Boston Celtics notes: Jaylen Brown chases C.J. McCollum, Marcus Smart aids small lineups, Gerald Green's huge dunk (video)

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Boston Celtics notes: Jaylen Brown chases C.J. McCollum, Marcus Smart aids small lineups, Gerald Green's huge dunk (video)



Posted on February 10, 2017 at 4:00 AM






Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart tries to get past Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes)



By Jay King



Gerald Green can still fly. The Boston Celtics wing proved it Thursday night by nearly clearing Mason Plumlee en route to a fourth-quarter putback dunk:

https://t.co/Mu0A91tHiQ

Before any more discussion of Green's dunk, please re-watch that clip to soak in the ball movement. Without a single dribble, four Celtics players touched the ball in 2.5 seconds, resulting in a wide open Terry Rozier corner 3-pointer. A make would have wrapped up a perfect offensive possession, but a miss, as it turns out, allowed Green to decapitate one of the Plumlees. That's a pretty fair trade.

Green subbed out less than a minute later and looked upset to leave the court so soon after recapturing his youthful bounce. Despite the disappointment, Green finished his night with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting -- which the Celtics needed to help make up for Jae Crowder's absence (family issue). They fell behind by 17 points in the second quarter, but rushed all the way back for an impressive 120-111 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers.


The Celtics held on

How did the Celtics manage a colossal, 43-point fourth quarter? With a number of small-ball units designed to combat Portland's downsized crew. When the Blazers abandoned all traditional lineups, Boston followed suit for about nine minutes in the final period, essentially playing Marcus Smart -- a 6-foot-4 guard -- at power forward.


Jae Crowder would normally take on that role in small lineups, but left the team earlier in the day to deal with a family issue in Dallas. Stevens could have turned to Jonas Jerebko, but decided to call on some of the smallest lineups his team has used all season:


(Screen shot courtesy of NBA.com)


As you can see in that screen shot, the Celtics only used a traditional lineup for three minutes of the fourth quarter. The rest of the playing time went to unorthodox groups that mixed tiny guards (Isaiah Thomas and Terry Rozier), bouncy wings (Green and Jaylen Brown), and one big guy (either Kelly Olynyk or Al Horford) next to the toughest guard alive (Smart). If I'm exaggerating in the description of Smart, it's not by much.

The Blazers were small, too, but Al-Farouq Aminu -- their acting power forward for most of the quarter -- has about five inches on Smart. That didn't keep the Celtics from allowing just two offensive rebounds during the entire fourth quarter. Check out this key possession, when Horford got sucked out to the perimeter, leaving Smart and Rozier alone to block out Meyers Leonard:




Rozier -- another plus rebounder for his size -- slid over to put a body on Leonard, giving Smart enough space to rise for the grown man rebound. It won't always work to play so many tiny guys at once, but, as always, Smart's versatility freed Stevens to try funky things. In this case, the Celtics earned just enough stops while keeping enough speed, shooting and playmaking on the floor to score and score some more.


Down the stretch, Smart contributed in just about every way a player can.

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Adam Himmelsbach ✔ @AdamHimmelsbach
Isaiah on Smart: "He puts his body, his life on the line sometimes. He’s just going through guys and not caring what happens."
12:11 AM - 10 Feb 2017
 10 10 Retweets   31 31 likes


Follow
Adam Himmelsbach ✔ @AdamHimmelsbach
Isaiah on Marcus Smart: "When you want to be a championship team, you have to have guys like that on the team."
11:31 PM - 9 Feb 2017
 39 39 Retweets   52 52 likes


Brown and the young guys show promise

One side effect of missing Crowder and Avery Bradley: the Celtics were forced to rely more heavily on guys like Rozier, Brown and Green. All stood up with big games. Rozier pitched in 11 points, five assists, and some strong rebounding. Green scored 11 points in just 18 minutes. Brown couldn't convince a layup to fall through the rim but still finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, and some physical takes to the rim.

The powerful, 6-foot-7 rookie also spent some time chasing C.J. McCollum, which was a neat matchup. This qualifies as an intriguing possession for a 20-year-old wing:




Brown needed to finish the possession with a box-out, yes, but also slid his feet with one of the craftiest ball-handlers in the league, stuck with McCollum both ways around a screen, and contested a 3-pointer well. We still don't know what Brown will become, but he shows bits and pieces of inside-outside, position-shifting potential. When asked to expand his game, he normally shows promise.


"One of the things with this stretch of games is -- we hope that it helps with, in the big picture, is you've got different guys that have an opportunity to do different things," Stevens told reporters in Portland. "Like, Gerald was able to come in and give us a spark on offense and did some good things defensively. Jaylen Brown's chasing C.J. McCollum all around the court. Isaiah did a great job chasing Lillard all around when he was on him, and Terry too. It's just putting people in spots where they're really stretched, and that's a good thing. So hopefully we can keep getting better out of this."


bob


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