Official Game Thread: Hawks at Celtics

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

 

 

The rotations were way different.  So was the shot selection!  Solo wasn't out there jacking up 3's.  What are you talking about Trae??

[willthepureshooter]

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

 

 

The only difference I noticed was how Nate handles the 2nd squads minutes. He didn't allow them to lose momentum for our starters. I expect that from a coach with a lot of experience as headcoach in this league. Sometimes folks forget LP's learning how to be a headcoach on the fly. Hopefully, he watches tonight's game and learns how rotations should be used.

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, REHawksFan said:

Last time I checked pts scored at the line still count. He has a PPS of 1.50 which is top 10 in the NBA

Yeah he should attack the rim and get fouled but the ill advised 3's don't draw fouls nor do those shots fall that often.  But if you shoot poorly and turn the ball over, that's a recipe for disaster

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, willthepureshooter said:

 Sometimes folks forget LP's learning how to be a headcoach on the fly. Hopefully, he watches tonight's game and learns how rotations should be used.

3rd year right?  Nurse didn't have any problems

[Peoriabird]

9 minutes ago, willthepureshooter said:

The only difference I noticed was how Nate handles the 2nd squads minutes. He didn't allow them to lose momentum for our starters. I expect that from a coach with a lot of experience as headcoach in this league. Sometimes folks forget LP's learning how to be a headcoach on the fly. Hopefully, he watches tonight's game and learns how rotations should be used.

LP would have had Mays and Trae playing together for 7-10 minutes with Huerter playing the 3 position.  2 point guard line ups are LP's specialty.  Goodwin would have seen some action also.

[JTB]

18 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Y'all keep saying the key to winning is Trae putting up a bunch of shots.  Certainly if he makes them it helps but Trae was only +2 in this game even though he was efficient whereas Mays was +6 and he barely scored which tells you Mays was a lot better in other areas.  I sincerely hope the fate of the hawks doesn't depend on Trae being an efficient scorer because he isn't that type of player yet.

No not putting up a bunch of shots just to shoot but being aggressive as a scorer THEN a passer. This team is better when Trae is looking for his shot then the pass second. He’s not going to have efficient games every night until we get a more organized offensive scheme.

There are things you can do to help Traes turnovers. One is getting Hunter back healthy as he’s starting to prov that he doesn’t need to be setup to have scoring impact on the game. Hunter is figuring out how to attack down hill and take advantage of his matchups on a regular basis. Then we have collins who I don’t feel can score at will like Trae and how Hunter has started to show this season but collins can be extremely impactful if we’d just draw up more plays for him and look for him consistently on mismatches.

Traes not going to avg 8 turnovers per game but he has a lot internally working against him starting  with  this coaching staff and their offensive scheme in place, then not having Hunter to lighten load as the only other on ball scores , and last no real legit plays to get collins better scoring opportunities other than the pick and roll ....I’m not saying the turnovers aren’t Traes fault but there’s too many internal obstacles that need to be fixed that could help him out more offensively 

[JTB]

15 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

3rd year right?  Nurse didn't have any problems

Yeah he was also handed a top 3 seed eastern conference team ...bad comparison.

LP biggest issue is not acknowledging or taking blame. He’s coaching as if there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing. Like his schemes are proven . If we were losing and he was taking blame and trying to implement new stuff I’d wouldn’t be ready to push him out as quickly cause the effort to get better is there.

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, JTB said:

Traes not going to avg 8 turnovers per game but he has a lot internally working against him starting  with  this coaching staff and their offensive scheme in place, then not having Hunter to lighten load as the only other on ball scores , and last no real legit plays to get collins better scoring opportunities other than the pick and roll ....I’m not saying the turnovers aren’t Traes fault but there’s too many internal obstacles that need to be fixed that could help him out more offensively 

Cam did a nice job tonight in the 1st half taking on some of the scoring load because he was finally used properly as a slasher to the basket. Agree with you though...having Hunter back will make a huge difference.  He along with Cam if used properly post Nate will cut down on Trae's usage and hopefully his turnovers

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, JTB said:

Yeah he was also handed a top 3 seed eastern conference team ...bad comparison.

LP biggest issue is not acknowledging or taking blame. He’s coaching as if there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing. Like his schemes are proven . If we were losing and he was taking blame and trying to implement new stuff I’d wouldn’t be ready to push him out as quickly cause the effort to get better is there.

Coaching a vet team is sometime more difficult. plus last year, they didn't have Leonard and without Leonard, they lack a superstar on the roster and still won.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, Buzzard said:

Boston has a problem with size plus Smart is out. I am not sure they can double Trae without Smart.

 

They are an extremely soft team right now.

I still don't know why they don't just give Tacko some rotation minutes.   If anything, maybe he picks up some cheap fouls on people.

Brad Stevens, the boy genius, is failing even more than LP.

[terrell]

52 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

 

 

 

[bleachkit]

2 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

They are an extremely soft team right now.

I still don't know why they don't just give Tacko some rotation minutes.   If anything, maybe he picks up some cheap fouls on people.

Brad Stevens, the boy genius, is failing even more than LP.

What is Brad Stevens supposed to do? He has Tatum, Brown and a team of cast offs and rookies.

[AHF]

1 hour ago, Peoriabird said:

Trae's TS is .538  League average is .56

Completely wrong.  You are quoting his rookie season number.  He is around .590 ts% this season.  Very good for a guard.

[gHost83]

Trae won't throw LP under the bus publicly. He's not that guy. His dad does it for him.  

This isn't the same offense. We made a commitment to scoring in the post first and foremost. If the D collapsed then the ball rotated to the open shooter who could take a shot or pump and drive to the rim. 

This opened up Cam's game.  Although he missed his first attempt, Cam got a great, wide open attempt for either a corner 3, or in this case, step in 15 footer.  He was so wide open from this action that he was able to collect his own rebound and score easily in the paint. 

This team was fast breaking and posting up whenever we got a mismatch down low. Simple basketball but it has escaped us since our first 4 games. 

It helped that Trae connected from deep but the spacing was there from the low post rotation.  Snuck in some high pick and roll (usually 90% of the offense) and used it much more sparingly this game. Actually have a decent backup in Mays (who LP refused to give a shot until his breakout during garbage time in a blowout ) that played very well and composed throughout the game.  Mind you, Trae was able to sit until 7 mins were left in the 4th. He's usually running on fumes around this time. With that extra energy, Trae was able to burst for 16 in the final mins of the game very efficiently.  

The biggest thing I took from this game was Nate's intolerance with silly turnovers. Multiple times when Trae turned the ball over, after regaining possession, Nate called a TO and walked over IMMEDIATELY to Trae to coach him up on the spot on what to do and what got him in trouble. Trae seemed really receptive to this and came back in after being pulled to be really effective.  And if you noticed, it probably was the happiest Trae's looked this season while on the sidelines. 

This is an extremely small sample size but, it damn sure looks like Nate can motivate and coach up a young team. Well respected man. Team looked confident down the stretch. Even with the bad final mins of closing the game, I felt confident for the first time in weeks that we were going to pull it off.  If I felt it hundreds of miles away from the game, I know the players felt it. 

Let's face it. LPs days are numbered, and that's a good thing...

Edited February 18, 2021 by gHost83

[High5]

The Hawks are 7-0 this season when Trae scores over 35. Obviously people are going to read too much into this game. Trae made shots down the stretch and we won. We still tried damn hard to give it away.

Edited February 18, 2021 by High5

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

 

 

 

[NBASupes]

4 hours ago, High5 said:

The Hawks are 7-0 this season when Trae scores over 35. Obviously people are going to read too much into this game. Trae made shots down the stretch and we won. We still tried damn hard to give it away.

We probably will but as much as we love LP work ethic, development skills, community service skills, his brain, and his care for the game of Basketball. Bro just isn't a decent head coach. McMillan isn't perfect, heck, he's very good but very rigid. Could improve his innovation skills and isn't the brain LP is. Few are. LP is like a superman assistant and honestly, I think LP could be a fire ass GM one day, HC might not be his thing. Bro just lacks natural coaching intuition. Nate was calling timeouts when I would call them. He was seeing what we were doing wrong, correcting it on the spot and we would maintain our momentum. LP was like, this is a game of runs, shit happens. 

Nate reminds me of my best coach I've ever had. LP doesn't remind me of any coach I've had but his gameday management skills reminds me of my shitty HS coach who also could talk a smooth game. 

Nate ain't Pop, few is. But he's not far from Carlisle as some think. When your Black and rigid instead of white and rigid. People take your rigidiness the wrong way and they look at you like less than sometimes. 

Nate just wants his teams to play smart winning Basketball. He's not about the modernization of the game. Why Indy got rid of him but for us, why we may need him. We got guys who knows exactly how to play the modern game but no clue on how to play winning Basketball. I think Nate will be good for Trae, Cam, Kevin, Onyeka, JC, and Bruno.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Quote

Let’s immediately get one thing straight: The Hawks did not beat the Celtics on the road and hold a fourth-quarter lead, which has been a struggle all season, because Lloyd Pierce wasn’t on the sideline Wednesday as he’s back in Atlanta for the birth of his second child.

The Hawks beat the Celtics in Boston for the first time since April 2018 simply because their star player played like a star. Trae Young went nuclear, scoring 40 points on 14-of-20 shooting, and he racked up eight assists, too. When Young plays the way he did Wednesday, the Hawks can compete with anyone; it’s just a matter of getting these kinds of performances from him more regularly. When Young scores 26 points (his season average) or more, the Hawks are 10-4. When he scores 25 points or fewer, they’re 2-10.

One of the differences with Young in Wednesday’s 122-114 win as opposed to what we saw Monday against the Knicks was he was certainly more active in controlling this team down the stretch........

Young was active in the passing lanes, composed and not dying on screens, and fully engaged with whoever was in front of him; he even had a deflection when Jaylen Brown tried posting him up. McMillan said Pierce has challenged Young this season to play harder on both ends of the floor, and though he’s still not the best of defenders, he has been more attentive.

“He’s been challenged by Coach (Pierce) to get out there and defend, work at it and play both ends of the floor,” McMillan said. “He did a solid job again tonight just being in the right position and making guys score over the top.”

Everything was working for Young on Wednesday, including his floater, which is his most lethal shot. Entering Wednesday’s game, Young had made only 37 percent of his floater attempts, ranking him in the 32nd percentile, per Synergy. He was 5-of-6 on floater attempts against the Celtics, and when those are falling, he’s hard to stop....................

Young was active in the passing lanes, composed and not dying on screens, and fully engaged with whoever was in front of him; he even had a deflection when Jaylen Brown tried posting him up. McMillan said Pierce has challenged Young this season to play harder on both ends of the floor, and though he’s still not the best of defenders, he has been more attentive.

“He’s been challenged by Coach (Pierce) to get out there and defend, work at it and play both ends of the floor,” McMillan said. “He did a solid job again tonight just being in the right position and making guys score over the top.”

Everything was working for Young on Wednesday, including his floater, which is his most lethal shot. Entering Wednesday’s game, Young had made only 37 percent of his floater attempts, ranking him in the 32nd percentile, per Synergy. He was 5-of-6 on floater attempts against the Celtics, and when those are falling, he’s hard to stop.

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[REHawksFan]

8 hours ago, AHF said:

Completely wrong.  You are quoting his rookie season number.  He is around .590 ts% this season.  Very good for a guard.

According to NBA.com, his 59.8% TS% ranks 41st among all Guards and SFs with at least 15 min per game.  There's 173 qualified players so Trae is Top 75% of the NBA.  

On a PPS basis, his 1.497 pts per shot ranks 11th out of the top 150 scorers in the NBA so almost top 5% of NBA.  If you filter it down to players that actually attempt 10 or more shots per game, he's 6th in the NBA.

No matter how you slice it, it's inaccurate to say Trae is not an efficient scorer.  You can argue his FG% isn't high enough and that's fair, but as far as scoring goes, he's one of the most efficient players in the NBA.