Celts Fight Off Spooky Sixers Comeback, Get The Hallo-win! NBA Cup Victory Cigar vs PHI 10/31

[Green89]

They were anticipating the Sixers would foul immediately.

But Nick Nurse countered by sacrificing time for going for a steal by trapping.

Reason why PP is in there is because he's the best FT shooter on the Cs right now.

It's automatic 2 points if he goes to the FT line.

Credit Nick Nurse for countering with not fouling immediately.

Getting ball inbounds and no steals >>>>>> having a guy you think shoots free throws a little bit better than the others on the floor.

Besides, 7 other players on the team have a higher FT% than PP does this year.

This year? C'mon now..5 game sample sizes don't mean squat. Anyone who follows this team year after year knows that our best FT shooters (in alphabetical order) who you trust to hit FT's with the game on the line are:

Hauser
Pritchard
Simons
White

And Pritchard pretty much never turns the ball over. Even when he's double teamed.

The one who coughed the ball up and turned it over when double teamed in the 4th quarter was JB.

And Simons also had a turnover in the 2nd half where he drove into traffic and coughed it up.

Yet you're throwing a tantrum about Joe putting Pritchard in the game?

And we *won*

Who is the easiest guy to trap on the team? Nurse would immediately trap him if he was in the game, and alas, he did. Too easy for good coaches to immediately use against us.

[doogie_hauser]

Got to give Joe Mazz his flowers.

When asked if he was concerned after we slumped to 0-3, his response was "ask me again at the end of next week"

Mature, calm, composed Mazz is great. Its really fun watching him evolve and develop as a coach. He learnt from our opening night loss, we did a pretty good job containing the red hot Maxey who previously led the league in scoring.

Jaylen regularly dropping 30 plus a game and has improved his shot selection and ball handling (reckon he has worked hard over the off season)

The Prime video coverage is a bit off and it will take some time to used to, but i love their new panel featuring Dirk and Blake Griffin much better than the Negative nellies at ESPN and TNT.

Finally I am pleased at how Gonzales already looks comfortable at NBA level. Hoping he gets more minutes when we play lowly/struggling teams.

[meatball sub]

Moment was too big for Minott there at the end. Hopefully he learns from it and bounces back

[Deivork]

Just came here to say fck Philly and fck the Knicks! Blatan carry by Embiid, thank god we won

[flintsky21]

That was quite a Halloween scare and almost a deja vu of the first game. It seems like when the 76ers are down in the fourth, their 3 pt sliders are suddenly turned up to 99. I don't wanna see them again anytime soon.

[cl2117]

Brown smokes it. He was outstanding.

Hugo had some great minutes out there. Think he'll quickly separate himself from Baylor and Walsh in the pecking order if he can keep his fouling under control. Flying around and making hustle plays is going to ingratiate him to pshyco Joe and he should be able to earn minutes even if he's not scoring (unlike Scheierman).

Even though he shat the bed at the end Minott played well. I'm getting sucked into liking Garza just for the tenacity on the boards. Tillman showing life. There was a lot to like from last night.

It was ugly though. The lead stretched out big enough that it felt safe to joke that we were going to blow it and then Edgecomb made a couple buckets and we went ice cold (Pritchard specifically) and then it started to feel like it was only a matter of time. Almost felt like Brown was in on the tank dribbling the ball away at the end but we got there in the end.

I like this team. It's a gutsy bunch. Pragmatically I know that the worst outcome for this season is being a 7th/8th seed early playoff exit team, but at least if we go down that route it'll be an interesting group of guys to watch flame out.

[31to6]

Moment was too big for Minott there at the end. Hopefully he learns from it and bounces back

agreed, good growth opportunity for him, all part of becoming a legit NBA player

[31to6]

Second half had maybe 3 -- 6 possessions where one guard (Simons, or White, or Pritchard) literally dribbled around for 22 (or more) seconds.
Not sure what PHI was doing defensively, but I was hoping the Cs would focus on getting JB the ball on the elbow a time or four. I appreciate the desire to play with ball movement and pace, and presumably the guards were trying to generate something -- but this is an example of a growth area which will hopefully help them as they go this season. Close game, closing time: sometimes keep it simple and ISO your best scorer.

[darrendaye]

Watch on YouTube

;t=833s

Apologies to the Start Simons Sponsors, I agree with this breakdown (starting at the 11:43 mark)

[ThePigeon]

Watch on YouTube

;t=833s

Apologies to the Start Simons Sponsors, I agree with this breakdown (starting at the 11:43 mark)

I am glad we have both
Like I liked when we had Jrue and PP

They are not battling on the same position. Simons is not a PG. Should be a catch and shoot player that has the ability to get his man off the dribble and finish inside

In this particular game - Simons was +23 - the highest on the team.
PP also knows the team, plays, defensive scheme etc, whereas Simons is the new guy that will need to play heavy minutes as the 6th man and learn through playing

Right now, PP and White are playing below their ability which makes Brown work so much harder. Simons is there to reduce the load and get points, which he is doing pretty well

[playa-hater]

We are playing Houston tonight...where is the thread!!! Parl wake up !!

[return2glory]

Nice win. Would like to have seen us play better the last 3 minutes of the game.

VC to Brown and Garza/Tillman for me. Brown was really good. Both Garza and Tillman had good games.

Hugo was solid. Minott rebounded well in the 4th quarter. He picked up two questionable fouls early in the game and that threw him off a little.

Simons had some good moments.

Off night for Queta.

We are all still waiting on White and Prichard to have strong shooting games from 3. Hope Prichard's ankle is ok.

[Shak_Celts]

Pritchard is not an elite defender, so using him over our 2nd best scorer to end games is wrong. They can both be out there, but I would not play PP in crunch time over Simons. You can't bench your #2 scorer.

I really don’t care about this part of it. You gotta talk to Joe about that. I’m sticking by what I said, Pritch has been fine STARTING, and he’s been our best guard defender.

Three point percentage this season:

Pritchard - 17%
Simons - 40%

What does that have to do with what I said? Pritchard has been fine starting, seems to need repeating. Our starts to most games this season haven’t been an issue at all. You could bring up White’s shooting too, why aren’t you asking for Simons to start over ?

I don’t care who starts of the two, but I’m not going to pretend that Pritch has been the problem in his starts. Remember, I never wanted Pritchard to start in the first place. Other than shooting, he’s been adequate. I truly hope he finds his shot, but he’s been doing other things well. He isn’t perfect outside of missing shots, but he isn’t playing poorly at all.

Who starts has nothing to do with who finishes the game. Be mad at Joe, for choosing a closing lineup you don’t like, not Pritchard for being a starter.

[Shak_Celts]

Moment was too big for Minott there at the end. Hopefully he learns from it and bounces back

agreed, good growth opportunity for him, all part of becoming a legit NBA player

At least he didn’t say I’m gonna make them both and proceed by not hitting one.

[31to6]

Moment was too big for Minott there at the end. Hopefully he learns from it and bounces back

agreed, good growth opportunity for him, all part of becoming a legit NBA player

At least he didn’t say I’m gonna make them both and proceed by not hitting one.

lolz Grant has yet to recover from that. Don't even know if he's in the league at this point -- believe he's with CHA and recovering from an ACL tear, but sadly do not care enough to check