Official Game Thread: Celtics at Hawks

[lethalweapon3]

“…and starring Kent Bazemore as Neo, in…”

 

We’ve got a rematch of top versus bottom tonight, as the Boston Celtics return to The Highlight Factory (7:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Boston) riding a 14-game win streak, putting up with your Atlanta Hawks once more.

Despite some valiant efforts versus decent competition recently, plus a franchise-record 46-point trouncing of the Kings at home this past week, the Hawks (3-12) are holding up the opposite end of the Eastern Conference from Boston (14-2). Still, there’s an understated yet obvious reason why Atlanta will want to pull up their big-boy short-shorts for this specific contest.

You remember when Al Horford made himself one of four Players of the Month, the Hawks quartet plus DeMarre and Thabo, and Pero and Dennis, banding together to go 17-0 back in January 2015, briefly turning the entire NBA world on its ear? That shouldn’t be like some GEICO ad, where it’s so easy even Aron Baynes can do it. Yet Al Jefe is about to pull off a similar feat, this time with Kyrie Irving and the “Ohh! Jays” (Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum) at his side, and tonight is #10 on the Celtics’ 16-game November schedule.

Boston can become the seventh NBA club, since the implementation of the 82-game schedule back in the late 1960s, to go at least 16-0 on an undefeated calendar month (In addition to January 2015, Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer had a hand as an assistant/video coordinator in two other unbeaten campaigns, the March 1996 and March 2014 Spurs). Wouldn’t it make a cool story for your bros if it was the present-day Hawks that finally tripped these Celtics up?

But for Kyrie (35 points, 12 in the 4^th quarter, 7 assists) revving up The Highlight Factory machine back on November 6, Tatum’s 21-and-8, and Horford bothering to rebound to near a triple-double (15-10-9 with one turnover), there would be no talk of the prospects for an unbeaten month. Boston led that game for just 50 seconds more than Atlanta, who was ahead by two at the two-minute mark before Irving and Tatum’s heroics.

The slim, 3-point winning margin for Boston had as much to do with superb play by Hawks reserve gunner Marco Belinelli (19 points, 3 steals) and starting pivot Dewayne Dedmon (19 points, 12 boards), supplementing Dennis Schröder’s 23 points, as anything the Celtics did.

As grand as Brad Stevens’ club has been in this surge to the top of the standings, as a team, they are shooting 42.7 percent from the field on the season, and their opponents are shooting 42.8 percent. Their 47.1 2FG% ranks 26^th in the league, and their 34.6 3FG% ranks 24^th.

Night after night, the Celts are getting it done by getting opponent out of their offensive comfort zones (NBA-best 42.8 opponent FG%), without excessive fouling (20.3 opponent FT attempts/game, 10^th-fewest in NBA), securing defensive rebounds (81.6 D-Reb%, 2^nd in NBA, yes; this is with Al), keeping the giveaways down (13.2 TO%, 4^th-lowest in NBA), and adding a dash of that tried-and-true leprechaun magic (73.5 opponent FT%, 3^rd-lowest in NBA).

Despite all the superheated scoring this league has offered of late, here are Boston opponents’ point tallies during this 14 game streak: 92, 89, 89, 90, 94, 86, 94, 88, 107, 96, 87, 94, 102, 88. Atlanta’s 110-107 loss on November 6 was the clear anomaly; Kyrie’s game looked gargantuan because it had to be. But Hawks fans should anticipate a gritty, low-scoring affair tonight. Atlanta may go into this game without Luke Babbitt (questionable due to back spasms), but they will have more defensive reinforcements and frontcourt depth than they had 12 days ago.

Despite leading a balanced attack with 21 points, Schröder was not particularly a standout during Wednesday’s washout of the Kings, also committing five turnovers. But he was able to feast on Sacramento’s lax defensive effort, something he won’t be afforded versus Boston (NBA-best 95.4 D-Rating) tonight.

Dennis will again enjoy being defensively switched off Irving, but he must produce defensive stops against the alternative guards on the floor, be they Terry Rozier (31.9 3FG%) or Marcus Smart (16.5 TO%, highest among Celtic guards; 26.2 3FG%). Big minutes will be needed from Atlanta’s floor leader, as Isaiah Taylor (eye bruise from practice on Friday) is unavailable, while Malcolm Delaney has looked infinitely more comfortable at the 2-spot.

Irving will be assigned to a murder of Hawks, including not only Kent Bazemore and Taurean Prince, at turns, but also possibly DeAndre’ Bembry, the second-year wing who has missed time with a wrist injury. Because winning, Kyrie is being touted as an MVP candidate despite shooting a career-low 42.9 FG%, including 31.9 3FG%.

Jaylen Brown (team-high 22 points on Thursday vs. GSW) returns to town with a heavy heart. He will continue playing inspired ball following the passing of his longtime best friend from Marietta’s Wheeler High just days ago.

Brown and the Boston starters need a stronger effort from their bench brigade than they received in Thursday’s 92-88 win over Golden State. Not counting garbage minutes from Daniel Theis, four Celtic reserves shot 2-for-19 from the field, which wasn’t of much help for the hounded Irving (4-for-16 FGs). Smart, Rozier, rookie Semi Ojeleye and Baynes need to be more than mere defensive stoppers if the Celtics intend to keep their distance from the Hawks tonight.

Another big game could earn Dedmon (20 points, 14 rebounds, 5 asssits, 2 steals, 2 blocks) some nice also-ran votes for Player of the Week. To offset Horford and the Celtics’ frontline, Dedmon, the surprising Tyler Cavanaugh and gravity-defying John Collins will benefit from a deeper frontcourt rotation, as Ersan Ilyasova and the man-bunless Mike Muscala are back in tow.

Coming off a titanic win at The Gahden over the defending NBA champs, the Celtics return to Atlanta as sky-high as they’ve felt in a long time. Wouldn’t it be a little bit funny if it was the Hawks that popped their balloon?

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

 

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[lethalweapon3]

Coach Brad knows the deal.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

On our end, a couple quick MC hammers...

~lw3

[Thomas]

So is Magette in town tonight?

[benhillboy]

Had we had Bab and Taylor I would’ve said Hawks by 2.  Instead, Celtics by 10.  Bembry sees a rare negative plus/minus.

[Thomas]

So Al gets to body up against Dedmon again or something loosely similar to that. We'll see how much time he spends in the paint when Dedmon is on the floor.

[Dnice]

Oh well back to piling up losses,  back to football.

[nathan2331]

These refs are absolute garbage, the Celtics don't need anymore help when Bazemore is on the court. Good performance from us anyways.

 

Sent from my Z981 using Tapatalk

 

 

[DBac]

Kyrie is incredible

[KB21]

[DBac]

Also legitimately think Bud messed up going back to Dedmon instead of keeping Collins  He was playing too well to only get 25 minutes.

[marco102]

This one stings.  We are doing exactly what the GM said and being competitive.  Being competitive isn't getting us W's, but I can watch and entire game and the Hawks are generally in it until the late 4th.

Edited November 19, 2017 by marco102

[lethalweapon3]

2 hours ago, benhillboy said:

Had we had Bab and Taylor I would’ve said Hawks by 2.  Instead, Celtics by 10.  Bembry sees a rare negative plus/minus.

Closest to the pin! GET THIS MAN A KEWPIE DOLL! :)

~lw3

[JTB]

9 minutes ago, DBac said:

Also legitimately think Bud messed up going back to Dedmon instead of keeping Collins  He was playing too well to only get 25 minutes.

That’s the first move I’ve seen by bud where I just know we’re tanking.

so upsetting to see bud take Collins out when he was giving the C’s bigs HELL around the goal!

collins stays in and hawks would have won this game in my opinion...they had absolutely no answer for him.

[benhillboy]

3 blown layups in a row (2 from Cavanaugh and 1 from Delaney) that immediately led to 7 points on the other end.  That 13 point swing coupled with Baze having to log starters minutes and it’s gametime.  He was -14 of course, only bested (or worsted?) by our resident +/- anvil Delaney.  I hate these injuries prolonging the inevitability of Bembry and Taylor eating their minutes.

Nice to tune in to The Collins show though.  He’s becoming more comfortable every game.  Al didn’t want no parts of the kid.

The game was worth watching just to hear Bob say the Celtics need to retire a jersey for Billy King.  I’m not sure if Jaylen Brown would be progressing as rapidly as he is with Hayward in the fold so that’s a silver lining.  That kid is poised.

I’m thinking about moving to Vegas guessing these props, margins and finals.  Still be a Hawks fanatic.

Edited November 19, 2017 by benhillboy

[DBac]

11 minutes ago, JTB said:

That’s the first move I’ve seen by bud where I just know we’re tanking.

so upsetting to see bud take Collins out when he was giving the C’s bigs HELL around the goal!

collins stays in and hawks would have won this game in my opinion...they had absolutely no answer for him.

I think its more that Bud just doesn't trust him late in games yet.

[aali34]

[aali34]

[NBASupes]

34 minutes ago, marco102 said:

This one stings.  We are doing exactly what the GM said and being competitive.  Being competitive isn't getting us W's, but I can watch and entire game and the Hawks are generally in it until the late 4th.

Yep. I like it. Competitive L's. That means we are doing this the right way, we just lack the talent. 

[KB21]

Intentional losing is never the right way to do something.