POST GAME MEMPHIS - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Tops Grizzlies With Monster Second-Half Comeback

NESN by Michael McMahon on Sat, Dec 29, 2018 at 10:49PM

The Celtics were tasked with a massive test Saturday night, facing a double-digit deficit well into the second half, but rallied to move to 1-1 on their most recent road trip.

Trailing by as much as 19, the Celtics came up with a gut-check 112-103 win over the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum.

A massive second half from Kyrie Irving and two late 3-pointers from Al Horford were the difference in the comeback, as the Celtics trailed for the majority of the second quarter and throughout the third quarter.

Irving led the Celtics with 26 points and 13 assists, shooting 8-for-16 from the floor. Marcus Morris (22), Horford (18) and Gordon Hayward (14 off the bench) also scored in double digits for the the Celtics. Mike Conley led the Grizzlies with 26 points while Dillon Brooks added 19 points off the bench.

With the win, the Celtics climbed to 21-14, while the Grizzlies fall to 18-16.

Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Al Horford

Three-ball Gives Celtics Early Lead
The teams traded blows for much of the opening stanza, but it was the Celtics that took a 29-26 lead after the first quarter.

The Celtics pushed out to an early advantage behind 3-pointers from Marcus Morris and Jayson Tatum to open the game. Boston went 4-for-11 from deep in the quarter, while Memphis missed all five attempts from beyond the arc.

Trailing 14-13, Al Horford fed a give-and-go to Tatum who darted into the lane for the lay-in to give the Celtics the lead. Boston went on a 12-4 run from there, taking a 25-18 lead, its biggest of the quarter.

Memphis charged back with an 8-0 run to take a 26-25 lead before Terry Rozier hit a 12-footer as the Celtics retook the lead. Jaylen Brown hit a turnaround 20-footer just before the buzzer to close the quarter.

Morris led all Celtics with eight points in the quarter.

Grizzlies Take Control

Memphis did more than just wake up a bit in the second, the home team absolutely brought it, outscoring the Celtics 38-18 in the quarter to take a 64-45 lead into halftime.

The Grizzlies were hot from the get-go in the quarter, with Dillon Brooks coming off the bench to hit the team’s first three of the game at 11:33 to tie the game 29-29. Brooks then gave the Grizzlies a 31-30 lead with two free throws at 10:56.

Memphis went on an 18-5 run in the final 6:09 of the half, including a 12-0 run. Mike Conley’s floater with 2.5 seconds left gave the Grizzlies their biggest lead of the half going into the locker room.

The Grizzlies sunk 20-of-24 two-point shots in the first half, while sinking 36 points in the paint to the Celtics’ 14.

Brooks led all scorers with 13 points going into the half. Morris and Tatum, who led the Celtics with eight and seven points respectively in the first quarter, were held scoreless in the second.

Celtics Make Late Push
The Celtics were unable to chip away at the deficit for much of the quarter, but had their scoring touch come to life late, outscoring the Grizzlies 32-23 to lower the Memphis lead to 87-79 heading into the final quarter.

Kyrie Irving, who was just 1-for-4 from the floor in the first half, led the emergence in the final six minutes of the quarter, shooting 4-for-6 as the the C’s outscored Memphis 22-12 in the final 7:13.

Irving narrowed the deficit to 12 with a 27-foot bomb off a baseline feed from Tatum following a Marcus Smart steal.

Following a 3-pointer from Brooks with 4:17 left in the quarter, the Celtics went on an 11-2 run highlighted by a three from Smart and a transition dunk from Gordon Hayward

Irving led all Celtics after three quarters with 16 points.

Comeback Capped

The Celtics outscored the Grizzlies 33-16 in the fourth quarter, and carved up the NBA’s fifth-best defense to cap a statement comeback.

But Neither team was able to do much offensively in the first three minutes of the final frame.

After a Kyle Anderson layup pushed the Grizzlies lead to 89-79, Guerschon Yabusele nailed a three from the top of the key to make 89-82 with 10:20 remaining. Neither team would hit a field goal for the next 3:xx.

Marcus Morris hit two free throws with 7:28 remaining to make 90-84. Morris followed that up with a 3-pointer at 6:47 to make 90-87. Then, Irving hit on back-to-back drives to the basket, capping a 9-0 run and giving the Celtics their first lead since :27 into the second quarter.

The team traded baskets for the next two minutes.

Al Horford gave the Celtics a 96-94 lead with 3:19 left following a drive to the basket, sinking the shot and finishing off the and-one. Conley put the Grizzlies back on top 97-96 with a deep three from the top of the key with 3:05 remaining.

The Celtics used a 13-4 run down the stretch to help solidify the lead. Horford put the Celtics up 103-99 with a 3-pointer with 1:32 left. Then, Smart came up with a steal on an inbound pass with 1:18 remaining which was followed by a Morris turnaround jumper to make 105-99 with :59.1 left.

Horford drilled another three with 35.1 seconds left to help ice it.

Boston finished 40-for-80 from the floor and was 16-for-36 from beyond the arc.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Jayson Tatum goes full beast mode

UP NEXT
The Celtics will take the floor again Monday when they visit the San Antonio Spurs for a New Year’s Eve tilt. Tip-off from AT&T Center is set for 7 p.m. ET.

112288

I only got to see the last half, meeting some pals at the bar/pizza joint. Somehow they don't often do well when I'm watching, but yesterday they went from down 17 to up 9 in the 24 minutes I was there. That's easy to enjoy. Even some fast-breaking.

TheHat

The Cardiac Kids are back!  Down 17 at the half, down 19 with 8:17 left in the third and still down 14 with only 5:43 left in the 3rd. We were 2-12 this year in games where we trailed by 12 or more points.  Now we're 3-12, which still sucks but highlights the often meaninglessness of historical stats.  There's nothing that can be done about those previous 15 games but this game is this game, it is independant of and has no magical link to those other games, and it was obviously winnable.  As KG said, "Anything is Possible".  With Tony Allen gone Memphis is no longer Grind City, until Gang Green comes to town.  That was then, this is now.  Let's win this one and let the past lie.  

Sean Grande

@SeanGrandePBP
Follow Follow @SeanGrandePBP
More
That was the 5th time in the last two seasons the Celtics won a game after the Win Probability dipped under 5%...



We gave up 38 points in a quarter to a team with the slowest pace in the NBA and 64 points by halftime.  We had 10 turnovers by halftime.  Awful.  With half the 2nd quarter left we were only down 2 points.  Memphis then went on a 20-5 run (3 of our 5 points from a Hayward 3).  20 points in half a quarter, from the slowest team in the league.  Yuck.

They executed extremely well, especially in the first half.  They just backdoored us to death.  Some beautiful, from their perspective, hard weakside cuts to the rim every time we over-rotated to the strong side on defense.  We'd get caught watching the ball and they moved.  It was beautiful basketball even if it hurt.

Yabby with 3 questionable minutes in the 2nd quarter.  2 fouls (one was a bogus one that he picked up because he has a butt that makes Rick Mahorn want to eat more fried food) and a turnover.  2nd half he played 13 minutes, so more than half the available minutes, and he did much better.  2 blocks, 4 rebounds and he put a body on Marc Gasol that Theis just couldn't do.  Theis just didn't have the beef to stop Gasol from backing him down.  Yabby does/did.  That's Yabu's role, I guess, his path to success in this league.  He's a small-ball 5.  The best game by Yabusele in his entire NBA career, such as it exists.

https://twitter.com/BrianTRobb/status/1079282096617730048/video/1


Horford killed them in the 4th.  3 3ptrs and a layup in our 33 point 4th.  Clutch shots.  He ended up with 18 points in just 23 minutes.  That's good but is it All-Star material?  No, but he drove this comeback in the 4th and that's All-Star material.  Al Horford started flexing after some big plays.  His guns aren't that impressive.  

Jayson Tatum started out great with a 3 and a 2 and 4 boards in the 1st quarter.  Then he disappeared and sat in crunch time as Gordon Hayward came in and got the job done.  Tatum played some very good defense, not to just completely diss his game, but he sure didn't score much.  Tatum said the next step in his development is to try and help his team even when his shot isn't falling.  He had 8 rebounds, 5 assists and only 2 TO, 1 block and 4 steals even as he only was 3-5 for 7 points.  I guess this is what he was talking about.  He did have a Sportcenter highlight putback at about 1:10 of the game highlight film below.

Speaking of Hayward, he played well.  14 points on 6-11.  Solid play.

13 assists on 17fgm in the first half, 29 assists on 40fgm for the game.  That's very good.  Irving with 13 assists to go along with his 26 points.  At halftime he only had 4 points on 1-4 and 6 assists.  He had a monster 2nd half with 22 points on 7-14 and 7 more assists.

Brian Robb @BrianTRobb
yesterday
Kyrie Irving assisted or scored on 23 of Boston's final 25 points tonight in the fourth quarter. 

Morris is a stud.  Re-sign him Danny, if you can.  What a year he's having!  Here's hoping he sees it as him being a part of Brad's system and knowing that he's not going to be this good anywhere else (he wasn't this good in Phoenix or Detroit) and hopefully that carries weight with him.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
about 9 hours ago
With his 4-4 from the line tonight, Marcus Morris moved into the top 10 in the NBA in free-throw shooting, and past the magic 90% mark. Only four Celtics have ever shot 90% from the line for a full season. Larry Bird (4) Ray Allen (3) Bill Sharman (3) Isaiah Thomas

76 fgas for Memphis.  The slowest pace in the NBA killed them last night despite shooting a respectable 47%.

Marcus Smart was Marcus Smart, just a completely destructive force on defense.

Jay King @ByJayKing
yesterday
Marcus Morris said it was good to see “Smarty do Smarty things.” The rare double Smarty.

We own Memphis' first round pick if it is 9+. As of today, after this victory for us and loss for them, they are in 14th draft position.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071207





bob


.

The Celtics posted a ho hum 112-103 victory over the Grizzlies.  As I was watching the game I was thinking, they are playing like they have a kill switch.  They fell behind after a lackluster 2nd QTR and then outscored them 65-39 in the second half.

The Celtics got solid offensive contributions from Irving, Morris, Horford and Hayward.  Smart and Brown played some good defense.

My game ball goes out to Kyrie who finished with 26 points and tied his season high with 13 assists.  Memphis is a top 3 defensive team but they do not have enough offense to compete night in and night out with the overall offensive trend in the NBA.

The game was significant on two levels.  First we won a road game after the terrible performance in Houston and second we gave Memphis another loss and pushed them one loss closer to the lottery, our lottery.

If they can get through this road trip at 2-1,  I will be happy.

Next up SA, (20-17) and still fighting for a playoff berth.  They are 14-5 at home so you just know that game will be a hard won to win.