It was just yesterday that we were relaying the latest stories on the dysfunction in Boston, including Jaylen Brown‘s comments from earlier this week on the “toxic” environment created by the Celtics‘ losing. Just 24 hours later, the team appears to be in a better place – at least for now – after hammering the defending champions in Golden State.
Asked about the difference between Tuesday’s showing and some of the Celtics’ other recent performances, Kyrie Irving suggested that a long cross-country flight to the Bay Area provided a good bonding opportunity for the club.
“That long plane ride helped us out,” the Celtics’ star point guard said, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com. “I’ll just say that. That long plane ride helped us out. We needed it. It was just we were going to get to a point where we were just going to get tired of fighting each other, fighting the outside world. And it doesn’t even really matter. So, we just wanted to come out here and just play basketball. This is our sanctuary. And we have to do everything to protect it. We can’t let anybody infiltrate it.”
While we wait to see whether the C’s can build on Tuesday’s win going forward, let’s round up a few more items from around the Atlantic…
- If the Knicks‘ offseason plan involves aggressively pursuing Kyrie Irving, the drama in Boston this season has to be viewed as a potential red flag, Mike Vaccaro argues in a column for The New York Post.
- Count Clippers head coach Doc Rivers among those who believes the trade sending Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas was the right move for the Knicks, as Marc Berman of The New York Post details. “I think they know what they’re doing,” Rivers said of the Knicks. “Who knows why, but I have a feeling they know what they’re doing. Porzingis said he didn’t want to be there. I get that. If you want to be with the team, great. If you don’t … I thought [president of basketball operations] Steve [Mills] and [GM] Scott [Perry] handled it very well.”
- Tim Bontemps of ESPN.com examines the challenge facing Sixers head coach Brett Brown, who has been tasked with incorporating a pair of newly-acquired stars and developing strong team chemistry within a short window.
Celtics better without Kyrie. Danny should’ve traded him for picks.
shoulda coulda woulda. hes there so they gotta figure it out
Klay Thompson didn’t play last night, but Gordon Hayward scored 30 showing he can still play. Boston needs his scoring bad. Durant and Thompson both say they think Boston is their biggest challenge.
Bucks and raptors bef to differ both have utterly dominated celtics this year with a healthy celtics squad too.
Read what I said. Durant and Thompson have said in articles this year that “they believe the Celtics would give them the greatest competition.” Celtics have had injury issues this year like everyone else. You don’t know squat about east coast teams. You think Hassan Whiteside is the best player on Miami. Kyrie has missed 15 games this season and isn’t playing back to backs. Hayward wasn’t playing back to backs early in season. Horford, Baynes, and Brown have missed multiple games. When you comment about east coast teams, you don’t know what you are talking about. West coast games are on too late. I only know what I read.
Hayward has has a few great games. The problem is he usually follows them up with terrible performances. He isn’t the same player, it’s just one game.
Sixers have to re-up Toby, Jimmy, and JJ. They cant let any of them walk and replace them in FA, they can only sign 1 different max player if the retained 0 of the 3. Unless they were getting KD or Kawhi, they need to reup all 3. This team will be very expensive in the years to come. JJ needs to take a pay cut being that he has been overpaid the last few years and will be 36 6-7M range is all hed get on the open market as a no D 3 36y.o.
Agreed. I feel like JJ wants to be in Philly because he has been getting overpaid and has had the best 2 seasons of his career.
Best 2 seasons definitely because he’s the 4/5th option and everyone of the planet knows he can shoot it. Now he’s able to catch and shoot with a lot of space thanks to all the dudes he has that can get to the rim around him
Yea the only other guy that would fit the bill is Marco and the let him go. Neither can play a lick of defense, they try but they’re blown by instantly.
They need a PG more than Redick at this point, assuming Tobias & Butler are retained. What would Simmons think about that? Does he not want them to get a fulltime PG?
The Pacers offered Reddick more than the Sixers last summer, so they had to increase their final offer to keep him. He was ready to sign with the Pacers.
I remember, I’m talking ab moving forward tho. Hard to see him getting more than Korver got (7.5M). Millsaps 30M will get declined, Gasol (24M?) may opt-out foolishly, leaving LBJ and Iggy (17M) the only other high paid old heads. Everyone else is sub 5M.
The fact that Kyrie had 17 points and 11 assists on only 15 shots is key. The rest of the team was able to get involved. Makes a difference if you know that the best player is going to trust his teammates.
Amen to that!