Tag Archives: game

Three Takeaways: Celtics 115, Hornets 112

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The Celtics came out with a win in their 2nd preseason game.

The team returned to the TD Garden to take on the Charlotte Hornets. Boston was without Al Horford for the game, who was dealing with a wrist injury. The team, having faced the Hornets on Friday, jumped out to a 64-57 halftime lead. After a mediocre first quarter, the Celtics went for 40 points in the second. The game stayed competitive through the third quarter, with the Celtics unable to pull away. The Hornets took the lead with around 6 and a half minutes remaining the game, and the score remained neck and neck until the very end, when Boston was able to pull away. Here are some key takeaways from Sunday’s game.

1. Boston turns it around from deep, succeeds on free throws

After a poor first game in terms of three-point shooting, the Celtics were able to flip the script. On Friday, the team shot an atrocious 9-47 from deep, for just 19%. Sunday night, however, was a much different story. The team finished with far fewer attempts from deep, going 13-31 on the night. The much higher percentage (42%) was a welcome sight. Also notable was the success from behind the free throw line. Boston converted 18 of 21 attempts from the stripe, a great sign for the regular season.

2. Tatum, Irving shine

Both Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving stood out in Sunday’s game. After a scoreless first quarter, Tatum caught fire in the second quarter, scoring 13 points in three minutes. That spurt included 3 three-pointers and a ferocious alley-oop jam from Terry Rozier. He finished with 16 points and 4 boards in 19 minutes of play.

Irving also had a standout game against Charlotte. He contributed his usual scoring total and made multiple eye-catching passes to set up scores for others. He’ll benefit this year from not always having to be the team’s number one scoring option. It’ll leave him more room to make plays and facilitate the offense. Irving finished with 20/4/3 in 29 minutes.

3. Williams shows flashes of potential

The rookie Robert Williams showed a lot of intriguing play in the game on Sunday. Williams had a nice dunk inside and was extremely active on both ends of the floor. Most notably, he set a lot of good screens on offense and freed up a lot of space on that end. Williams also had a clutch block in the closing seconds of the game to secure the win. He finished with 5 points, a board and an assist, as well as the aforementioned block. Though the numbers aren’t the most gaudy, it was certainly a nice performance that could help redeem him in the eyes of some fans.

Bonus: Marcus Smart is back

Good to see ya, buddy.

Boston will take the floor next on Tuesday night, when the Lebron-less Cavaliers come to the Garden. Horford is hopeful to return to action that night against the new look Cleveland team. The NBA season keeps getting closer and closer!

Countdown to Celtics Tipoff: 52 Days

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Welcome back to the Celtics season tipoff countdown!

Each day, we’ll give a review of news surrounding the Celtics. We’ll also look back in history to see what happened on today’s date in team history (August 25th). To round out the day’s post, we’ll give you stats and fun facts related to the number of days remaining before the first game (52 today). Let’s get to it!

Recent Team News

Jayson Tatum recently appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast and touched on a wide variety of topics. He talked about his hatred of the Celtics as a kid growing up in St. Louis. Kobe Bryant was his idol growing up, and as a Laker, he had to hate Boston. He then went on to discuss his summer workouts with Kobe and the episode of Kobe’s show, Detail, about Tatum (He says he watched it 70 times). Tatum says he was able to pick the legend’s brain before they got into the workouts. He said “I tried to get into his mind and see how he went about things.” It certainly sounds like Kobe’s had a big influence on the budding star.

On This Date

August 25, 1965: Bill Russell demanded and received a new contract worth $100,001. The contract came one day after rival Wilt Chamberlain became the first player ever to earn a salary of $100,000 dollars. The two legendary centers had become fierce competitors over the years of playing against each other, and the contracts took it to another level. Even the great Bill Russell can be petty sometimes!

Via NBA

Stats (2017-18)

  • Aron Baynes attempted 5.2 shots per game from two-point range. He converted on 2.6 of them per contest.

  • The team as a whole had a 52% Effective Field Goal Percentage. This stat weighs three pointers as worth more than two pointers.

Fun Facts

  • Seven players have worn number 52 for the Celtics. The most recent to don the jersey was Chris Babb, who wore it in 2014 for the 14 games in which he played.

That concludes today’s Countdown to Celtics Tipoff. Make sure to check back here tomorrow as the clock continues to tick towards the 2018-19 season!

Countdown to Celtics Tipoff: 53 Days

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Welcome back to the Celtics season tipoff countdown!

Each day, we’ll give a review of news surrounding the Celtics. We’ll also look back in history to see what happened on today’s date in team history (August 24th). To round out the day’s post, we’ll give you stats and fun facts related to the number of days remaining before the first game (53 today). Let’s get to it!

Recent Team News

On Tuesday, the tribe that Kyrie Irving’s mom is a member of invited the Celtics point guard. The tribe celebrated the heritage of Kyrie and his sister, Asia, as they welcomed the siblings as members of the Standing Rock Sioux. The tribe gave Kyrie a traditional Lakota name of “Little Mountain”. He has been a vocal opponent of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the past, and the tribe based in North Dakota wanted to honor him for being outspoken about his heritage.

In other news, Jayson Tatum turned some heads when he said he would be okay with the idea of coming of the bench. “I understand how deep our team is,” he said. “I just care about winning and doing what I can while I’m on the floor.” On a team loaded with talent, fans had to have been wondering about who would see their role reduced. It’s great to hear Tatum taking on the team-first mindset.

Tatum

: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

On This Date

Apparently nothing happened on August 24 in previous years.

Stats (2017-18)

  • Daniel Theis averaged 5.3 points for the team. He did so while shooting 54% from the field before a season ending injury.
  • Jaylen Brown averaged 5.3 made shots per game. He took 11.5 each game, shooting 49 percent from the field.

Fun Facts

  • Four players have worn the number 53 for the Celtics. The most notable is Rick Robey, who wore it in his time with the team from 1979-1983.
  • The 1953 Celtics went 46-25 and finished third in the East.

That concludes today’s Countdown to Celtics Tipoff. Make sure to check back here tomorrow as the clock continues to tick towards the 2018-19 season!

Countdown to Celtics Tipoff: 56 Days

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Welcome back to the Celtics season tipoff countdown!

Each day, we’ll give a review of news surrounding the Celtics. We’ll also look back in history to see what happened on today’s date in team history (August 21st). To round out the day’s post, we’ll give you stats and fun facts related to the number of days remaining before the first game (56 today). Let’s get to it!

Recent Team News

In a thought-provoking piece about mental health in the NBA, Paul Pierce spoke out about his depression and anxiety. After Pierce was attacked and stabbed 11 times at a nightclub in September of 2000, he said he battled depression for a year. He was so anxious and nervous in public settings that he had the police around his house 24 hours a day. He played all 82 games that year, not because he was fully healed but because “The only thing that saved me was basketball.” He also said that he should have sought professional help far sooner than he did. “My depression was bad-really bad,” he admitted. “I never want to feel that way again.”

Via USA Today

In a year where multiple stars have opened up about their personal struggles, Pierce decided to share his story as well. Read the full story here on ESPN.

On This Date

August 21, 2000: The Celtics sign free agent Chris Carr to a deal. The shooting guard appeared in 35 games for Boston that year, averaging 4.8 points and 1.3 rebounds per contest.

August 21, 1997: The team traded Eric Williams to the Nuggets for a 1999 second rounder and a 2001 second rounder.

August 21, 1972: Boston signs first round pick Paul Westphal. Westphal played with the Celtics for three seasons, winning a title with the team in 1974. He averaged 7.3 points and 2.1 assists during his time with the franchise.

Stats (2017-18)

  • Terry Rozier had 5.6 win shares on the season. Win Shares is an estimate of the number of wins a player contributed to a team.

Jim Davis/Globe Staff

Fun Facts

  • The 1956 Celtics team went 39-33.
  • Two players have worn the number 56 for the Celtics, most recently Sean Williams in 2012.

That concludes today’s Countdown to Celtics Tipoff. Make sure to check back here tomorrow as the clock continues to tick towards the 2018-19 season!

Countdown to Celtics Tipoff: 66 Days

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Welcome back to the Celtics season tipoff countdown!

Each day, we’ll give a review of news surrounding the Celtics. We’ll also look back in history to see what happened on today’s date in team history (August 9th). To round out the day’s post, we’ll give you stats and fun facts related to the number of days remaining before the first game (66 today). Let’s get to it!

Recent Team News

The NBA released more schedule news, revealing that the Celtics will play their second game of the season on October 19 against the Toronto Raptors. The team will take a trip north of the border to match up with the new-look Raps, who are now Kawhi Leonard’s team. Boston now knows the details of three of their games: this one, the opening night matchup, and the Christmas Day matchup, the latter two of which will be against the 76ers in Boston.

In other news, Cedric Maxwell turned heads with a comment on Celtics Beat podcast. He said that Kevin Garnett “was the best all-around player the Celtics ever had”. While Garnett was a great player, it feels like he’s overlooking other Boston greats in Bill Russell and Larry Bird.

On This Date

August 10, 1960: Celtics guard Carlos Clark is born. The guard played from 1983-1985 with the organization and won a championship as part of the 1984 team. He was waived in 1986 and went overseas to continue his career.

Stats (2017-18)

  • Semi Ojeleye’s three-point attempt rate was 66 percent. This means that 66 percent of Ojeleye’s total field goals attempted were from beyond the arc.

Fun Facts

  • In 1966, the Celtics continued their magical run of championships by defeating the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
  • Scot Pollard remains the only Celtic to ever don the number 66.
  • Boston listed Jabari Bird’s height at 6 foot 6 last year.

That concludes today’s Countdown to Celtics Tipoff. Make sure to be back here tomorrow as the clock continues to tick towards the 2018-19 season!

 

It’s Time To Revamp The All Star Game’s Selection Process (@ELJGON)

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It’s that time of year again.

The 2018 MLB All-Star rosters have been revealed and boy, do we have a lot to talk about. It’s clear that the player selection process is a popularity vote rather than an endorsement for a successful first half. The fact that Blake Snell (12-4, 2.09 ERA, 1.03 WHIP), Nicholas Castellanos (.306, 15 HR, 56 RBI, .882 OPS), Jesus Aguilar (.302, 23 HR, 64 RBI, 1.000 OPS) were not originally All-Stars is terrible. These players are among many others who face the same issue each year, and it’s doing more harm for the game than good. On a bigger scale, if MLB wants to continue its trend of raising viewership numbers, they need to do away with some old habits; the All-Star game is no exception. Some have many ways to fix the player selection, and here is my take:

Things To Keep

There are certain aspects of the All-Star game and its process that are beneficial to the integrity of baseball as well as the attractiveness of current fans. These aspects should be kept without a doubt.

  1. Uniforms during the actual All-Star game will be every player’s respective uniform. It should follow the home and away color code.
  2. Each team will send at least one representative to the All-Star game. I had a lot of time to think about this, and at first I was against it. Why should someone on a really bad team make the All-Star game over someone who actually deserves it? However, this keeps fans engaged, even when their team is not doing so well. Also, it keeps bigger market teams from overpopulating the roster versus smaller market teams. We’re keeping it.
  3. Both the NL and AL teams will implement the DH regardless of venue.
  4. Managers will make starting lineups.

Things To Change

Here is where things could get a little weird at first but have an open mind.

Basically, the All-Star game format will change into four teams total, two teams for each league (Team A and Team B for NL and AL).

Team A and Team B in each league will play each other on the first day. Then, the winning teams will represent their respective league in the final game the next day. This is a similar process to how the NHL bases their All-Star game. However, since MLB has six divisions instead of four like the NHL, it would get complicated.

Fans will vote for four player captains, two for NL and two for AL.

All captains cannot be from the same Major League teams. Fans will also vote for players into a pool for team captains (with their manager) to pick in a draft style player selection process.

The preliminary games will be six innings long, the final game will be nine.

This ensures a few things such as roster size, reducing game times and reducing the chance of injury among other aspects. Having four teams instead of the usual two would mean that there would be twice as many all-star players as before, which doesn’t make sense.

Roster sizes for the preliminary games are 20 players (eight position players, five bench, three starters, four relievers). The captain of each winning team chooses five players (two position, three pitchers) from the losing team to take them to the final game, thus making a 25 man roster.

Each team will have a manager, as always. But instead of from the recent World Series, they will be from the year’s past championship series.

This still gives us two managers from the World Series and two more managers for the third and fourth teams.

Finally, the fight for home-field advantage in the World Series is coming back.

The All-Star game is so much better when there is actually something to fight for.

 

Wrapping up, this whole thing isn’t perfect. There will be flaws in this and all criticisms are accepted, but we can all agree that something has to be done in order to avoid major snubs every single year while keeping fans of the game engaged.

@ELJGON