By the end of the night, the NBA’s postseason second round will be officially set — first from 30 teams to 16 and soon just nine shall remain. Throughout the regular season — and for much of the last two years, actually — the biggest, most important question has been repeatedly asked ad nauseam: Can
Boston Celtics
Previewing the second-round series between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics with shot charts, assist maps, offensive style charts and expected win probabilities. Shot charts The Milwaukee Bucks took no time in dispatching the Detroit Pistons, who were without a healthy Blake Griffin for the entirety of the series. As evidenced in the point per
The Celtics stealing Game 1 from the Bucks was a surprise. Doing it by shutting down Giannis Antetokounmpo was shocking. Things looked dire for the Bucks early in the first half of Game 1. Giannis Antetokounmpo was struggling to get buckets inside and the 3-pointers weren’t falling. Boston led by nine at the end of
By the end of the night, the NBA’s postseason second round will be officially set — first from 30 teams to 16 and soon just nine shall remain. Throughout the regular season — and for much of the last two years, actually — the biggest, most important question has been repeatedly asked ad nauseam: Can
It’s easy to overlook Zhaire Smith considering he missed 76 games in what should have been his rookie season. But overlooked and unimpactful are very different things. And it’s hard to argue the potential impact Smith can have on the basketball court. In college, Smith was a reliable contributor in his lone season at Texas
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – APRIL 21: Kyrie Irving #11, and Gordon Hayward #20 of the Boston Celtics hi-five each other during Game Four of Round One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers on April 21, 2019 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – APRIL 19: Gordon Hayward #20 and Kyrie Irving #11 help up Terry Rozier #12 of the Boston Celtics during Game Three of Round One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers on April 19, 2019 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees
The Boston Celtics used a late run to power themselves to a 2-0 series lead over the Indiana Pacers. After one of the ugliest games in recent playoff memory, Game 2 between Boston and Indiana felt at times like a complete reversal of Game 1 — and still, neither team managed more than 1.07 points
BOSTON, MA – APRIL 14: Jayson Tatum #0 of the Boston Celtics drives to the basket in the second quarter during Game One of the first round of the 2019 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers at TD Garden on April 14, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and
In this latest edition of Basketball Insiders’ “Fixing” series, we’re going to take a look at the one team that arguably has the least fixing to do: The Sacramento Kings. Just saying that feels so unordinary knowing the Kings’ reputation. In a season that had no shortage of surprises, the Kings’ sudden uprise ranks among
Previewing the first-round series between the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers with shot charts, assist maps, offensive style charts and expected win probabilities. Shot charts In the chart below, Jayson Tatum’s shots (as of April 4) are displayed in terms of relative density by distance. The shot areas are broken up as less than eight
Last year in this space, we introduced a metric called Wins Above Age-Derived Expectation, or WAADE. It measures exactly what it sounds like: how many more wins an NBA team actually gets than you would have expected them to based on their minutes-weighted age. In introducing the metric, we highlighted several teams that stood out
If Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving team up in free agency this summer, they’re shaping up to be a highly dysfunctional star duo. By most accounts, it’s inevitable Kevin Durant will be leaving the Golden State Warriors in free agency this offseason. Kyrie Irving professed a commitment to the Boston Celtics at one point, but
This season has not gone the way the Boston Celtics were hoping but anything can happen in the playoffs. The Celtics were expected to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. After last year’s run to the Conference Finals, it was assumed that a healthy roster and another year of development for
As franchises have been eliminated from postseason contention, Basketball Insiders started to diagnose their ailments and offer future plans of attack. Unfortunately, it may take a whole lot more than that to fix the New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans, who now find themselves in a unique circle of basketball misfortune, had a frustratingly inconsistent campaign
For the past two weeks, Basketball Insiders has taken a look at the teams who have been eliminated from playoff contention and what they should do in order to get themselves back into the playoffs. Next up in the series is the team with the stickiest situation of all the eliminated teams – the Memphis
As one would expect from a 76ers-Celtics matchup, things got a bit chippy between these two Eastern Conference powerhouses. The rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics is one of the best in sports, and last night the NBA world was reminded why. With the playoffs almost around the corner, these two teams are jocking
There’s a reason why “Unorthodox” is the operative word here. There were several big winners from the trade deadline. Philadelphia got the perfect and relatively young scorer in Tobias Harris to put next to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. Toronto added an experienced, jack-of-all-trades center in Marc Gasol to cement their status as a contender.
The Boston Celtics have gone from perfectly set up for the future to uncertain about the present. Here’s why this summer could be a triumph or a disaster. It’s 6 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2018. The NBA season is still almost two weeks away from kicking off, and 29 teams are feeling varying degrees of
While the Atlantic Division has been the class of the league in 2018-19, it is also ripe for change come free agency. I covered the potential for change in Toronto last week – the Raptors looked well-positioned for the present as well as the future– but it’s not only Toronto that could be in for
Al-Farouq Aminu remembers when he was on a minimum contract. It was five summers ago in 2014. The Dallas Mavericks had signed him to a two-year, $2.1 million deal with a player option for the second season. After playing as a rookie with the Los Angeles Clippers and spending the next three years in New
As we move into the final stretch of the regular season, it’s important for the real contenders around the league to narrow down exactly what combinations of players they want to use during the postseason. Matchups will, of course, dictate personnel in most playoff series, but that doesn’t mean teams can’t start preparing for the
The Boston Celtics’ Kyrie Irving questions a call during action against at Orlando Magic at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. The Magic won, 105-103. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS via Getty Images) NHL Trade Rumors: FanSided’s updated trade bait board by Simon Vacca This is what perfection looks like by
The day after the trade deadline passed, LeBron James had some interesting things to say about the arms race that was going down between the Eastern Conference titans. “They know they ain’t gotta go through Cleveland anymore,” James said. “Everybody in the East thinks they can get to the Finals because they ain’t gotta go
Welcome to The Whiteboard, your daily source for the previous day’s best NBA content from around the internet, plus an original column. Catch The Whiteboard here on The Step Back, and subscribe here to get it delivered to you via email each morning. There’s this great 21 Savage song right now called a lot where the
The Celtics have the talent to win an NBA Championship but the chemistry is off. Can a deal before the trade deadline set things right for Boston? Coming into the season, quite a few NBA observers were convinced the Boston Celtics were the class of the Eastern Conference. Things haven’t gone that smoothly for Brad
After a demoralizing loss in Orlando last week, the mood was predictably heavy in the Boston Celtics locker room. Players hunched over their leather seats, blankly staring forward as their thoughts remained on the missed opportunity from just minutes before. Terry Rozier sat numbly in his stall, finally on the same page as his teammates.
After being told for weeks that the Boston Celtics were not on Anthony Davis’ list, we’re now being told AD would be cool with wearing Celtic green. Many in the media were being told for weeks that Anthony Davis was not interested in being a Boston Celtic. Now, on the eve of the All-Star Game,
As his Boston Celtic teammates got some shots up to prepare for a morning practice in Cleveland, Gordon Hayward sat in a chair on the baseline watching. Quicken Loans Arena held a particular place in his mind. Not because of a championship memory, nor for any individual accomplishment. But because nearly five months after an
Throughout the week, Basketball Insiders has released post-deadline rankings on teams in various divisions around the NBA, and next up is the Southwest Division. The Southwest is incredibly diverse this season. It features a team that is gunning for the NBA Finals, teams that can’t decide to what extent they want to tank and everything