Jayson Tatum returns to his bench, his gaze serene. He has just finished a counter-attack without difficulty against Cam Thomas. And at the same time to offer his team a 26-point lead (28-2!) after only seven minutes of play. Carnage. Last night in Brooklyn, the Celtics did not go into detail with a final victory of 35 units.
Looking a little closer, we notice that the five of the Celtics has literally dissected that of the Nets. All Boston starters finished with at least +31 in score, where all their opponents finished with at least -26. The latter have scored only 21 points, one point less than Marcus Smart or Jaylen Brown opposite.
” It’s honestly a very good starting five that plays very good basketball against a substitute team.”, summarized Steve Nash bluntly after the matchin reference to the six consecutive victories of Ime Udoka’s men. “We therefore ask them to get to the level of a very high quality five. “
But the step was far too high for Blake Griffin, Patty Mills and the others. Those had to do this night without their “Big Three” (Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving), without Joe Harris and without the rest of the interior sector (LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Claxton or Paul Millsap).
” At the moment, five or six of our best players are not in the squad, they will come back little by little.”, displayed the coach before the meeting. “It will give us time, hopefully, to gain cohesion. We also went there last year. Knock on wood, we will be ready for the start of the playoffs.“
No movement by Thursday?
That prospect seems remote for these struggling Nets today. With their current series of nine losses in a row, they tumble in the standings and only occupy 8th place in the East. Such poor form a few hours before the transfer deadline has reason to speculate on the transfer intentions of the leaders.
Steve Nash thinks on the contrary that nothing will happen, despite what circulates around James Harden. ” The chances of mounting trades before the deadline are very low, especially for our group. So my mind and attention is focused on that group and building consistency as the guys get healthy and try to build it for the home stretch. “
The technician also brushed aside the idea that, failing to change the workforce, leaders are tempted to change coaches to restart the machine. Steve Nash also clarified that this question had not been raised with the management team.
” We are aware of the current situation. We are understaffed. We know what our balance sheet was when we were in good health, we are going through a difficult period. We are all more united, whether it is the owners, the managers, the coaches, the players, everyone has become more united during this period. […] We just have to keep supporting our guys. There’s no way out but to keep your head down and stick together “, finished the coach.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Kevin Durant | 36 | 36.5 | 52.0 | 37.2 | 89.4 | 0.6 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 5.8 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 29.2 |
| Kyrie Irving | 12 | 35.6 | 45.6 | 36.7 | 91.7 | 0.7 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 23.2 |
| James Harden | 44 | 37.0 | 41.4 | 33.2 | 86.9 | 1.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 10.2 | 4.8 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 22.5 |
| Patty Mills | 52 | 31.0 | 43.6 | 42.5 | 88.4 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 13.8 |
| Lamarcus Aldridge | 36 | 22.9 | 55.5 | 31.6 | 85.3 | 1.5 | 4.1 | 5.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 13.4 |
| Joe Harris | 14 | 29.9 | 45.2 | 46.6 | 83.3 | 0.4 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 11.3 |
| Nicholas Claxton | 25 | 21.2 | 63.9 | 0.0 | 56.6 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 5.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 9.1 |
| cam thomas | 42 | 18.0 | 43.9 | 26.5 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 8.3 |
| Kessler Edwards | 22 | 26.1 | 43.3 | 38.4 | 75.0 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 4.5 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 7.5 |
| Blake Griffin | 42 | 18.7 | 41.2 | 23.7 | 73.3 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 4.4 | 2.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 6.8 |
| Day’ron Sharpe | 25 | 12.1 | 58.3 | 25.0 | 69.2 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 4.8 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 6.4 |
| Bruce Brown, Jr. | 44 | 20.3 | 48.1 | 29.7 | 73.8 | 1.2 | 3.0 | 4.3 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.4 | 6.1 |
| Deandre’ Bembry | 47 | 19.8 | 58.7 | 45.5 | 60.0 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.2 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 5.8 |
| David Duke | 14 | 17.5 | 37.2 | 28.0 | 82.4 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 4.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 5.6 |
| James Johnson | 38 | 18.7 | 47.0 | 27.3 | 40.7 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 5.2 |
| Paul Millsap | 24 | 11.2 | 37.6 | 22.2 | 70.6 | 1.2 | 2.5 | 3.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 3.4 |
| Langston Galloway | 4 | 14.6 | 38.5 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 3.0 |
| Jevon Carter | 40 | 11.3 | 31.3 | 31.2 | 75.0 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
| James Ennis | 2 | 6.8 | 28.6 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Shaquille Harrison | 2 | 11.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 |
| Wenyen Gabriel | 1 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
