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Right here we got 2 Celtics defenders trying to trap Zion. As he goes to drive, there’s a third one swiping at the ball, and finally a fourth one meeting him at the rim. But none of that matters as Williamson overpowers all of them for 2 of his 28 points in a win for the Pelicans. Now, Zion is a beast, plus Boston didn’t have Jaylen Brown for this game, so there are a lot of excuses for them if you wanna go that way, but still, there are some glaring issues as well, and we need to talk about them. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Marcus Smart having a J.R. Smith moment and zoning out is not really a problem but it’s too funny not to include it in the video. Shot clock running down, great energy on defense and Payton Pritchard makes it a jump ball with only 0.3 seconds left on the Pelicans shot clock. Thing is of course if the Celtics get it, that’s a change of possession and a fresh shot clock. But then look at Smart heaving it one handed from half court for the buzzer beater as he forgot who had possession before the jump ball. Anyway, Marcus is a high effort guy, usually pretty Smart- no pun intended, and this is by no means a real representation of what he brings to this team. What’s also not a real representation is the 0 for 10 that Evan Fournier shot in his Celtics debut. First shot of the game for him, good movement, fakes the cut, goes out, gets the screen, an open look and the shot, but backrims it. Again right here, nice hard drive to the rim but somehow the ball just rolls out. And once again, good recognition by Smart as he sets a screen for Evan and another open look but another miss. What I’m trying to say is he’s a 20 point per game scorer and I like the flow and the shots that he can get in Boston with these guys. So he’ll definitely start knocking them down and that will help the Celtics a lot. Offensively, one of the biggest issues for them has been the reliance of isolation basketball. And they are near the bottom of the league when it comes to assists per game. Hopefully adding another guy who can shoot the ball and move around the court like Fournier, will spice things up for the Celtics. However it’s worth mentioning that they once again got beat in the assists column by a lot. And perhaps the biggest issue for Boston was evident in this game, and that is defense. The Pelicans were blazing hot shooting the ball, and they were 50% from the field and an amazing 51% from three. They sure were able to hit some tough shots, but on the other hand, teams get hot pretty often against the Celtics. Brad Stevens’s guys are 21st in defense. That’s nowhere near good enough for a team wanting to go deep in the playoffs. I mean look at some of these points that the Pelicans were getting inside. This is too easy. And when you watch their big men and how they looked helpless at times in this game, it’s easy to imagine a similar thing happening in the postseason as well, with Brooklyn adding Griffin and Aldridge, Philly with Joel Embiid of course, Bucks with Giannis, and even Miami who are in a similar slump as the Celtics, but they do have Bam Adebayo inside. I said this in my video about the trades, but Boston needed to get Vucevic and they missed him, so now with the way the roster is, as much as I love watching them play, and as much as I’d like to be wrong on this one, I don’t see the Celtics beating any of the big teams in the East. So this could easily end up being a first round exit, and some changes could be coming in the off season. Let me know what you think about them and if they can do anything to save their season. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.