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Celtics Wrap: Superb Shooting Helps Boston Survive Shorthanded Status
It was a three party in Boston


NESN by Keagan Stiefel


BOSTON — The Celtics found a way to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, overcoming their shorthanded status with a 106-99 victory at TD Garden.

The C’s improved their league-best record to 39-16, while the Sixers dropped to 34-19.

ONE BIG TAKEAWAY
The Celtics had no business winning this game.

After entering without starters Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III and Al Horford, Boston saw Jaylen Brown go down in the closing minutes of the first half. From that point, the Celtics were forced to roll out a number of lineups who had no experience playing with each other in hopes to take down the Eastern Conference’s third seed, who entered the game fully healthy.

After halftime, the Celtics’ plan shifted toward living or dying by the three.

They survived.


STARS OF THE GAME
— Derrick White might be the greatest rim protector of his generation. Sitting at second in blocks among guards, the vet added a pair to his total Wednesday, capping off a 19-point, two-block performance with a beauty in the fourth quarter.


— Brogdon essentially ran the offense in the second half, finishing with a team-high 19 points to go along with five rebounds and three assists.

— Who saw that coming from Griffin? Receiving his 10th start of the season, the veteran turned in his best performance yet, scoring 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.


WAGER WATCH
Tobias Harris opened up the scoring to give Philly a quick lead. His lay-in was costly for DraftKings Sportsbook, who gave him +750 odds to get things started. A $100 bet on the veteran netted a payout of $850.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will stay at TD Garden to host the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

GRANT WILLIAMS 4-6 FROM 3 POINT LAND! 15 POINTS, 8 REBOUND, 4 ASSISTS, AND 1 BLK!

112288

What an absolutely magnificent victory!  I'm gushing, and I try like Hell not to.  Thanks to this highly unexpected short-handed victory we have a 1.5 game lead on Milwaukee.  With a loss we would still be 1 game up, but tied in the all-important loss column.  We play our 2nd game vs the Bucks in Milwaukee next week.  We are up 1-0 so far this season, winning the first game in Boston 139-118, a 21 point blow out.  The tiebreaker rules are:

1.  H2H.  We play 2 more games against them, both in Milwaukee.  We need a split to win this tiebreaker.  There can be no tie here.  There will be no 2nd tiebreaker.

What was the league thinking here?  We're both top teams in the East.  Why wouldn't they go for 4 games, each with 2  home/2 away?  Not only does it make the playoff race more fair there's the opportunity to show more high quality games.
Seems like they gave the Bucks the nod here.  Oh well, I guess we're going to have to show them they're asses again.

Down 3 starters from the get go we went down a 4th when Tatum accidentally elbowed Brown in the temple for a rebound in the 2nd quarter.  Jaylen never returned, playing only 17:42 total.  We were up just 4 points at the half.  Playing without our 4th starter we won the 3rd by 3 and played them even in the 4th.  We were up 10 in the last 4 minutes or so.  Unbelievable.  If Philly fans hated Doc before (and Philly fans hate everybody regardless of which uniforms they wear, including their own) they'll be out with pitchforks after this game.  A fully healthy Sixer team losing to, of all teams, the Boston Celtics by 7 despite us only having one regular starter.  If I gush any more they'll turn me into a fountain and someone will paint me (and pigeons will shite on me).

Ktron posted a tweet on the Game On! thread from a "Joe Embiid" (OBVIOUSLY NOT THE SIXER PLAYER SINCE HE WAS ON THE FLOOR PLAYING AND NOT TWEETING).  I hope Ktron will copy-and-paste that tweet on this thread.  It was pretty damn funny.

Today is the NBA trade deadline.  I wonder if that thought intruded into the minds of any of our bench players?  It sure didn't with Philly's bench.  They scored 21 points on 8-26.  Former starter Tyrese Maxey was 3-14.  Our bench scored 41 points on 15-22.  That is not a typo.


Jay King @ByJayKing
about 12 minutes ago
Tonight was the first time all season neither Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown led the Celtics in scoring. Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon each had 19 points.


I like to run down the plusses and minuses of the various players but I hardly know where to begin.  Really, I don't know where, so I'll just go 1-9 as they appear on the Yahoo boxscore or, as it more realistic, 5-13 since we were without 1-4 for most of it.

Blake, Blake, Blake.  Wow.  What a pro!  Got more wood in his ass than any Celtic not named Justin Jackson, has played in only 290 minutes all season, but hears the firebell ring and gives us a game like this.  15 points on 5-8, took a charge from Harden.  Only 18 minutes, but a great 18.  15 points, 18 minutes.  Love it.

Grant played his everlovin' butt off out there today.  Been struggling, as we all know, but not today.  15 points on 5-10, 4-6 from 3, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, ZERO turnovers, 1 steal.  Brad's cell phone was probably exploding while he was sitting watching the game.  He also played excellent physical defense against Embiid, who outweighed him before Grant lost all that weight.

Boston Celtics @celtics
1 minute ago
Blake Griffin on our team limiting Joel Embiid in the last three quarters: “It was definitely a team effort, but Grant’s physicality was a big reason.”


Embiid had 14 points after 1, 19 points at the half but ended with only 28.  That's 9 points on 3-9, 3-5 from the line, 3 rebounds for the entire 2nd half.  Luke played him well, Grant played him great, we put effective doubles on him and we did all this without our entire starting front court.

Back to us.  Tatum 2 rebounds and 1 assist away from a Magic Johnson triple-double.  Low numbers, but strong in every area.

Derrick White's game can be so bland as to put you to sleep, and then he plays like this.  19 points on 8-13, 3-6 from 3, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
3 minutes ago
Blake Griffin says Derrick White is one of the Celtics’ best rim protectors: “It’s not even a stretch to say that…Obviously we have Rob, but I’m surprised when he doesn’t get it.”


Sam the Show definitely showed up.  14 on 5-6, 4-4 from 3.  8 rebounds!  Doing more than just shooting.  His season 3pt fg%, including this game, is 40.9%.  This is remarkable given the extended multi-month drought he has been in.  Great job.  Now trade him while his value is high.  You've got until 3pm today, Brad.  

Luke with a very credible game against one of the league's best centers of this era.  He made himself a meme with his "Kornet Kontest" but he also can point to 3 blocks.  Luke Kornet, legit NBA back up center.  I never thought...


"The Big Smooth" tying White for high scorer with 19 on 7-13.  He was 2-2 from 3, which brings his 3pt fg% up to 45.6%.  That moves him up to 2nd place league-wide.  He has completely bought into the Celtic 6th Man philosophy.  All.  In.

Payton with only 5 minutes but Joe put him in with just a few minutes left in the game and it very much in doubt.  This surprised me.  He played some good defense on Maxey, Harden and, hear this, Embiid.  He got Embiid on a switch and Embiid passed out.  WTF?!  I can't wait for the Comments From The Other Side tomorrow.

51.9% from the field, 54.3% from 3.  When you're shooting >50% and you're shooting better from 3 than overall you are a very, very tough out.

Fritos were 15-20 for them vs 8-10 for us, so Philly fans can't complain about unfair whistles.  Wtf am I saying, OF COURSE they'll complain about them.  15 of Philly's 20 ftas went to Embiid and Harden.  I can't believe that Harden still gets those calls.  It's not that he's not still a star player but because he has been bamboozling the refs for years and they still haven't caught on.

25 assist on 40 fgm is quite good.  Good ball movement.

We won every quarter except the 4th, where we tied.  We deserved to win this.  We gritted this out all the way, there was no "Sixer implosion" on offense or defense that gave us a big lead.  Other than the 4th, where we both scored 20, their worst quarter was the 24 point 3rd and our best quarter was the 30 point first.  Neither of those are runaway or fallaway quarters.  Our biggest lead was 12, in the 2nd.  We had a 10 point lead with 6:49 left in the 4th, plenty of time for Philly to rally.

Who's your Daddy?




Latest report is that Jaylen may have a facial fracture and may be out through the All-Star game.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468979





Bob


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Don't look now, but Durant has been traaded to PHX.

The Nets reportedly will receive Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round draft picks and a pick swap for Durant and T.J. Warren.

112288

112288 wrote:GRANT WILLIAMS 4-6 FROM 3 POINT LAND!  15 POINTS, 8 REBOUND, 4 ASSISTS, AND 1 BLK!

112288

Best game of the season by GWill his bump/grind defense on Embid was also great and key to winning!!

Your his biggest fan, can you get him to play like this more often?

We have had several great games this year that qualify for inclusion under the Signature category.

The win last night against the hard charging Sixers goes right to the top of my list.

Very impressive performances across the board. I thought SIASJ may have coached his best game of the year. He put in great defensive schemes. The defense kept the Sixers off balance all night. The play he drew up with 0.5 seconds remaining on the shot clock that resulted in the Kornet alley opp dunk was very unexpected.

The only thing that dampened this win was the unfortunate injury to Jaylen Brown. Jayson Tatum appeared to be oblivious to what had happened as he ignored his fallen comrade and instead engaged with the ref about the call. That's what I saw. What did you see?

Here ya go


There were so many others that had me laughing. These Philly fans are hilarious and brutal at the same time.
We’re Boys and Girl Scouts here compared to them Phillys.

Ktron wrote:

Here ya go


There were so many others that had me laughing. These Philly fans are hilarious and brutal at the same time.
We’re Boys and Girl Scouts here compared to them Phillys.

That one is truly classic.

How the Celtics beat Joel Embiid without Rob Williams and Al Horford -


Fri, Feb 10 at 1:30 PM


By ANDREW CALLAHAN | acallahan@bostonherald.com |
PUBLISHED: February 9, 2023 at 6:30 a.m. | UPDATED: February 9, 2023 at 6:01 p.m.



As Joel Embiid burrowed through his first Celtics double-team Wednesday night, shot over the second and scored another basket through contact all in the opening quarter, Grant Williams bumped him.

He nudged him. Williams stuck his chest out outside the foul line at the start of a new defensive possession and then another and another, just waiting for the Sixers’ star to arrive so he could make contact. Williams gave an irritant’s reminder that he was there, and he wasn’t going anywhere, so long as the Celtics were down fellow forwards Robert Williams and Al Horford.

But what should that matter to Embiid, the league’s leading scorer and a 7-foot marvel with skill, range, touch and talent far beyond Williams’ reach? Likely, not much. Especially after he predictably pounced on the absences of the Celtics’ best rim protectors with 14 first-quarter points. Except as often as Williams continued to be there, bumping, nudging and irritating, so, too, was a second defender.

The Celtics sent unending waves of double teams at Embiid in their 106-99 win, swarming him at the moment he caught the ball and shutting off his best angle to the rim. The strategy, of course, was not new. But slowly, Williams’ initial defense and the timing of the Celtics’ doubles from the middle of the floor – courtesy of Blake Griffin, Jayson Tatum and Derrick White – held Embiid to a harmless 14 points through the rest of the game.

“Grant does a great job of doing his work early, of making (Embiid) get catches outside of the scoring area,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “He does a good job of having active hands, not getting his hand in the cookie jar. And then when he’s in the game, we can play different pick-and-roll coverages. So it forces Embiid to just kind of react to that.”

Together, the Celtics denied Embiid access to the area where he could inflict the most damage, particularly considering their injury situation: the post. Entering Wednesday, Embiid ranked second in the NBA in points per game off post-ups. He had made 72% of his shots at the rim, compared to 46% in the mid-range, according to Cleaning The Glass.

He also ranked second in free throw attempts per game at 11.8, most of which he’d generated off of fouls drawn at the basket. Yet in Wednesday’s second half, Embiid attempted just two field goals inside the paint and initiated three post-ups. He took seven free throws total.

And inside the final three minutes, half of Embiid’s field goal attempts were fadeaways from the foul line; shots that pulled him away from the basket, something Williams had worked to achieve possession after possession as Embiid’s primary defender.

“If he makes a fadeaway, (if) he makes a pull-up, then I kind of live with that a little bit, those twos,” Williams said. “But for me, it was just a matter of making everything difficult.”

Embiid’s first fadeaway hit only the back iron. The second hit nothing, an air-ball that let a sold-out crowd crow.

“They started crowding the paint,” Embiid said, “so I really had no lane to drive.”


Bob

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