C's Let Another Big Personality Leave As Grant Williams Goes To Dallas In A Sign-And-Trade

 

    If you watched the Celtics over these past few seasons, the amount of endless talking to the referees, opponents and coaches was frankly exhausting. After shipping Marcus Smart-who was the worst offender of that nonsense-to Memphis a few weeks back, Boston followed that up by having mouthy forward Grant Williams go to the Mavericks in a three-team sign-and-trade deal which will give the restricted free agent what he wanted: a four-year deal worth $53 million. San Antonio receives forward Reggie Bullock from Dallas as well as an unprotected first-round pick swap in 2030 with the Mavericks. Dallas and the Celts will both receive two second-round picks and Boston also gets a $6.2 million trade exception. 

    This deal took awhile to come together since from all that we heard-Boston wanting a first-round pick for Williams-never seemed to materialize. The former first-round pick (22nd overall) of the Celtics in 2019 is a solid role player who will likely never be more than that in the NBA. His scoring and rebounding averages went up all four years in Boston though, culminating with 8.1 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per game in 2022-23. He is also a good three-point shooter (37.9% for his career with a high of 41.1% in the 2021-22 season). Head coach Joe Mazzulla began this past postseason by burying Grant which was a mistake since he had been a valuable part of head coach Ime Udoka's rotation the previous season when they reached the NBA Finals with Williams averaging 8.6 points per game in the playoffs. 

    I appreciated Williams' toughness, he was very dependable-appearing in 77 regular season games then 79 regular season games in the past two seasons-and he was not afraid to take on much bigger guys. He will always be remembered for talking trash to Heat star Jimmy Butler in the Eastern Conference Finals a few months ago which did not end so well but at least he showed a pulse which could not be said for most of his teammates. With that said, like Smart this seemed to be another Celtic who was completely delusional as to how important he truly was to the team. Couple that with the non-stop talking (and you can only imagine what he was like in the locker room, on the planes, buses, etc) and you can see how the Celts were probably ready to move on from him.

    This also shows (as if there was any remaining doubt), that Boston is putting all the onus on its two stars-Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown-to take over the main leadership roles on this team moving forward. Subtracting Smart and Williams from the equation means that there will be two less loud voices and big personalities to have to constantly deal with. Additionally, this frees up some money that can hopefully go towards that infamous supermax extension that Brown is eligible for but has not gotten yet from the C's. We wish Grant well in Dallas, Luka Doncic should be awesome to play with but good luck dealing with Kyrie Irving. 

Stop Me If You've Heard This Before In 2021: C's Got Down Big, Rallied To Cut It Close But Still Lost

 

    Apologies for not writing this earlier but you can understand that the Celtics (23-25 overall, 13-9 home) are not exactly an inspiring team at the moment. Last night at the TD Garden, they fell 113-108 to the Mavericks (25-21 overall, 14-11 away) as they trailed by as many as 23 points, trimmed that down to two points in the fourth quarter but of course they couldn't close the deal. It's the first time since the 2015-2016 campaign that Dallas has swept a two-game season series with Boston. These are two teams in similar places that are going in different directions as the C's tumbled to eighth-place in the Eastern Conference after going 3-7 in their last 10 games while the Mavs are up to seventh-place in the rugged Western Conference after winning their last two games and going 6-4 in their last 10. 

    It feels like Celtics head coach Brad Stevens never has a full lineup at his disposal lately which doesn't help their cause as they try to get this doomed season back on the rails. Shooting guard Jaylen Brown (24 points, 4 steals) was back after missing Monday's loss vs. New Orleans (21-25) with a left hip contusion. Center Robert Williams was unexpectedly out for the Mavericks game with an illness (supposedly not Covid-19, again) that was revealed by the team a few hours before tip-off. Hmm, interesting. Dallas superstar Luka Doncic (game-high 36 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) was the best player in February when his club beat Boston (110-107 on Feb. 23) and he outdid himself last night and showed once again why he's one of the best players in the world. 

    Point guard Jalen Brunson (21 points, 5 rebounds) is becoming a Celtics killer as well since he had another big performance off the bench against them. Mavs center Kristaps Porzingis added 19 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals while power forward Dorian Finney-Smith notched 11 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Celts swingman Jayson Tatum (25 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals), point guard Kemba Walker (22 points, 6 assists) and guard Marcus Smart (17 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) were all good but they really missed Robert Williams since in his place, they were forced to start Mo Wagner (2 points, 4 rebounds in 16 minutes). Also, Brunson outscored Boston's bench by himself as the Mavs had 34 bench points compared to 18 for the C's. Not ideal! 

    Can we already put to bed the notion that the Celtics would be extra motivated by finally having their fans back at the Garden? They are 0-2 with people paying to see this pathetic underachieving club live and in person. I get that we want life to get back to normal as soon as we safely can but who is dumb enough to buy tickets right now to watch this mess? Dallas led 30-25 after the first quarter and 64-45 at halftime. Boston outscored them by a basket (28-26) in the third quarter and by 12 (35-23) in the fourth quarter but that didn't matter one bit. PS it's nice that they don't give up and keep having these comebacks but when they never result in wins, who cares? Maybe try not getting behind by a huge deficit so early and you'll have a better chance to come out on top.

    Dallas shot nearly 50% from the field (49.4%) which was almost eight percent better than Boston (41.5%). The Mavs hit eight more 3-pointers (19-11), grabbed seven more rebounds (43-36) including 11 more defensive rebounds (39-28) and blocked twice as many shots (4-2) as the Celts. So far this seven-game homestand is off to a terrible start (0-2) for the C's who get one of the worst teams in the NBA-the Rockets (13-34 overall, 7-17 road)-to pay them a visit tomorrow night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston). Houston is one of the few teams that could get swept by Boston this season after the Celtics crushed them 134-107 on March 14 in Houston. With how things are going for the C's right now though, one of their best players will probably test positive for Covid-19 in the next few days and they'll find a crazy way to lose to the Rockets. Sigh.

After Tatum & Brown Were Named To The All-Star Team, Doncic Proves That He's On Another Level

 

    The rapid freefall for the Celtics (15-16 overall, 7-11 road) continued in spectacular fashion tonight at American Airlines Center on the second stop of their doomed three-game road trip. The Mavericks (15-15 overall, 8-8 home) led by 11 points late in the fourth quarter before Boston rallied to go ahead 105-104 on shooting guard Jaylen Brown's (team-high 29 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) short jumper in the lane. Dallas' superstar Luka Doncic (game-high 31 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists) answered with a patented step back 3-pointer. After a layup by Brown tied it, Doncic iced it with another step back three with 0.1 seconds left in regulation. Dallas won 110-107 to climb back to .500 after going 7-3 in their last 10 games. Conversely, the Celtics are fading away (3-7 in their last 10) into oblivion and dropped under .500 for the first time since Dec. 27 when a loss at Indiana made them 1-2.

    Earlier this evening, swingman Jayson Tatum (28 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Brown were named as reserves for the Eastern Conference at the All-Star Game in Atlanta next weekend. It will be Tatum's second All-Star appearance after he made it last year and the first of Brown's career. Those are both significant accomplishments that deserved to be noticed but at the moment, it's hard to feel good about anything involving the Celtics. After Sunday's blown 24-point lead and overtime loss to the Pelicans (13-17), you hoped that the team would exhibit some sort of anger and bounce back, especially with Mavericks center Kristaps Porzingis (back tightness) missing this contest. Instead, they let a one-man team beat them. Point guard Jalen Brunson scored 22 points off the bench for Dallas, he was on fire in the fourth quarter before Luka predictably took over. Shooting guard Josh Richardson added 16 points while small forward Tim Hardaway Jr. (14 points) and goofy giant Boban Marjanovic (10 points, 8 rebounds) also scored in double-figures off the bench (which outscored Boston's 51-19!) for Rick Carlisle's club. 

    Celtics point guard Kemba Walker (21 points) was up and down but he hit a clutch 3-pointer that cut Dallas' lead to one point late in the fourth quarter. With how this turned out, sadly now nobody except him will ever remember that. Power forward Tristan Thompson (8 points, 10 rebounds) was alright and power forward Semi Ojeleye (8 points, 7 rebounds) was a bright spot off the bench but Brown, Tatum and Walker were their only players to score 10 points or more for the visitors. My favorite stat of the night came from C's rookie small forward Aaron Nesmith who played 22 minutes off the bench but didn't attempt a single shot (or free throw). This from a guy who was drafted 14th overall strictly because of his shooting ability, what else is he known for? 

    The C's and Mavs always seem to play close and entertaining games which made this one the latest installment. Other than that late run by Dallas, it was tight the whole way as the home team led 34-31 after the first quarter but trailed by one point (56-55) at halftime. The Mavericks outscored the Celtics 25-20 in a rock fight of a third quarter before that crazy fourth quarter unfolded. Besides the huge difference in bench points, the only other real different stat was in points off turnovers which Dallas doubled up on (18-9). 

    There is no time for Boston to feel sorry for themselves since they are back in action tomorrow night (7:30, NBC Sports Boston) at Atlanta (13-18 overall, 7-9 home). We know that Kemba will be out since it's the second game of a back-to-back and who knows what other ailments could be affecting them. You'll remember that they lost to the Hawks last Wednesday at the Garden (122-114) then beat them two nights later (121-109) so Atlanta is more than capable of knocking them off yet again and their young phenom Trae Young promises to be extra spicy after he was somehow left off the All-Star team (so far). In other words, it's hard to believe with how rough this has been lately for the C's but this could get even worse very soon.