POST GAME ATLANTA - AWAY

Celtics Wrap: Boston Shakes Off Sluggish Start To Down Hawks 110-99

NESN by Joshua Schrock on Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 9:51PM

One day the Boston Celtics will meet a deficit they can’t come back from, but Saturday was not that day. The Celtics once again found themselves down by double digits, as they trailed the Atlanta Hawks by 16 points early at Phillips Arena. Boston, however, would circle the wagons. The Celtics cut the lead to six by halftime, and Jaylen Brown, Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum exploded in the second half to push Boston to a 110-99 win and extend the C’s winning streak to 15. Irving led the Celtics with 30 points, while Brown added 27 and Tatum chipped in with 14. Marcus Morris (14 points) and Marcus Smart (10 points) also scored in double digits. The Celtics improved to 15-2 with the win, while the Hawks fell to 3-13. Here’s how it all went down:

STARTING FIVE PG: Kyrie Irving SG: Jaylen Brown SF: Jayson Tatum PF: Marcus Morris C: Al Horford

HOT START FOR THE HAWKS Long winning streaks often end in blowout losses, and it certainly appeared the Celtics were headed for that during the first quarter. Atlanta used a 13-0 run to help it take a 15-point lead after the opening stanza. Kent Bazemore led the Hawks with 11 points, while Taurean Prince added eight. Irving paced the C’s with eight points in the quarter.

THE MIGHT OF MARCUS With the C’s trailing by double digits entering the second quarter, Boston’s bench and Morris went to work trimming the Hawks’ lead to six with six minutes to play. Morris and Smart scored 17 straight points for the Celtics during the second-quarter run. Boston and Atlanta traded blows during the final six minutes of the first half, but the C’s were unable to grab the lead as the Hawks took a 50-44 lead into the break. Dennis Schroder and Bazemore each scored 11 in the half for Atlanta, while Irving led the Celtics will 11 of his own. Brown and Morris scored 10 each for Boston.

SURGING AHEAD Once again the Celtics were able to dig themselves out of a huge hole. The Hawks held Boston at bay until the seven-minute mark of the third quarter. Trailing by three, Irving blew down the lane and finished at the rim to cut the lead to one. After Prince answered with a layup of his own, Brown splashed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 65. Then Tatum stole the ball from Prince, kicked it ahead to Irving, who found Brown for another trey to give the C’s their first lead since early in the first quarter. While Brown got the C’s the lead, Tatum made sure they finished the quarter on top. Each time the Hawks pulled even with Boston in the third, the Duke product was there to put the Celtics back on top. After Atlanta tied the game at 70, Tatum knocked down a 3-pointer. With the C’s lead cut to one, Tatum blew past a defender and threw down a monster dunk. Then he went coast-to-coast for a thunderous jam plus the foul. Boston led 80-77 after three quarters thanks to its two young stars.

CELTICS CLOSE IT OUT Atlanta continued to give the Celtics fits in the fourth quarter, as the Hawks took a one-point lead with seven minutes to play. But it was all Boston from that point forward. Horford drilled a hook shot, and Brown followed with a nifty and-1 layup. After the Hawks cut the lead to four, Irving buried a 3-pointer to push it to seven. The Hawks wouldn’t get closer than six for the rest of the game, as the C’s capped off their 15th straight win.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GAME Send it in, Jayson! UP NEXT The Celtics will take the floor again Monday when they face the Dallas Mavericks. Tip-off from American Airlines Center is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET
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Celtics overcome 16-point deficit to win 15th straight game

ESPN BOSTON Chris ForsbergESPN Staff Writer
   

BOSTON - Maybe afraid his team wouldn't fully acknowledge its deficiencies because the final results have tipped their way so frequently this season, Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens made it a point before Saturday's visit to the cellar-dwelling Atlanta Hawks to note how Boston had to play better than it had - even after beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors earlier this week.

Cautioned Stevens: "If we dig ourselves a 17-point hole every other game, it's not going to be as much fun as we've had recently."

To be fair to these young Celtics, Stevens never said anything about digging a big hole every game.

The Atlanta Hawks needed little more than nine minutes to carve out a 16-point lead. It was the fifth time the Celtics had fallen behind by at least that amount this season, including the third time in five games.

And, in typical 2017-18 Celtics fashion, Boston clawed its way back into Saturday's game. Jaylen Brown, having spent the better part of the last 48 hours grieving with family and friends following the death of his best friend in Atlanta, scored a career-high 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting while re-masked Kyrie Irving added 30 points in a 110-99 triumph at Philips Arena.
Jaylen Brown had a career night in his home state. Jason Getz/USA TODAY

The Celtics have now won 15 straight games. It's the team's longest winning streak since producing a franchise-best 19 consecutive wins from Nov. 15 to Dec. 23, 2008.

And yet, Boston has rarely made things easy on itself.

The Hawks put up a 35-point first quarter with Kent Bazemore (11 points in the frame) and the Atlanta starters scoring at will against Boston's top-ranked defense. A 16-0 run midway through the frame helped the Hawks open their biggest lead of the night.

After Boston's pair of Marcuses - Morris and Smart - keyed a second-quarter rally to get the Celtics within six at halftime, Brown tied the game with a driving layup with 6:20 to play in the third frame. He put Boston ahead next trip down with a 3-pointer.

The third quarter belonged to Boston's more recent No. 3 pick. Rookie Jayson Tatum scored all 14 of his points in the third, shooting 5-of-7 from the field and throwing down a couple of loud dunks. In the fourth, it was Irving who took over in what he calls, "winning time."

Playing with a facial fracture, Irving kept his mask on the entire night (this after shedding it in the third quarter of Thursday's win over the Warriors) and had a series of buckets in the final five minutes as Boston pulled away.

The Celtics will go for their 16th straight win on Monday in Texas when they visit the Dallas Mavericks.
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Irving, Brown lead Celtics over Hawks, their 15th straight victory

NBC SPORTS BOSTON By A. Sherrod Blakely November 18, 2017 9:53 PM

Coming off a signature win over Golden State just on Thursday, no one would have been shocked if the Boston Celtics had a bit of a letdown against the three-win Atlanta Hawks.

But the script on Saturday didn’t look all that different than previous games for Boston which extended its winning streak to 15 in a row in defeating the Hawks 110-99.

Kyrie Irving led all Celtics with 30 points with Jaylen Brown tallying a career-high 27 points. Atlanta (3-13) was led by Dennis Schroder’s 23 points while Kent Bazemore had 19.

Boston (15-2) has now won 15 in a row which ranks as the fifth-longest winning streak in franchise history, just four short of tying the 2008-2009 Celtics which won 19 straight.

The ways in which Boston has managed to extend its winning streak have varied, but a common denominator in most of them has been the Celtics seemingly getting stronger as the game progresses.

Boston spent most of the first half playing from behind, but a 17-7 run in the third quarter which was capped off by back-to-back 3’s by Jaylen Brown put the Celtics ahead 68-65.

The Celtics were able to maintain a slim lead for the rest of the quarter which ended with Boston ahead 80-77.

In many ways, Saturday’s win was indicative of how Boston has managed to keep on winning.

In the first half they struggled to score, but Marcus Morris did his part to keep them afloat with 10 of his 14 points coming in the second quarter.

Boston’s surge in the third quarter was fueled in large part by Jayson Tatum who finished with 14 points – all coming in the third which served as the highest-scoring quarter (36 points) for the Celtics this season.

Having regained control of the game, Boston’s top two scorers most of the night – Brown and Irving – took over as they combined to score 17 of the Celtics’ 30 fourth-quarter points.

And while the main guys were getting it done down the stretch, the Celtics got a much-needed lift from the second unit in the first half to get back in the game.

Marcus Smart, who has struggled mightily with his shooting of late, had eight of his 10 points off the bench in the first half which included a pair of 3’s.

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80 - 2 THE DREAM LIVES ON!

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MONSTER GAMES BY IRVING AND BROWN AND STEADY AS HE GOES TATUM!

MARCUS SMART.............HE FINALLY GETS A FIELD GOAL!

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Ugly-Wins-R-Us

Love It GYSO!

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This was a classic good news bad news game.

The bad news is that this team continues to dig early holes for itself by spotty play. The last few games the Celtics have played poorly yet found a way to win. That is a fairly common occurrence on teams with long win streaks.

The good news is, of course, their ability to come back and win after surrendering a double digit lead. The team just looks like it needs a break and some practice time to work out the kinks and get back on a good page. They also need to be injury free for a couple of weeks.

Brad seems to be shrinking the rotation the past few games. Theis and Semi are getting fewer minutes. I like a faster pace and the best way to maintain that is to play more people.

In the entire history of the NBA no team has ever lost their first two games and then gone on to run the season. You could look it up. Here's hoping that whenever this steak ends the next one is even longer.

The Celtics are bend but don't break while developing a more refined team. Only four guys came back. A win is a win until we lose. It's the nature of a long winning streak.

Then yes, just start over or forget about it. It's always about the next possession. These guys are human. They check box scores and watch other teams.

We are due a big win as in dominating and coasting. Kyrie got his face smashed. He's just starting to get comfortable with the mask.

Smart can't shoot as badly as he has the last several weeks. Yes, if he shoots 3-8, people will take that. He is due a monster game. It almost happened last night. He needs to set his feet and jump shoot with confidence the same way every time. Jaylen Brown has been knocking down shots. He seemed a bit iffy last year. His free throws need to improve.

Stats ultimately don't really matter except for wins and losses. Every guy is contributing. I am not too confident in Semi. I have zero confidence in Yabusele for this year. Shane Larkin had a rough night. Theis only played a few minutes.

The roster is stacked, so the Celtics don't need every player to reach their potential every game. Horford seemed a bit out of it but still somewhat delivered.

Tatum seemed out of it against Golden State but still put up some stats.

Any win on the road is a good win even if it's by one point.

The more we win now, the easier it will be to prepare for the playoffs later in the season.

Health is everything. It is more important than wins. But it might be nice to have home court throughout the playoffs. So as long as we stay healthy and are still winning albeit ugly, then there are no worries imho.

And the win streak is now





The best 17-game start in Celtics history, 15 straight wins the 5th longest win streak in Celtics history.








Another slow start, another hole dug and fallen into and another crawl out and victory.  Not a good habit.

Jaylen Brown with his first back-to-back 20+ point scoring nights.  The key to greatness is consistency.  He's not there yet, and that's ok for a 2nd year player.  Kobe didn't average 20+/season until his 4th year and even then he played 38.2mpg to get them.  Jaylen is now shooting 39.5% from 3.  That's very, very nice for a player whose offense is still a work-in-process.  Hometown boy, Jaylen Brown, playing in only his 2nd game after losing his best friend, putting on a show for his family with a career-high 27 points on 10-13 and 4-6 from 3.  

I don't think Al Horford has had a good scoring game in Atlanta since he left.  3-11.  He did have 6 rebounds, 6 assists and only 3 TOs, so he found other ways to help the team but very tentative on his shooting.  Passing up shots in the lane, for no reason.

Kyrie with 30 on 10-12 and made it look easy.  IT was amazing, I love The Little Guy, he made the impossible look possible.  Kyrie makes the impossible, or at the improbable, look easy.  Here's a video of Kyrie doing a dribble crossover going from his right hand to his right hand.  

https://twitter.com/ByJayKing/status/932048608265940997


At the half Jaylen had 10 points on 4-6 but was 0-4 from the line.  Irving had 11 points on 11 on 4-6.  As we know, they ended up with 27 and 30.  That's a 17 point 2nd half for Jaylen and a 19 point 2nd half for Irving.


Brian Robb @BrianTRobb

yesterday

Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving in second half: 12/13 FG, 6/7 3pt, 7/7 FT, 36 points.
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I think this is the 3rd straight game where the Celtics came back from 16 points down to win.  This game the comeback was fueled by the two Marcuses (does that make them "Marci"). The Mook did what The Mook does, he hits shots.  A very confident one-on-one scorer.  The other Marcus had a two-flop night.  The Atlanta play-by-play announcer was jumping out of his skin with the flops while color guy Mike "Stinger" Glenn said "that's why he's the best".  Yeah, whatever...(in California we say that inside of every "whatever" is a little "fuck you").  Smart had a good night.  10 points on 3-8 but, as I have said many times, I will gladly take a 3-8 night from Smart to get all the other great stuff he does.  Between the two of them they put us in a position where we were only down 5 at the half.


Jay King @ByJayKing

yesterday

Marcus Smart to reporters in Atlanta: "I finally hit a couple shots."
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After his 16 point game against the Hornets Shane Larkin has gone 1-16.


After struggling to score in the 1st half, he had 0 points, Tatum with a big 12 point 3rd quarter.  Here's him going full court for a dunk.  

https://twitter.com/RedsArmy_John/status/932069151539122185

Again, on a different coast-to-coast run ending with a dunk.  I love how Baynes just casually throws 6'10", 235# John Collins out of the way at the end.

https://twitter.com/celtics/status/932071681849511936


The boxscore:
http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400974981






















bob



.

One of the most difficult games to win is against a team that you recently beat.  The task becomes even more difficult when you are on the road.  The Celtics are winning games that they would not have won over the past 4 years or even last year when they won the East during the regular season.

As I was watching the game last night and marveling over Jaylen Brown's play I was thinking that he has taken another step in becoming an elite level defender and shooter.  He appears to be a bit more deliberate.  A realization seems to have affected him that he can still get to where he wants to get faster than the defense can stop him without moving faster than the speed of light.  

Once he becomes a consistent free throw shooter he will also become an elite level player in the league.  

I think this was a very impressive come from behind win against a team that was really playing well.  The projected win total for the year looks fantastic.

While their .882 winning percentage is based on the 15 game streak, with 65 games remaining, Boston could play .700 ball the rest of the way and still end up with 62 wins.  That seems quite possible.  Win 7 out of 10 the rest of the way.  

I thought Boston would be a very good team but I am very surprised that they were able to be this good so soon.  The loss of Hayward makes their current success even more astonishing.

dboss