Taking Stock: Celtics – Thunder

After every game, we'll take stock of how each individual performance affects the player's overall value.

Starters

Avery Bradley:  Not a bad performance on the offensive end, though he's still nowhere near good enough to be a primary ball handler yet.  And I guess we're all looking at Avery's 3 blocks and not Westbrooks 31 points and dribble pentration as a marker of his defense?  Is that right?  Avery played pretty well last night, but he's still got plenty of room for improvement on both ends.

 Paul Pierce: When the shots weren't falling (5-15 fg) he got to the line (12-16 ft).  And that's what you need to do as a primary scoring threat. 

Kevin Garnett: Call him older, slower, whatever.  His impact on the Celtics offense is palpable.

 Mickael Pietrus:  I was debating on whether to give him the uptick in value or not, but his shot seems to be falling and he took more 2's than 3's.  He was in a tough situation, though, and he was only a -1 in a 15 point loss. 

  

Ray Allen:  More than his good shooting, I loved his 7 assists.  Ok, not more than his shooting.  We need his shooting more.  I'm just glad he can shoot again.   

Bench

Sorry, the whole bench gets the big, fat red arrow.  JaJuan Johnson is the only guy who might not deserve it, but our bench was outscored 31-9.  That's a 22 point difference in a 15 point loss. 

Is this entirely fair to the bench?  Not really.  I recognize that.  Two of the starters two day are normally bench guys and they're being asked to step up against the best team in the league. But that doesn't change the fact that this bench is still well behind where it should be.  They should be better than this.  Even if it's marginally better… they should still be better than this. 

Coaching

Doc Rivers:  I'm not sure what he's supposed to do in this situation.  

OVERALL 

The comeback gets points, but the 30-3 run negates those.  The starters get points, but the bench negates that.  The good feeling about some progress being made gets points, but the loss negates that.  I've never been so happy for an All Star break to come.