Brooklyn Nets 102, Boston Celtics 97: C’s let one slip away with poor execution down the stretch
In the Celtics first game in the brand new Barclays Arena, some basketball was being played through the music being blared through the loud speakers. The Celtics were without Rajon Rondo after his ankle sprain last night, with Leandro Barbosa starting in his place. With the game tied 87, Brooklyn pulled away and despite the Celtics best efforts (including a dicey foul on D-Will down the stretch). Avery Johnson and the Nets employed a fouling strategy down the stretch to make it a free-throw shooting contest and it worked, as the Nets won the game 102-97.
- Jeff Green despite an overall 50 degree weather day (nobody talks about a 50 degree weather day!) came up with a huge defense stop on Joe Johnson and a big three on the other end. The heart he showed down the stretch is another positive sign after his monster dunk last night.
- As expected, the Nets defense could not do much to stop the Celtics offense, even without their floor general in Rajon Rondo. This Nets team was not built to get multiple defensive stops but have a lot of offensive firepower. Ironically, they did just that, gaining a 93-87 lead which the Celtics could not fight back from.
- Rebounding, as it seems to be the hot topic these days, was miserable particularly in the first half. The Celtics gave up a total of 18 offensive rebounds, but looked much better after the half, as I can only assume that Doc ripped into them.
- Courtney Lee was a lot more aggressive in this game, also trying to attack the rim. For my money he should have been guarding Deron Williams from the beginning of the game, as Terry and Barbosa struggled to stay in front of the three-time all-star.
- There was a Jason Collins sighting as it seems as though he has passed Darko on the depth chart. File this under pre-season debates that don’t matter finally resolved.
- Nets looked surprisingly cohesive on the offensive end of the floor, a bit surprising considering all of the pieces they are putting together and how early in the season it is. It probably helps that another player who requires touches, Gerald Wallace, is on the shelf, it will be interesting to see if they will be as cohesive once they have to incorporate him back into the rotation.
- Paul Pierce found some offensive rhythm, hitting a bunch of classic Pierce fade-away jumpers and walk-up three-pointers. Nice to see him break out of a streak of a couple games of tough shooting.
- This just in: Jerry Stackhouse is still in the NBA
A disappointing loss after some positive momentum with three straight wins. Still have a lot to learn, but the fight from the Celtics without Rajon Rondo provides some optimism
Related posts:
- Boston Celtics Downed by Brooklyn Nets, 97-96, in First Preseason Game at TD Garden
- One positive about C’s poor stretch? They aren’t the Clippers
- Boston Celtics beat down the hapless New Jersey Nets, 100-75
- Celtics Vs. Nets: Boston Buries New Jersey, 107-94
- Celtics begin ridiculous 15-day stretch tonight against San Antonio Spurs
Celtics Blog | Jesse Doran | November 15, 2012
So rebounding means nothing?
Keeping up with the recent theme of the last few days -
Nets 15 offensive rebs in first half = +13 shots
Cs stop offensive rebs and only give up 3 in 2nd half and win rebounding 27-20 and shots taken +3 and get back in the game.
Yep, rebounding means nothing. Idiocy to think that. Just sheer idiocy.
We lost this game because PP took only 2 shots in Q4. He shoots 75% for the game, but gets 2 less shots than BB who was 4-14. PP was 8-12. Other glaring issues were Collins/JS/CW getting only 4 rebs in 29 mins (only 1 in 1st half). And while PP had 7 rebs; this was the first game this year we lost when he gets 7 or more (3-1 now), but he had 0 rebs in Q4. Positive notes LB and CL’s best game of the season.
Last re rebounding and why it is so important…End of Q3 DW shoots a 3 and misses, but runs inside and gets the reb, then throws to JJ for 3 that he hits to close half 59-50. Same also happened on first play of game, missed shot, offensive reb Nets, make 3 to lead 3-0. So 6 pts for free to Nets and we lost by 5 pts. Again, until we rebound properly – the whole game – we will continue to be nothing more than average at best. Go Cs…hey Doc do you ever study the stats???
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wow first off one posistive was the offensive rebounding in the second half really tough loss I got to take this one in and I’m very dissapointed.Bad game from Brandon Bass missed key jumpers and shot 4-14 from the field missing four key jumpers.Paul Pierce was having a good game when he botched a lay up and missed two cruical free throws,the refs made a horrible call when Barbosa made a clean steal and was called for the foul.The Celtics overall flowed pretty well on offense shooting 47 percent from the field and shooting over 50 percent from Downtown.What hurt the Celtics was the poor offensive rebounding in the first half 16!!!!!! to the Brooklyn Nets???? The Rondo injury matters against the real contenders but I dont believe they are a great team and without Rondo we are clearly a better team.One positive I take from this game the play of Courtney Lee he finally showed up he made some shots hit a three crashed the boards very well and had 3 steals.I am extremely dissapointed we left this game get away if you cannot tell I dont believe in Brooklyn there not in our class or our level there bench is weak and Joe johnson takes way too many jumpshots.Saturday we got the Raptors then Detroit two games where Rondo should not play even if he can the one thing I was having a conversation about was the Celtics are great for the fact they are so horrible at offensive rebounding period but are a top 3 team in the NBA yes I said it have you ever witnessed it ever think about teams that are ranked 29-30th in league in rebounding and still be in the mix everyone knows if we put a serious focus on rebounding get in the top 20 atleast we will win banner 18 AB get healthy Rondo get healthy GO CELTICSSSSSSS
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Another bad trend I forgot to mention Boston is doing a very bad job a closing quarters not scoring letting opponents go on runs not acceptable at all pick it guys and stop playing down to weaker competition
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It’s just so hip to say that rebounding doesn’t matter, so hell, why not write yet another article about that, and then get all victimy when readers call it out for the crap it is.
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Hey doc…itis an 82 game marathon so one game doesn’t mean much. How about just once … For the hell of it … Whenever we take a shot, let’s send FIVE guys crashing the boards instead of running back to set up the defense. A few second chance opportunities might be kind of neat to try … So we lose … We’re losing our share doing it YOUR way !
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It is hard to see how Doc would ever imagine allowing us to crash the offensive glass, as the Nets were doing, when our transition defense is currently struggling. It is worth trying with the right lineups, for sure, especially once we get our defensive communication down in these transition situations so that they aren’t killing us so much. Hell, let Rondo and Lee crash the offensive boards while sending the bigs back, if you have to. It would be nice to see.
The effort in the 2nd half showed what we need to be doing on the defensive glass all the time, what this team is capable of. Why is it so difficult sometimes? Is the defensive system just not good for rebounding? We’ve still got the 8th best defensive rebounding in the league…an improvement over 20th best last year, if it is maintained, but those stretches against Utah, Milwaukee, and the Nets were killer, and it would be nice to see some consistency.
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Seems illogical to be 8th in defensive rebs and give up 15 offensive rebs in the first half? We may be dropping a lot after last nights game. We were certainly better in the 2nd half giving up only 3 offensive rebs, but then we gave it away in the 4th with a crappy offense where PP got 2 shots and 0 rebs in that Qtr. I say let RR, Bass and PP crash the boards when on offense and let the others get back. Certainly, it would not kill us to experiment some this early in the season. Go Cs…
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Yeah, it’s illogical indeed based on what we’ve seen lately! There is such a narrow margin in rebounding between “good”, “average”, and “bad” in the NBA that one or two good/bad games really affect the rankings early in the season. The difference between our first games–when we were doing well and ranked first–and our last ones is so stark that we’ve ended up eighth. It remains to be seen what the trend will be throughout the season, though. Kevin Garnett is posting the 10th best defensive rebound rate in the league…it would be nice for someone else to join him in the top 50!
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I hope Doc reads this entire page and wakes up as a team were averaging 38,6 rebounds a game look mark my words if we can go from 38.6 to 44.0 rebounds a game we will raise the trophy and be the last team standing.Another issue I am having with Doc is his use of Chris Wilcox.In limited minutes he has been the most consistent bench player in 13 minutes 7 points on 2-2 shooting he got to the line and grabbed 3 rebounds 2 by the way on the offensive glass and sparked a huge run last night there is no excuse why he should not be playing no less than 20 minutes a game.And has anyone seen Darko if scrubs like Collins are going to touch the floor than how come Doc wont use Darko the dude iis not the greatest rebounder but we all know he is better than Jared Collins and alot younger
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