Grit & Balls by the C's tonight. This team has serious heart. Stevens is legit.

[LooseCannon]

Really Wow! JGreen, ABradley and Rajon were amazing in the second half.

The stat that really struck me was 102 FGAs! When was the last time the Celtics (or any team) jacked up as many shots as this one?  That tells a lot about this team's energy.

The last time the Celtics took 100+ shots was on February 10, 2013.  That was a triple OT win against Denver featuring 108 attempts.  The last non-OT game was a 100-shot effort on February 27, 1998 against Golden State.  The last time with at least 102 shots was the 105 against Charlotte on April 9, 1997.

[krumeto]

Really Wow! JGreen, ABradley and Rajon were amazing in the second half.

The stat that really struck me was 102 FGAs! When was the last time the Celtics (or any team) jacked up as many shots as this one?  That tells a lot about this team's energy.

The last time the Celtics took 100+ shots was on February 10, 2013.  That was a triple OT win against Denver featuring 108 attempts.  The last non-OT game was a 100-shot effort on February 27, 1998 against Golden State.  The last time with at least 102 shots was the 105 against Charlotte on April 9, 1997.

We are top 3 in pace so far. 98 attempts against Houston. First thought was Phily 2.0, but we rarely take a bad shot. Most of the 3-pointers are good looks, plenty of points in the paint (60 against HOU and 46 against Dallas), lots of fast break points too. The offense is OK.

It is the defense where things have been ugly. P&R D has been brutal (at least in 1st quarters). Both against HOU and DAL we had neither packed the paint, nor defended the 3-point to start the games. At least we improved incrementally throughout the games.

[Celtics4ever]

We are a rim protector away from making some noise, I think.   I liked the three guard lineup, it caused havoc for the other teams.      I thought if we pressed and made them play the game between the foul lines, we'd have an edge.   Their bigs are better than their guards and better than our bigs for the most part.  But their guards, we have the edge.  Playing JG at PF was smart too, no way TC or Dirk could guard him.

[sofutomygaha]

GRIT! HEART! BALLS! LEGIT!

Please, someone call Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley a pair of pit bulls!!

[BudweiserCeltic]

Really Wow! JGreen, ABradley and Rajon were amazing in the second half.

The stat that really struck me was 102 FGAs! When was the last time the Celtics (or any team) jacked up as many shots as this one?  That tells a lot about this team's energy.

The last time the Celtics took 100+ shots was on February 10, 2013.  That was a triple OT win against Denver featuring 108 attempts.  The last non-OT game was a 100-shot effort on February 27, 1998 against Golden State.  The last time with at least 102 shots was the 105 against Charlotte on April 9, 1997.

Part of it is we missed a lot of shots and as a consequence grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds (which hustle plays a lot into you have to give credit for that), so it isn't much about pace but about miss shots + hustle for secondary opportunities.

[Donoghus]

1st half was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen out of a Celtics team.  2nd half was just an amazing effort of trying to claw back in the game.  Showed a lot about the character of a lot of these young guys like Smart, K.O, & Sully. 

I think this will sorta be the theme for the season; young team with very up & down play.  Can be awfully frustrating at times and be awfully exciting too.  Gonna be a roller coaster. 

[D.o.s.]

It was like the opposite of the Big Three era: instead of building a huge lead in the first only to squander it away in the second half, the team played like hot garbage for the first half and managed to lose the game by a respectable amount in the second.

[manl_lui]

amazing effort

we are a go-to-scorer
rim protector

away from being a legit playoff threat (note - I said playoff threat, not contenders)

[chambers]

We are a rim protector away from making some noise, I think.   I liked the three guard lineup, it caused havoc for the other teams.      I thought if we pressed and made them play the game between the foul lines, we'd have an edge.   Their bigs are better than their guards and better than our bigs for the most part.  But their guards, we have the edge.  Playing JG at PF was smart too, no way TC or Dirk could guard him.

I have been thinking about this for a while, and I think we don't even need an elite rim protector- we just need a defensively sufficient big man who has good defense, but more importantly, can run the pick and roll with Rondo the entire game.

I think the thing that has surprised me the most about this team is how physical they are. They understand that to get an edge they have to use their youth and energy to keep putting pressure on the opposing teams defensive energy. All that pushing, shoving, bumping, smothering is giving us an advantage coming out of half time and our guard rotation is so deep that we should be able to pressure the perimeter pretty much the entire game.

[Fafnir]

Really Wow! JGreen, ABradley and Rajon were amazing in the second half.

The stat that really struck me was 102 FGAs! When was the last time the Celtics (or any team) jacked up as many shots as this one?  That tells a lot about this team's energy.

The last time the Celtics took 100+ shots was on February 10, 2013.  That was a triple OT win against Denver featuring 108 attempts.  The last non-OT game was a 100-shot effort on February 27, 1998 against Golden State.  The last time with at least 102 shots was the 105 against Charlotte on April 9, 1997.

In the second half they stopped working the shot clock, they were taking early shots on Dallas makes or misses.

[manl_lui]

Really Wow! JGreen, ABradley and Rajon were amazing in the second half.

The stat that really struck me was 102 FGAs! When was the last time the Celtics (or any team) jacked up as many shots as this one?  That tells a lot about this team's energy.

The last time the Celtics took 100+ shots was on February 10, 2013.  That was a triple OT win against Denver featuring 108 attempts.  The last non-OT game was a 100-shot effort on February 27, 1998 against Golden State.  The last time with at least 102 shots was the 105 against Charlotte on April 9, 1997.

In the second half they stopped working the shot clock, they were taking early shots on Dallas makes or misses.

besides that, I really love how Rondo pushes the ball for fast buckets. Like you said, stop milking the shot clock. If there are no open guys he'll just take it...speeds up the game. Understanding that they are down 31 pt, milking the clock and having patient offense isn't going to be in their favor. They started out the 3rd extremely aggressive, good pace, strong moves. Not sure if w'll see that night in and night out because I think this will drain them and make them fatigue (especially Sully). But say, we are only down 15 - 20 points, effort like yesterday's would probably won us the game (probably)

[kozlodoev]

1st half was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen out of a Celtics team.  2nd half was just an amazing effort of trying to claw back in the game.  Showed a lot about the character of a lot of these young guys like Smart, K.O, & Sully. 

I think this will sorta be the theme for the season; young team with very up & down play.  Can be awfully frustrating at times and be awfully exciting too.  Gonna be a roller coaster.

I'm giving it 10 games before the scouting report is out saying that the Celtics have zero ability to score consistently in half-court sets. The roller coaster will lose a lot of its "ups" at that point.

[thehumburger]

I loved the grit and tenacity of the second half as much as I hated the roll-over-and-play-dead mail-in job in the first half. Before I christen this team as being all heart, though, I think it's worth noting: they've now played 12 quarters and have shown up for about half of them. It seems like they should be able to compete with anybody as long as they actually try, but they have yet to do that consistently. Here's hoping they start to. I'm looking forward to see what they bring against the Raps on Wed.

[Donoghus]

1st half was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen out of a Celtics team.  2nd half was just an amazing effort of trying to claw back in the game.  Showed a lot about the character of a lot of these young guys like Smart, K.O, & Sully. 

I think this will sorta be the theme for the season; young team with very up & down play.  Can be awfully frustrating at times and be awfully exciting too.  Gonna be a roller coaster.

I'm giving it 10 games before the scouting report is out saying that the Celtics have zero ability to score consistently in half-court sets. The roller coaster will lose a lot of its "ups" at that point.

I think that aspect is already apparent (half court offense).

[kozlodoev]

1st half was one of the worst defensive efforts I've ever seen out of a Celtics team.  2nd half was just an amazing effort of trying to claw back in the game.  Showed a lot about the character of a lot of these young guys like Smart, K.O, & Sully. 

I think this will sorta be the theme for the season; young team with very up & down play.  Can be awfully frustrating at times and be awfully exciting too.  Gonna be a roller coaster.

I'm giving it 10 games before the scouting report is out saying that the Celtics have zero ability to score consistently in half-court sets. The roller coaster will lose a lot of its "ups" at that point.

I think that aspect is already apparent (half court offense).

It's apparent to us, I just think it's going to take a bit more for the rest of the NBA to catch on. Not everyone is scouting the bottom feeders extensively right off the bat.