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Celtics' beat Heat with furious 4th quarter, 101-89

CSNNE

A. SHERROD BLAKLEY

BOSTON – Most of the Celtics players would have been napping on a typical game day instead of actually playing in Saturday’s mid-afternoon matchup against the Miami Heat.

For large chunks of the first half, it certainly looked as though the Celtics were sleepwalking through the game.

They came alive in the second half which proved to be in enough time as Boston pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 101-89 win.

With the win, Boston (35-25) is now two games ahead of Miami (32-26) for the third seed in the East. Just as important, the Celtics win the head-to-head series, which may come into play if these two finish with an identical regular season record.

Boston also extended its winning streak at home to 10 straight, the longest under Brad Stevens and the first double-digit winning streak at home since Jan. 27-March 16, 2013 (11 straight), which came in Doc Rivers’ final season as the Celtics’ head coach.

Boston had six double-figure scorers, led by Marcus Smart, who had 15. Jared Sullinger had his 18th double-double of the season, tallying 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Miami was led by Goran Dragic’s game-high 21 points.

Boston’s starters came up with big plays down the stretch, but it was their bench that kept them in the game for long stretches most of the night.

Evan Turner was especially effective with a near double-double of 14 points and nine assists to go with six rebounds. Boston also got a strong game from backup center Tyler Zeller who had 12 points.

The points from the bench, especially the bigs was huge on a night when points in the paint were hard to come by courtesy of Hassan Whiteside who had 13 points, 15 rebounds and eight blocked shots.

The Heat led by as many as 12 points in the first half with Dragic leading the way with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds at the break.

But Boston’s second unit continues to deliver first-rate performances, with Saturday being no exception. Their play helped spark a strong second quarter that brought Boston within 49-46 at the half.

The Celtics’ starters finally showed signs of life in the third quarter which began with an 11-3 Celtics run that gave Boston a 57-52 lead which was their largest of the game at that time.

Boston will look to continue on their winning ways at home with the Utah Jazz coming to town for a Monday night matchup.
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BRAD STEVENS: ‘WE WERE PRETTY LOCKED IN DEFENSIVELY MOST OF THE [GAME]’

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia

Brad Stevens knows sometimes the best wins are the ugly ones.

When he team started out making just seven of 24 shots and falling behind 12 points to the Heat, Saturday’s game felt like it could be an ugly loss. But the Celtics didn’t panic and began to chip away, thanks in large part to Miami’s equally inept ability to take care of the ball. Thirteen Miami turnovers in the first half kept the Celtics in it, as Boston trailed just 49-46.

Trailing 52-46, the Celtics went on an 11-0 run and led 72-70 after three. They hit the glass in the fourth quarter and rolled to a 101-89 win over the Heat, taking a two-game lead on Miami for third in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics won the game despite making just 39-of-96 shots (40.6 percent), including 7-for-25 from the starting backcourt of Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas.

“Hard game to win, hard team to play against, especially when you start out shooting the ball the way we did. But we were pretty locked in defensively most of the [game],” Stevens said after his team’s 35th win of the season. Thomas missed all eight shots he took in the first half and finished just 4-for-17. Bradley wasn’t much better early but did finished 3-for-8.

“You look at it and two of our leading scorers, Isaiah and Avery, combined for four [points] and our starters were 5-for-26 in the first half,” Stevens said. “So, you’re down three and you feel like you’re lucky as heck to be down three. But again, that’s kind of what this team has been doing. To their credit, it’s easy to let a game, when you’re not playing well, affect you. To their credit, they just kind of stuck with it and stayed the course. All of them made huge plays in the second half, particularly Isaiah making those plays driving to the basket. Jae Crowder made some big plays and I thought Sully was great on the glass. In the last five minutes of the game, I felt like he got every rebound there was.

“I felt like everybody played really hard through that stretch. I felt like Jonas and Tyler held down the fort with a couple of vertical plays in the paint. Jared, it seemed, got every rebound late. I just thought he was really active, finished plays on offense. Multiple times today he caught it at the rim, he recognized that Whiteside was there and he made a play for somebody else. That play at the end of the half, he kicked it out, extra pass to Avery. That was a heck of a play and a huge play for us. He’s got a good awareness and he’s a smart guy and he’s a heck of a rebounder.”


The Celtics are on a 10-game home winning streak, a far cry from last season when they struggled badly at home for extended periods.

“We don’t talk about where we play,” Stevens said. “The only time we’ve ever talked about it is in this context but it wasn’t necessarily at that time. It’s just about how Boston fans expect to see a certain level of camaraderie and work ethic when you’re out here in front of them, and that’s what’s expected of us. But that’s the same message for my entire time. It’s not one we gave when we were whatever we were. You play between the lines. I don’t know why we were below .500 at that point. But we’ve played better on the road and at home in the past month-and-a-half or so.”

112288

Sully took control of the glass and the Celtics won this game.

Our starting backcourt struggled and we still won by 12.

The metal showed up bigtime..every player made a contribution.

This team added Amir Johnson...that is the only addition from the team that finished strong last year.

I'm very impressed.

Dboss

Hi,
It was a solid win. But more importantly, the team's defense was on display. Well, at least for 3 quarters.
Also important - it was against a team that breathing on our neck now and is a possible opponent in the playoffs.

AK

Aside from IT (maybe) it is very doubtful we have any player whom would be considered top 10 in their respective position. There is lots of room for upgrades everywhere. It is apparent though that this mixture is quite explosive as we have one off the better offenses in the league and obviously one of the best overall defenses.

This was the ever prototypical Celtic win. Keep it relatively close and find a way to pull away in the end. Our "best" shooters were off yet still others picked up the slack. Our bench is certainly one of the best and usually outdo their counterparts.

That aside............I hate to see too much of a roster turnover moving forward something to be said about a team that game is and game out plays hard, but to get to that "top" level changes will happen. Just not sure at this time who most likely won't be in green next year.

beat

Aside from IT (maybe) it is very doubtful we have any player whom would be considered top 10 in their respective position. There is lots of room for upgrades everywhere. It is apparent though that this mixture is quite explosive as we have one off the better offenses in the league and obviously one of the best overall defenses.

This was the ever prototypical Celtic win. Keep it relatively close and find a way to pull away in the end. Our "best" shooters were off yet still others picked up the slack. Our bench is certainly one of the best and usually outdo their counterparts.

That aside............I hate to see too much of a roster turnover moving forward something to be said about a team that game is and game out plays hard, but to get to that "top" level changes will happen. Just not sure at this time who most likely won't be in green next year.

beat

With the team playing as a tight unit and winning, the Celtics will find the free agency market easier to attract really good to great players.  Danny and Brad will then just have to do some roster trimming to create a really super team next year.

112288

Watching the game again right now, was really impressed with Sully's 12-12 in 24 minutes, some of those rebounds were in heavy traffic, hes our only player that can grab those kind of boards and in a tight game we sure needed them. Good ugly win, our shooters were off, we gutted it out had some timely offense at the end and the defense won this game, Jerebko and Amir had some good moments. AB had some great defense on Wade and love Evan Turners all around game, he and Marcus Smart got the team back in the game after a sluggish start. As the season goes on I continue to be amazed at how great a coach Brad Stevens is.....and what he continues to do with this line up. Can't wait for April 1st.