Bucks, Celtics Game 5

This was a miserably ugly game from beginning to end. Once again, Kyrie Irving led the way with yet another poor shooting night, starting out at 2 for 9 with 0 assists in the first quarter. They are a flawed team and they have been exposed by the Bucks for what they are. Actually, the Bucks shot poorly and their shot selection was suspect on several occasions but they won handily anyway because the Celtics were worse in every measurable category. The Cs trailed by 3 at the quarter, 13 at the half, and 18 after three quarters and were generally lifeless, shooting 24% in the first half and only 13% on treys.

This roster badly needs a shakeup and Irving needs to be allowed to continue his career as a free agent somewhere else. It would be a colossal mistake to sign him to a max contract. Truthfully, no Celtic played well in this game and it would be a waste of time and effort to list the game scorers. Suffice to say that Irving’s numbers were horrific: 6 for 21 from the floor and 1 of 7 on treys along with just one assist in 33 minutes.

Charles Barkely said they played like a team ready for a long vacation and he was right. This was an extremely disappointing year for Celtic fans.

Milwaukee Bucks 113, Celtics 101

The Greek Freak is a great player on both ends of the floor and the Celtics had no answer for him as he buried them with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists. Turns out, Playoff Kyrie, the leader all Cs fans were waiting for, has now failed to show up in three successive games. Once again, he started out on a pace of one shot every minute in the first quarter but he made only three of them and it never got any better for him all game long. At the end, he was 7 for 22 from floor and 1 for 7 on treys. Must be that guy LeBron James played a much more important role in Irving’s performances than we were led to believe. Given that the other two Celtic guards, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier, were 1 for 7 and 1 for 5 respectively, no NBA team can thrive with that kind of guard productivity. Personally, I hope the Cs allow Irving to depart as a free agent as his brand of leadership was never effective with this otherwise talented team. If you’re a franchise player, you shouldn’t be getting outplayed by the combination of Eric Bledsoe and the well-traveled George Hill on a regular basis.

This team has had internal struggles all year long; they only became painfully obvious under the glare and attention of the playoffs. They put the Pacers to sleep in Round 1 but they were a significantly less talented team.

Irving led the scorers with 23 points and 10 assists along with 4 turnovers; Al Horford had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists; Marcus Morris had 18 points and 14 rebounds; Jayson Tatum had 17 points and 10 boards; and Jaylen Brown had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Remarkably, yet again, in 27 minutes of play, Gordon Hayward was 1 for 5, apparently invisible for his teammates to set up for quality shots. It is a shame that a team could waste the offensive skills of a proven NBA 20-point-a-game scorer for an entire season but the Cs accomplished that task.

Game 5 will be played Wednesday night in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee Bucks 123, Celtics 116, Game 3

This game was not nearly as close as the final score would suggest, especially after the Cs gifted the Bucks with a 40-point quarter, following a 30-point second quarter. It’s difficult to know what adjustments are proposed during the halftime break, but whatever they are, they are totally ineffective. A casual observer of the box score would judge that Kyrie Irving, who led the Cs in scoring with 29 points, had a great game, but the fact that he was outscored by George Hill, a journeyman who is the Bucks back-up point guard, 13-0, in the third period is only part of the story. The other parts are that he was constanly blown by on defense, causing the Cs defense to break down, and he destroyed offensive ball movement with his excessive dribbling. The Cs are simply not skilled enough to overcome both his offensive and defensive frailties.

In addition to Irving, Jayson Tatum had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists; Jaylen Brown had 18 points, 5 boards and 2 assists; Al Horford had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists; Marcus Morris had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 assists; and Gordon Hayward had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. This kind of balanced scoring would suggest a victory.

However, on the negative side, Irving and Morris each had 4 turnovers, and Horford had 3. Also, Morris, who has been a consistent scorer in the playoffs was on the floor for 8 minutes before he got his first shot off and Hayward was on the floor for 7 minutes before he took his first shot. Meanwhile, Irving was en route to 22 shots for the game. And of course, streaky Terry Rozier had 0 points in 14 minutes.

The Cs will not beat the Bucks without playing solid defense for four quarters and by moving the ball from side to side on offense in order to create quality shot opportunities. Unless they exert more consistent effort on defense, this series may be over in 5 games.

Game 4 will be in Boston on Monday.

Milwaukee Bucks 123, Celtics 102

Bad habits die hard and those habits were completely alive and well in Milwaukee tonight. The Cs were led by Kyrie Irving who played easily one of his worst games of the year. From the very beginning, he over-dribbled, destroyed ball movement while jacking up forced shots, to the tune of 2 for 12 in the first half alone, and led his team to a disastrous finish. Al Horford had a decent scoring night but turned the ball over 5 times to complement Irving’s 3 and the result was a blowout for the Bucks in Game 2. Gordon Hayward, arguably the most accurate shooter on the team, was allowed just 2 shots by his teammates in 19 minutes of play in the first half. And Jayson Tatum had a crisis of confidence for the second game in a row as he was missing easy shots, 2 for 10 from the floor, and failing to defend against the trey too.

The game began harmlessly enough as the Cs led 30-25 at the quarter and only trailed 59-55 at the half. However, after allowing 34 points in the second quarter, the Cs outdid themselves by allowing 39 in the third and trailed by 25 at the break, 98-73. And it just continued unabated until the end of the game, a thoroughly embarrassing loss. The Bucks were allowed to go on a 23-2 run in the third period.

The only Celtic who played well was Marcus Morris who scored 17 points on 6 for 8 shooting from the floor. Jaylen Brown, after playing solidly on both ends of the floor in Game 1, really struggled on defense in this one. And Terry Rozier, who had a decent first game, lapsed back to his usual shooting, with a 2 for 9 performance. And Hayward wound up with 5 points on 1 for 5 shooting for the game.

Morris had 17 to lead the Cs, Brown had 16 and Horford had 15, to pace the Cs. Obviously, the flaws which haunted this team throughout the season, were only temporarily disabled during Game 1.

Game 3 will be Friday night in Boston. Hopefully, a Celtics team with a better mindset will show up for this game.

Celtics 112, Milwaukee Bucks 90, Game 1

Aw shucks, turns out they’ve been BS-ing us for the past several months, actually getting us to believe that only Marcus Smart could defend with consistency, and he wasn’t even dressed for the game, still sidelined by a serious muscle tear. Of course, you can’t completely rid yourself of a monotonous modus operandi that includes giving up 30+ points in a quarter and playing only token defense, for long periods of time and, to proved their point, they allowed the Bucks to score 33 points in the second quarter to grab the lead momentarily, just before the half. However, the points allowed the Bucks by the periods was 17, 33, 21 and 19 for a complete domination of the team with the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference.

Even though they were not making shots in the first quarter, the Cs held the lead at 26-17, as the game plan devised by the Cs coaching staff was completely effective and implemented perfectly. They continued to dominate for the first half of the second quarter before they relaxed and allowed the Bucks to go on a 13-0 run, cutting the Cs lead to 2 at the half. However, they righted the ship in the third quarter to lead 88-71, before coasting home with the win, with the bench playing the last 3 minutes of the game.

Kyrie Irving led the Cs with 26 points, 7 boards and 11 assists, despite some forced shots and 4 turnovers; Al Horford, who defended the Greek Freak for most of the game, had 20 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 blocked shots; Jaylen Brown had 19 points and 4 rebounds; Gordon Hayward had 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists, on 5 of 7 shooting; and Terry Rozier had his best game in a long time with 11 points, 9 boards and 3 assists. They all executed the defensive plan flawlessly. They even mangaged to overcome an extremely quiet game by Jayson Tatum who only scored 4 points in 30 minutes of play. And although he was not a double-figure scorer, Marcus Morris had 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots and never forced shots which is occasionally a weakness for him.

This win negates the home-court advantage for the Bucks. Game 2 will be Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Let’s hope we see more of the same mindset in Game 2.

Celtics 110, Indiana Pacers 106

The Celtics must get credit for sweeping the Pacers who were clearly the lesser talented team because they will face a far greater challenge against the Milwaukee Bucks in the next series and will surely benefit from the rest. However, that being said, the Cs received really sub-par performances from arguably their two best players, Al Horford and Kyrie Irving. Although their final numbers were not awful, the means by which they achieved them were. Horford shot 4 for 19 from the floor and committed two turnovers and Irving was 4 for 13 with 3 TOs. Fortunately, the Cs got stellar performances from Gordong Hayward, Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier off the bench, including big shots from both Hayward and Morris during crunch time when this game was decided. The Pacers led at the quarter, 23-21, and at the half, 51-49. The Cs held the lead after three quarters by one, at 73-72, but the Pacers regained the lead by one, at 82-81, with 6:45 remaining in the game. Had both Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Horford not missed free throws down the stretch, the margin of victory would have been greater.

Hayward made several big plays down the stretch to finish with 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, shooting 7 for 9 from the floor; Morris had 18 points and 8 rebounds, including 2 decisive treys with the game on the line; Horford had 14 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists; Irving had 14 points, 2 boards and 7 assists; Brown had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist; and Rozier had 11 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist and 2 steals. Sixteen Celtic TOs kept this games close. If they insist on continuing their carelessness with the ball against the Bucks, that series will be over in 4 games because, unlike the Pacers, the Bucks have several players who can score the ball along with the Greek Freak, one of the top overall talents in the league. The Bucks hold a 4-0 lead against the overmatched Detroit Pistons who they are expected to sweep in four games.

This series will begin on the road as the home-court advantage is a thing of the past for the Celtics at a date and time to be announced.

Celtics/Pacers Game 3

The Cs jumped out to a 13-point lead, based on torrid 3-point shooting, to lead at the quarter, 41-28. My note at the end of the quarter was “I think I may have seen this movie before,” and sure enough I did, because the score at the half was Pacers 61, Celtics 59. After scoring 41 in the first quarter, the Cs barely managed 18 in the second quarter while passively defending the Pacers who scored 33 points, not bad for a team with limited talent. The game was actually close as late as 4 minutes left in the game when the Cs led by four, but the Pacers lack a closer, among other things, and the Cs held on for the win.

The Cs were led by Jaylen Brown with 23 points, 7 rebounds and an assist; Kyrie Irving had 19 points, 5 boards and 10 assists; Jayson Tatum had 18 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists; Al Horford had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists; and Marcus Morris had 11 points, 7 boards and 2 assists. The Cs free throw shooting was abominable, at 59 per cent, with Tatum going 1 for 4 and Brown 3 for 7. There were two negative sequences, one in the second period and one in the fourth, that allowed this game to be close. First, Brown had 2 bad turnovers and missed 2 of 3 free throws, and later, Rozier committed three TOs in a minute of play, both of which allowed the Pacers back into the game and kept it closer than it should have been.

The fourth game is Sunday afternoon at 1 in Indiana.

Celtics 99, Indiana Pacers 91

This game was truly Celtics basketball at it absolute ugliest. It is important to remember that the Indiana Pacers are a team severely lacking in talent whose only all-star player sustained a season-ending injury. And, although they gave the Cs a scare before it was over, the Pacers fell completely apart with the game on the line as teams lacking in talent often do. A quick look at the scoring by quarters tells the story of the game as the Pacers scored 33, 17, 29 and 12 in successive periods. In other words, the Celtics chose not to play defense in either the first or third quarter which allowed the Pacers to deliver the scare.

Al Horford was questionable to play because of an attack of flu-like symptoms last night and he looked like a player under the weather until the game was on the line when he rallied himself and made some big defensive plays to keep his team in contention. Kyrie Irving had perhaps his best game as a Celtic as he scored 37 points, with 6 rebounds and 7 assists, along with several hustle plays and better defense that he has shown throughout the season. Jayson Tatum had 26 points, 4 boards and 2 assists and Gordon Hayward had 13 points and 5 assists, along with several key plays, including a crucial hockey assist, in the final 3 minutes of the game. In 28 minutes of play, he only took 7 shots and made 4 of them. Jaylen Brown only scored 6 points in 27 minutes but he did grab 9 rebounds and he displayed good energy on defense.

By significant contrast, Marcus Morris in 21 minutes jacked up 8 shots and made none of them. Since he played with Hayward for the majority of his minutes, perhaps he should consider passing the ball to his teammate who is a much more skilled shooter. At least Terry Rozier, who scored just 4 points in 21 minutes, had the good sense not to jack up shots, although he did commit 2 very costly TOs. There was no ball movement in the Cs offense until the end of the game when Horford, Tatum and Hayward made their passes to open teammates.

Erratic effort on defense and poor ball movement are not parts of a winning formula against teams with decent talent of which there will be many in the playoffs. The next game is Friday night in Indianapolis with the Cs leading the series, 2-0.

Celtics 84, Indiana Pacers 74

It is important to understand at the outset of this series that the talent differential is heavily weighted in favor of the Celtics, despite the absence of Marcus Smart. And without Victor Oladipo, the only all-star player on the Pacers’ roster, this is a very mediocre team that the Cs are facing off against in the first round. Today, that was especially important because the Cs played a horrendous first half, trailing by 7, at 45-38, at the half, and turning the ball over 10 times, nearly all carelessly, in the process. However, they came out for the second half with purpose, held the Pacers to just 8 points in the entire third quarter, and salted the game away, winning the period by 18 points.

On the positive side, Marcus Morris awakened from a lengthy slumber to lead the scorers with 20 points and 7 rebounds along with his missing physical play on defense and on the boards; Kyrie Irving, after going 3 for 10 from the floor in the first half, was 3 for 7 in the second half, to finish with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, along with three costly TOs; Jayson Tatum had 15 points, 3 rebounds and 3 costly TOs; Al Horford had 10 points, 11 boards, 5 assists, along with 3 TOs; and Gordon Hayward had 10 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, along with 3 TOs. Aron Baynes, while only scoring 2 points, helped Horford control the boards while setting several solid picks and grabbed 9 rebounds.

The next game is Wednesday night at home.

Celtics 116, Washington Wizards 110

Mercifully, the regular season is over and the Celtics will face off against the Indiana Pacers who have lost, far and away their best player, Victor Oladipo, to a season-ending leg injury. The Cs are a much better team than the Pacers and this series, under normal circumstances, should be over early. However, these Celtics are most unpredictable; thus, time will tell.

For tonight’s game, the Cs left their 7 best players in Boston to rest; thus the game was played entirely by Cs bench players. Terry Rozier led the scorers with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists; Semi Ojeleye had 17 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists; Brad Wanamaker had 17 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists; RJ Hunter had 17 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists; Jaylen Brown had 15 points, 3 boards and 2 assists; and Gerschon Yabusele had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist. Notably, Robert Williams had 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Having watched Wanamaker play, it’s even more difficult to understand why Rozier gets all the minutes and Wanamaker virtually never plays. Ojeleye had a solid game and has really added to his offensive skill-set during the off-season. If he were to make the same amount of progress before next year, he should be part of the regular rotation because he is a solid defensive player. Hunter proved that he has not forgotten how to shoot and I remain suprised that he received no minutes since joining the team about a month ago. Brown continues to struggle at the free throw line as his stoke remains painfully inconsistent. He’s had a lot of time to fix his problem but it remains as much of a weakness as it has always been.

As I said earlier, the Cs have too much talent to lose to the Pacers; however, they are going to have to play much better team defense if they expect to progress beyond the second round.