Post by Admin on Feb 1, 2020 20:31:57 GMT -5
Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia 76ers: Al Horford’s return, Kemba Walker’s minutes, Grant Williams screen assists, & pregame notes By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)AP
BOSTON - This could be the last time the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers face each other this season. This is the fourth of four regular season games between the two rivals, so if they’re going to see each other before the 2020-21 season, it’ll have to be in the playoffs.
However, the last game between these teams is the first time Al Horford will get to set foot on the TD Garden floor to face the Celtics as a Sixer. He sat out the last game in Boston.
“A lot happened in three years (in Boston), on the court and off the court,” Horford said this morning. “All I have is positive memories of my time here.”
Celtics fans did get a chance to thank Horford, though, when he was shown on the scoreboard. That gave the Garden crowd the opportunity to show their love with a nice standing ovation.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, to be honest. I was happy," Horford said. “There’s a lot of respect, mutual respect, with the fans.”
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)AP
BOSTON - This could be the last time the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers face each other this season. This is the fourth of four regular season games between the two rivals, so if they’re going to see each other before the 2020-21 season, it’ll have to be in the playoffs.
However, the last game between these teams is the first time Al Horford will get to set foot on the TD Garden floor to face the Celtics as a Sixer. He sat out the last game in Boston.
“A lot happened in three years (in Boston), on the court and off the court,” Horford said this morning. “All I have is positive memories of my time here.”
Celtics fans did get a chance to thank Horford, though, when he was shown on the scoreboard. That gave the Garden crowd the opportunity to show their love with a nice standing ovation.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, to be honest. I was happy," Horford said. “There’s a lot of respect, mutual respect, with the fans.”
The Sixers have won all three previous matchups against the Celtics this season, and winning the fourth seems like it’d be a big message to a team that they could meet in the postseason. Horford, though, won’t get into that.
“It’s not about a sweep. It’s another game,” Horford said. “We lost in Atlanta, we nt to come back here, bounce back tonight and get a win and put ourselves in the best position. As a team, we’ve been up-and-down at times, and we nt to get on a roll here.”
The Celtics would love to get on a roll themselves. They have won two straight against the Miami Heat and Golden State rriors. The win over Miami is big for tiebreaker purposes, and a win tonight would seemingly be big for confidence purposes. Like Horford, though, Brad Stevens doesn’t nt to focus on anything besides what’s happening on the court.
“We’re just preparing for the next game to try to win the next game. It’s no different for us. We all know that we’re going to have to play really well to beat a team like Philadelphia," Stevens said. "They pose a lot of problems for a lot of people. They’re a good team. We know we have to play well and we know what we need to manage better on both ends than we have in the first couple of games.”
One thing that Boston needs to manage is Philly’s size, which will be difficult with Enes Kanter still out with a right hip bruise. That means Boston might have to get creative to combat it. Grant Williams has done well lately in Boston’s small-ball lineups, so it’ll be interesting to see if Stevens tries to go super-quick when the Sixers are super-tall. Williams says he’s ready if that’s the case.
“You just come with the mentality that it’s going to be a physical game. You have to be the aggressor," he said. “If you allow them to be the physical presence in the beginning, they’ll direct the pace game. They’ll establish how the calls will be made, they’ll establish how you will be officiated and things like that. So you have to be the aggressor.”
OTHER PREGAME NOTES
- Kemba lker’s lingering knee soreness doesn’t seem to concern Brad Stevens too much, but it could impact how much he plays moving forrd. He’s averaging about 32 minutes per game, but he played nearly 38 per game on the recent road trip.
“If we were concerned about it being anything more then we wouldn’t play him,” Stevens said. “It could be a cumulative effect of this whole entire stretch, it could be a cumulative effect of the entire season but you could kinda see it the other night that he s sore. And he s really sore yesterday, so that’s why we said he needs at least a few days here to see how he feels and then go from there... when he comes back, we’ll probably have something concrete that we’ll hold him to. Because I think he’s at 32 minutes per game, which is far down from what he’s been in the past. And that’s been on purpose.”
lker averaged nearly 35 minutes per game last season and 34.1 overall in eight seasons with the Charlotte Hornets.
- lker’s absence means it’s yet another game without a full complement of players. This might have been a great chance to test a sort of “irresistible force vs. immovable object” lineup with a bunch of speed against Philly’s size.
They still could do it, but having Marcus Smart run that offense versus having lker do it means it’ll be defended differently, so the result might not be reliable either y. Stevens, though, feels comfortable with the team’s ability to figure things out.
“We’ll have time. We’ll have time. It’s a long season," Stevens said. "During this stretch, in particular, we haven’t had a chance to practice much anyys, just because of the number of games and the limited time in between games. So we’ll have actually more time to do that after the break and so we’ll have time to become the best version of ourselves if we can get everybody back and healthy.”
- Grant Williams has had a few productive games recently. In typical Grant Williams fashion, they’re not huge box score games, but he’s been a positive on the floor. He says he’s picking things up pretty well.
“I feel pretty comfortable," Williams said at the team’s morning shoot around. “Schemage has never really been an issue much with me. It’s more so just understanding the game itself. Understanding where to be and when to be there and kind of know what to do. It’s a matter of seeing it live and on pace. I feel pretty comfortable and I feel like I can play multiple, versatile roles.”
Williams says he’s progressed quite a bit over his 45 games.
“When I s playing my first four games I couldn’t tell you up from down," he said. "I didn’t know what s going on, but over time it’ll calm down, you’ll see the game slows down.”
His rebounding work has stood out lately. He’s averaging just 2.6 rebounds per game but he has 5 and 7 in his last two games.
“Just trying to be physical, get under guys because I’m not the highest flyer, I’m not going to be the flashy dude that’s going to get those tip dunks every now and again," he said. "But I’m just trying to do my best to get into position to put myself in the best ability to get my hand on the ball and hopefully get extra possessions for our team.”
Williams biggest impact right now is with the little things. Yes he’s had some decent rebounding games, but he’s not exactly hauling in the boards his rebounding rate of 9.2 percent is 10th on the team, behind Javonte Green. However, the NBA tracking stats show he’s third on the team in box outs. There are many times where Williams is simply driving an opposing big ay from the ball to let a teammate grab the rebound.
Offensively, his shot has come around. We all know about his notorious 0-for-25 start on 3-pointers, but he shot 42.9 percent from 3 in January. Again, he’s also doing the little things. He’s third on the team in screen assists (when a screen he sets directly leads to a player scoring). He’s also fourth on the Celtics in contested 2-point shots.
There’s a reason why he tends to be a positive when he’s in the game. He’s certainly not the going to win every matchup, and part of his success hinges on Stevens putting him in positions to succeed and holding him out of certain matchups that aren’t great for him. Still, Williams is proving to be more valuable as the season goes on.
- Al Horford has noticed Boston’s offense start to click. He knows how Brad Stevens nts to play, and he also knows that’s not how Boston alys have.
“Coach Stevens probably nted to do more of that before, and it’s great to see Jayson, Jaylen flourishing in that system,” Horford said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence and offensively they’re just tough, and have a lot of weapons.”
There’s an obvious reference there to how much isolation-heavy basketball the Celtics played last season, partly because they had a very isolation-heavy point guard in Kyrie Irving. He’s good at that stuff, but it’s not how Brad Stevens nts his offense to look.
“Ball movement,” Horford said. “The y Coach Stevens nts to play, the positions he nts to put guys in, everything just seems better.”
That has resulted in breakout years for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, including an All-Star nod for Tatum. Horford s very happy to see that selection.
“I caught up with him,” he said. “I’m excited for him and his family. He’s obviously really excited.”
“It’s not about a sweep. It’s another game,” Horford said. “We lost in Atlanta, we nt to come back here, bounce back tonight and get a win and put ourselves in the best position. As a team, we’ve been up-and-down at times, and we nt to get on a roll here.”
The Celtics would love to get on a roll themselves. They have won two straight against the Miami Heat and Golden State rriors. The win over Miami is big for tiebreaker purposes, and a win tonight would seemingly be big for confidence purposes. Like Horford, though, Brad Stevens doesn’t nt to focus on anything besides what’s happening on the court.
“We’re just preparing for the next game to try to win the next game. It’s no different for us. We all know that we’re going to have to play really well to beat a team like Philadelphia," Stevens said. "They pose a lot of problems for a lot of people. They’re a good team. We know we have to play well and we know what we need to manage better on both ends than we have in the first couple of games.”
One thing that Boston needs to manage is Philly’s size, which will be difficult with Enes Kanter still out with a right hip bruise. That means Boston might have to get creative to combat it. Grant Williams has done well lately in Boston’s small-ball lineups, so it’ll be interesting to see if Stevens tries to go super-quick when the Sixers are super-tall. Williams says he’s ready if that’s the case.
“You just come with the mentality that it’s going to be a physical game. You have to be the aggressor," he said. “If you allow them to be the physical presence in the beginning, they’ll direct the pace game. They’ll establish how the calls will be made, they’ll establish how you will be officiated and things like that. So you have to be the aggressor.”
OTHER PREGAME NOTES
- Kemba lker’s lingering knee soreness doesn’t seem to concern Brad Stevens too much, but it could impact how much he plays moving forrd. He’s averaging about 32 minutes per game, but he played nearly 38 per game on the recent road trip.
“If we were concerned about it being anything more then we wouldn’t play him,” Stevens said. “It could be a cumulative effect of this whole entire stretch, it could be a cumulative effect of the entire season but you could kinda see it the other night that he s sore. And he s really sore yesterday, so that’s why we said he needs at least a few days here to see how he feels and then go from there... when he comes back, we’ll probably have something concrete that we’ll hold him to. Because I think he’s at 32 minutes per game, which is far down from what he’s been in the past. And that’s been on purpose.”
lker averaged nearly 35 minutes per game last season and 34.1 overall in eight seasons with the Charlotte Hornets.
- lker’s absence means it’s yet another game without a full complement of players. This might have been a great chance to test a sort of “irresistible force vs. immovable object” lineup with a bunch of speed against Philly’s size.
They still could do it, but having Marcus Smart run that offense versus having lker do it means it’ll be defended differently, so the result might not be reliable either y. Stevens, though, feels comfortable with the team’s ability to figure things out.
“We’ll have time. We’ll have time. It’s a long season," Stevens said. "During this stretch, in particular, we haven’t had a chance to practice much anyys, just because of the number of games and the limited time in between games. So we’ll have actually more time to do that after the break and so we’ll have time to become the best version of ourselves if we can get everybody back and healthy.”
- Grant Williams has had a few productive games recently. In typical Grant Williams fashion, they’re not huge box score games, but he’s been a positive on the floor. He says he’s picking things up pretty well.
“I feel pretty comfortable," Williams said at the team’s morning shoot around. “Schemage has never really been an issue much with me. It’s more so just understanding the game itself. Understanding where to be and when to be there and kind of know what to do. It’s a matter of seeing it live and on pace. I feel pretty comfortable and I feel like I can play multiple, versatile roles.”
Williams says he’s progressed quite a bit over his 45 games.
“When I s playing my first four games I couldn’t tell you up from down," he said. "I didn’t know what s going on, but over time it’ll calm down, you’ll see the game slows down.”
His rebounding work has stood out lately. He’s averaging just 2.6 rebounds per game but he has 5 and 7 in his last two games.
“Just trying to be physical, get under guys because I’m not the highest flyer, I’m not going to be the flashy dude that’s going to get those tip dunks every now and again," he said. "But I’m just trying to do my best to get into position to put myself in the best ability to get my hand on the ball and hopefully get extra possessions for our team.”
Williams biggest impact right now is with the little things. Yes he’s had some decent rebounding games, but he’s not exactly hauling in the boards his rebounding rate of 9.2 percent is 10th on the team, behind Javonte Green. However, the NBA tracking stats show he’s third on the team in box outs. There are many times where Williams is simply driving an opposing big ay from the ball to let a teammate grab the rebound.
Offensively, his shot has come around. We all know about his notorious 0-for-25 start on 3-pointers, but he shot 42.9 percent from 3 in January. Again, he’s also doing the little things. He’s third on the team in screen assists (when a screen he sets directly leads to a player scoring). He’s also fourth on the Celtics in contested 2-point shots.
There’s a reason why he tends to be a positive when he’s in the game. He’s certainly not the going to win every matchup, and part of his success hinges on Stevens putting him in positions to succeed and holding him out of certain matchups that aren’t great for him. Still, Williams is proving to be more valuable as the season goes on.
- Al Horford has noticed Boston’s offense start to click. He knows how Brad Stevens nts to play, and he also knows that’s not how Boston alys have.
“Coach Stevens probably nted to do more of that before, and it’s great to see Jayson, Jaylen flourishing in that system,” Horford said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence and offensively they’re just tough, and have a lot of weapons.”
There’s an obvious reference there to how much isolation-heavy basketball the Celtics played last season, partly because they had a very isolation-heavy point guard in Kyrie Irving. He’s good at that stuff, but it’s not how Brad Stevens nts his offense to look.
“Ball movement,” Horford said. “The y Coach Stevens nts to play, the positions he nts to put guys in, everything just seems better.”
That has resulted in breakout years for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, including an All-Star nod for Tatum. Horford s very happy to see that selection.
“I caught up with him,” he said. “I’m excited for him and his family. He’s obviously really excited.”