Monday we went to see Celtics Hawks. No Jayson Tatum or Neemis Queta, but everyone else played. It was tied up at 54-54 at the half. Then the Hawks destroyed the Celtics in the 3rd quarter and withstood a 4th quarter push to win it fairly easily.
The Hawks are for real. Don’t kid yourself. Yes the Celtics were coming off a back-to-back and were missing key players, and yes the Hawks haven’t played many elite teams, but they are the real thing. Believe it. You don’t win that many games on luck. As a Celtics fan, I do not want to face the Hawks in the first round.
It was a house divided. My son was born in Atlanta and has always been a Hawks fan. I like the Hawks, but if they are playing the Celtics I’m a Boston man through and through. It’s a lot of fun to go with him! We both appreciate good basketball and judging the refs. We didn’t appreciate the incredibly loud screecher behind us. Wow, I love the enthusiasm but calm down. You’re a grown woman, not a six-year-old who goes through elation and depression cycles at top volume every play. We couldn’t take her. One of the more fun father-son things… teaching him how to sneak up to better seats aggressively. We went from row 30 to row 12.
Trading Trae Young, which I have pushed for three years, was the best thing they ever did. Shortly after he left, all these players suddenly realized they could play defense. They remembered how to move. They saw they could play as a team. Trae was a cancer, and after resection the patient is doing fantastic. They’ve lost three games since the all star break. (This deserves a very long “I told you so” post.)
I had early access to see the pregame warmups. It’s great to see professional ball players practice moves. When you see them play it looks so smooth and natural. You forget how every step and movement has been practiced thousands of times. There are always more moves to practice more times. Garza particularly was putting in the time. Amari Williams, you have lots of great moves, but all of them add a little half step for no reason to gather your legs together. It gives the defense too much time, take your shot with no hesitation please.
Jaylen Brown
I’ve always been a fan of Jaylen Brown. He’s always been better than the media treated him. The season has been amazing for him. But. But, how to solve The Mystery of Jaylen Brown. He almost had a 30 point triple double last night but looked awful for most of the game (and said it was one of his worst games). Jaylen Brown is a mystery because the eyes and the brain are such different stories.
He has been incredible this year. He is the man. He can score on anyone and does. He makes the right play. He is the dominant alpha that every team needs to account for. Going into this year the Celtics roster was Jaylen Brown, a couple more decent to good players (Derrick White and Payton Pritchard) and a huge group of “Who is this guy? I’ve swear I’ve never seen him in my life” players. Shaq said to the country: “I ain’t never going to let anyone named Baylor or Scheierman score on me… Scheierman? Who he play for?” Yet Brown led the Celtics into one of the elite teams in the league even before Tatum returned. He plays defense hard and wants to shut down other stars. He can drive on anybody in the league. He has a legit claim to be the best 2-way player in the league. He level jumped. He’s not the MVP, but has a strong claim to number five, maybe six or seventh best. I watched almost every play he made this year, he’s an incredible player.
The case against JB as a superstar is also strong. His plus minus is crazy. The Celtics are better when he’s not on the court. That’s not true of any other superstar. And this is a very large sample size (since Jan 1) How can that be?
AI suggests one reason is the bench unit is elite. The Celtics bench murders the other bench. Other stars have worse benches, so their differential looks better. Yeah, okay, I guess? Then a bunch of other arguments that don’t add up.
Maybe he’s just taking more shots. His increase in points is proportional to the increase in his usage rate and free throw rate. He shooting percentage is about the same. His assist to turnover ratio has actually dropped. Some of the drop is because he has to take more bad shots (there’s only so many good ones), so keeping his shooting statistics high is an achievement. Other teams focus on him more so it’s harder.
Honestly, it’s a mystery. I don’t get it. The eyes see one of the best players in the league, the math says he’s about the same as ever.