nickdawgy

AD could have easily gotten hurt last year. Even in the Finals he had a couple scares. So I’ll take the title win over a bad record this year. They need a third guy though. It isn’t Kuz or DS or Trezz.

DJariya

If they can hang on and just stay in the top 4 until AD comes back after the break, I think they can get their shit together. Schroder might be back later this week. He must have stupidly got exposed to someone with COVID and that's why he's under quarantine.

One of their biggest weaknesses in their interior D. They are really missing Dwight. LeBron has looked really lethargic late in the game. I think he's still probably upset that he won't get a week off All-Star weekend.

DJariya

and Quinn Cook loses his job after tonight

Twitter

Decker

His contract would have become fully guaranteed on Wednesday.

fujishig

Freeing up money for Boogie? Otherwise why would they care that much about the cap given the current state of their bench?

LurkerDan

Hollinger had this to say about cap gymnastics and Cook:

DJariya

Pau Gasol just posted on social media that he’s signed with FC Barcelona.

DJariya

Luka sends the Celtics to a sub .500 record. Boo Yah!!

davidh777

Celtics suck

DJariya

Celtics fans have turned on them too. They think the team is a mess and Stevens has lost the team.

Noonan

Not this Celtics fan. We just need Smart back. He's more important to the team than his stats let on. Really wanted that win for Kemba since he was finally playing well. Luka is a monster.

LurkerDan

There are some idiots out there for sure, and I had to unfollow one FB fan page because it was just a constant stream of "fire Danny", "fire Brad", etc.

They are not playing well AND they have a bunch of young guys who may or may not turn out to be decent AND they have injuries. But firing Brad or Danny or making an impulsive trade are all bad ideas. I have not lost faith.

davidh777

One of their main problems right now is closing games, and getting Smart back would be a huge boost for that. He has a knack for making big plays during big moments. They just need to not get buried in the standings before that happens. At least Aaron Nesmith is looking like he can be a contributor.

davidlynchfan

They should be sitting on the top 3 spots on paper though.

fujishig

The Celtics have some great players. At the same time if you're pinning your hopes on Marcus Smart returning to get you back to the top echelon of the East, your season is in trouble, I don't care how important Smart is to the team. But we'll see, it's not like we actually know what the rest of the season schedule is like anyway...

davidh777

They won’t get back in the top half of the playoff bracket in a day. Start closing out some games and get above .500 and then see what happens.

fujishig

Well, they are only a game out of 4th (and a game ahead of 10th, which happen to be the Heat). It's the top 3 that will be hard to catch.

LurkerDan

It's a lot more than that, but Smart is also seriously underrated by most who just read box scores and don't watch games, or watch games but mostly pay attention to shooting. He's still a mediocre shooter (up from really bad) but he's an excellent ball handler and creator, and 1st team all defense; that's a big loss. And he's really the heart of the team.

But there is a lot more than that. Kemba has been playing like crap, although he's starting to have an occasional good game and I expect (hope?) that he will come around too.

But beyond all that, they have just played really poor, low energy on defense and relying too much on Brown/Tatum on offense. It will be a long slog but I do think they will put it all together. I just hope they can put it together enough to not have to face Bklyn or Phi in the 1st round.

fujishig

Oh, I realize how important Smart is doing the little things, it's just that he's still not a player that is going to fix all the problems on the team to the level of, say, a returning AD would. But I think we all realize that.

LurkerDan

totally, of course, it's just one of many things like I said.

One I didn't even mention is Tatum definitely seems to be "suffering" from covid, as in has not been playing nearly as well since coming back from covid. I expect/hope that he will improve as well.

All the hand wringing reminds me of a couple of years ago, when Kyrie was on the team and expectations were super high yet they were playing mediocre. While that team ultimately did ok and not great, this team doesn't seem to have any of the locker room issues, it's just a matter of them figuring shit out.

DJariya

The 2nd half of the NBA schedule was released today

Twitter

Here it is in PDF form

https://pr.nba.com/wp-content/upload...F-SCHEDULE.pdf

nickdawgy

25 point loss. The Lakers are in serious trouble.

fujishig

Hey, better than you predicted, right?

Jazz hit 50 3 pointers in their last two games which is an NBA record. And Mitchell's shot was off, going only 4-16 and 2-7 from three (though he almost got a triple double), with the scoring about as balanced as you can get with six players in double figures. That's pretty impressive.

nickdawgy

At what point do they make a move? And when will they win again? I can't remember the last time they lost 5 in a row, and that's almost a given with Portland up next.

Decker

Can't tell you when they win again. As far as making a move, it's pretty much impossible for them to make a trade as they have no tradeable assets. They need to wait for the buyout period after the trade deadline.