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Recap: C’s start hot, finish cold

Rich Jensen November 18, 2015 Avery Bradley, Celtics News, Gametime, Kelly Olynyk, Recaps 15 Comments

The Celtics started off tonight’s game like a house on fire—and then burned to the ground, losing to Dallas 106-102. They scored the first 7 points of the game and at one point had Dallas more than doubled up 31-14, as Avery Bradley singlehandedly went on a 12 point run that put the Garden crowd into hysterics.

Of course that couldn’t last. Boston’s run was predicated on circus-level shooting percentages that, realistically, couldn’t be sustained for the whole game.

As it turned out, things cooled off considerably in the second quarter. Boston sustained a double digit lead for almost the entire quarter, but it felt like a better team than Dallas would’ve closed that gap pretty quickly.

During the second quarter the Celtics’ offense sputtered and they stopped playing consistent defense. It didn’t help things that the officials, who had called a pretty loose first quarter were suddenly whistling everything. The Mavs spent most of the second quarter shooting the bonus, ending the half with 17 free throw attempts on 15 Celtics fouls. Still, the Celtics had a nine point lead at the half.

Boston’s sloppy play continued coming out of the half, and Dallas tied the game on multiple occasions in the third, but couldn’t close the deal. Boston started to play better after what seemed like Stevens’ thirtieth “what’s wrong with you guys?” time out, finishing the quarter on a mini run. At the end of the third, with another 12 minutes off the clock, Dallas had only narrowed the deficit by a point. Still, it felt like the Celtics were playing with fire. Good things happened when they drove to the basket, but they either couldn’t or wouldn’t sustain the effort needed to wear down the Mavs’ defense and take advantage of their superior depth.

Dallas chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter. They didn’t have their first lead until 4 minutes remained in the game, but they never trailed after that. Brad’s penultimate “What’s wrong with you guys?” time out, called as the Mavs increased the lead to five, didn’t work. Sully responded with a quick three, and the Garden crowd tried to breathe some life into the Celtics, but Dallas, which has the league’s best late game defense, only extended the lead.

Stevens called one last timeout, and, finally, the C’s responded, going on some kind of crazy run to close within two twice within the final minute, but it was too little, too late. Derron Williams sank some free throws and Raymond Felton missed some free throws, and it was all over.

The Green:

The first quarter, for a change. Boston didn’t make a wrong move, it seems like.
Boston finished with 12 steals. This is a team that, when it’s on, is going to take your lunch and eat it before you know what happened.
Kelly Olynyk boldly squared up and took a charge barely a minute after getting called for his fifth foul.

The Gross:

The second, third and fourth quarters.
Boston’s sloppy rotations and Wes Matthews’ wide open looks
Settling for perimeter shots. Remember how Boston had all that depth in the front court? Yeah, well, aside from a few spots, Boston did nothing to break down the Mavericks’ defense. Dallas, like most teams, is not as deep as Boston, but it’s pretty hard for Boston to turn that into an advantage if all Dallas has to do on defense is stand around waving their arms.

Greenlights:

A much needed hoop by K.O. https://t.co/MjMb9H94H2

— KWAPT (@KWAPT) November 19, 2015

Isaiah with the drive and dish to Kelly. There was nowhere near enough of this tonight.

AB with the loud follow: https://t.co/EkwspmlcOV — KWAPT (@KWAPT) November 19, 2015

Bradley cleans up a Sullinger miss. With extreme prejudice.

Sweet pass Lee: https://t.co/3UjVz4WLz6

— KWAPT (@KWAPT) November 19, 2015

David Lee with the best pass you’ll see all night.

@RedsArmy_John Love Dirk. pic.twitter.com/gigaiZNbub

— Bill Dapkus (@billydaps) November 19, 2015

Kelly tries to Dirk Dirk, it doesn’t work. Dirk loves it.

The Grid:

Boston ended the game shooting 41% after shooting better than 50% in the first quarter
Boston was whistled for 28 fouls, with both Avery Bradley and Kelly Olynyk fouling out.
The C’s are only a game above .500 again, after another bad loss at home.

Curt Hays

Brad got out-coached. I fking hate basketball.

Can I PLEASE see the Celtics beat Dirk once? Just once. They should be ashamed by this game.
- Richard Jensen
  
  No way Brad got out-coached. That team got out-played. Stevens can’t force those guys to breakdown the Dallas D and wear them out. At their worst, the C’s go into a half-court set and play hot-potato around the perimeter before tossing up a contested jumper without even trying to collapse the D on a drive or even, heaven forbid, a post entry pass.
  
  The C’s are not good enough to win that way.
  
  Think of it in terms of winning the ‘time of possession battle’ in FB. The reason why the C’s have been able to flat out run away from teams when they’ve won is because they’ve done the dirty work in the first half. That means driving to the basket, taking a beating, making defenders move to stay in front of you, making them rotate to coverage on help, etc. Sure, you’re going to end up putting up some ugly contested shots, and you’re probably not going to put the game away early. But guess what’s going to happen late in the 3rd quarter when you’re only up by one or two points? You’re going to sub in fresh legs, and even the other team’s reserves are going to be gassed, and it’s going to be Katie-bar-the-door.
  
  What happened tonight, was things were too easy too early, and the C’s lost their edge. They were not prepared to work for this win.
  - Curt Hays
    
    They certainly played like Houston at times.
    
    The wrong guys were on the floor in the second half of the 4th. IT wasn’t getting it done against Barea. No one was scoring in the paint. I don’t see how you don’t have Zeller and Smart on the floor.
    - Richard Jensen
      
      I don’t buy this ‘wrong guys on the court’ argument. The C’s couldn’t score, and Marcus was a huge part of the problem. Dude was 1-7. Playing more of him was not going to generate more offense.
      
      The box score tells you all you need to know:
      Crowder: 34:32 / -1
      Thomas: 32:46 / +10
      Bradley: 31:23 / +4
      Sullinger: 30:26 / 0
      
      The guys who got the most run were, aside from KO & Amir, the most effective guys (Kelly was +13 in 13 mins, Amir was -16 in 28).
      
      I’m not going to say Stevens was out coached.
      
      And Zaza & Dirk would’ve eaten Zeller alive.
      - Curt Hays
        
        Did IT do anything in the 4th besides drive the lane and fail?
        
        Defense was absent. IT got beat a lot when he was on D
      - BIG_HITTA1
        
        In regard to Smart, the dude can’t shoot!!! His FG% is 36%!!! That is a problem %-age. And the C’s as a team are a horrible 42.5% from the field.
        
        Shooting is NOT a coaching issue – you can either shoot well or you can’t. This team DESPERATELY needs a sniper.
      - Curt Hays
        
        How can you drain your shots when you have no inside game? Every time Amir or Sully happened to get the ball in the paint, they were swarmed. The Mavs played very good defense–by design.
  - Curt Hays
    
    Also, I’m just pissed and venting. I am tired of listening to the trash talk from Mavs fans.
    - Richard Jensen
      
      Then don’t listen.
      
      Or thank them for the lottery pick and walk away.
      - Curt Hays
        
        But I live in Dallas…
  - BIG_HITTA1
    
    Rich, I gotta agreed with Curt to a large extent that Stevens was out-coached. You said it yourself ” things were too easy too early, and the C’s lost their edge. They were not prepared to work for this win.” A team that loses its edge and that is not prepared to work for a win is where coaching needs to come into play. A portion of this loss goes on Stevens’ back.
- eddysamson
  
  How does a guy get out-coached when the refs won’t even let his team play their brand of defense? This game was obviously decided by the refs to me. The refs were loose in the first, saw the Celtics run, then stopped it with their whistles. The change from loose officiating to tight BS anti-Celtics calls (and a few mystery make up calls against the Mavs that barely count since they were so heavily outnumbered by anti-C’s fouls) coincides exactly with the Celtics run stopping and the Mavs making more baskets.
  
  The refs get into players heads when this crap happens. The players, on both ends, can no longer play comfortably AND they’re dealing with being mad/frustrated by someone that they’re not even playing against. This results in looser defense (Mavs catching back up) and worse offense (shooting % dropping considerably, and dealing with an opposing defense that can get away with more than you makes them more hesitant to run their offense well).and to top it all off, a team like the Celtics can still hang in a game like this, BUT when the other team has doubled your foul shots, those extra points push the game out of reach.
  - Curt Hays
    
    All of that was certainly visible, even though the blackout restrictions forced me to listen to the Mavs announcers, on video feed too. I thought I was going to go to the ER during the 1st half.
    
    My basis for emotionally freaking out and blaming Brad is that I really think the wrong guys were in the game at the end. Richard Jensen does a good job of using actual data/facts to support his conclusions, and I also tend to side with Brad leaving in the guys that he thinks give him the best chance.
    
    However, we were useless in the paint during the part of the game that we actually lost it. Carlisle (either his style or his system) excels at making big guys be really good big guys. Nothing Brad did could change that. Kelly didn’t seem to let the foul calls get in his head. He stayed the course enough to foul out, and he even drew that charge with 5 fouls. Derron Williams and Wesley Matthews were the X factors. Defensively, we were fine in the frontcourt. Offensively, we got killed in the front court. We couldn’t shoot because we couldn’t get in the paint.
    
    Carlisle got more out of his bigs than Brad got out of his team. The refs put the Mavs back in it, but the Celtics gave it up at the end. I realize that having AB and KO on the court more would have helped, but we have a deeper bench than just those two guys.
    
    I think Tyler Zeller was worth a shot. The guy is the closest thing we have to a paint scorer. Sure Amir does well, but he has one move. Tyler has a jump shot, hook shot, and post moves.
    
    Also, IT often played too short to do anything last night. He doesn’t always play short, but he did in the 4th.
    
    Also, why no fast breaks?
NE_Celt

Ugly way to end the game after that spectacular 1st quarter… And I still want to see frickin Pachulia not screw the Celtics when he plays us… Always finds a way to be the biggest pain in the ass and flop all over the place. I need a dart board with his big freaking melon on it….
Curt Hays

Looks like JJ Barea is too tall for IT.

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