Post Game Thread - vs Washington Wizards, Home

by **bobheckler** Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:43 am

A signature win. Period. A solid win, even if they played a bit too much of what Brad refers to as "casual basketball" that made the final result closer than the game as a whole was. Everybody Scott Brooks would have played was available to play, we were not playing a deplete Washington Wizards squad. In fact, they have been enhanced by Bogdanovic and they have been playing very well since the All-Star break but then so have we. We lose winnable games to teams like Phoenix and "we suck", but ball don't lie.

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
MOST WINS - NBA (Since Dec. 16) 1. BOSTON - 32 Washington - 32 Golden State - 32 San Antonio - 32 5. Houston - 30
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That's some pretty damn good company to be in. Golden State? San Antonio? High-powered Houston and the team we beat convincingly last night. Notice, LeCavs aren't one of them. Yeah, I know, Kevin Love is out but we've had our injury losses too and injuries are part of the game.

We KILLED them on the glass last night, 54-39. What was unusual for us is that we had a player with double-digit boards. What is even more unusual for us is that it was Kelly Olynyk. I don't know what he ate for breakfast or what music he listened to pre-game but he needs to keep doing it. Kelly has been on a bit of a rebounding tear lately, rebounding above his season and career averages, but last night he was Moses Malone. A lot of players will get easy rebounds, rebounds off of uncontested missed fritos and ones like that, but almost all of the 11 boards Kelly got last night in his just 18 minutes were physical, rugged rebounds. More than a few rebounds you would expect Jae or Marcus to corral. He ripped on right out of the hands of Jason Smith. Another sequence he got an O board, put it up and missed and then grabbed his miss and put it in. Sure, that's a boxscore-stuffing miss and putback but there were at least two Wizards right there competing for both of those rebounds. I have never seen this Kelly. Active? Absolutely, in fact he is usually contesting for offensive rebounds and disrupting their transition flow, but physically overpowering defenders for the ball like he did last night? If he plays like this in the playoffs then our biggest weakness, rebounding, will be fixed. He got no love from an extremely poor officiating crew last night (and I say this even though we won, so it isn't sour grapes). For some reason they wanted him off the floor. The refs gave the Wizards every opportunity to win this, including more than a few calls they didn't deserve. Another good reason to love this win, we didn't let the refs get into our heads.

Ok, other than the 4 Ts we were rung up for. Still, a little feistiness is good.

54 rebounds last night is a TON! 20 offensive boards! Be still my beating heart, I love offensive rebounding. Kelly with 4 (in 18 minutes), Jae with 4, Bradley with 3 and three with 2 each. That's what we need to win. We need to own every loose ball, be they 50/50 balls or missed shots.

Washington's dynamic duo of Wall and Beal were 10-25 for a combined 34 points. They normally combine for 46.

Credit for Beal's off game has to go to Avery Bradley. Bradley with a GREAT 2-way game all game. Completely outplayed Beal on defense and dropped 20 on him on offense. 9 boards is more than the two of them combined. 4-8 from 3. What a game by Bradley.

Bill Doyle @BillDoyle15
yesterday
Isaiah Thomas on Avery Bradley: He was motivated. You could tell in his eyes he wanted this game.
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IT with a good, not great game. He said injured knee was weak from the time off. Doesn't take long to lose it, does it? Jae takes a couple days off for personal reasons and his shot goes away. IT misses 2 games and his tone suffers. He said that, if not for his weak leg, he'd have slammed this:

Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
yesterday
MOST CONSECUTIVE GAMES LEADING CELTICS IN SCORING 33 – Isaiah Thomas, 2017 13 – Larry Bird, 1988 10 – Three times
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IT's offensive putback is at the 2:20 mark. Watching him do a strut and the flex downcourt afterwards is pretty damn funny.

Marcus Smart with a very forgettable game, until the last few minutes. In fact, it looked like, for a change, he allowed his emotions to control his game in a bad way. Then he turned back into Marcus Smart. He just physically overpowered and bulldozed the 6'8", 225# Bojan Bogdanovic for a bucket and then did his signature "GIVE ME THAT BALL, IT'S MINE!" strip of Bogie on the other end. It's mindblowing how Smart can turn an ugly 3-9 night into platinum in just a few minutes. I've said this before and I'll say it until I get zip-tied to a chair and duct taped across the mouth, Marcus Smart should not shoot unless he is in the paint.

Jared Weiss @JaredWeissNBA
yesterday
Marcus Smart posting up anyone under 260 lbs. is basically the most efficient play in the NBA right now.
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Kudos to Kelly Oubre for the poke steal on IT at mid-court. Embarrassing for IT.

Zeller with a very efficient 4 points, 3 rebounds in 6 minutes. Between him and Kelly our two up-and-downers were both up for this game.

What's a Brad Stevens box score likely to look like during playoffs?

Amir - 21 minutes
Jae - 38
Al - 36
IT - 35
AB - 34
JB - 20
KO - 18
MS - 20
TR - 12

Kelly would have played more minutes but he was getting whistled off the court with some very, very weak calls. Smart might play more minutes with different matchups, but this is a shortened, 9-man rotation with starters playing above their season averages. Winning this game meant a lot, as does every playoff game, and this is what Brad played.

Jay King @ByJayKing
about 8 hours ago
Celtics essentially tied with the Raptors now for the No. 10-ranked defense.
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Jay King @ByJayKing
about 8 hours ago
FiveThirtyEight now gives the Boston Celtics a 7% chance to win the title, compared to just 5% for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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Here's why:

Michael Pina @MichaelVPina
yesterday
The four worst defensive benches since the All-Star break: Memphis, Houston, LAC, Cleveland.
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Two games in the loss column ahead of Washington for #2 and 3 games in the loss column behind LeBron for #1 but LeCavs have four back-to-backs left. Four. If they rest their stars there is a better chance they lose and we get closer and if they play their stars so we can't catch them then they don't rest. Either way, we are well-positioned. Washington with 4 home games and 8 road games left and, as we saw last night, they are not a good road team. In fact, they are 15-18 on the road this season. Cleveland with 6 home games and 7 road games. They are 18-16 on the road this season, so slightly better than .500. The Celtics are 21-17 on the road. We have the best road winning % in the EC.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400900442