too, after shooting 0-7.

I think Stevens expects more this year.   Now Sully has one thing going for him in that we do not have a lot of bigs behind him.  I thought Sully was the best rebounder on the floor but Bass was definitely better at putting the ball in the hole.  In fact, when we got our lead it was BB on the floor.

This has been noted in a couple other threads too. I didn't see it so its hard to comment but it does seem like Sully was pulled out after two bad three point shot selections.

[mgent]

Leave us alone.

We're undefeated.