Your Lunchtime Dump... Where the Celtics got their spark plug back

~~Every~~ Almost 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.

“We’re going to need you to really give us a spark,” Stevens said.

Stevens knew that Thomas would provide a boost because he always provides a boost. But in this case, as the Celtics plodded through another road trip with more long flights, Stevens also knew that Thomas should be reinvigorated.

“He hadn’t been doing anything all week,” the coach said with a chuckle.

And with the game tied at the start of the fourth quarter, Stevens put Thomas in and did not take him back out. Thomas was a key part of the Celtics’ defining 15-0 run, as they ultimately snapped their losing streak with a 96-88 win.

Boston Globe

Last night’s game was a mixture of good Celtics and bad Celtics, which shouldn’t be unusual at this point. What was encouraging was the extent to which Boston, when they were clicking, were able to get both stops and points. Boston’s defense has tightened considerably over the past month, and against some fairly stout competition, but they have had trouble with rebounding (duh) and converting stops into points. Part of that has been an offense discombobulated by just about everybody in the starting lineup missing time with injuries (remember when AB was the injury-prone one?) and part of that has been, well, idiopathic. However, I expect that, with a healthy IT ‘bending’ the defense and creating opportunities for the rest of the team, and with the reserve unit settling into consistent roles and assignments, we will see more of those 15-0 runs.

Remember, a key aspect of the Celtics’ late season hot streaks last year were games that they were able to ‘open up’ in the third quarter. Rarely did Boston walk away in the first half, but they were able to wear down teams on a regular basis by taking advantage of their comparative youth and healthy depth. Frankly, this team–when healthy–should be expected to win every game where they play a team that has a short bench and/or an injured rotation player.

Page 2: Jonas Jerebko will be a spot starter

“Generally our starting lineup’s been pretty good; we just haven’t gotten the chance to play with it very often. So there will be games where Jonas starts — probably not quite as many as Amir — but certainly there will be games like tonight when we just felt like we needed the skill on the floor and we wanted to match the (centers) up with Al (Horford).”

For the game, the first unit with Jerebko outscored the Hornets 37-21 over 14 minutes. The starters with Johnson had far less success, getting beaten 16-10 over seven minutes.

MassLive

Jerebko as a spot starter is an interesting idea made possible by the Celtics’ acquisition of Horford during the off-season. Of course, in the early going, an idea kicked around by fans & reporters was that the C’s would start Olynyk alongside Horford and that KO would play the center spot. That hasn’t been done yet, and given the horrendous rebounding problems that have surfaced this year, I don’t expect that it will happen.

But this Jerebko thing–that’s an interesting idea. The Celtics do not want to play Al Horford at center full time, which is one of the reasons why this isn’t going to be the C’s everyday lineup, but there are occasions where the other team’s center–or the other team’s style of offense (or both: viz. Rockets)–are going to favor Horford in the 5.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Johnson/Horford/Crowder/AB/IT lineup is better than +9 per 100 possessions this season (and that lineup has accounted for only three of Boston’s 12 losses), so it’s not as though starting Amir at center has been a disaster.

Page 3: Stevens and Bradley talk about the Celtics’ slow start

“I don’t even know our record,” Avery Bradley said before the game. “I don’t pay any attention to it, to be honest. The year is still young and all we can do is just focus on how we’re playing, not the record. It doesn’t really matter or mean anything yet.”

Nevertheless, Bradley called Friday’s game against the Hornets a must win. Isaiah Thomas scored 26 points after missing the last four games with a groin strain.

…

Horford (concussion) and Jae Crowder (ankle) also missed time earlier this season, but no NBA team can count on being fully healthy. Good teams win despite injuries.

“I don’t think we should use that as an excuse,” Stevens said. “At the end of the day, that’s part of the game. Certainly we’ve missed some guys, missed some games. My hope is that we can get a little bit of steady play here and see how we look healthy.”

Providence Journal

I agree with Stevens: Injuries are not an excuse for poor individual play among the guys who are on the court. However, as much as I like Bill Doyle, I have to take exception to this line of reasoning: “Good teams win despite injuries.”

This is a trite comment. If you define a good team as a team that wins despite injuries, you’ve created a tautology. “a good team is a team that wins with injuries and you can tell that they’re a good team because they win despite injuries.”

Let’s face it. We are not talking about bumps and bruises–we’re talking about the Celtics having their starting lineup intact for less than HALF of their games so far. At this point in time the only rotation players that haven’t missed time are Rookie Brown, 2nd year man Rozier, Bradley, Jerebko and Johnson. Tell me that the Spurs, Warriors, Cavs, Raptors, or whoever, have had that many injuries.

Yes, a “good team” should be able to handle a few injuries. But we’re not talking a few injuries here. Again. Half of Boston’s rotation guys have missed multiple games this season. Where do you think the Warriors would be if Thompson, Green, Curry and Durant had all missed multiple games so far? They’d probably be doing a bit better than the Celtics, but would they have anything close to the record they have now? Exactly. Thank you. That’s the point.

Page 4: Where the new CBA means fewer free agents, probably.

So there will be a smaller pool of top talent the C’s can go after with straight free agent pitches, which will have the club leaning more on trades and draft-and-development to get the talent it needs to take what is still a giant step from where they are to where they want to go.

There could still be some interesting people in the market next summer — we say “could,” because in most cases, such as with Durant, it would require the player opting out of his present contract.

Boston Herald

This is true. Fortunately, Boston is not restricted to rebuilding strictly through free agency. They have plenty of assets to deal with, and now that this team is healthy, I think it will be interesting to see how good they really are.