2016 NBA PLAYOFFS > POST GAME ATLANTA - AWAY

STUDS AND DUDS: CELTICS RALLY FALLS SHORT AS AVERY BRADLEY (HAMSTRING) INJURED

By Mike Petraglia

Celtics center Jared Sullinger (7) goes up for a rebound against Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford (15) during the first half in game one of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. (John David Mercer/USA Today Sports)

The Celtics lost a playoff game and their best defensive player down the stretch of a rough Game 1 in Atlanta.

Al Horford led three Hawks with at least 20 points, scoring 24 while grabbing 12 rebounds as Atlanta grabbed Game 1, 102-101, Saturday night at Philips Arena.

Avery Bradley left the game midway through the fourth quarter grabbing his right leg in pain with a strained right hamstring. He did not return. His status for Game 2 Tuesday night is unknown.

Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics with 27 points, as Boston erased an 18-point first half hole to take a fourth quarter lead. But the Celtics faded after Bradley went down and fell down, 1-0, in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Jae Crowder hit a three with 6.6 seconds left to bring Boston to within two, 100-98. But Jeff Teague hit two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to seal the win. Thomas hit a three with 0.4 left to make it 102-101.

The Hawks came out on fire in the opening quarter, racing out to a 20-10 lead. The Celtics were settling for jump shots and the Hawks were taking advantage in transition, getting open looks at threes and midrange jumpers.

With the Celtics concerned about how to contain Atlanta bigs Paul Millsap and Al Horford, the biggest factor in the opening quarter was the foul trouble the Celtics’ big men faced. Both Amir Johnson and Jared Sullinger picked up two fouls apiece.

The Hawks finished the first quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 30-19 lead.

The Hawks built their lead up to 14, 39-25 before Marcus Smart drilled a three from the left wing with just under seven minutes left in the second quarter.

The Celtics made just 11 of their first 49 shots from the floor, falling behind 48-30 with just under two minutes left in the first half.  Atlanta finished the second quarter on an 18-9 spurt to take a 51-34 lead at the half. The Celtics shot an abysmal 23.1 percent, connecting on just 12-of-51 shots in the first 24 minutes, including 2-for-16 from beyond the arc.

Adding to the misery of the first half was an injury to the left index finger of Smart. He was replaced by R.J. Hunter with five minutes left in the second quarter. Smart returned midway through the third quarter.

Almost predictably, the Celtics went on an 11-2 run early in the third quarter to cut Atlanta’s lead to nine, 54-45. Brad Stevens made a change in the starting lineup to open the second half, replacing Amir Johnson with Evan Turner.

The Celtics were trading baskets for the next five minutes before the Celtics got a three from Isaiah Thomas with 5:47 left in the third, cutting Atlanta’s lead to six, 62-56.

Bradley’s layup with 4:57 left cut the lead down to five, 63-58 before Mike Scott drilled a three to put the lead back to eight, 66-58. Millsap then drove past Kelly Olynyk for a layup and a foul. The three-point play with 4:05 left in the third put the lead back to 11, 69-58.

The Celtics’ frustration with a lack of calls going their way finally led to a technical on Brad Stevens with 2:52 left in the third quarter. It was Stevens’ first technical of the season and just his second with the Celtics in three seasons. With 46 seconds left in the quarter, Bradley hit a three that cut the lead back to five, 70-65. The Celtics finished the third quarter with 11 fast break points and 18 points in the paint, cutting Atlanta’s lead to 72-65 heading into the fourth.

The Celtics used the 3-point play, conventional and beyond the arc, to continue their second-half surge. Bradley hit a mid-range jumper and Marcus Smart was fouled. Smart’s free throw made it a one-possession game at 80-77. With 7:49 left, Smart drilled a three to tie it and then Crowder connected from the left wing with 6:49 left to give Boston an 83-80 lead and cap a 9-0 Celtics run.

But on the next possession, the entire tone of the game changed when Bradley pulled up lame with a right hamstring strain. He had to be helped off the court by trainer Ed Lacerte and teammate Tyler Zeller. He was almost immediately ruled out of the game by the team.

Thomas drilled a three with 5:53 left to give the Celtics an 86-84 lead. It would be Boston’s last field goal until a Marcus Smart putback layup with 1:02 left, a drought of four minutes, 51 seconds.

The Hawks went to work. With 4:07 left, Teague converted a layup putting the Hawks up, 88-86. With 3:25 left, Horford’s layup on a pass from Teague made it 90-88 Hawks. Turner’s three to tie the game with 46 seconds left was off the mark. Isaiah Thomas missed a layup and Bazemore hit one of two free throws to make it, 99-93 with 25.7 seconds left.

Game 2 is set for Tuesday night in Atlanta before the series shifts back to Boston for Game 3 next Friday night at TD Garden.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Avery Bradley

Until his injury, the Celtics’ best ball defender, picked up his offense and led the Celtics’ charge in the second half as the Hawks paid close attention to Isaiah Thomas. Runner-up: Marcus Smart. His 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range, including clutch shots in the fourth, gave the Celtics a chance.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Jared Sullinger

Early foul trouble took him out of his rhythm and he was rendered much less effective the whole night on both ends of the floor. He was not on the floor in the final three minutes with five fouls. He was also just 4-for-14 from the field.
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CELTICS GAME 1 COMEBACK FALLS SHORT IN 102-101 LOSS TO HAWKS

CSNNE

By A. Sherrod Blakely April 16, 2016 10:00 PM

ATLANTA – For those who don’t follow the Boston Celtics closely, comebacks are kind of what they do.

But there are some deficits against some teams that are just too great for them to completely overcome and get the win.

That was indeed the case on Saturday as Boston wiped all of the 19-point deficit they dug themselves to take the lead briefly.

But the Hawks regrouped down the stretch and held on for a 102-101 Game 1 win.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Boston may have lost more than just the game after Avery Bradley leaving in the fourth quarter with what team officials described as a strained right hamstring injury.

His status for Game 2 is uncertain.

But one thing is clear: The Celtics are never out of a game.

We saw them rally from 26-points down to defeat the Miami Heat earlier this week which was the largest comeback win in the NBA this season.

For the Celtics, it was a Ground Hog’s Day kind of game in the first half with Boston looking and playing similar to how they did against the Heat before rallying for a 98-88 win.

The deficit on Saturday wasn’t as great, but it might as well been considering the Hawks allowed opponents to shoot a league-low 43.2 percent from the field this season.

Boston was well below that most of the night, but found themselves in an 80-all game with more than seven minutes to play after a Marcus Smart 3-pointer.

For Boston to be within striking distance in the second half was shocking when you consider how woeful they shot the ball in the first half.

In the second quarter, Jae Crowder got a great look from 3-point range.

He missed it.

The loose ball wound up back in his hands, leaving him even more open than the one he missed previously.

It didn’t matter.

That shot was off the mark as well.

It was that kind of first half for the Boston Celtics.

A lay-up by Bradley brought Boston within five points (63-58) in the third, only for the Hawks to run off six straight which included a 3-point play by Paul Millsap who continued to dominate the Celtics around the basket as well as from the perimeter.

But the star of the game was Jeff Teague whose scoring off the dribble as well as ball distribution gave Boston all kinds of problems. He finished with 20 points and 12 assists along with four rebounds. Al Horford had 24 points and 12 rebounds while Kent Bazemore had a playoff career-high 23 points.

Thomas led the Celtics with 24 points and seven assists. In addition to Bradley’s injury, Kelly Olynyk re-aggravated his right shoulder injury and was limited to just 12 minutes of court time.

112288

GIVE ME HORTFORD AND LOVE AS MY CENTER AND POWER FORWARD AND A SHOOTER AND WE GO TO THE FINALS.

AMAZING SO CLOSE WITH SO SHORT ON A TALENTED CENTER AND POWER FORWARD.

112288

Love? he is worst defensive 4 in league after Kelly O, we can't win with Love.

Need him for his offense. We need points!


112288

I think I must have fallen asleep and not seen the real game last night.

in my dream, the Celtics players did not complain about bad calls and STEVENS got a T!!!

LOL...that how I knew it had to be a dream.

112288 wrote:GIVE ME HORTFORD AND LOVE AS MY CENTER AND POWER FORWARD AND A SHOOTER AND WE GO TO THE FINALS.

AMAZING SO CLOSE WITH SO SHORT ON A TALENTED CENTER AND POWER FORWARD.

112288

I think I'd rather have P. Gasol and Butler.

Gasol is 35 years old, a rent a player for a year or 2 but he does not solve our problem long term.

Butler, never happen, Chicago said they are building around him.

112288

The comeback ferry is a lot like dying by the 3. Eventually, the luck is going to run out. And with the microscope of the playoffs magnifying every possession, it doesn't matter if you win by 1 or win by 100, it's still 1-0 ATL.

Remember when Paul Pierce got injured in the Finals? I'll never forget what he said. "You've got to be kidding me!! We've come this far and now I'm injured?!!" Then he pulled a Willis Reed and the rest is history. Not sure of the injury to AB. Bad luck, but it's all hands on deck. Marcus could move up, but then the bench is short on the defensive end. I'm guessing we're all glad Brad did all the line up shifting and changing he did during the season. We'll see Tuesday how that will pay off.

I prefer the short team to win Game 1 like the Pacers did. It immediately throws the team with the home court advantage on their heels. Instead, ATL did what they were supposed to do. We came close, but we are still 0-5 now in the playoffs the last two post seasons. No wins yet. But we're getting closer!!

Celtics really only have two more chances to get home court advantage now. More than likely, they aren't winning a Game 7 in ATL. Very rare. So that leaves Tuesday and Game 5, assuming they aren't going to lose any of our 3 at home. Running out of games fast.

db

Had a couple nice plays where defense turned into offense quickly, but for most part our defense was not there much. Jae Crowder is not the same player since his ankle injury, he was abused defensively way too many times. Teague beat AB once, then AB came back later and smothered him and blocked his shot. I think if AB had not gone down, he would have made another of his patented big defensive plays or hit a big shot as we have seen him do throughout season, just one or two of those plays could have made a difference.

If we didn't brick so many wide open 12 ft jumpers in first half, we would have an easy 10 point win, but lost count how many open looks and bunnies we blew in first half. Amir was huge with some great defense, helping us come back in 3rd and 4th. You need bigs that can do those types of things in the backline of the defense. There is so many times he helps hedge on the penetration in conjunction with our perimeter defender to stop the play/penetration, so they have to move the ball elsewhere or stops the offensive player challenging him from scoring. Keven Love can't do those type of things, and his offense has disappeared on a team begging him to help out more and relieve some burden on Lebron. Is it me or has Sully shrunk to 6'8"? Horford is 6'10" he looked more like 6'11", Sully better stay out of foul trouble and come back strong as without AB next few games, were gonna need 20-12 from Sully, not Horford.

Just imagine how good we'd be if we could only shoot.

I said after the Miami game that we can't have another half like we did against Charlotte and Miami against Atlanta.  I was almost wrong but I wasn't.

Crowder 5-16
Sullinger 4-14
Thomas 8-21

There's 3 of your starters shooting 17-51, 33%.  Only Bradley put up both numbers and efficiency.

From the bench we had:

Jerebko 1-6
Kelly 1-3
Turner 4-13

Only Marcus Smart, who started out the game bricking, ended up with numbers and efficiency.

I don't know about anybody else, but I understand that we aren't going to be in the Finals this year (although Brad's Butler Bulldogs surprised people too).  What I'm looking for, as part of our progression from 25-win full-rebuild doormat to a contender for a title, from this team is "who is a keeper?".  "Who gets the difference between regular season games and playoff games?".  "Who steps up in big games (and every game in the playoffs is a big game) and who shrinks?".  Regular season records give you your playoff opponents, but how you play in the playoffs determine your future.  You don't want to stagger into the playoffs but you don't need to win 55+ neither.  The playoff allow you to hit the re-set button.

Injuries affect a player's performance, and should be taken into account.  Last night Bradley pulled a high hammie (a bad place) and, I heard, that Kelly re-injured his right shoulder.  That's the same one he hurt earlier this year.  It might end up being a situation similar to what Bradley and Perk had, where the shoulder kept giving them problems until they had surgery on it, but Kelly isn't having surgery until after the playoffs, if then.


Absolute Keepers (through Game 1)

1.  Avery Bradley - the kid is a warrior but more importantly he is hitting the shots he hit all year.  He played efficiently. He didn't take bad shots or throw up bricks because his mind wasn't able to deal with the higher quality opposition, more physical nature and pressure of a playoff game. That's why you make the playoffs instead of tanking. You can only learn how to do this by being there and doing it. This is where we, and Danny, separate the men from the boys.

2.  Marcus Smart - his usual ferocious defense but he also ended up 5-10 and 3-6 from 3.  He came up big against Miami too.  All evidence that he is a big game, post-season player, and we want those.


Good, but not locks

1.  Evan Turner - a shitty 4-13, but he rebounded and assisted and filled in for Bradley and help lead the comeback.

2.  Amir Johnson - he rebounded, got a Tommy Point for trying to steal a ball, but his lack of offensive versatility puts the Celtics in a position where, unless we are running pnrs well, he makes us play 4-on-5 on offense.  The reason why Atlanta's front court is so formidable is because they can play both sides of the ball and ours really can't.

3.  Jae Crowder - he rebounded, but got beat on defense a lot and shot horribly.  His 1-10 shooting in the first half dug us deep into the hole.


NOT BIG game players

1.  Isaiah Thomas - he had 27 points but he shot an awful 8-21 to get them.  He has been missing more fritos lately.  If he went 8-9, his average, last night we would have been in OT.  He has shrunk, metaphorically, in the big games.  

2.  Jared Sullinger - can't play against modern centers.  Too short and too slow.  Can't play against modern PFs neither, too slow for them too.  His shooting is not good.  Over his last 10 games he is shooting 41% and his minutes have been steadily getting cut.  His poor conditioning is starting to show, he is getting beat to spots all the time now.  Horford ran his fat ass off like the way Parish used to run his men.  He's all we have, but he isn't what we need or want.  Probably not an NBA starting player, certainly not a starting NBA center.

3.  Kelly Olynyk - some slack might be due if the shoulder injury is real but, if not, then he is back to being Melvin Milquetoast.

These are just through Game 1.  

We still almost pulled it off, another great comeback.  I loved the look on Dikembe Mutombo's face when we took the lead and after Thomas hit that wild 3 to get us to 1 point with under a second left.


bob


.

bob I like the way you set that up, we are not going all the way, would I like better players at the 4-5? ofcourse, was I willing to miss the playoffs last year to have a better shot? yes

But like the way you broke down all the performances of each individual, shame on AB, you need players that can defend, look at Sefolosha, guy can't score at all, but his defense was huge and wouldn't even show up on the boxscore. AB is the heart and soul of this team, losing him is gonna be really tough.

cowens/oldschool wrote:bob I like the way you set that up, we are not going all the way, would I like better players at the 4-5? ofcourse, was I willing to miss the playoffs last year to have a better shot? yes

But like the way you broke down all the performances of each individual, shame on AB, you need players that can defend, look at Sefolosha, guy can't score at all, but his defense was huge and wouldn't even show up on the boxscore. AB is the heart and soul of this team, losing him is gonna be really tough.

Cow,

Unless we get Butler.  There was a rumor that Danny was talking about getting Butler at the deadline but Chicago wanted Jae Crowder and once Danny definitively said that Jae was off the table, the conversation ended immediately.

The off-season, armed with our draft picks (including how the pingpong balls bounce for the Brooklyn pick) and how far we will be below the salary cap, for a change, will tell us something.  Bradley could be gone for the right player.  I'm not eager to see that happen but it could happen, especially if Chicago is willing to take Bradley instead of Crowder for Butler (draft picks and other assets would be needed as well, I'm sure).  As much as I love Avery Bradley I think I love Jimmy Butler more.  Better size, great defense (maybe not as versatile on defense, JB can only guard 2s while AB can guard 1s and 2s but both players have been NBA All-Defense 2nd team 2x) and a much better offensive player.  Butler is a 2x All-Star and he got there because the coaches wanted him, not the idiot fans who voted a one-legged septuagenarian man named Kobe Bryant to the squad despite that he obviously wasn't the best SG in the league anymore.

Where you and I differ is that I never am willing to lose if I don't have to.  Beat me down, if you can, but I will not take a knee and cover up unless it's life-or-death.  While winning that game towards the end might have lost Phoenix the #3 slot, I admire that they kept fighting until the final buzzer.  Tommy agrees with me, building a winning culture is more important than talent, because you can always add talent in the future like Danny is constantly trying to do but losers lose because that's what they know.  You've said it yourself, with Minny, "they don't know how to win yet".  Winning is a learned trait and the playoffs is where the classes are held.  It is the crucible that will forge Smart or melt Sully.  We need to be here to see who the winners are so we can weed out the others.  There is no other way.  100% of all teams that do not make the playoffs do not win the Championship.  100%.  And winners don't want to go somewhere that doesn't know how to win.  Durant might consider coming here, although I doubt he will, but that's because we have a good team for him to come to.  If we had gotten lucky and landed Towns, jumping from 12th, or wherever, to #1 that still would not be enough for Durant to even consider coming here.  For all of Minny's young talent, have you heard any talk at all  of Durant going to Minny?  He isn't going to go from a winning team to a losing team just because they look good on paper.

Furthermore, I have a lot less faith and confidence in the Annual NBA Crap Shoot, known as The Draft, than you do.  Losing just to have a 4% chance at a great player (unlike this year's draft I think Towns was clearly going to be successful in the NBA) is gambling.  I don't mind risk, I just don't like gambling and the pingpong gods haven't been kind to us in many, many years.  I am exceedingly happy with where we are now.  We have a good, albeit not very good, team that is gaining invaluable experience in post-season play.  You can see Bradley growing bigger, as a player, before our very eyes.  We are seeing Marcus Smart growing, as a player, before our very eyes.  This is happening only because they are playing in games where they have the opportunity to take that step up.  They, all 15 of them, are also being showcased for other GMs.  We are also in great position to pick up one of those high quality college teenagers you are always drooling after and we're there without having to suck.  48 wins AND a serious upgrade in talent this year, either from a high draft pick or by trading that draft pick for a known high quality veteran and hopefully some quality free agent.  The free agent would not be coming here if we were still in the 20s or even 30s in wins.  



bob



.

steve3344 wrote:It's amazing that Kent Bazemore - an undrafted player no less - was one of the key guys who killed us yesterday.

Steve,

LAL had him and let him go.


bob


.

Players want to win, coaches want to win, and fans want to win. but how about General Managers ?  Was the Laker General Manager rooting for wins over the last few weeks knowing that if they don't finish 3rd or worse (after the ping pong balls determined their final fate ) that they will lose their 2016 pick?   And how about Ainge in 2006-07 when every lost brought the Celtics closer to a shot at Oden and Durant. I wonder if Danny punched the wall in anger after each loss ? And because that 06-07 club was a team of big time losers,  Danny cleaned house, sweeping out 9 players and adding 10 new players.  And with no winning culture went onto a championship year in 2007-08. An infusion of super talent can do that to a team.

 swish

Our margin for error is so slim.......and it just got a whole lot slimmer. I say we can't shoot much worse BUT the fact is we can.

Marcus and I will be yelling our collective heads off as we have lower level mid court seats for Friday.

Can't believe AB will be back unless it's the east finals ............... pulled hammies can and do linger for weeks if not a couple months and when his hallmark is moving on defense I might be able to do that better than AB will over the course of this series,

Regardless as noted by many we were not going far this year in the playoffs anyway.

beat

Didn't Danny bring Bazemore in for a FA visit in 2014?

I seem to remember he came for a look see, before signing a 2yr/$2M per year deal with the Hawks.

that would have been money well spent by Danny back then, at least from the perspective of today.

AVERY BRADLEY ‘VERY UNLIKELY’ TO RETURN TO SERIES, MARCUS SMART, KELLY OLYNYK ALSO BANGED UP

WEEI

By Mike Petraglia

The news on Avery Bradley does not sound promising for a return in the first round series against the Hawks.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens told reporters Sunday at the team’s practice at Georgia Tech that Bradley suffered a “pretty significant” strain of his right hamstring and is “very unlikely” to return at anytime during the rest of the series.

Bradley told Stevens during the game Saturday that he heard “a pop” but told reporters after the game that he would take every type of treatment and hold out hope of returning, if not Tuesday for Game 2 then sometime during the series.

On Sunday, Stevens made it sound like that would likely take an act of God.

“Certainly very unlikely Tuesday night (for Game 2),” Stevens told reporters before practice Sunday. “As of now I would say he’s out Tuesday night. Obviously he’ll continue to get treatment around the clock and go from there.”

Bradley injured his right hamstring after going up to block a shot from Hawks guard Jeff Teague with just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter Saturday night. He came down and began to race up court when he suddenly pulled up lame.

“We’ve obviously had games without him before, and we have to have other guys step up,” Stevens continued. “I think the biggest challenge is that we’re playing small anyways. So you might have to go even deeper into that, which is OK.”

So now, Stevens has to make up his mind as to whether he’ll go small and start three guards, as he did when Jae Crowder missed several weeks with a high right ankle sprain. Stevens started Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas before turning to Evan Turner for more size and scoring.

This case is different as Smart is clearly the second-best on-ball defender on the Celtics and is likely to draw either Jeff Teague or Kyle Korver.

“We’ll have to decide whether we’ll go with some of those young guys and go deep into the (bench) and play four smalls again, or if we’re gonna play more traditional again and go back to playing that way,” Stevens said. “So we’ll look at it and we’ll figure that out over the next 48 hours.”

The injury news didn’t end with Bradley. Marcus Smart (bruised left knuckle) also missed practice Sunday as a precaution. He and Stevens expect him to play in Game 2. Kelly Olynyk re-aggravated his shoulder injury from February in Game 1. He also is expected to be available on Tuesday.

112288

The Celtics/Hawks analysis indicated that our front line would struggle.  Millsap had a below average game but still did better than all
Of our front line players.

Marcus Smart was the guy that gave us a chance.  I love IT but he shoots too much at times.  Only Mike Scott was a factor off their bench but our bigs off the bench were missing in action.

As I stated you do not know what you will get out of KO and Jerebko.
We need reliable players and we need to upgrade our front court if we want to be  real contender.

Sully is gone if we see another  game like that.

With AB out Rosier will be needed.

Dboss ....best part of the game, I met Matty

WE WERE CHEATED.  SAW REPLAY AND SOMEWHERE AFTER 3 MIN MARK TO GO IN 4TH PERIOD, ATLANTA SCORED AND THE CLOCK WAS STILL GOING EVEN WHEN WE ROLLED THE BALL OUT AND SMART DID NOT TOUCH IT.  I BELIEVE WE LOST BETWEEN 20 - 25 SECONDS.  IF ANYONE CAN AND HAS A RECORDING, GO BACK AND CHECK IT OUT.

112288

112288 wrote:WE WERE CHEATED.  SAW REPLAY AND SOMEWHERE AFTER 3 MIN MARK TO GO IN 4TH PERIOD, ATLANTA SCORED AND THE CLOCK WAS STILL GOING EVEN WHEN WE ROLLED THE BALL OUT AND SMART DID NOT TOUCH IT.  I BELIEVE WE LOST BETWEEN 20 - 25 SECONDS.  IF ANYONE CAN AND HAS A RECORDING, GO BACK AND CHECK IT OUT.

112288

When a basket is made, the clock continues to run, except for the last two minutes in the game.
Horford's basket was with 3:26 left in the game.