Post by jmost on Jan 8, 2019 17:36:28 GMT -5
The ball has really been moving this last few games - all easy wins. Celtics blog had a really good article about it here:
www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/post-010719-another-night-elite-ball-movement-leads-celtics-another-blowout-win
Apparently it's been almost 30 years since the Celts have had three straight games of 34 or more assists.
The other thing that stood out in the article was that the Celtics are trying to play what Stevens calls .5 basketball - which is that players should take no more than half a second to decide to shoot, drive or pass. This is great stuff. If we play together, we have enough scoring talent to be almost impossible to stop. Having two forwards who are well-above average play-makers in Horford and Hayward certainly helps.
It goes without saying that you also need to play good D and rebound well, but the reason we lost in the ECF Game 7 last year was that our offense stagnated and we resorted to launching a ton of 3's on a night when they weren't going in. Most of this year, it's looked doubtful that we'd be good enough to get to the Finals and compete for a title, but now that the offense has gone from looking putrid to looking great, I'm beginning to have renewed hope for this year after all. If we can stay healthy and continue to improve (which I think we will) we should be a tough out.
www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/post-010719-another-night-elite-ball-movement-leads-celtics-another-blowout-win
Apparently it's been almost 30 years since the Celts have had three straight games of 34 or more assists.
The other thing that stood out in the article was that the Celtics are trying to play what Stevens calls .5 basketball - which is that players should take no more than half a second to decide to shoot, drive or pass. This is great stuff. If we play together, we have enough scoring talent to be almost impossible to stop. Having two forwards who are well-above average play-makers in Horford and Hayward certainly helps.
It goes without saying that you also need to play good D and rebound well, but the reason we lost in the ECF Game 7 last year was that our offense stagnated and we resorted to launching a ton of 3's on a night when they weren't going in. Most of this year, it's looked doubtful that we'd be good enough to get to the Finals and compete for a title, but now that the offense has gone from looking putrid to looking great, I'm beginning to have renewed hope for this year after all. If we can stay healthy and continue to improve (which I think we will) we should be a tough out.
