6 thoughts after a busy, largely productive week for the Celtics
Enes Kanter is a polarizing enigma.
COMMENTARY
This week, the Celtics went 3-1 with a Christmas Day win in Toronto, blowout wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers and Charlotte Hornets, and a tough home loss against the Raptors. From a professional Celtics fan’s perspective, here are the six most important takeaways from the week.
The loss to Toronto was a bad one.
Last Saturday, the Raptors outplayed the Celtics in all facets of the game. Despite the return of Marcus Smart, Boston’s defense was suspect at best and the Raptors pummeled the Celtics on the boards, out-rebounding them 53-31.
Kyle Lowry did that annoying thing he does where is he very good at basketball, all while doing Smart-levels of flopping and Paul O’Neill-levels of complaining. Lowry scored 30 points and seemed to knock down an open 3 to answer every Celtics run.
On Christmas, the Celtics excelled at probing the defense and working for open shots, but on Saturday, the offense was stagnant and only seemed to work in short bursts. The Raptors did a great job of forcing the ball out of Jayson Tatum’s hands, as he finished the game with only seven shots.
Despite going to the line a season-high 36 times — referee Tone Toni Tony Brothers had himself a night! — Celtics-not-named-Kemba Walker could not purchase a bucket, and the team finished under 40 percent from the field.
The loss was a bad one, given it was against a division rival and the Celtics will be battling for positioning in the Eastern Conference all season. But it’s not one that Celtics fans should embiggen. For one, the team was playing on a SEGABABA (SEcond GAme of a BAck to BAck) and its third game in four nights. While players and coaches should not accept this as an excuse, it feels perfectly cromulent for fans to use, especially at this point in the season.
Secondly, if we are to follow the teachings of Leader Brad, we must approach each game with a Growth Mindset. The loss happened, and there is nothing we can do about it. We (the fans) will watch the film, learn from the failure, and work to fix our past mistakes in order to continue on our path of incremental progress. #Kaizen
Enes Kanter is a polarizing enigma.
This last week, the totality of Enes Kanter was on display. The Raptors targeted Kanter repeatedly on Saturday, putting him in pick-and-rolls and taking advantage of his lack of foot speed to get to the rim with ease. This should not come as a great surprise to any Celtics fan. As Celtics Twitter will be eager to remind you, Kanter is not good at perimeter defense.
Despite his shoddy performance against the Raptors, Kanter has made a very positive impact on the Celtics. His defense will never be great, but he has certainly held his own so far this season. Kanter currently leads the team in net rating, as the team is outscoring opponents by 15.7 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court. On New Year’s Eve, he bullied the undersized Hornets, scoring 13 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and registering a career-high six blocks.
While he may be lost on the perimeter, Kanter absolutely dominates the restricted area of the floor. He is the team’s best offensive rebounder. Sure, many of those offensive rebounds come after his own missed attempts, but Kanter has gotten the Celtics a number of easy buckets this season.
Kanter has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and possesses some of the best big-man hands I have ever seen. He does a great job of making catches in traffic while rolling to the rim. His hands are so great, that a lazy writer might describe them as Ozzie Smith-like. Just look at this Wizard-like play from the game against the Hornets
Kemba had a little extra zip on the ball in today’s @jetblue play of the game 👀 pic.twitter.com/A2NABBESwn
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 31, 2019
The base-10 ballyhoo has to stop.
On Friday night against the Cavs, Jaylen Brown scored 34 points. He made five three-point shots. It was cool. Jayson Tatum scored 30 points and also made five three-point shots. It was also cool. The fact that both players scored 30 points on the same night was a statistic that was heavily celebrated by media and fans alike. This part was not as cool.
The fact that both Jaylen and Jayson made many basketball shots should be celebrated! But why do we care more that they both crossed an arbitrary threshold?
The number in the 10s column changed! Oh boy! That’s different! How exciting!
We saw a strong showing from both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum tonight against the Cavs, as they combined for 64 points in a 129-117 win. pic.twitter.com/75Vz7eyOmq
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 28, 2019
This base-10 ballyhoo has to stop. We, as a society, need to admit that counting by tens was a biological accident!
If you don’t believe me, just ask my dear friends at the Dozenal Society of America who correctly promote base-12 and alternative-based mathematics.
Now, with all that being said, even in a base-12 society, Jaylen Brown would still be the Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
The War on Theis continues.
The anti-Daniel Theis bias displayed on a nightly basis by NBA officials needs to stop. Last year, the refs had it in for Semi Ojeleye. This year, it’s Theis. I don’t know why the refs have it out for Danny Two Blocks, but it is despicable. Theis averages 3.3 personal fouls per game and is 10th in personal fouls per 100 possessions.
Sure, maybe Theis plays an aggressive style of defense that is conducive to fouling, but the conspiracy becomes a lot clearer after you stare at the numbers for a couple hours.
Basketball tic-tac-toe breaks people’s brains.
I have long been a critic of TD Garden’s in-game entertainment, but I have to give them major kudos this season for increasing the number of new segments, bits, and games during the breaks in the action. One of the best new games is an odd basketball version of Tic-Tac-Toe, where each contestant must make a layup before placing their marker.
For some reason, the addition of the layup makes it so the contestants completely forget about the rules to Tic-Tac-Toe. I have witnessed the game be played on three separate occasions this season, and, without fail, every time one of the contestants has neglected to block two-markers in a row and just decided to throw their game piece on the floor all willy-nilly. I don’t know why the layup is so distracting, but it is, and it is hilarious.
Tulsi and Donnie, Donnie and Tulsi were spotted.
Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard sat courtside with Donnie Walberg for Saturday Night’s game against the Raptors. I don’t really have any thoughts of value on the duo, but I was just as surprised as everyone else was to see them at TD Garden, and I figured more people should know about it. Again, I want to use my platform for good.
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