5 points for the Boston Celtics to lose the advantage of 24 points and lose to Pelicans

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The Boston Celtics dropped the rope and allowed the New Orleans Pelicans to react and claim a 120-115 victory in overtime on Sunday.

Five lessons from a game that seemed very familiar to Boston.

Celtics’ struggles in the fourth period are becoming inexplicable (and inexcusable).

On Sunday, Boston’s biggest advantage was extended to 24, with 6:29 to go until the end of the third quarter. After three quarters, the Celtics were leading by 13. With less than five minutes left, Nicolo Melli buried a 3-point basket to place the Pelicans to three.

Once again, the Celtics – whose net rating of -6.4 before Sunday’s defeat was 26th in the NBA – a big advantage exploded in the fourth period, and this time, they failed to recover. After seven promising quarters, covering Friday’s victory and most of Sunday’s defeat, the discussion will again focus on how these disputes keep going. Until they find out why these games go wrong, each clue will seem tenuous.

“It’s a trend enough, a concern enough,” said Brad Stevens. “We have to stop this. Last year, at that time, we were in very good shape at those times. Not this year. It was not good. That was a lot like the game I watched them play the other night. They got a big advantage, there was a lot of game left and you have to do sensitive things on the defensive end. You have to do hard kicks on the offensive side, and they did more than we did. “

Boston’s defense against Zion worked … for a while.

One of Brad Stevens’ true strengths over the years has been to design defenses that can handle players like Zion Williamson – skilled and physically imposing athletes who are not snipers.

On Sunday, Williamson experienced the tangle of arms striking and nudging the ball that has plagued players like Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Giannis Antetokounmpo over the years. Williamson finished with 28 points from 11 out of 21 shots, but in the first half, he seemed particularly troubled by the defensive attention. Tristan Thompson was excellent at using his size against Williamson’s strength.

Williamson, like Antetokounmpo, was at his best when he started with the ball in the perimeter and made his way towards the rim. This opened the game before the Pelicans’ defensive pressure in the fourth period helped them to rise back.

“Coaches make adjustments,” said Rob Williams. “He saw something he liked. We felt that we could have handled pick-and-roll better, we could have helped each other better. I have to take things and learn from them. “

Kemba Walker really fought after several good games in a row.

A lot has been said about Walker’s recent attack, and with good reason – he was shooting well on the field, and the Celtics were having some success when he was on the ground.

Sunday’s performance was a return to Walker’s worst fights, however. He finished with 14 points on a 5 out of 21 shot and made just one of his 12 3-point attempts. The Celtics hope that their recent larger sample of good basketball is a better indicator than Sunday’s problems.

See why afternoon games are so weird for teams during COVID

Afternoon games can be an awkward experience, as players who are usually preparing for a 7:00 or 7:30 pm report are forced to show up early in the afternoon, or even in the morning, to warm up for 1:00 pm tips.

During COVID, the process is further strengthened, as teams also need to test before the game.

“It’s really significant, just because our guys have to test at 11pm before the afternoon games the night before, and again in the morning,” said Stevens. “Considering that you would usually go to the test at 5 for a night game, and then you would test in the late morning. Therefore, 23h is the biggest difference from the test point of view. But I think most guys, we’ve played enough games in the afternoon, or some games in the afternoon now, I think we’re probably more used to it, but this is the only part of playing in the afternoon with tests. “

ESPN continues to get the origin of the ‘Timelord’ incorrectly, and the originator is fed up.

Robert Williams was nicknamed “Timelord” by the subsection of Weird Celtics on Twitter by Celtics fans, who initially named him for journalists and media experts who overreacted to Williams, who missed the first day of Summer League training in his debut season. The nickname caught on and ESPN comments on it frequently. On Sunday, commentator Doris Burke took viewers through the origin story.

The only problem: ESPN was wrong in origin.

Here it is pic.twitter.com/T9Moc5sU44

– Kumar Ramanathan (@kumarhk) February 21, 2021

The chart the network showed missed an important distinction, saying that Williams is called “Timelord” because he was late, not because media experts gave too much importance to his delay.

Two Twitter users – @Riffsman and @Cosmis – were the creators of the nickname. Riffsman was a huge Williams fan in college and hoped to bring Williams to Boston for life. Contacted by Boston.com on Sunday after ESPN aired its chart, he said he was frustrated by the network’s error because it continued to illuminate the wrong part of Williams’s initial term.

“I defended him when he was late,” he said. “I was the only person who stood up for him, I think, because it was a stupid thing for people to be angry about, and it became something they talk about it every day, and I’m sick of it. He’s been an amazing citizen and athlete all along.

“Tell them to hit or cut the bullshit.”