Category: Boston Celtics Blog

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Celtics trade Vincent Poirier to Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder has acquired center Vincent Poirier and cash considerations in a trade with the Boston Celtics. In return, the Celtics receive a protected 2021 second-round draft pick.

Poirier (7-0, 235) appeared in 22 games during his rookie season with Boston, registering averages of 1.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 5.9 minutes per contest, shooting 47.2 percent from the floor and 85.7 percent from the free throw line. The French native also saw action in four games on assignment with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA G League, averaging 16.3 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and a team-leading 3.00 blocks in 26.5 minutes per game, shooting 62.2 percent from the field and 90.0 percent from the charity stripe.

Poirier’s salary for the 2020-21 NBA season is reportedly around $2.6 million.

Celtics extend qualifying offers to Tacko Fall and Tremont Waters

The Boston Celtics have extended qualifying offers to center Tacko Fall and guard Tremont Waters.

Signed as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Central Florida, Fall averaged 3.3 points (78.6% FG) and 2.1 rebounds in seven games with the Celtics last season. The 24-year old also averaged a double-double (12.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg) in 29 games played with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA G League, and was named to the 2019-20 NBA G League All-Defensive team.

Waters, 22, played in seven games with the Celtics as a rookie in 2019-20, recording 3.6 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 10.8 minutes. The Louisiana State University product thrived in his 36 games played with the Red Claws this past season, producing 18.0 points (42.9% FG, 35.4% 3-PT), 3.2 rebounds, and 7.3 assists en route to being named the NBA G League Rookie of the Year and a First Team All-NBA G League selection.

Celtics legend Tommy Heinsohn has died

The Boston Celtics and the entire basketball world has lost a legend. Here’s the Boston Globe reporting:

Tom Heinsohn, the Celtics’ accomplished and animated renaissance man who was involved in all 17 of the franchise’s National Basketball Association titles as a player, coach, and commentator, has died, the team has confirmed. He was 86.

On the parquet, Mr. Heinsohn was a no-holds-barred net-ripper, an irrepressible fixture alongside stars Bob Cousy and Bill Russell in the Celtics’ golden age of the late 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Heinsohn collected eight championship rings in nine seasons as a player and was named an All-Star six times on his way to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

His retired number 15 hangs from the rafters at TD Garden.

STATEMENT FROM THE BOSTON CELTICS

“It’s hard to imagine the Boston Celtics without Tommy Heinsohn. There isn’t a generation of Celtics fans for whom Tommy’s presence hasn’t been felt. He is the only person to be an active participant in each of the Celtics’ 17 World Championships, an extraordinary and singular legacy.

His career with the Celtics had an auspicious start, as he earned NBA Rookie of the Year honors in 1957. Even more notably, he was the best player on the floor in the decisive Game 7 of that season’s NBA Finals against the St. Louis Hawks, leading the team with 39 points and 23 rebounds as the Celtics delivered their first championship banner. Dominant performances and championships were no mere opening act; they would come to define his NBA playing career (1956-65), in which he was named to six All-Star teams and won eight NBA Championships, the team’s leading scorer for four of those title runs.

Red Auerbach named Tommy the team’s Head Coach in 1969. Like his playing career, Heinsohn’s coaching tenure was punctuated by prosperity, as he directed the 1974 and 1976 squads to World Championships, won five Atlantic Division crowns, and was picked the league’s Coach of the Year in 1973 during which he won a team record 68 games.

Tommy was honored on multiple occasions as a player, a coach, and a broadcaster. Among those honors, his number 15 was retired by the Celtics in 1965, and he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1986, and then as a coach in 2015. He is one of just four people to be inducted as both a Player and Coach, joining former teammate Bill Sharman, John Wooden and Lenny Wilkens.

For all of his accomplishments as a player, coach, and broadcaster, it is Tommy’s rich personality that defined the man. A loving father, grandfather, and husband. A talented painter and a lively golf partner. Unofficial mentor to decades of Celtics coaches and players. A frequent constructive critic of referees. Originator of the most “Celtic stat” of them all, The Tommy Point. And a boundless love for all things Boston Celtics, a passion which he shared with fans over 64 years.

We take this time to celebrate his life and legacy, and to share in the sorrow of his passing with his family, friends, and fans. As long as there are the Boston Celtics, Tommy’s spirit will remain alive.”

STATEMENT FROM WYC GROUSBECK, STEVE PAGLIUCA AND THE BOSTON CELTICS OWNERSHIP GROUP

“This is a devastating loss. Tommy was the ultimate Celtic. For the past 18 years, our ownership group has relied hugely on Tommy’s advice and insights and have reveled in his hundreds of stories about Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, and how the Celtics became a dynasty. He will be remembered forever.”

With help from Mark Cuban, Delonte West begins rehab

Former NBA player Delonte West has spent years majorly struggling with serious problems off the court. But finally, there’s good news. Here’s Boston.com reporting:

Former Celtics guard Delonte West is taking the first steps toward rehabbing his life.

In a tweet on Friday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban shared an image of West — who has struggled with bipolar disorder, homelessness, and substance abuse — smiling while riding a horse.

“Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you, Delonte West,” Cuban wrote.

Cuban wanted to add that while West is off to a good start, the journey is far from complete.

“A long, long, long way to go, but he has taken the first steps and shared these with all of us as a thank you for the love and support.”

Definitely click that link atop this entry for more on West, and what Mark Cuban did to help.

Hopefully, West stays on a positive path. We’re rooting for him.

Isaiah Thomas aims for return to NBA

Guard Isaiah Thomas was a big deal for a while. And then injuries struck, and lingered on and on. And soon he became an afterthought. But that’s not he way he wants to be remembered. And he’s ready for a comeback. Here’s Boston.com reporting:

Isaiah Thomas told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski he has “no more pain” after undergoing a hip resurfacing procedure five months ago and is hoping to contribute to an NBA roster this upcoming season.

Thomas pieced together one of the more memorable individual runs in Celtics history in 2016-17, averaging 28.9 points per game and willing the team deep into the playoffs. He pushed through a lingering injury as much as he could yet was ultimately ruled out for the final three games of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Celtics then traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers, in a deal for Kyrie Irving, and Thomas has never been the same since the setback he suffered in a March 2017 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Since that season, he’s played a total of 84 games in four years with four teams.

He believes he’s recharged and is poised for a bounce-back season, calling it “like night and day” since he had the procedure to fix a bone-on-bone issue that bothered him for three years.

If Thomas is truly healthy now, then he’s surely worth signing to a non-guaranteed contract, as a scoring option off the bench.

Heat eliminate Celtics in Eastern Conference Finals, advance to NBA Finals

Sunday night at the Disney NBA bubble in Florida, the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 125-113, winning the Eastern Conference Finals in six games. The Heat advance to the NBA Finals, where they’ll face the Los Angeles Lakers. Game 1 of the Finals is Wednesday night on ABC TV.

Boston.com: The Celtics had a six-point lead in the fourth quarter, but Miami didn’t flinch. The Heat went on a 19-6 run to take a seven-point lead with just over four minutes remaining. They moved the ball with confidence and went back to their zone to reinvigorate themselves on the defensive end. Bam Adebayo led the way for Miami’s offense as it extended its lead to 12-points with three minutes left.

Boston.com:The Heat continued to ride that momentum, while Boston struggled to handle its opponent’s relentless energy. This series really came down to crunch-time execution, and that was the case again Sunday night. The Heat outscored the Celtics 35-17 over the final nine minutes of Game 6, leaving their final mark on the Eastern Conference Finals with authority.

Boston.com:The Celtics played great defense early in the fourth quarter, effectively slowing down the Heat, but their inability to close out games reared its head late. Miami exerted its dominance down the stretch as it did in all four of its Eastern Conference Finals wins, a fitting way to seal the deal in Game 6.

Boston Herald: “Though four Celtics scored at least 20 points, led by Jaylen Brown’s 26, they were unable to get the requisite stops. That especially was true where Adebayo and his rolls to the rim were concerned. The Celtics also missed a plethora of open shots down the stretch, with players like Gordon Hayward (5-for-12) and Kemba Walker (5-for-15) missing open layups. With the Celtics caught between his interior attack and the omnipresent threat of Miami’s shooters, the Heat put this one away with a 26-6 run in the fourth quarter that effectively squelched the Celtics’ season.

South Florida Sun Sentinel: “Sunday’s victory was powered by 32 points and 14 rebounds from Adebayo, as well as 22 points from Butler, 19 from Tyler Herro, 15 from Iguodala, 15 from Duncan Robinson and 13 from Goran Dragic. For the Celtics, there were 26 points from Jaylen Brown, 24 from Jayson Tatum, 20 from Marcus Smart and 20 from Kemba Walker.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel: “After going down six earlier in the fourth quarter, the Heat got a three-point play from Adebayo with 6:16 to play to go up 101-100. The counterpunching continued from there, with Celtics center Daniel Theis fouling out with 5:30 to play and the Heat then calling time out while up 104-102. A minute later, a Duncan Robinson 3-pointer put the Heat up 107-102. The Heat eventually made it a 26-6 run, for a 14-point lead. At one point, the Celtics went 3 1/2 minutes without a point. By then, it was time for the white flag from the Celtics.”

Celtics played harder than Heat in Game 5, says Jimmy Butler

The Heat are in good shape, up 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. the Celtics, but issues do exist for Miami that need to be addressed in their quest to end this thing tomorrow. Here’s the Miami Herald:

Defense was certainly an issue for the Heat in Game 5, as the Celtics scored a series-high 121 points on 45.2 percent shooting and committed only 11 turnovers. Boston also outrebounded Miami 50-38 and scored 15 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds.

“They were playing harder than we were,” Jimmy Butler said following the Heat’s Game 5 loss. “We’ve just got to correct that. That’s where it starts for us. Any time anybody is playing harder than we are, we are not playing our best basketball. I think a lot of it for us comes from how hard we play, how together we play, and we’ve got to get back to doing that.”

But the Heat’s defense, which was a strength in the first two rounds of the playoffs, has struggled for most of the series.

The Heat, using a mix of its zone and man-to-man schemes against the Celtics, has allowed 114.5 points per 100 possessions in the East finals. For context, only two NBA teams finished the regular season with a worse defensive rating.

Game 5 was fascinating in that the Celtics started slow and looked ready to pack it up and go home, then steadily improved as the game progressed, and have every reason to walk into Game 6 with increased confidence. Boston has momentum. Time for Miami to show what they’re truly made of.

Celtics doing good job defending Heat three-pointers

The Heat remain in good shape in the Eastern Conference Finals, but upon seeing their 3-1 series lead on the Celtics become a 3-2 lead, it’s still a series. And one thing keeping the Celtics competitive has been their perimeter defense, especially in the last few games. Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel on it:

After going the entire season and two-plus rounds of the playoffs without shooting below 30 percent on 3-pointers in consecutive games, the Heat now have done so in the past three against the Boston Celtics, going 1-2 in that span.

“They’re very good at defending the 3-point line,” Spoelstra said. “They’ve taken us off of some of our normal rhythm threes. We’ve also missed some open ones. We just need to work more persistently to get the type of shots we want, in our wheelhouse, which we’re very capable of, even against a very good defense like Boston.”

The downturn started at .273 (12 of 44) in the 117-106 loss that drew Boston within 2-1 in this best-of-seven series. It continued at .270 (10 of 37) in the 112-109 victory that pushed the Heat to a 3-1 series lead. Then, Friday night, it went off the rails, at .194 (7 of 36) in the 121-108 loss that cut the advantage down to 3-2 going into Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. Game 6 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

“Our guys are extremely ignitable. It can happen just like that,” Spoelstra said, snapping his fingers. “But we have to do a lot more things defensively, where we’re not just hoping that we make a bunch of threes and a bunch of shots.”

As it is, the past two games mark just the second time this season the Heat have gone consecutive games without converting more than 10 3-pointers.

Game 6 is Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Celtics beat Heat in Eastern Conference Finals Game 5, 121-108

Miami Herald: “The Heat led the Boston Celtics by 12 points in the second quarter and never trailed in the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Miami, just one win away from the 2020 NBA Finals, was just two quarters away from completing its stunning run to the NBA’s championship series. In the third quarter, it all unraveled. A seven-point halftime lead swung into a 14-point deficit for the Heat and the Celtics, who blew double-digit leads in the first two games of the NBA Conference Finals, rallied to stave off elimination with a 121-108 win in Lake Buena Vista. Miami, which still leads the series 3-2, will have to wait until at least Sunday at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex to clinch a spot its first NBA Finals since 2014.”

Boston.com: “Boston opened the game 1-for-12 from the floor, with eight of those attempts coming from deep. That five-plus-minute span also included three turnovers to highlight their discombobulated opening stint. No rhythm and a lack of effort rose to the surface, just as it had in their previous three losses. The Celtics’ struggle to win the battle in the paint stuck out in the first quarter as well, getting outscored 12-2 in that category over the game’s first 12 minutes. With the season on the line, Boston shot 25 percent in the first quarter. They were lucky to be down just seven at the half, but the Celtics didn’t give in and quickly turned things around after the break.”

LA Times: “We’re prideful. We want to do well. … Our deal was to come out and play, come out and compete and give it our best shot, and I thought we played pretty well in the second half, but we’re going to have do it again and again because of the position we’re in,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “…We’re trying to be our best. We care about competing. We care about representing our team and our organization well, and we care about each other. It’s why you compete.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel: “Tatum has been all over the place this series. Good. Bad. Dominant. Disappeared. But in that third quarter he scored 17 points and picked up his Celtics as they turned a seven-point halftime deficit into a nine-point lead. Brown has been more in and out than Tatum. But on Friday night with the Celtics season on the line he did everything necessary in scoring 28 points and making all the plays that mattered. “They started attacking, we stopped guarding,” Jimmy Butler said. “Never a good thing for us. After that it was all downhill.” So that was that. The game. The night. The thought the Heat could move as easily into the Finals as they had in dispatching Indiana and Milwaukee earlier in the playoffs. Did anyone really think this series would be like those?”

South Florida Sun Sentinel: “The Heat got 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists from Butler, 13 points, eight rebounds and eight assists from Bam Adebayo, as well as 23 points from Goran Dragic and 20 from Robinson. “We’ll be ready to go on Sunday,” Butler said. Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 31 points, supported by 28 from Brown… The Heat closed 7 of 36 on 3-pointers, the 19.4 percentage the Heat’s lowest of the postseason. But it also came after shooting 12 of 44 on threes in Game 3 and 10 of 37 from beyond the arc in Game 4. “Regardless of whether it’s going in or not,” Spoelstra said, “that can’t affect your commitment on the other side of the floor, and it felt like it did.” Robinson closed 3 of 11 on 3-pointers, the rest of his teammates 4 of 25.”

Jayson Tatum, Brad Stevens discuss Game 4 Celtics first half struggles vs. Heat

The Celtics dropped Game 4 to the Heat last night, and now trail 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Here’s Boston.com with quotes on head coach Brad Stevens and star forward Jayson Tatum:

The Celtics, who outscored the Heat by double digits in the first halves of Games 2 and 3, were sloppy from the get-go. Boston committed 11 turnovers in the opening 24 minutes, causing them to have their lowest first-half point total of the playoffs, and trailed the Heat 50-44 at halftime.

“I thought our first half we looked, for whatever reason, we didn’t look crisp,” Celtics head coach Brad Stevens told reporters after the game. “And obviously that showed itself in our shooting numbers. I thought we were lucky to be at 50-44 at halftime, to be candid.

“For whatever reason, our first half wasn’t as good as it’s been.”

Jayson Tatum failed to score in the first half, missing all six shots he took and failed to make it to the free throw line.

“I wasn’t aggressive enough,” Tatum said of his first half performance. “I didn’t score in the first half, that’s unacceptable. I know I have to play better. That’s what I’ll try to do.”

Turnovers also wrecked the Celtics in Game 4. They had 19, with six coming from Tatum, with four from Marcus Smart and another four from Jaylen Brown. The entire Heat team had just eight.

A positive for the Celtics is, they did step up nicely in the second half. They just need to put it all together for the length of a full game. Which has been tough against a Heat squad that the entire world clearly underestimated.