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.
While the offense has looked ugly at times, the quality of shots isn’t that different from last season. The Celtics are averaging 30.3 “Open” and “Wide Open” three-point attempts combined per game this season (Open = defender 4-6 feet away, Wide Open = 6+ feet away). They averaged 26.6 such attempts a year ago, so they’re actually getting better looks. The difference is last season they shot 38.1% on those attempts, whereas this year they’ve hit just 31.4%.
Basketball hasn’t changed since last summer, the NBA is still a make/miss league, and the Celtics are still one of the best teams in the league. They just need to start making more open shots.
NBCSports Boston — Cancel the approaching apocalypse, the Celtics offense is fine
Boston is 2–2 and it looks like this will be a heavier lift than expected for Brad Stevens. Boston’s defense is fine — second best in the league, with all small-sample-size caveats attached — and has been the catalyst for its two wins. It has kept them in games they would have otherwise shot themselves out of. That’s where the problem is: The offense has been pedestrian at best, and even worse when you look at the rest of the league: Boston ranks second to last in offensive efficiency so far.
The Ringer — What’s wrong with Boston’s offense?
John elaborated on the Celtics offense earlier this week and that was before the Cs stinker against Orlando on Monday.
And so as we’ve sat here over the last two days and watched the Raptors win again with 120+ points, the Bucks run up the score on the Sixers (both the Raps and Bucks are undefeated), and Steph Curry put up more than half of the Celtics Monday total in one less quarter, we’re all a little anxious for tip off tonight. No, if the Celtics lose and struggle offensively tonight, the season isn’t over, but one gets the feeling that if that does happen, we’ll continue to have the feeling that the rest of the league is sprinting off the start line while the Celtics putt-putt along.
The Celtics have missed a bunch of open looks and as Brad likes to say, water seeks its own level. At the same time, the Celtics seem to be forcing things and settling for long 2s in isolation situations far too often.
It’s going to come together, it has to come together. There is too much talent here for it to not. But can it please happen tonight? Please?
Related links: NBC Sports Boston — NBA scoring is on the rise, but is that a good thing for the Cs?
On page 2, not Celtics related, but please read the Darius Miles story!
I remember one day I was running late for practice, so I was flying down the 405. All of a sudden, I look in the rearview, and I see the flashing lights. This unmarked police truck is right up on me. Tinted windows. Big heavy-duty truck. Woop-woop.
I knew I was speeding. So I pull over, and I roll the window down, and I’m reaching over into the glove compartment to get my papers ….
… Then I hear this voice. Big, booming voice.
“WHERE YOU G’WAN, BOY?”
I’m like, Damn, they got the sergeant on me or something?
I turn to look out the window, and I can’t even see this dude’s face he’s so big. All I see is his chest.
“I SAID WHERE YOU G’WAN BOY?”
Then he bends down and looks in the window.
Big, dumbass grin on his face.
It’s Shaq.
I’m like, “Yo! I’m going to practice! You made me late!”
He don’t miss a beat. He taps side of my truck, turns around and says, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll pay your fine. Just holler at me.”
I’m looking in the rearview mirror, like, How the hell …
Shaq’s got one of those old-school police lights that you put on the hood of your car like you see on C.O.P.S.
He gets in, laughing his ass off, waving at me.
Editor’s note: Shaq would really be messing with you like that. He was the coolest dude in the world. Remember he invited us over to his house for New Year’s Eve?
I don’t even really know how to describe what was going on …. We walk in the crib and Shaq’s got this movie on his big screen. Like a DVD. And it’s real professional. It’s a real movie. Only it’s Shaq and his boys just messing around, fighting ninjas and shit. I’m talking real extras, throwing ninjas stars and everything. And Shaq’s got this crazy wig on, and he’s doing Kung-Fu flips and flying through windows and whatnot. It was crazy.
Editor’s note: I turn around and Mystikal is standing there, eating a potato chip or something, watching this movie, like, “Damn …” I was buggin’ out. I was like, “Yo! Is this real life?”
The Players Tribune — What the hell happened to Darius Miles?
This was my favorite anecdote in a story full of them (jet skiing at Alonzo Mourning’s; the adult chicken pox; Shawn Kemp giving Darius dunking advice; the origination of the two taps on the head move). Miles and his “editor,” Quentin Richardson, talk about what it took to get out of East St. Louis and about the adjustments they did, and didn’t make once they became millionaires in the early 2000s NBA.
Miles ends up out of the league and bankrupt and if ever there’s a story that encapsulates the post-Jordan era, this is it.
Worth a read.
The rest of the links:
NBC Sports — Aron Baynes out Thursday vs. Thunder
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