Celtics Review - Game 32
Sooo, yeah. I know Kemba was out, and basically our entire team was sick in this one, but it was still kind of pathetic. I mean, we were playing the worst team in the league and only won by a basket. I respect Trae Young a lot, and I think he’s a great NBA player, but the rest of the organization is a mess. With the rumors surrounding Drummond, there’s some hope for the fans, but as of now it’s all about tanking. A core of Young, Collins, and Drummond would be a solid group going forward, though.
Anyways, this was the typical Celtics game I suppose. We just sucked in the first half of the game, and somehow managed to pick up our slack in the second. Earlier this year I mentioned that I hoped this wouldn’t become a trend, but here it is, a trend. We just have never been able to put things together in the first two quarters of games. What’s ironic is that I’ve noticed we’re better in the first quarters of games where we play tougher opponents. I know it was a while ago, but the game we had against the Clippers where Tatum hit his game-tying shot, we kept the game super competitive in the first half. But then when we play weaker teams, we either play horribly in the first two quarters, or allow the team to get back into the game. Aside from this issue, something I wanted to note quickly was that Hayward led the team in minutes last night. He’s a leader on the floor for us and not enough people appreciate that.
Then we got to the last moments of the game and all hell broke loose. It just seemed like both teams were playing extremely sloppy basketball. For example, that three by Smart was super clutch, but as soon as he took it I remember thinking to myself, “why would you take such a stupid shot?” I just wanted to step through my screen and take the ball out of his hands. I love that Smart is confident enough to take those shots, but I don’t think he should be the guy on the team to take them. Then things got chippy at the end when Trae Young literally decided to trip Smart. Like, I understand that you want to foul quickly, but you can’t act surprised when one of the most chippy players in the league gets mad at you for tripping him while you’re on the ground. It was just dumb overall, and Alex Len had no business trying to step to Smart like that.
Ouch Award - Jayson Tatum
Woof. This is one of the times I like to reference when I say that Jaylen Brown deserves to be an All-Star more than Tatum. Tatum has all the big games and clutch moments, but he’s so inconsistent right now. Brown has been consistently solid throughout the course of the season, and has even had some of those big time moments, like on Christmas Day. Anyways, this was just one of those days for Tatum when people start to doubt him. At one point in the game, I looked at the box score and saw him shooting 8.3% from the field. Not from three, from the field. In the end, he took 16 shots and only managed to make two of them (12.5%) - one being an absolutely ridiculous layup that should not have gone in. Anyways, I love Tatum as much as anyone else, and he made up for his poor shooting performance with a bunch of trips to the free throw line, but he just has to work on being a more consistent shooter.
Love of my Life Award - Jaylen Brown
The $29 Million Dollar Man himself. Another He ended the game with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals, but more importantly, he did so while shooting 61.5% from the field and 70% from three. I recently got into a minor reddit war with a guy arguing that people account for percentages too much when comparing players. While I agree that better percentages don’t always mean a better player, it’s times like these where I can’t help but fall back on them as an argument. I don’t understand how you can look at these two performances, and a bunch of other recent ones, and tell me that Tatum has been the better player. Yes, he’s had some bigger moments, but he’s just not playing as well as Brown is lately. Jaylen Brown is arguably the most consistent Celtic on the roster right now, and he’s worth every penny.
