The Confessions pt. II to last Friday’s Burn
Due to sloppy scheduling on my part, the responsibility of writing this Raptors vs. Celtics preview has once again fallen upon yours truly. You may recall (but probably not) that I wrote the preview for their earlier match-up, in which the Raptors won 116-109. In the interest of not double-dipping on the same content, I’ll direct you to our coverage from last week’s game.
Preview | Quick Reaction | Recap | Highlights
Instead, allow me to use this space to opine on three impressions I came away with after watching the Celtics lose in the ACC last week.
Brad Stevens never stops coaching
Watching the game last Friday, I was struck by Boston head coach Brad Stevens’s commitment to coaching.
Here’s an example: the Celtics were trailing by nine points with a minute left in the fourth quarter, but instead of letting the inevitable play out, Stevens burned a timeout to draw up a play. He did that once more 16 seconds later with the Celtics down seven. I booed at the time, hoping for a swift ending to the game, but in retrospect, Stevens was just making the most of his opportunities.
I’m sure everyone here is sick of the griping by writers of the banalities of preseason. I’m sick of it too. It’s annoying to watch a game, and not be able to trust in any of our observations because a giant caveat looms over every event that takes place on the court. We can’t trust the play calls, the minute distribution, the lineup combinations. It’s annoying.
But preseason is a valuable tool for coaches to drill their players while the stakes are non-existent. Stevens’ goal wasn’t necessarily to help maximize the Celtics’ chances of winning. He called timeout because they were opportunities for his team to learn.
After the first timeout, Smart caught a quick hand-off from Kelly Olynyk and drove hard to the basket against a smaller defender in Lou Williams. Smart scored the layup and dutifully completed the and-one.
On the second, Boston ran a similar play. The ball was inbounded to Olynyk in the high post, and Marcus Thornton ran through a pair of pin-downs which trapped his defender Terrence Ross. Thornton then caught the hand-off from Olynyk and had it not been for Amir Johnson’s rotation off Olynyk and onto Thornton, the Celtics would have netted themselves another easy bucket.
The point of this is not to blow smoke up Stevens’s ass. He just did what he was supposed to in that situation. I was, however, disappointed with his counterpart Dwane Casey’s wasteful treatment of those same opportunities. On the Raptors’ final possession of the first half, Casey called a timeout to draw up a play, which amounted to nothing more than DeRozan taking the ball up the court and pulling up for a long two against Gerald Wallace. No screen, no movement. Nothing. DeRozan’s shot drew front iron.
Marcus Smart’s aggression
I like players like Smart who have a chip on their shoulder. They’re all over the court, trying to make every play, trying to deflect every pass, hounding ball-handlers up and down the court. It’s what endears us to Kyle Lowry.
Smart reminds me of a young Lowry. The bulldog mentality. The constant scowling. The sheer tenacity in getting to the basket because they have no jumpshot. It’s all there, except Smart stands at 6-foot-3, weighing 227 pounds.
Perhaps as the ultimate sign of respect, Smart actually managed to goad Lowry into a brief one-on-one battle, which culminated in Lowry landing in foul trouble for much of the game. This play in particular really summed up everything there is to know about Smart’s tenacity.
Keep at it, yungun. Of course, you come at the king, you best not miss. Lowry finished the game with 18 points, six assists and five steals to Smart’s nine-point, seven-assist effort.
Evan Turner and Marcus Thornton: Two-man trojan horse
Many pundits scratched their heads at the Celtics’ offseason additions. Taking on Thornton made sense — swallowing his salary added another pick to Boston’s saddle bag. But signing Turner, then playing him out of position at point guard was baffling to be sure. Why task a shooting guard who isn’t a good passer nor decision maker with ball-handling and distributing responsibilities?
Simple: to preserve Boston’s tankjob.
Turner, and to a lesser extent Thornton, aren’t useless players. When put into the right system with the right players, the two can prove to be useful, especially on offense. Turner has an uncanny ability to get to the hoop (albeit his touch around the basket is rather poor) and Thornton is a carbon-copy of J.R. Smith, capable of heating up enough to keep an entire offense afloat.
But on this team, with the way they’re being used, Turner and Thornton are liabilities, which is the plan. The rest of Boston’s players, although less talented, are disciplined to the point where if a few things go their way, Boston has a shot at making the playoffs, which would spoil Boston’s lottery odds. That’s where Turner and Thornton come in, masquerading as young veterans to safeguard Danny Ainge’s precious lottery balls, a play straight out of Greek history.
Match-ups
Predicting the outcome of preseason games is a silly practice. Assuming that the entire roster is healthy, the Raptors should come out on top.
One key to victory is the success of Patrick Patterson, who was highly effective off the bench, scoring 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. His contributions helped make up for Lou Williams’ 2-for-10 shooting off-night. As long as the bench can produce enough after the starters reach their respective minute allocations, the Raptors will be fine.
But again, it’s preseason. As long as this game doesn’t end 81-76 like the last one against New York, we’re all winners.
