Eight thoughts are enough
Going above rim entering break
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Eight thoughts on the way to All-Star Weekend:
The key to the Celtics living up to the potential of their roster this season is each player coming to the realization he cannot do it alone. OK, Kyrie Irving can, but even he has to know that his life is better when he and his mates are playing complementary basketball.
As noted here before (and I guess the repetition is necessary for some), people are being utterly fooled if they think the younger players who stepped into more prominent roles by necessity last season are ready to take over. If they were as good as is being made out, they wouldn’t have kicked away Game 7 at home against Cleveland. And they wouldn’t have abandoned the team game in favor of hero ball in those road games at Milwaukee, when Celtics, in the interest of taking the responsibility to make a play, drove into two and three Bucks and had their shots swatted to Oshkosh.
And anyone who somehow believes the Celtics would be better without a premier closer like Irving should note that it’s hard to imagine the C’s losing that last game against the Cavaliers if one of the best players in the league was there to stem the tide and win crunch time.
Also, can we at least agree that last year’s Celtics playoff rotation would not be making the conference finals in this year’s much improved East?
By all measures that matter, last year is so last year.
I’m really interested to see how the NBA would compensate the Pelicans if Anthony Davis ever suffered a significant injury playing in games the club would rather he not… Oh, yeah, it wouldn’t.
I understand the league being unhappy with the optics of a healthy Davis being kept from games, but the potential damage to the Pels could be crushing. Can you imagine how bad things would be for that franchise if it could not use a healthy Davis in trade to replenish the club he has chosen to fracture?
And, by the way, the NBA’s dictate that Davis must play — under threat of fine should he not — presupposes he will be used as he always has and that, as a result, New Orleans will be its competitive best. But that goes out the window when AD is pinned to the pine in the fourth quarter of a tight game.
It’s a charade that stains all concerned. The league should either let the Pelicans sit Davis for the rest of the year, or the club should pay the fines and do what’s best for the franchise.
Yes, Gordon Hayward has had some physical issues coming back from his injury, and some of his inconsistencies have been psychological, as well. He’s shot very well in practice, but it doesn’t really translate to the games unless he steps into his attempts with that shooter’s arrogance — and that’s what has happened lately. That split-second of hesitancy is largely gone, and you can almost tell from his body language whether or not his trey is destined for the strings.
It should also be said that even through his earlier shooting issues, Hayward was “playing the right way.” That is, he was keeping the ball moving while playing with a group where individuals often stopped the rock to look for their own shots.
When Hayward is at his max, you’ll see not only smooth jumpers, but a lot of assists and “hockey assists,” where his passes are critical to the ball movement that results in open shots.
As one league scout told me, “Boston’s season is all about Hayward. If he goes back to playing like he did earlier in the season, it’s just not going to work for that rotation. If he’s the real Gordon Hayward, you won’t be able to guard that team.”
I’ve always been big on Marc Gasol, and he may well give Toronto the extra bit of firepower that puts that club into the NBA Finals. But I still can’t help feeling this trade may have been a break for the Celtics, in that Jonas Valanciunas was a large part of the Raptors’ physical presence that hurt the C’s badly.
A more impactful pickup may be Milwaukee’s acquisition of Nikola Mirotic.
Before Wednesday night’s game, I jokingly asked Marcus Smart how, after a brilliant run from beyond the 3-point arc, he suddenly forgot how to be Ray Allen. (He was 0-for-10 in his last two games and 0 for his last six the game before.)
“Hey,” Smart said with a laugh, “even Ray Allen forgot how to be Ray Allen sometimes. The only way you can fix it is to practice and keep shooting. I’ll get it back. Don’t worry.”
Smart then went out and missed all four of his treys in the first half against the Pistons.
Then he hit four in a row in the third quarter — before airballing his fifth.
Even after his early season bricks and recent chill, Smart is shooting a none too shabby 35.9 percent on 3’s for the year.
If the Celtics continue their improvement and defeat all odds — and the Warriors in the playoffs — Marcus Morris’ Saturday night rant could be seen as the event that got this team to examine itself in a collective mirror.
But even such dreams are still miles away for a club that still hasn’t realized how to be its best on a consistent basis.