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Celtics Wrap: Boston Blows 25-Point Lead, Escapes With Win Vs. Hawks

NESN by Dakota Randall on Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 3:06PM

A win is a win, but it’s hard to feel good about this one.

The Boston Celtics blew a 25-point second-half lead against the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden on Saturday, but eventually prevailed with a 129-120 victory. It was a maddening game, at times highly impressive for Boston, and at others a frustrating reminder of this team’s many warts.

Still, Brad Stevens’ squad was able to shake off a fourth-quarter collapse, and now has won five of its last six games.

Kyrie Irving led the way for the Celtics, just missing a triple double with 30 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. The star point guard shot 50 percent from the field and finished 4-of-10 from 3-point range. Jaylen Brown (23 points), Jayson Tatum (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Marcus Morris (19 points, 11 rebounds) also had strong games for Boston.

Trae Young (26 points on 5-for-8 3-point shooting) was stellar for Atlanta, while John Collins also impressed with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Ultimately, however, this game was about Marcus Smart. Boston’s emotional leader finished with 16 points, nine assists, five steals, one rebound and a ton of intangible plays.

With the win, the Celtics improved to 43-27, while the Hawks dropped to 24-46 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

CELTICS TAKE HIGH-SCORING FIRST
Defense apparently was optional in the first quarter, as Irving and Young went off for their respective teams

Boston ended the frame with a 43-36 advantage, but not before displaying some noticeably iffy defense. In the end, however, Irving (12 points in the frame) was too much for Atlanta to handle.

Take a look at these highlights:

Aron Baynes even got in on the action.

Irving wasn’t the only Celtic who played well in the first quarter, though. A total of eight Celtics made it onto the scoresheet, with Brown and Tatum each dropping six points.

Young and Collins both scored nine points in a back-and-forth opening 12 minutes.

BOSTON EXTENDS LEAD
Defense remained a fantasy in the second quarter, but the Celtics did manage to extend their lead, entering the locker room with a 74-62 advantage.

Smart had a great half, logging 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. It was his trademark “Marcus Smart” plays, however, that really stood out.

Irving and Brown led the way for the Celtics in the first half, finishing with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Tatum and Morris each chipped in with nine points.

Collins (14 points), Young (12 points) and Taurean Prince (12 points, two blocks) paced the Hawks.

The Celtics shot 57.1 percent from the field and 50 percent (7-for-14) from 3-point range. Each team had seven turnovers.

Here’s a full box score:

STRONG START, BUT THEN…
The Celtics pushed their lead to over 20 points at multiple points in the third quarter, at one point leading by 25. But Boston struggled in the final three minutes, allowing Atlanta to close the frame trailing by just 13 points.

As has been the case far too often this season, the Celtics played without a sense of urgency when they got a big lead. As a result, the Hawks were able to flip the script, and held all the momentum heading into the fourth.

CELTICS ESCAPE
The Hawks rode their third-quarter momentum into the fourth, riding a 34-9 run all the way until they tied the game at 112 midway through the frame. But Boston rebounded with a 13-2 run to take a 10-point lead in the final three minutes and eventually escaped with the victory.

If it weren’t for these types of plays from Smart, the Celtics likely would’ve lost this game:

PLAY OF THE GAME
A reminder of how good the Celtics can be when they play together.

UP NEXT
The Celtics will return to the court Monday night when they host Isaiah Thomas and the Denver Nuggets. Tip off at TD Garden is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Isaiah won't be in the rotation. Coach Malone says.
I feel so sorry for Isaiah. He has a big heart and gave his all for the us.

This game really pissed me off.

Had a 25 point lead then with a really stupid lineup and no apparent strategy at all. Rozier sucked dribbling away possessions and making bad passes, bad plays and bad shots and Stevens watches this shit and let’s the ineptitude keep on going and going and going. I’m watching this shit happen and how does Brad not do something, lineup, strategy, any fuckin thing....??? I put the blame on Brad more than Rozier and if this is the best coaching the team can do for Rozier, then the coaching is as much to blame for Rozier’s shitty play as Rozier who can’t even be a competent b u guard at this point. Rozier’s play today was worse than 98% of rookies in their first game. Look at his stat-line and his play on the floor was even worse. Kid is not a pg. This version of Rozier is gonna be out of the league....sad.

Kyrie was his usual self, Jaylen is coming on big time and is playing better than Tatum right now. BS gave Rozier plenty of playing time to influence this game and couldn’t find any minutes for Timelord. Your afraid Timelord is gonna mess up, yet you keep playing Rozier thru bad possession after bad possession and we have to watch....????

Play Wanamaker, I don’t want to hear it was because of GH’s injury TR had to play point, you still have Smart, Wanamaker to give Kyrie a breather. Stevens should have been able to coach Rozier in some way to not get that performance out of him. BS has been pretty lousy this year.

Whereas Wananaker has been solid, stable and efficient all his few minutes on the court

Not to look ahead, but these next two games ( vs. DEN and @ PHI) will pretty much be the last opportunity for us to determine our own destiny and get out of 5th place now with Horford and Hayward on the injury watch list.  It's looking more and more like 5th place will be our home for the playoffs unless PHI and IND give it to us.

We really can't afford to lose either of these two games.  We lose one and we're right back in 5th and give back IND loss to DEN last night.  I would imagine the odds don't look good for PHI today playing the Bucks at home but who knows what Bucks will do with Freak to rest him or "load manage" him for playoff run! (my favorite bs NBA phrase to date!)

After these two games, I'm done worrying about us getting out of 5th.  Sweep or 5th place.  That's it.  IND almost won a game that they shouldn't have even been close last night which leads me to believe they will win at least one of the remaining 3 out west.  If they tank, then at least 4th comes into play.  But it doens't appear they are going to go away quietly. They have by far the most horrific schedule remaining.  

Should be a very interesting stretch for all.  Get your record button spring checked!  

db

Blowing a 25 point lead to a lottery team is not good.  Pulling it out required the luck of the Irish on St. Patrick Day's eve.  Color me unimpressed.

Kyrie just 1 assist away from his 2nd triple-double in a row and the 2nd triple-double of his career.  He's smiling more, winning will do that, and he has to be feeling good about how he's impacting the team.  That should, one would think, make life easier for Danny.

Cowens is right, Jaylen is playing better than Jayson now.  23 points on 8-14 in 26 minutes for Jaylen vs 18 on 7-15 in 33 minutes for Jayson.  Considering that Jayson is supposed to be the offensive player and Jaylen the defensive one this really highlights the difference between how they are playing.  Jayson, to his credit, did grab 8 rebounds.  He also had 4 assists.  Someone should check to see if that's a career high (snark!).  Tatum's season-to-date 3pt average is 36%, which is pretty average.

Tom Westerholm @Tom_NBA
yesterday
Jayson Tatum’s 3-point shooting slump feels like it has gone a little under the radar: 28.8 percent in his last 20 games, 18.5 percent in his last 10. He still has a net rating of +5.2 over that 20-game stretch.

I feel sorry for the poor bastards who play fantasy basketball but don't actually watch the Celtics and therefore don't fully understand what an impactful player Marcus Smart is because his boxscores don't scream at you on Sport Center.  He was magnificent yesterday.  He was blowing up Atlanta possession after possession after possession.  16 points on 5-9 are starting to look more and more like Smarty numbers.  His season fg% is 42.4%, not that great but not league worst anymore, and his 3pt fg% this year is 37%.  Just to make sure a point is hammered home, as I just said earlier, Jayson Tatum's season 3pt fg% is 36.3%.  He has also turned into a really nice point guard and floor general.  He had 9 assists and only 1 TO.  And his steals!  He is just unreal.  Nobody takes the ball out of a player's hands like he does.  While the rest of the team was in freefall, when Kyrie was on the bench, Smart was fighting like a wildcat.  Danny is going to do what Danny is going to do, and to get AD he needs to make the $ work, but I hope Marcus Smart is not part of the deal.  It's hard to make make solid progress if you lose your heart and your spine.

Trae Young with unconscious shooting.  He took 8 3pt fgas and made 5, but his closest two 3pt fgas were from 26'.  He missed both of them.  That means that all 5 of the 3pters he made were from further out than 26'.  Simple math.  He hit a 29', 30', 32', and two 34'ers.  One of them he was one foot on our side of the logo at mid-court.

2-10.  Dedmon walking.  Sorry, had to do it.

But Collins is a stud.  11 rebounds, 9 of them offensive.  That's unbelievable.

Nonagenarian Vince Carter putting up 16, even against us, makes me feel good about life.

Morris with another good game.   19 on 6-14, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks.  Welcome back.

Terry Rozier will always have his great playoff run in the 2017-2018 season.  Sadly, this is the 2018-2019 season.  Let's hope he's a basketball version of Mr. October.

193 total fgas is a very, very fast pace.  We had the 93.

We also had 22 fast break points.  We need more of that.  Easy points!

For a change we won on ftas.  We had 37 fritos, which might be a season high if not a Brad Stevens high, and they only had 24, which is still a lot but not 37.

A BIG week coming up.  Philly in Milwaukee today, we host Denver and Indy is in Portland tomorrow, Philly is in Charlotte on Tuesday and then host us on Wednesday.  B2B for them and we get a day off.  Indy in Clipperland Tuesday.  Pacers @ GSW Thursday.  With the strength of Indy's schedule and if Milwaukee beats Philly, and if we take care of business in Philly on Wednesday, when they are on game 2 of a b2b, we could be in 3rd place by next weekend.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071707


I like how the Celtic bench kept coming to their feet to applaud plays.




bob


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Bob you should call it like it is, why you letting Stevens off the hook? Can anyone explain his strategy during giving up a 25 point lead, did anyone see one adjustment? Rozier sucked and Brad didn’t change anything, they kept on coming back and BS didn’t do one thing....

Playing time should be earned at every level of the game and it is. So why does Rozier keep on getting minutes, he is gonna cost us in the playoffs if this is the best Brad can coach him and get out of him....I’d start getting Wanamaker ready, he can’t be worse, just make the right play, the simple play and hit your shots when open and in the flow of the game. I think Wanamaker can do this, besides bricking everything, Rozier’s decisions are generally terrible....

cowens/oldschool wrote:Bob you should call it like it is, why you letting Stevens off the hook? Can anyone explain his strategy during giving up a 25 point lead, did anyone see one adjustment? Rozier sucked and Brad didn’t change anything, they kept on coming back and BS didn’t do one thing....

Cow,

I do think that Brad should put Wanamaker in more, I've soured on Rozier, but I think Brad is viewing Rozier as a horse he needs to ride in the playoffs and therefore needs to keep his reps up during the season.

Part of our problem, if I were to call it that, is that we have Kyrie, Smart, Horford and Hayward for ball-handling play makers.  Morris, Brown, Tatum, Baynes and Theis are the guys you pass the ball to, not the ones that make the pass.  When Gordon left for the locker room that left us with 3 players and Horford appeared disengaged last night.  At the minimum he didn't have a good game.  That left Brad with Kyrie and Smart, both of whom were elite, but when they sat we discombobulated.  Rozier isn't a good floor general.  He isn't a good shooter.  He's a defender, a great rebounder for his size and he's quick as hell, but that's about it.  Brad Wanamaker is this year's Shane Larkin, but Shane played more minutes than Wanamaker has (775 vs 262 YTD).  If you're going to go with the less athletic, slower Wanamaker over the greased lightning Larkin because Wanamaker is a better shooter or better floor general, then fine.  Do it, and play him.  I find it hard to imagine that Brad #1 thinks that Brad #2 is not what he expected he would be.  If that's the case, then why hasn't he gotten Larkin's minutes?  I understand the "logjam" argument about wings and bigs, how does Williams get minutes without injuries to Horford, Baynes and/or Theis, how does Semi or Yabby get minutes without injuries to wings like Tatum, Brown and Hayward?  But we don't have that same depth at guard, especially at the speed position.  Kyrie's fast, but he isn't a reknown defender (although his defense is better this year than I've ever seen it), and we have Rozier.  Smart is not going to stay in front of speed merchants like Dame Lillard or Fox, and neither is Brown.  That's where we lack depth and Brad Wanamaker can play that position IF Brad Stevens let's him.  And on offense Wanamaker will definitely give us more than increasingly Scary Terry.


bob


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