Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

  Jordan Walsh's first two seasons in the NBA with the Boston Celtics did not bode well for his career in the Big League. Over 61 games in the 2-year span, he averaged only 8.5 minutes per game and his accuracy from deep - mid-=range and free throw line did not bring back memories of Larry Bird . But the kid, now 21 years old, has found his way. This season he is hitting on 56% from deep - 39% on his treys - and 80% from the charity stripe. And he just keeps making hustle plays, on both offense and defense. Listed at 6'6"/6'7" and 205 pounds , his 7'3" wingspan becomes very apparent on his offensive rebounds, putbacks, blocked shots and deflections.  But beyond his God/Nature-given tools , Walsh's intensity, desire and fire are unequaled. His defense kept him in games for his first two seasons, but now he has become a legitimate 2-way player . Jordan Walsh 22 PTS, 7 REB, 3 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 8/8 FG, 1/1 3FG, 103.4% TS vs Wizards https://t.co/6F...

 The Celtics Brad Stevens Feels he has a keeper in Neemias Queta - as evidenced by the 3-year, $7.2 million contract the 7-foot center signed prior to the 2024-25 season.  The Portuguese import has the size, athleticism and youth (25 years old) to man the center spot for Boston, and he has started this season on a good note. In the two games thus far (both wins for Boston), Queta is averaging 6.0 PPG and 3.5 RPG in a mere 9.0 minutes per game . He still lacks a reliable shot from any distance, but he is a menace around the rim - at both ends of the court. Shout-out to Neemias Queta for his hustle ☘️ He was working HARD against the Wizards last night. Finished with 12 points (5-7 FG) and 7 rebounds (4 off) in 14 minutes off the bench: pic.twitter.com/GHDsZDsdqm — Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) October 25, 2024 Queta is also foul-and-turnover prone , but those flaws can be corrected with more floor time. Right now, he is a potential double-double guy who also is a solid rim ...

 Call it revenge or payback - or perhaps simply demonstrating to the Boston Celtics that trading him (Danilo Gallinari) to the Washington Wizards was a mistake ( per BasketUniverso's Francesco Manzi ): Boston sold Gallo to the Washington Wizards last month, in the trade that brought Kristaps Porzingis to green and white. From his words, it seems that Gallinari did not take well the fact of being "unloaded" after only one year, spent all in the infirmary among other things. “I am loaded, I can not wait to play against Boston. As soon as the calendar comes out I will put an X on all the times I play against Boston in Boston” said Danilo Gallinari. A few weeks ago there was also talk of a possible cut by Washington, but that track seems to have cooled down a lot. There were reasonable hopes regarding Gallo's potenbtial to help bring Baaner 18 to Boston in the 2-22-23 season, but those hopes ended when the Italian star was injured in international play in the summer of 20...

 This reported pre-draft deal can certainly NOT be referred to as one of the : "tweaks to the roster" that Brad Stevens had mentioned. Marcus Smart is destined to join the Memphis Grizzlies in a 3-team transaction and the Celtics will, in turn, acquire the Wizards Kristaps Porzingis and the 25th overall pick in today's NBA draft.  Boston will send both Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala to Washington - to be joined there by the Grizzlies Tyus Jones . The Celtics will also receive Golden State's protected first-round pick in the 2024 draft. Porzingis will alomst-certainly have an immediate positive effect for his new team, but the hurtful part of this deal is the departure of Smart , the longest-tenured (9 seasons) Celtic. He was also the heart of the team and the pace-setter. This will be a blow to so many Boston fans that idolized The Wolverine's dedication to in-your-shirt defense and extraordinary hustle.   And thank you, sir, for what you did for my family ...

  First Quarter Moments C's step up on D for the first play of the game. Which leads to a easy JB bucket in transition. I expect plenty of easy hoops tonight! JT just abused some dude getting to the cup! JT just abused homeboy yet again! Dude is just too little to guard JT!  These Wizards uniforms are absolute garbage! JT with the hammer DUNK off the pass from Marcus! Als offense has been hit or miss lately. C's need to wake the heck up and blow these guys off the dang floor.  MB is in and making an impact already! C's playing to the level of their opponents which makes me sick. Wake up please! Nice defensive stand, causes a shot clock violation. We need to make a run to finish off this quarter. MB for threeeeeeeee!!! That's my dude right there.  C's play decent D and give up an offensive rebound. Clean it up guys! Getting beat by nobodies is unacceptable... Listening to Scal as this game progresses to gets worse is annoying! Stop playing with your food and feast! P...

 As it turns out, Malcolm Brogdon was only biding his time . Well, "his time" came last night in the Celtics 112-94 victory over the Washington Wizards. He scored a-point-a-minute during his 23-minute stint on the court, hitting on 6-of-12 from the field, 3-of-5 from the arc and a perfect 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. Along with Brogdon's 23 points, his two rebounds and four assists - and overall outstanding play - landed him the Gatorade-Player-of-the-Game award . Much deserved, and we knew this performance was in the cards. Did a little bit of everything off the bench 💪🏾 @MalcolmBrogdon7 is tonight’s @Gatorade Player of the Game pic.twitter.com/fgJis3U8Ft — Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 31, 2022  Malcolm's come-out game was no fluke. He is a class act that will add much to the Celtics success this season. "Cohesion" is how one Celtics fan describes part of what he adds. Way to go Celtics! They played with more cohesion, purpose, and force. Grea...

  The Bradley-Beal-to-Boston talk just won't stop . Adding his $36.4 million salary for 2022-23 to the Celtics already-tax-bound budget might sound ridiculous, but dive into it a bit. Beal has a Player Option for the upcoming season - has been with the Washington Wizards for his entire career - has ZERO Title rings - and has already earned $178 million in the NBA. He is buddies with the Celtics Jayson Tatum , and Boston took Golden State to six Finals contests. The Green, particularly with the addition of another star, would be prime contenders for the 2023 Championship. Wic Grousbeck seems ready to pay a significant luxury tax bill, but it is doubtful if he would agree to shelling out $36-42 Million to get Beal in Boston, but here's the kicker. How much money does a person need? Contentment in life usually rises with addition money - to a point, after which extra loot may do much for the ego, but little for quality of life. Will Bradley Beal take a significant pay cut ...

 The NBA trade deadline is February 10th, two weeks away. Celtics bulldog, Marcus Smart , is now eligible to be traded, and this his tenure in Boston will be in the limelight . Despite his shooting woes, I view Smart as a vital piece-of-the-puzzle for Brad Stevens and Ime Udoka . In the past two games, both wins for Boston, the fiery guard posted team-highs (+36 in each game) in plus/minus . Against the Wizards, he shot 4-of-9 from the field and 2-of-6 on treys - not bad. Versus the Kings, he took only three shots, missing all of them - but still came away with plus-36. NBCSports' Chris Forsberg  recently wrote that the Celtics quartet (call if "core" if you see fit ) of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Rob Williams and Smart ranks fifth in the NBA in net rating when they are on the floor together: Working in his favor: The Celtics’ four-man lineup featuring Tatum, Brown, Williams, and Smart has a net rating of plus-15.3 in 363 minutes together over 20 appearances this s...

  NBA.com's Sreve Aschburner just wrote what I, and many other Celtics fans, have been thinking since the start of this season - namely, that the talent on the Boston roster is too damn good for this level of mediocrity to continue. Steve Aschburner:  Maybe I’m just analyzing according to laundry at this point, but  the Boston Celtics thrashing around at .500 or worse  for much of this season has surprised me. Having two tremendous wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown somehow has turned into the my turn-your turn dead end of the unsatisfying Paul Pierce-Antoine Walker days. I get that point guard has been an issue and Al Horford is well past his prime, but Marcus Smart is tough, Robert Williams III is delivering in the middle and I simply assumed Brad Stevens taking his coaching chops upstairs meant he would replace or surpass them with his choice of sideline successor (Ime Udoka). I get it, they’re vertically challenged defensively, but I cannot believe this m...

      1st Quarter             So far the Celtics are coming out with purpose. If this team doesn't play with purpose the season may be lost. If they can find some motivation and purpose this could turn into a very special season. With that said play some stinking D! How about a shout-out for GWill nailing threes like Steph Curry.              And just like that the lead has shriveled up. This group can't handle a lead at all. I miss the Big Three, both versions. I'm sorry but today's brand of basketball is trash. Until we get a coach who is willing to embrace quality basketball we are going to struggle.        2nd Quarter       We need an overhaul of our other pieces.  JB and JT are in it for the long haul. Can a GM and Coach actually maximize this these two?  Right now Brad and Ime are not. We needed a real GM and Coach and we got rookies in that area. ...

      First Half Thoughts       1st Quarter      Early games last year hurt the Celtics. They never seemed to be awake for the start time . Jayson Tatum started off with a nice fall away but not much after that. A few to many 3s. Schroeder-to-Horford is a combo we saw again.        Jaylen Brown seemed more focused, cutting and scoring off an Al pass. He had a sweet left handed layup. Not to mention a spectacular fall away jumper.        JRich was balling.. GWill is back to earth with his shooting . JParker seems spry once again . Celtics trail 25-20.       2nd Quarter       JRich making a case to get regular minutes . With the smooth floater and 1 . He also was willing to go to the hoop and get to the line. Just like DS did as well.        JB brought the hammer again, yet Montrezl wanted no part of it . He had a nice hang in the air and finish. A sweet...

 With the news that Marcus Smart won't play this evening versus the Washington Wizards due to a non-COVID issue, we can expect Dennis Schroder to get the start once again. Over the last two games, the German import has averaged 35.2 MPG, 22.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 7.0 APG and 1.0 SPG - all while hitting 53% on 3-pointers . It was known that Dennis was going to be a pace-setter for Boston. But the 3-point accuracy was not ( per MassLive ): “He (Schroder) upped the pace, increased the pace as soon as he got in tonight, but he’s done that in the last three games, all season, actually,” Udoka said. “More so making shots in these last three games when he started the last two on the road. But his pace changes our tempo, changes our team, and we get out and get much more easy baskets. So he’s finding his groove overall. We gotta get more off the bench, but we can’t just say that because some of our starters struggled as well.” Schroder opted to go with Boston's team-friendly deal this seas...

     While last night's outcome wasn't what we expected or wanted, there are some positives to take away. You ask - what are those positives? Check out these stats! From Horford and Williams III, a   combined 29 points on 65% shooting from the field, 50% on 3s. 22 boards (8 offensive) - 5 assists - 2 steals - 5 blocks and only 2 turnovers . Now that's something we can all get used to game in and game out! My compliments to Tom putting these numbers together.       We have the smartest readers out there, so as you can tell our Sentinel Citation Award goes to? Drum Roll please, Al and Rob the two headed "Big" monster .          Al did it all last night, honestly he looked like a younger version of himself! He was crashing the boards, hustling for rebounds and getting his hands in there defensively! He posted up and nailed some threes. He got the crowd into it . Let's not forget he blocked Harrell twice in one play , o...

Celtics Coach, Ime Udoka , calls it "intensity" and "focus" . I call it "mental and physical toughness" . Whatever you call it, The Green didn't exhibit much of it in last night's 116-107 at the hands of the Washington Wizards at TD Garden.( per NBA.com's Ken Powtak ): ''Our intensity and focus wasn't there from the start,'' Udoka said. ''You could see it in the first quarter; honestly from shootaround, where I got on them for lack of focus.'' Boston center Al Horford was noticeably upset after loss. ''I expected us to come out here and win, and be at a certain level,'' he said. ''We need to be better than this. There's a lot of work ahead for us.' Wizard's Coach, Wes Unseld, Jr . has obviously inherited his Hall-of-Fame dad's penchant for intensity, focus and toughness - and in turn passed all of that on to at least one of his guys by the name of Montrezl Harrell ....

      First Half Thoughts       First Quarter        The Wolverine to RWill started tonight's game with a bang on the alley oop . RWill once again keeping the ball alive on both rebounding ends. Romeo is out again let's hope it's not a pattern. Celtics fans we got to see Marcus nail a 3 but also miss a few. Just wish he would pass some of those off .        Al Horford has been doing everything and I mean everything. He's been crashing the boards, and putting together some great D on Kuzma. His hands were active on D and deflected an alley oop. He had an excellent pass to RWill . He scored off a pick and roll with our Resident Pest, Dennis Schroder , It was NBA Jam City for Al! We saw Al cut off a great pass from Brown..       Defensively, at the beginning the Celtics seemed tighter on their switches and had active hands. Jaylen Brown nailed a three in the face of the D. We saw Jayson Tatum take i...

  The Celtics had a great game against the Raptors. (Note: it really hurts me that I have to call a game in which the Celtics played to their level of talent - Great). The team dished out 30 dimes. Jaylen Brown led the C’s with 10 while Tatum contributed with 9. What does it mean when those two guys have that kind of assist total? It means that they were moving the ball the way Brad Stevens intended. But like so often with this team one “great game” means multiple games where they go back to selfish basketball. Against the 2 worst teams in the Eastern Conference the Celtics had 15 assists vs Detroit followed up by 14 vs the Wizards (one of the worst defensive teams I have ever seen). That’s a total of 29 assists vs the drudges of the NBA or 1 less than they dished out against Toronto. That brings us to last night against Denver, Yes, Denver came in to Boston banged up and we absolutely should have won, but that can’t take away from what we saw...beautiful ball movement and 26 assis...

The Celtics recent 2-game skid came against the two bottom-dwellers of the Eastern Conference - the Detroit Piston and Washington Wizards. Last night's victory came against the Denver Nuggets, currently ranked 7th in the West. When I talked to Danny Ainge yesterday, he spoke about the need for the #Celtics players to compete with a greater sense of urgency. Their play thus far tonight vs the #Nuggets ... pic.twitter.com/HIayOHgia5 — A. Sherrod Blakely (@ASherrodblakely) February 17, 2021 The "sense of urgency" uttered by the Celtics boss clearly indicates a lack of total effort at times by his crew. Losing in succession to two of the worst teams in the League and following that with a convincing win over a much-stronger opponent  doesn't bode well for the Celtics' 2021 post-season. "Urgency" suggests running, cutting, movement on offense and defense - going for every rebound - never taking a single play off. This is no secret. Taking it easy against we...

The Celtics blew a 28-point lead in this one but still managed to come away with the 116-107 victory over the Washington Wizards. The Jay Team starred as usual, with Jayson Tatum scoring a team-high 32 points and Jaylen Brown notching a double-double consisting of 27 points and 13 boards. With centers Tristan Thompson, Rob Williams and Grant Williams out for seven days due to COVID protocol, Daniel Theis had an efficient outing with a line of 10 points via 4-of-7 from the field and 1-of-1 from 3-point-territory. He added six rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block. Love this sequence. Tacko with the block - Smart gains control - quickly outlets long to Tatum for the fast break. Need more of that. https://t.co/7mYTFlrNpf — Tom Lane (@CelticsSentinel) January 9, 2021 The short-handed Celtics needed the subs to come through, and they did just that. The much-maligned Semi Ojeleye started at the power forward spot - logged 27 minutes - scored eight points - took down five rebounds ...

I am not broaching the idea of Danny Ainge bringing Isaiah Thomas back to Boston without having given the thought a lot of consideration. Isaiah played his best ball in the 2016-17 season during a time which must have been the low point in his life, dealing with the death of his sister and a persistent hip injury. Isaiah Thomas on if he would be open to playing for the #Celtics again. “For sure, if the opportunity presented itself. I hold no grudges, and they know that. I have genuine love for Boston. If that were to happen, I’d love to be part of what they have going on. You never know.“ pic.twitter.com/JK4yaJp2Ab — Celtics Direct (@CelticsDirect) February 21, 2020 In 40 games this season for the Washington Wizards, IT produced 12.3 points per game in 23 minutes of floor time, while adding 3.7 assists/game. He shot 41% on both field goals and 3-pointers and 82% from the free throw line. He was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and subsequently waived, making him a free agent...

Celtics rookie Tremont Waters took to the court for only seven minutes in the Celtics 99-94 loss to the Wizards last night, but he made the most of them. He put up eight points and assisted on a Grant Williams' 3-pointer. The youngster just knows how to get opponents off balance in order to get to the hoop and score. He almost always seems to be in control. “Tremont is just a bucket-getter ... When you put him in the game, he’s always looking to make something happen, and usually he does.” On a night when our offense struggled, rookie Tremont Waters proved to be a bright spot. https://t.co/SpNe0VO6nI — Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 7, 2020 Waters is perfectly capable of hitting the long ball, but he often takes the hard road - driving into the pack to put up a shot attempt or get the ball to a teammate. He can be difficult to stop ( per NBA's Taylor Snow ): Waters scored six points during the final 4:30 of the third frame, which helped Boston to cut a seven-point de...