Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“(Olynyk) and Tyler had great practices,” said Stevens. “It’s good to see good things happen for those guys.”
That is probably the most Indiana thing that Brad Stevens has ever said. More from Mark Murphy’s notebook:
It’s a level the Celtics will rarely, if ever, reach again. But their offensive performance during Thursday’s win over Sacramento in Mexico City was about as close to Brad Stevens’ ideal as anything in the last three seasons.
Beyond the achievement of four C’s scoring 20 or more points, 34 of their 40 baskets came with an assist attached.
They shot 42.4 percent from 3-point range (14-for-33), and had four players with three or more treys, including Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Kelly Olynyk. All four also topped 20 points for the game.
“Two things. We had a lot of guys shooting the ball, but we also had guys finding the guys who were hot,” said the Celtics coach. “It was good. A lot of those plays were off extra passes. Isaiah literally had an open 3 and he threw it to Jae in front of our bench early on in the game. Then he was open in the corner and someone passed up a relatively open shot for him.
“And everybody found Kelly. That was good stuff. That’s what we want to do.”
The display of basketball that the Celtics put on Thursday night is an example of why the Celtics’ strategy of rebuilding is working. It reinforced comments that Wyc Grousbeck made earlier in the evening about the Celtics’ strategy: “It’s not just the one guy, you’ve got to have a team.”
Two and a half years ago, the Celtics finished the season 41-40 and Danny traded away Pierce and Garnett. A year and a half ago Boston got the number six pick in a very weak draft. Last season they made the playoffs and were swept out of the first round. This season they could, with a few lucky bounces, win 50 games. The Celtics have exactly two players left from the Pierce/Garnett era. They have almost completely overhauled their roster and are an improving squad on the way to the upper third of the Eastern Conference, with cap room, a surplus of draft picks and young capable players. And they did this in about two years.
The Celtics are not a complete team right now. They need veteran leadership to keep their young players focused on the task at hand–and to keep these guys from believing their own press. They desperately need depth at the wing.
But the kind of basketball that the Celtics played on Thursday night? That kind of basketball makes the Celtics very attractive for free agents. On the other hand, if the Celtics do manage to pry loose a franchise player from another team via trade, the kind of basketball the Celtics are playing when they’re hitting on all cylinders is the kind of basketball that will keep that franchise player in town.
And, again, the Celtics have positioned themselves to succeed without hiring a placeholder coach to preside over a glorified employment program for marginal players and arena concession workers. They’ve put themselves in a position to succeed without spending multiple years drafting in the high lottery. Team management and the ownership group “get it”. They’re not pinning their hopes on the NBA equivalent of hitting the trifecta, or convincing a free agent to come to town in order to build his brand. After shipping out their future hall-of-famers, the Celtics have methodically improved every position from the starting five to the end of the bench. They haven’t finished the job yet, obviously, but they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Can the same be said for other storied franchises that have fallen on hard times?
Page 2: Dueling Revenge Games
Two point guards faced off against their former teams in a foreign country Thursday night.
One brought his A-game, while the other didn’t even make it to the final buzzer.
The former, Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas, had one of his best overall games of the season, tallying 21 points, nine assists, six rebounds and four steals in a 114-97 win over the Sacramento Kings in Mexico City.
Granted, Rondo has been having a pretty good season so far. Good enough for people to be talking again about max contract money. Still, Thursday’s game was a reminder of the extent to which Rondo can make himself into a distracting spectacle when he’s having an off-night. It was also a reminder of his comment, once he was in Dallas last season, that he ‘hadn’t played defense in a couple of years.’
Page 3: Marcus is probably coming off the bench when he comes back
When Marcus Smart returns to the Boston Celtics lineup, head coach Brad Stevens said he’ll most likely do so coming off the bench.
“When Avery (Bradley) came back off injury, he came off the bench,” Stevens explained following Boston’s 114-97 win over Sacramento. “When Marcus came back off (a left big toe) injury (earlier this season), he came off the bench just to get into the flow of the game.”
Remember when the entire Atlanta starting five was the NBA’s player of the week? Well, come next summer, maybe Boston’s entire back court will be the NBA sixth-man of the year.
Finally: Mexico City is really high
It is located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de México), a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 metres (7,350 ft)
I didn’t know this before Thursday night. I’m guessing you didn’t either. That’s really high. Like 2,000 feet higher than Denver high. It might’ve been a factor in the Kings’ sluggish play. It might’ve been a factor in the Celtics’ relatively low margin of victory, given how thoroughly they dominated the Kings. Heck, it might’ve even been a factor in Kelly Olynyk’s performance, given his comments after the game and his performance there this summer: “The city, the thin air, the people, the crowd was great tonight, kind of cool.”
The rest of the links
NESN: Celtics Notes: Kelly Olynyk Puts On Show In Mexico City — Again
Boston.com: Celtics player power rankings: Avery Bradley on the rise
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