POST GAME GOLDEN STATE - AWAY - BOS 128, GS 95 Final

Celtics Wrap: Gordon Hayward Drops 30 In 128-95 Throttling Of Warriors

NESN by Logan Mullen on Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 12:56AM

Leading up to Tuesday night’s bout in the Bay Area, it seemed like a win might be tough to come by for the Boston Celtics.

Losers in five of their last six games and playing one of the NBA’s best teams, the C’s stunned pretty much everyone. They dismantled the Golden State Warriors 128-95 at Oracle Arena in the first contest of their four-game West Coast road trip.

Gordon Hayward delivered one of his best performances in a Celtics uniform, scoring a game-high 30 points, adding seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Kyrie Irving had a double-double, dropping 19 points while grabbing 11 boards. Jaylen Brown (18 points), Jayson Tatum (17) and Marcus Morris (10) also scored in double figures.

Stephen Curry had 23 points and was one of three Warriors in double figures.

With the win, the Celtics climb to 39-26, while the Warriors fall to 44-20 with the loss.

Here’s how it all went down.

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Marcus Morris Sr.
C: Al Horford

SHARP START
Getting off to a fast start pretty much was a requirement for the Celtics, and they did just that, ultimately outscoring the Warriors 32-24 in the opening 12 minutes.

The Celtics came out of the gate firing, dropping 11 unanswered points over the first 3:18 of the game, forcing Warriors head coach Steve Kerr into a timeout. The stoppage worked, as the Warriors proceeded to string together a 12-2 run to claw back within one, but the Celtics then poured in eight straight to swell their lead back to nine. Their advantage hung around there the rest of the first.

Hayward, Irving and Curry all had seven first-quarter points. The Celtics hit 14 of their 23 attempts (60.9 percent) from the field in the stanza.

OFFENSIVE ONSLAUGHT CONTINUES
Put simply, the Warriors had no answer for the Celtics’ offense. To conclude one of its best halves of the season, Boston scored 41 second-quarter points to Golden State’s 24 to head into the break up 73-48.

The Celtics carried their strong offense from the first quarter into the second, and after going up by 11 just 35 seconds into the period, they never let their lead get back into single digits the rest of the game. Smart hit a jumper just before the buzzer to extend the C’s lead to 25, their biggest advantage of the contest.

Brown provided one of the half’s top highlights with this authoritative finish.

Smart also turned some heads with this deft pass that he slipped to Hayward.

When the first 24 minutes came to a close, Hayward and Curry led all players with 19 points after they each contributed 12 points in the second.

CREATING SOME ROOM
A late surge allowed the Celtics to outscore the Warriors 32-28 in the third and take a 105-76 lead into the final stanza.

The Warriors quickly cut into the deficit with an 8-2 run to kick off the first 3:06 of the second half, but the Celtics responded by scoring nine of the next 12 points to force the hosts into a timeout at the 7:15 mark.

At times, Boston’s offense in the third slowed down considerably from how it played in the first half, allowing the Warriors to chip away at times. The Celtics never allowed Golden State to make things too interesting in though, keeping their advantage at 17 or greater the whole period.

The Celtics finished the final 1:52 of the third on a 12-0 run to extend their lead to 29 and all but certainly put the game out of reach.

Emblematic of the Warriors’ night as a whole was Kevin Durant just getting worked over by Tatum as he tried to finish at the rim.

C’S CLOSE DOOR
The result hardly was in doubt after the third quarter, making the fourth more of a formality than anything. Boston finished the night by outscoring the Warriors 23-19 in the final frame to close the door.

Some frustration for DeMarcus Cousins boiled over in the fourth. The Celtics had been targeting Golden State’s big man, and Cousins responded to bodying Aron Baynes to the floor by standing over the Celtics center. Tatum shoved Cousins in response, Cousins shoved back, then Terry Rozier stepped in and pushed Cousins. Both Rozier and Cousins were served technical fouls for the scuffle.

PLAY OF THE GAME
This is pretty much how the entire night went.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will play the second leg of their back-to-back Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings. Tip from Golden 1 Center is set for 10 p.m. ET.

112288

So how do view this win..............is the glass half full or half empty?

Was Golden State not up for this game because they were looking beyond the Celtics as a weak team to other challenging games coming up in a long season that is winding down?

Or, is this the real deal with the Celtics?

We present the facts................you decide!

112288

Back to my word of the year until I see this consistently...confounding! But if this is what they are bottling up?...Keep that in the bottle until the playoffs because that's the 16-0 run I'm talking about!

db

Maybe we'll find out tonight in Sacramento.

112288 wrote:So how do view this win..............is the glass half full or half empty?

Was Golden State not up for this game because they were looking beyond the Celtics as a weak team to other challenging games coming up in a long season that is winding down?

Or, is this the real deal with the Celtics?

We present the facts................you decide!

112288

1112288,
To answer your question.
I think they fought. Unlike in some other games.
Will it be enough for the playoffs? Probably not. The key word is consistency. It's a must have component for May-June games.

As for the game itself, there was a comment (pre-game) made by Shaq that GSW are bored so some games they play just to put a check mark. Judging by their body language yesterday they did want to win this game but couldn't do much.
Overall, I believe that if Celtics get into the Finals they will beat GSW.

AK

amazing game and showed what they COULD be if all is working.


They seemed to be locked in on defense form the beginning of the game and that seemed to flow over to the offense.

yes we know that Thompson was out and maybe GS is getting ready for their playoff run right now...but still....great game all around.

special shout out to Hayward, who looked the best he has since he got here. More of that please!!

Irving was even playing defense last night, at least at points in the game.

if nothing else for ONE game the guys had some fun again and saw what they CAN do together.

Who the Hell are those guys?  That's what we've been saying since the All-Star break and now we're saying it again, just in a good way.  This was the worst home loss by GSW in the Steve Kerr era.  Just so we don't get TOO full of ourselves let me remind everybody that Klay Thompson didn't play.  I have a sneaking suspicion they wouldn't have shot 40% if he had, but KD shot 5-16 and Cousins 4-12.  Klay would have taken some fgas away from them but 33 points worth?  Hmm.  Maybe.  Let's face it, if Thompson had played we would have had to scramble more on defense.  We threw numerous looks at KD.  Jaylen, Jayson, Morris all had a shot at disrupting his rhythm.  If Thompson played Jaylen would have had to stay with him and that would have made life less complicated, if not easier, for Durant.  Also, Smart defended KD a few times.  He would have defended Thompson too, which would have taken him off of Curry.  That's what adding an all-star does.  Well, enough of this "stay calm and carry on" crap.  What a great victory!

We won every quarter.  Easier said than done against all but doormats and GSW is certainly no doormat.  That shows excellent focus for 48 minutes by our guys.  There has been some questions as to whether Brad has been doing a good job of preparing the players for games.  I doubt he, and the guys who produce the game films for them to review, changed a thing for this game.  I just think that they were up for this game.  I would like to think that was more because of the bad taste in their mouths from their post All-Star performances, especially the Houston one, but I think it's even money it was because they still think they are God's Little Gift and rising against GSW was "an effort worthy of them".  Can they do it again tonight in Sacto?  As we all know Sacto are no longer doormats and they are fighting for the #8 playoff spot.  They need to make up 4 wins to catch San Antonio.  With only 19 games left for them to play, and only 8 of them at home, they cannot afford losses at home.

Capital O.  Capital G.  30 points, which I believe ties his Celtic high, on 12-16 and 4-6 from 3.  One one of those 3s he just rushed the shot, but he was open coming off the curl.  7 rebounds, 2 steals, 4 assists, zero turnovers.  When we were wondering if our boys were going to rally and fight against the World Champions and we were trying to figure out which Celtics would have great games I'll bet NONE of us thought Gordon Hayward would be the best player on the floor for either team when other players on the floor included Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, did we?  I'm not going to get too giddy over this (ok, maybe a little) because we've seen games like this before and then he reverts to being Jeff Green, but let's give him credit for putting some fight back into this team and for doing it against an elite, dynasty team like GSW and not against a wannabe like Minny.  I talked about "what if Klay Thompson had played".  Well, if he had he might have had to guard Hayward, and that would have left whom to guard Jaylen?  Hayward's game changed the calculus for Kerr too.  Hayward still isn't showing me great athleticism, but he seemed to be able to get to wherever he wanted to get to and, when he got there, he hit his shot.  Kawhi is the same.  He just gets to where he wants to get to and then it's easy.  Hayward isn't Kawhi but he was extremely effective playing a similar game to Kawhi's and boy oh boy am I willing to take that.

11 assists and 19 points for Kyrie.  And we won.  I realize that Gordon having a great game took the pressure to score off of Kyrie, but that's why Danny signed Hayward, isn't it?  This is what Kyrie was so excited about when Hayward signed here.  He liked the idea of playing with a playmaker/scorer like him.  If Hayward can be more consistent, and Brad preaches consistency if nothing else, then Kyrie should be happier and when Kyrie is happier the locker room will be happier too.  Kyrie with a sick almost-turned-the-wrong-way shot at about 2:20 of the highlight film below.

Tatum played well.  He didn't make too many poor shooting decisions and he worked hard on defense.  There were his 3 steals and 2 blocks, including that Sportcenter Durant-burger he had at the rim on KD, at 5:32 of the highlight film below.  The bad news is that Durant kept leaking out on transition and we got caught a few times.  The good news is that block.  It is definitely worth a second look.  And a third.  Tatum just swallowed KD whole.  When he plays like this I am very happy (although he is still a black hole when he gets the ball in his hands).  I don't need 25-30 points from him.  I want active, aggressive defense and smart shot selection.  Move the ball or move yourself.  His defensive rotations last night were excellent.

Morris with a mini-breakout game.  Yeah, I know 10 points and 1 rebound is nothing to burst into song over, but he went 4-8 and 2-5 from 3 and we all know how much he has struggled with his offense.  It's not just seeing them going through the net, it's feeling them go through and we know how important confidence is to a shooter.  He also spent a lot of time guarding KD and KD was 5-16 for only 18 points.  GSW is a team that has multiple scorers that can go for 38, not just 18, so Morris' efforts on the defensive end to contain KD is greatly appreciated by me.

Jaylen with another good game.  Smart keeps making Smarty plays, and I'm having a bit of trouble justifying taking him out of the starting lineup, but Jaylen is playing like he could start, again.  Some players just don't come off the bench well (see Rozier, Terry) so it's a big plus for us to have Brown and Smart both be good as starters or bench players.  I love when Jaylen is aggressive.  When he attacks the rim he is very, very tough.  Just like the rest of the roster he was completely zeroed in on offense and defense last night.  His off-the-ball movement was excellent all game.

They give Smart credit for only being 1-5 from 3, but I count at least 2 or 3 on the highlight film, so someone got credit he deserves.  That great behind the back pass to Hayward underneath is at about 4:10 of the highlight film below.  Great eyeballs-in-the-back-of-his-head pass by Smart, essentially baiting the GSW defenders to double him as he posted Steph in the lane, but also big credit for OG for moving without the ball.  

It's amazing Cousins only had 1 technical last night.  He could get tossed on any given night just for his facial expressions, much less his mouth.  At about 7:20 of the highlight film he put his shoulder into Baynes and dropped him.  He then stood over him and yelled (probably called him a flopper, but it wasn't, Boogie really put his shoulder into his chest).  Tatum pushed him off and, when Boogie threw his arm at Tatum to get him off 6'1" Terry Rozier got right up in Boogie's face.  I absolutely loved that reaction from TRo.  After everybody got separated and all Baynes put his arms around Rozier from behind and hugged him (7:34).  So much for "our players don't like each other".  When they are there for each other they get along just fine.  Go figure.

As a team we were 14-34 from 3 for 41%.  Even if you take Hayward's 4-6 out we were 10-28, 35%, which is about league average.  If we shoot league average on 3s, are efficient on 2s and play defense like we did last night and earlier this season we are a dangerous team.

We had 11 turnovers.  Durant, Cousins and Curry alone had 13.  Those are the players who have the ball in their hands a lot for GSW and we were driving them crazy.

We also had 12 steals, which is sort of a variation on the turnover stat in that it's a change of possession stat.  Steals are probably even better since, by definition I think, steals are live balls that can be run down their throats while turnovers may be live or dead.  12 steals by you and 21 turnovers by them is how you earn epic blow outs.

We had 31 fast break points.  They average giving up 15.4.  They are 25th in the league in fast break point defense and we took advantage of that weakness.  That's preparation and taking advantage of opportunities.

We scored 26 points off their turnovers, fueled of course by their 22 turnovers.  They are 20th in that category, averaging 17.2 ppg from their turnovers.  Once again, they had a weakness and we exploited it.

38 assists on 49 fgm.  If nothing else besides getting the W makes Brad smile it will be this.

GSW has the 6th best fg% defense in the league, 45.2%.  We shot 51%.  We have the 2nd best fg% in the league, 44.4%.  They shot 40%.

GSW has the #1 offense in the NBA, 118.2ppg.  #1.  We strangled them.

And, in a gratuitous homage to The Dancing Bear, he had a very weird fast break dunk that got in off his forearm, but he ran the floor.  A man that big and fast leading the break is a force of nature.  He wasn't trailing the break, he was first to the rim.  He also had a 3 and 2 offensive rebounds.  7 points on 2-3 in 4 minutes.  

Time to show this wasn't a fluke, boys.  b2b wins on the road will help to calm this all down.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071637




bob


.

Yeah BobH,

I was trying to do the Klay Thompson math myself. His net would be 15-17 plus points max. You have to subtract out McKinnie's contribution as his starting replacement as well.

Game ball to OG. Easy. Looking forward to re-watching this afternoon/tonight. Hopefully it will be a double header!

db

That was a much needed win.

That win was built on the defensive side of the court. Offense always seems to flow from great defense.

There were still some mistakes on both sides of the ball. On defense Boston got beat on those runouts after a missed deep ball or turnover. The Warriors love to basket hang. Other than that we saw great man to man defense and solid rotation.

There is something to be said for having a big physical guy like Aron Baynes on your team. The Celtics defense is quite different and quite better when he rotates into the game.

We had good ball movement along with intermittent bad ISO plays. The team still seems to deviate at times into bad shot selection, taking shots early in the clock and a general laziness about the business at hand. They were able to overcome those bad tendencies and literally destroyed the Warriors on every level. They had 38 assists and only 11 turnovers which are game winning numbers.

Gordon Hayward broke out of his 5 game slump. Once he hit that first shot it was on. I have mentioned this many times but when he looks stiff he is stiff and when he is smooth he is smooth. His ability to pass, rebound and score the basketball at a high level may be the difference for this team.

AH gave us nothing last night. Baynes did not score but it was the other things that he did that made a big difference.

JB played well again going 7-13 including another highlight reel dunk. That dud got serious hops. Saw a bit too much ISO ball from Morris and Tatum although they put up pretty good numbers.

Smart with great defense and quality assist especially the no look behind the back pass to GH who was cutting down the baseline. That really looked like a pass from Rondo.

This game means not as much if the Celtics do not come out tonight at Sacramento and play up to standards.

I'm going to have to add Baynes to the OG list now that he's back. If those two are on and in good health, we go 16-0...all routes. All the rest will follow. That's the playoff game plan.

db

Patience

Quite the impressive win from start to finish with contributions from almost everyone on the roster.  

For me, more than the W, the joy that they all showed during the game was most important.  I’m not going to any length to figure out why and what has changed, however there was a story in the Globe that mentioned one of the coaches brought a football to practice on Monday.  Evidently the team had a blast pretending they were Tom Brady and Randy Moss.  Whatever it takes!  They showed they can play as a team and have each other backs. (See Baynes, Tatum and Rozier vs Boogie)

I’m coming back in off the ledge.

bobc33 wrote:Quite the impressive win from start to finish with contributions from almost everyone on the roster.  

For me, more than the W, the joy that they all showed during the game was most important.  I’m not going to any length to figure out why and what has changed, however there was a story in the Globe that mentioned one of the coaches brought a football to practice on Monday.  Evidently the team had a blast pretending they were Tom Brady and Randy Moss.  Whatever it takes!  They showed they can play as a team and have each other backs. (See Baynes, Tatum and Rozier vs Boogie)

I’m coming back in off the ledge.

Wins = Happy, Losses = Sad

dboss wrote:

bobc33 wrote:Quite the impressive win from start to finish with contributions from almost everyone on the roster.  

For me, more than the W, the joy that they all showed during the game was most important.  I’m not going to any length to figure out why and what has changed, however there was a story in the Globe that mentioned one of the coaches brought a football to practice on Monday.  Evidently the team had a blast pretending they were Tom Brady and Randy Moss.  Whatever it takes!  They showed they can play as a team and have each other backs. (See Baynes, Tatum and Rozier vs Boogie)

I’m coming back in off the ledge.

Wins = Happy, Losses = Sad

Of the bench last night...





bob


.

Bench was cheezing it up last night.

Guess they do not hate each other.