Bucks (0-0) at Celtics (0-1) Game #2 10/18/17

[FLCeltsFan]

at
Milwaukee Bucks (0-0) at Boston Celtics (0-1)
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
7:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game [HASH]2 – Home Game [HASH]1
TV: NBCSB, FSN-WI, NBA-LP 757(DTV)/754(Xfinity)
Radio: 98.5 Sports Hub, 620 AM WTMJ
TD Garden



Probable Starters
PG SG SF
PF C
Kyrie Irving...Jaylen Brown... Jayson Tatum
Al Horford...Aron Baynes

Celtics Reserves
Daniel Theis
Shane Larkin
Abdel Nader
Semi Ojeleye
Terry Rozier
Marcus Smart

Injuries
Marcus Morris (knee) out
Guerschon Yabusele (illness) questionable
Gordon Hayward (ankle) out

Head Coach
Brad Stevens




Probable Starters
PG SG SF
PF C
Malcolm Brogdon...Tony Snell...Khris Middleton
Giannis Antetokounmpo...Thon Maker

Bucks Reserves
Sterling Brown
Matthew Dellavedova
John Henson
Greg Monroe
Mirza Teletovic
Jason Terry
Rashad Vaughn
DJ Wilson

Injuries
Jabari Parker (knee) out

Head Coach
Jason Kidd

Game Notes
The Celtics welcome the Bucks to the Garden for their home opener of the 2017-18 season. The Celtics are already playing in their first back to back set of the season, having played in Cleveland on Tuesday night. The Bucks are playing in their first game of the season.

Tuesday's season opener took a lot out of every player on the Celtics. With just over 6 minutes to go in the first quarter, Gordon Hayward went down with a fractured ankle and was taken back to Boston to the hospital for surgery. The Celtics certainly were playing with thoughts of Gordon on their minds. They fell behind by as many as 18 points but came back to lose by just 3.

The Celtics will need to regroup and find the best player to fill in for Hayward in the starting lineup. I'm just making a wild guess that Tatum will slide over to the small forward, Horford will slide over to the four and Baynes will start at center. That lineup looked good in the preseason and I'm thinking they may try it again. However, that's just my guess and Brad Stevens may think differently. Marcus Smart may move to the starters, but he does so well off the bench I'm not sure that Brad will want to change that.

Marcus Morris is out with a sore knee. There is no injury and the MRI was clean, but he has been experiencing soreness and so the Celtics are being cautious so as not to cause an injury. With Morris coming into camp late, it will give him a bit longer to learn the Celtics' system along with getting 100% healthy. Guerschon Yabusele missed Tuesday's game with an illness and is questionable for this game. Gordon Hayward is out with the ankle injury. Jabari Parker is out for the Bucks as he rehabs from a torn ACL. He is targeting a February return.

Key Matchups
vs
Kyrie Irving vs Malcolm Brogdon
After an emotional return to Cleveland for Kyrie, he makes his home debut at the TD Garden against last season's Rookie of the Year. Brogdon averaged 10.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists last season and was a surprise ROY winner. Kyrie should be able to have his way against the 2nd year player.

vs
Al Horford vs Giannis Antetokounmpo
"The Greek Freak" is a tough cover for anyone. Since I'm guessing that Horford moves to the four for this game, he will get the job of trying to slow Antetokounmpo down. Even more importantly, Al will need to make him work on defense to try to wear him down.

Honorable Mention
Jayson Tatum vs Khris Middleton
Middleton is a rising star for the Bucks. Last season, he averaged 14.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.4 steals. He is a decent defender and this should be a good matchup for both teams. After facing off against LeBron James and Jae Crowder, this should be a little easier for him.

Keys to the Game
Defense - Defense is always a key to winning. The defense of the Celtics was a pleasant surprise in the preseason. Hopefully, as they become more and more used to each other and the system, the defense will get even better. The Celtics need to make defense a priority and get stops to keep the Bucks from going on big runs.

Run! - The Celtics are very effective when they run on every possession and run on defense as well. They need to run on offense to get easy shots before the defenses get set up. They also need to run on defense to get set up to prevent the Bucks from getting easy baskets. When the Celtics run, good things happen.

Move the Ball - We saw some beautiful ball movement in the preseason and the Celtics need to continue to move the ball and find the open man. When the ball sticks and when players try to do too much themselves, it rarely ends well. They are going to have to refigure their offense to make up for the loss of Gordon Hayward and moving the ball more would be a good start.

Rebound - The Celtics can't score if they don't have the ball. The Celtics struggled to rebound last season but have looked much better on the boards in the preseason. It takes effort to rebound and when the Celtics put out that extra effort to get rebounds, it usually translates to other areas of their game. They were out-rebounded by 3 against the Cavs and will need to work a bit harder against the very long and athletic Bucks.

Be Aggressive - The Celtics have to be the more aggressive team from start to finish. They have to be aggressive in going after loose balls and on defense and going to the basket and grabbing rebounds. The more aggressive team usually gets the benefit of the calls also. They need to be the team that wants it more for all 48 minutes. No let up.

X-Factors
Fatigue - The Celtics have their first back to back already in their second game of the season. They had a very emotional game on Tuesday night against Kyrie's former team and so they may have a let down afterwards. This is the Bucks first game of the season and so they should be fresh and raring to go. Fatigue may set in down the stretch for the Celtics.

The Injury Factor - The loss of Gordon Hayward to a gruesome injury took a lot out of the Celtics. They need to regroup and try to put that behind them, as difficult as it might be. They will be playing short handed with Marcus Morris also out along with Yabusele. Next man up has to be their mindset.

Home Opener - The new look Celtics are playing in their first game in front of the home crowd. Hopefully they will get a boost from the fans and draw energy from the home crowd.

[jmost]

I think you got the starters right. Even with the GH injury, I see Smart coming off the bench - unless we are playing against a team where Baynes just wouldn't be effective and Horford has to play center.

I'm hoping to see a less nervous, more composed, better-shooting team tonight.

[DERRENMATTS]

Bucks keeping up with us so far. But we're going to go on our run, and also shut them down defensively. We normally have at least one quarter where we score 30+ and keep opponents under 20.

Imagine how good MIL would be with a healthy Jabari Parker? They'll be scary.

[DERRENMATTS]

Gee, we can't shake these guys off our tails. Every time we build a lead, they come right back.

[DERRENMATTS]

Giannis having his way with us. No one can match his length. Need someone who can disrupt him. Time for Brad to use the Bear (the one who dances)!!

[DERRENMATTS]

Giannis would have been a nice guy to draft. Danny must have thought Olynyk would've been the better choice (as did the other teams that passed on Antetokuompo). Oh well, can't win every gamble.

[DERRENMATTS]

Going to chalk this loss up as fatigue and a poor performance from Kyrie, Smart and others. Maybe playing at the Garden for the first time during the regular season had an affect on Irving.

Oh well, not the ideal way to start the season, going 0 - 2. But still plenty of time to get our game on track.

[jmost]

Kyrie 7-25; the rest of the team 32-66. Maybe he put too much pressure on himself to carry the team.

Rozier has been impressive in almost every aspect of the game.

I don't like looking at the box score and seeing Smart taking 13 shots and Tatum only 7. Part of the problem is that Smart winds up with the ball with five seconds left on the shot clock and is incapable of creating a good shot either for himself or someone else so he chucks one up there. We have to stop putting ourselves in that position. Overall I thought the ball movement wasn't great tonight.

[mev17]

Second game in a row where the other team's star has a big fourth quarter, and no one on our team can respond in kind. We are back to last year, where if our all-star point guard does not score well we can't beat good teams. Our offense has disappeared towards the end of the past two games, not allowing us to hold on to a fourth quarter lead. Plus hitting some free throws would help (only 11 for 21)

I frankly do not like Smart as our starting guard. It is hard to spread the floor when your "shooting" guard is such a non-shooter. IMO his hustle and "winning" plays merit about 20 min a game, but the holes in his offensive game makes him too much a liability to play 30+ minutes - especially with Hayward out.

I also wish Al Horford would be more assertive offensively. He is probably our second most talented offensive player but just doesn't look to score.

The season is young, but not encourage so far.

[jmost]

I don't like Smart as a starter either, but things are in flux now as Brad tries to adjust on the fly to our new GH-less reality. I'm sure we'll see lots of combinations out there in the next few months. Brad has already shown he will play anyone who is active.

[Roadrunner]

Irving shot BOS out of this game. MIL rolled the last quarter. Bad is starting to get ugly.

[afceltic]

Kyrie and Smart shot us out of this game. Smart needs to be benched as others have stated and Kyrie needs to be a hell of a lot more efficient. 7-25 is pathetic Carmelo-like shooting.

[Roadrunner]

Oct 19, 2017 4:56:11 GMT -5 afceltic said:

Kyrie and Smart shot us out of this game. Smart needs to be benched as others have stated and Kyrie needs to be a hell of a lot more efficient. 7-25 is pathetic Carmelo-like shooting.

Smart had the highest CARMELO rating in his rookie class. A different 'melo which is a formula to predict success in the NBA. On a side note, I think MIL got carried by (1) player, a star, and has no bench.

[mev17]

Positives from the game are that Tatum (in a small 2-game sample) is a much better rebounder than I expected - 9.5 rpg would be just what this team needs. He is also using his length well on defense - another unexpected plus for me.

Also, Brown did score well during his limited playing time (hopefully, foul trouble won't be a regular thing). Again, small 2-game sample but he does look like a 20 ppg player at this point.