POST GAME - ORLANDO - HOME

Celtics blow out Magic 113-94 for fifth straight win

CSNNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON – It would have been so easy for the Boston Celtics to have a letdown Friday night.

They were riding a four-game winning streak. Isaiah Thomas was named an NBA all-star for the first time less than 24 hours earlier.

And in front of them was the Orlando Magic, losers of seven in a row.

But rather than play down to their level of competition, the Celtics instead did what good teams do – they pummeled the Magic with a fourth quarter blitz that ultimately ended with a resounding 113-94 Celtics win.

Boston (27-21) has now won a season-high five in a row, and move six games above .500 which is also a season-best for the Green team.

The Celtics’ shortened rotation was down to nine players, seven of whom scored in double figures with plenty of time left on the game clock.

Kelly Olynyk had 16 points off the bench, 13 of which came in the second half.

 Marcus Smart also had 16 points off the bench as well.

A blowout did not seem in the making, not at the start of the third quarter which is when the Magic seemed to be work their way back into the game.

After spending most of the first half trailing, Orlando played with the kind of defensive intensity and offensive execution that head coach Scott Skiles was looking for.

Within minutes, Boston’s lead was down to just two points courtesy of a 6-0 spurt by Orlando to start the third quarter.

Jae Crowder’s 3-pointer at the 9:32 mark gave Boston a five point lead (61-56). After exchanging baskets, Celtics coach Brad Stevens called a time-out with 8:14 to play in the third.

It wasn’t so much to slow down Orlando’s momentum, but to get his team’s focus back on attacking, being aggressive at both ends of the floor – the things they did in the first half to lead by as many as 13 points.

Boston had a strong showing in the first half which was in stark contrast to how the Celtics performed when these two met on Nov. 29.

The Celtics were manhandled that night around the basket, so making sure they established a presence inside was an absolute on Friday night.

Leading the charge to start the game for Boston was Jared Sullinger who scored Boston’s first seven points as the Celtics went on to lead 58-50 at the half.

Sullinger had nine points in just 13 minutes in the first half, the kind of efficient play that Boston needs on nights like this. For the game, he had 11 points and 11 rebounds for his 14th double-double this season.

Of course, newly named all-star Isaiah Thomas had his share of moments all night.

Before the game, Thomas talked about how important his teammates were in him being named to the all-star team.

He showed his appreciation in the first half, tallying six assists to go along with 12 points that included a driving lay-up with 1.1 seconds to play. For the night, Thomas had a very Thomas-like game in a blowout win, with 14 points and eight assists.

Boston’s control of Friday’s game centered heavily on containing Orlando center Nikola Vucevic.

In the first half, Boston sent a second defender his way regularly which seemed to confuse the 7-footer and maybe more significant, threw the entire Orlando Magic team off their game.

Orlando would make an adjustment by having Vucevic drive the ball towards the basket rather than get it with his back to the basket. He finished with 14 points and eight rebounds in addition to four assists.

But by the time they went there, the Celtics had firm control of the game and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon with “Gino Time” starting with 2:43 left and the Celtics holding on to a commanding 111-92 lead.
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STUDS AND DUDS: CELTICS BENCH DOMINATES MAGIC FOR FIFTH STRAIGHT WIN

WEEI

By Sam Packard

The depth is real.

Led by their bench, the Boston Celtics dominated the Orlando Magic 112-94 on Friday night at the TD Garden.

The Celtics outplayed the Magic for the majority of the game, but only led by nine points at the end of the third quarter. The Celtics bench unit of Kelly Olynyk, Evan Turner, Jonas Jerebko, and Marcus Smart then used an 26-6 run to blow the game wide open.

Olynyk and Smart led all scorers with 16 points, while five other Celtics were in double figures. Jared Sullinger also finished the game with a double-double, scoring 11 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

The (27-21) Celtics have now won five in a row and eight of their last ten games. With the win, the C’s are now tied with the Atlanta Hawks for the fourth best record in the Eastern Conference. The team will look to extend their winning streak to six games, as they travel to Orlando to take on the Magic on the second leg of the home-and-home series.

For a complete box score, click here.

STUD OF THE NIGHT The Bench Mob

Since Stevens shortened the bench to nine players, the bench mob has really excelled. Tonight, the foursome absolutely dominated the Magic reserves, outscoring 60 to 35. All four players scored greater than 13 points and combined to shoot 7-of-10 from three.

DUD OF THE NIGHT Mario Hezonja

The Magic rookie was unable to stop anyone on defense. During the second quarter, Evan Turner repeatedly abused the Spainard in the post. Hezonja finished with only 2 points, as the Magic were a -9 when he was on the floor.

VINE OF THE NIGHT
Not a single fan vined this game, so here is LeBron James missing an wide open dunk.
WHINE OF THE NIGHT No complaints whenever Gino shows his beautiful mug.

STAT OF THE NIGHT Marcus Smart from 3

Tonight Marcus Smart shot 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Since December 1st, Smart had been the worst three-point shooter in the NBA, so this was a nice change of pace for the second-year guard.

112288

No idea when the last time this stat has happened with the C's but with last nights 20+ lead late it marked the 5th straight game the C's have had at least a 20 point lead.

Over his last 102 minutes on the floor Kelly O is +92

C's have gone over 100 points for the 11th straight game, last time they did that was 1995

We are playing well but things do fall into place when you shoot the ball well.

Orlando was embarrassed by us last night, they get the opportunity for a quick payback on their home floor tomorrow. How will we come out? Dig a hole for ourselves, play it about even or take a lead ourselves? Will be interesting.

beat

Beat

Appears that Brad found the optimum rotation. This team needs to be added to, not busted up.

Dboss

dboss wrote:Beat

Appears that Brad  found the optimum rotation.  This team needs to be added to, not busted up.

Dboss

To add would mean someone leaves unfortunately someone that plays too.

Marcus sent me this a bit ago

Celtics are making significant process in a deal with the Kings that would land them wing scorer Rudy Gay and shooter Caron Butler in exchange for Jared Sullinger, David Lee, and their own 2016 first round pick.

We need to get better we have a good core just need to get even a second level star and with our picks and fee agency who knows?

beat

Rudy Gay may be a good add but for the short haul-this year and next.
Do we let a good younger player in Sullinger go? 
Having a few great lottery picks this year certainly helps.
We'll see!

If I was the Orlando Magic I would have felt pretty good going into halftime.  Down by 4 after 1, despite icy shooting, and down only 9 at halftime.  They came out of halftime and sliced the lead down to 4 or 5.  After 3 the lead was still only 10.  Very doable, from their perspective.

Then Hurricane Kelly struck.  13 of his 16 points came in the 2nd half with 9 of them in the 4th.  We went on a 15-0 run that turned into a 22-4 run that blew the game open in the 4th and Kelly fueled it.  9 points in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the 4th from KO.  Nobody is good every game.  Even perennial All-Stars have bad games, just not usually more than 1 or maybe 2 at a time.  Kelly isn't an All-Star but he is starting to have more good games than bad ones.  He's getting into position more often on offense and defense.  Thomas threw up a bad one-legged floater that barely nicked the front of the rim and it fell into Kelly's hands underneath the basket and he put it in.  The layup isn't what I'm talking about, it's that he was there, under the basket, in the right position for some kind of carom.  He is now shooting 44.4% from 3 on the season.  Forget about his misses, everybody misses, he's almost shooting as well from 3 (44.4%) than the entire team is shooting from 2 (48.1%) and over the last 10 games he has been shooting 51% overall.  At this point we might have to admit that the bounce really is real.  He had a recovery block from behind on Jason Smith that sent the Gahden crowd into a tizzy.  He had a drive and dish to Jerebko in the corner, which missed.  Part of me keeps saying "you're 7', you're in the paint and moving towards the rim, finish the shot, Kelly" and then I remind myself this the new NBA which is all about drive-and-dish and 3-and-D.  He did elude his man once, during his run, and two-hand dunked it.

In general, our bench killed them.  4 bench players in double digits with Kelly and Smart tied for game high scorers at 16.  Jonas was 4-4, 3-3 from 3 and 10 rebounds.  Turner with 15 on 5-7 and 8 assists and innumerable number of annoyances.

Sully and Amir worked hard underneath.  Very hard.

We shot 50%, 50 points in the paint and 14 fast break points.  Excellent numbers.

We are now tied with Atlanta for 4th place at 27-21.  I don't know why ESPN lists them ahead of us.  I don't know if it's because A comes before B or because they own a tiebreaker.  I do know that being tied for 4th with a team that is 4-6 over their last 10 games is a good place to be.  

Detroit lost last night and are in Toronto tonight.  An opportunity to put a little more daylight between us.  Chicago is at LAC tomorrow, Go Doc!  Atlanta is at Miami tomorrow too.  I want Miami to build up an insurmountable lead and then have DWade get bitch-slapped by Splitter.

A 5 game winning streak, our longest of the season.


bob


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