Kemba is finding his groove

[Mike Honcho]

Kemba Continues Hot Stretch with Season-High 36 Points vs. Heat

While the Boston Celtics are still searching for consistent rhythm as they prepare for the postseason, Kemba Walker has certainly found his. The veteran point guard is in the midst of his hottest stretch of basketball since joining the Celtics last season, and Tuesday night’s effort against...

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Despite his team suffering a 129-121 loss, Walker poured in a season-high 36 points to go along with seven rebounds, four assists, and a steal, while committing just one turnover in 38-plus minutes of action. This was just one of a handful of high-volume scoring efforts for Walker of late, as it marked his fourth 30-point performance in his last six games after he had logged just one such effort in his first 37 games of the season.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens has said all along that in order for the Celtics to have any hope of achieving postseason success this year, they’ll need Walker to be at his best. And right now, he’s doing his part as the team’s most consistent source of energy over the past several games.

“Kemba is obviously an enormous key for us,” Stevens said. “I thought he did a lot of good things tonight. His energy is something that we need at a high level for us to be the best that we can be. We need it from everybody, but certainly, he’s had a good couple of weeks here from an individual standpoint.”

The Celtics as a whole, however, are struggling to the finish line. They're 3-7 in their last 10 and sitting in 7th place in the Eastern Conference, which means they're almost certainly destined for a play-in game. Add in that Jaylen Brown needs season-ending surgery to repair a torn ligament (as of yesterday), and their playoff hopes look dim at the moment.

 

[huskiesNhoos]

No questions for kemba...awkward

 

[gtcam]

Love Kemba, love the Celtics
However, this was not a good fit for either party - it just doesn't look right
I hold out hope it will but the chemistry and player mixture isn't good at this time
Injuries have hurt them

 

[HuskyHawk]

Love Kemba, love the Celtics
However, this was not a good fit for either party - it just doesn't look right
I hold out hope it will but the chemistry and player mixture isn't good at this time
Injuries have hurt them

I disagree on Kemba, agree injuries have killed them. Healthy Kemba is an ideal fit. The team loves him and his scoring takes pressure off of Tatum and Brown. The problem is he can't play very much. That is absolutely killing them. You can't win playing a backup PG, with a 3rd stringer as the backup to him. Now Brown is out for the year. They traded Theis and then Williams got hurt. Fournier came in, and then immediately was out for weeks. He is playing well now, but instead of being a key guy off the bench, he replaces Brown. He had 20, but in that loss Boston's bench was outscored 50-20. The defense continues to not be good enough.

I think they need to trade Smart, and clear some bench guys.

 

[RayRay19]

Zero lineup consistency this year. Everyone's been out extended time, doesn't help with a bunch of young guys on the bench who are the fill in guys.

No identity / consistently to build off of. I love Kemba and when healthy he is a great fit apart from being posted up by the Heat in the half court. Celtics needs some vets on the team and need to trade away a few guys such as Grant. Kemba is essentially untraceable due to his health and contract, we aren't going to get a better player than him. Fournier needs to be resigned. Smarts untraceable for the simple fact he is the only one who bring energy and hustle on the defensive side of the ball. Tatum looks too relaxed as a Superstar, needs to take more command of the team.

Honestly though who are we kidding, mooned getting past the healthy Nets in the East. Maybe the Bucks with Jrue now but Nets are stacked.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

That team is butt

 

[Brochacho]

Kemba is fine in the regular season but the playoffs last year showed how much of a defensive liability he is - if the Celtics make the playoffs this year we will see more of the same. I'd rather have a lottery pick than getting swept by the Nets/Bucks/76ers whoever they manage to draw.

 

[bendm]

Love Kemba, love the Celtics
However, this was not a good fit for either party - it just doesn't look right
I hold out hope it will but the chemistry and player mixture isn't good at this time
Injuries have hurt them

kemba was the best kyrie replacement they could have hoped for... he's not as talented but he's 100x better from a chemistry/locker room standpoint.

the problem is ainge has missed on every draft pick recently except for rob williams and he's not effectively building around kemba, brown, and tatum. hayward wasnt even a good fit because tatum is not a PF.

next year smart and fournier will be getting paid too much to come off the bench and they might have the worst collection of bigs in the league. a guy like horford was/is sorely missed.

 

[Kenny11]

Kemba is fine in the regular season but the playoffs last year showed how much of a defensive liability he is - if the Celtics make the playoffs this year we will see more of the same. I'd rather have a lottery pick than getting swept by the Nets/Bucks/76ers whoever they manage to draw.

He did get taken advantage of in some matchups but he was playing on one leg

 

[Umami Zen]

Do your thing K!

 

[Chief00]

The Brown injury was a killer.

 

[Scoe]

Kemba just has to just play for himself screw your teammates, take every shot. Could've joined the Knicks.