Bradley Gets Defensive About Scoring Outburst

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Celtics post-deadline thoughts: Avery Bradley gets defensive about scoring outburst


By Scott Souza/Daily News staff


BOSTON – Amid one of the best offensive stretches of his career, mostly what Avery Bradley wanted to do was talk defense after Monday night’s 120-105 victory against the Orlando Magic at TD Garden.

“I think it’s our defense,” he said of the key to the four-game win streak that has the Celtics sitting with a share of the Atlantic Division lead Tuesday morning. “Our defense can improve. But our defense has gotten a lot better.”

And as one shot fell after the other for Bradley Monday night – 10 out of 15 in all – it was the defensive success that drew the seldom-seen emotion from the soft-spoken 22-year-old. He pumped his fist after forcing one shot-clock violation and let out a yell following another as the Celtics pulled away in the third quarter.

“We take pride in that, man,” he said. “When you can stop a team that whole 24 seconds, that’s big. That shows what kind of a team we are. We’re a defensive team. It gives us energy – not only us, but the fans too.”

Celtics fans have come to expect Bradley to be one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the game. The Garden faithful has come to expect plays like the one in the final four minutes of the game when Bradley came up with the backcourt steal and drove for the knockout points that put the Celtics up 17.

What they haven’t always seen from Bradley is the type of scoring numbers he’s put up in this stretch. He scored 14 points with eight rebounds in Friday’s victory at Orlando, took over the game in the fourth quarter – including a devastating breakdown of former teammate Ray Allen in the final minutes – on his way to 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting in the South Beach Shocker Saturday night, then knocked down two-thirds of his shots on his way to a season-high 24 points on Monday.

“Once I started going, I was just praying that the shot could keep falling for me and it did,” he said. “Work on it a lot before the game. More than anything, it’s that confidence that Coach (Brad) Stevens gives me. He tells me that, if I’m open, shoot it.”

It’s probably not a surprise that Bradley’s shooting success this season has coincided with his move from starting point guard to shooting guard. In four games starting at the point, he hit just 20 of 53 shots (37.7 percent). In his four games starting alongside Jordan Crawford at shooting guard, he is 26 of 50 (52 percent).

“They’re playing really well together,” Stevens said. “They played together some early in the first four games, but not as much, obviously, and even in the preseason (they did), but didn’t play this well together.

“I think they’re really in a nice rhythm right now and complement each other well.”

“It’s not just me and Jordan, I think we’ve been improving as a team,” Bradley said. “We’ve just been coming out here being able to make shots and executing our plays. We definitely need to improve defensively, but I think we’re getting there.”

When asked whether he saw this turnaround coming, Bradley issued a curt “yes” before elaborating.

“Of course, sometimes you don’t think it will happen as fast as it has,” he said. “But we’ve been working at it every single day – being able to trust each other.

“We know that we have to come every night and play as hard as we can. We can’t start the game off playing lazy. We have to come out on fire.”

For the past three games, that’s exactly what Bradley has done. Without the strains of being the primary ball-handler, he has become a scoring force for the Celtics, while still wreaking perimeter havoc on opposing backcourts.

It has helped result in four straight victories, and a new outlook for many about a team that some predicted would go until Thanksgiving before it won its fourth game.

“We can’t worry about anything else,” Bradley said. “We can only control what we do. Our destiny is in our hands. If we come in every single day (and work hard) I feel we can be as good as we want to be.

“We expected this,” he concluded. “It’s not like it’s a surprise for us. We thought, if we kept working at it, we would win games.”



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