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Celtics Wrap: Terry Rozier Drops Career-High 31 Points, C’s Beat Hawks 119-110

NESN by Logan Mullen on Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 9:46PM

Terry Rozier is fitting in quite nicely in the Boston Celtics’ starting lineup. The point guard dropped a career-high 31 points in his second career start as the Celtics used a solid third quarter to drop the Atlanta Hawks 119-110 Friday night at TD Garden. Boston, who now has won three straight and four of its last five games, played with a 10-man roster due to a slew of injuries, but each player found a way to contribute. All five starters tallied double figures, including Jayson Tatum, who dropped a career-high 27 points. Taurean Prince (31) and Dennis Schroder (25) paced the Hawks. The Celtics climb to 38-15 with the win, while the Hawks fall to 15-37. Here’s how it all went down:

OUT OF THE LINEUP Kyrie Irving (quad), Shane Larkin (knee), Marcus Morris (hip) and Marcus Smart (hand) did not play against Atlanta.

STARTING FIVE PG: Terry Rozier SG: Jaylen Brown SF: Jayson Tatum PF: Al Horford C: Aron Baynes

BATTLE OF THE POINT GUARDS Rozier got off to yet another hot start as he started for the second consecutive game, scoring six of his nine points first-quarter points in the first half of the frame. Boston quickly got ahead of the Hawks in the first four and a half minutes, but Atlanta went on a surging 14-0 run over 1:41 to take a 21-14 lead with under five minutes to play. During that stretch, Schroder quickly heated up, dropping half of the points scored during the run. The remainder of the quarter was spent with each side trading opportunities on the offensive end. Atlanta finished the quarter up 32-26 thanks to Schroder and Marco Belinelli each contributing nine points.

C’S CUT DEFICIT After going back and forth for most of the second, the Celtics finally pulled within a pair after the Hawks had kept them at arm’s reach. Boston entered the break down just 55-53 after putting together an 8-2 run during the final three minutes. Rozier continued to pace the Celtics, leading the team in both points (14) and rebounds (5) after 24 minutes. Tatum also put together 12 points in the half on 6-for-11 shooting. Boston, however, still struggled to contain Schroder, who dropped 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting.

CELTICS TAKE LEAD AND BUILD ON IT Just under two minutes into the third quarter, the Celtics reclaimed the lead for the first time since the 5:30 mark in the first quarter. They then took their biggest lead of the game (eight) to that point with just under six minutes to go in the third, and proceeded to spend the rest of the quarter widening the gap. The Celtics closed out the quarter with a 94-75 advantage, stringing together one quality possession after another as they outscored Atlanta 41-20. Rozier broke his career high in points during the third, dropping his 24th (and subsequently, 25th) point of the game on free-throw attempts with 70 seconds left in the quarter. Certainly related to their success in the third, the C’s were equally productive on the defensive end in terms of quieting Schroder, holding him to four points on 1-for-6 shooting from the field.

CRUISE TO THE FINISH With the lead firmly set, the Celtics let the Hawks scratch back into the game and pull within as close as 10 points. But that was as close as Boston let them get the rest of the way until the final seconds, building back some extra space between themselves and the Hawks to cruise comfortably to the finish.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT Tatum finishing with some authority.

UP NEXT The Celtics will stay at home for a Super Bowl Sunday matinee against the Portland Trail Blazers. Tip from TD Garden is set for 12 p.m. ET.
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NBA Rumors: Celtics To Sign Greg Monroe After Suns Buyout

NESN by Mike Cole on Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 1:03PM

The Boston Celtics appear to be getting some help in the frontcourt. The Celtics are signing recently bought-out center Greg Monroe, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Friday, citing sources. Monroe, who is signing a one-year deal worth $5 million, according to Wojnarowski, reportedly had narrowed his choices to the Celtics or New Orleans Pelicans. Whereas New Orleans offered a chance for more playing time in light of DeMarcus Cousins’ season-ending injury, Monroe apparently opted for more money and presumably a better chance to make a deep run in the playoffs. The 6-foot-11 Monroe has split time between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns this season. The Bucks traded him to the Suns just five games into the season, and Phoenix bought out the 27-year-old Thursday. In 25 games this season, Monroe is averaging 10.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Monroe almost certainly will come off the bench, but he’ll be an interesting addition to Boston’s second unit. He should give the Celtics an offensive boost once head coach Brad Stevens is able to sort out the rotation. Monroe also should be able to help on the glass, with Boston in the middle of the pack when it comes to rebounding.
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Rozier drops career-high 31 points as Celtics beat Hawks, 119-110

NBC SPORTS BOSTON

BOSTON - Terry Rozier had a career-high 31 points and seven rebounds in his second NBA start, Jayson Tatum added a career-high 27 points and the short-handed Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks 119-110 on Friday night.

Rozier started in place of the injured Kyrie Irving. The third-year guard became the second player in league history with a triple-double in his first start, totaling 17 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in Wednesday's blowout of the Knicks.

Irving missed his second straight game with a right quad contusion that he suffered in Monday's win at Denver and was one of four Boston players who sat with injuries on Friday.

Jaylen Brown scored 19 points and Al Horford had 17 with seven assists to help lead Boston to its fourth win in five tries.

Taruean Prince had a career-high 31 points and eight rebounds to lead the Hawks, who have lost five of six. Dennis Schroder added 25 points and Marco Belinelli had 15.

Trailing 55-53 at halftime, Boston opened a 19-point lead heading into the fourth quarter after outscoring Atlanta 41-20 in the third.

Rozier passed his previous career best of 23 points on a pair of free throws with 1:10 remaining in the third. He eclipsed 30 points with a 3-pointer at 6:10 of the final period. Irving is the only other Celtics player with a 30-point game this season.

Schroder's jumper with 7:19 left brought the Hawks within 10 at 103-93, but Atlanta wouldn't come any closer until the final minute with the game out of reach.

Atlanta led 32-26 after one quarter.

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ROZIER THE ENERGIZE BUNNY..............HE KEEPS GOING.....AND GOING....AND GOING!

WOW CHRISTMAS ON GROUND HOGS DAY!  GREG MONROE!   THIS AND ONE MORE PLAYER AND WE ARE THERE!

5 PLAYERS IN DOUBLE FIGURES IN SCORING = BALANCED SCORING = WINNING BASKETBALL!

TATUM COLD SPELL WENT INTO A MID WINTER THAW! GREAT GAME KID!

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Guys really stepped up.

Rozier with another great game.

Theis with the play of the game.

Tatum and Brown alive and well

Baynes with solid play in first half.

Al with a typical performance across the board.

A real nice team win.

dboss

After these last 2 games with Rozier starting and playing such critical minutes successfully, I'm wondering if Smart's playing time and style is in the way of Rozier's development. The play Rozier has had the past two games has been special.

As long as he continues to consistently play at or near the level of his last 2 games, I think that Rozier will have moved up in the pecking order. Smart will have to earn back his minutes when he returns. Smart could be relegated to being the C's pit bull as a defensive specialist, his strongest asset to the team. Rozier offers better offensive/defensive balance in his game.

Roz should be getting Smarts minutes.


KJ

Rozier has been logging around 23 MPG and Smart around 30.  Their production has been pretty close but since Rozier plays 7 minutes less it appeared to me that he was actually a more productive player.

Now I am hearing that Smart is likely to be out another 10-14 days.  That means he is going to miss another 6-8 games.  This should give everyone a chance to see if Rozier can consistently play at a high level over an extended period.

If he is able to do that Brad may very well flip the minutes when Smart returns.

Last night I had to watch the Hawks feed since I live in Georgia and they said Smart should change his name to half Smart.  Marcus has really hurt his image with the latest incident and everybody knows what happened. All the teams know. He embarrassed himself and he embarrassed the Celtics organization.  Brad and Danny are pissed off about this.

dboss

IT sez "Back up the Brinks truck" Danny replies "seeyalaterbye"

TRo sez "I know I'm an NBA starter" Brad sez show me what you got" Tro puts up a triple double and then a career high in points. (But let's not get carried away he only had 2 assists. He will always look for his shot first. ) I love seeing TRo smiling and enjoying himself!

I know some feel that Marcus has to earn his minutes when he comes back. I feel the same about Kyrie and all the others too. Absent the regular stars, this team is playing the way I want. IOW, unselfish play. It's this style that makes them legit and it's this style that they should play when all are healthy. Less Me/Hero/Iso ball and more team play. Not so say that the other style doesn't have legitimacy, just not the way I want to see them playing. I think others may agree.

I saw a German language video the other day titled "Is Daniel Theis the Celtics Best Player?" I chuckled a bit, said "NO, but". and continued on my way. I like Theis and what he is bringing to the team. We are starting to see just what the former 3x league champion and DPOY in the Bundesliga can do. He may not have the sizzle of Tatum but he is every bit as important of a piece to this team's future.

At some point, Rookies will hit the wall. At some point, they will get a second wind, hit their stride again, and be productive. I'm hoping that is what is happening to Jayson. That steal he had was just plain beautiful. Oh, he also had a career high in points. I want to see similar production on Sunday.

Especially great game considering how many players were missing, Tatum, Brown, Rozier all stepping up, this is actually good for us, to get the 3 youngsters confidence in bigger roles and to rest the injured players so they get right for deep playoff run. Some here don’t like iso or hero ball, last night we did a lot of that with Rozier and Tatum just attacking quickly and beating their man to spots or all the way to the rim, Jaylen was actually doing this too, just breaking the defense down and attacking the rim. Superstars have excelled at this throughout the history of the game, sure Jordan and Bird made teammates better, but they could also beat their man down and dominate individual match ups. I don’t mind that style, I loved when Pierce would get into a zone, if you have the horses let them play/dominate. The fact that Tatum, Brown and now Rozier are showing glimmers of such good one on one scoring ability is a great thing. Morris is actually a good one on one player as is the special lethal weapon, Kyrie.

The player we are bringing in Monroe has legit post up ability and when things slow down in playoffs, you need players that can just beat their man. We’re getting ready for playoff basketball, we have a fast swarming defense, we’re resting our stars when need be and the young core is growing at a great rate as the season is
going on. With more depth and inside scoring that Monroe can provide, the continued energy of the young

core on both ends and the best lethal scoring
point in Kyrie and the glue guy big in Al, we might take this whole thing even without Hayward.....how amazing would that be.

I really think we’re going to Finals, we have too much defense, energy and scoring not to.

I was a little worried coming into this game.  We were still down 3 players, then we went down Morris too and Rozier already had his career game, right?  Oh me of little faith.

Everybody played well.  Even those players who shot poorly did other things that contributed to the win.

Another phenomenal game by TRo.  Enjoy it because it will end.  It will end because Danny's going to trade him because he wants to start, he's looking like he deserves to start and someone will give Danny what he wants for Rozier because he wants Rozier to start for them.  These past two games have been Terry Rozier's coming out parties and he isn't going to fade away for long again.

Tatum with a career high 27 points too, and very efficent 11-19 shooting.  He's coming out the other side of his slump.  I really, really like that he upped his fgas with Kyrie and Morris out.  He, like Jaylen, played too soft on Taurean Prince defensively.  Prince was smoking and we were sagging off him too much.  

Jaylen also had a solid 19 point game on 7-14.  When he spends more time in the off-season working on his offense he is going to be a terror.  He's going to be the next Jimmy Butler, his mentor in the off-season.

I'm really liking Nader's game.  I was surprised when I looked at the boxscore and saw he was 2-8.  He was moving constantly on offensive, coming around weak side screens and dragging his defender around the court with him.  He was penetrating and dishing or, at least, had his head up as he drove.  I'm seeing his game sorta like Evan Turner-lite.  When he gets more reps against real NBA players he's going to be the type of player that GMs are looking for, a good ball-handling wing who can shoot and penetrate and dish.  And then Danny will trade him too.

Theis with a weak boxscore except for the two blocks, both of which were at the rim and outstanding, but if you watched the game you saw at least one Tommy Point for our German.  Falling backwards he tapped the offensive rebound out to Rozier who hit the 3.  Sending a message to Brad "don't forget about me just because you're getting a new toy".

It all clicked for us.  Budenholzer is losing what little hair he has left.  His healthy team couldn't beat us when we were a three-legged one-eye dog named Lucky.  He pulled Taurean Prince after a pass went behind Prince, hit the ref but stayed in bounds, and Prince stopped playing but Tatum didn't.  To be fair, when you're on one side of the court, there's no players behind you and the pass goes behind you it's normal to assume it went out of bounds but Hair Bud was SO frustrated with his team at that point he was spitting nails at anybody within his range.  Can't blame them.  The rumor mentioned last night is that the entire Hawk team, ALL of it, can be had.  That's like playing draw poker and asking for 5 new cards.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400975513









bob


.

I do not know for sure that Danny will trade Rozier because he wants to start. Danny drafted Rozier because he saw starter level talent. If Rozier was playing starter minutes he may feel differently. If he flipped minutes with Smart the narrative would probably change. And what happens when Kyrie opts out in July 2019?

Terry is still under contract next year and then Boston has a QO so there is no urgency when it comes to Terry Rozier. Also I do not equate wanting a brinks truck full of money with wanting to start.

I think that things will work out but I do not see both Smart and Rozier staying with Boston. There are way too many balls in the air so no one can be sure.

dboss