Celtics Gain Ground

Celtics gain ground
Push for playoffs with gritty victory





Photo by: The Associated Press
NO WAY: Tyler Zeller puts up a roadblock for Indiana’s George Hill during the Celtics’ victory last night in Indianapolis.


Sunday, March 15, 2015
By:  Mark Murphy


INDIANAPOLIS — The Celtics won on the road despite shooting 42.2 percent last night.

Conditions were typically ugly. The best plays were made off loose balls and off-kilter rebounds. Jae Crowder cleared space like a bouncer. Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and Evan Turner shot a combined 11-for-36. Tyler Zeller — making like a seven-foot Isaiah Thomas — scored off a dribble drive from the top of the key.

Brad Stevens was in heaven.

“These are the kinds of games I’ve always loved. Just find a way,” said the Celtics coach. “It’s nice when you have a game where you’re making every shot, but that’s one of those nights, and one of those nights is called that for a reason. You’re not going to have it very often, and you just have to find a way.”

The result was the Celtics’ 93-89 win over Indiana, a team that had won its last seven games, all but one at home.

The C’s, suddenly on a four-game winning streak, thus made up ground on everyone in the chase for the seventh and eighth playoffs seeds. They moved into a tie with ninth place Miami, within a half-game of eighth place Charlotte and a game outside of the seventh place Pacers.

They suddenly feel like they should pass all of these teams.

“Winning takes care of everything,” Brandon Bass said with an especially restive smile, thinking back two months to when the Celtics didn’t have much chance of winning these games.

“We went through our struggles early on, not being able to finish games, and it’s paid off for us,” he said. “I don’t mind these grind out games. Maybe it would be better at home if we could see Gino, but we’ll win whatever we can get.”

Gino appears on the Garden Jumbotron about as often as Big Foot these days, because even now that they’re winning, there’s not much room for celebration.

The Celtics withstood a 30-point performance by Pacers point guard George Hill, as well as their own chilly shooting to secure this one. Four Celtics scored between 14 and 18 points, including the team-high by Zeller and 16 off the bench from Crowder.

But scoring was never part of the winning mix last night. The Celtics took the lead for good on a Crowder 3-pointer late in the first quarter, and spent three quarters holding off those inevitable Pacer attacks.

But Roy Hibbert, always a matchup problem, didn’t have his usual Celtic-killing game, finishing with a pedestrian five points. Rodney Stuckey, who has enjoyed a renaissance as a Pacer, faded with only six of his 12 points in the second half.

And the Celtics settled into some of their best defense of the season.

Phil Pressey’s three-point play with 9:24 left gave the Celtics a 72-62 lead, and the Pacers would wear out trying to close that gap.

Mid-quarter 3-pointers from Marcus Smart and Crowder helped widen that gap, so that when Indiana finally hit back with an 8-0 run that included a pair of CJ Watson 3-pointers, the Pacers still trailed by four points (80-76) with 4:40 left.

That’s when Zeller wheeled out of the top of the key with his long-legged dribble drive. He scored once more thanks to Crowder’s hustle play on an offensive rebound, and Bass and Bradley each hit jumpers in the last 1:15.

Hill, Watson and Stuckey — the latter two with 3-pointers — all hit desperation jumpers in the last 23 seconds. But the Celtics shot 5-for-6 from the line over that stretch, including a game-sealing two from Bass with 5.3 seconds left, after Stuckey’s bomb had cut the Celtics lead to 91-89.

“We knew it would be a grind game,” said Crowder. “They like to grind it out as well, so we stayed the course. It shows character, for sure. It shows the trust we have, the trust within the system. I like it — a tough game, not as fun as a blowout, but tough games really help your team a lot, late in the season, when you’re trying to make a playoff push.”



bob
MY NOTE: This is why you play all 82 games...


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Despite the fact that he's my favorite current player, my heart has always been in my mouth when Jae Crowder has hoisted a three.  I almost never feel elation when he hits one.  I'm mainly relieved.  I hope that demonstrates that I can be objective about Celtics players.

But lately, he's been hitting them.  So I looked up some stats (because I know Mrkleen has a secret love of my stats).  For the season, Jae is hitting threes at a 33.3% clip.  But, since the all-star game, he's up to 35.9% which seems to be an acceptable figure nowadays.  And, I'm willing to wager that his percentage is even higher in the 10 most recent games.  Hopefully, it's not an aberration and I can stop buying Tums by the boatload.

And, on the subject of Crowder, when he's on defense, notice how far off his player he gets when they'reon the weak side.  If the ball comes into the lane, he's right there with the double.  If the ball swings to the weak side, he quickly recovers and is ready to play his usual tight defense.  He has become a human yoyo on defense.

Moreover, as I posted on last night's Game-on Thread, when an opposing player (not Jae's man) dribbles within several feet of Jae, Jae always (not just usually, but always) shoots his hand out like a snake.  I don't believe he's trying for a steal, I think he's primarily interested in just adding a couple of degrees of difficulty to what the ballhandler is attempting.  But a steal is frequently the result (as was the case once or twice last night).  And the most amazing thing is that, unlike other players who try something similar only to get whistled for fouls, Jae snakes his hand back out so fast that he almost never fouls on that play.

If one focuses on Jae in the defensive and and allows peripheral vision to take in the rest of the defensive possession, it will be evident that Jae contests, in one way or more, on every single possession.  As Mike and Max agreed last night, he's always in the thick of the battle, whether he's doing his snake thing on defense or is the only Celtic on the offensive board.  While much of his arsenal may be described as "doing the little things," those things add up to a huge contribution to this team.  At this juncture, I hope he's a Celtic for the rest of his career.

Brad's comment, "Find a way" is a pretty good summation of what is driving the Celtics at present.  And I believe there's no better example of the opportunistic "personality" being assumed by the Celtics than Jae Crowder.

Sam