From Zach Braziller:
Maybe Tom Thibodeau was helping his old team after all.
His recent visit with the Celtics, when he broke down how the Knicks beat them last spring, didn’t do much good.
In fact, in the first meeting between the two teams since the Knicks sent Boston home last May, not much changed.
The Celtics still don’t have Jayson Tatum, and without the injured superstar, they didn’t stand much of a chance in that Game 6 Eastern Conference semifinal clincher, or on Friday night.
That was a sight for sore eyes. I love it when they kick the Celtics’ ass.
That said, I think the 0-2 Celtics are probably JUST good enough to still sneak into the playoffs, even if Tatum doesn’t return this season. They showed me SOMEthing tonight (and on opening night against Philly). If any team could get something out of Luke Garza, it’ll be them (I only mention Garza because he’s the only even vaguely notable player who didn’t play tonight that might play soon, and they turned Luke Kornet into a useful player).
The Knicks, though, showed me MUCH more, and it was awesome to see. A ten-man rotation. Wow.
16 replies on “NY Post: Knicks flip switch after slow start to roll past Celtics in second straight win to start season”
We played 1:47 with no center last night.
End of 4Q – 40 secs (1 def possession & dribbling clock out):
Brunson/Deuce/Shamet/Hart/Mikal
Mid 4Q – 1 min:
Brunson/Deuce/Clarkson/Hart/OG
End 3Q – 6 secs:
Deuce/Shamet/Hart/Bridges/OG
In game 1 we played 1:38 across 2 stints:
End 4Q – +0 – 00:38:
Brunson/Deuce/Shamet/Mikal/OG
Mid 2Q – +0 – 00:59:
Brunson/Deuce/Shamet/Mikal/OG
This is not Tim Thibodeau. Playing small at the end of quarters when up to cover 3s makes some sort of sense. The mid-quarter stints are more surprising.
All stints were +0, except the mid 2nd of the 1st game where we were +1.
To Cyber’s point yesterday, in fact Brunson was shooting quite badly for the first three quarters. Wish I’d written it down, but he was like 35% from the field and 30% from three. Maybe worse.
Then he ended up 50/43/(89). Talk about clutching out.
You know what I kind of miss, in a Pavlovian way? Thibs’ “You suck” immediate timeouts. Brown just lets them play through goofs and bad stretches. I’m still trying to decide if I like that or not. Hard to argue with the results so far, though.
Still DefCon 4 on Yabu. He threw himself around this game, as compared to his passive first game, but it was still largely ineffectual except for some monster-ass picks (figuratively and literally).
I was kinda hoping we’d be up 20+ with a few minutes left to see when Brown would pull the starters
Would be refreshing to not yell at the TV screen “why the fuck is _____ still in the game???”
I’m wondering how much influence Brown’s assistant coaches have on both his game plan preparation and his in-game decision-making.
In his postgame presser, Brown singles out Clarkson as “our defensive player of the game” and said that Kolek had 4-5 deflections in the game.
I thought Kolek played really well until a couple of late-game gaffes when the Celtics kept double-teaming him into the sidelines. Hopefully he’ll figure out how to avoid that.
Totally missed Clarkson’s defense, but I wasn’t annoyed by him even once this game, which in itself is award-worthy.
As usual, not impressed with Jaylen Brown. Decent player, but doesn’t seem to elevate his teammates at all, and consistently goes in the air and throws the ball out of bounds. Good for at least three ‘passes to nobody’ a game.
Of course OG is throwing about three hideous passes a game lately, too, but at least they’re toward teammates, just ones who are tightly guarded by the other team, resulting in steals.
So far free throws have really been our strength. We’re #3 in offensive FT/FGA and #1 in defensive FT/FGA. We’re also #1 in DRB%. We have not shot the ball well at all (28th in eFG%) but we still won the two games fairly easily.
Tiny samples of course, but still kind of interesting.
“and said that Kolek had 4-5 deflections in the game.”
I remember at least 2–he looks and probably is a bit slow but always has his arms fully extended sideways or upright (note to KAT). Unlike Bridges who you think are extended but have another foot in reserve or OG who just knows when to extend them.
Two pretty predictable Mike Brown vs. Tom Thibodeau stuff:
-3rd in 3PAr (49.4%) vs. 28th (38.2%)
-19th in TOV% (14.6) vs 7th (11.9)
Interestingly, our pace is almost identical so far. Wonder if that will change…although pace can be a wonky stat, and more about defense than offense.
Kolek seems to have the ability to read the game at a high level, which means he can do stuff like anticipate when to jump passing lanes on defense…which is a quality that all of the good defensive “small” PGs have…think Stockton, CP3, Lowry. Brown has challenged him to get his nose in there. So far, so good!
Clarkson really mixed it up on defense in the 2nd Q, probably helped that he was going against a soft-ish team. But it was definitely noticeable to me.
Are the Celtics tanking? Put Brown and White on the bench and they’re a top 3 lottery team.
I already knew Kolek could run an offense, but he looks better to me on defense than I feared. If he can add a reasonably consistent 3 I think we have our backup PG issues solved. He doesn’t have to become a deadly 3 point shooter. We are talking about a backup. It just has to be consistent enough to not be left wide open.
IMO OG’s major limitation remains his handle. Sometimes he drives into somewhat uncomfortable positions that he can’t get himself out of and that leads to either a poor quality shot or pass. It’s not something I’m worried about because he does so many other things well, but I’m not sure why it hasn’t become a major priority for him in the off season. He says he wants to be more of a scorer. That would be one way to do it.
Strat, I’d argue it’s his hands, which plays into his handle. I love OG, especially on defense where he’s a demon, but he has at least one fumbled pass inside every game, where if he could catch the damn ball he’d have an easy dunk or layup. He’s the Nerlens ‘butter stumps’ of this team.
I hate being critical of him, because I love him to death. But well…
I don’t know if crazy Joe is built for tanking but they probably should be.
Brown wants more passing overall, so I think OG is trying to play the system. They may want to reconsider the drive and kick playbook when it comes to him….
One of his TOs was due to a bad pass by KAT that forced Kolek to run into the corner between the sideline & halfcourt line where he got trapped. He definitely hit some bumps last night though.
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