Celtics (3-3) at Wizards (1-5) Game #7 11/9/16

[saltlover]

The biggest thing that stood out to me from being at the game was not the rebounding, but the off-ball defense.  Brown, Green, and Rozier kept losing their man.  They'd go to help, turn around, and suddenly someone (most often Porter) would be 10 feet away, and would either knock down the open 3 or blow by the defender to get to the hoop.  Green was the worst in my opinion, but all three got lost out there.  The bad perimeter defense led to more than one offensive board when the big came to help, leaving a pretty easy weak side rebound for a Wizard.

Brown will get better I assume, being only two weeks into his NBA career.  Rozier I'm disappointed in.  Green looks as bad as RJ Hunter and James Young.  Once Crowder is back, I hope he's out of the rotation.  He's a defenisve liability that wasn't remotely helpful on offense.

Olynyk looked very rusty/unsure on offense, but his defensive positioning has improved so much.  I remember going to a Wizards-Celtics game a couple of years ago where he made Kris Humphries look like Tim Duncan.  Today he was almost always in the correct spot defensively.  That's nice to see for his first game in six months.

Assuming Crowder and Horford come back soon, I'm not too worried about this team.  I do wish Stevens would cease playing Green.

I think Zeller and Green will take the biggest hit in minutes when we're at full healthy. Maybe Rozier too. Kelly looked solid too. His shot will come, but his positioning was good. We actually looked fairly competent when he was in the game. Am I crazy, or do you think he should start instead of Zeller next game? (assuming Horford is still out)

I think the starting lineup should be what Stevens started the second half with -- IT, Bradley, Smart, Olynyk, Amir.  (Until Horford and Crowder are back.)

Got to have KO and Horford, right? Amir is hardly doing anything out there, so he might as well be on the bench and let KO have the 4, which would put Horford back to his natural position of center.

I didn't think Amir was terrible yesterday.  He wasn't great, but from my vantage yesterday (Wizards end first half, Celtics end second half) the first quarter defensive problems were primarily Brown and Zeller.  Amir did a decent job of neutralizing Morris.

On the positive side, Smart was terrific.  I didn't look at the box score, but he seemed to be in the middle of everything good that happened on offense or defense.

[jpotter33]

The biggest thing that stood out to me from being at the game was not the rebounding, but the off-ball defense.  Brown, Green, and Rozier kept losing their man.  They'd go to help, turn around, and suddenly someone (most often Porter) would be 10 feet away, and would either knock down the open 3 or blow by the defender to get to the hoop.  Green was the worst in my opinion, but all three got lost out there.  The bad perimeter defense led to more than one offensive board when the big came to help, leaving a pretty easy weak side rebound for a Wizard.

Brown will get better I assume, being only two weeks into his NBA career.  Rozier I'm disappointed in.  Green looks as bad as RJ Hunter and James Young.  Once Crowder is back, I hope he's out of the rotation.  He's a defenisve liability that wasn't remotely helpful on offense.

Olynyk looked very rusty/unsure on offense, but his defensive positioning has improved so much.  I remember going to a Wizards-Celtics game a couple of years ago where he made Kris Humphries look like Tim Duncan.  Today he was almost always in the correct spot defensively.  That's nice to see for his first game in six months.

Assuming Crowder and Horford come back soon, I'm not too worried about this team.  I do wish Stevens would cease playing Green.

I think Zeller and Green will take the biggest hit in minutes when we're at full healthy. Maybe Rozier too. Kelly looked solid too. His shot will come, but his positioning was good. We actually looked fairly competent when he was in the game. Am I crazy, or do you think he should start instead of Zeller next game? (assuming Horford is still out)

I think the starting lineup should be what Stevens started the second half with -- IT, Bradley, Smart, Olynyk, Amir.  (Until Horford and Crowder are back.)

Got to have KO and Horford, right? Amir is hardly doing anything out there, so he might as well be on the bench and let KO have the 4, which would put Horford back to his natural position of center.

I didn't think Amir was terrible yesterday.  He wasn't great, but from my vantage yesterday (Wizards end first half, Celtics end second half) the first quarter defensive problems were primarily Brown and Zeller.  Amir did a decent job of neutralizing Morris.

On the positive side, Smart was terrific.  I didn't look at the box score, but he seemed to be in the middle of everything good that happened on offense or defense.

It was his rebounding more than anything. I mean, right now his true average for rebounds per game is 3.9, and his per-36 is 6.4, which is just unbelievably bad and not even close to where he was last year or previous years. It's fair to say he's hit the wall and is going down it fast, which sucks because Amir seems like a really good guy, too.

[saltlover]

The biggest thing that stood out to me from being at the game was not the rebounding, but the off-ball defense.  Brown, Green, and Rozier kept losing their man.  They'd go to help, turn around, and suddenly someone (most often Porter) would be 10 feet away, and would either knock down the open 3 or blow by the defender to get to the hoop.  Green was the worst in my opinion, but all three got lost out there.  The bad perimeter defense led to more than one offensive board when the big came to help, leaving a pretty easy weak side rebound for a Wizard.

Brown will get better I assume, being only two weeks into his NBA career.  Rozier I'm disappointed in.  Green looks as bad as RJ Hunter and James Young.  Once Crowder is back, I hope he's out of the rotation.  He's a defenisve liability that wasn't remotely helpful on offense.

Olynyk looked very rusty/unsure on offense, but his defensive positioning has improved so much.  I remember going to a Wizards-Celtics game a couple of years ago where he made Kris Humphries look like Tim Duncan.  Today he was almost always in the correct spot defensively.  That's nice to see for his first game in six months.

Assuming Crowder and Horford come back soon, I'm not too worried about this team.  I do wish Stevens would cease playing Green.

I think Zeller and Green will take the biggest hit in minutes when we're at full healthy. Maybe Rozier too. Kelly looked solid too. His shot will come, but his positioning was good. We actually looked fairly competent when he was in the game. Am I crazy, or do you think he should start instead of Zeller next game? (assuming Horford is still out)

I think the starting lineup should be what Stevens started the second half with -- IT, Bradley, Smart, Olynyk, Amir.  (Until Horford and Crowder are back.)

Got to have KO and Horford, right? Amir is hardly doing anything out there, so he might as well be on the bench and let KO have the 4, which would put Horford back to his natural position of center.

I didn't think Amir was terrible yesterday.  He wasn't great, but from my vantage yesterday (Wizards end first half, Celtics end second half) the first quarter defensive problems were primarily Brown and Zeller.  Amir did a decent job of neutralizing Morris.

On the positive side, Smart was terrific.  I didn't look at the box score, but he seemed to be in the middle of everything good that happened on offense or defense.

It was his rebounding more than anything. I mean, right now his true average for rebounds per game is 3.9, and his per-36 is 6.4, which is just unbelievably bad and not even close to where he was last year or previous years. It's fair to say he's hit the wall and is going down it fast, which sucks because Amir seems like a really good guy, too.

I know the numbers look bad, but just in what I watched yesterday, I didn't feel he missed many.  I remember one that went through his hands that annoyed me, and another that there was a blatant over-the-back that wasn't called.  Mostly the rebounding seemed to be Zeller losing position, and Porter coming in from the wing unimpeded.

Amir doesn't have the athleticism to get the rebounds that don't come to him, but he does a fine job at keeping his man off the defensive boards.  But he's not a guy at this point who can compensate for the mistakes of others.  In other words, Amir is not the problem, but he's also not the solution.