Official Game Thread: Celtics at Hawks (7:45 PM tip!)

[lethalweapon3]

“The Champs Are Here! And I ain’t talkin’ no Gators!”

 

Welcome back to your NBA cradle, Aliznotacenter Joel Horford Reynoso!

I’m not here to suggest Al would have gotten The Larry Foust Treatment by the folks up in Springfield, Mass, for the crime of Retiring as a Hawk. I am certain Horford would have been inducted eventually, had he bit his tongue and settled for the not-quite-Supermax offered up by A$G and, after a half-decade or so, put his pecs on rice and packed it up, around 2020 or so, as a Hawks Lifer. Because True To Atlanta, and whatnot. Whether he would have lived long enough to receive The Call, well…

Instead, there is little doubt left. Not after Horford added an NBA championship ring to rival the NCAA pair he gained in Gainesville. Certainly not after doing it with the laureled Celtics franchise, turning his current NBA residence into Bawse-ton with his quintessential role in giving the Celts an 18^th title trophy, matching the 18 shamrocks back when he X-claimed, “CELTICS PRIDE!” to announce his 2016 escape from Atlanta.

It was quite the circuitous path, for both Al and the Celts, in getting Boston Banner #18 to get back ahead of their hated Lakers. But now that it’s done, the naysayers about Horf’s HOF credentials are just about permanently muted.

Top 100 All-Time in career rebounds and blocks? A handful of Coach’s Pet All-Star nods? Led Atlanta to a conference final, or maybe two? Plus the Gator rings, and a All-Star Weekend Shooting Stars trophy? Big Bowl of Meh. Short of guiding the Hawks organization to the shores of Banner #2, scratching out a path into Springfield as The Longest-Tenured Atlanta Hawk of All-Time would have been a hard road to ATL-hoe.

Especially with yahoos like me on The Internets, and calling into 92.9, ragging him for the balance of his NBA tenure because his oft-expressed unwillingness, across multiple coaching regimes, to start at the hallowed 5-spot. Paraphrasing the 6-foot-9-ish big-man’s Sam-I-Am harrumphs: “Yeah, I’m still starting at center. No, I don’t have to like it. I hope Atlanta appreciates my sacrifice. After all, I put my chest on the line every night!”

Horf longed to be a full-time-Four, wishing he could hone his back-to-the-basket and mid-range offensive skills on the fly. But from Zaza Pachulia to warmed-over Elton Brand to Pero Antic and Tiago Splitter, the Hawks’ management and ownership never took his demand to be pulled from the pivot with any measure of seriousness. Which made his (and his pops’) decision to bail for Greener pastures all the more comprehensible. “Wait, don’t leave us, Al! Look, here comes Dwight Howard!”

Fast forward eight years later, and Horford is universally regaled as the ultimate professional team player. He comes across as the luckiest of leprechauns to be in The Association, past age 38, starting at center for a perennial title contender. Even were Kristaps Porzingis upright, Al would still be happily subbing in as a backup center.

Of course, we are talking Modern Day center. And by Modern Day, that’s the transition from “P.J. Brown IS a 4,” to, “P.J. Tucker IS a 5.” Proto-centers like Howard, and Kendrick Perkins, staples of the league during Al’s NBA Wonder Years, can now be found on your ABC Family of Networks for a host of reasons outside of getting paid to play pro-hoops.

Perhaps the failed exodus to Philly to dance with Joel Embiid scared him straight. But between then and today, Horford has committed himself to the defensive-minded stretch-big role that has cemented his NBA longevity, and apparently his legacy. His present-day attitude is, “Call me a 4, call me a 5, as long as I’m a Celtic, just call me.”

“P.J. Tucker IS a 5,” after all, is how Clint Capela wound up on a Hawks club desperate for any semblance of rim-protecting competency.  Mike D’Antoni wanted his Rockets lofting more threes than twos (NBA-low 49.9% of FGAs were twos by the close of 2019-20, so fait accompli), height-in-the-paint-be-darned. In 2014-15, daring to shoot less than 60 percent of shots within the 3-point arc, as the Rockets had done (58.1; Al’s Bud-Ball 60-game winners were 4^th-lowest that season, at 66.1) was considered a novelty.

In the space of a few seasons, 60+ percent 2FGA proportions had become so Two Thousand and Late. Capela, despite his stellar FG% whenever he wasn’t hacked in time, was seen to be weighing down D’Antoni’s pacy-spacy gameplans, as once Coach Pringles popped below the 50 percent 2FGA frequency watermark (48.0 in 2018-19, one season before), he couldn’t stop. Suddenly, at the 2020 Trade Deadline, Houston no longer had a problem. “Good luck playing in Atlanta, Clint! Eventually, that is. We’ll do just fine with the 6-foot-5 wide-load Tucker in the middle. He shoots threes, y’know.”

Joe Mazzulla is basically Mike D’Antoni if you locked away the latter’s antacids. Yes, Coach Mazz has demanding fullcourt defensive expectations of his roster, from Player 1 (who everyone understands is Jaylen Brown) through 17, from seasons 1-through-18. Yet he and his staff are downright maniacal about perimeter shots, making last year’s NBA-low 52.8% proportion of twos look gargantuan in the outset of this season (44.9% through 7 games, as per NBA Stats).

Basically every action bringing the ball inside the paint, led by alleged Olympian and All-NBA 1^st Teamer Jayson Tatum and Brown (sitting out with the trendy hip flexor strain), is a decoy in hopes of Letting It Fly. Boston (6-1, after a pair of back-to-back wins at CHA; NBA-high 50.1 3FGAs/game) dares opponents to stop their top wing threats without bringing help in the paint.  If extra defenders bite, it’s dish-and-dine time, especially when the rock finds its way out to Derrick White (47.4 catch-and-shoot 3FG%), Payton Pritchard (48.6 c&s 3FG%), and Horford (50.0 c&s 3FG%), each of whom are granted over 4 or 5 perimeter shot-catches per game.

Utah gave the threes-or-bust scheme a go in 2021-22 (NBA-low 53.2 2FGA frequency %), producing a relentless perimeter attack even with Rudy Gobert and Hassan Whiteside planted in the paint, that had its producer, coach Quin Snyder, looking almost as astute as the late, great Quincy Jones. Having recovered from the painful 2017 departure of Gordon Heyward to, well, yeah, the Jazz had three consecutive seasons of 50+ wins or equivalent from 2018 to 2021. With this D’Antoni-Lite scheme, Utah sat atop the West at 28-10 in January 2022, before a host of untimely injuries -- to Donovan Mitchell, Gobert, Joe Ingles, etc. – left the team unable to get back on track, and Snyder feeling maxed-out at postseason’s end.

Were Utah able to sustain their success and finally break into The Finals in 2022, Snyder would likely be in SLC today, and definitely somewhere other than Atlanta. Here, he inherited from Nate McMillan a number of Modern Day Quin-darys, including the conundrum of achieving high offensive efficiency, led by Trae Young (NBA-leading 11.7 APG; 12 dimes and just 2 TOs @ NOP) and the emerging Jalen Johnson (29 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists yesterday, when he wasn’t taking off like a Flintstones car with the ball), with a lesser version of Gobert (please don’t shove me, Clint, I’m fragile) obligated to at least starter’s minutes.

Capela arrived here in 2020 right on time to help the young upstart Hawks compete in the 2015-2021 era of NBA post-play... after all, who’s guarding Embiid, Alex Len? Regrettably, the 30-year-old Capela’s NBA sell-by date will arrive sooner than it will for the likes of elders like NBA champs Brook Lopez and Horford, who have been able to maintain their defensive tenacity while expanding their offensive range.

It’s why Atlanta sorely needs Onyeka Okongwu, who rested his went-to-market piggie during yesterday’s 126-111 win over the similarly shorthanded Pelicans in New Orleans, to play meaningful minutes tonight (7:45 PM Eastern, FanDuel Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, NBC Sports Boston) and put his best foot forward, or center, or whatever, if Atlanta is to elevate into a playoff-competitive rotation anytime soon.

The Hawks have its healthiest collective in the frontcourt, with wily vet Larry Nance, Jr. demonstrating he’s ready to pop out and show at a moment’s notice. But it’s rendered useless if those players can’t get out from under the basket to contest the likes of Horford and Tatum, and if they’re unable to secure the long caroms that come when opponents miss on their trey tries. Even with a hardwood version of turf toe, Onyeka has the best foot speed to pop out and show (pick-and-roll style), to get out and properly contest along the perimeter, to recover and secure rebounds, and to beat his man down the floor in transition.

Through five off-the-bench appearances, Okongwu’s 18.3 points and 2.4 assists per-36, 71.4 2FG% and 84.2 FT% would shatter the bests of his prior four seasons in the league. Two turnovers in over 120 minutes logged isn’t too shabby, either. But he has to improve upon last season’s 33.3 3FG% (2-for-9 thus far) and get his rebounding prowess back above 10 per-36 (5.3 D-Rebs per-36, below last season’s career-low of 5.9), in order for Snyder to justifiably call for a formal changing of the not-guard.

At the other end of the floor, Mazzulla is happy to treat Horford to a spell as a starting PF. On the second night of the back-to-back in Charlotte, after plugging Luke Kornet in Horford’s stead the night before, Boston started Al alongside The Big Commodore, with Brown sitting out. He may get to do so again, today, not that he cares anymore.

Mid-Sized Al is centered in his happy place, and it’s not as a neglected also-ran center in Atlanta. That has worked out for the best for both NBA clubs. Had Horford stuck around, his “aura,” as the podcast kids say, would be nowhere near where it is today. And we’d have been at our battle stations right on through his premature retirement, shouting at Hawks management like Full Force: “Can’t You See? Al is not a... C!”

 

 

Errybody Getcha Vote On. What? Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

In the rematch in Charlotte, the Hornets sunk as many threes, one more actually, than the Celts (just 16-for-52 on threes), on ten fewer attempts. They still won by ten thanks to a 28-to-9 advantage in FT attempts.

Boston's sole slip-up thus far was on October 30 (happy belated 58th by the way, Coach Quin), when they got just above their average with 51 3FGAs in regulation, but Jaylen Brown was way off (1-for-11 3FGs, going clank-for-clank with Haliburton's 2-for-10) and they couldn't keep Pacers sub Benn Mathurin (9-for-11 FTs by himself) off the charity stripe. The Celtics scrambled back from 24 down in the 4th, off a Tatum triple assisted by Pritchard, but gave up the winning three in OT to another suddenly stretchy big, Pascal Siakam.

Around here, Mama Horf would never admit to sneaking in that tried-and-true Stove Top stuffing.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Brown continues to sit out for now, but FWIW Boston has re-activated Sam Hauser (injury mgmt, strained back). Okongwu is off his injury mgmt spell for Atlanta, but it's business-as-usual for the remaining Hawks on the IL (Dre, Bogi, Vit, Ko-B all Out).

~lw3

[macdaddy]

Al going back to his mama's house like David Ortiz

 

[ShayD]

Payton Pritchard is a player that needs to be kept in check, he is one of those guys that can win the game by himself if you aren't careful.

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

ATL-hoe.

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

P.J. Brown IS a 4,” to, “P.J. Tucker IS a 5.”

Crazy times  

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Errybody Getcha Vote On

Yes sir! Thanks lw3!

Go Hawks!!!

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Carmine]

Celtics 3 point shooting + our perimeter defense. Not a good combo. Like what i'm seeing from Jalen early on.

Looks like Trae is in crackhead mode early on tonight, need a big bench performance tonight.

[terrell]

Ball movement Trae.. Ball movement..

3 minutes ago, Carmine said:

Celtics 3 point shooting + our perimeter defense. Not a good combo. Like what i'm seeing from Jalen early on.

Looks like Trae is in crackhead mode early on tonight, need a big bench performance tonight.

Smh

[ShayD]

I spoke about Pritchard and he already has 5 points. I guess the Hawks didn't get the memo or didn't prepare hard enough.

[Spud2nique]

Some bs Celts by 2 in OT.  

[Carmine]

We need to keep attacking the paint. I don't think Tatum has it in him to keep up that scoring pace.

[ShayD]

Tatum hitting some ridiculous 3s but the problem is the rest of the celtics being kept quiet. The Hawks cannot let up or this game will get out of hand.

[Chrimturn]

Lodi Roddy

He gots a big body

Helpin’ with the three’s

But he ain’t guardin’ nobody

[SalvorMallow]

Where are the Jalen haters at?

[MaceCase]

Jalen getting to the cup in the halfcourt?!  SHoot it in my veins

Edited November 5 by MaceCase

[terrell]

Go Bench...

[ShayD]

This is why Trae needs to play less minutes. Trust the bench Quin.

[SalvorMallow]

JJ with 13-6-3-1 in 11 minutes against the Celtics on the road.

[kg01]

Good job taking advantage of their 'others'.  Jalen shld get feet in the paint all nite long, Lionel Ritchie.