Victory Cigar!!! BOS 116, WAS 107 (7-3)

[ConstableGeneva]

Utter lack of GIFs after the 1st page of a VC thread is concerning. Otherwise good mix of compliments and complaints from everybody.

[grindtime22]

Missed the game. I see everyone talking about Tacko but what's the no bs ruthless analysis on his game tonight? Like, could he possibly be a player even in games where we're not depleted?

Nah, probably not most of the time.

The zone worked pretty effectively with him in the game though. He was really great in the first half, so maybe he can be useful in the right situations. If there are enough non-shooters on the floor, he can maybe buy you some good minutes. It was a pretty great matchup for him with Westbrook on the floor.

[CoP]

I need a screenshot of Beal laying flat on his back after Tacko fouled him. I laughed out loud. Beal was laughing about it too. Late 3rd Q I think. Beal shot FTs but didn't get many if any points after that.

Edit: found it.

Read on Twitter

[CSL_1904]

Clips lost to GSW after being up 22 with 3m left in the 3rd... it happens. Lost by 10.

We were down 17 late in the 3rd against the Pacers and came back to win it. It happens to every team these days.

[Feed Your Head]

Jaylen averaging 26/6/3.5 on a 63% TS, and got his net rating into positive range tonight. The shooting will obviously fall off, but he has been awesome. His team defense drives me crazy, but dude has made a huge jump offensively, he has made some passes that I just never thought he’d be able to. At some point defenses have to start throwing more at him, because he is just feasting.

Tatum is averaging 27/7/4 on a 59% TS, with his usual huge positive net rating. Still needs to get to the line more, but otherwise he’s been having the superstar season we were all hoping for. Teams have just loaded up and thrown everything at him, defenses have made it their mission to not let Tatum beat them, and he has done so anyways. Kemba being back is going to be bigger for him than anyone else on the team, IMO.

Here's an idea, what if it doesn't? What if he's MJ-level now from the midrange moving forward?

(I know, I know, he'll cool off, but there's always a chance )

Obviously we mess around about this, but to put Jaylens start from midrange in perspective. In the years it was tracked, Jordan averaged about 45% from midrange lol.

Jaylen is now down to the mid 60s from that area, starting to regress to the mean. But honestly, I’m far more encouraged by games like the last two from him where it was more about his all around game than unsustainable hot shooting.

[cl2117]

How can you NOT vote Tacko?

Like yeah Jaylen was the reason we won this game, but he'll smoke his fair share of cigars. Tonight was about having no front-court depth and either playing super small or running with Tacko. And our boy stepped up big. Sure he still has glaring holes in his game, but he got the job done tonight in the minutes Brad gave him and that's all that matters.

It honestly felt like I was watching a pickup game at the Y for large portions of it, but despite how ugly it was I found it to be quite enjoyable at times.

I still can't get over the fact that Nesmith can't beat out Javonte for minutes. Good for Green that he's clearly proving himself in practice, but he's basically just a human pogo stick and I didn't see anything out there outside of his pure hustle that showed why he deserved 18 minutes. I'm not trying to knock the dude, but more so highlight it to question what Nesmith is NOT showing Brad because if he can't get run in a game like last night he's gotta be seriously lacking in Stevens' eyes.

[FlatearthZorro]

I love the fact we find ways to win. The Jays nearly went for 60 again. That's some elite ****. I want them both to take over 20 shots a game.

Smart needs to cut down on the dumb plays and ISOs. I liked what I saw from him early in the season when he was just doing his thing on defense and shooting the ball 5-6-7 times a game. That suits him much better than jacking up shots and going 2-3 iso straight while Brown and Tatum are on the court.

[ParticleMan]

i voted JB, tho it was a close call with tacko.

we're missing TT, Rwill, and Gwill. we all love tacko but the fact is all those 3 guys are better than him. i didn't expect this game to be easy. still, if the entire team hadn't forgotten how to play the game of basketball for about 8 minutes, we would have blown them out.

that shouldn't overshadow another blown lead. it just feels like their natural instincts are not good, and unless the team really focuses on playing the right way, they revert to horrible habits as soon as the other team gets a bit of momentum. brad needs to figure this out. it needs to be more ingrained. maybe it's just being a young team. maybe it's missing kemba. but eventually it's going to come back to bite us. the only good news is, so far, we haven't been losing any of these. i suppose that's an improvement from last year.

this **** won't fly in the next game. let's see if the C's can put together a 48 minute effort. they'll need it.

[Setshot33]

A win is a win but they're going to have to fix the offense if they want to win anything meaningful.

Jury's still out on if Brad is capable of it.

[Froob]

Man Tacko going to lose. He deserves a stoogie even tho JB was obviously the best player.

[Shak_Celts]

i voted JB, tho it was a close call with tacko.

we're missing TT, Rwill, and Gwill. we all love tacko but the fact is all those 3 guys are better than him. i didn't expect this game to be easy. still, if the entire team hadn't forgotten how to play the game of basketball for about 8 minutes, we would have blown them out.

that shouldn't overshadow another blown lead. it just feels like their natural instincts are not good, and unless the team really focuses on playing the right way, they revert to horrible habits as soon as the other team gets a bit of momentum. brad needs to figure this out. it needs to be more ingrained. maybe it's just being a young team. maybe it's missing kemba. but eventually it's going to come back to bite us. the only good news is, so far, we haven't been losing any of these. i suppose that's an improvement from last year.

this **** won't fly in the next game. let's see if the C's can put together a 48 minute effort. they'll need it.

I think it's our defense, when they let down on that end our offense is quick to follow, when our D is good our offense clicks. It is so weird how bad we get on d when our weakest defenders are gone or out. IMO it is because of offensive load, it's different for the jays and Smart. That's why most scorers aren't defenders, too much energy on D saps the energy for shooting, and in the NBA, shooting and scoring is everything.

[return2glory]

For some many people here that have said for a long time that Tacko sucks and he doesn’t belong in the NBA, it was nice to see Tacko shut some people up by playing well.

Tacko will keep on improving and playing better and making an impact in this league like he did yesterday.

[Half-Full]

The victory cigars go to our second unit players, Payton Pritchard, Semi Ojeleye, Javonte Green, and Tacko Fall. It is very gratifying to see the positive impact they had on the game. Some, Pritchard and Ojeleye, have been performing above expectations pretty much from the get go, alongside GWill, and RWill. Nice to see Javonte getting some minutes and showing he is worthy of them. He played very well defensively, and who doesn't love a Javonte dunk? Then there's Tacko. To this point, he has been a true end-of-bencher who would mostly get garbage time minutes, but in out time of need he stepped up to the plate big time. The Jays continue to play like stars, and Theis and Smart were solid. The only poor grade to be given goes to Jeff Teague. How many times has he driven the paint, thrown up a floater or short jumper, and front rims it? He's had one good game thus far, and he needs to show a bit more.

[AgentGreen]

Brown with the double double. Shoutout to Tacko!

Again we make it way too hard for ourselfs. This team just loses their focus when they are on a big lead, most of the time it has to do with the horrible rotations we start to push during these kind of runs. Pritchard was kept way too long on the bench.

Nesmith got no minutes at all with 3 main players out of the game. Damnn! Stevens is icecold.

[TheMartian]

Brown with the double double. Shoutout to Tacko!

Again we make it way too hard for ourselfs. This team just loses their focus when they are on a big lead, most of the time it has to do with the horrible rotations we start to push during these kind of runs. Pritchard was kept way too long on the bench.

Nesmith got no minutes at all with 3 main players out of the game. Damnn! Stevens is icecold.

I've been off the CBS train for a while now, but it really is on him to keep the team focused when the team starts to blow big leads. The problem is, he doesn't know when to call a timeout or make the right substitutions to help the team keep their big leads. I really hope he figures this aspect of his coaching out.

[AgentGreen]

Brown with the double double. Shoutout to Tacko!

Again we make it way too hard for ourselfs. This team just loses their focus when they are on a big lead, most of the time it has to do with the horrible rotations we start to push during these kind of runs. Pritchard was kept way too long on the bench.

Nesmith got no minutes at all with 3 main players out of the game. Damnn! Stevens is icecold.

I've been off the CBS train for a while now, but it really is on him to keep the team focused when the team starts to blow big leads. The problem is, he doesn't know when to call a timeout or make the right substitutions to help the team keep their big leads. I really hope he figures this aspect of his coaching out.

That's why i hate playing against the Heat. Spoelstra is one of the best in calling timeouts. His calls are so annoying, he kills our teams flow most of the time. He only allowes a 6-0 or 8-0 run mostly before he calls a timeout.

Stevens reminds me of Casey when we talk about calling timeouts, just not good at timing it and keeps watching his team pound the rock. He really needs to improve this and he's been our coach for 8 years now. Surely he's got to improve this in some kind of way now. The problem is also that he doesn't have any veteran presence on his staff. We really could've used someone like D'antoni next to him as an assistant especially because we lack an offensive specialist on our staff. What's McHale doing these days? Could be a good addition to our staff as well.