Celtics (27-18) at Hawks (14-30) Game #46 1/19/19

[FLCeltsFan]

at
Boston Celtics (27-18) at Atlanta Hawks (14-30)
Saturday, January 19, 2019
7:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game [HASH]46, Road Game [HASH]24
TV: NBCSB, FSSE-ATL, NBA-LP 758(DTV)/755(xfinity)
Radio: 98.5 Sports Hub, 92.9 FM The Game
State Farm Arena


Probable Starting Matchups
Point Guard
vs
Kyrie Irving vs Trae Young

Shooting Guard
vs
Marcus Smart vs Kevin Huerter

Small Forward
vs
Jayson Tatum vs DeAndre Bembry

Power Forward
vs
Marcus Morris vs John Collins

Center
vs
Al Horford vs Omari Spellman

Celtics Reserves
Semi Ojeleye
Terry Rozier
Daniel Theis
Gordon Hayward
Robert Williams
Brad Wanamaker
Jaylen Brown
Guerschon Yabusele
Aron Baynes

Injuries
Jabari Bird (personal) out

Two Way Players
PJ Dozier
RJ Hunter

Head Coach
Brad Stevens




Hawks Reserves
Justin Anderson
Vince Carter
Tyler Dorsey
Daniel Hamilton
Alex Len
Taurean Prince

Injuries
Kent BAzemore (nakle) out
Miles Plumlee (knee) out
Jeremy Lin (flu) day to day
Dewayne Dedmon (ankle) day to day

Two Way Players
Jaylen Adams
Alex Poythress

Head Coach
Lloyd Pearce

Game Notes
The Celtics are on the road again to take on the Atlanta Hawks for the 3rd of 4 games this season. The Celtics won 114-96 on November 23 at Atlanta. They also won the second meeting 129-108 in Boston on December 14. They will meet one more time in Boston on March 16.

The Celtics are playing on the second night of back to back games. They are coming off a win at home over the Memphis Grizzlies. They haven't done well in this situation, going only 2-5 on the second night of back to back games. They are just 1-2 when the games are Home/Road. The Hawks have been off since Tuesday when they beat the Thunder at home.

The Celtics remain 5th in the East, 6 games behind Toronto and 2.5 games behind 4th place Philadelphia. They are 10-13 on the road. The Hawks are 12th in the East, 7 games out of playoff contention. They are 8-11 at home and are looking for their second strait win.

The Celtics are still mostly healthy with just Jabari Bird on the injured list. The Hawks will be missing Kent Bazemore with an ankle injury and Miles Plumlee with a knee injury. Dewayne Dedmon (ankle) and Jeremy Lin (flu) both missed the Hawks last game but returned to practice on Thursday. Dedmon is probable while Lin is day to day. John Collins and Trae Young are as of now listed as questionable with the flu.

Key Matchups
vs
Kyrie Irving vs Trae Young
Kyre has to deal with one of this year's best rookies. Young is averaging 16.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. He is shooting 40% from the field. Young will have his hands full as he is facing an energized Kyrie and Kyrie will need to keep the young player from having a career game at his expense.

vs
Marcus Morris vs John Collins
Collins is playing very well for the Hawks, averaging 19.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He is shooting 58% from the field. Collins put up a team high 19 points when these teams last met.

Honorable Mention
Celtics Bench vs Hawks Bench
The Hawks reserves have been playing very well. They are 1st in the league in steals (3.75), 4th in blocks (2.5), 6th in rebounds (19.2), 6th in assists (9.4) and 8th in points (42.7). The Celtics reserves need to come in and play hard and not take this group for granted.

Keys to the Game
Defense - Defense wins games. The Hawks are averaging 109.9 points per game, however they put up 142 points against the Thunder on Tuesday. The Celtics have to keep making defense a priority and not let up on the effort necessary to get stops.

Take Care of the Ball - The Hawks are 9th in the league in steals with 8.6 per game and 7th with 18.3 points off turnovers. They are 6th in deflections with 14.8 per game. The Celtics have to avoid making sloppy passes and they have to be aware when dribbling to avoid turning the ball over as the Hawks will make them pay if they do.

Rebound - Rebounding gives the Celtics extra possessions and it also deprives the Hawks of the same. The Celtics are averaging 45.6 rebounds per game while the Hawks are averaging 45.1 rebounds per game. Rebounding takes effort and energy and the Celtics need to put out extra effort and energy to win the battle of the boards.

Be Aggressive - The Celtics must be the team that plays harder and that wants this win more. They have to be aggressive in diving for loose balls, in going to the basket, in getting stops on the defensive end, and in going after rebounds. They have to play harder and be more aggressive from start to finish. The Hawks are 1st in the league in loose balls recovered with 10.7 per game and the Celtics will need to be the more aggressive team.

Effort and Energy - The Celtics losses have been mostly the result of low energy and not enough energy. When they played the Raptors, we saw what they could accomplish when they play very hard. The Hawks lead the league in pace at 105.6 and the Celtics will need both effort and energy to get a win in this one, despite the Hawks record.

X-Factors
The Hawks Record - The Celtics have to be careful not to underestimate the Hawks and they have to come out and play hard and respect the Hawks as a team that is coming off a 142-126 win over the Thunder. They also have a good bench and, regardless of their record, are capable of beating any team that doesn't respect them.

Focus On the Road - The Celtics are on the road and they have to focus on the game at hand and not the hostile crowd or the other distractions that a team faces when on the road. The Celtics haven't been playing well on the road with just a 10-13 record away from home. They need to focus and bring their A game in order to get the win in this one and end their road losing streak.

[jmost]

I don't know what went on between Smart and the Hawks player, but whatever was said, it was a pretty immature and pretty selfish act by Smart to go after him with the team already short-handed.

I suspect he'll get suspended for at least a game as well.

[jmost]

On the bright side, the guys pulled this one out after trailing for most of the game. Terry stepped up in Smart's absence with 11 rebs and some big baskets. He clearly thrives with more minutes.

In today's installment of "I love Marcus Smart. I hate Marcus Smart" I find myself wondering if this is the perfect time to trade him. His main "weakness", his career-long shooting troubles, has at least temporarily gone away. His salary is a reasonable $12 million per year and he's signed for 2 more years.

I don't see how we can afford to keep both him and TR3. Rozier plays better the more he plays. Smart is emotionally unreliable. He does stuff like last night, or hitting Matt Bonner in the groin, and it makes me not trust him to not screw up in tight situations. Frankly, I love his energy but I don't like him. We need another big, active body up front. Who can we get if we build a package around Smart?

How about Vucevic? He's a free agent at the end of the year, but he's said he's tired of losing and Orlando is back to their losing ways. His salary is a match for Smart, he addresses a need, is shooting 3's this year, and has always impressed me when we play him. Joining a winning team for the first time in his career is likely to make a strong impression on him when it comes time to sign this coming summer. Just a thought.

[runrondo]

It's only fitting Smart does what he did after you complimented him in the last game thread haha.

I'd still take Smart over Rozier. It's weird because I've never liked watching Smart but he's getting into Tony Allen territory with how it's clear he provides something to this team that can't be explained by stats or how he can shoot. Rozier has always screamed "Instant offense off the bench" as his highest potential to me. The weird thing is that Rozier doesn't shoot very well in terms of overall FG % (37% this year, 39.5% last year) and has his own version of inconsistency whether it's due to effort or needing more of a role/minutes.


Rozier

Result	GP	MPG	FGM-FGA	FG%	3PM-3PA	3P%	FTM-FTA	FT%	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PF	TO	PTS
wins	28	24.1	3.6-8.5	42.3%	1.4-4.0	35.1%	1.0-1.1	87.5%	4.6	3.2	0.4	1.2	1.3	0.9	9.6
losses	18	20.4	2.2-7.7	28.8%	1.4-4.4	32.9%	0.8-1.3	65.2%	3.2	2.3	0.2	0.4	1.2	0.8	6.7

Smart

Result	GP	MPG	FGM-FGA	FG%	3PM-3PA	3P%	FTM-FTA	FT%	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PF	TO	PTS
wins	28	26.3	2.3-5.8	39.8%	1.3-3.7	34.0%	1.0-1.3	77.8%	2.9	4.1	0.3	1.9	2.6	1.3	6.8
losses	17	26.4	3.1-7.1	43.3%	1.7-4.2	40.8%	1.8-2.3	76.9%	2.8	3.8	0.5	1.5	2.4	1.5	9.6

I'll preface this with, I don't know if their averages in wins vs. losses really means anything but it at least shows that Rozier can play very differently on a given night whereas Smart doesn't have any obvious decreases between the two (or it's the opposite decrease of what you'd expect). Otherwise some thoughts as I look at it:

-We win when Smart shoots less haha. Again, that just might be a better indicator of no one else stepping up and taking shots. Smart doesn't mind.
-The idea that Smart affects the game outside of stats makes sense since his stats are actually less impressive in wins and we know he's had some great games in wins for us this year
-What's up with Rozier's FT% in losses? Not focused? Same with his decrease in steals. I feel like he's one of the guys (probably the other being Brown) that Kyrie and Horford are harping on when they talk about bringing it every night.

[Roadrunner]

Jan 20, 2019 11:55:48 GMT -5 runrondo said:

It's only fitting Smart does what he did after you complimented him in the last game thread haha.

I'd still take Smart over Rozier. It's weird because I've never liked watching Smart but he's getting into Tony Allen territory with how it's clear he provides something to this team that can't be explained by stats or how he can shoot. Rozier has always screamed "Instant offense off the bench" as his highest potential to me. The weird thing is that Rozier doesn't shoot very well in terms of overall FG % (37% this year, 39.5% last year) and has his own version of inconsistency whether it's due to effort or needing more of a role/minutes.


Rozier

Result	GP	MPG	FGM-FGA	FG%	3PM-3PA	3P%	FTM-FTA	FT%	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PF	TO	PTS
wins	28	24.1	3.6-8.5	42.3%	1.4-4.0	35.1%	1.0-1.1	87.5%	4.6	3.2	0.4	1.2	1.3	0.9	9.6
losses	18	20.4	2.2-7.7	28.8%	1.4-4.4	32.9%	0.8-1.3	65.2%	3.2	2.3	0.2	0.4	1.2	0.8	6.7

Smart

Result	GP	MPG	FGM-FGA	FG%	3PM-3PA	3P%	FTM-FTA	FT%	REB	AST	BLK	STL	PF	TO	PTS
wins	28	26.3	2.3-5.8	39.8%	1.3-3.7	34.0%	1.0-1.3	77.8%	2.9	4.1	0.3	1.9	2.6	1.3	6.8
losses	17	26.4	3.1-7.1	43.3%	1.7-4.2	40.8%	1.8-2.3	76.9%	2.8	3.8	0.5	1.5	2.4	1.5	9.6

I'll preface this with, I don't know if their averages in wins vs. losses really means anything but it at least shows that Rozier can play very differently on a given night whereas Smart doesn't have any obvious decreases between the two (or it's the opposite decrease of what you'd expect). Otherwise some thoughts as I look at it:

-We win when Smart shoots less haha. Again, that just might be a better indicator of no one else stepping up and taking shots. Smart doesn't mind.
-The idea that Smart affects the game outside of stats makes sense since his stats are actually less impressive in wins and we know he's had some great games in wins for us this year
-What's up with Rozier's FT% in losses? Not focused? Same with his decrease in steals. I feel like he's one of the guys (probably the other being Brown) that Kyrie and Horford are harping on when they talk about bringing it every night.

Smart has already entered Tony Allen's territory, however for different reasons. Allen would play his man superb defense, then foul him with no time on the clock (followed by an emphatic NO from roadrunner). Smart taking a deep 3 (same NO).