The Boston Celtics are enjoying a much-needed break in their early-season schedule. After cramming their first 10 games into an 18-day span, the Celtics are back in the Auerbach Center after a day off with two days to prepare for the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
“Continue to do what we've done the last few games defensively, touch on those things, reiterate those points,” Ime Udoka said of the team’s focus over the next few days. “But we're really digging into the offensive side a little bit more now. We feel like we have a lot of good schemes defensively, and we've seen an effort pick up over the last few games. So continue to rely on that, but offensively see ... what works for certain units and trying to shore that up over the next few games.”
Those offensive units will not involve Jaylen Brown, at least for this week and possibly the next.
“Timeline looking like a week or two right now - hamstring strain,” Udoka said. “We’ll know more in a week or two, but right now he’s out for a week or two. That’s a broad timeline.”
The injury does not seem to be serious.
“He knows his body pretty well, and he said it didn’t feel terrible but he did feel it,” Udoka said. “Obviously the tightness kept him out of the rest of the Miami game and (in Dallas), so it was something he had to get looked at. The strain showed a week or two, and he knew something. He was being overly-cautious himself because of his past history.”
The Celtics now have to make up for missing their All-Star, who through eight games was the team’s leading, and the NBA’s seventh-leading, scorer at 25.6 points per game. He and Jayson Tatum are currently combining for a smidge less than 50 points per game, about 93% of the team’s total output.
“That’s definitely a big blow for our group,” Al Horford said. “Jaylen, who’s playing so well, I feel like starting to get his legs underneath him and getting a good feel for everything. And now, for us, we just kind of have to rally around it and this is going to give opportunities for other guys to step in and contribute a little more. You can’t replace a lot of the things that Jaylen can do, but we just have to figure it out as a group when these kinds of things happen, and our team has to come more together as a group.”
TATUM BACK ON TRACK
It’s going to take a few more games like the one in Dallas for set Tatum’s averages back into a normal range, but the 63% overall shooting in his last game is certainly a good start.
“The one thing he was doing was making some quicker decisions,” Udoka said. “We tell him every time he holds the ball, it's a chance for them to load up and double and possibly get it out of his hands. So he was making some quicker decisions overall, but the shots he made were the shots he's been making his whole career and once he got confident and got going, he was stepping into threes doing what he does.”
There is still a matter of the late-game execution, especially now with Brown out for a few more games. Tatum’s putback dunk at the 3:32 mark was his last shot attempt of the game, which is unacceptable for the Celtics.
“If we like the matchup like we did at the 40-second mark when he had (Reggie) Bullock on him, if we like the matchup in those situations, then I’m not going to call a timeout,” Udoka explained. “We were trying to get a two-for-one with 40 seconds left and they ran (Luka) Doncic up. (Josh Richardson) came up and allowed them to double team. So we wanted to clear out and give him space in case he liked the matchup, but at the same time we had the numbers on the backside, Marcus (Smart) drove it, to our credit he got fouled.”
The foul wasn’t called at the time, but it was confirmed by the league’s Last Two-Minute report. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change the main issue of someone other than Tatum taking that shot, which is exactly what opponents want.
“In that one, Josh had Doncic on him and was trying to bring Doncic up, we’d been putting him in a lot of actions, but it allowed them to double team there,” Udoka said. “You can see on the film I’m telling everybody to kind of flatten out, Josh just made a read on his own, and if he recognized Bullock instead of (Dorian) Finney-Smith or one of their better defenders, you can give him space there so we don’t allow the double team.”
So the Celtics need to make better reads in those situations, which is a work in progress, it seems. Udoka is really asking for his guys to play a very high level of basketball in recognizing the nuance of what they need to do. He may also need to be more demonstrative to his players to make sure the message gets through.
FOUL FRUSTRATION
A lot was made of Marcus Smart’s foul on Doncic that eliminated Boston’s chance at a final shot, but little was made of a critical noncall just moments before.
“(Kristaps) Porzingis on the close-out, driving him, and he drew the contact,” Udoka said. “At the time the ref said it was a non-basketball play, which is not the case. The two-minute report said he got fouled before the gather, which would be, if we weren’t in bonus, it’d take you off the shot, but being that we were in the bonus we got the foul ... He made the right play, drew a foul that they didn’t call.”
A pair of free throws certainly would have changed the dynamic of that game, but so, too, would have the ability to grab some rebounds. This game-tying shot was the killer because all it would have taken was Tatum boxing out Porzingis.
From there the entire course of the game could change. Tatum could catch the ball in transition against a retreating defense to get a good look, or someone could take advantage of multiple guys rushing to Tatum to break free for an easy shot.
“As we watched film today it was more of the things that led up to (the Doncic game-winner),” Udoka said. “The offensive rebounds we gave up, obviously taking the foul there, so we couldn’t get the last shot. I’m not as concerned about the shot. It was a tough shot for a guy who’s been struggling this year so far, but it’s the stuff that led up to that that we shouldn’t even have been in that situation.”
OLD MAN AL
Horford is 35 years old, which is young in everyday life but generally past NBA expiration dates. Today at the practice facility, one particular line of questioning for Horford had to do with his ... ahem ... extensive NBA experience.
“My wife she’s like, ‘I don’t understand this.’ Like, ‘Why is that a thing?’” Horford said. “For me, honestly, I'm kind of used to it because when I was 30 here, I feel like people were bringing it up like, ‘Oh, he’s 30!’ right and all this stuff. I play how I play ... I feel really good, physically. I feel really good. I know where I'm at. I know what I can do. And, yeah, I’m 35, but I feel as long as I'm putting in the work, I am putting in the work, I'm doing everything that I need to do, and I feel like I can keep playing at a high level. So, for me, that's not, it is what it is.”
BEN SIMMONS RUMORS
A report in The Athletic suggests the Celtics have called the Sixers about Ben Simmons, and that Philadelphia would want Jaylen Brown in return. The report was later shot down from the Celtics side, but it certainly is generating a lot of conversation.
Simmons' value has never been lower, so it's no surprise that Brad Stevens would call and just ask what it would take to get him. If Philly does, indeed want Brown in return, then we can forget about any Simmons trades happening. If that's the type of return Daryl Morey wants, he's going to have to wait a long time.