Tag: NBA

James Harden Took 18 Three Pointers Last Night and No One Batted An Eye

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Okay, granted he hit half of them, but James Harden took EIGHTEEN threes last night and no one even batted an eye. No one except my man, Chuck.

Eighteen three pointers is absolutely insane. It was more than double the amount anyone else on either team took last night. Again, yes he hit 9 of them so he shot .500 from behind the arc and scored 45 points but holy hell what a stat line. He only made TWO shots inside the three point line all night. The reigning MVP scored 4 points inside the arc. Analytics will probably say he was taking the best available shots based on his shooting percentage, but thats still mind boggling to think about. Getting 17 foul shots and hitting 14 of them helps alleviate that a bit, but damn. It’s not like he’s JJ Reddick who can only score when he’s out deep away from lockdown defenders either.

Harden leads the league in 3 point attempts and 3 pointers made despite not even being in the Top 100 in 3 Point % among players with at least 50 3 point attempts. Daniel Theis has a better 3 point % than Harden!

But hey, 45 points is 45 points. If it’s such a crime against humanity the Celtics should have, ya know, guarded the 3 point line a little better.

I touched on this phenomenon a little bit when I blogged about how, unfortunately, Kendrick Perkins saw the game pass him by as everyone became a three point shooter. You could blame Steph Curry, but the game had been trending this way for a while.

“[From] 2010-11 the average 3 point attempts per game around the league have nearly doubled from 18 attempts per game to 31.3 per game this season. In the previous 8 seasons before that, average 3 point attempts per game had only increased about three from a low of 14.7 in 2002-03. So no one could have predicted the game completely changing the way it has.”

Somewhere Charles Barkley just shakes his head in disbelief.

 

 

The Robert Williams Time Lord T-Shirts Are Here and They Are Fantastic

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Update: Buy Time Lord shirts here!

So Robert Williams is finally starting to get some burn off the bench with Al Horford out and he has ran with that opportunity. The Time Lord has been rewarding Mattes and I for all the hype pieces we wrote before he even clocked into an NBA game. So we decided now was the perfect time for Bob to get his own shirt. Robert Williams’ time is now. The Time Lord shirts are here and we’ll be taking pre-orders on them starting today!

Here’s the backstory on the Time Lord nickname via MassLive if you aren’t constantly on Celtics Twitter:

“The Celtics, of course, selected Williams at No. 27. When Williams was late for a conference call and absent for the team’s first Summer League practice, the media reaction was intense.

“I’m irony poisoned, but to me it was hilarious,” Hebert said. “Manny Ramirez is the first athlete I loved and it was very Manny. And like, local writers and talk-radio people overreacted, and the whole point of Weird Celtics Twitter is to make fun of them and media in general being too uptight. …

So (we) started joking that he wasn’t late, he was operating on a different timeline concurrent to the one we are in, as evidenced by the fact that I knew he was a Celtic two years before he was a Celtic. And we would do it with people taking themselves really seriously and they’d get very mad at us for thinking they were too uptight. So from there he became a T I M E L O R D, like the characters in Doctor Who whose time travel can tie together terrible holes in the plot of a shoddy script.”

Kyrie Irving Said He Meets With a Mystical Board of People for Advice

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This quote came courtesy of Chris Forsberg, in which Kyrie said he meets with a mystical board of wise people for advice.

He is literally describing the Jedi High Council.

So is Kyrie Irving a Jedi? It would explain the insane handle and ball control in traffic; dude’s been using the force this whole time. It would also explain his overly elaborate and theatrical style of speaking. Kyrie is simply stuffed to the gills with midichlorians.

Williams, Morris Shine Against Anthony Davis and the Celtics Are Surging

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Photo credit: Charles Krupa/Associated Press

As already noted earlier today by Red, what a night it was for Bob at the Garden on Monday! His performance helped the Celtics win their seventh game in their last eight tries, and it really seems like The Green are starting to turn it on.

The Celtics rookie played a season-high 26 minutes against New Orleans and proved exactly why he was being projected by many as a lottery pick before this past June’s draft. His seven points and 11 boards were solid enough, but he also compiled three blocks – TWO of which were on none other than Anthony Davis.

Even more impressive is the fact that he held Davis to 7-of-17 shooting overall on the night; so, yes, while Davis did score 41, over half of those points were actually allowed by Daniel Theis and others besides Williams who covered The Brow last night. Bob also showed incredible discipline, playing so aggressively yet only committing one foul and zero turnovers.

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The rookie big man was all over Davis last night.

Red and I have been telling you since July that this kid was going to be something special, and we got our vindication last night. This is just a sign of things to come.

Another 300s favorite, Marcus Morris, was also huge in last night’s win. He posted 31 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Ever since being inserted into the starting lineup at the end of November along with Marcus Smart, Morris has averaged over 15 points per game.

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This man has kept on rolling all year long.

Brad Stevens’ choice to switch things up a few weeks ago has proven to be a very underrated (and potentially season-saving) move. Replacing Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown in the starting lineup for Morris and Smart may have sounded foolish just three months ago, but there is no doubt that the decision has injected some much-needed life into this team; the Celtics are undefeated through four games in December, and they have lost just once since Thanksgiving. I know that “season-saving” may sound a bit melodramatic, but this was a team that had lost five of their previous nine beforehand, and something needed to be done – and quickly – to get the team back on track.

Kudos on that one, Brad.

And what’s even better is that neither Hayward nor Brown have suffered as a result of the move, as both are still a huge part of the rotation and are each playing well over 20 minutes per night. Though Brown missed three games after injuring his back against Dallas on November 24, he’s averaged over 20 points per game in three games since returning. Hayward has been a bit more inconsistent and is still trying to find his groove, but his 30-point explosion against Minnesota on December 1 should give fans hope that he’s not too far off.

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Hopefully, this was Hayward’s coming-out party.

The team now currently sits fifth in the East, which is certainly not where most expected them to be this far into the season. Alas, don’t worry, Celtics Nation; it is still early and we’ve seen plenty of encouraging things over the past couple weeks which leads me to believe they’ll be just fine in the end.

Next up is a matchup with the Wizards on Wednesday night. The Celts then get Atlanta, Detroit, and Phoenix before a Friday night showdown against the No. 2-seed Bucks just before Christmas.

So while November was a bit of a rough patch, I’ve been liking what I’ve been seeing lately, boys! Keep it up!

The Celtics’ Robert Williams AKA Time Lord Put on a Show Last Night

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Update: Buy Time Lord shirts here!

With pretty much everyone of note sitting last night (Kyrie, Hayward, and Horford) there were plenty of minutes to go around. Enter Robert Williams AKA Time Lord, who got his first taste of legit NBA time with 26 minutes last night and boy did he put on a show. The Time Lord finished with 7 points and 11 rebounds, but for a young, raw player he was a force on the glass. Before last night Williams hadn’t played more than 8 minutes in any game this year so it was great to get an extended look at the 1st round pick. He was even a couple of inches away from being No. 1 on SportsCenter as he muffed an alley oop attempt. The highlight of the night for my young neighbor in Brighton though was this absolutely devastating block of arguably the best player in the game Anthony Davis.

Davis still finished with 41 points so nobody was shutting AD down, but that block was Williams making a statement. He actually had 3 blocks on the night as he made his presence known.

The kid can play and he may be the “rim defender” the Celtics have been looking for all these years.

Should the Celtics Bring Back Kendrick Perkins? Time for a Hit of Nostalgia!

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So apparently Kendrick Perkins called Danny Ainge just to check in and see if the Celtics had any interest in signing him. Imagine that? Just call up a company that you want to work for and ask hey do you want to pay me? No resumes, no interviews, just straight cash homie.

Normally I would sigh at the thought of a beloved, yet aging Boston athlete looking for one more shot at glory. I LOVE Perk, but we all saw him last year with Cleveland in a suit. The guy would make a phenomenal coach or more likely a corrections officer, but we all understand his playing days are over.

Except my 14-year-old brother was asking me about Perk wondering when was he really good, what he did well, and it dawned on me. 1.) How fucking old I really am and 2.) It’s easy to forget just how great Perk was for the Celtics back in the day. So lets dive in.

If Kendrick Perkins was born 20 years earlier he might be in the Hall of Fame today. I’m not joking. The guy was straight out of the 1980’s NBA. Bill Laimbeer would have been throwing hands with Perk twice a season. He was just an absolute force in the paint; a real old school bully. And that was exactly what the Celtics needed in 2007. A bodyguard for Rondo, a No. 2 to KG’s crazy, a guy willing to do the dirty work while the Big 3 handled all the scoring. He was the perfect fit for that team and both teammates and fans alike adored him.

I mean just look at this clip from the recent Celtics documentary that aired on NBC Sports Boston.

Never change, Perk.

Except Perk was actually born in 1984 and is really still only 34-years-old. Think about that for a second. He is literally just 40 days older than LeBron James. He’s 6 months younger than Carmelo Anthony. He’s two years younger than Dwyane Wade.

But, the sad fact is that the NBA game just passed Perk by. It passed a lot of guys by as the evolution of the game exploded so fast that the old school big man became a dinosaur in less than five years.

Perk’s last season with the Celtics was 2010-11 when Danny Ainge traded him to the OKC Thunder for Jeff goddamn Green in a move that I will still argue cost the C’s a legitimate shot at the title that year. I think if you got a couple warm milks in him, Danny would likely agree. But less than 5 years later the Golden State Warriors kicked off potentially the greatest dynasty we’ve ever seen built entirely on three point shooters, including the big men.

If you’re a big man who can’t shoot in 2018 you almost certainly are in the unemployment line these days. The Celtics have, and actively encourage, Aron Baynes to jack up multiple 3’s per game for fucks sake (averaging 6x 3PA per game than his previous career high last year). That was never Perk’s game so as the NBA turned into a video game with everyone pulling up from half court his role diminished a lot faster than anyone ever expected.

Did you know Kendrick Perkins has never made a 3 pointer in the NBA? Hell he’s only taken 14 attempts in 14 seasons!

To put that into context, from Perk’s last year with the C’s in 2010-11 the average 3 point attempts per game around the league have nearly doubled from 18 attempts per game to 31.3 per game this season. In the previous 8 seasons before that, average 3 point attempts per game had only increased about three from a low of 14.7 in 2002-03. So no one could have predicted the game completely changing the way it has.

As every Celtics fan my age will tell you, the C’s *never* lost a playoff series when their championship starting 5 was healthy and playing together. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins. Never. Lost. A. Series. Incredible. If Perk doesn’t blow out his knee in the 2009-10 NBA Finals there isn’t a doubt in my mind the Celtics beat the Lakers and win their second title in three years cementing their legacy as one of the greatest teams of all time. Instead we’re left with one championship and a bunch of what ifs, but goddamnit I don’t want to go down this dark road again because I could blog 10,000 words about the 2007-2011 Celtics.

So it sounds like despite all the great times they had together in green, Danny is gonna pass on the former big man.

Jimmer Fredette Wants Another Shot in the NBA. YES! YES! YES!

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Yahoo – Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Jimmer Fredette is once again tearing it up in China, averaging 38 points a game (fifth best in the league), shooting 51.2 percent overall and 46.7 percent from three. He is a former Chinese Basketball Association International MVP and a two-time All-Star. And once again, he hopes this will turn into a chance in the NBA.

Do I have an unhealthy affinity for professional athletes based primarily on their video game performances for me? Maybe. I even blogged about Jimmer captaining the greatest video game team ever assembled back in January 2017.

“These guys compiled one of the most dangerous basketball teams to ever step on the court in my old NBA2k franchise. I basically assembled the deadliest 3 point shooting team ever and completely bailed on any rebounding or post play. The ball touches your hands? You’re jacking up a 3. Jimmer Fredette. JJ Reddick. Ray Allen. I believe I had old man Mike Miller playing center just so he could step out and drain 3’s. And of course to top it all off I had Dougie McBuckets McDermott. It was like an And1 team and it was glorious.”

It’s why Chad Jackson will always have a special place in my heart because nobody and I mean nobody in the league could stop Chad on 10 yard hitch routes in Madden 2006.

Thats why I’m not a GM.

But, if you don’t think the former CHINESE LEAGUE MVP Jimmer Fredette could help a bench over in the states then you’re crazy. Look at that range!

If there is a team in the NBA that could use a three point guy to stand in the corner and knock down daggers, it’s the Celtics. The C’s have a ton of flexible guys that can play multiple roles and do a lot of things pretty good, but nobody that is really an elite 3 point shooter. With Kyrie, Hayward, and Tatum spacing the floor and drawing defenses in, just dish it to Jimmer to bang home 3 bombs. Count me IN. He seems to be chomping at the bit to get another shot too after flaming out in the NBA.

“I want to have another opportunity in the NBA because there is some unfinished business for me there. After this [Chinese] season is over, I want another NBA chance. This time, I’ll succeed. I feel really good about how I am playing. I know that if I get a chance, I will take advantage of it and be successful and help a team win… I know what it takes to win and I’ve helped lead teams to winning cultures. I want to be a part of a winning culture. I’m going to help the young guys get better. I can be a great fit on the locker room and on the floor at a high level. There are certain times when I was younger, I was occasionally more passive. This time, when I get that chance, if I get it, they’ll know that I will do whatever I can to help my team win.”

Look this is a man who has it all: adoration all across the state of Utah, a Chinese MVP trophy, not to mention his very own shoe line! The one thing he doesn’t have? A successful NBA career. Jimmer’s ready. His bags are packed, he’s got his airplane tickets. Bring him to the airport, Danny. Send him home.

The Grinch is Going With an All Out Bizarre Marketing Campaign and I Am Here for It

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I don’t quite know what the hell is going on here, but I am all in on it. Kudos to Illumination, the company behind the movie, for having the creativity to market to people completely outside their target demo using the NBA. Rather than just run cheeky ads geared towards young kids and parents like the Jim Carrey Grinch did once upon a time, they went the complete opposite direction here.

Pretty much anyone that advertises with the NBA does well because basketball players are the most self aware and marketable athletes in any league. The NBA dominates social media and fan engagement, has dove headfirst into e-sports and gambling, and is the most socially aware league so it’s no wonder the NBA is the most popular sport to anyone under the age of 30.

Jimmy Butler is an Excellent Player, But I Fully Expect the 76ers to Implode

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Full disclosure, at one point I wanted Jimmy Butler on the Celtics. Granted that was PT (Pre-Tatum), but I did want the player at one point.

So much of success in the NBA is about fit. You can have elite talent, but if the individuals can’t play together effectively then that team is going nowhere. Jimmy Butler is going from a young promising team in Minnesota, which seemed like a pretty good fit last year, to another young promising team in Philly. Just take a look at these two situations and tell me which is a better one.

  • Team A: Two No. 1 overall picks under 24 on a team that made the playoffs last year with a dysfunctional GM likely to be soon fired.
  • Team B: Two No. 1 overall picks under 24 on a team that made the playoffs last year with a dysfunctional GM that was fired last year.

Which situation looks more appealing to you? Looks pretty damn similar if you ask me. If you followed the Bryan Colangelo saga last season then you already know Team B is the Sixers so if you want to lean towards Team B because they also have an extra Top 3 pick under 24 I get it, but just know that guy you’re banking on is a big man that has played in 109 out of a possible 246 games in 3 years due to foot injuries. He’s missed more games in his career than he’s played. That player of course is Joel Embiid. One of the No. 1 overall picks Butler will be leaning on is a guy that is averaging 8.1 pts and 3.7 assists for his career and can’t shoot, which is important in the NBA.

All of this would be fine if Jimmy Butler just wasn’t feeling it in Minnesota, no hard feelings, just didn’t work out. Thats not exactly what happened. Butler feuded with the younger guy, publicly bitched about the team and his teammates, and shot his way out of town.

*That* guy is going to a team with a big man who loves to talk shit, a No. 1 overall pick that can’t shoot who’s confidence is wrecked, and another No. 1 overall pick that refuses to shoot 3 pointers in Ben Simmons. Oh yea, that should go swimmingly.

I’m sure Butler won’t butt heads with these guys any more than he did with the young guys in Minnesota. If the Sixers somehow figure out a fit and it works then Butler gets to be the man on a young and promising team. Orrr Butler loses his patience with Fultz and makes him cry in a game, blows up on Simmons for continuously passing out of open 3-pointers, all while Embiid watches from the bench in a boot.

What the Hell is Going on With the Celtics Right Now?

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No, but really, though. What the hell?

After Sunday night’s 100-94 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, the Celts are set to return home this week after a rough 1-4 road trip – which could have easily been 0-5 were it not for a furious fourth-quarter comeback which forced overtime against the two-win, atrocious Phoenix Suns. (Yeah, we struggled to beat the effing Suns!)

The Celts now currently sit sixth in the East, at 7-6, tied with the Charlotte Hornets and five games behind the 12-1 Raptors.

Yeah, I know it’s still early in the year, but again: what the literal hell?

For starters, after giving up just 99.5 points per game through the first eight games of the year, the Green gave up just about 110 points per contest over the past five games. Sure, this stat could be slightly skewed by last week’s OT game in Phoenix, but the team still allowed 115 points to the Nuggets last Monday and 123 to the Jazz on Friday night, both in regulation. As of Monday morning, they’re still somehow first in the NBA in defensive rating, but this past week really wasn’t so hot on that front.

Offensively, the team continues to struggle, although there have been slight improvements. Kyrie looks like he’s starting to get hot; after putting the team on his back with 39 points – 18 of which came in the fourth quarter and OT – against the Suns, he missed Friday night’s game against the Jazz due to his grandfather’s funeral. However, he averaged a solid 27.3 points per contest in the other games he played on the trip, and he’s now shooting over 40 percent from three on the year.

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Kyrie’s been cooking lately.

Jayson Tatum has looked good the past two games as well. Although he somehow only mustered up four points in Phoenix last Thursday, he’s shot exactly 50 percent in each of the past two games with totals of 21 and 27 points, respectively. The 300s favorite Marcus Morris continues to be a force off the bench as well, currently sitting third on the team in scoring in just 25 minutes of action each night. And finally, even though he’s not racking up the points, Marcus Smart has been a great facilitator all year long and is second on the team to Kyrie this year in assists.

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Yeah, Marcus. I see you dropping dimes out there.

Otherwise, though, there’s not really anything to hang your hat on. The Celtics rank only ahead of the Magic, Hawks, and Suns in terms of offensive rating. Again, I know we’ve only seen the team play 13-of-82 games at this point, which is a paltry 16 percent of the regular season action the C’s will take part in this year. A lot can still change, and I’m not saying to hit the panic button.

BUT MAYBE we’re starting to see signs of trouble, those that aren’t found on the stat sheet, which could be a slight cause for concern.

Earlier last week, there were rumblings that Terry Rozier was unhappy with his bench role after being one of the team’s studs (at times) in the playoffs last year. Rozier downplayed the rumors on Thursday, but he didn’t necessarily deny them outright (h/t ESPN):

“I go from starting in the playoffs to coming off the bench. … I’m pretty sure it’s not easy for nobody. But I’m not complaining. And, if you know me, I would never be the one to complain about it. I would never go to the media or bring out the unhappy thing. Like I said, people that know me know I wouldn’t do that. I’ve never been a selfish type of person, selfish player. You can tell the way I play I’m all about team.”

He said he wouldn’t “complain” or “go to the media” about it, but that certainly does not constitute a denial of the rumor itself. Not in the slightest. I’m not saying I blame him either, as he could probably start for most teams throughout the league, but this is definitely a situation to monitor.

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“Scary Terry” might soon become “Salty Terry” if the rumors are true.

And as much as I love Kyrie, the guy’s definitely a bit of a wild card. After rifling the ball into the stands after the game in Denver because some kid roasted him for almost 50 points that night – a move which I made sure to call him out for last week – he comes out with this comment after the team’s latest loss to Portland:

Really, man? So, having you – a former champion and THREE-time NBA Finals participant – Al Horford, and Gordon Hayward won’t cut it? You can’t express to them just what it takes to win a title, or at the very least get to an NBA Final – which, again, is something you’ve done yourself on multiple occasions?

For a guy who supposedly left Cleveland to be THE GUY, it doesn’t always seem as though Kyrie relishes the role. And while I’m not in the locker room and don’t want to just project, Horford and Hayward don’t really seem like big rah-rah-type leaders either.

So while it’s definitely too early to begin worrying about hard numbers and stats, it may not be too early to start monitoring the air in the locker room. As with any NBA roster loaded with talent, there comes a point where the “team-first” mentality can start to wane, for different reasons, after everyone gets a little taste of success.

I’m not jumping ship guys, and you shouldn’t either. But, Brad, it’s time to get ya boys in check now before it’s too late.