Denver Nuggets 114, Celtics 105

After trailing at the quarter, 24-22, and at the half, 55-52, the Cs made a spurt to end the third quarter to finally grab a slim lead, at 80-78, but they allowed Denver an 8-0 run to start the final period and the game was effectively over. The Cs shot poorly all night long, especially from the 3-point line where Jayson Tatum was 1 for 5, Kyrie Irving was 2 for 8, Terry Rozier was 1 for 6, Jaylen Brown was 1 for 4 and Marcus Smart was 0 for 3. Shooting 30% on treys will simply not get the job done against good teams and Denver is currently the second-best team in the west. The Cs were without Gordon Hayward who, in addition to sustaining a neck strain also suffered a concussion and had to enter the league’s concussion protocol. Thus, his return is apparently not imminent, and that leaves a huge void on the bench which did little to help the team in this game as both Rozier and Brown were ineffective and Baynes, while showing some signs of improvement, is still not in top game shape.

The Cs were paced by Irving who had 30 points on 23 shots but only 5 rebounds and 4 assists; Al Horford had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists; Marcus Morris had 13 points and 5 assists; and Smart had 10 points, 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals. When both Rozier and Brown are ineffective off the bench, as they were tonight, the Cs simply cannot beat the better teams. Let’s hope Hayward can not only return, but in game shape, because the bench badly needs his high-percentage shooting to offset the erratic shooting of both Brown and Rozier.’

The next game is Wednesday night at home against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Celtics 129, Atlanta Hawks 120

This was another win but it was far from impressive. At one point in the game the Cs owned a 25-point lead which they squandered, allowing the Hawks to tie the game with 3 minutes left. The Cs scored 74 points in the first half, but their defense was so porous that the Hawks had a legitimate chance to win the game. The problem today was the play of the bench which was damaged early on as Gordon Hayward sustained yet another freak injury in a collision on a pick in his first minute of play, sustaining a neck injury which knocked him out of the game. As Mike Gorman aptly said, “That kid cannot catch a break.” Jaylen Brown was solid in 26 minutes of play but Terry Rozier turned in another sub-par performance, shooting 1 for 5 from the floor and 1 for 4 on treys, along with 2 turnovrs, in 17 minutes. The Hawks rank 28th in the league on defense but they have several good shooters who can score including rookie point guard Trey Young who virtually neutralized Kyrie Irving’s 30-point performance with 26 of his own which included several difficult shots and very long treys.

Irving paced the scorers with 11 rebounds and 9 assists to complement his 30; Brown had 23 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists; Marcus Morris had 19 points and 11 rebounds; Jayson Tatum had 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists; and Marcus Smart had yet another terrific game with 16 points, 9 assists and 5 steals. He just continues to make big plays and his shooting has improved markedly throughout the course of this season. Without Smart’s ability to defend anybody on the floor at any time, this team would be in seriou trouble. Turnovers were also a problem as Morris, Al Horford and Irving each had 3, mostly the result of dribbling too much.

The next game is Monday night against the Nuggets marking the return of Isaiah Thomas to the Garden.

Celtics 126, Sacramento Kings 120

This was a wild and wooly affair as the Cs left their defensive mentality in the dressing room which allowed the Kings to score 38 points in the first period to lead by 13, 38-25, at the break. They played better defense in the second quarter, cutting the deficit to 62-56 at the half. They fell behind again in the middle part of the third quarter before they mounted a rally to grab the lead, at 93-91, after three quarters. They hiked their lead to 120-108 at the 2:19 mark and coasted home from there. One of the major reasons for the game being close for so long was the scoring of Buddy Hield who led all scorers with 34 points.

Kyrie Irving led the Cs with a triple-double, only the second of his career, with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists; Jaylen Brown had a hot shooting night with 22 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist; Marcus Morris had 21 points, 13 boards and 2 assists, hopefully breaking out of his shooting slump; Jayson Tatum had 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists; Al Horford had 11 points, 5 boards and 6 assists; and Gordon Hayward had 10 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Both Terry Rozier and Daniel Theis were sick with the flu and so was Marcus Smart who played 29 minutes anyhow, contributing his usual steady performance on both ends of the floor. Irving played 38 minutes, filling some of the minutes usually taken by Rozier.

The next game is Saturday at 12:30 when they host the Atlanta Hawks.

Los Angeles Clippers 140, Celtics 115

Coming on the heels of 3 relatively strong performances, this lack of effort was a shocker. The Cs were beaten like a drum by a team that outhustled them and frankly embarrassed them. The Clippers have no stars, with the exception of Lou Williams off the bench; just guys who really work hard and play well together. Worse, the Cs have no excuse for this pathetic performance; they had a day off to prepare and simply put forth a totally substandard effort from beginning to end. Whatever they thought they might have resolved during the first three games of this trip completely came apart in this game.

The only positive that could be cited from this game was the fact that Terry Rozier finally had a solid shooting night as he led the team with 26 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists and actually made 10 of 14 shots from the floor; Jaylen Brown had 22 points, 7 rebounds but 0 assists; Kyrie Irving had 18 points and 11 assists, but he had 4 costly turnovers at a point in the game where the Cs might actually have a chance to compete; Marcus Morris had 11 points, 2 rebounds and 0 assists but shot 3 for 9 from the floor; and Al Horford had 10 points, 1 rebound and 4 assists. Once again, Gordon Hayward took just 7 shot,s in 22 minutes but did have 4 assists.

This team apparently will continue to test the patience of its fans for the entire season; they simply struggle mightily when it comes time to play for one another. The next game is Thursday night at home against the young Sacramento Kings, another team lacking outstanding talent but one that plays hard for the entire game.

Celtics 120, Los Angeles Lakers 107

As the saying goes, a win is a win; however this one was not very impressive. First and foremost, the Lakers were without their second and third best players, Kyle Kuzma and Brandon Ingram, who are both injured, along with Lonzo Ball, last year’s first round choice, who is also injured. Ingram, their top draft choice 2 years ago has a most scary injury, a deeply-seated blot clot in his shoulder and he is done for the remainder of the season. In spite of missing these three players, the Lakers stayed within hailing distance for all but the last 5 minutes of the game. The Cs led at the stops, 25-24, 57-47 and 93-76 en route to the win, but a number of Celtics were unimpressive for reasons I will describe later.

Kyrie Irving led the Cs with 30 points on 12 for 18 shooting from the floor, to go with 7 rebounds and 5 assists; Marcus Smart had 16 points on 6 for 8 from the floor, along with 2 rebounds and 5 assists; Marcus Morris had 16 points, but was just 1 for 6 on treys, to go with 7 boards and 4 assists; Gordon Hayward had 15 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, while shooting 6 of 8 from the floor; Al Horford had 10 points, 8 boards and 4 assists, shooting 4 of 6 from the floor; and Terry Rozier had 10 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. I have great difficulty understanding how Jaylen Brown, 3 for 12 and 1 for 6 on treys, and Jayson Tatum, 2 for 7 and 0 for 2 on treys, can continue to outshoot Hayward game after game. Frankly, it’s disrespectful for Morris, Tatum, Brown and Rozier to be jacking treys instead of finding Hayward with a pass that is likely to result in a made basket.

The next game is Monday night in Los Angeles against the Clippers and the Cs had better bring much more defensive energy and hustle than they displayed tonight if they expect to get a win.

Irving, who has been the subject of much discussion lately, had a really solid game tonight; however, as talented a player as he is, at times he can be a liability. Offensively, when he dribbles too much, he destroys the team’s ball movement, and when he loafs on defense, he causes the team defense to break down. Even worse, he has imitators who also love to dribble the ball, Tatum, Brown, Rozier and Morris, and when they all starting dribbling too much, the Cs offense stalls and falls apart.

Celtics 111, Sacramento Kings 109

This was a nice win to get given that it was the second night of a back-to-back, the Kings are a young talented team, and the Cs were without their leading scorer, Kyrie Irving, who was sidelined yet again with a thigh contusion. They had two quarters of weak defense, the first and the last, but Gordon Hayward was able to make a difficult fall-away jump shot with 2 seconds left to win it, after committing a questionable foul on a trey by Buddy Hield, which allowed him to make 3 free throws to tie the game. This was a positive development because Hayward had not been put in this situation for more than 2 years but he hadn’t forgotten how to get the job done.

This game was tied at halftime and, although the Cs held the lead throughout, they nearly gave it away at the end. Jayson Tatum paced the scorers with 24 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists; Al Horford had a terrific game with 21 points, 11 boards and 7 assists; Marcus Morris had 19 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, rebounding from several poor shooting nights; Terry Rozier had 16 points, 6 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals; Gordon Hayward had 12 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists, shooting 6 for 10 from the floor; Jaylen Brown had 10 points, 1 rebound and no assists; and Marcus Smart, in 31 minutes, had 9 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals, another strong all-around game from him. Brown had difficulty finishing at the rim, getting his shot blocked or altered, and compounding that with an immediate defensive lapse on the other end.

The next game will be Saturday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

Celtics 128, Golden State Warriors 95

After being subjected to the horrendous play of the past few games, I couldn’t motivate myself to stay up to watch the game live. However, a temperature of 43 degrees along with a wind gusting to 25 knots made cancelling my tee time easy this morning, allowing me to watch the tape, and write the blog this morning.

You can hardly believe your eyes after what you have watched over the past few weeks. Yes, the Warrriors were without a starter, Klay Thompson, and a key reserve, Shaun Livingston. However, this game belonged to two Celtics, Gordon Hayward and Marcus Smart, who were sensational during their entire time on the floor. Miraculouly, the Cs found Hayward for 16 shots, of which he converted 12, for a team-leading 30 points, finally, after virtually ignoring his presence for several games. Smart played only 25 minutes and only scored 9 points but he took two charges, had two steals and defended two of the best offensive players in the game, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, all the while with tremendous energy and determination. They were the guys responsible for leading this turnaround. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had decent shooting nights but the both still forced shots and had lapses on the defensive end. And Kyrie Irving had a mediocre night offensively, also forcing shots and committing 3 careless turnovers. And Al Horford was virtually a non-factor, with only 5 points, 5 boards and 4 assists.

For a change, the Cs led at all the stops, 32-24 at the quarter, 73- 48 at the half, and 105-76 after three quarters en route to delivering the worst home loss of the season to the Warriors.

Hayward led the way with 30 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in just 28 minutes; Irving had 19 points, 5 boards, 11 assists and 2 steals; Brown had 18 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist; Tatum had 17 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist; Marcus Morris had a quiet 10 points with just 1 rebound and 1 assist; and Terry Rozier had 9 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, in one of his better efforts.

It was nice to see the team come together on the defensive end for a change as both their energy and hustle was something which had been missing for several games.

I rest my case for Hayward; he is clearly the second-best shooter on the team, if not the best.

It will be important to see if this effort carries over to tonight against the Sacramento Kings in the second night of a back-to-back.

Houston Rockets 115, Celtics 104

Please don’t be deceived by the final score; this game was never close. Houston led at all the stops, 33-23, 65-43, and 100-78, before they decided the game was over and they stopped playing, scoring just 15 points in the final period. Yes, these Celtics, who used to be able to play great team defense, gave up 33, 32 and 35 points in successive quarters. Just to make it worse, they committted 6 careless turnovers in the first period alone. The home crowd actually booed them at the half and old Celtic-great Paul Pierce critiqued them at halftime as making little effort on defense and continually taking bad, or forced shots, on offense.

Kyrie Irving led the scorers with 24 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 TOs; Al Horford had 19 points, 6 boards and 2 assists; Marcus Smart had 18 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists; Jaylen Brown had 15 points and 6 assists; and Jayson Tatum had 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, on 5 for 15 shooting. On the negative side, Marcus Morris continued to plummet from his high level of play, being held scoreless in 18 minutes with 2 TOs. Terry Rozier was 2 for 7 from the floor and when he was substituted for Gordon Hayward who was part of the group that cut the lead to single digits, he promptly missed 3 free throws after being fouled on a trey. Aron Baynes returned after 11 games on the injured list but he was rusty, and a step slow on defense, and the Rockets really took advantage of him. Once again, Marcus Smart stood out on both ends of the floor, displaying his usual tough defense and relentless energy.

The Cs have four young players that they have to really count on, Smart, Tatum, Brown and Rozier, and three of them have not matured sufficiently to really help. All three continue to take forced shots and make serious mistakes on team defense as well as individual defense. Smart has improved significantly in all aspects of his game, but he is the Lone Ranger.

At the very least, I would hope the coaching staff would shake up the lineup or even allow some of the bench warmers to see what they might be able to do to help the team. It must be very discouraging to be Semi Ojeleye, Brad Wanamaker and PJ Hunter and have to sit through this demonstration of incompetence without being given a chance to see if they might actually do something about it.

The next game is Tuesday night on the road against the Golden State Warriors, likely another embarrassing loss.

Celtics 107, Washington Wizards 96

Insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result. This was a win but it was not pretty and the Cs were afflicted by the same issues that have caused this recent stretch of really bad play. Tonight it was the second quarter that was abominable as they scored just 19 points and turned the ball over carelessly on multiple occasions. My notes at halftime showed Jaylen Brown shooting 1 for 4, Kyrie Irving 2 for 8, Terry Rozier 1 for 4, Marcus Morris 3 for 10, and Gordon Hayward,who played 11 minutes, never took a shot although he was wide open om several trips down the floor. For the game, Hayward, a Western Conference all star and a guy who scored 20, 19 and 19 in successive seasons before his horrendous injury, is simply ignored by his teammates when it comes to getting set up for shots. The Cs played a solid first quarter, weak second and third quarters, but finally made some plays in the fourth quarter to pull the game out. Marcus Smart was the key guy, shooting 4 for 4 on treys when they were most needed.

Al Horford had 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists; Morris had 17 points and 9 boards, despite being 3 for 11 on treys; Smart had 16 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals; Irving had 13 points 6 rebounds and 12 assists; Brown had 13 points, 3 rebounds and an assist, despite shooting 1 for 6 on treys; Daniel Theis had 11 points, 5 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals; and Jayson Tatum had 18 points, 8 boards, 3 assists and 5 steals, despite being 0 for 5 on treys. Offensively, Irving had his best game in a long time, taking just 15 shots but creating many good shots for his teammates. Defensively, he was beaten several times by the man he was assigned to guard.

I have done some research which I will pass along tomorrow which will shine a spotlight on the some of the Cs recent problems.

This was a win but they were hardly impressive in achieving it. The next game is Sunday afternoon against the Houston Rockets.

Portland Trail Blazers 97, Celtics 92

Well the energy level was better as was the defensive effort, but the result was the same, another loss in a game that was never really close to a win for the home team. What has happened to our Celtics? Why have they now lost 4 games in a row and looking like they may never win another game. There’s no single reason but there are multiple factors contributing to their demise. Once again, Kyrie Irving took more than 20 shots, and when he does that, the team has a significant losing record. He only had 3 assists in this game and his teammates need his skill in setting them up for shots that they can convert. Second, Gordon Haywood, a bonafide 20+ point scorer over an NBA season, took only 3 shots in 27 minutes of play. Marcus Morris has returned to be the player he has always been in his multiple years in the league as he was 3 for 10 from the floor and 0 for 6 on treys. Daniel Theis was 0 for 5 from the floor and struggled on defense. Jayson Tatum, who is a very talented young player, has a habit of disappearing for long periods during games. Tonight he played 35 minutes and turned the ball over 4 times, all caused by dribbling too much. And the team turned the ball over 16 times and shot a horrible 18% from the 3-point line. Obviously too, Coach Stevens decided to go with an 8-man rotation, with Terry Rozier being out injured, but it is abundantly clear that he has no faith in either Brad Wanamaker or RJ Hunter as they have gotten 0 minutes during this 4-game losing streak. Lots of problems with this team for sure and the situation is not helped by Aron Baynes missing many games due to a series of injuries which have proved persistent over the course of this season.

Tonight, the Cs were led by Irving with 31 points and 5 rebounds, but only 3 assists and 4 TOs; Tatum had 14 points and 4 rebounds, but 0 assists and 4 TOs; Al Horford had 13 points but just 5 rebounds and 5 assists and was 1 for 7 on treys; Marcus Smart outperformed all his teammates with 13 points, 6 boards, 5 assists and 2 steals, along with his omnipresent hustle; and Jaylen Brown had 10 points and 10 rebounds but just 1 assist.

The next game is Friday night at home against the Washington Wizards.