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.
When Markieff Morris‘ shot attempt bounced high off the back rim, the Boston Celtics had five bodies standing in the paint, all with their eyes tracking the possible rebound. Behind them, four Washington Wizards began to retreat.
But from the weak side of the floor, Washington’s Otto Porter Jr. made a full-throttle sprint into traffic. Why not, right? The undersized Celtics and their woeful rebounding abilities had rarely discouraged a glass-crasher this season.
With a bit of a bump from behind, Porter was able to push through Isaiah Thomas and haul in the rebound. The sight of Porter not only outleaping Avery Bradley — while Thomas stumbled and Boston big men Amir Johnson and Kelly Olynyk stayed rooted to the ground — but emerging with the ball while surrounded by five green jerseys hammered home Boston’s struggles early in the 2016-17 season.
Porter, fouled while going back up the with one of his seven offensive rebounds, produced a career night with 34 points and 14 rebounds over 38 minutes. The Wizards as a team rebounded a staggering 41.3 percent of their misses and generated 33 second-chance points off 19 offensive rebounds en route to a 118-93 triumph over the Celtics at the Verizon Center.
The Celtics returned home Wednesday night ranked dead last in the NBA in defensive rating (112.3 points per 100 possessions), defensive rebound percentage (70.8 percent) and total rebound percentage (45.3 percent).
ESPNBoston – Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas: ‘We’re not the hardest playing team’
My brother (big fan of Red’s Army) and I usually text before, during and/or after every Celtics game and when he asked me how I felt about last night’s game in the hours before tip, I told him not good. “What, exactly, has changed since the Nuggets game that is going to magically make this team rebound over Marcin Gortat?” If I was especially prescient, I would have switched out Gortat for Otto Porter, but the point remains: The Celtics can talk about getting tougher, about being in the right spot, about being scrappy again– sure, that’s great, but will that solve their rebounding woes?
I’m not sure it will. Are Tyler Zeller and Amir Johnson going to eat up boards while Joakim Noah and Kristaps Porzingis just step aside and abet in the effort? Effort is part of this, but the Celtics’ bigs, sans Horford, are shitty rebounders– Gortat had five offensive rebound last night, Sunday it was Kenneth Faried with five, Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez combined for eight when the Bulls were in town last week.
Could the Celtics be playing harder and with more focus, especially early in games? Absolutely. They could definitely grab some more boards and limit some second-chance buckets with better effort (that Porter put-back… that had me cursing loudly at my TV). But let’s face it, until Horford and Crowder come back, effort isn’t the cure-all that will fix rebounding. Guys didn’t shut Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman down on the boards because they pledged to give more effort than them– they were just better at it than you. Most bigs in the league are plain better than Tyler Zeller at gobbling up rebounds and until he’s out of the starting lineup, expect opposing bigs to get 5-6 extra chances per game.
CSNNE – Isaiah Thomas: ‘We’re not the hardest playing team no more’
On page 2, Kelly Olynyk knocked some rust off
Before playing 26 minutes during a 118-93 loss to the Washington Wizards, Olynyk had not appeared in a game since last season’s playoffs. He underwent offseason shoulder surgery in May.
“It felt good. I mean the shoulder felt good,” Olynyk said after scoring two points on 1-for-6 shooting. “I’m just trying to get back in the rhythm and obviously getting up and down and in sync with everybody. But felt good, felt strong. I’m getting some wind back but it was good.”
Olynyk botched a wide open layup early and struck the front rim on a number of jumpers, but also took a charge and impacted a few shots in the paint. After the Celtics took a 15-point deficit into halftime, the big man started the third quarter for Tyler Zeller.
Mass Live – Kelly Olynyk not bothered by shoulder in return to Boston Celtics
It wasn’t pretty, but having Kelly Olynyk back and playing a significant load of minutes is a sigh of relief for a team in need of capable bodies. Kelly won’t really help the rebounding woes, and he’s not an energizer-bunny who will solve the effort issues, but once this team is back to full strength and Olynyk has worked his way back into game shape, his spacing and offensive creativity will be a huge boost.
Something to remember over the next few weeks as we watch Kelly– it takes most guys a few games to get back into rhythm after injury, it takes Kelly a few weeks. This is completely anecdotal, but I think the stats would back me up, after the initial shoulder injury before last year’s all-star break, Kelly wasn’t the same player again. It may have more to do with the nature of the injury than the player, but it was a very slow ramp-up to the guy who was growing comfortable as an offensive weapon in the first half of last season. We’ll see how long it takes this year.
And finally, let’s not set the wrong kind of history again on Friday
According to @bball_ref, that’s just the 37th time since 1954 a team was outscored by at least 26 points in the 1st quarter.
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) November 10, 2016
Maybe not watching the tape this time is the way to go. All that Nuggets film review led to this turd of a first quarter.
The rest of the links:
Herald – Celtics hit lowpoint in blowout loss to Wizards
CSNNE – Marcus Smart exactly what Boston Celtics starting lineup needs right now | Stars, Studs, and Duds
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