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Celtics Wrap: Boston Races Past Shorthanded Heat For Second Straight
Boston now has won four of its last five games


NESN by Sean T. McGuire

Boston, which now has won four of its last five, improved to 27-25 with the victory while Miami fell to 32-19.

ONE KEY TAKEAWAY
Much of what has went well for the Celtics during their recent stretch also played a role in Monday’s win, but perhaps most impressively was the balance on the offensive end. Sure, Jaylen Brown (29) and Jayson Tatum (20) led the way, but the Celtics had four of their five starters score double figures with six total players scoring double figures.

Additionally, it was extremely impressive how the starting group — Marcus Smart, Brown, Tatum, Al Horford, Robert Williams — played together. The ball movement was nice to watch and the defensive effort was clear. All five players recorded a plus-minus rating ranging from +24 to +30.

STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 29 points on 11-for-19 from the field. Brown added four rebounds, two assists and two steals to go along with it.

— Jayson Tatum recorded a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds with five assists to go along with it. Tatum, like Brown, did so on an efficient night from the field (7-for-15).

— Marcus Smart continued his string of good play, too. The Celtics point guard has a team-high seven assists to go along with 16 points on 6-for-9 from the field including 4-for-7 from long range.

WAGER WATCH
Tatum did not exceed his point prop of 26.5 points, but did secure a double-double, which had 3-to-1 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. A $100 bet on Tatum to record a double-double would have paid out $400.

UP NEXT
The Celtics return to TD Garden on Wednesday as they get set to host the Charlotte Hornets with tip off scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Marcus Smart had a really great game, efficient and didn’t take too many shots. I like putting less pressure on J’s to initiate offense and get everyone going. Everyone should get everyone going, equal opportunity with J’s getting most shots, because they can score at all 3 levels better than the rest of the team. Make the game simpler for them and put them in better scoring/attacking positions. Less turnovers and better efficiency by them could take us over the hump and out of our doldrums. The defense was stifling early, enabling us to get off to a very good start. We actually won 4 out of 5, let’s keep it going. There is no super team in the East, 2 of them, the Bucks and Heat we match up very well with.

Yep, cowens/oldschool, we're 4-1 on this stretch to the ASG. And you're further correct, not much to complain about if anything. The ball is moving and our 1-2 punch is scoring at will. (Hi, Will!!) MS is throwing the ball at the basket less than double digits and was extremely efficient and scored as many points as he does when he's building shopping malls. Hmmmm...Wazzupwidat??!!

The jig may be up. Tatum is passing his way out of the double team to wide open threes, layups, etc. Low TO's as well. Only 10 this time and some of those were really sloppy. I don't mind if we turn the ball over from passing it too much.

I know there are some of us...OK probably just me, waiting for the other shoe to drop or we're going to realize this is just a dream and wake up, but if we can get by Charlotte in this similar definitive fashion and not go 4-2 on this stretch and instead go 5-1, things will really begin to get interesting. We definitely seem to be in a very good groove. 4-2 is still Hohumville. 5-1 will begin to separate the men from the boys.

We're surprisingly only 7 games back in the loss column. But only two game ahead in the loss column from not being in the playoffs at all. PHX should beat the crap out of BKN tonight. That will put us 6 games behind in the loss column yet still in be in 9th waiting for us to catch up with TOR. Can't afford to give anything back at this point. But as dboss has been hinting between the lines, a sustained winning streak can move us up the charts very quickly. Everyone else will be beating themselves up. But an off night and we're back on the slippery slope.

I have to admit, the guys look like they are finally having fun. And that's what it's really all about. If you are having fun at your job, it ain't work.

Gotta take out Charlotte in convincing fashion. So far, so good.

db

MS is no Chris Paul however he has been playing the role of our floor general.  When he plays this way the Celtics are a much different team.  

The Jays look like they are now on the same page.  Not even close to breaking that pair up.

Rob continues to be a great fit for what they want to do.

Josh, Al and Grant with solid games. 

We still need a shooter off the bench.  If Boston continues to play well I think an addition will be warranted.  We have a small window to make a decision.  Let's see what happens.

We should have blown these guys out, they're without Butler and Lowry, and we did. Nice fight by them, to be sure, but in the end we won by 30 and that's not "a win is a win" type of victory.

Our usually maligned bench scored 37 points. Their bench scored 23. To be fair, half their bench was starting but 37 points is still 37 points regardless of how many they put up. 3 bench players played double digit minutes: Grant (24), Josh (22) and Schroder (17). 21 points on a combined 9-15 from Grant and Josh. Schroder, once again, stunk the floor up. He must really love Boston because he's doing everything he can to make himself untradeable.

Let's hope Sam Hauser can turn into Max Strus. What a great game by our former 2-way player. We had to make a choice between Strus or Tacko. We went with the cult hero and released Strus to make room for Tacko in Bangor. I think it's safe to say that was a mistake. 9-17 from 3 last night for Strus, making 2-8 Duncan look like the most overpaid, one-dimensional player in the NBA. You gotta give some credit to Spoelstra. He is really good at seeing what a player can give you and getting it out of them. I suppose, if there is a lesson to be learned here, it's to not be so quick to throw out the babies with the bath water. If so then Nesmith and Pritchard deserve more rope. Try to keep your necks out of it, guys, ok?

Another good game by the Js. Not a pair of 30s, but a combined 18-34 and I like that a lot. I also like their combined 7 assists and only 2 turnovers. When they can do that we are very, very tough to beat. I even saw Tatum inbound the ball and pass it to Smart to bring it up for no other reason than that was the right play to make. Could the lightbulbs finally be going on over some peoples' heads? Tatum and Brown's, do they now understand they play better when they're scoring and not when they're also the primary creator? Ime's? Has he moved on from the idea that he has a pair of point forwards and is telling the players to give the ball to the guards? I don't know, but more of this, please?!






As great an idea running an offense through a point guard might be to them it wouldn't be worth anything if the point guard doesn't get the job done. Smart has been fantastic the last few games at point. In his last 10 games Smart is shooting 51.4% and 38% from 3, but not a ton of fgas. Perfect. Efficient, forces them to not leave him but doesn't hog the offense. He has also averaged 6.8 assists and 2.4 turnovers in his last 10. That's a 2.83:1 assist-to-turnover ratio and that's very good indeed. By comparison Lonzo Ball is 2.2:1, Trae Young is 2.2:1 (albeit with 9.2apg, but 4.2 TOs too) and Wonder Boy Luka Doncic is 2.0:1. Trae and Luka have more apg but, if we're talking about efficiency, about the net positive impact they have on scoring, Smart has been better in his last 10 than them. Even season-to-date, not just his last 10, Smart's ratio is 2.6:1, which is still better than them. Sometimes more isn't better, it's just more. Does Smart need help, because we need 25 apg and if he's only giving us a quarter of them they have to come from elsewhere? Yeah, but that's not a knock on the job Marcus is doing. I'd rather spread the floor general sugar around to multiple players than to have him double his assist average while tripling his turnover average. I am liking this Marcus Smart a lot.




If Miami fans want to downplay this loss for them by citing the absence of Butler and Lowry I'm ok with that, although nobody cut us any slack when we were down Tatum etal. I just wanted the win and I wanted it to be big for the confidence boost that'll give the players. Nothing succeeds like success and they've had 3 blowouts in the last 4 games. Now all we need to do is figure out how to win the close ones because the games in the playoffs will all be close.


https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360581


Bob


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Sorry, MIA, no sympathy here. Like most other teams in the league, you've got to force your way through this. We did and as bobh illustriously points out, no one heard our bitchin' either.

It's been a crazy year. More to follow. But 4-1 is light years better than 3-2 and anything worse than that.

db